Category: International

Well, what their history………..

Poland Becomes a Defense Colossus.

Poland was rearming even before Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine was launched in February 2022; the program went into overdrive once all-out hostilities were underway.

Poland and Ukraine immediately strengthened their relationship, with the former serving as Ukraine’s leading political supporter, logistics hub, refugee sanctuary, as well as a significant weapons provider (the current grain export dispute notwithstanding.)

Poland also focused hard on what the war meant for its strategic position and the risks it now faced — not just the possible spill-over from Ukraine, but also its long border with Belarus, which has become very largely a Kremlin puppet state with Russian short-range nuclear weapons on its territory.

The conclusions were grim and led to rapid decisions. Poland was already spending 2.4% of GDP on defense by 2022, ranking third in NATO after the United States and Greece.

The government decided much more was required. In 2023, Poland estimates it will spend more than 4% GDP on defense, which would be the highest proportion in NATO, as well as the highest proportion of the budget spent on equipment (over 50%.)

As Europe’s sixth-largest economy, by far the largest on the Eastern Flank, these figures translate into very substantial increases in personnel and hardware.

The country plans to double its land forces to 300,000. Huge purchases from abroad include 366 Abrams tanks and 96 Apache helicopters from the United States; 980 K2 tanks and 648 self-propelled howitzers from South Korea; hundreds of US HIMARS rocket launchers; many more Patriot air defense systems; 22 UK-made air defense batteries and three UK-designed frigates; as well as 48 South Korean FA-50 combat aircraft from and 32 US F-35 aircraft, complementing its existing fleet of 48 F-16s.

Meanwhile, it has made very significant arms transfers to Ukraine, including MiG-29 jets, modernized T-72 tanks, and Krab 155-mm self-propelled howitzers.

Poland will be challenged to pay for, absorb, and integrate such varied high-end equipment — despite a $2bn US loan — and may fall short of 4% GDP spending on defense in 2023. Moreover, if the government changes hands in elections on October 15, the dimensions and execution of the military buildup could shift. But the main political parties support defense growth and there is no doubt about the overall commitment.

The military build-up is on a grand scale and moves Poland to a different league in European defense. The armed forces are now on track to become the continent’s most capable land force, and the anchor of the European Union (EU)/NATO’s Eastern Flank capable of deterring and defeating Russia.

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Is there an equivalent Russian term for “kabuki theater?”
Mario Nawfal
BREAKING: THE COUP IS OVER | WAGNER’S RETREATING
This official statement from Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner group and the leader of this coup, says it all. I don’t think anyone expected this: “They were going to dismantle PMC Wagner. We came out on 23 June to the March of Justice. In a day, we walked to nearly 200km away from Moscow. In this time, we did not spill a single drop of blood of our fighters. Now, the moment has come when blood may spill. That’s why, understanding the responsibility for spilling Russian blood on one of the sides, we are turning back our convoys and going back to field camps according to the plan.”
The President of Belarus, Lukashenko, has been in talks with Prigozhin all day and has taken credit for the peace agreement. Prigozhin accepted the terms of Lukashenko’s agreement and agreed to halt the movement of his forces and return back to his bases. The agreement also guarantees security for fighters of PMC Wagner. It seems that the attempted coup has come to an end, and Prigozhin, along with his men, will return to their bases.
Reports of Wagner forces not only leaving Moscow Oblas, but also leaving Rostov. Russian media reports that criminal cases have already been dropped from Yevgeny Prigozhin and that Prigozhin and his forces will receive FULL IMMUNITY Restrictions on the movement of vehicles have been lifted from the Voronezh region which saw clashes earlier during the coup.
MY THOUGHTS: – I did not expect this would end peacefully with a deal as it seemed both sides seemed at the point of no return – I have no idea how Prigozhin and Putin can both operate in Russia with what just transpired, and I also have no idea what will happen with the war in Ukraine but I wouldn’t be surprised if we see a peace deal reached.
Today was another example of citizen journalism replacing mainstream media with UNBIASED and UNCENSORED live breaking news. 
I am fried, been awake for more than 30 hours, initially doing a piece with former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan before shifting to the Coup piece which is at 21 hours and counting. Time for me to finally sleep!

Reports are that units of Wagner Group are on the way there from Rostov
Buying mercenaries’ services has always been problematic
Rule 49. Every client is one missed payment away from becoming a target and every target is one bribe away from becoming a client.

Russian elite leaves Moscow on private planes en masse.

Russian oligarchs and politicians are leaving Moscow en masse on private planes, some of which have already landed outside the Russian Federation.

Source: Vazhnye Istorii (Important Stories), a Russian website focused on investigative journalism.

Details: For example, Vladimir Putin’s Il96-300PU, which is equipped with army control equipment, flew from Moscow to St Petersburg. The aircraft disappeared from the radar near Tver in Russia.

In addition, the second presidential plane, a Tu-214PU, departed from Moscow to St Petersburg at 14:44, which is also equipped in case of war. It disappeared from the radar over the Russian town of Gatchina.

A business jet belonging to oligarch Arkady Rotenberg, a Bombardier BD-700, took off from Moscow today at 11:30 and landed in Baku at 15:04 (Moscow time). The flight was scheduled for yesterday evening.

An aircraft belonging to Denis Manturov, Russian Deputy Prime Minister, took off from Moscow at 07:00 and landed in Dalaman, Türkiye at 12:06.

Oligarch Vladimir Potanin’s Gulfstream G650 business jet is expected to take off from Moscow to fly to Istanbul today at 17:00

A Bombardier Global Express XLS belonging to state-owned company Inter RAO [headed by Boris, the son of Putin’s friend Yury Kovalchuk – ed.] took off from Moscow and landed in St Petersburg at around 15:00 (Moscow time).

Ordinary residents of the Russian Federation are unlikely to be able to fly anywhere today, as the prices for air tickets to visa-free countries have skyrocketed. For example, a ticket for a direct flight from Moscow to Yerevan costs up to 200,000 roubles [about US$2,363 – ed.] and to Dubai – up to 350,000 roubles [about US$4,136 – ed.]. There are no tickets left for Istanbul, Astana and Tbilisi.

Background:

Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin has claimed that the regular Russian army had launched a missile strike on the Wagnerites’ rear camps. Prigozhin claimed that Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu had arrived in Rostov, where he personally conducted an operation to wipe out the mercenaries.

According to Prigozhin, 25,000 of his mercenaries are allegedly going to “restore justice”. At the same time, he asked not to call their actions a “military coup”. Prigozhin added that Shoigu had fled Rostov like a coward and “this creature will be stopped”. The Russian Defence Ministry called the information a provocation.

Head of Wagner Group Launches Armed Coup Against Russian Army

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the mercenary Wagner group, has called for a coup against Russia’s military leaders, saying he had 25,000 fighters ready to “end this mess.”

Russian soldiers across the country were put on high alert on Friday night after Prigozhin urged citizens to stay inside and threatened to march on the Kremlin.

The Wagner group chief issued the call after accusing Russian generals of carrying out on airstrike on his fighters in Ukraine. He said “huge number” had been killed but provided no evidence.

In an audio message late on Friday night, Prigozhin said his troops are entering Rostov.

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The Aspects of the Sevastopol Attack You Need to Focus on
the Song Dynasty visits the Black Sea

The big navalist news over the weekend was unquestionably what appears to be a successful attack on the Russian Navy at Sevastopol by remotely piloted surface craft by the Ukrainians.

Some reports call them “drones” or other such descriptors, but really they appear to be an upscaled militarized remotely piloted surface vessel on a one way trip. There is a lot of expected hyperbole about the attack, and that is what I wanted to address today. I am concerned that the overhype by the ignorant, click hunting, or agenda driven people in the public space will cause us to miss the most important lesson here.

This attack was not historically significant in a larger sense, no more than the attack on the Moskva was. This is not a glimpse into the future of naval warfare. This was simply a continuation of sound naval tactics with a pedigree directly tracible thousands of years in to the past. Not to understand this is to dangerously not understand what happened.

First of all, let’s take a moment to state the obvious: the Russians should have been ready. They had about as clear of a warning as possible in September.

A MYSTERIOUS vessel widely believed to be a Ukrainian suicide drone has washed up near to a Russian naval base.

The vessel was found in Omega Bay, by the port of Sevastopol, which is home to Vladimir Putin’s Black Sea fleet.

We can safely assume – as the videos below seem to demonstrate – that the ones used in the attack are of the same design.

We will loop back to this point later, but just behold the simplicity of it via the article from The Sun linked above;

This is all COTS technology riding on either a canoe or ocean going kayak. If you have someone with an understanding of explosives and communications (the only part requiring military expertise +/-) and then any garden variety electrician, small engine pro, and fiberglass guy … you can run a production line of these on a shoestring budget at scale.

They look fragile, but … well … I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s finish setting the table.

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BLUF
COVID has been the tool that the Elites™ have used to bully Americans into complying with the most absurd rules, beating us into submission. It would be ironic indeed if we could turn the tables and use the likelihood that the United States helped fund the development of the virus that has literally plagued us as a tool to dismantle the bipartisan transnational clique who have been driving the West into the ground.

The COVID coverup begins to unravel.

UPDATE: Vanity Fair has a detailed story on the investigation into the COVID virus’ origin:

COVID likely started circulating in China is late 2019–now 3 years ago–and its effects have dominated our lives for 2 1/2 years.

Yet for much of that time the Establishment™ has been gaslighting us about its likely origins. You know that. The Establishment™ knows that you know. And now the Senate Republicans on the health committee are laying the facts out on the table. COVID almost certainly was released accidentally from a Chinese research lab.

It was remarkable how quickly the Narrative™ settled on the zoonotic origin of the virus, since warning signs that the virus didn’t originate naturally were everywhere. Even scientists who confidently declared in private their belief that the virus was engineered publicly stated the opposite–after having been directed to by Anthony Fauci, the keeper of the keys to the kingdom’s treasury when it comes to research dollars. Fauci in recent months has been backtracking on whether or not the virus could have been engineered, but he sure expended enormous effort maintaining the fiction that an animal origin was certain.

There is a simple reason for Fauci’s reluctance to consider a lab leak hypothesis–if it came from the Wuhan Institute for Virology, the US government likely funded the research. Obviously nobody wants that on their record, and Fauci has quite the pension to protect, as well as an unearned reputation as The Science™.

From the Wall Street Journal:

WASHINGTON—The Covid-19 pandemic that has killed millions worldwide “was most likely the result of a research-related incident” in China, and not natural transmission of a virus from animal to human, a new report by Republicans on the Senate health committee concludes.

The study cites details about the early spread of the SARS-COV-2 virus, which causes Covid; the fact that no animal host has been identified nearly three years into the pandemic; and troubled biosafety procedures at labs in the Chinese city of Wuhan to buttress its conclusion.

The 35-page report by Republican committee staff acknowledges that definitive conclusions about the pandemic’s origins are impossible without more evidence. But, it says: “The hypothesis of a natural zoonotic origin no longer deserves the benefit of the doubt, or the presumption of accuracy.”

The report is largely based on information already publicly available but is likely to bolster calls in Washington for further investigations into the origins of the virus. Republicans have vowed to launch more aggressive Covid-19 probes if they regain control of one or both chambers of Congress in the midterm elections.

Previous zoonotic disease outbreaks—in which a pathogen jumps from animals to man—have occurred in multiple locations as a virus circulates in animal populations, while the Covid virus is known to have emerged only in Wuhan, home to laboratories conducting research on coronaviruses, the report notes. In addition, it says, no animal has been identified as infected with the virus before the December 2019 pandemic outbreak.

I have always suspected, based upon the balance of the evidence I have access to, that the virus was accidentally leaked from a lab. But I freely admit that biological research is not in my wheelhouse.

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BLUF
Above all, some Nigerians are worried that while the country is experiencing unprecedented security problems of unimaginable and embarrassing proportion, the authorities appear not to be interested in taking the pains to remove these obvious barriers and educate the people about their right to bear arms self-defence from armed criminals who come to kill, maim, steal and destroy their properties.

Self-defence bombshell: Many Nigerians agree with Danjuma, differ on source of arms

This week, Nigeria’s fragile state of security once again became an issue on the front burner of public discourse, triggered by the frank call of a former Army Chief and Minister of Defence, Lt. Gen. Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma (rtd), wherein he advocated that his people of Taraba state adopt self-defence in the wake of serial massacres.

The elder statesman had spoken last weekend in the Wukari area of the state, where Governor Darius Ishaku, at a massive social gathering, presented the staff of office to His Royal Majesty Manu Ishaku Adda Ali, the 25th Aku Uka.

The occasion was not the first time TY Danjuma would unabashedly make a categorical statement on the weaknesses of the country’s security architecture.

In fact, in 2018, when he first came out to persuade Nigerians to embrace self-defense as an effective panacea to the nation’s security challenges, he even accused the military of not being a neutral force.

Though Danjuma, in Wukari, knocked the military afresh for living in denial over the country’s aggravating security challenges, what has really compelled urgent, but critical introspection was his advice for ordinary citizens to source for arms and ammunition in the same way and manner the criminals terrorising their communities were mobilising their own lethal weapons.

Danjuma’s words

The octogenarian said, “Our country is under siege by armed bandits, all over the country. Some few years ago, I warned that the Armed Forces are either not capable or unwilling to protect us and that we must defend ourselves.

“The first denial of what I said came from the Ministry of Defence. They said I was lying and they set up a kangaroo Board of Inquiry to investigate the truth or otherwise of what I said and they invited me to come and testify, I did not go.

“They wrote their report, which said that I was only speculating, that there was no evidence. And now there is evidence; the whole country now is being run and overrun.

“Right now, we are all sitting ducks, these people are armed to the teeth with all weapons of mass destruction and we don’t have them but we have the numbers and the land belongs to us. They are trying to recolonise us and take over our land. Can I allow you to defend yourselves?” he asked the crowd who chanted a loud ‘Yes!’ in unison.

Danjuma continued, “They said I told them to defend themselves, I didn’t give them arms. I will not give you arms, find out how these people got arms. Use the same means to defend yourselves.

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BLUF
Bassitt, the farmer, said the conservative values of rural, small-town Brazil were now the driving force in national politics. Those beliefs “dovetail nicely with Bolsonarismo,” he said. “They don’t click with Lula and the PT’s socialism.”

Brazil’s rural boomtowns ensure Bolsonarismo’s future

CATANDUVA, Brazil (Reuters) – The small city of Catanduva in the rural farm belt of Sao Paulo state has been ahead of the political curve in Brazil.

In 1996, the city elected leftist Felix Sahao as its first Workers Party (PT) mayor – a full six years before Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva became president of Brazil, establishing nearly 14 years of PT rule.

But Sahao’s administration was marred by financial scandals, presaging the vast corruption probe that jailed Lula, destroyed the PT’s reputation, and paved the way for the scorched-earth politics of far-right President Jair Bolsonaro.

The residents of Catanduva, who have benefited from robust Chinese demand for Brazilian commodities, are now fully behind Bolsonaro. They are attracted to his unique mix of social conservatism, evangelical fervor and small government, sowed in the fertile soils of a booming agribusiness sector and watered with hatred of the “communist” PT.

So even if, as polls suggest, the president loses to Lula in Sunday’s presidential runoff, the whirring tractors and bulging wallets of conservative boomtowns like Catanduva suggest Bolsonarismo is here to stay.

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