Tag: russia

Nuke first, ask questions later! Top military officers reveal Moscow could respond to ANY rocket attack with a nuclear strike

Jonny Tickle – August 7, 2020

Fire any ballistic missile at Russia, and Moscow might respond with a nuclear warhead. That’s according to the Russian Defense Ministry, which has publicly disclosed its conditions for launching a nuclear strike.

“Any attacking missile will be treated as a nuclear-equipped missile. Information about the launch of an automatic missile will be communicated to the country’s top leadership, which, depending on the situation, will determine the scale of the nuclear forces’ response,” wrote Andrey Sterlin, a member of Russia’s General Staff and Alexander Khryapin, a top military scientist, in the Defense Ministry’s newspaper Red Star.

The pair explained that the Russian missile attack warning system cannot determine whether a launched missile is nuclear or non-nuclear and will, therefore, be treated as a worst-case scenario. Especially given the short response time available to a nuclear attack.

The New START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) nuclear arms reduction agreement between the US and Russia is due to expire on February 5, 2021, with US President Donald Trump refusing to extend the end date, believing it is favorable to Moscow. The treaty limits the number of deployed strategic nuclear warheads, and allows both countries to monitor each other, both remotely and on-site.

Sterlin and Khryapin believe that the expiry of the treaty would enable the US to limitlessly build up their stock of weapons and once again leave the planet “teetering on the brink of a global nuclear catastrophe.”

https://www.rt.com

NATO Launches New Massive Exercise on Russia’s Doorstep

Tru-News – June 11, 2020

NATO is sending yet another provocative message to Russian President Vladimir Putin, sending an armada of warships, more than two dozen aircraft, and 3,000 personnel from 19 countries into the Baltic Sea for “drills.”

The 10-day BaltOps exercise will include participants from the U.S., UK, France, Germany, and the former Soviet satellite states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. The annual drill, a relic of the Cold War dating back to the early-1970s, will be commanded remotely from NATO’s new Joint Operations Center in Lisbon, Portugal.

During the first phase of BaltOps, the various military units will learn how to work together. In the second phase, they will test their ability to “respond to threats” in coordination with one another. Typically, it also includes ground operations, but that phase has been eliminated due to risk of spreading COVID-19.

The exercises take place against the backdrop of President Donald Trump’s decision to remove 9,500 American soldiers from Germany. That move prompted a backlash from British politicians who say it will “play into Russia’s hands.”

It also comes as NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has suggested a pivot in the alliance’s mission. During a speech this week, he said the organization must focus on the threat posed by China “to our values and way of life.” He added that there needs to be a “more global approach” to dealing with Beijing:

“The rise of China is fundamentally shifting the global balance of power, heating up the race for economic and technological supremacy, multiplying the threats to open societies and individual freedoms and increasing the competition over our values and our way of life.

“We cannot ignore the consequences of the rise of China. China will soon have the biggest economy in the world, and they already have the second largest defense budget. They are investing heavily in new modern capabilities.”

https://www.trunews.com

Drums of War Beating Loudly All Over the World

Tru News – May 20, 2020

The drums of war seem to be beating loudly again—this time all over the world—with Russia, China, and Iran all preparing for direct conflict with the U.S.

Russia has expressed its dismay after the U.S. ambassadors to Germany and Poland both, within days of each other, suggested American nuclear weapons are necessary and could be redeployed closer to Russia’s border. The fiasco began last Thursday when Ambassador Ric Grenell—who serves jointly as ambassador to Germany and as President Donald Trump’s national security adviser—wrote an article slamming Berlin for threatening to renege on its commitments to NATO.

Grenell wrote, in part:

“The purpose of NATO’s nuclear share is to keep non-nuclear member states involved in the planning of NATO’s deterrence policy. Germany’s participation in nuclear share ensures that its voice matters. If Germany seeks to be a true power for peace, now is the time for solidarity. Will Germany bear this responsibility, or will it sit back and simply enjoy the economic benefits of security provided by its other Allies?

“German political leaders speak often about the need to look at not only total military spending, but at specific capabilities needed for our collective security. A credible nuclear deterrent, including through nuclear-capable aircraft, is a core NATO capability. One that remains needed in today’s world, and one that Germany has pledged to contribute to.”

Ambassador Georgette Mosbacher, Washington’s representative in Poland, shared Grenell’s commentary on Friday. In doing so, she added her own commentary:

“If Germany wants to diminish nuclear capability and weaken NATO, perhaps Poland—which pays its fair share, understands the risks, and is on NATO’s eastern flank—could house the capabilities here.”

https://www.trunews.com

In a world gone mad, China must build MORE NUKES to make disarmament possible

Scott Ritter – May 12, 2020

As the US threatens to withdraw from the New START treaty over Chinese non-participation, domestic pressure from inside China builds for a larger strategic nuclear arsenal. Could this be a good thing?

In an op-ed published in Chinese newspaper Global Times, its editor-in-chief Hu Xijin, argued that China should seek to upgrade its strategic nuclear arsenal from its current level of about 200 antiquated weapons to a modernized force comprising more than 1,000 nuclear weapons, including more than 100 modern mobile DF-41 intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), each armed with 10-12 nuclear warheads, capable of striking the US mainland.

The deployment of DF-41 missiles, when combined with China’s new JL-3 submarine-launched ballistic missiles and nuclear-armed H-20 strategic bombers, would give China a capable nuclear TRIAD that rivaled those of the US and Russia.

While Hu Xijin’s op-ed received considerable support on Chinese social media, there was some pushback. Zhao Tong, a senior fellow in nuclear policy at the Carnegie-Tsinghua Center for Global Policy, based in Beijing, has argued that even in a climate of deteriorating Sino-American relations, any effort on the part of China to build a viable strategic nuclear arsenal on par with that of the US was counterproductive and dangerous.

This point of view has a logic of de-escalation that is inherently attractive, but when viewed in the larger context of global nuclear posture where the US and Russian nuclear disarmament is held hostage by the current non-participation of China in meaningful disarmament talks, any call for China to maintain the nuclear status quo is in itself destabilizing.

The only way to bring China to the table for any meaningful arms control agreement is for it to build up its nuclear arsenal to a level where reciprocal cuts make sense for all involved parties. In short, nuclear symmetry perversely requires that China in effect adopts an “escalate to de-escalate” approach to arms control if disarmament is to have any political viability.

https://www.rt.com

European leaders warn coronavirus could lead to the breakup of their union

Loveday Morris, Michael Birnbaum – April 1, 2020

BERLIN —The coronavirus pandemic, with its simultaneous health and economic crises, is

deepening fault lines within Europe in a way some leaders fear could prove to be a final reckoning.

The cohesion of the European Union had been battered by Brexit, bruised by the political fallout from the 2015 migration surge and the 2008 financial crisis, and challenged by rising autocracy in the east that runs contrary to the professed ideals of the European project.

Now, if Europe’s leaders cannot chart a more united course, the project lies in what one of its architects described this week as “mortal danger.”

In the early days of the coronavirus outbreak, the response among European Union member states showed that national interests trump more-altruistic European ideals. Border restrictions were reimposed haphazardly, and Germany and France threw up export bans on medical equipment such as masks and ventilators, even as Italy clamored for assistance.

Quick to capitalize were the propaganda machines of Russia and China. Moscow and Beijing have swept in with much-trumpeted — if sometimes defective — medical aid, pushing a savior narrative and providing fodder for the region’s Euroskeptics.

E.U. countries have begun to coordinate their efforts to procure supplies, and they have sent more aid to hard-hit Italy than China has. But the past week has seen a reemergence of a north-south rift over how to handle the economic response. The union is also being pulled east and west, as Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has used emergency powers to effectively suspend democracy, riding roughshod over Europe’s basic principles of the rule of law.

Collectively, these tensions could overwhelm the alliance.

https://www.msn.com

US Magazine Names Top Five Submarines Capable of Wiping Out Humanity

Sputnik News – February 20, 2020

Earlier, the National Interest published an article in which the author pointed out that rockets on Borei-class submarines could render the United States ‘uninhabitable’.

Five nuclear submarines, both existing and in the works, can annihilate the entire human race or bring our planet to the edge of the apocalypse, according to an article by the National Interest published this week.

The piece lists Ohio-class submarines as one of these weapons of total destruction, noting that the vessels are able to turn 288 town-sized targets into ashes in less than half an hour.

Another ominous vessel listed in the article is the Columbia-class submarines that were designed to replace the Ohio-class versions.

Three other submarines mentioned in the article are all manufactured in Russia, specifically the Borei-class, Delfin-class and Yasen-class submarines.

Russia is currently looking to develop eight Borei-class vessels. Three submarines of this type have already joined the Russian fleet, while another one is currently being tested.

https://sputniknews.com

Syria and Turkey Edge Toward All-Out War While Putin Smiles

Rick Moran – February 12, 2020

There have been several clashes between Syrian and Turkish military forces in the last two weeks, as Syria attempts to retake Idlib province from rebel forces. Turkey has carved out a demilitarized zone in Idlib, which is supposed to be a safe zone for Syrian civilians. Their goal is to prevent a flood of refugees from crossing the Syrian border.

But Syria is ignoring the Moscow-negotiated cease-fire and driving hundreds of thousands of refugees toward Turkey, most of them in desperate straits.

The UN is warning of a humanitarian catastrophe as 700,000 Syrians are on the move with nowhere to go. But there are likely to be more refugees as Syria and Turkey have now come to blows, with President Erdogan promising to “punish” Syria for attacking Turkish positions in Idlib.

Washington Times:

Analysts say the reignited Syrian crisis threatens to engulf  Turkey and force Ankara to greatly expand its military mission inside the country. The winner, they say, could ultimately be Russia, as President Vladimir Putin may emerge as the only player powerful enough to prevent a full-blown war.

“Erdogan went into Syria for entirely selfish and cynical reasons, and now finds that it was a lot easier to go in than get out,” said former Defense Department official Michael Rubin, now a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute who tracks the region extensively.

https://pjmedia.com

Macron on Arms Race: European States ‘Cannot Remain Spectators’ in an Increasingly Unstable World

Sputnik News – February 7, 2020

Fears of an international nuclear arms race have been allayed with the end of the Cold War, but re-emerged as the United States under Donald Trump pulled out of several arms control treaties with Russia, including one that prohibited nuclear-capable missiles.

President Emmanuel Macron stated that European countries should act proactively in the face of a nuclear arms race as he laid out France’s nuclear weapons strategy.

Speaking to military officers in Paris on Friday, Macron called on EU member states to propose an a “international arms control agenda”.

He also suggested that Europeans should “not confine themselves to a role of spectators” at a time when the existing non-proliferation treaties are being called into question.

“Europeans must collectively realise that, in the absence of a legal framework, they could quickly face a new conventional or even nuclear arms race on their soil.”

Macron has dedicated much of his attention as president to modernising France’s and Europe’s military strategy. He has proposed a “true European army” to cut reliance on the United States, launched a military space force command and suggested a military intervention force outside of NATO, known as European Intervention Initiative, already joined by 14 European states.

The Macron government also plans to spend €37 billion ($41bn) to upgrade and maintain its nuclear arsenal over the next seven years — more than 12 percent of the total defense spending for that period.

https://sputniknews.com

US Warship Faces Aggressive Moves by Russia Ship in Mideast

Newsmax – January 10, 2020

An American warship was “aggressively approached” by a Russian Navy ship in the North Arabian Sea, the U.S. Navy said Friday.

Navy Cmdr. Josh Frey, spokesman for U.S. 5th Fleet, said that the USS Farragut was conducting routine operations Thursday and sounded five short blasts to warn the Russian ship of a possible collision. He said the USS Farragut, an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, asked the Russian ship to change course and the ship initially refused but ultimately moved away.

Even though the Russian ship moved away, Frey said the delay in shifting course “increased the risk of collision.”

https://www.newsmax.com