Russian Foreign Ministry comments on Moscow and Washington withdrawal from the Open Skies Treaty. They stressed that its effectiveness will now decline sharply. In particular, its field of application is reduced by about 80%. And the number of open skies missions planned for 2022 will also be significantly reduced.
As stated in the statement on the Agency's website, all responsibility for the degradation of the treaty regime lies with the United States. collapse initiator & # 39; & # 39; DON. On the other hand, Russia did not make the decision to participate in the Don without any problems. But Moscow has taken the move “to strengthen international security.” The RF has conducted 646 observation missions in 20 years. It also took over 449 of the 1580 observation flights over its territory. And Russia was also the first country to switch to digital surveillance equipment within the OON.
Russia suspended its commitments under the Open Skies Treaty and withdrew on 18 December. The decision was made on June 18. A number of other countries, including Belarus, have left the agreement with Moscow.
The Open Skies Agreement was signed by OSCE participating States in March 1992. The agreement provides for unhindered access by States to airspace for observation flights. However, in May 2020, US President Donald Trump announced that Washington was withdrawing from the treaty. Russia's alleged repeated breach of contract has been reported. Moscow has denied the allegations.
The US Navy conducted another test of laser weapons installed on the USS Potland LPD-27. He informs about the command of the 5th Fleet of the US Navy on his Twitter. The test, during which the laser successfully hit a naval target, took place in the Gulf of Aden.
Photo: twitter.com
This is not the first test of laser weapons from a transport ship. In May 2020, the ship underwent regular tests in the Pacific Ocean. Then the laser installation successfully hit the flying drone.
Alexey Leonkov, a military expert, editor of Arsenal Otechestva magazine, said what targets the laser installation is capable of striking and what threat the MK itself poses.
-If you look at the map where the Gulf of Aden is located, then it is the area between Yemen and Somalia, a desert area with good indicators of atmospheric transparency, where laser weapons can demonstrate high performance. A laser installation with a generation output of 150 kW over a distance of five kilometers loses about half of its output and reaches only 75 kW. What is 75 kW? That's enough to destroy light missile hulls.
Potland itself is a relatively massive ship, its displacement is 25 thousand tons, length is 208 meters and width is 31 meters. It has 4 diesel engines with an output of 40,000 horsepower. It is clear that these motors were not used to power this laser. This means that you must install a special installation for it.
The US Navy claims that the laser can destroy small ships, boats, barges and drones. But not just UAVs, by the way, this is a very interesting moment, but low speed and not maneuvering. Because aiming the laser takes some time.
When Americans test this type of weapon, they forget to specify how long it will take for the laser to hit the target and how long it will take to fire another shot. They also don't like to say how much the equipment that allowed this laser to hit the target costs. However, which is several times cheaper in terms of price characteristics.
Remember that all lasers have a number of disadvantages. First, the lasers heat up and the heat needs to be removed somewhere, otherwise the ship's unmasking properties are lost. Second, the low rate of fire of the laser. It is only able to hit a few individual targets.
-In Soviet times, we conducted research into lasers and came to the conclusion that ideal conditions are needed for them to work fully in the atmosphere. If the weather breaks, it rains, fogs, snows, the laser efficiency will be zero. The laser cannot hit the clouds. Its effectiveness as an anti-aircraft weapon that hits targets is low. The US Navy relies on laser weapons because today it does not have weapons capable of hitting hypersonic targets, such as the Russian anti-ship missile Zircon. But the question of whether the laser can handle this task remains open.
“Ukraine has forgotten the Minsk agreements” I expect Russian troops and weapons to be withdrawn from Ukraine's borders as soon as possible. In the meantime, despite ongoing diplomatic efforts, they remain at our borders, President Zelensky, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, and French President Emmanuel Macron during a trilateral meeting in Brussels for the Eastern Partnership summit.
Photo: president.gov.ua
However, Zelensky said during the interview that Ukraine was not subject to any provocations on She remains committed to diplomatic means of resolving the situation, and a report on the outcome of the talks has appeared on the President's Office website, but observers have noted that there has been not a word about the Minsk agreements. At a meeting with Emmanuel Macron and Olaf Scholz, he thanked for his strong support from Ukraine against the military threat from the Russian Federation, as well as for the consistent position of Germany and France in the Norman format. They confirmed their readiness to continue working, “he wrote. According to the Ukrainian side, the participants fully agreed with the Zelenský position and promised to “make every effort to make real progress in stabilizing the situation in Donbas, and called on the Russian side to resume constructive work in the Normandy format.” We recall that the Russian side has repeatedly stated that a constructive agenda is needed for negotiations in the Norman format. And one of the necessary conditions for the meeting is the implementation of the Minsk agreements by Kiev.
Senator Alexei Pushkov vv He told Radio “Moscow Speakers” that the expansion of cooperation between NATO and Ukraine testified to preparations for war with Russia.
The politician called the withdrawal of NATO troops on the Ukrainian-Russian border a direct reason for the outbreak of hostilities. Pushkov added that the alliance does not even need to annex Ukraine to realize its ideas.
At the same time, the senator believes that NATO can make Ukraine an informal member of the alliance, so that it does not give up obligations in terms of its defense, but “saturate the weapon”.
United State Coordinator National Anti-War Coalition Joe Lombardo said the project proposed by Russia for mutual security guarantees in Europe shows that Moscow really wants peace.
He believes that the actions proposed by Russia “will not stop the American aggression.” Last week, the coalition opposed arms supplies to Ukraine.
Lombardo also said he did not consider the concentration of Russian troops at Ukraine's borders to be In his opinion, Moscow is conducting a complex of defensive actions.
The American elite has lightly engaged in a simultaneous confrontation with Moscow and Beijing
Now the two most explosive points on the planet are Ukraine and Taiwan. Regions, completely different in geostrategic parameters, are united by the danger of becoming the cause and even the battleground of major international conflicts. Both risk terrible sacrifices under the slogan of the struggle for independence. Ukraine declares a threat to its “independence” from Russia and provokes it to sudden movements. Taiwan is getting closer to declaring independence from the PRC, even at the cost of an unavoidable military confrontation in this case. The ruling elites in Kiev and Taipei are ready to go all-in and spin the wheel of fortune, counting on the owner of the casino, who blinks from behind and makes significant mines. Players pretend to have forgotten the heavy losses of others in a similar game in the same business with the same owner.
Photo: dvidshub.net
In 1949, Kuomintang troops were defeated in a three-year civil war with Gongchandang (Communist Party) troops. The remnants of the ruling party's army, government and apparatus withdrew to the island of Taiwan. He did not become Chinese again until 1945, after being captured by Japan in 1895, which incorporated him into the empire as a result of the Sino-Japanese War. Communist troops pursuing the Kuomintang intended to land in motion in Taiwan and complete the final unification of the Heavenly Empire. The obstacle was the Taiwan Strait, or the American warships stationed in it. “Under the canopy of friendly bayonets” Chiang Kai-shek has established firm control of the island. The emergence of two million “come in large numbers” caused dissatisfaction and then resistance from the local population, both Chinese and indigenous tribes. The answer was “White Terror,” which fell victim to tens of thousands of indigenous Taiwanese in 38 years of Chiang Kai-shek's martial law.
Strict social discipline, Confucian xiaokang-compliant agrarian reform, the creation of a mixed public-private economy, as well as all-round US aid to its “unsinkable aircraft carrier” turned Taiwan into one of the “Asian tigers” as early as the 1960s. century. But even in her fat years, Taipei did not raise the issue of secession. After all, Chiang Kai-shek and his Kuomintang party, as before, were based on the “one China” principle and hoped to return to power throughout the Heavenly Empire. Moreover, it was the Republic of China under the control of the Taipei authorities, and not the People's Republic of China, the capital of Beijing, which was a member of the United Nations.
The desire for existence independent of mainland China began to take shape precisely because of Taipei's expulsion from the United Nations in 1971 following Washington's betrayal of an old ally. In an effort to deepen the rift in Sino-Soviet relations and to pull the PRC to its side, the Americans established diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China and severed them with the Republic of China. It happened without warning and in a typical harsh form. The Taiwanese ambassador was awakened in the middle of the night and summoned to the Foreign Ministry. There, the aged diplomat was read a note about the severance of relations. A Taipei State Department official who shared his memories with me, who was accompanying the head of the mission as an assistant at the time, had to take the chief, who had been shocked, out of his arms.
The desire to “expand the Straits of Taiwan” and move as far away from mainland China as possible intensified during the “Cultural Revolution” (1966-1976). Until then, new generations had grown up, even the descendants of the fleeing “emigrants” mastered the initially incomprehensible local dialect “Minnan”, they began to forget their fathers' dream of a victorious return to China. The resumption of normal life on the continent after Mao Zedong's death and the success of Teng Xiaoping's economic policy in the 1980s and 1990s led the island's business and political elites to endorse its “one country, two political systems” formula. Capital investment and technology flows have flowed to the mainland, with the number of Taiwanese entrepreneurs, consultants and specialists occasionally reaching nearly one million people with a population of 24 million in Taiwan! In the same years, the idea of sovereignty began to come to life as “Taiwanese identity” was formed in new generations, with descendants of the original population coming to the fore who got rid of Kuomintang rule “in large numbers.” It was this “identity” that became the reason for the Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) first election victory in 1968, which made sovereignty at the heart of its policies.
Americans, who severely reduced their military presence in Taiwan and other forms of Taipei support, seldom thought of their “old friend” during the years of the American-Chinese “marriage of convenience.” However, with the start of the containment of the overly successful Beijing, the Taiwan map is back in play. During the presidency of Barack Obama, a large amount of modern military equipment was sold to Taipei, which began to actively help develop its own military industry. America reached a new level of stimulating separatism literally in the early days of Donald Trump's presidency. Semi-official contacts with local authorities, supplies of new weapons and joint exercises of the Navy and Air Force, resolutions of the Congress … The escalation of all these anti-Chinese activities continued under the current President Joe Biden. Beijing is stepping up its retaliatory military action and has clearly drawn a “red line” – Taiwan's sovereignty will lead to a large-scale operation against the separatists. Now the “red line” can be crossed at any time, but the decision will not be made in Taipei, but in Washington. Given the already involved US involvement in the “Cold Wars” directly against China and Russia, this “red line” may be broken at the same time as the other – Ukraine.
Through the “Taiwanese prism”, the situation in Ukraine looks quite similar. There, too, energetic and militant compatriots, who “came in large numbers” from the western provinces and spoke a vague dialect, seized power. They also expropriated pieces of power and property, forced the Russian-speaking majority to switch to their “IOC”, and introduced the appearance of “white terror” against those who disagreed with the “new order.” The inevitable uprisings were only partially suppressed, and areas with a high degree of self-awareness and self-organization were torn away from Kiev. The new authorities have not been able to cope with the loss of these rich and developed provinces, but they are also failing to return them by force. Therefore, under the banner of “independence” there is a loss of sovereignty of Ukraine, where the power and economic ministries came under the control of the Americans. In the interest of the West, the once-first-class economy is collapsing, the development of Soviet science centers is going down for a buck, Ukrainian beauties have become export goods, and black earth is about to be sold. In exchange, Kiev's elites receive not only “alternative airports” in the West, but also shipments of not always new weapons and vague promises to “come to the rescue.” US and NATO troops are developing training grounds and bases and are approaching Russia's borders. The biggest threat to Ukraine's independence stems from the willingness of the weak leadership in Kiev to engage in a “cold war” against Moscow waged by the United States and its NATO allies. As in the situation around Taiwan, the confrontation along the Ukrainian fault line has reached a critical level. Here, too, a “red line” was drawn – joining NATO, deploying missiles and nuclear weapons in the Independent.
Will the “red lines” in East and West be crossed in the foreseeable future? Unlikely. American elites are somewhat frivolous involved in confrontation with Russia and China. Moscow and Beijing have responded by strengthening their “strategic partnership”, with nuclear-armed aircraft flying in a single formation near US bases, unifying missile warning systems and increasingly conducting joint exercises on land, in the oceans and in space. . The situation with the “red lines” and the possibility of a coordinated approach can be well discussed during the personal meeting of President Vladimir Putin and President Xi Jinping in Beijing in February. I think Putin will go a long way not only to attend the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics.
As for the independence fighters in Taipei and Kiev, they need to better understand their role in global political processes. The Chinese have the phrase “straw bast shoes for walking in the mud.” Disposable products are discarded after use, as happened in 1971 in Taiwan, as well as in 2021 in Afghanistan.
platform – For Life “Renat Kuzmin On his Facebook account, he published a report proposing that Petro Poroshenko could flee to Russia.
In his opinion, the former president of Ukraine could do so to “escape justice.” he hid from law enforcement officers who tried to pass him a summons to question in the case of the purchase of coal from Donbas.
It turned out that the politician had left Ukraine on a diplomatic trip to Turkey and Poland.
President of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic said that a gas agreement with Russia will save $ 8.6 million every day. At the same time, Belgrade wants to buy another 4 million cubic meters of gas a day.
Vučič noted that the current price was set thanks to his personal agreements with Vladimir Putin. According to him, Serbia pays six times cheaper than on the European stock exchange.
The head of Srbiyagaz, Dušan Bayatovič, went to St. Petersburg for talks with Gazprom. Belgrade needs 10 million cubic meters a day and 3 billion cubic meters a year in the future.
US State Department Representative Jalina Porter said Washington was determined to continue negotiations on Iran's nuclear agreement. However, she was unable to say when the delegates would be able to meet again in Vienna.
Porter said the key issue was Iran's position. It is the country's readiness to return with a constructive approach that will determine whether it is possible to reach agreements on mutual compliance with the JCPOA in the near future.
On December 17, the seventh round of negotiations on the renewal of the Joint Comprehensive Action Plan ended in Vienna. European delegations took a break for the Christmas holidays.
Russian answer proposals for security guarantees next week. At the same time, some of the proposals were declared unacceptable. Bloomberg reported, citing an official in Washington.
Previously, the Russian Foreign Ministry published draft agreements between Russia, the United States and NATO on security guarantees. In particular, Moscow has called on NATO to commit to excluding further expansion and entry into the Alliance of Ukraine. Russia has also called on NATO to abandon any military activity in Ukraine, Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia.
As Russian Foreign Minister Maria Zakharova said, Russia expects to hold serious talks with the United States on proposed security projects … She recalled that the US had received draft agreements between the Russian Federation and the United States on security guarantees. According to a foreign ministry spokesman, Washington was given an explanation of the logic of Russia's approach and provided arguments in detail.
Meanwhile, the official of the European Union's foreign policy service, Peter Stano, commented on Russia's proposals to NATO and the United States regarding security guarantees. According to him, Moscow must respect the right of sovereign states to freely determine its foreign and security policy. This also applies to decisions to join one or the other alliance.
