ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

Matteo Salvini, who heads Italy's Northern League party, called NATO’s decision to establish additional command centers in six European countries madness, adding that war is not a game. Matteo Salvini, who heads Italy's Northern League party, called NATO’s decision to establish additional command centers in six European countries madness. "NATO deploys forces on the border with Russia. Another madness after economic sanctions: war is not a game," he tweeted. #NATO organizza forza da schierare ai confini con #RUSSIA . Altra FOLLIA dopo sanzioni economiche: non si gioca alla GUERRA! #Salvini #Lega — Matteo Salvini (@matteosalvinimi) 6 февраля 2015 Russia to Give ‘Adequate’ Response to NATO’s Expansion On Thursday, the defense ministers of NATO member-states agreed to set up six new command and control centers in Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Romania and more than double the size of its response force from 13,000 to 30,000. NATO&#

Officers from both Estonia and other NATO member-states will be working in the new command center, Defense Minister Sven Mikser said. NATO plans to create six new command and control posts in Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Romania. © AFP 2015/ CLAUS FISKER / SCANPIX DENMARK NATO to Nearly Triple Size of Its Response Force (VIDEO) TALLIN (Sputnik) — Estonia is ready to open a NATO command center on its territory in the near future, the country's Defense Minister Sven Mikser said in an interview with Estonian National Television Friday. "We have announced our preparedness to station this kind of center. We are ready to do it even next week. Actually, we have already provided working placement and the necessary means. Right now we are looking for and appointing Estonian staff," Mikser said. According to the minister, officers from both the host country and other NATO member-states will be working in the command center. On Thursday, NATO Sec

A secret online activist, unbowed by threats and murders, is nominated for a free-speech award CATHERINE VERVIER Being a citizen journalist in Tamaulipas, one of Mexico’s most violent states, means living a life of extreme risk and expecting very little by way of reward. For three years, the anonymous administrator of the website Valor por Tamaulipas (Courage for Tamaulipas) has hidden his online identity from everyone he knows and faced a constant barrage of threats against him and his family. He has seen colleagues brutally murdered, while criminal gangs and corrupt officials apparently continue to operate with impunity in his state. In recent years, Tamaulipas, which borders Texas in the US, has become a black hole for reporting, with traditional media outlets resorting to self-censorship to avoid upsetting the drug cartels that dominate the region. But there is one place where citizens can read about stories that the local newspapers, television channels and radio stations dare n

Female Kurdish fighter known as ‘Rehana’ (Image from Twitter user / @PawanDurani) Reports about the beheading of a young female Kurdish warrior known as ‘Rehana’ who fought for Kobani and reportedly killed scores of jihadists have sparked controversy. Other reports by people who claim to have contacted her say she is alive. A young girl, wearing military gear and holding a gun, has become an Internet sensation after a picture of her showing a victory salute went viral . The photo was posted on Twitter by Kurdish journalist Pawan Durani with a caption reading: “Rehana has killed more than 100 ISIS terrorists in Kobani". On October 26, Rehana’s supporters were shocked by “unconfirmed” reports claiming that she had been kidnapped or executed by Islamic State jihadists, who may have beheaded her. Jihadists have claimed, according to the Mirror, that a photo of a rebel holding a woman’s severed head is evidence that "Rehana" is dead. However, Kurdish journalist @Rashad Abdel

By Eric Zuesse Ukraine’s top general is contradicting allegations by the Obama Administration and by his own Ukrainian Government, by saying that no Russian troops are fighting against the Ukrainian Government’s forces in the formerly Ukrainian, but now separatist, area, where the Ukrainian civil war is being waged. Here is a screen-print of a google-chrome auto-translation of that statement : The Chief of Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces, General Viktor Muzhenko, is saying, in that news-report, which is dated on Thursday January 29th, that the only Russian citizens who are fighting in the contested region, are residents in that region, or of Ukraine, and also some Russian citizens (and this does not deny that perhaps some of other countries’ citizens are fighting there, inasmuch as American mercenaries have already been noted to have been participating on the Ukrainian Government’s side ), who “are members of illegal armed groups,” meaning fighters who are not paid by any government, b

As reported yesterday , in a surprise announcement late in the day, and shortly before the S&P downgraded Russia to junk (perhaps as part of the fine-print of its $1.5 settlement with the DOJ for daring to downgrade the US in 2011), the US Department of Justice announced it had busted a Russian spy ring in New York City , where at least one of the three people was said to be involved with finance and potentially, capital markets. Specifically, the DOJ announced " charges against Evgeny Buryakov, aka “Zhenya,” Igor Sporyshev and Victor Podobnyy in connection with Buryakov’s service as a covert intelligence agent on behalf of the Russian Federation (Russia) in New York City, without notifying the U.S. Attorney General of Buryakov’s status as an agent of Russia, as required by federal law. Buryakov was placed under arrest earlier today in Bronx, New York, and is scheduled to appear before U.S. Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn in federal court in Manhattan later today. Sporyshev a

By Dmitry Orlov The following article appeared briefly at this URL on censor.net.ua and was quickly pulled down. Ironic? It would seem so. My translation. I bring it to you because it succinctly lays out the situation as I've been able to piece it together from multiple Russian- and Ukrainian-language sources, and because you are unlikely to come across anything this truthful from cough Western media cough. International observers report of growing panic in Kiev in connection with the successful counteroffensive of the separatists near Donbass. Over a week of fighting the partisans have delivered a heavy blow to the Ukrainian forces. The group of Ukrainian fighters in Donbas suffered huge losses, the soldiers are demoralized, the officers are confused and unable to control the situation. Ukrainian military leadership is seriously concerned of a new encirclement near Debaltsevo, as well as in other areas. The situation is made worse by the fact that army and national guard reserv

By Tyler Durden - Amid the devastation of yesterday's Mariupol artillery strikes which killed or wounded dozens, which was promptly blamed by both sides on the "adversary" - and has been proclaimed by both 'sides' (more on that later) as more violent than before the truce - an 'odd' clip has emerged that appears to provide all the 'proof' a US intelligence officer would need to surmise that US military boots are on the ground in Ukraine. As the following clip shows, a Ukrainian journalist approaches what she thinks is a Ukrainian soldier (since he is wearing a Ukrainian military uniform and is carrying an AK) and asked him as they run through the battlezone, "tell me, what happened here?" His response, which requires no translation, speaks for itself. With daily reportage of the 'invasion' of Russian military forces into Ukraine territory (admittedly unconfirmed by NATO), this clip raises many questions about American involveme