ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

Source: Skandinavisk On April 18,  Skandinavisk frihet site  published an interview titled “Exclusive interview: Scandinavians that fight against ISIS”. According to an interviewed volunteer, his subunit “was acting in Syria during winter, spring and summer in 2017.” Skandinavisk frihet is a body of the right-wing organization Skandinaviska Förbundet in Sweden, founded in February 2018. The volunteer being presented as a Norwegian said that the subunit named “Scandinavian” had been receiving orders from the Russian Armed Forces and had been included in the operational structure of pro-government forces operating in Syria. The interviewee described the subunit as a section of a mounted infantry, which had possessed the access to battle tanks and heavy weaponry. The main goals were the collecting of surveillance information, exploration of enemy’s deployment and number of ISIS’ forces. Most of the members were from Scandinavian countries: Norway, Sweden, and Iceland. Acco

A screenshot from the video On May 16, Riau (Indonesian province) Police prevented an attempted terrorist attack on their headquarters in Pekanbaru, the capital of Riau province,  The Jakarta Post reported . Terrorists crashed a vehicle into the entrance of the police headquarters and attacked officers. Four attackers were shot dead by police and one was later captured. During the attack, one police officer was killed and one injured. Video from the scene: On May 13,  a family of suicide bombers committed terror attacks in three churches in Surabaya . Indonesian Police later identified the father of this family Dita Oepriarto as the head of the East Java chapter of the Jamaah Ansharud Daulah (JAD), the largest terrorist group in the country affiliated to ISIS. Later, another explosion killed three members of a suspected terrorist family in an apartment in Wonocolo, East Java province of Indonesia. On May 14, another family of suicide bombers attacked the Surabaya Polic

Written by  Alex Gorka ; Originally appeared on  strategic-culture.org The US, Swedish, and Finnish defense ministers signed a trilateral  Statement of Intent  (SOI) to expand defense cooperation on all fronts. The signing  ceremony  took place in Washington on May 8. In 2016, the two Scandinavian nations finalized separate defense SOIs with America. Now they have signed a joint document to unify those previous agreements and enhance their interoperability. The Scandinavian visitors claimed this was just a starting point for a more mature relationship. The agreement emphasizes the countries’ combined joint exercises and streamlines the procedures that have been established to manage them. Other issues covered by the SOI include regular trilateral meetings at all levels, the exchange of information (including about weapons systems), increased practical interaction, cooperation in multinational operations, improved communications, and the promotion of the EU-NATO strategic part

Click to see the full-size image On May 15, Russian President Vladimir Putin is opening a 19-km bridge across the Kerch Strait, which connects mainland Russia to Crimea. The bridge, which links Russia’s Republic of Crimea and Krasnodar Region, has a capacity of 40,000 cars per day. The vehicles section of the bridge will be open to traffic on May 16. The railway section of the bridge is scheduled to be opened in early 2019. Its capacity is 47 pairs of trains per day. Summing up numbers, the bridge will have the capacity of 14 million passengers and 13 million tons of cargo per year. The project costs 228 billion rubles ($3.69 billion). The Crimean Bridge is the longest bridge in Europe, taking over the Vasco da Gama Bridge in Lisbon, Portugal. According to initial estimates the bridge had been expected to be fully constructed by the end of 2018 but has been completed six months ahead of the schedule. Ukrainian leadership and experts have repeatedly criticized the pr

By  Zosimo Camacho  (translated from Spanish by  Daniel Edgar ) The sad spectacle of the presidential campaigns – with the grotesque squandering of resources, the lack of ideas amongst the presidential candidates and the absence of clear postures with regard to the real problems of the country – have saturated the agenda of the mass media, as is always the case. Certain topics, such as the Indigenous communities, tribes and nations of Mexico, are automatically vetoed by the majority of the mass media. None of the aspirants to the presidential palace have referred to the original peoples of Mexico with sincerity. Generally they are mentioned in the context of the theme: ‘vulnerable groups’. And they do so from a position that is paternalistic, injurious, authoritarian, insulting, and based on total ignorance. The Indigenous people don’t matter to them. They make superficial gestures and statements to try and hide their racism and contempt. The Indian communities in this country a