ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

Written by  Andrei Akulov ; Originally appeared on  strategic-culture.org With the announcement of President Trump’s decision to withdraw from the INF Treaty, the issue of Russia’s response comes to the fore. First, the US decision is still to be made official. It can be reconsidered. After the formal notification there’ll be six months before the treaty is dead. Moscow is ready for talks at any level any time. The US administration is in for hard times. The opposition to the decision is strong in the Congress, with many American pundits and NATO allies expressing disagreement. Germany has already criticized the move. It’s not over yet. There is still a chance to save the landmark agreement. But if the worst happens and the INF Treaty becomes history, Russia will hardly surrender and kneel. It will respond. It has options. With the US ground-based intermediate range missile non–existent, Russia can easily extend the range of its Iskander missile systems to cover all Europe with

While the mainstream media and the Western diplomacy continue blaming and shaming China and Russia for their alleged “militarism” and “hostile” actions, members of the US-led bloc continue their push for an escalation of the international situation. At the Euronaval 2018 naval defense exhibition which started on October 22 in Paris, Steve Allen, assistant chief of staff, carrier strike and aviation with the British Navy, openly refered to the British sole aircaft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth as “65,000 tonnes of diplomacy”. View image on Twitter Beth Maundrill @GunshipGirl Commodore Steve Allen on Carrier Strike. Back to the resurgence of the big deck.. Size matters. # Euronaval2018 # HMSQueenElizabeth # RoyalNavy 09:56 - 22 Oct 2018  ·  Paris, France 8 See Beth Maundrill's other Tweets Twitter Ads information and privacy However, during the speech,  the British military official complained  that the carrier strike group

On October 20 th , Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said that Russian Aerospace Defense Forces have carried out more than 40,000 flights, including 21,000 nighttime ones over the course of the operation in Syria. These have resulted in approximately 122,000 strikes on terrorist facilities. Furthermore, about 87,500 terrorists were eliminated and over 1,411 settlements were liberated as a result of the operations. More than 2,500 settlements have joined the reconciliation process as a result of the Russian reconciliation center’s efforts. According to Shoigu special attention is being paid to resolving humanitarian issues. On the same day, after long negotiations and as a result of the siege on al-Safa, Syrian authorities freed six hostages, all of whom were abducted by ISIS during an attack in July. The governor the Sweida region Amer al-Ashi said that numerous terrorists were killed in the operation that lasted more than 83 days, following the ISIS attack. Syrian state n

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo shakes hands with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh on Oct. 16, 2018. (Leah Millis/AP) The controversy around the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi continues to develop. In summer 2018, Saudi Arabia promised the Trump administration $100 million for the stabilization of areas in Syria liberated from ISIS. Coincidentally, that money was wired to the US State Department on October 16 th , just as US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo landed in Riyadh for discussions regarding the missing journalist with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. “The timing of this is no coincidence,” said an unnamed American official involved in Syria policy, cited by NYT. On the same day, US President Donald Trump in an interview said: “Here we go again with you’re guilty until proven innocent.” Furthermore, ABC reported that according to an unnamed Turkish official, Mike Pompeo heard an alleged audio recording of Khashoggi’s murder inside

Illustrative image: Reuters Iran sent a record amount of crude oil to China. Tankers carrying approximately 22 million barrels of Iranian oil are en route to the Chinese port of Dalian, according to an unnamed Iranian shipping source and data on Refinitiv Eikon cited by Reuters. This comes ahead of the US sanctions that are due to hit the Iranian energy sector and oil exports on November 4 th . Reuters cited an unnamed source in the National Iranian Tanker Company who claimed that the country is shipping the record amount. “As our leaders have said it will be impossible to stop Iran from selling its oil. We have various ways of selling our oil and when the tankers reach Dalian, we will decide whether to sell it to other buyers or to China,” the source said, without providing any more details. According to data that dates back to January 2015, Dalian usually receives 1 to 3 million barrels monthly from the National Iranian Tanker Co (NITC). However, the amount of approximatel

The US Department of Defense is dealing with a breach of its travel records that exposed at least 30,000 military and civilian personnel, according to a Pentagon spokesman on the October 12 th . The breach resulted in some of their personal information and payment card data being compromised. “On Oct. 4, the Department of Defense identified a breach of personally identifiable information of DoD personnel that requires congressional notification,” Lt. Col. Joseph Buccino said. “The department is continuing to gather additional information about the incident, which involves the potential compromise of personally identifiable information of DoD personnel maintained by a single commercial vendor that provided travel management services to the department,” he says. “This vendor was performing a small percentage of the overall travel management services of DOD.” The vendor will not be identified due to security reasons, according to Buccino. However, the department “has taken ste

Illustrative image: REUTERS On October 15, a Ukrainian Su-27 fighter jet crashed during a simulated combat flight in the framework of Clear Sky 2018 military drills. The crash resulted in the death of two pilots a Ukrainain serviceman and a US serviceman. “We regret to inform that according to the rescue team, the bodies of two pilots have been discovered: one is a serviceman of the Ukrainian Air Force, the other is a member of the US National Guard,” the Ukrainian General Staff said in a statement via Facebook. Clear Sky 2018 is a joint military exercise involving Ukraine and NATO member states. It is taking place from October 8 to October 19. According to the Ukrainian leadership, the goal of the drill is to defend Ukrainian airspace from “Russian agression”.