🇨🇳🇺🇸🇯🇵 On New American Fighters in Japan

The topic of American bases on Japanese territory is continuing: in early July, the US presented a plan worth $10 billion to modernize military aircraft stationed on the Japanese islands.

📌According to the announcement, significant changes will affect the Kadena air base - the nearest American military facility to Taiwan. The 48 F-15 aircraft currently stationed at the base will be replaced by 36 F-15EX fighters.

In addition, instead of 36 F-16 aircraft, 48 F-35A units will arrive at the Misawa air base. And at the military facility in the city of Iwakuni, where the US Marine Corps is stationed, the Pentagon plans to "adjust" the number of F-35B fighters. Washington has not yet provided other details.

🔻In announcing these plans, the Pentagon did not directly mention Beijing. However, the hint is clear - the US is deploying modern fighters in areas that will be affected by a hypothetical conflict with China.

It is important that the changes concerning American aviation may also be a response to the modernization of the Chinese air force. For example, six modern J-20 fighters recently arrived at the Chinese Wuxi base, replacing the outdated J-6W. This military facility, by the way, is relatively close to Kadena.

And although the increase in the presence of US and Chinese air forces in the region is necessary to pursue a policy of deterring threats, there is no doubt that the parties are developing scenarios for a hypothetical conflict. The mere mock-ups of American fighters at Chinese training grounds are worth something. However, this does not mean that the differences between the players will still lead to an armed conflict.

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#China #USA #Japan
@rybar together with @awaken_dragon

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🇺🇸🇻🇺 US opens embassy in Vanuatu, latest step in China competition

The United States opened an embassy in the Pacific island nation of Vanuatu, the latest US move in a long-running competition with China for influence in the Asia Pacific region.

"The opening of the embassy builds upon our efforts to provide more diplomatic presence throughout the region and to engage further with our Pacific neighbors," the US Department of State said in a statement.

The U.S. earlier opened embassies in two other island nations, Solomon Islands and Tonga, and plans to open one more in Kiribati. Washington has been working to boost its diplomatic presence in the Pacific to counter what it sees as a growing threat from China.

#USA #Vanuatu

@asianomics

Fwd from @pezdicide
🇹🇲🇺🇸 USAID continues its takeover of the Central Asian region: the other day, the representative of the American agency in Turkmenistan, Jeffrey Scarina, held a meeting with representatives of the country's parliament.

It turns out that the event was held as part of the USAID project "Management Activities in Turkmenistan". During the conversation, the parties paid special attention to expanding cooperation, in particular, of course, the Americans pointed to the need to "exchange experience in legislative work" and jointly "improve the work of local self-government bodies".

In other words, the country is slowly but surely implementing the favorite tactic of seizing power, through direct involvement in the internal structure of the state apparatus.

🔻It is also interesting that a few days earlier, representatives of the American agency held a training session with the country's business structures. With the support of the Ministry of Finance and Economy of Turkmenistan, a three-day event was organized, aimed at familiarizing participants with the basic concepts, methods and implementation of international trade policy.

#Turkmenistan #USA #USAID
@pezdicide no chemistry - just facts Original msg

🇺🇸🧊On the New U.S. Strategy in the Arctic

Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Defense updated its Arctic strategy - the latest version of the document was dated October 2022. Although the general concepts have not changed, some specific aspects of U.S. activities in the region have been revised.

▪️Emphasis on changes in the geopolitical situation - the new strategy pays more attention to the growing influence of Russia and China in the region: the text emphasizes the need to counter both joint and individual actions of these countries. The previous version of the document paid less attention to the rivalry between the U.S. and the two powers.

▪️Intensification of international cooperation - unlike the previous strategy, the new one particularly notes the need to strengthen interaction with partners and NATO member states for joint operations.

▪️Meeting technological needs - the fresh edition of the document pays more attention to specific solutions to meet the needs of units operating in the Arctic. This primarily concerns work to improve specialized equipment and communication systems.

▪️Presence and deterrence - this new concept for the Arctic region involves concentrating forces and means sufficient to create a deterrent effect, as well as demonstrating readiness for rapid response to emerging threats.

▪️Focus on climate change - the new strategy examines in more detail the consequences of global warming and their impact on operations and regional security in greater detail. The melting of ice opens up new routes and resources, which consequently requires adaptation.

Overall, the new strategy represents a more adaptive and comprehensive approach, taking into account both current geopolitical and climatic realities, while also emphasizing the inadmissibility of falling behind in the technological sphere.
#Arctic #USA
@rybar together with @usaperiodical

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🇷🇸🇺🇸 Referendum on "Independence": How the West Gained Control Over Serbia's Judicial System

Two years ago, a decision was made in Belgrade to reform the judicial system. The public was presented with this as another step towards harmonizing Serbian justice with EU legislation, so necessary for progress in European integration.

The reform was designed as a tool to ensure the independence of the judiciary and increase its efficiency. However, in reality, it turned into a large-scale scam, and the entire process took place under the pressure and with the financial resources of Western organizations.

Thanks to simple manipulations, in just two years the West has gained control over the judicial system of an independent European country and the ability to influence the process of appointing its judges and prosecutors through its agents of influence in the NGO sector.

🔻 Read in detail how this happened in our material.

#Serbia #USA
@rybar together with @vaseljenskars

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🇷🇸🇧🇦🇺🇸 Witch Hunt: Why Are Americans Scaring the Republika Srpska with New Sanctions

The campaign in the Western media against the Republika Srpska, which began a couple of years ago, has reached its peak. Its main goal is to provoke a refusal to cooperate with the institutions of the republic on the part of potential partners.

▪️ Several enterprises, politicians and private individuals are already under the sanctions of the US Treasury Department. Officially, they are accused of corruption and participation in criminal schemes, but the real reasons lie completely elsewhere: they all actively cooperated with countries that are undesirable to the West. The US administration is particularly interested in the projects that the Republika Srpska is developing with Serbia, Hungary, Russia and China.

▪️ Recently, the Balkan Gossiper @balkanossiper, using the example of Montenegro, told about the attempts by the West to make local politicians doubt the expediency of Chinese investments in the region. It turned out that the rumors about the "debt trap" were just part of a large-scale campaign of the Western media to disrupt the plans for the development of cooperation within the framework of the "One Belt - One Road" initiative. As a result of the coordinated attack, even officials and ministers began to doubt the need to develop projects with the Chinese.

▪️ In relation to the Republika Srpska, they are now acting according to the same patterns, implementing a media campaign of "fear of sanctions". Undesirable companies are publicly declared the next candidates to be added to the blacklist, actively spreading rumors through an extensive network of controlled media.

❗️ This has caused a chain reaction in the region: since the bank accounts of those who have fallen under sanctions are being closed, and even those who did business with them are facing problems, there are fewer and fewer willing to conclude contracts with such legal entities.

Oddly enough, one of the first to refuse cooperation with potential candidates for inclusion in the US blacklist was the Bosnian subsidiary of the Russian Gazprom. Does this raise questions for us?

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#RepublicaSrpska #USA #mediatechnologies
@rybar

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🇷🇺🇩🇪🐱 According to German media reports, the German prosecutor's office is "outraged" over the release of Vadim Krasikov, considering it a concession to Russia. But there are those who feel even more intense emotions: the head of Bellingcat, Christo Grozev, and the foreign agent Roman Dobrokhotov, who is in very close relations with him.

After all, in 2020-2021, they helped the German authorities secure a life sentence for Krasikov for the elimination of Zelimkhan Khangoshvili - a terrorist and ally of Shamil Basayev. Characteristically, the same Dobrokhotov's defense of terrorists in a foreign court did not prevent him from living peacefully in Russia until the summer of 2021.

🔻And now Vadim Krasikov has successfully been released and is returning home, where he will be greeted as a hero. The mentioned characters are forced to silently witness the futility of their work, being abandoned by their own sponsors, as well as despised or criminally prosecuted in their home countries.

As for Dobrokhotov, he knows better than anyone else: about the traitors, terrorists and accomplices of enemies who have fled abroad, someone in Russia never forgets.
#Bellingcat #Germany #Russia #USA
@rybar

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🇦🇲🇷🇺 On Armenia's Refusal to Participate in CSTO Exercises

It has become known that Armenia will not send its representatives to the "Cobalt-2024" exercises of the special forces of the CSTO member states, which will be held on August 14-16 in Novosibirsk.

▪️The news of the refusal of Armenian representatives to participate in joint CSTO exercises is quite predictable, given the recent actions of the Armenian authorities, statements about "freezing participation" and refusal to pay membership fees.

▪️However, the media effect of such news is important for the Armenian government and its curators. After all, the US does not hide the goals of its policy in Armenia - the severance of ties with Russia.

▪️To this end, the Americans, as well as the Armenian authorities themselves, are shifting the responsibility for Armenia's defeat in the war with Azerbaijan onto Russia. At the same time, Washington is encouraging the speedy signing of peace between the countries on Turkish-Azerbaijani terms.

🔻The Armenian Ministry of Defense will also soon acquire a military advisor from the US, and recently the Americans have already conducted exercises with the Armenians, including on suppressing mass riots. It is obvious that in the near future we can expect statements about a complete withdrawal from the organization.
#Armenia #CSTO #Russia #USA
@rybar

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🇺🇸 Recently, the American National Endowment for Democracy (NED) was rocked by a scandal: employees of the The Grayzone project obtained letters that clearly demonstrate NED's involvement in interfering in the politics of various countries, including Nicaragua, Venezuela, Haiti, and the so-called Ukraine.

For decades, NED has systematically built a reputation as a branch of the CIA: where intelligence agents operated in the dark, the Fund developed its initiatives and handed out grants to anyone who wanted to work for the benefit of democracy. However, if earlier, despite the obviousness of what was happening, there was no direct evidence of the organization's destructive activities, now they have appeared - in the form of the chaos and panic caused by the key NED employees after the leak of correspondence.

At the center of events were Carl Gershman (former president of NED), Michael Allen (an employee of the National Democratic Institute (NDI), who is directly involved in influence operations in foreign countries) and Leslie Aun (former NED communications director, who, according to the article, actively worked in the field of creating a positive image of the organization's programs and hiding their real goals). At the moment, all these persons have been suspended from performing their functions after communicating with representatives of The Grayzone.

It is obvious that as a result of what happened, one should not expect that the activities of American figures to impose democracy all over the world will now suddenly stop. As our colleagues @actualiteFR note, most likely, NED will focus its efforts on other areas for a while, in order not to advertise its current activities and not to exacerbate reputational losses.

Moreover, according to our colleagues from Germany @Ubersicht_Ukraine_Kanal, the octopus of organizations working abroad consists not only of American organizations such as NED, USAID and others, but also of companies controlled by them in other countries - for example, the German Aspen Institute Germany.

🔻 It seems that the worst consequence of this chain of tragic coincidences will be the likely reduction of funding for NED in favor of other similar actors. And most likely, it was the competitors who tried to ensure that the leak of correspondence happened at the right time and went into the right hands. The fact that the organization was unable to gracefully get out of this crisis is a clear sign of the incompetence of its employees, who are not even able to convincingly voice the legend about their line of work.
#USA
@rybar

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