Pamfilova noted that the cyberattack activity increased significantly on Saturday from Friday and ended in failure….reports Asian Lite News
Russian election authorities have said that about 160,000 cyberattacks on the country’s remote electronic voting resources were blocked.
The attacks were mainly directed toward the voting portal, with 30,000 attacks launched against the monitoring portal for the remote electronic voting system, Ella Pamfilova, head of the Russian Central Election Commission, was quoted as saying on Saturday by Xinhua news agency.
Pamfilova noted that the cyberattack activity increased significantly on Saturday from Friday and ended in failure.
Vadim Kovalev, head of the Public Headquarters for Election Observation in Moscow, said Saturday that cyberattacks on Moscow’s information systems were traced to the US and the UK.
“We see that most of the servers where the attacks come from are located in the US and the UK, at least it is the way they are detected,” Kovalev said.
Russia’s eighth presidential election is scheduled for March 15-17. Remote electronic voting is introduced to parts of the country for the first time.
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is running for the country’s top office again as an independent candidate, cast his electronic vote in the presidential elections, Russia-based TASS reported.
Footage released by the Kremlin showed Putin walking towards a computer in his office, casting his vote and then smiling and waving at the camera. A notification on the computer monitor then read that a vote had been successfully cast.
It was not the first time that Putin cast his vote online. In the last few years, the Russian President cast his vote online during the autumn single election day.
The ongoing polling to elect the Russian President marks the first time that online voting has been made available, according to TASS report.
More than 3.5 million people cast their vote online on the first day of the presidential election across Russia, TASS reported, citing the e-voting monitoring portal.
As of 7:28 pm (local time), as many as 3,500,331 ballots were issued to voters in 28 Russian regions, who had applied for voting online. The federal platform of electronic voting recorded a 73 per cent voter turnout on the first day, TASS reported.
As many as 4.76 million people in Russia planned to cast votes on the federal platform, the state agency reported, adding that people in Moscow could vote on the city’s own platform and were not required to apply for remote voting prior to the polls.
More than 180 election experts from 58 countries are overseeing the Russian presidential election. They are witnessing the elections at the invitation of the Russian Civic Chamber’s (CC) invitation, the CC said in a statement on the Telegram channel, TASS reported.
To celebrate the accession formally, a flag-raising ceremony has been planned for Monday (March 11) at the alliance headquarters in Brussels…reports Asian Lite News
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday vowed to deploy its troops and strike systems near the Finnish border following its accession to NATO.
Putin said Finland and Sweden’s entry into NATO is ‘ a meaningless step’, adding that Russia will deploy troops and systems of destruction on the Finnish border following its accession to the alliance last April.
“This is an absolutely meaningless step [for Finland and Sweden] from the point of view of ensuring their own national interests,” Putin told Russia’s RIA state news agency and Rossiya-1 state television in a wide-ranging interview.
“We didn’t have troops there [at the Finland border], now they will be there. There were no systems of destruction there, now they will appear,” he added.
Following the launch of Russia’s offensive in Ukraine more than two years ago, Sweden abandoned its long-standing neutrality and joined NATO on Thursday, becoming the organisation’s newest member. After Hungary–the last of the 31 alliance countries to approve Sweden–submitted its ratification document, the membership became official.
Sweden is now fully covered by Article 5 of the alliance, which requires all other members to defend one another in the event of an attack.
To celebrate the accession formally, a flag-raising ceremony has been planned for Monday (March 11) at the alliance headquarters in Brussels.
Finland, Sweden’s neighbour, became a member of the alliance on April 4 last year. With the two Nordic countries in the alliance, NATO controls almost all of the Baltic Sea.
Both a robust armaments industry and a well-equipped military are present in Sweden.The nation intends to spend 2.1 per cent of GDP on defence this year, about twice as much as it did in 2020 and over NATO’s target. (ANI)
The Russian Federation Council, or the Upper House of the Russian Parliament or Duma, officially scheduled the presidential election on March 17…reports Asian Lite News
President Vladimir Putin called on Russians to take part in the upcoming presidential election to be held on March 15-17, state news agency TASS reported on Thursday.
“We need to confirm our consolidation, our determination to go forward together. Each vote counts. That is why I am calling on you to realise your right to vote in the coming three days,” Putin said in a video address ahead of the voting.
According to TASS, President Putin addressed the nation ahead of federal elections eight times–in 2000, 2004, 2016, and 2018 (twice before the presidential election and after announcing their results), in 2021, and 2020, before the nationwide referendum on constitutional amendments.
Meanwhile, early voting for Russia’s presidential election was ongoing abroad, with over 40,000 people casting their ballots, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.
“Early voting is underway. It has already taken place in 23 countries, and 29 election commissions are supervising it. As of March 12, more than 40,000 Russians have already voted,” the diplomat said. “Voting is taking place without any serious incidents,” she said.
She added that local Russian officials were ready to provide any assistance at the first request of their fellow citizens.
The Russian Federation Council, or the Upper House of the Russian Parliament or Duma, officially scheduled the presidential election on March 17.
The Russian Central Election Commission (CEC) announced subsequently that voting will take place over three days–from March 15 to 17, making it Russia’s first three-day presidential election.
President Putin is widely expected to sail through the polls, securing a fifth term in office and a full third decade as Russia’s supreme leader, CNN reported.
With the death of imprisoned Russian Opposition leader Alexei Navalny, it’s fair to say Putin’s political career has reached the president-for-life stage, CNN noted its report, adding that his re-anointment lays bare an uncomfortable fact for Russia’s future political stability.
The President and his circle have not made any visible preparations for a post-Putin era, it added.
Putin is the longest-serving leader since Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, CNN noted, adding that in 2020, Russian voters endorsed constitutional changes that would allow him to stay in power until 2036.
Even before Putin announced his candidacy, the Kremlin made it clear that it did not see any alternatives on the horizon to his system of one-man rule, the report added. (ANI)
The joint maneuvers mark the fourth collaboration among China, Iran, and Russia since 2019…reports Asian Lite News
China, Iran, and Russia have kick started a joint naval exercise, dubbed “Marine Security Belt 2024,” in the Gulf of Oman, a strategic waterway adjacent to the Persian Gulf. The drill involves significant maritime assets, with China deploying the guided-missile destroyer Urumqi and guided-missile frigate Linyi, while Russia’s contingent is led by the Varyag, a Slava-class cruiser. Over 20 vessels, including support craft, combat boats, and naval helicopters, are participating from the three nations.
Covering an expansive area of 17,000 square kilometers (6,600 square miles) of water, the exercise aims not only to bolster maritime security but also to enhance trade, combat piracy and terrorism, facilitate humanitarian efforts, and promote information exchange in rescue operations, according to Adm. Mostafa Tajaddini, the spokesperson for the drill.
The joint maneuvers mark the fourth collaboration among China, Iran, and Russia since 2019. This heightened military cooperation aligns with Iran’s response to escalating tensions with the United States. Notably, Iran’s military collaboration includes supplying military drones to Russia, which are currently utilized in Russia’s conflict with Ukraine.
Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Oman, Pakistan, and South Africa are observing the exercise, underscoring its regional significance. The Gulf of Oman, amidst ongoing geopolitical tensions, has witnessed a series of attacks and ship seizures, predominantly attributed to Iran by the U.S. Since the breakdown of the nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, tensions in the region have escalated. Given that a substantial portion of global oil trade passes through the Strait of Hormuz, situated at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, securing these waters remains a critical priority for international stakeholders.
The border village of Tetkino in the Kursk region appeared to be one of the targets in Tuesday’s raids, with the FRL claiming that “liberating forces” now had full control over the settlement…reports Asian Lite News
Three Ukraine-based Russian paramilitary groups said that they have crossed into Russia and are now fighting government troops there, media reported.
The Freedom of Russia Legion (FRL) and Siberian Battalion (SB) posted videos purportedly showing their fighters in Russia’s Belgorod and Kursk regions, BBC reported.
The FRL and an exiled Russian politician claimed two villages were now in control of “liberation forces”.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said the breakthrough attempts were thwarted.
It claimed more than 234 Ukrainian troops had been killed and several tanks had been destroyed.
According to Belgorod’s regional governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, one member of Russia’s territorial defence forces was killed and 10 civilians were injured, BBC reported.
These numbers have not yet been verified by the BBC.
Ukraine’s military denied any involvement in Tuesday’s cross-border raids.
Andriy Yusov, a spokesman for the country’s military intelligence, said the paramilitary groups were “independent organisations” of Russian nationals, and therefore operating “at home”.
In a separate development, Russia said Ukraine had launched 25 drones on targets across Russia, but the attack was thwarted.
However, videos have emerged which appear to show several Russian oil facilities on fire, BBC reported.
In the Ivanovo region, just east of Moscow, an Il-76 military transport plane with eight crew and seven passengers crashed shortly after take-off, Russia’s Defence Ministry was quoted as saying by Russian state-run news agencies.
The Ministry said an engine fire caused the crash. It gave no details of survivors.
Videos have emerged purportedly showing the plane on fire circling in the sky, and later plumes of black smoke from the crash site.
Elsewhere, at least three people were killed and 38 injured on Tuesday night when a Russian missile struck two apartment buildings in the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih, according to the Ukrainian Minister of Internal Affairs, Ihor Klymenko.
Klymenko said children were among the victims and that the number of deaths may go up as the search and rescue operation is continuing, BBC reported.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the country would “inflict losses on the Russian state in response — quite rightly”.
A full-scale invasion of Ukraine launched by Russian President Vladimir Putin is now in its third year, with no signs that the biggest war in Europe since World War Two could end soon.
On Tuesday, the FRL posted what it said was a video from the Russian-Ukrainian border.
“Like all our fellow citizens, in the Legion we dream of a Russia freed from Putin’s dictatorship. But we don’t just dream: we make every effort to make these dreams come true. We will take our land away from the regime, centimetre by centimetre,” an armed FRL soldier in the footage is heard saying.
Meanwhile, the SB said “fierce fighting is going on the Russian Federation territory”, publishing a clip purportedly showing its fighters engaging with Russian government forces.
It also condemned Russian presidential elections on March 15-17, in which Putin is widely expected to be declared the winner.
“Ballots and polling stations in this case are fiction. You can really change your life for the better only with weapons in your hands,” the SB said.
Another Ukraine-based Russian group, the Russian Volunteer Corps (RDK), also published footage of what it said were its fighters engaging with Russian government troops, BBC reported.
“The army of the Kremlin regime lays down its weapons without even starting the battle,” it said.
The videos have not been independently verified.
The border village of Tetkino in the Kursk region appeared to be one of the targets in Tuesday’s raids, with the FRL claiming that “liberating forces” now had full control over the settlement.
The BBC has verified the authenticity of FRL footage depicting a strike on an armoured personnel carrier in Tetkino.
Kursk Mayor Igor Kutsak ordered all schools in the regional capital to be put on remote learning from March 13-15 “in connection with recent events”.
He also warned that the “missile alert” regime was still in place in the city, which has a population of more than 400,000.
Earlier on Tuesday, Ukraine-based Russian opposition politician Illya Ponomarev claimed that the border village of Lozovaya Rudka, Belgorod region, was “under full control of liberating forces”.
In a statement later on Tuesday, the Russian Defence Ministry said its forces together with border guards and FSB security service units “thwarted an attempt by the Kiev regime to make a breakthrough” into Russia, BBC reported.
It said enemy fighters — backed by tanks and armoured personnel carriers — had tried to invade Russia “simultaneously in three directions in the areas of the settlements of Odnorobovka, Nekhoteevka and Spodaryushino, Belgorod region”.
It added that another four attacks had targeted Tetkino, but were “repulsed”.
The Ukraine-based Russian armed groups have made several cross-border raids since the full-invasion of Ukraine began.
Last May, Russia’s military said a similar attack in the Belgorod region was rebuffed and armed insurgents defeated.
The Lithuanian Police have been informed of the incident and are investigating, according to the Reuters news agency…reports Asian Lite News
Leonid Volkov, a long-time ally of the late Russian Opposition leader Alexei Navalny, has been attacked outside his home in Lithuania, the media reported.
Volkov was assaulted with a hammer and tear gas while in his car in Vilnius on Tuesday night, Navalny spokesperson Kira Yarmysh said as quoted by BBC report.
The alleged assailant is unknown, as is their motive.
The Lithuanian Police have been informed of the incident and are investigating, according to the Reuters news agency.
Another member of the Navalny team, Ivan Zhdanov, posted pictures on social media of Volkov with a bloodied lower left leg and what looked like bruising to his temple. He has been taken to hospital, BBC reported.
Asked whether the assailant shouted anything, Zhdanov said: “Everything happened in silence.”
“Of course this is a clear political attack, there is no doubt here.”
Volkov has lived outside Russia for some years for his own safety and served as Navalny’s Chief-of-Staff until the Opposition leader died suddenly in prison in the Russian Arctic last month while serving a 19-year sentence after being convicted of charges that were “politically motivated”.
Volkov, 43, also faces various politically motivated charges in Russia, BBC reported.
He served as Chairman of Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation until last year when he resigned following the revelation he had signed letters calling for the European Union to drop some Russian sanctions.
Despite living outside Russia he has also made sure that the activism of Navalny and his team could continue.
This has included anti-corruption investigations, YouTube videos and livestreams during protests and major events in Russia.
Many more activists moved to join Volkov abroad in 2021 after Navalny’s entire political organisation was labelled “extremist” and banned in Russia, BBC reported.
Several of Navalny’s former team are now in prison, as well as some of his lawyers.
With presidential elections this weekend, Navalny’s widow Yulia Navalnaya has called on opponents of Vladimir Putin to turn up at polling stations across Russia at midday on Sunday in an act of peaceful political protest.
It was an idea supported by Alexei Navalny before he died.
In March 2021, Russia and China had inked an intergovernmental MoU to set up an International Lunar Research Station, a road map for which was presented on June 16, 2021…reports Asian Lite News
With the ongoing wars in Ukraine and in Gaza sharpening the geo-political divide between the US-led West and the China-Russia axis, the recent close collaborations being planned by the latter bloc in cutting-edge military technology make for interesting reading.
On Tuesday, the head of Roscosmos, Russia’s space agency, Yuri Borisov announced that Russia and China were collaborating on a plan to set up a nuclear power plant on the Moon in 2033-2035.
“Today, we are seriously considering a project, somewhere at the turn of 2033-2035, for the delivery and installation of a power plant on the lunar surface with our Chinese colleagues,” Borisov said during a world youth festival in Moscow.
He added that it would be done “automatically, using robotic means”.
In March 2021, Russia and China had inked an intergovernmental MoU to set up an International Lunar Research Station, a road map for which was presented on June 16, 2021.
Interestingly, a top-level Russian delegation recently visiting Beijing has discussed cooperation and collaboration in detail on Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems in the area of military application of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, a development reported by both the Russian and Chinese state-owned media.
The Russian foreign ministry said in its communique on Friday after the Russia-China inter-agency consultations: “The sides had an extensive exchange of assessments of the situation in this area. The sides discussed doctrinal guidelines and initiatives of Russia and China, related to application of AI technologies for military purposes. Special attention was paid to the coordination of actions within the Group of Governmental Experts on Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (GGE on LAWS).”
The foreign ministry statement also reaffirmed the similarity of the Russian and Chinese approaches to military application of artificial intelligence. The domain of aerospace and artificial intelligence, among other niche technology areas, are the new battlegrounds where the US-led West and the China-Russia axis continue to confront each other. Besides extensive collaboration in conventional military research and development, the other areas of cooperation include the cyber domain and critical materials.
The emergence of China’s Xi Jinping and Russia’s Vladimir Putin as national leaders in their respective countries is commonly understood to be a strong signal that the unipolar world was changing to a multipolar one with the emergence of the China-Russia bloc.
Both nations are aggrieved by perceived humiliation at the hands of the West, and they are likewise led by two men who share values of nationalism, centralized power and autocratic governance. Furthermore, they hubristically think their countries’ future survival depends upon them….reports Asian Lite News
Although Chairman Xi Jinping has a personal affinity with President Vladimir Putin, the two countries’ bilateral relations are marked by reserve rather than trust.
Furthermore, Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has proved rather awkward for China. Despite becoming bogged down in its “special military operation” that has now extended into its third year, Russia, the weaker partner in a bilateral relationship that is perhaps best described as a quasi-alliance, remains vital in China’s plans to build an axis against the US and Western allies.
Philipp Ivanov, Senior Fellow at the US-based Asia Society Policy Institute, said: “China and Russia are drawn to each other by virtue of their strategic geography, alignment of values and views of their current leaders, common enemy in Washington, natural economic complementarities and opportunism. Despite these areas of convergence, Russia and China are also driven apart by historical animosities, power asymmetry, competition in overlapping spheres of interest, deep cultural differences and shallow societal links.”
Both nations are aggrieved by perceived humiliation at the hands of the West, and they are likewise led by two men who share values of nationalism, centralized power and autocratic governance. Furthermore, they hubristically think their countries’ future survival depends upon them.
Yet the Ukraine war is the biggest test of Sino-Russian ties in the past few decades.
Putin’s military adventurism has both accelerated and disrupted bilateral ties, emphasizing to Beijing that Moscow is not a reliable partner.
Ivanov further wrote: “The war in Ukraine … has deepened Russia’s economic dependence on China, increased the power asymmetry between the two countries, and squeezed Moscow’s diplomatic playing field vis-a-vis China. Beijing has gained an even more loyal ally, as well as discounted access to Russian commodities, but its partnership with Moscow has damaged China’s ties with Europe and deepened the rift with the United States.”
In fact, Ivanov suggested that their relationship may have reached its zenith since both are fiercely independent and unwilling to compromise their strategic autonomy. “This, together with their growing power asymmetry and competition for spheres of interest, will limit the scope for further alignment. Yet, at this historic juncture, for both China and Russia, the benefits of their partnership offset the risks.”
Of course, China and Russia make perfect trading partners. The former is the world’s foremost supplier of manufactured goods, while Russia is rich in natural resources, meaning China can diversify its dependence on energy from the Middle East.
However, Ivanov argues the West is incorrectly overplaying the view that Russia has become a Chinese vassal.
A short time before Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Xi and Putin met in Beijing, jointly declaring a strategic partnership “without limits”. Then, on the eve of the invasion, the PLA Daily declared: “The Sino-Russian relationship is in the best shape on record, and it has already become a great power relationship with the highest degree of mutual trust, cooperation, coordination and strategic value; the key to such a relationship is the strategic leadership of the leaders of the two states.”
Such an all-embracing declaration created a foreign-policy quagmire for China. The war put Beijing in a difficult position, as it was forced to side with Russia. Initially, Xi might have been invigorated by a swift Russian victory, for this would give him confidence to do the same against Taiwan. However, Ukraine’s staunch resistance has imposed a heavy cost on Russia, and made Xi realize that victory against Taiwan would not be as quick and tidy as he once imagined. Furthermore, international support for Ukraine surpassed anything Putin or Xi could have feared, and many were quick to impose sanctions on Russia. This is a key deterrent for China, since its economy relies upon international trade.
Guoguang Wu, Senior Fellow on Chinese Politics, Center for China Analysis at the same Asia Society Policy Institute, discerned three phases in China’s evolving policy over the Ukraine conflict. Xi has been forced to recalculate policies, and his miscalculations in his notion that the East is rising and the West is inexorably declining have been laid bare. Underwriting it all, he maintains the utmost priority on his own regime’s security, and his desire to challenge the Western-led world order.
The first policy stage, from February to May of 2022, according to Wu, was “friendship without limits”. China could not bring itself to call Russia’s military actions an invasion, and it has oft repeated Russia’s narrative that NATO must take primary responsibility for the war.
The second phase coincided with the stagnation of Putin’s offensive in Ukraine and his regime becoming odious to most of the world. After Putin’s blitzkrieg failed, China started to play down its “no limits” partnership with Russia. It detached itself from Russian actions, pretending to be a responsible peacemaker, and published a vague proposal for China-mediated peace talks in February 2023. Naturally, this was mere diplomatic deception, for China still condoned Russian aggression. Beijing claims to be “on the right side of history”, but it has actively undermined international solidarity in condemning Russia. One example is how Beijing lobbied Indonesia to exclude Ukraine as a topic at the G20 meeting in November 2022.
Xi was disappointed his “two-hands” policy was not accepted or applauded, ignorant that such a position only exposed Chinese hypocrisy and created growing disenchantment with Beijing. Russia, too, may have been annoyed by China’s public stance.
The third phase began around mid-2023, where China reaffirmed its alliance with Russia because Xi’s “two-hands” strategy of appeasing the West while supporting Putin did not work. Last year, for instance, Xi told Putin after a personal meeting,
“Right now there are changes [in the world], the likes of which we haven’t seen for 100 years, and we are the ones driving these changes together.”
Wu assessed: “China’s new policy, in my interpretation, is merely a revision of its initial stance on the war, reverting to clear support for Russian military action in Ukraine with less emphasis on diplomatic camouflage. However, the recalculation takes into account the reality that the West is still powerful enough to block Xi’s grand strategy.” Xi faces challenges on the home front with a more fragile Chinese economy, and he cannot afford Western-led sanctions that would exacerbate the situation.
Xi’s original dilemma remains, though. By supporting Putin, he upsets numerous other nations and risks bad press, sanctions and questions about his leadership. Yet he cannot abandon Putin, for that might accelerate defeat in Ukraine. The conflict has adversely affected China’s relations with the USA and Europe, at a time when it was trying to drive a wedge between the two. It has also undermined China’s narrative about respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of others.
If Putin loses in Ukraine, this would threaten his survival as Russia’s leader. Such uncertainty is not welcomed by Xi, who counts Putin a friend, plus a weakened and chaotic Russia does not help China at all.
Early on, the West threatened Beijing with severe repercussions if it supported Russia. It has not done so overtly, but it has provided ongoing support throughout the conflict.
Ivanov noted: “As far as we know, apart from limited transfers of dual-use equipment that can be used in Russia’s war effort, China has refrained from providing direct military aid to Russia. That might change if Russia faces a comprehensive defeat in Ukraine, which China may deem contrary to its interests. At this stage of the conflict, China sees the risks of Western sanctions and further damage to its vital relationship with Europe as outweighing the benefits of supporting Russia.”
In July 2023, the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) published a report detailing Chinese support for Russia. In 2022, Russian imports from China increased 13% to USD76 billion, while chip exports increased 19%, mostly through shell companies in Hong Kong. The ODNI stated that China “is providing some dual-use technology that Moscow’s military uses to continue the war in Ukraine, despite an international cordon of sanctions and export controls. The customs records show PRC state-owned defense companies shipping navigation equipment, jamming technology and fighter jet parts to sanctioned Russian government-owned defense companies.”
Other items documented as being sold to Russia are smokeless gunpowder, drones and spare parts, helmets and body armor.
Sino-Russian military ties include joint exercises, arms sales and military-technical cooperation. However, with Russia focused intently upon Ukraine, this has affected the regularity and depth of bilateral joint training.
China, too, would have watched with consternation the June 2023 rebellion by the Wagner private military contractor firm, led by Yevgeny Prigozhin. John Culver, Nonresident Senior Fellow with the Atlantic Council, said: “As Beijing watched Prigozhin’s private army move toward Moscow, one thought may have entered Xi Jinping’s head: ‘I was correct to jail Generals Xu Caihou and Guo Boxiong and purge disloyalty and corruption from the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).'” When Xi rose to power, the PLA was effectively a self-run entity, its top commanders having been appointed by Xi’s predecessors.
Culver elaborated: “As Xi rose in the Chinese Communist Party to be the designated heir by 2010, the party leadership watched in terror as the Arab Spring briefly swept autocrats from power, backed by the US/West. The lords of Zhongnanhai may have asked themselves, if the 1989 Tiananmen Square crisis happened here today, would the PLA again save the party? Or would the army – as the Egyptian military did – put its interests above its loyalty to the revolution? Looking at the corrupt military of that period, they likely concluded, ‘We don’t know. It probably would depend on the circumstances.’ For the party’s army, this is the wrong answer. Under Xi, party control over the PLA…has been greatly tightened. And lessons forgotten after 1989 were recalled, especially the need to move/replace general officers frequently and never again allow independent power bases to emerge in the PLA.”
It is patent that Putin’s actions in Ukraine have caused great discomfort to Xi, and also forced him to progressively alter his foreign policy. Given this, Wu suggested three elements in China’s ongoing policy. “First, Beijing will cease to try to significantly distance itself from Russia; but neither will China return to its ‘no limits’ partnership with the country. Instead, Beijing will cover its tracks while trying to reduce, if not entirely avoid, the costs of standing with Russia.
“Second, and most important, Xi’s revised calculations do not seem to be based on a Russian military triumph in Ukraine, but rather on Russia’s ability to fight for as long as possible. Xi might still expect that Putin could gain military advantage in Ukraine, especially if Western support for Ukraine begins to flag. In any case, a long war of attrition could have the effect of weakening both the West and Russia, thus making China the winner in both grand strategy and regime security.”
“Third,” Wu said, “China’s new policy will give it a bargaining chip in its growing rivalry with the West, particularly the United States. If necessary, Xi could leverage the shifting goals of the war, giving China more freedom for international manipulation.”
As Ivanov concluded: “The Russian war on Ukraine has dramatically raised the stakes. The war remains the most acute challenge to the international system, with profound consequences. One of them is how a Russian victory in Ukraine (defined by a larger territorial grab) would influence decision-making in Beijing on Taiwan. It is possible that as Xi ages, his power remains unchallenged, his fear of US encirclement grows and the Chinese economy slows down, he will be more willing to take risks to achieve reunification with Taiwan.” (ANI)
Russia’s Defence Ministry said its troops advanced some 9 kilometres and would press forward after the deadly urban battle in the eastern Donetsk region…reports Asian Lite News
The UK Ministry of Defence said the number of dead and wounded reflects Moscow’s commitment to “attritional warfare”.
More than 355,000 Russian personnel have been killed and wounded in the Ukraine war, according to the UK MoD.
In its daily update published on Sunday, the UK Ministry of Defence estimated that the average daily number of Russian casualties throughout February was the highest since the start of the invasion.
It put the figure at 983 casualties per day.
Both Kyiv and Moscow shroud their causality counts in secrecy, due to the effects they can have on army morale, populations at home and how the war is perceived abroad. Each side can overestimate the number of enemy dead and wounded, meanwhile.
Writing on X, the UK MoD said the mounting Russian casualties reflect Moscow’s “commitment to mass and attritional warfare.” “Although costly in terms of human life, the resulting effect has increased the pressure on Ukraine’s position across the frontline,” it added.
It is unclear how the UK MoD counts the number of Russian dead and wounded. In February, Russian forces captured the Ukrainian town of Adviivka – their biggest gain in many months – after one of the most intense battles of the war.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said its troops advanced some 9 kilometres and would press forward after the deadly urban battle in the eastern Donetsk region.
On 25 February, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that 31,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed in action since Russia launched its full-scale invasion.
“Not 300,000, not 150,000, not whatever Putin and his deceitful circle have been lying about. But nevertheless, each of these losses is a great sacrifice for us,” he said in Kyiv.
It was the first time Ukraine confirmed the number of its losses, but Zelenskyy did not disclose the number of troops that were wounded or missing. Ukraine’s number one said no exact figure would be given until the war ended. Russia has provided few official casualty figures.
The most recent data from the Defense Ministry, published in January 2023, pointed to just over 6,000 deaths.
Slovak FM says sanctions won’t solve Russia-Ukraine crisis
Slovak Foreign Minister Juraj Blanar has said that his country opposes imposing sanctions on Russia and won’t send any weapons or troops to Ukraine to escalate the war.
“Sanction hurts even more the European Union than the Russian economy,” he told reporters on Saturday after a meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov on the sidelines of the Antalya Diplomacy Forum held in the southern Turkish city.
“We will not support any other sanction which will hurt more Slovakia than Russia,” he noted.
“As the new government of Slovakia, we will not deliver any weapons from the warehouses of Slovakia force to Ukraine,” said Blanar, noting that his government halted sending a package of weapons that cost around 40 million euros to Ukraine.
“Our position is more clear now than before because the frontier doesn’t move, and we are calling for ceasefire and peace talking process which is the only solution of this crisis,” he told reporters.
His remarks came after French President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday that “everything that is necessary” must be done to ensure the defeat of Russia, including deploying troops.
In response to Macron’s remarks, Lavrov on Friday said Macron did not misspeak over the possibility of NATO sending troops to Ukraine, noting that the troops were already there unofficially.
Macron’s remarks have been rejected by several NATO countries, who said that they had no plans to send troops to Ukraine to fight against Russia.
Russia can use the rupees the country has accumulated to buy goods from India, and to invest in a country that the entire world sees as an attractive investment opportunity, writes Prof. Madhav Das Nalapat
In 1991, the Soviet Union broke up into a medley of countries, including Georgia, Ukraine and the Central Asian republics. Boris Yeltsin, who took over from Mikhail Gorbachev after the breakup, outsourced economic policy mainly to US experts, who not surprisingly recommended and got adopted by the new government policies that threw the Russian economy into chaos.
An example was the Soviet banking system, which was dismantled and replaced by a starkly dysfunctional alternative that offered neither returns nor stability. Millions who had placed their savings in the old system saw their money wiped out by a stroke of the pen, and who therefore were thrown into penury. The value of the ruble plummeted in a manner reminiscent of the decline of the German mark in the beginning of the 1930s, with the middle class being wiped out economically and converted into the largely unemployed poor.
Only India stepped in with a helping hand, adopting during the tenure of Finance Minister Manmohan Singh the Rupee-Ruble deal, in which the Russian ruble was arbitrarily valued at more than a thousand times its value in exchange markets. Every other country that paid back Russia the debt incurred during Soviet times did so at the prevailing exchange rate, thereby enjoying a windfall. Most refused to pay back Soviet-era debt, arguing that they were entitled to do so, as the Soviet Union no longer existed.
Only India did its old friend, newly named the Russian Federation, a favour that in effect cost about USD 12 billion over time, a huge expenditure for a country that was still struggling to extinguish poverty. Through that gesture, India under Narasimha Rao showed that it was a true friend of Russia, but got very little in return, as President Yeltsin had the same awe and subservience to the US in particular as his predecessor Mikhail Gorbachev had.
Old Soviet-era terms for supply of armaments were replaced by agreements that were entirely transactional and which involved much higher payments. India’s hand of friendship was brushed aside while Yeltsin followed Gorbachev in a quixotic quest to enter the European Union, or at least partner with its members. Yeltsin’s successor in 1999, Vladimir Putin, initially sought to partner with the EU, but who understood by around 2005 that there was no room for Russia in the European Union.
The EU antipathy towards Russia was most recently in evidence in the US-EU behaviour in Ukraine, a country that once housed much of the scientific establishment of the Soviet Union, especially in its eastern provinces. In 2014, there was a regime change in Kiev that was caused not by the ballot but by street violence, a replay of the Arab Spring of 2011. US and EU sanctions began to pile up against Russia, each being designed to downsize the Russian economy and thereby make the lives of its citizens even harder than was already the case.
In 2014, India had a change of Prime Ministers, caused entirely through the ballot box, in which Narendra Modi replaced Manmohan Singh as Prime Minister. Rather than join the countries that were hostile to Russia, India has always remained a friend, and Prime Minister Modi soon established a close friendship with President Putin. In 2022, Russian armed forces entered the Crimea, Donbas and Lugansk in Ukraine to forestall an anticipated attempt by the Ukrainian armed forces to wrest back control of these regions from the Russianspeaking governments that were functioning there.
The US,UK and the EU began a proxy war against Russia through Ukraine, and again India showed its reliability as a friend by refusing to join in the numerous hostile actions initiated by the West against the Russian Federation. Prime Minister Modi stood firm in his view from the start of the proxy war in 2022, which was that what was needed was a ceasefire on the basis of the status quo, a stance opposed by NATO, which sought to ensure that the government in Kiev got back control of the territories it had lost in 2014.
Just as President Putin and Prime Minister Modi have remained close friends, with India in 2023 holding a G20 summit without Ukrainian President Zelenskyy attending in the manner he had at so many conclaves, and in 2023 Modi’s diplomacy succeeded in getting unanimously passed a G20 conference document that refrained from criticism of Russia. Just as it had on so many previous occasions, India showed that it was a true friend of Russia.
The Russian people are proud and determined, and most seem to have understood through the conduct of the UK and the EU towards them that they are not Europeans but Eurasians, who belong both to the Old World, Europe, and to the New World, the world of the future, Asia. Given that, it makes sense to have a new Rupee-Ruble agreement, especially as both the rupee and the ruble are relatively stable in value.
Russia can use the rupees the country has accumulated to buy goods from India, and to invest in a country that the entire world sees as an attractive investment opportunity. Beijing would like payments to be made by India to Russia in PRC currency, something that would be unwelcome to India. Instead, most of the trade needs to be in the respective currencies of Russia and India, and it is expected of President Putin that he will spurn the example of his predecessor Boris Yeltsin, who failed to reciprocate the friendly gestures made by India, including through the Manmohan Singh Rupee-Ruble deal.
It is time for a new bilateral currency deal, so that the friendship between the two countries creates a situation that would be to the mutual benefit of both India and Russia.