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Honorable Secretary General of NATO,

In reality, however, they are formally unacceptable, essentially favoring the aggressor to the detriment of the victim, and are ultimately detrimental to the Alliance.

The NATO Secretary-General is an employee of the governments that appoint him and pay his salary from the money of their taxpayers. He does not formulate policy – this is the work of the member governments – and does not express positions without their approval. And obviously the Greek government has not approved these statements. Läs artikel

Not so ironically, Karl Marx wanted to enlarge the Crimean war into an all-European war. As Marx was a virulent opponent of Tsarist Russia—which he saw as the most reactionary and “absolutist” power in Europe—he urged the formation of an all-European coalition Germany and Austria, plus Britain, France and Sweden, not to overlook the Ottoman Empire—in the struggle against the Tsarist regime during the 1853-56 Crimean War.

In the New York Tribune of February 1854, the writer of the Communist Manifesto not only argued that French and British naval power should fight to liberate Odessa, Crimea and the Sea of Azov, but he also proposed that maritime Sweden, along with monarchist Prussia and Austria, should open a new flank in northern Europe. The goal would be to emancipate Finland and the Baltic states from the Tsarist oppression. If the struggle was victorious, this would make Russia:

A giant without arms, without eyes, with no other recourse than trying to crush her opponents under the weight of her clumsy torso, thrown here and there at random, wherever a hostile battle-cry was heard.

For many of the reasons outlined by Marx himself, the Crimean War did not, however, become an all-European war as Sweden, Prussia and Austria did not enter the conflict. And what Marx called the “sixth power” in Europe, the Socialist Revolution, did not, at least at that time, succeed in overthrowing the Tsarist regime as he had hoped. Läs artikel

I grove trekk har det blitt brukt store summer på større, avanserte militære farkoster. Men gjør dette at Norges forsvar er skodd for dagens sikkerhetssituasjon – og dekker Forsvaret behovene som kreves for å sikre norsk suverenitet?

Én som mener at vi har lagt ut på helt feil kurs er offiser i Hæren, Sebastian Langvad. Slik han ser det, planlegger Forsvaret å gå i den samme fellen som man gjorde da tyskerne invaderte Norge i 1940. I en kommentar hos Filter Nyheter skriver han at «Forsvaret investerer i det fienden er best tjent med». Läs artikel

Ett ryskt krigsfartyg har kränkt danskt farvatten två gånger vid Bornholm, enligt danska försvarsmakten. Samtidigt pågår Danmarks motsvarighet till demokratifestivalen Suomiareena på Bornholm.

Det danska utrikesdepartementet har kallat in den ryska ambassadören i landet för samtal efter att ett ryskt krigsfartyg kränkt danskt farvatten under natten till fredag. Enligt det danska försvaret rör det sig om en korvett, som är ett mindre och lätt bestyckat örlogsfartyg.

Den första kränkningen skedde klockan halv tre på natten nära Bornholm. Några timmar senare dök korvetten upp vid samma plats för att sedan försvinna från danskt farvatten, enligt det danska försvaret.

Den danska regeringen ser kränkningen som en grov provokation från Ryssland, skriver TV2

– Det är en djupt oansvarig, grov och fullständigt oacceptabel rysk provokation, skriver Danmarks utrikesminister Jeppe Kofod på Twitter. Läs artikel

Traditionally, Norwegian military vehicles sent for exercises in the northernmost region of Finnmark follow European highway E6 from and return to the large garrison at Setermoen and Bardufoss south of Tromsø.

That road, circling narrow fjords and over mountains, is vulnerable and easy to block. Like earlier this spring when a bridge collapsed over a flooded river in Kvænangen. Traffic was halted for almost a week.

On Thursday, a column of military vehicles en route home from the live-fire exercise Thunder Bolt tested a new route, not obvious to take advantage of previously; the road via Finland’s northwestern arm.

“This was a successful test of a new route to move military equipment in the north,” says spokesperson with the Norwegian Army, Rolf Ytterstad, to the Barents Observer.

The border crossing had a double symbolic message as it happened the same days as Stortinget, the Norwegian Parliament, voted overwhelmingly in support of Sweden and Finland to join NATO. […]

With Sweden and Finland joining NATO, the security landscape and military planners’ possibilities to chose different options when moving troops, vehicles and weapons in northernmost Europe will be way more diverse than with Norway as the only NATO-country inside the Arctic Circle in border areas to Russia. Läs artikel