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[…] The paper outlines a lengthy series of measures for dealing with a host of domestic issues, from rising poverty and continued critical dependence on imported technology to the advent of green energy and the loss of the Soviet-era technological and educational edge. This certainly makes sense. Indeed, the recent Kremlin discovery of climate change as a top-tier issue is a hopeful sign that Russia is overcoming its former denial of the problem, along with inordinately exuberant expectations of the promise of global warming for a predominantly cold country. After all, the Kremlin’s earlier embrace of digitalization has given a major push to the spread of digital services across Russia. […]

Yet here, the strategy misses a key point at the root of Russia’s many economic and social problems: the widespread absence of any values, other than purely materialistic ones, among much of the country’s ruling elite. The paper mentions in passing the need to root out corruption, but the real issue is bigger by an order of magnitude. As each of President Putin’s annual phone-in sessions with the Russian people demonstrates—including the most recent one on June 30—Russia is governed by a class of people who are, for the most part, self-serving, and do not care at all for ordinary people or the country, instead focusing single-mindedly on making themselves rich on the job. Money—or rather Big Money—has become that group’s top value, and the most corrosive element in today’s Russia. Therein lies perhaps the biggest vulnerability of modern Russia. Läs artikel

Just nu levererar USA:s armé ett helt nytt vapensystem till Sverige: luftvärnssystemet Patriot. Det ska tas i bruk redan i slutet av året .

Patriot ersätter de amerikanska Hawk-robotar som Sverige köpte in för snart 60 år sedan, men som fortfarande ingår i krigsförbanden. Hawk-luftvärnet var byggt för att bekämpa attack- och bombflygplan som flög nära sina anfallsmål.

– Patriot är konstruerat för att operera ihop med andra Patriot-system. Så det är mycket enkelt att länka samman Patriot-systemen i olika länder, säger den amerikanske generalen Christopher Cavoli till DN när han besökte Gotland på tisdagen. Läs artikel

Om en krigssituation skulle uppstå i Östersjöregionen kommer Sverige att ligga illa till. Den förutsägelsen gjorde mångårige diplomaten och Moskvaambassadören Sven Hirdman i ett uppmärksammat Hotspot-samtal med Marco Strömberg nyligen. […]

Editor’s Note: On July 4, 1821, then-Secretary of State John Quincy Adams gave the following Independence Day speech.

And now, friends and countrymen, if the wise and learned philosophers of the elder world, the first observers of nutation and aberration, the discoverers of maddening ether and invisible planets, the inventors of Congreve rockets and Shrapnel shells, should find their hearts disposed to enquire what has America done for the benefit of mankind?

Let our answer be this: America, with the same voice which spoke herself into existence as a nation, proclaimed to mankind the inextinguishable rights of human nature, and the only lawful foundations of government. America, in the assembly of nations, since her admission among them, has invariably, though often fruitlessly, held forth to them the hand of honest friendship, of equal freedom, of generous reciprocity.

She has uniformly spoken among them, though often to heedless and often to disdainful ears, the language of equal liberty, of equal justice, and of equal rights. Läs talet

Läs också presentation på den här sajten av Quincy Institute.

One of the main witnesses in Julian Assange’s extradition case has admitted he made false claims against Assange in exchange for immunity from prosecution, a bombshell revelation that could have a major impact on the WikiLeaks founder’s fate. Assange faces up to 175 years in prison if brought to the U.S., where he was indicted for violations of the Espionage Act related to the publication of classified documents exposing U.S. war crimes.

According to a new article in the Icelandic newspaper Stundin, the convicted hacker Sigurdur “Siggi” Thordarson falsely claimed he was a prominent WikiLeaks representative instructed by Assange to carry out hacking attacks, but he was in fact only tangentially involved with the organization. The article suggests the U.S. Justice Department collaborated with Thordarson to generate the indictment for Assange that was submitted to the British courts. “This is just the latest revelation to demonstrate why the U.S. case should be dropped,” says Jennifer Robinson, a human rights attorney who has been advising Assange and WikiLeaks since 2010. “The factual basis for this case has completely fallen apart.” Läs artikel

Kiev and several western powers have taken symbolic steps in recent years to assert Ukraine’s territorial integrity, conducting military exercises near or innocent passage operations through Black Sea waters claimed by Russia. The Kremlin has responded with increasing firmness to these sporadic incursions, which it calls “provocations.” Late last month, the Coast Guard and Black Sea fleet fired warning shots and dropped bombs in the path of the British Type 45 Destroyer HMS Defender to chase the warship away from Russia’s claimed territorial waters off the Crimean coast. Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a subsequent TV appearance that Russia’s military could have sunk the Defender without triggering a large-scale war because, in his words, the west knows it cannot win such a conflict.

Putin’s confidence may not be entirely misplaced. In the years following Crimea’s annexation, Russia has steadily built up its Black Sea Fleet. The fleet has received three modernized Guided Missile Frigates from the Admiral Grigorovich class, as well as a slew of diesel attack submarines from the improved Kilo (Project 636.3) series. These new warships are but one part of the drastic growth of Russian anti-access/area-denial (A2/AD) capabilities in the Black Sea region, which also include a sprawling web of missile defenses operating out of Crimea. Yet another headache for NATO are Russia’s newest tactical weapons: the Tsirkon winged, hypersonic cruise missile curtails the ability of carrier strike groups (CSG’s) to project power deep into Russian territory, as does the Kh-47M2 Kinzhal air-launched ballistic missile. Läs artikel

Vi har fått svar på hva Norge bruker setet i Sikkerhetsrådet i FN til. Et sete som kostet skattebetalerne minst 100 millioner kroner.

Saken handler om problemet med å frakte våpen til Al-Nusra inn i Idib når  grensene mot Tyrkia er stengte.

Utenriksminister Ine Eriksen Søreide har påtatt seg drajobben med å hindre Russland i å legge ned veto i Sikkerhetsrådet  mot at våpen gjemt blant såkalt nødhjelp eller mat og medisiner som Søreide kaller det, skal fortsatt komme inn i Idlib fra Tyrkia. En tapt kamp. Men, for Søreide en viktig kamp for å vise at Norge bruker setet i Sikkerhetsrådet etter avtale. Läs artikel

[…] Etter tiden med Donald Trump har Stoltenberg brukt mye krefter på å utvikle og formidle en ny strategi for Nato. Strategien, som diskuteres av Nato denne uken, bærer navnet «Nato 2030». Slik han selv nylig formulerte det, er målet todelt:

Først «å avslutte vår største militære operasjon» i Afghanistan. Deretter «styrke vår evne til å møte økende global konkurranse.» Og det helt sentrale i strategien, det nye, er å trekke Kina inn som en «leder i et autoritært anslag mot den lovregulerte internasjonale orden».

For å samle støtte til denne vendingen har Stoltenberg de siste ukene i særlig grad uttrykt to synspunkter.

1. Det ene er at Kina, som innen 2030 trolig er verdens største økonomi, «har en væremåte som jeg mener er helt uakseptabel».
2. Det andre er, slik han sa til verdenspressen etter sitt møte med president Joe Biden, at «Kina ikke på noen måter deler våre verdier».

For en tillitsmann som jobber på vegne av 30 medlemsstater, er dette uvanlig kraftig lut. Det er en type glødende ordvalg diplomater sjelden bruker. På et vis kan man kanskje se det som en retorisk øvelse for å samle støtte. Läs artikel

[…] Frankrikes pågående krig i Mali och andra delar av Sahel är ett nykolonialt krig som bara nödtorftigt döljs bakom ord om strid mot muslimska terrorister. En vokabulär som även Sverige använder för att motivera det svenska deltagandet i kriget. Sveriges regering talar också om solidaritet med Frankrike och stöd till Malis folk.

Antalet civila dödsoffer ökar. President Macron har nu fått kalla fötter. Kriget är ett politiskt och militärt misslyckande. Motståndet i Frankrike ökar. Fler än 50 franska soldater har fått sätta livet till. Macron försöker desperat få fler europeiska länder att sluta upp på den franska sidan. Nästa år är det presidentval i Frankrike och Macron fruktar att kriget kan hindra honom från att bli återvald.

Jag talade för en tid sedan med en svensk yrkesofficer som tjänstgjort i FN-styrkan i Mali. Hans uppfattning var entydig: ”Vår uppgift är omöjlig. Alla hatar oss!”

Det är naturligtvis orimligt att en liten stat som Sverige ger sig in i ett farligt militärt stormaktsspel. Ryssland agerar i regionen och flyttar fram sina politiska och ekonomiska positioner i skuggan av Frankrikes misslyckande. Läs artikel

According to Al-Jazeera, the Taliban criticized NATO’s recent decision to keep its forces under the pretext of providing security in Afghanistan, calling it a continuation of the occupation of Afghanistan.

The Taliban said that NATO’s decision to keep its forces in order to secure Kabul International Airport was a continuation of the occupation of Afghanistan. The Taliban also called the decision to keep foreign troops in Afghanistan a clear violation of the Doha agreement.

The Taliban said NATO wanted to make Afghanistan a battleground for regional forces, and that was rejected. The land of Afghanistan will never be used against others and we will not allow any country to have a military presence in the country. […]

The NATO statement also said that it would provide security for Kabul International Airport for a sustained diplomatic presence and the importance of Afghanistan’s relationship with the world. Läs artikel

Loven innebærer blant annet at det er straffbart å sette likhetstegn mellom Sovjetunionen og Nazi-Tysklands handlinger under andre verdenskrig.

Putin har forsvart loven med at den trengs i kampen mot historieforfalskninger. I 2019 gikk han hardt ut mot en resolusjon i EU-parlamentet der også Sovjetunionen ble anklaget for at annen verdenskrig brøt ut. Läs artikel

JEF Ministers gathered in Helsinki, Finland today to set the roadmap from which the JEF’s 10 northern European nations will evolve to tackle shared threats.

The JEF is a multinational force made up of 10 like-minded, northern European nations; the UK – as Framework Nation – together with Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden.

Today ministers also signed a detailed military directive which will provide the necessary operational and logistical guidance to enable the JEF to deploy quickly and effectively in response to joint threats to global security.[…]

The JEF is able to operate wherever in the world any two of its members choose to deploy together. Particular focus is on the High North, the North Atlantic and the Baltic regions, where the JEF can complement national as well as NATO’s deterrence posture in the region. It is designed to be as flexible as possible and has utility across a broad spectrum of operational activities, including humanitarian assistance and Defence diplomacy. Läs artikel

Anm: Policydokumentet finns att läsa här.