Ukraine’s Western sponsors crossed a red line when they allowed Kiev to use their weapons to strike at targets in Russia, Austrian Defense Minister Klaudia Tanner said.

Several NATO members have openly supported the use of Western-produced armaments for cross-border strikes against Russia in recent weeks, ostensibly in a limited manner. The West insists that it is still not a party to the conflict, and only supports Kiev’s efforts to stall Russia’s push into Kharkov Region, which Moscow launched to move the line of contact away from the border to prevent further Ukrainian attacks on Russian civilians.

“A red line has been crossed,” Tanner said when asked about the US, France, and Germany granting permission to use their weapons in cross-border strikes. When the interviewer asked how else Kiev could stall the Kharkov operation, the Austrian Defense Minister replied that “as a militarily neutral state, it is not our place to judge.”

The Austrian defense chief added that she is at least “pleased that NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has clarified that NATO will not be sending troops to Ukraine.” Läs artikel

Over the course of the interview, Biden spoke at length about his foreign policy agenda, including his views on China, Taiwan, Ukraine and Israel, as well as concerns about his age as he runs for re-election. […]

So what is the endgame though in Ukraine and what does peace look like there? 

Biden: Peace looks like making sure Russia never, never, never, never occupies Ukraine. That’s what peace looks like. And it doesn’t mean NATO, they are part of NATO, it means we have a relationship with them like we do with other countries, where we supply weapons so they can defend themselves in the future. But it is not, if you notice, I was the one when—and you guys did report it at TIME—the one that I was saying that I am not prepared to support the NATOization of Ukraine.

It should not, it is not—I spent a month in Ukraine when I was a Senator and Vice President. There was significant corruption. Läs intervjun.

The allegations stem from 2010 when WikiLeaks released half a million classified documents, focused on Iraq and Afghanistan, that were leaked to the site by Chelsea (formerly Bradley) Manning, an Army intel analyst. Included in the leak was video from Iraq showing American helicopters gunning down Iraqi civilians, later dramatized in the film Incident in New Baghdad. Assange’s legal team argues the case is a politically motivated form of state retaliation for embarrassing the United States.

Following charges by the U.S. government, Assange was granted asylum for seven years in the Ecuadorian embassy in London. Assange was then arrested by British authorities for skipping bail, and has spent the last five years in a dank British prison fighting extradition to the United States. His spouse calls it “punishment by process.” […]

Of the three conditions, the key issue is whether or not Julian Assange can raise an effective First Amendment defense against the Espionage Act. Could Assange claim, for example, that his right to publish the leaked materials was protected as a publisher and journalist under the First Amendment, in the public interest?

The Justice Department previously told a British court the First Amendment doesn’t apply to anyone “in relation to publication of illegally obtained national defense information giving the names of innocent sources to their grave and imminent risk of harm.” Use of a 1A public interest defense by Chelsea Manning was blocked and her attempts to speak to the American people directly were stymied by seeing her entire trial classified. […]

The British court needs to carefully weigh any faux U.S. promises of 1A rights for Assange, and ask itself instead: is he being singled out for punishment, criminalizing journalism? President Joe Biden is already considering an Australian government request to drop Julian Assange’s charges. The British court should stay the extradition and ultimately release Assange for doing nothing but what the New York Times and others have done before him. Läs artikel

Ian Proud served at the British Embassy and offers a scathing critique of how his country has handled the Ukraine crises.

Notable among dissenters from NATO’s proxy war with Russia in Ukraine have been former Western ambassadors such as Jack Matlock and Chas Freeman in the United States, Britain’s Tony Brenton, and Tony Kevin in Australia — dissident voices that are needed more than ever amid fevered lobbying for yet further escalation of the conflict.

A very welcome addition to their ranks is Ian Proud, economic counsellor in the British Embassy in Moscow from 2014-2019. A highly experienced diplomat, Proud served in Thailand and Afghanistan, organized the G8 summit in Belfast in 2013 and, in 2022, retired from the Foreign Office as Vice Principal of its International Academy. […]

A self-professed “realist,” Proud believes the core purpose of diplomacy is to manage relations between states and to prevent conflict. In Moscow, according to his memoir published late last year, “A Misfit in Moscow: How British Diplomacy in Russia Failed, 2014-2019, he was appalled by the “utmost folly” of attempting to resolve “disputes with Russia through isolation and cancellation.”[…]

However, in general, Proud advocates engagement and the search for mutual understanding as a far more effective policy. While some Western powers — France, Germany and the United States — continued to make such efforts during Proud’s time in Moscow, the British government opted for “megaphone diplomacy” and to talking with other countries about Russia rather than to the Russians themselves. “You can’t be friends with everyone,” comments Proud in “A Misfit in Moscow”, “but real diplomacy involves talking to those you disagree with the most.” Läs artikel

Efter president Alexander Stubbs uttalande nyligen i Yles Morgonettan är vi tvungna att se sanningen i vitögat. Han anser det nämligen vara desto bättre för Finland, ju mer vapen USA lagrar i vårt land. När Finland gick med i Nato konstaterade president Putin att Ryssland, som en motåtgärd, får lov att förstärka sitt militära försvar längs gränsen mot Finland. Nu önskar vår president ytterligare skärpa vår ansträngda relation till vårt östra grannland. […]

Föregående regering beslöt 2021 att ersätta våra nuvarande sextiofyra Hornet-jaktplan med lika många, hypermoderna F-35 jaktplan, också de tillverkade i Förenta staterna. De här planen kan utrustas med missiler och med hjälp av dem användas till anfall långt utanför vårt lands gränser. Redan det här kommer att utgöra ett betydande militärt hot mot Ryssland. Att därtill tillåta, och till och med uppmuntra, USA att placera vilka vapen som helst på de områden i vårt land, som våra myndigheter inte längre har insyn i, är att utmana ödet.

President Stubb tycks utgå från att Finlands och USA:s intressen alltid sammanfaller, men det stämmer inte. Förenta staterna har stora ekonomiska och militära intressen runt om i världen och kan vid behov sträva till att utnyttja vårt land för att befrämja dem. Vår försvarsmakt finns emellertid till enbart för att försvara vårt land och får aldrig bli en spelknapp i stormaktspolitiken.

Om presidenten går in för att, i vått och torrt, stödja amerikanska intressen, faller det på regeringen att se till att vi för en genomtänkt och balanserad utrikespolitik. Läs artikel

Idag mäter länder och allianser allt oftare sin vapenmakt med varandra i tillgången till missiler och missilförsvar. Det gäller framför allt olika raketers räckvidd, hastighet och vilken slags bomber de för med sig, men det gäller också vad det kostar att tillverka missilerna och hur svårt det är att skjuta ned dem. […]

I skuggan av den heta debatten om nedskärningarna i nästa års budget har frågan om Finlands roll i Nato fallit i skymundan. Den vapentekniska utvecklingen har emellertid lett till att Rysslands forna huvudstad S:t Petersburg blivit allt mer utsatt efter att Finland gått med i Atlantpakten. Eftersom det är svårt att skydda sig mot missilanfall från nära håll är det mycket viktigt att försvarsminister Antti Häkkänen, när han far till Washington för att förhandla om Finlands uppgift inom Nato, framhåller hur viktig S:t Petersburgs säkerhet är för vårt östra grannland. Läs artikel

[…] Dr. Heininen is a colleague of mine; we founded the Arctic Yearbook together. There are very few researchers of Arctic geopolitics and security who are not colleagues of Heininen. […]

And so, to the case that has created the maelstrom. Heininen attended a conference on March 5, 2024 in Moscow. It was organized by the Northern Forum, an NGO that focuses on regional Arctic development. The Northern Forum was established in Alaska in 1991, in the wake of the Cold War, and retains Observer status in the Arctic Council, although its members now lean heavily Russian. Heininen’s talk focused on prospects for cooperation on climate change between the West and Russia.

A Finnish newspaper reported on his participation. Very soon afterwards, his emeritus status at the University of Lapland, which is an unpaid position, was revoked (Heininen retired as a Professor there in 2018).

It is not clear that Heininen violated any Finnish policy that would justify the termination of his contract. Indeed, the University of Helsinki – where Heininen is also a Visiting Researcher –  came to a different decision on his case after a review of the facts, and pursued no further action.[…]

Indeed, that is one of the lessons from the Cold War: Arctic scientific cooperation provided a foundation for detente, and eventually paved the way for the normalisation of state relations in the region; the famous zone of peace.

We are very far from that today. But one day there will be a Russia without Putin, and when that day comes it will be in our interests to have some ties between western and Russian scientists, both to provide avenues for cooperation, and to help build confidence. Läs artikel

DCA-avtalet om försvarssamarbete mellan Finland och Förenta staterna är under behandling i riksdagen. De socialdemokratiska riksdagsledamöterna Kimmo Kiljunen och Mika Kari betonar att i samband med avtalet har man lyft fram kärnvapenförbudet i Finland. Under tisdagen fördes det en remissdebatt i riksdagen om regeringens proposition gühlen DCA-avtalet. […]

I att respektera suveräniteten ingår enligt DCA-avtalet som en väsentlig del plikten att höra bägge partnernas synpunkter, det vill säga konsultation. Minister Valtonen konstaterade i remissdebatten inför riksdagen att i en konsultation är det möjligt för Finland att meddela att vår lagstiftning möjliggör inte import av kärnladdningar. Då borde Förenta staterna enligt utrikesministern avstå från sådan verksamhet och agera enligt Finlands ståndpunkt. Läs artikel

Sweden’s defense chief has expressed alarm over Beijing’s repeated dangerous maneuvers against Philippine vessels in the South China Sea, saying such actions threaten global security, undermine stability and underscore the need to invest “for our security and freedom.”

Defense Minister Pål Jonson spoke Thursday night in a diplomatic reception in Manila for Sweden’s national day after meeting his Philippine counterpart, Gilberto Teodoro Jr., on expanding defense relations. Sweden is one of the possible sources of supersonic fighter jets that the Philippines plans to acquire as its military shifts focus from decades of fighting communist and Muslim insurgencies to territorial defense. Läs artikel

[…] When the North Atlantic Council (NAC) unanimously agrees that NATO should mount an operation or mission, there is no obligation for member states to contribute (even when it is an Article 5 collective defence operation); they commit troops, equipment or other services on a voluntary basis. Contributions differ widely in form and scale, and besides troops they can also include any kind of military equipment (such as armoured vehicles, helicopters and naval vessels) or support services (such as medical services). These contributions are taken from the member’s national miliary capabilities to form a combined NATO capability. Member states cover the costs associated with their own deployments. Läs artikel