Azerbaijan and ethnic Armenian forces yesterday accused each other of launching new attacks in and around Nagorno-Karabakh, increasing strains on a two-day-old humanitarian ceasefire intended to end heavy fighting over the mountain enclave.

Russia appealed for both sides to respect it and Luxembourg reiterated EU calls for Turkey to do more to secure an end to hostilities that have killed hundreds of people.

The fighting, the deadliest over Nagorno-Karabakh in over 25 years, is being watched closely abroad.

The humanitarian ceasefire is meant to allow ethnic Armenian forces and Azerbaijan to swap prisoners and bodies of people killed in two weeks of fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh, which is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan but governed and populated by ethnic Armenians.

But the ceasefire has frayed quickly. Azerbaijan said on Sunday it launched airstrikes against an Armenian regiment, following what it said was an Armenian rocket attack on an apartment building.

Yesterday, Azerbaijan’s defense ministry said Armenian forces had tried to attack its positions around the Aghdere-Aghdam and Fizuli-Jabrail regions.

Nagorno-Karabakh said its forces had inflicted losses on Azeri forces and that large-scale military operations were continuing.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia was monitoring the events and asked Azeri and ethnic Armenian forces to respect the ceasefire.

Zohrab Mnatsakanyan, Armenia’s foreign minister, met Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow. He accused Azerbaijan of acting to expand Turkey’s influence in the region.

Accusing Azerbaijan of ceasefire violations, Mr. Mnatsakanyan said: “We want verification mechanisms on the ground, which will demonstrate the party that is not faithful to this ceasefire.”

Luxembourg’s foreign minister, Jean Asselborn, urged Turkey to do more to end the conflict.

“Turkey has not called for a truce yet, and I believe they are totally wrong with this position,” Mr. Asselborn said.

Source: https://www.independent.ie/world-news/europe/russia-appeals-for-azeri-and-armenian-forces-to-call-halt-to-conflict-over-region-39617103.html

The post Russia appeals for Azeri and Armenian forces to call halt to conflict over region first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Read more: BulgarianMilitary.com 24/7 – All about Nagorno-Karabakh conflict

“The downing of an Armenian SU-25 fighter from a Turkish F-16, according to the Armenian Defense Ministry, is said to complicate the situation, as Moscow is obliged to provide military assistance to Armenia under the Tashkent Treaty” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

In parallel with Zakharova’s statement, Yerevan hastened to publish photos of the downed Turkish fighter jet, thus refuting Ankara’s claims that this was not true. As we announced yesterday, Yerevan is currently considering whether to take advantage of the activation of Article 4 of the CSTO.

At the same time, Azerbaijan is playing a dangerous game, trying to worsen the situation by sharing information that Turkish F-16s shot down not one but two Armenian fighters.

The information was provided today by the assistant to the President of Azerbaijan Hikmet Hadjiev. He directly accused Armenia of lying and misinformation, and said that the Armenian military is trying to misinform and not present voluminous information to the public and the world.

Yesterday we informed you about the shot down Armenian Su-25 from a Turkish F-16, and according to initial information it was not clear where exactly it was shot down. Later, various reports emerged that this had happened over Armenia or in Armenian airspace.

From the very beginning of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, various military experts have said that Turkey’s participation in this war, whether direct or not, will have a major impact on it, especially in favor of Baku, and it is even likely that this participation will changed the inclination of the scales in favor of Azerbaijan.

The situation in Nagorno-Karabakh escalated on September 27, active clashes are taking place in the disputed territory. Martial law was introduced in Azerbaijan and Armenia, and mobilization was announced. Both sides reported killed and wounded, including civilians. In Baku, they announced the control of several Karabakh villages and strategic heights. Yerevan also reports about the shelling of the territory of Armenia.

Nagorno-Karabakh conflict

Azerbaijan and Armenia have been in conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh since February 1988, when the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region announced its withdrawal from the Azerbaijan SSR.

During the armed conflict in 1992-1994, the Azerbaijani side lost control of Nagorno-Karabakh and the seven areas adjacent to it. Since 1992, negotiations have been conducted within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group on a peaceful settlement of the conflict. The group is led by co-chairs – Russia, USA and France.

In 1994, Azerbaijan, Armenia and the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, through the mediation of Russia, signed the Bishkek Armistice Protocol. At the same time, military operations did not stop there, which periodically renewed.

The most significant exacerbation of the conflict was the four-day war of 2016. Then hundreds of soldiers on both sides became victims.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, during a meeting with the President of Azerbaijan last year, called for a rhetoric that would go against the fundamental principles endorsed by both sides and enshrined in the UN Charter and the Helsinki Final Act when resolving the situation around Nagorno-Karabakh.

At the same time, the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry admitted that much more needs to be done to achieve a long-term political settlement.

Source: https://bulgarianmilitary.com/2020/09/30/russia-to-turkey-if-your-fighter-shot-down-the-armenian-su-25-we-will-intervene/

The post Russia to Turkey: if your fighter shot down the Armenian Su-25 we will intervene first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

On Monday, the Russian Foreign Ministry slammed US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s recent allegations related to Moscow’s “intervention in Venezuela” as unacceptable. China, in turn, berated Pompeo for his claims that Beijing’s friendship with Latin American countries is “pretended”.

The post Pentagon Mulling New Venezuela Options to Deter Russia, China & Cuba – Report first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

We live in the time, where different pieces of information swarm around us, making it almost impossible to escape it.

Over the course of mass media’s existence, its role in opinion and attitude shaping has increased dramatically, particularly because of how much more accessible it has become.

With an average person finding themselves listening to evening news after coming back from work, or even those, who bravely say “I do not watch TV”, but feed their need for information on the internet, we are surrounded by data flow.

And it is hard to stay neutral, as we involuntarily choose sides, depending on what agenda we are most exposed to.

A study conducted by the University of Southern California, used the analogy of an 85 page long newspaper and showed that in 1986, around the time of the Soviet Union’s downfall, people were receiving about 40 newspapers full of information, while in 2007 the number rose to 174.

There is nothing new about the fact that mass and social media provide valuable tools for politicians, who seek to push their own rhetoric into the crowd’s minds. Those, who manage to master the art of using these tools, are arguably capable of creating their own reality.

The classic example which is known by the majority, is 1997 movie, Wag the Dog, where such use of media is being shown in all its glory, even if it is exaggerated.

The West has been the dominant power on the global arena ever since the end of the Cold War, where after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia started to integrate into the world politics as  a renewed player, with a new ideology and new political appearance.

The modern post-Soviet era world dictates certain requirements for contemporary participants, among them are free trade, technology exchange, advancement towards green energy solutions and a strong emphasis on free mass media. These are a part of the modern political courtesy, post League of Nations table manners, if you will.

Practice shows that those who choose to turn their countries into resources-only based economies, and to completely or partially ignore these requirements, will forever be on a passenger seat in this car called “global politics”. This is not what Russia is ready to settle for though.

While Russia’s President, Vladimir Putin, managed to incorporate the country’s mighty natural resources industries into global economics, giving him a strong political leverage, he chose to be very selective when it comes to anything else.

Power and straightforwardness are seen as few of the main things that Russia respects, and its politicians are proud of the fact that they refuse to participate in this so-called free media theater. But is this sense of pride justifiable?

Russia’s Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, mentioned that he was amazed to see mass and social media being used as the main sources that shed light on chemical weapons being used in Douma, Syria.

“Apart from social media accounts and the video that was shared there, there are no other pieces of evidence, which can be seen as ridiculous by some specialists” – he stated during Russia’s XXVI Assembly of Foreign and Defense Policy Council.

Mr. Lavrov’s speech was brought to the international audiences by pro-Kremlin news channel, Russia Today and failed to make any ripples on the surface of people’s opinion, which was already heavily bombarded by horrible images of the chemical attack, the whole rhetoric of people’s suffering and the West’s responsibility to protect.

Social media or not, nowadays, people like to believe in the power of freedom of speech and share the awareness. After all, it was Twitter that brought us the Arab Spring.

Another prime example of storm clouds gathering around Russia’s reputation is the latest poisoning of Russia’s former military intelligence officer, Sergei Skripal. The incident took place in the middle of UK’s very peaceful city of Salisbury and has awoken the memories of a similar poisoning from several years ago of Alexander Litvinenko, who used to be a part of Russia’s Federal Security Service.

Mr. Skripal’s poisoning happened exactly two weeks before Russia’s presidential elections, which is hardly the best international PR campaign for President Putin.

The event was quickly used by the Western media to even further demonize the people’s vision of Russia’s politicians, portraying them as very conniving and not trustworthy.

Yet, OPCW-designated laboratory, based in Spiez, Switzerland has officially confirmed, that the poison, used on Mr. Skripal, shows traces of certain elements, which can be found only among NATO’s arsenal.

The news were delivered through Russia’s highest possible diplomatic level – the Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. One would assume that this scandalous piece of information would get an intense coverage by the mass media. But the reality shows the absolute opposite.

It is not enough to simply “share the truth” with the world, this truth has to be imbedded into people’s minds through constant exposure and endless repetition, just like certain Western media repeats time and time again that Russia is a criminal state.

If you run a quick internet search of Mr. Skripal’s poisoning, the vast majority of non-Russian speaking newspapers and media channels would give you same old information about the attack itself and the following clean-up, while Russian sources would be screaming about Western conspiracy and the revelations from the Swiss lab.

If this information is indeed that vital (and it is), why don’t we see it on every TV channel here in the West? Where are the Russian foreign public relations specialists, pressing BBC, CNN and the others to get a minute of their time to spread this information, even though it is against those news outlets’ agendas?

Russia’s politicians, who are mainly Soviet-era raised, seem to be stuck in the late 80’s mindset, where people were not that exposed to the power of media and where the country had very little ability to influence anything that the average person “consumes” outside the Soviet Union.

It is not any longer enough to win only your citizens’ hearts, but as an international political player, Russia has to realize the importance of the global public’s believes and opinions.

The country’s Foreign Ministry actively chooses to be passive about this information war. This war is conducted not only behind the curtains, not only on the floor of the UN’s Security Council, it is also in people’s minds.

Source: https://moderndiplomacy.eu/2018/04/22/russias-demise-in-the-age-of-information/

The post Russia’s demise in the Age of Information first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The post Russian military threatens action against the US in Syria first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Speaking during an annual state-of-the-nation speech in Moscow, Putin said the ballistic missile is capable of penetrating any missile defense and can reach virtually any target around the world. “No defense systems will be able to withstand it,” he said.

NATO has nicknamed this missile — an RS-28 Sarmat rocket — “Satan 2.” Russian media has claimed it could entirely wipe out an area the size of Texas or France.

Neither the White House nor the U.S. defense community offered immediate reaction. Putin has a track record of talking up his country’s military and technological prowess.

Putin also unveiled what he said was Russia’s new advanced weapons technology. His two-hour address included video clips of underwater drones and intercontinental missiles. Putin delivered a warning to the United States over its pursuit of anti-missile defense systems. “Efforts to contain Russia have failed, face it,” he said.

“Nobody listened to us. Well, listen to us now,” Putin added, referring to accusations that Washington has been violating non-nuclear proliferation agreements by assisting countries from Poland to Japan to establish global anti-missile systems.

It follows claims by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday that the U.S. is training armed forces in Europe on how to use nuclear weapons against Russia. In his Thursday address , Putin said its new nuclear rocket effectively renders U.S. missile defense systems around the world meaningless.

“No one in the world has anything like (this weapon),” Putin said. “It may appear someday, but by that time we will develop something new.”

Still, Malcom Chalmers, a defense expert at the Royal United Services Institute, a defense and security think tank, said it wasn’t clear that Putin’s announcement actually represented new or novel Russian military capability.

“This is Putin emphasizing that his country’s new generation of missiles will be able to overcome any missile-defense systems,” he said. “Russia has been able to hit targets in the U.S. and around the world since the 1960s. We also need to view his words in the context of a Russian election this month. The topic has popular appeal.”

One of President Trump’s first acts in office was to order Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to conduct a “nuclear posture review.” Mattis’ report was published in February.

It concluded that the U.S. “now faces a more diverse and advanced nuclear-threat environment than ever before, with considerable dynamism in potential adversaries’ development and deployment programs for nuclear weapons and delivery systems.”

The report intensely focuses on Russia, and to a lesser extent, China.

“They have added new types of nuclear capabilities to their arsenals, increased the salience of nuclear forces in their strategies and plans, and engaged in increasingly aggressive behavior, including in outer space and cyber space,” the report says.

---

Source: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2018/03/01/russias-putin-boasts-all-powerful-nuclear-missile/384142002/

[Disclaimer]

The post Putin says ‘no one in the world has anything like’ all-powerful nuclear missile first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

A staff member removes the Iranian flag from the stage after a group picture with foreign ministers and representatives of the U.S., Iran, China, Russia, Britain, Germany, France and the European Union during the Iran nuclear talks at the Vienna International Center in Vienna, Austria July 14, 2015. REUTERS/Carlos Barria/File Photo Reuters

PARIS/BRUSSELS/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A day before Donald Trump’s Jan. 12 ultimatum to “fix” the Iran nuclear deal, European powers met Iran’s foreign minister to show support for it, but the effort failed to soften Trump’s aversion to the accord, U.S. and European officials said.

The post Spurned by Trump, Europeans Ponder How to Meet Iran Ultimatum first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.