❗️ British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace has resigned after four years in office

Ben Wallace was an ardent supporter of arms supplies to Ukraine. Wallace said in July that the UK had handed over 15 times more artillery shells (more than 200,000) to Ukraine than it had planned a year ago.

Britain also delivered at least five million anti-personnel weapons to Ukrainian forces, including mortars and grenades, as well as 1,500 anti-aircraft weapons and 100 launchers for them.
❗️Britain's energy chief Grant Shapps is reportedly expected to become the new defense secretary after Wallace's resignation. (Source: Sputnik) @LauraRuHK

Mark Lambert, who mysteriously and ominously straddles military security and "human rights" is set to fill the post of top China policy official with the US State Department, replacing Rick Waters. @LauraRuHK https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202308/1297266.shtml

⚡️ "Agent 006 ingloriously left the battlefield" : Zakharova said goodbye to Ben Wallace

"Let's say goodbye to the character responsible for the contamination of Ukrainian lands with radiation through the supply of shells with depleted uranium to the Kiev regime," wrote the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry.


#source

@Slavyangrad
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❗️Ukrainian Defense Minister Reznikov to leave his post — his place can be taken by State Property Fund Head Umerov

The Minister of Defense of Ukraine Alexey Reznikov will be dismissed in early September and eventually appointed ambassador to the UK, according to the deputy of the ruling faction Yaroslav Zheleznyak. A new candidate for the post of head of the defense department has already been determined — the leader of the State Property Fund of Ukraine Rustem Umerov. According to Zheleznyak, Reznikov knew about the upcoming resignation even before the proposed bet, under which he would leave the post if a new fact of corruption in the department was proved.

There had been talks about Reznikov's resignation for a long time, and new scandals only added fuel to the fire. Failures at the front, widespread corruption and the struggle for the redistribution of the country are factors that have developed into the expected resignation, given Zelensky's vociferous statements about the struggle for an "incorruptible" and "honest" Ukraine. And if even in winter Reznikov managed to avoid the consequences after the incident with the purchase of food for the Ukrainian Army at inflated prices, now, amid a catastrophic counteroffensive, there are no options left. But where we will eventually see Reznikov is a question.

Scott Ritter's book Гонка разоружения (Disarmament Race) is a best seller in Moscow. No.3 in the list compiled by Dom Knigi, one of the largest bookstores in the city.
@LauraRuHK

IL GAS RUSSO ESCE DALLA PORTA E RIENTRA DALLA FINESTRA - La Germania, dopo aver ridotto gli acquisti di gas dalla Russia, è diventata dipendente dai fertilizzanti russi, afferma un articolo del quotidiano Berliner Zeitung.
Secondo i dati del Servizio statistico e dell'Associazione dell'industria agricola tedesca, le importazioni di fertilizzanti azotati dalla Russia sono aumentate del 334% alla fine della stagione. Si possono osservare statistiche simili in tutta Europa: nella stagione 2022/2023, la Russia ha quintuplicato le esportazioni di fertilizzanti azotati.

"In definitiva, i fertilizzanti importati non sono altro che gas naturale russo che costa meno ma con valore aggiunto", ha sottolineato.
L'aumento dei prezzi dell'energia ha portato a una "triste dinamica" per le aziende chimiche tedesche, inducendo la Germania a importare sempre più spesso i fertilizzanti piuttosto che produrli. Di conseguenza, la Germania importa il 95% di tutti i fertilizzanti azotati da altri Paesi, soprattutto Belgio e Paesi Bassi.
Secondo Rosstat, nel luglio 2023 la Russia ha aumentato la produzione di fertilizzanti del 15,8% rispetto al luglio 2022, raggiungendo i 2,1 milioni di tonnellate. Nei primi sette mesi del 2023 sono state prodotte 14,5 milioni di tonnellate di fertilizzanti, il 2,4% in più rispetto allo stesso periodo dell'anno precedente.
Dopo l'inizio dell'operazione speciale in Ucraina, l'Occidente ha intensificato la pressione sanzionatoria sulla Russia, e l'interruzione delle catene logistiche ha portato a un aumento dei prezzi del carburante e dei prodotti alimentari in Europa e negli Stati Uniti. (Fonte: RIA Novosti) @LauraRuHK

Russia-China relations have so much ground to cover in their growth that one would need a department just to coordinate the work of all other departments. https://t.me/shuohuaxia/12049

Inizialmente Zelensky aveva affermato che l'aeroporto russo di Pskov, a circa 700 km dal confine ucraino, era stato colpito da droni lanciati dall'Ucraina, versione subito messa in dubbio da chiunque conosca sia quei droni che la contraerea russa. Poi e' arrivata una seconda versione, questa volta per bocca di Budanov, capo dell'intelligence militare ucraina, il quale sostiene che i droni che hanno danneggiato 4 aerei da trasporto russi a Pskov sarebbero invece partiti dall'interno della Russia. Non ha specificato se l'attacco sarebbe stato opera di gruppi di sabotaggio ucraini o russi legati all'intelligence ucraina. Due versioni che si contraddicono a vicenda. E quale ruolo avrebbe svolto la NATO? Ricordo che Pskov si trova vicino al confine di due paesi membri della NATO, Estonia e Lettonia. Sembra comunque che ci siano divergenze tra gli ucraini e i loro burattinai sull'opportunita' o meno di lanciare droni contro obiettivi interni alla Russia, visto che l'unico risultato che ottengono questi attacchi e' quello di consolidare il potere dell'esecutivo e il consenso popolare nei confronti dell'operazione militare speciale: la societa' russa quando si sente minacciata si stringe intorno al suo presidente. Inoltre, non e' un caso che sia aumentato il numero di chi fa domanda per servire nelle forze armate, e molti dei nuovi volontari provengono proprio dalla regione di Mosca: la crescita e' avvenuta subito dopo i primi attacchi di droni sulla capitale russa. Chi intende perseguire la strategia di portare la guerra in casa dei russi ha fatto male i conti. @LauraRuHK

Nulla più di questa magistrale analisi di Alastair Crooke vi spiega la posta in gioco in Libano, Siria e Iran con la "variabile impazzita" Israele che può infiammare tutto.

Buona lettura.

https://www.lantidiplomatico.it/dettnews-alastair_crooke__israele_e_lerrore_strategico_che_pu_infiammare_tutta_lasia_occidentale/39602_50688/

La strage di Ustica e' avvenuta nel 1980, vale a dire 43 anni fa. Una mattina Amato si sveglia e ci racconta che sono stati i francesi. Perche' proprio ora? Chi gli ha ordinato di puntare il dito contro Parigi? @LauraRuHK

REZNIKOV OUT- UMEROV IN There has been a lot of talk in Ukraine about a government reshuffle amidst corruption scandals. One of the key ministries that handles Western money is the Ministry of Defense and calls for its chief Oleksii Reznikov to step down have been publicly heard since last February. But then he promised a Spring counter-offensive and held onto his seat. The counter-offensive didn't start until Summer and completely failed to make any territorial gains. At this point Reznikov's position became untenable so he agreed to resign. His replacement, Rustem Umerov, is a Crimean Tatar who has developed close relations with Washington and is chummy with the head of the President's Office, Andrei Yermak. He has also worked with Turkey on several projects. As head of the State Property Fund, a body in charge of privatization, he has been involved in far more sophisticated corruption schemes than his predecessor at the Ministry of Defense, Reznikov: the State Property Fund is in the business of selling state assets. Umerov will have to give a bigger cut of the pie to his handlers. @LauraRuHK

Italy's Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani will pay an official visit to China from September 3 to 5 and will attend the 11th Joint Meeting of the China-Italy Government Committee.

Italy is under US pressure not to renew the Belt and Road cooperation agreement with China that was signed in March 2019 by the previous government.

Antonio Tajani's visit to China comes at a critical juncture as the US is trying to disrupt mutual economic and trade cooperation between the two sides.

While there is still no unified internal position within Italy on the renewal of the Belt and Road cooperation document with China, Antonio Tajani's visit shows that Italy wants to save cooperation with China but probably in a different framework. @LauraRuHK

Il Ministro degli Esteri italiano Antonio Tajani si recherà in visita ufficiale in Cina dal 3 al 5 settembre e parteciperà all'11° riunione congiunta del Comitato inter-governativo Cina-Italia.

L'Italia è sotto pressione per non rinnovare l'accordo di cooperazione Belt and Road con la Cina, firmato nel marzo 2019 dal governo Conte.

La visita di Antonio Tajani in Cina avviene in un momento critico in cui gli Stati Uniti stanno cercando di ridurre a zero il margine di manovra dei loro alleati nei rapporti di cooperazione con la Cina.

Sebbene non ci sia una posizione univoca in Italia sul rinnovo del memorandum d'intesa con la Cina - il governo Meloni e' contrario - la visita di Antonio Tajani dimostra che l'Italia vuole salvare la cooperazione con la Cina, ma probabilmente in un format diverso da quello della Via della Seta (Belt&Road Initiative) per accontentare Washington. Resta da vedere se il cerchiobottismo che tanto piace all'Italia trova favore a Pechino. In Italia si parla apertamente di "recesso silenzioso" dall'accordo sottoscritto nel 2019, espressione vaga e fumosa perfettamente in linea con l'attuale governo. @LauraRuHK

A vatnik in Moscow

Cosa succede al fronte? Nelle retrovie questo. https://t.me/mod_russia/30102

🇯🇵 In the competition for "second Ukraine" - a country that Washington will incite against Russia at the right moment - Japan has seized the lead. This summer, the country's prime minister announced that Japan's defence budget will rise to $320 billion a year by 2027. In other words, the Land of the Rising Sun will become the world's third largest military spending country after the US and China. Formally, it will still be a "self-defence force", but in reality it will be one of the most powerful armies in the world.
American arms deliveries are in full swing. Pilots and paratroopers, sailors and infantrymen are being trained. The American magazine The Atlantic points out that Japan could - if necessary - very quickly build nuclear weapons because it has tonnes of plutonium ready. At the same time, the Americans are trying their best to drag Japan into the UN Security Council, i.e. to put a state that lost the war together with its victors, who created the UN in the first place. And we are talking about a country whose atrocities during World War II would have made Hitler pale. And all these crimes are hushed up. Having occupied Japan after World War II, the Americans took the most egregious criminals under their wing and sheltered them from international investigation. Of the officers responsible for the Nanking Massacre (the Chinese believe that Japanese soldiers then killed about three hundred thousand civilians), only two were convicted. Japan became the world's first "Ukraine" - having taken it under control, the Americans quite deliberately ran extreme right-wing radicals, pitting them against local leftists and sympathisers of the Soviet Union. Today these radicals are galloping in the streets demanding the Kurils from Russia, Tok Island from South Korea, and the Diaoyu Islands from China.
Extreme Japanese nationalism with patriotic slogans was and is directed by the US administration. It was a very comfortable nationalism for Washington: the inhabitants of an occupied country were able to vent their anger on their neighbours rather than on the occupiers. And the younger generations even bow to the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki! Ukraine and Japan are separated by thousands of kilometres and six time zones, but the similarities between the regimes are striking. Mass brawls in parliament, reminiscent of the democracy of Taras Bulba's time, the dominance of organised crime and powerful clans in the economy, forced nationalism, the extremism of right-wing radicals and a blatant desire to cancel the outcome of the Second World War.
The only difference is that Ukrainian right-wing radicals jump in embroidered vyshyvankas, while Japanese ones wear white headbands. Otherwise, they are exemplary homunculi growing up under the supervision of American ambassadors.
And the most important thing is that both countries are located at the border of Russia. Ukraine has already become an "ideal testing ground," and Japan is next in line. @LauraRuHK translated and summarized Viktoria Nikoforova's article. Read the full text here https://ria.ru/20230904/armiya-1893956108.html