This is a remarkable event. The Drone Wars are upon us.
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Two American citizens and five Russian nationals were charged in an indictment unsealed Tuesday with operating a sophisticated international smuggling network that obtained sensitive U.S. military technology and ammunition on behalf of the Kremlin, the Department of Justice said.
The network was allegedly set up in 2017 to evade U.S. sanctions and export controls in place at the time. Further sanctions were imposed on Russia by the Biden administration following its invasion of Ukraine in February.
Three of the seven defendants are in custody, the DOJ said in a statement. They include a suspected officer in Russia’s intelligence service, Vadim Konoshchenok, who was arrested in Estonia last week at the request of the United States.
The two U.S. nationals, Alexey Brayman and Vadim Yermolenko, were taken into custody on Tuesday.
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France and Italy agree to provide SAMP/T Air defense system to Ukraine
Translated -
The Mamba soon on its way to Ukraine? The last difficulties which prevented the delivery of the Franco-Italian SAMP/T Mamba air defense system to Kiev seem to have been resolved. According to the hearing of the French ambassador in Ukraine Etienne de Poncins , which dates from November 9 but whose report was not published until December 13, all the lights are now green for the sending of this medium-range system, developed by MBDA and Thales within the Eurosam joint venture. “France and Italy will provide Ukraine with the anti-aircraft defense instruments it requests, says Etienne de Poncins. This is a very strong request that President Zelensky has made and the Italians have confirmed to us that they are ready to grant it. So we can meet their needs.”
The scenario of a SAMP/T delivery had already been mentioned by Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov in an interview with Le Monde on 9 December. “We are asking for SAMP/Ts and the Franco-Italian Mamba system, he explained. The French side reacted positively to our request, but the negotiation is not over with the Italian side.” It therefore seems that this last obstacle has been overcome. The SAMP/T will thus join the air defense systems already delivered to Kiev: the German IRIS-T, the Norwegian NASAMS (delivered by the United States), the Italian Aspide (delivered by Spain) or even the Mistral and French Crotale NG.
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So, it’s a wait to see which collapses first: the Russian military, or the Russian economy.
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To quote the article,
“The budget approved by Putin is likely over-optimistic in its expectation of revenue and spending in 2023.
Therefore, other parts of Russia’s budget are likely to come under increasing pressure to support the costs of the war.”
So I’m going with both.
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A hack exposes one bright spot for Russia in this mess: domestic propaganda, with a little help from right-wingers in the West.
[Archive]
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