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China, Russia to Train Against Terror as Last U.S. Troops Exit Afghanistan

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China is set to host Russia for mass drills together involving counterterrorism training next month just as the last of the U.S. soldiers are set to exit Afghanistan.

The Chinese Defense Ministry and Russian Defense Ministry issued a joint statement Thursday stating that the Western Theater Command of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army will join troops from Russia’s Eastern Military District for a large-scale exercise called West-Interaction 2021, which will be held in early and mid-August in the city of Qingtongxia, which lies along the Yellow River in China’s northern Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.

The two militaries are set to establish a joint command center overseeing the activities of some 10,000 troops along with various aircraft, artillery and armored equipment. The plan is to mix personnel from both sides for enhanced interoperability for the combined maneuvers involving an array of objectives.

“The two sides’ participating troops will be mixed into teams to make plans jointly and conduct training together,” the statements said, “in a bid to verify and improve both troops’ capabilities of joint reconnaissance, search and early warning, electronic information attack, and joint attack and elimination.” (Read more from “China, Russia to Train Against Terror as Last U.S. Troops Exit Afghanistan” HERE)

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Report: Putin Extends Allied Hand to Biden as He ‘Offers Russian Bases to Spy on Taliban’

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The offer comes after Moscow warned Washington last week against trying to establish its own military bases in former Soviet countries which neighbour Afghanistan. The US withdrawal has led to a resurgence in the Taliban, which continues to rout government troops in its advance towards the capital, Kabul. The Islamist group claims to control up to 85 percent of the country. . .

Russia also has a large Muslim population and has, in recent years, been battling the rise of Islamic fundamentalism, particularly in the Caucasus.

Sources told newspaper the Kommersant that Mr Putin had offered the use of Russian bases in both Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan for intelligence gathering at the summit in Geneva last month.

The alleged proposal would allow the US military to use drones in its operations, but as yet it’s unclear whether US troops would be allowed to stay permanently at the bases. (Read more from “Report: Putin Extends Allied Hand to Biden as He ‘Offers Russian Bases to Spy on Taliban'” HERE)

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Russia Sends Former U.S. Marine To Soviet-era Prison

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A former U.S. Marine who is serving a nine-year sentence in Russia was being transferred from a remand cell in Moscow on Friday to the Mordovia region which has a large number of tough, Soviet-era prisons.

Trevor Reed was convicted last year of endangering the lives of two policemen in Moscow while drunk, a charge he denied. He said the ruling was “clearly political”, and Washington called the trial “theatre of the absurd”. . .

“This morning Trevor Reed was (taken) from Moscow, he will serve his punishment in one of Mordovia’s (prison) colonies,” Alexei Melnikov, a member of a prison oversight commission was quoted as saying by the RIA news agency. (Read more from “Russia Sends Former U.S. Marine To Soviet-era Prison” HERE)

Photo credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jumilla/8667657401

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Taliban Tells Russia It Controls 85% Of Afghanistan, Seeks Peace With Moscow

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A delegation of the Taliban terror group met with representatives of the Russian foreign ministry in Moscow, where one delegate claimed the Taliban currently controls about “85 percent of Afghanistan’s territory,” Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported Friday.

The Taliban, a jihadist terror group based in Afghanistan, controls roughly “85 percent of Afghanistan’s territory,” Taliban delegate Shahabuddin Delawar told reporters, as quoted by AFP.

Members of the Taliban delegation specifically claimed to hold sway over “about 250 of Afghanistan’s nearly 400 districts,” according to AFP. The French news agency noted the Taliban’s assertion was “impossible to independently verify and disputed by the government,” referring to Afghanistan’s internationally recognized government based in Kabul.

Taliban terrorists have allegedly “captured the [Afghan] border town of Islam Qala on the Iranian frontier and the Torghundi crossing with Turkmenistan,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told AFP on July 8.

A delegation of Taliban representatives landed in Moscow on Thursday to “assure” Russia the group would not “allow” any other jihadist organizations to use Afghanistan as a base for their operations. (Read more from “Taliban Tells Russia It Controls 85% Of Afghanistan, Seeks Peace With Moscow” HERE)

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Biden Sends Message to Putin about U.S. Ability to Retaliate for Ransomware Attacks

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President Joe Biden sent a thinly veiled threat to Russian leaders Tuesday, saying a ransomware attack allegedly launched from its soil did “minimal” damage in the United States while touting Washington’s ability to strike back.

An offshoot of the Russia-based group REvil has been pinpointed in a weekend attack called the largest cyberattack in world history, impacting thousands of businesses. The gang says it will unlock the affected systems for $70 million in cryptocurrency, which the Biden administration is urging the companies not to pay. . .

The U.S. leader was asked about the attack on Miami-based Kaseya, a software company, just weeks after Biden says he warned Russian President Vladimir Putin to crack down on cybercriminal groups that operate inside his country. (Read more from “Biden Sends Message to Putin about U.S. Ability to Retaliate for Ransomware Attacks” HERE)

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Military Official Warns U.S. Of Potential Surprise Attack On Hawaii

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Russia and China are coordinating military exercises to threaten not only Taiwan but also Hawaii, according to a senior Japanese defense official who warned the United States to beware of a Pearl Harbor-style surprise attack.

“We have to show the deterrence towards China, and not just China but also the Russians, because, as I told you, that they are doing their exercises together,” Japanese deputy Yasuhide Nakayama told the Hudson Institute this week.

Taiwan’s vulnerability to an invasion from mainland China has become a preoccupation of Indo-Pacific strategists in recent months, as Chinese Communist forces escalate their military drills around the island. Nakayama, who was unusually frank about the need for democratic nations to ensure Taiwan’s survival, implied that Russia and China are working as allies preparing for a major conflict.

“I think the Taiwanese are really concerned,” he said. “And also, they’re focusing on the two big countries collaborating and [presenting] a lot of threat towards Taiwan.”

Chinese Communist officials regard Taiwan as a renegade province, one that they have claimed since coming to power in 1949 but never governed. Most countries recognize the regime in Beijing as the official Chinese government and do not have formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan, although the U.S. has maintained a friendly relationship and provided weaponry to help Taiwanese authorities deter an invasion from the mainland. (Read more from “Military Official Warns U.S. Of Potential Surprise Attack On Hawaii” HERE)

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White House Defends Biden’s Meeting With Putin

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The White House says President Biden’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Geneva next month is a “vital part” of defending American interests and not a “reward” for destabilizing behavior.

Biden and Putin are set to meet in Geneva on June 16, and are expected to discuss a range of issues, including Iran and North Korea’s nuclear capabilities, Syria, the Arctic, strategic stability, arms control, climate change, COVID-19 and more.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Wednesday was asked why the president offered to meet with Putin, to which she replied: “This is how diplomacy works.”

“We don’t meet with people only when we agree, it’s actually important to meet with leaders when we have a range of disagreements, as we do with Russian leaders,” Psaki said.

“We don’t regard the meeting with the Russian president as a reward, we regard it as a vital part of defending America’s interests and President Biden is meeting with President Putin because of our countries’ differences, not in spite of them,” Psaki continued, adding that the meeting will serve as “an opportunity to raise concerns where we have them, and again, move toward a more stable and predictable relationship with the Russian government.” (Read more from “White House Defends Biden’s Meeting With Putin” HERE)

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Russian Hacker Group Threatens to Release Sensitive DC Police Records

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A Russian-speaking cyberhacking group threatened to release sensitive stolen data from the Washington, D.C., police department that could put lives at risk if the group’s demands for more money are not fulfilled.

The threat comes shortly after another cyberattack on a major oil pipeline that has severely restricted gas supply on the East Coast, illustrating the threat posed by online criminal gangs that can create destruction and demise from far away.

“This is far worse than any hack of other police departments previously,” Brett Callow, a cyberthreat expert at security firm Emsisoft, told the Associated Press. He also said he was not aware of any law enforcement agency ever paying a ransom before.

In April, the Babuk group hacked into the city police department’s online network and threatened to release personal details on the identities of confidential informants to the police if a ransom was not paid. Such a release could put the lives of the informants at risk.

The gang asked for $4 million and received a counteroffer from the district police of $100,000, which it rejected, according to the Associated Press. (Read more from “Russian Hacker Group Threatens to Release Sensitive DC Police Records” HERE)

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Deep State Mouthpiece Retaliates Against Staffer Who Uncovered Russia Collusion Hoax

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A frequent media mouthpiece for the intelligence community who published the classified leak that launched the Russia collusion hoax is retaliating against the senior government official who debunked it.

In a meandering Washington Post column, first mocking the idea of a “deep state” before repeatedly and effusively praising it for its work thwarting the will of the elected government, David Ignatius uses anonymous sources to attack Kashyap Patel for exposing misbehavior by intelligence officials, holding them accountable, and mostly for the crime of behaving as if the duly elected President Donald Trump, not unelected bureaucrats, was the real head of the executive branch of government. . .

As a senior staff member on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Patel was responsible for much of the work debunking the conspiracy theory that arose out of the criminal leak of classified information to Ignatius, a crime that was never really investigated and certainly never prosecuted. The people Patel exposed worked with liberal journalists to attack him for years. . .

Now, Ignatius’ anonymous sources claim that it is Patel who is “facing” an investigation by Department of Justice officials for “possible improper disclosure of classified information.” It’s impossible to know if such a potential investigation is real or just another one of the made-up claims that Ignatius is always eager to peddle.

He doesn’t say that Patel is “under” investigation, but “facing” one. He claims this potential investigation would be something that arose out of a complaint from an “intelligence agency,” but it’s impossible to know if that’s true or just something being said for the purpose of another Russia collusion hoax-style operation. One intelligence official said that while anyone can start an investigation, if Patel’s enemies had a legitimate claim against him, some evidence would have been provided. Ignatius provides no substantiation for the claim. But at least he didn’t accuse him of violating the Logan Act! (Read more from “Deep State Mouthpiece Retaliates Against Staffer Who Uncovered Russia Collusion Hoax” HERE)

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Biden Declares National Emergency At Ukraine-Russia Border

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The Biden administration declared a national emergency on Thursday, slapping sanctions on more than three dozen people in Russia and expelling 10 diplomats, in an about-face after the US reversed course of two warships heading to the Black Sea.

President Biden signed an executive order detailing Russia’s actions in the SolarWinds cyber-intrusion and its interference in the election, accusing the Kremlin of working to “undermine the conduct of free and fair democratic elections and democratic institutions in the United States and its allies and partners,” according to a statement from the White House.

Russia also engaged in “malicious cyber-enabled activities against the United States and its allies and partners,” the statement said.

The combined actions “constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States.” (Read more from “Biden Declares National Emergency At Ukraine-Russia Border — But Calls Back U.S. Warships” HERE)

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