[2019] Is Russia imperialist?

Source

Russia is said to be an imperialist world power, one in conflict with the imperialist superpower, the U.S. Russia has been characterized in this manner both during the period of the Soviet Union, and after the Soviet Union collapsed and separate states were formed. Russia has said to be imperialist both when it was a socialist state and now as a capitalist state.

Is Russia imperialist?

Related:

Georgia started war with Russia: EU-backed report (archived)

Russia and China Are Not Imperialist

Biden Offers to Turn U.S. Military Personnel Into Saudi Royal Bodyguards

President Joe Biden has made a habit of putting the interest of foreign governments before that of the American people. Like the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and its de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. 

Biden Offers to Turn U.S. Military Personnel Into Saudi Royal Bodyguards by Doug Bandow

Flashback (has he forgotten?):

[2019] American Soldiers Are Not Bodyguards for Saudi Royals by Doug Bandow

President Donald Trump believes in America First except when it comes to the Saudi royal family. Then it is Saudi Arabia first.

Venezuelan Position on the Essequibo Presented Before the ICJ

X/Twitter

Venezuelan Position on the Essequibo Presented Before the ICJ

*The confessions made by Raphael Trotman, Guyana’s Minister of Governance and Natural Resources during the period 2015-2020, in his book entitled “From Destiny to Prosperity”, make Exxon Mobil’s sponsorship and financing of Guyana’s unilateral action before the ICJ to validate the spurious 1899 award incontrovertible.

*Guyana, under a false victimhood, is accompanied by its colonial chief, the U.K, and the bloodiest war machine humanity has ever known, the United States. Currently, Guyana, the Southern Command and the CIA, along with their partners in the global north, are preparing an aggression against Venezuela which poses a real threat to peace and stability in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Related:

2020 Guyanese Election & Venezuela-Guyana Border Dispute

Why Is Arab Media Silent About the Uyghur Separatists Supporting “Israel”?

We no longer hear much about the Uyghur issue, which Arab and international media outlets often promoted as a narrative to tarnish the reputation of the Chinese government and pressure it. This issue has always been framed through the lens of “generality” implying that “China is persecuting Muslims within its borders,” which is certainly not true, since the Uyghurs are not the only Muslim ethnic group in China; there are ten Muslim ethnicities in China.

Why Is Arab Media Silent About the Uyghur Separatists Supporting “Israel”?

DRC: Inside Kinshasa’s plan to hire American mercenaries to fight M23

Source

In 2023, DR Congo’s authorities sought to hire 2,500 military contractors from Latin America to fight in North Kivu province, where a government-led coalition is pitted against the M23 rebels, a UN Group of Experts report indicates.

Led by Erik Prince, the founder of former security company Blackwater and current head of Frontier Resources Group (FSG), the plan to deploy mercenaries from Columbia, Mexico and Argentina “was reinitiated” in June and mid-July 2023, the UN report of December 2023 says.

Inside Kinshasa’s plan to hire American mercenaries to fight M23

Kosovo War at 25: Blair’s secret invasion plot to ‘topple Milosevic’ revealed

Source

Top secret papers reviewed by The Grayzone reveal Tony Blair demanded strikes on civilian targets in Yugoslavia days before NATO attacked them. While the UK military acknowledged a NATO strike on Hotel Jugoslavia would mean inflicting “some civilian casualties,” it insisted the deaths were “worth the cost.”

Kosovo War at 25: Blair’s secret invasion plot to ‘topple Milosevic’ revealed

Related:

Breakup of Yugoslavia

ALBA-TCP Condemns Interventionist Comments by US SOUTHCOM Head

The executive secretary of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America-People’s Trade Agreement (ALBA-TCP), Jorge Arreaza, repudiated the statements of the head of the United States Southern Command (US SOUTHCOM), Laura Richardson. Arreza condemned her statements as interventionist and warlike.

ALBA-TCP Condemns Interventionist Comments by US SOUTHCOM Head

H/T: Chicago ALBA Solidarity

The Gaza Maritime Route Was Netanyahu’s Idea, Maritime Aid Corridor Will Advance the Overthrow of Hamas, & When Will US boots be on the Ground in Gaza?

Diplomatic source to ‘Post’: Gaza maritime route was Netanyahu’s idea

According to the source, on October 22, two weeks following the war’s outbreak, Netanyahu discussed with President Biden the concept of “delivering humanitarian aid to Gaza via the sea, contingent on an Israeli inspection in Cyprus.”

Years before the Gaza war, Israel Katz, now the Foreign Minister, had drawn up plans for a maritime route via Cyprus involving a floating island.

The project was never executed. But he revived it after the war began on October 7. 

Related:

Gallant: Maritime Aid Corridor Will Advance Overthrow of Hamas

“The process is designed to facilitate aid directly to civilians and in this way, it advances [our goal] of overthrowing Hamas’ rule in Gaza,” the minister said.

“We will facilitate aid via the maritime route that is coordinated with the United States (security and humanitarian aspects), with the assistance of the United Arab Emirates on the civilian side,” he said. “It will include the appropriate inspections in Cyprus, and the goods will be brought by international organizations with American assistance.”

Air, sea, and land: When will US boots be on the ground in Gaza? Authored by Yonah Jeremy Bob*

Then suddenly, last Thursday, US President Joe Biden announced that the US would also supply maritime aid to Gaza, including building a makeshift artificial port off the coast.

This already imposes a long-term US military footprint in Israeli-Gaza territorial waters rather than a “mere” series of fly-throughs.

How hard would it be for a small complement of US Marines accompanying the aid deliveries to travel a kilometer or so into Gaza and to place themselves squarely in the middle of where Israel does not want them?

Moreover, US forces have been and are already on the ground.

US generals and counter-terror experts have been in and out of Israel since the start of the war, including visits to Gaza.

There are also a variety of US military personnel regularly in Israel on military and intelligence exchange programs.

US attempts to reform the PA

Speaking of intelligence, multiple times when a decision was made to try to improve and reform the Palestinian Authority security forces, it was the CIA and US special forces who came to the West Bank and Gaza to help train and prepare these forces.

It seems quite likely that the Jewish state, at some point, will ask Washington to perform the same service again in Gaza.

A broader version could involve a US-led peacekeeping force handling internal Gaza security for an indefinite period until enough Gazan Palestinians disconnected from Hamas can be convinced that taking on this role will not lead to them being slaughtered later by a resurgent Hamas.

From this perspective, the question about US forces on the ground in Gaza seems less of an if than it does a when, how many, and under more or less coordinated circumstances with Israel.

*Yonah Jeremy Bob was raised in Baltimore and graduated from Columbia University and Boston University Law School, respectively. He previously worked for the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Israeli Military International Law Division, and the Israeli Justice Ministry. – Wikipedia