Page 49 - RusRPTJun24

2.20 Politics - misc
● International Politics
Xi claims Beijing, Moscow want 'political solution' to Russia-Ukraine war. Speaking on May 16 at a press conference during Putin's two-day visit to China, the pair put on a united front and cast themselves as partners opposed to a Western, U.S.-led world order.
The ever closer relationship between the Chinese and Russian armed forces. In March the Russian, Chinese and Iranian navies staged joint drills in the Gulf of Oman, the latest in a series that began in 2018. A joint naval patrol in August by Russia and China near Alaska was possibly their largest so close to the American mainland. Yet Russia and China are not yet preparing to fight alongside each other. In their latest annual threat-assessment, published in February, America’s spies said the joint manoeuvres had resulted in “only minor enhancements to interoperability”. They appear more a way of signalling the depth of the relationship.
Vladimir Putin decided to send a nuclear signal to the Western world again on May 6. In response to the approval of the US aid package for Ukraine and Emmanuel Macron's hints about sending troops to Ukraine, Putin announced the first exercises to test the use of tactical nuclear weapons since Soviet times.
Vladimir Putin has ordered an exercise in southern Russia to have MoD units there practice using non-strategic nuclear weapons (NSNWs), according to his defense ministry. The wargame is supposed to prepare these units for what the ministry described as “unconditionally ensuring the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the Russian state in response to provocative statements and threats of individual Western officials against the Russian Federation,” according to the Russian MoD.
Russia has no plans to attack Nato, and any rumors about such scenarios are "utter nonsense," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told TASS in an interview. "During the Spring-Summer 2024 season, Washington brought into fashion a theory that Russian President Vladimir Putin will not stop in Ukraine and will certainly attack other Nato countries," the deputy minister said. "This is utter nonsense. This not even disinformation, this is a malicious and evil attempt to put a twist to the very essence of our policy and the logical foundation for all our actions, which our government has repeatedly explained to the West on many occasions, both publicly and behind closed doors."
The authorities in the United States and other Western countries have turned into "political street mobsters" who have gone "on a rampage" in their attempts to test Russia’s strength, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov has told TASS in an interview.
49 RUSSIA Country Report June 2024 www.intellinews.com