Russia

Via Peter Korzun of The Strategic Culture Foundation,

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has signed an outline agreement to buy Russian aircraft. It also plans to implement a joint project with Russia to develop a next-generation fighter that could enter service in seven or eight years.

According to Russian Industry and Trade Minister Denis Manturov, who led the Russian delegation at the IDEX 2017 exhibition, the UAE is to purchase a batch of advanced Sukhoi Su-35 Flanker-E fighters.

Via Federico Pieraccini of The Strategic Culture Foundation,

The best-case scenario has come about, which is to say the end of a world facing the specter of a mushroom cloud. With Hillary Clinton's defeat, we avoided a nuclear denouement stemming from a direct clash with Russia in Syria and an escalation of the conflict in Ukraine. Unfortunately the good news ends here.

 

The Trump administration's early attempts to change, and restore, ties with Russia may be fading fast, but at least when it comes to relations between Russia and its western counterparts at the United Nations, absolutely nothing has changed.

Via Patrick Buchanan of Buchanan.org,

The founding fathers of the Munich Security Conference, said John McCain, would be “be alarmed by the turning away from universal values and toward old ties of blood, and race, and sectarianism.”

McCain was followed by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov who called for a “post-West world order.” Russia has “immense potential” for that said Lavrov, “we’re open for that inasmuch as the U.S. is open.”

Russia and China have prevented the UN Security Council from imposing sanctions on the Syrian government for its alleged use of chemical weapons. On Tuesday they vetoed a UNSC resolution that had been drafted by Britain, France and the United States. The measure won nine votes in favor, while China, Russia and Bolivia opposed it. Russian President Vladimir Putin described the draft resolution as “totally inappropriate” and that it would have undermined efforts to end nearly six-years of conflict in Syria.