Russian navy

In the latest confirmation that President Rodrigo Duterte's threat to diversify the country's military ties away from the United States and toward China and Russia was not hollow, AP reports that three Russian navy ships arrived in the Philippines on Friday and two others are coming, to deliver donated military equipment in the country's third naval visit under Duterte, who as discussed previously, has launched a historic pivot in the country's geopolitical posture away from the US and toward regional Superpowers.

On Tuesday, in a surprising move confirming the ongoing pivot by the Philippines away from the US sphere of geopolitical influence, and toward the China-Russia axis, the Russian destroyer Admiral Tributs and sea tanker Boris Butomato unexpectedly arrived in the Philippines to conduct military training exercises in what the Russian media described as "an unprecedented navy-to-navy contact between the two nations."

Russian destroyer Admiral Tributs has docked at the Manila South Harbor