Chinese firms put deeper roots in Pakistan in post-flood reconstruction; more joint efforts needed for regional recovery

Chinese firms put deeper roots in Pakistan in post-flood reconstruction; more joint efforts needed for regional recovery

    Sunday, October 09, 2022   No comments

Chinese infrastructure companies in Pakistan are playing an increasingly important role in supporting the regional economy and livelihoods as the country looks for more joint efforts from the international community to facilitate the gradual recovery from the lingering devastation of recent floods.

While Chinese companies have taken an active approach in providing constant aid, they have also beefed up efforts to maintain the smooth operation of their projects in some key areas such as power generation and housing in Pakistan, as the country, hit by unprecedented floods in September, has seen its economic recovery slowing down.

Industry insiders and experts said that more joint efforts, including safety guarantees for local personnel and projects of Chinese companies, are needed more than ever to ensure the smooth operation of these projects.

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Chechen troops arrive in Zaporozhye region

Chechen troops arrive in Zaporozhye region

    Thursday, September 15, 2022   No comments

Around the same time Chechen elite troops landed in the Zaporozhye region to help Russian forces regain control in the south, Russian Federation Deputy Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation, Timur Ivanov, arrived in the ChechenRepublic on a working visit to promote and report on development and construction projects in the Muslim Republic.

The investments in the Chechen Republic is paying off. Chechen fighters were urgently dispatched after a series of setbacks for Russian forces in the east and south of Ukraine. The detachment of fighters is under the command of the OMON "Akhmat-Grozny" of the Office of the Russian Guard in the Chechen Republic, Anzor Bisaev. The unit is tasked with stopping and clearing Ukrainian troops trying to advance southward.

Russia’s war strategy in Ukraine and the role of the Chechen armed forces

Russia’s war strategy in Ukraine and the role of the Chechen armed forces

    Thursday, September 08, 2022   No comments

The war strategy in Ukraine is now emerging: use air and missile strikes to degrade Ukrainian defensive positions and then send the infantry forces to clear and hold territories. That is what happened in the city of Mariupol during the first four months of the operation, and this is what is happening now in the south near Kharkov and in the east. In Mariupol and the Donbas region, the infantry consisted mainly of 10,000 Chechen troops. Those forces returned home in June. Since then, there appeared little progress on the ground but constant bombardment from air and from distance. 

With Ukrainian troops leaving their defensive positions in the south to execute a plan to retake Kharkov and push Russian forces east of the river, Russian forces were able to target the exposed Ukrainian troops and plan for the next phase, which appear to aim at taking more ground and increasing the buffer zone it has created around the areas that will be declared autonomous republics. This is where ground troops will be needed. Again, Chechen armed forces seem to be the go-to option. Today, Chechen officials arranged for the transport of thousands of elite fighters who will be deployed in areas “beyond the Donbas” region.

Meanwhile, today, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced that its forces repelled an attack by Ukrainian forces on the Kharkov axis, inflicting losses on the attacking forces of more than 50 people.

According to the ministry, the nationalist battalion "Kraken" opened fire on the retreating, killing most of them.

The Defense Ministry also announced the downing of eight Ukrainian drones over the Kharkov and Kherson provinces, as well as the interception of two American-made AGM-88 Harm missiles over the Antonov Bridge area.

The Russian Air Defense Forces also intercepted a "Tochka-O" ballistic missile in the Bezymyanoy district of Kherson Province, and 48 missiles, including 44 "Himars" missiles, were intercepted in the "Mozikovka", "Znamenka", "Vesuloye" and "Kamenka" regions, "Darievka", "Novaya Kakhovka", "Perslav", "Dnebriani" and "Tomarino".

Simultaneously, the Ministry announced that the units of the 72nd Ukrainian Mechanized Brigade, in the Artemovsk region of the Donetsk People's Republic, refused to carry out orders and left their positions and left, due to heavy losses, low equipment, and lack of fire support.

Also, the Ukrainian forces lost another 350 personnel on the Nikolaev-Krivoy Rok axes, during the past 24 hours, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.

"During the day, the Kyiv regime continued its unsuccessful attempts to conduct offensive operations on the Nikolaev-Kryvi Rok axes," the ministry said in a statement.

Video documenting Chechen armed forces deployment to Ukraine:

Who is Alexander Dugin, who is described as Putin's brain, and whose daughter Daria was killed by Car Bomb in Moscow?

Who is Alexander Dugin, who is described as Putin's brain, and whose daughter Daria was killed by Car Bomb in Moscow?

    Monday, August 22, 2022   No comments

Aleksandr Gelyevich Dugin is said to have great influence on Russian politicians including the current president, Vladimir Putin. His daughter killed by a car bomb. The Russian authorities announced the killing by detonating her car with an explosive device planted under the driver’s seat in a suburb of the capital, Moscow. Daria Dugin worked as a press secretary for her father, who is described as "Putin's brain", a nationalist and one of the most prominent theorists of the Kremlin's ideology who predicted the end of the era of Western liberalism.

To learn more about Dugin, we provide a summary of his ideas that he shared with Aljazeera network in an extended set of interviews (See interview1, and interview 2; Arabic) in which he talked about Russia, the West, Christianity, Islam, Chechnya, Sunnism, and other topics.

Russian identity and change

On the other hand, Dugin spoke to Al Jazeera about the Russian identity and the radical change that he said had affected it over the course of one century, as the country was an empire with its faith and perception, and after the Bolshevik Revolution, perceptions changed dramatically, and in 1991 the Russian identity changed again and Russia became part of The Western world, then Putin, changed identity again and Russia became a powerful country that defends its own conservative values, according to what the Russian philosopher says.

 

On Russian identity, "Putin's mind" says that his country is changing its position and "we are in a spiritual search for ourselves", and it is sensitive to changes.

 

However, Dugin confirms - in the first part of his meeting in the episode (14/11/2021) of the "The Interview" program - that Western tendency is still largely present within Russia, and there is a liberal elite and strong resistance to President Putin's reforms on the part of liberal intellectuals, and that This Western tendency hinders the special orientation of Russia.

 

He also believes that other civilizations have the right to rely on their own political teachings that are based on their own values, not on Western values.

 

He indicated in the context of his review of his identical vision with his president's on the Chechen issue, which he said Putin had found a solution for, as well as with regard to Georgia and Ukraine and the annexation of the Crimea in 2014.

 

Fourth political theory

The Russian thinker Alexander Dugin focused in the second part of his interview with the "The Interview" program on the fourth political theory, which he said is an anti-capitalist tendency, and talked about his vision of terrorism and its relations with Iran and Turkey.

 

Dugin described the fourth political theory as the theory of revolution and decolonization for Russian society, and it defends the originality of Russian civilization and human rights, but not according to Western values, which he said are not totalitarian and are unacceptable neither in Russia, nor in the Islamic world, nor in China.

 

Definition of terrorism

In the interview, Ali Al-Dhafiri's guest linked the issue of defining terrorism to the interests of states, and gave an example of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who said that he supported Washington's position after the September 11, 2001 attacks, and in return was waiting for the US administration to classify those he called the Chechen separatists in the category of Terrorists, which did not happen, and the Russian thinker says that Putin understood at that time the meaning of geopolitical considerations.

 

In another context, Dugin - one of the most prominent political theorists in Russia - saw that Iran is an ally of Russia and is one of the opponents of globalization and American leadership, and that radical Sunni Islam in the Arab world had supported the American strategy in the MiddleEast, but the new generation of leaders - continues the speaker - In SaudiArabia, Qatar and Egypt, he is looking for a new approach to Arab Sunni Islam, and he believes that staying in the orbit of American policy is bad for the Islamic world.

 

He also talked about his ideas, and said that he is a supporter of Islamic traditional values ​​in Iran, but nevertheless he has strong relations with Turkey, noting in his touch on Russia's future that Russia is Putin and he determines everything in politics, to conclude his speech by saying that in his country "the law does not something and rule everything."

 

It is noteworthy that after Putin took power in Russia, a new phase began in Dugin's political activity when he moved from the radical opposition camp to the pro-power camp.

 

Turkish media: Erdogan and Assad may hold talks at the suggestion of Putin; US Media: Turkey builds "Bayraktar" aircraft factory in Ukraine

Turkish media: Erdogan and Assad may hold talks at the suggestion of Putin; US Media: Turkey builds "Bayraktar" aircraft factory in Ukraine

    Tuesday, August 09, 2022   No comments

The Kremlin announced today, Tuesday, that Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, discussed the situation in Syria.

Turkish media revealed that President Erdogan and his Syrian counterpart, Bashar al-Assad, may hold a phone call, during the coming period, at the suggestion of Putin.

And the newspaper "Turkey" published a report, in which it was based on private sources, that Erdogan, who recently visited Sochi, Russia, exchanged views on Syria with President Putin, and the Russian President suggested that he meet Assad and Erdogan, in order to solve the problem of terrorism in Syria.

But Ankara made it clear that it is "too early" for a meeting between the two presidents, while a phone call is still possible.

The newspaper pointed out that there are diplomatic contacts from a Gulf country and an African one with Syria and Turkey, in order to arrange a meeting between Presidents Assad and Erdogan.

During their bilateral summit in Sochi, Putin and Erdogan confirmed their support for preserving the unity of Syria. 

During this meeting in Sochi, Putin was accompanied by the president of the Chechen Republic, R. Kadyrov, who might be called upon to nudge Turkey further in the direction of Russia.

Erdogan announced, earlier, that his country intends to launch a military operation inside Syrian territory to combat “terrorism” and establish what he described as a “safe zone,” noting that his country “will not ask permission before launching a military operation in Syria.”

While Ankara says that its military presence in Syria aims to prevent the threat from the Kurdish factions, Damascus considers the Turkish military presence in the country an occupation and a threat to regional and international peace.

In a letter sent by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to both United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the Security Council, Syria protested Turkey's intention to launch a military operation inside its territory.

Last May, an official source at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates confirmed that "Syria's sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity will not be the object of blackmail or bargaining by the Turkish regime."

Reacting to the latest media report about possible talks between the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is Syrian sources, off the record, rejected the the idea of such event happening, characterizing it as "totally incorrect."

...

Meanwhile, US media sources highlight another aspect of Turkish involment in matters of concern to Russia.

The American "Newsweek" magazine said today, Tuesday, that the Turkish company "Baykar", which produces the "Bayraktar" unmanned combat aircraft, is currently building a factory on Ukrainian soil.

The magazine quoted Ukraine's ambassador to Turkey, Vasyl Bodnar, as saying that the Turkish company had already purchased a plot of land in Ukraine and developed the station project. Bodnar added that "Baykar" intends to build the plant in fulfillment of the personal commitment of the company's owners to make this production in Ukraine.

The magazine pointed out that the Bayraktar TB2 drones were considered one of the most valuable weapons for Ukraine in the first months of the war, especially before the arrival of the American "HIMARS" missiles.

She noted that Ukraine had more than 20 unmanned aircraft produced by the "Baykar" company when the war began, and acquired them during the past two years.

Because Kyiv currently has a limited supply of these planes, and given that Russia has learned a lesson from weakness during the first phase of the war, it is unlikely that Ukrainian forces would risk losing their TB2s from unmanned aerial vehicles, by pushing them forward in areas where Russian air defenses could easily fall."

She added that "a TP2 aircraft factory can fundamentally change the situation in Ukraine," noting that the time required for the construction of the factory is still unclear.

...

Editors' Note: This story was updated to include the Syrian government's rection to the news about the phone call between the two presidents.

Putin and Erdogan agreed to buy Turkey part of Russia's gas in rubles; Kadyrov to visit Turkey

Putin and Erdogan agreed to buy Turkey part of Russia's gas in rubles; Kadyrov to visit Turkey

    Friday, August 05, 2022   No comments

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak announced that Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan have agreed to sell part of Russian gas to Turkey in rubles.

"Gas supplies to Turkey were discussed, which is supplied in fairly large quantities: 26 billion cubic meters annually. During the negotiations, the two presidents agreed that part of the gas supplies would be paid for in rubles," Novak said.

"We are talking about a gradual transition to national currencies, and in the first stage, part of the supplies will be paid in Russian rubles," he added.

Earlier in the day, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov announced the end of talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in the Russian city of Sochi, after they lasted for four hours. Putin and Erdogan discussed several files, most notably the files of Syria, Libya, Ukraine and energy.

It is worth mentioning here that the Russian President issued his instructions to transfer all payments for gas supplies to Europe into the national currency, stressing that "it makes no sense to supply Russian goods to the European Union or the United States of America and to receive payments in euros and dollars."

There were reports that the president of Chechnya, Ramazan Kadyrov attended the meetings in Sochi. Perhaps responding to such reports, Kadyrov released the following statement:

During the face-to-face talks between Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan, I personally met Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and head of the Turkish national intelligence organization Hakan Fidan. We had an informal rich and productive conversation, during which we came to a common opinion on the need to establish close cooperation between Turkey and the Chechen Republic on various issues.

Historically, our peoples are connected by a lot, especially since a fairly large number of ethnic Chechens currently live in Turkey. Mevlut Cavusoglu expressed hope that this informal meeting would be the beginning of further development of relations and establishing contacts. I agreed with the Turkish Foreign Minister and also noted that both sides would benefit from joint undertakings.

At the end of the meeting, the distinguished guests invited me to visit Turkey, during which we could discuss a wide range of cooperation issues, including economic ones. Of course, I accepted the invitation.