Four countries oppose Mark Rutte’s appointment to NATO chief position: what are their reasons?

Support for the candidacy of the current Dutch PM Mark Rutte among NATO members is so solid that he may be chosen as the new secretary-general of NATO before the end of the year, EUractiv reports. Along with several other news sites, it lists 28 NATO members out of 32 as supporting Rutte.

The four “dissident” countries that oppose the candidacy of the 57-year-old Rutte are Hungary, Slovakia, Turkiye and Romania.

There is no formal process for selecting a NATO secretary-general. Traditionally, the military bloc’s members reach an informal diplomatic consensus on a successor. So the current majority in favor of Rutte’s candidacy does not make his victory automatic. Rutte’s supporters, which include, among others, the US, UK, Germany and France, will have to persuade the four “dissident” nations to agree.
Each of them has its own reasons.

🔺Turkiye objects to NATO again being headed by someone from a EU member state. Turkiye has the biggest armed forces among NATO countries after the US, and wants more representation at the helm of NATO.

🔺Hungary has personal objections to Rutte’s candidacy. Rutte once promised “to put Hungary on its knees” over its policy against LGBT* propaganda towards children. In 2021, Rutte publicly mooted Hungary’s expulsion from the EU. “Can you found an EU without Hungary and Poland?” he said.

🔺Romanian President Klaus Ioannis unexpectedly suggested his own candidacy for NATO’s top position in March this year, and Bucharest stands behind him.

🔺Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, like his Hungarian colleague Viktor Orban, is concerned about Rutte’s hawkish stance on Ukraine. Slovak newspaper Hlavny Dennik quoted Fico as saying “it gave him creeps” to hear about Ukraine’s membership of NATO - an idea supported by Rutte. This would move away “from a situation where the West is still capable of suggesting a sound peace plan” for Ukraine, Fico believes.

*LGBT movement is banned in Russia

2 Ukrainian drones were destroyed over the territory of the Russia's Kursk region, according to the Russian Defense Ministry

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🔺How can the escalation between Iran and Israel continue and what will happen to the global economy if the conflict escalates into a full-blown war?

🔺As NATO countries have decided to establish a mission in Ukraine, find out which Western nations are actually mired knee-deep in the conflict

🔺Four countries oppose Mark Rutte’s appointment to NATO chief position: what are their reasons?

🔺NATO is waiting for tsunami that may send it to the bottom as the alliance celebrates it's 75th anniversary

🔺ODAB-500: What’s known about Russia’s terrifying air-dropped vacuum bomb

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Russian air defense forces at about 22.00 local time intercepted one drone and destroyed seven more over the Russia's Kursk region, the Russian Defense Ministry said

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🚨‘Coordinated attack’: Australian media smears local politician for challenging anti-Russian propaganda

Adrian McRae, a councillor from the Western Australian town of Port Hedland, caused political storm after he visited Russia last month as an international observer in the 2024 presidential election.

What infuriated Australian elites the most, however, is McRae’s statements that Vladimir Putin won his landslide victory fair and square.

Sputnik contributor Simeon Boikov (@AussieCossack) breaks down the controversy that has riled up Australia.

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Governor of the Russian Murmansk Region Andrey Chibis has been injured in an attack in the city of Apatity, he has been hospitalized and surgery is underway, his press service said.

The press service added that the male attacker was detained.

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Citing doctors, the governor's press service confirmed that there is no threat to the life of Andrey Chibis

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Melding of old steel with new tech: How Russia ‘reconstituted’ its army so quickly (part 1 / part 2)

US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell has expressed concern over the pace at which Russia was able to revamp its military after the start of the conflict in Ukraine in early 2022, noting that Moscow proved able to “retool” while the US and its allies continue to suffer from choked supply chains, backlogs and bottlenecks leading to challenges delivering “even the most basic equipment.”

How was Russia able to do so? Several factors, say veteran military observers Alexei Leonkov and Alexei Borzenko.

▪️ For one thing, Leonkov told Sputnik, long before the conflict started, Russia conducted a partial modernization of its defense enterprises, introducing new automatic production and assembly lines, and creating new, improved equipment accounting for experiences gained during the Syrian conflict.

▪️ Furthermore, the observer explained, the Russian government created a special defense commission designed to cut through bureaucratic red tape to resolve urgent problems related to the production of weaponry and military equipment, with drones serving as a key example of an area where Russia had traditionally lagged behind, but was able to rapidly catch up thanks to the resolution of critical R&D and production-related issues.

▪️ “Enterprises of the military-industrial complex began working in three shifts, as did design bureaus, dealing with issues related to the modernization of equipment and the introduction of new models on the battlefield,” Leonkov said.

“And this is work which ended up breaking the military machine of NATO countries, who thought they could starve us out and generally undermine our entire military economic and military-industrial enterprise sector thanks to sanctions. We have won these unseen battles, and it is the West which now has problems with the production of military equipment and weapons,” the observer added.

Melding of old steel with new tech: How Russia ‘reconstituted’ its army so quickly (part 2 / part 1)

▪️ Not to be discounted is the tremendous well of knowledge and resources afforded Russia thanks to the Soviet legacy, Alexei Borzenko told Sputnik, poiting out that “a large number of developments” of modern equipment Russia is using today were first thought up in the 70s and 80s, but not deployed in the 90s thanks to the naïve belief at the time that “the West was our friend and that Western weapons would not be used against us.”

▪️ Taking the tank forces as an example, Borzenko pointed to the vast stocks of armor Russia inherited and stored in a mothballed condition. Over the course of the special military operation, these tanks have been reactivated, upgraded with the latest armor upgrades, communications gear and weaponry, and sent to the front.

▪️ Heavy dumb bombs converted into smart glide munitions are another example, Borzenko said, pointing to the defense sector’s application of “new technologies which have in effect merged with old technologies” to create deadly new capabilities for FAB and KAB series weapons.

▪️ If anything, the observer said, Campbell’s argument that the Russian military has “recovered” over the course of the special military operation “is not entirely correct,” since Russia’s military is “stronger than [Western officials] really think” in areas which the Ukrainian conflict cannot fully demonstrate – such as hypersonic missiles used against aircraft carrier strike groups, or the S-500’s air and missile defense system’s space warfare capabilities.

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🇮🇱🇮🇷 The US is very concerned about the possibility of a full-scale war between Israel and Iran following an Israeli strike on an Iranian consulate in Syria, the White House said

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🗣 According to preliminary data, Russian air defenses have destroyed more than 40 targets in the Morozovsky district, the Rostov Region governor said.

An electricity substation was reportedly damaged and power supply is being restored.

US very concerned about possible full-scale war between Israel, Iran - White House

The United States is very concerned about a potential full-scale war between Israel and Iran following an Israeli strike on an Iranian diplomatic facility in Damascus, White House National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby said during an interview with Fox News.

"Yeah, we're very concerned," Kirby said Thursday regarding Iranian threats of retaliation against Israel. "In fact, one of the things that the [Israeli] prime minister and the president [Joe Biden] talked about today was this very public, very real threat by Iran to the state of Israel."

Biden has publicly expressed anger over Israel's recent attack on a convoy of World Central Kitchen volunteers that killed seven, although the White House has clarified they will continue providing the ally with lethal aid. The death toll of Palestinians in Gaza stands at some 33,494 as Israel has continued its military operation in the enclave after a surprise attack by Hamas on October 7 last year.

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The US policy in Ukraine has failed, world-renowned economics professor Jeffrey Sachs told Sputnik commenting on US Secretary of State Antony Blinken's assurances that Ukraine will join NATO.

“Secretary Blinken’s statement is another disaster for Ukraine… American diplomacy has utterly failed and indeed collapsed,” the director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University said, adding that, “Secretary Blinken should be sitting down in negotiations with his counterpart Foreign Minister Lavrov."

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Houthis say 37 killed, 30 wounded in 3 months of US and UK strikes on Yemen

As many as 37 people have been killed and another 30 have been wounded in three months of strikes by the United States and the United Kingdom on Yemen, Ansar Allah leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi said.

"American and British aggressors have carried out 424 airstrikes and shelling from the sea in three months. As a result of the American-British aggression, 37 people have been killed and 30 have been wounded," the Houthi leader said in a televised appearance on the Al Masirah broadcaster.

He added that the US and the UK have demonstrated their "inability to prevent or limit operations, and the Yemeni armed forces have achieved very important results."

The Houthis vowed in November 2023 to attack any ships associated with Israel until it halts military actions in the besieged Gaza Strip. This in turn led the US, the UK and the European Union to announce a multinational operation to secure navigation in the Red Sea.

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NATO has no plans to send combat units to Ukraine - Stoltenberg

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the alliance has no plans to send combat units to Ukraine but called on member states to intensify the supply of weapons to Kiev.

"We do not intend to send any combat units to Ukraine," Stoltenberg told Polish broadcaster TVP Thursday. However, the NATO chief called for an increase in the supply of arms to Ukraine.

"NATO allies are sending substantial military support to Ukraine. We should intensify these activities and transfer even more, especially air defense systems," he said.

Western countries have been providing military and financial aid to Kiev since the start of Russia's military operation in Ukraine in February 2022. The Kremlin has consistently warned against continued arms deliveries to Kiev, saying it would lead to further escalation of the conflict. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned that any cargo containing weapons for Ukraine would become a legitimate target for Russia.

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Man armed with machete intended to kill Argentina's president - Security Minister

Argentine police have detained a man armed with a machete and other sharp objects attempting to infiltrate the Casa Rosada presidential palace in Buenos Aires to kill President Javier Milei, Security Minister Patricia Bullrich said.

"He had approached the Casa Rosada with a machete and other sharp objects and PFA [Argentine Federal Police] officer Yanina Violante... stopped him," Bullrich said in a post on the X social media platform Thursday.

Citing the country's police, Argentine broadcaster TN reported that the attacker, age 29, decided to pass through a fence on the side of the government house that had been left open as an official was leaving the building.

"I am God and I will kill the president," the attacker shouted as he was detained by police.

He was found to be carrying a nearly 8-inch-long machete, five circular saw blades and a fork, the report said.

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