🇨🇳Chinese President Xi Jinping delivered a speech at the opening of the China-Arab Cooperation Forum in Beijing

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NATO’s grip on Gotland: Who’s militarizing the Baltic Sea?

Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service says Swedish military’s top brass is whipping up anti-Russian hysteria by suggesting Moscow "has its eye" on Gotland Island.

🔸Located about 150 km southeast of Stockholm and 250 km northwest of the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, Gotland has been central to Swedish anti-Russian fearmongering since 2014, with paranoia over imaginary Russian plans to seize it lingering since its temporary capture by the Russian Empire in the early 19th century.

🔸Russia has repeatedly stated it has no plans to attack Sweden but has warned Stockholm against provocations, including recent threats to turn Gotland into a NATO fortification.

🔸“As a result of such provocative activity, new threats are created to the safety of navigation and economic activity in the region,” the Russian Foreign Ministry told Sputnik, warning that Moscow will continue to take measures to “ensure Russia’s security” in light of NATO’s activities.

🔸The alliance has made no secret of plans to turn the Baltic Sea into a “NATO lake,” and has greedily eyed Gotland as a major component of its strategy, training alongside Swedish troops on the island in 2022, and planning fresh drills under the auspices of NATO’s BALTOPS exercises in June.

🔸Gotland is just one of an array of NATO facilities in the region, which after the alliance’s 2023/2024 expansion came to include the Musko and Karlskrona naval bases in Sweden, and Finnish bases in Helsinki, Turku, Kirkkonummi and Raseborg.

🔸That’s on top of naval facilities NATO has access to in Minnisadam, Estonia, Liepaja, Latvia, Klaipeda, Lithuania, Hel, Gdynia, Kolobrzeg, and Swinoujscie, Poland, and Rostock, Warnemunde, Eckernforde, Germany.

🔸NATO has bolstered its Baltic presence with "multinational battlegroups," deploying warships, aircraft, and troops to maintain a rotating "forward presence" along its eastern flank with Russia, and conducting air policing missions.

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Russia's President Vladimir Putin spoke to a large family from Mariupol

The president was told that the city was being restored right before the residents' very eyes.

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Slovenia has recognized the independence of Palestine, the Republic's Foreign Ministry said.

This comes just days after Ireland, Norway and Spain recognized Palestine as a state.

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Canadian PM Trudeau on the invitation for Russian officials to join the D-Day event: It is important to recognize all countries involved, but that does not preclude our extreme disagreement.

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Pepe Escobar: The West is Hell-Bent on Provoking Russia Into Hot War

🔹 For all their circumlocutions, NATO Secretary Jens Stoltenberg, French President Emmanuel Macron, and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz have effectively greenlighted Kiev using Western weapons for attacks deep inside the Russian Federation. The alleged debate, still ongoing, is just a “smokescreen” for the real objective: a pretext that could lead to WWIII.

🔹 There’s no reason to think Kiev will stick to “limited” strikes against relatively unimportant targets. Instead, it is likely to target critical security infrastructure in hopes of provoking an unrelenting Russian response, which in turn would pave the way for NATO to invoke Article 5 and de facto engage in a hot war.

🔹 Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, once again displaying his trademark Taoist patience, had to come up with another serious reminder: Russia will regard the deployment of nuclear-capable F-16s in Ukraine – which de facto can only be operated by NATO pilots – as “a deliberate signal from NATO in the nuclear field to Russia.”

🔹 And still the gaggle of armchair Dr. Strangeloves – lavishly rewarded by the rarified Atlanticist plutocracy holding real power, funds, influence and mass media control - is not listening.

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🇷🇺 Putin's heartfelt message: love and family

"There is nothing more significant in life than love and children" — in a brief but touching moment during a meeting with large families Putin celebrated the importance of love and family, affirming the profound joy they bring.

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🇦🇲 Who is the Archbishop eyeing the post of Armenia’s Prime Minister?

Armenian opposition parties have united behind Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan in elections against Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s governing coalition, whose ratings have hit historic lows.

What’s going on in Armenia?

◻️ After Azerbaijan seized the Nagorno-Karabakh exclave in 2023, Baku and Yerevan began re-drawing the border.

◻️ News that this would result in four villages in Tavush being handed over to Azerbaijan sparked protests. Demonstrators blocked roads to Georgia and Iran, calling the process unlawful.

◻️ The "Tavush for the Homeland" civil movement led by Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan marched to the capital Yerevan on May 4.

◻️ On May 26, a rally in Yerevan proposed a “peaceful constitutional change of power” with Archbishop Bagrat as prime minister.

◻️ The Armenian Church announced on May 27 that Galstanyan’s 30-year “episcopal order is preserved, [but] his ecclesiastical and administrative service has been suspended,” allowing him to be elected PM by the National Assembly.

Who is Archbishop Galstanyan?

➖ Born in Gyumri, Armenia, on May 20, 1971, to Iranian-Armenian parents;

➖ Studied at the Gevorkian Theological Seminary and later at the Holy Resurrection Theological College and University of Leeds (1996-1998);

➖ Served as secretary to Catholicos Karekin I from 1996;

➖ Became Dean of the Vaskenian Theological Academy in 2000;

➖ Elected Primate of the Diocese of the Armenian Church of Canada in 2003, holds a Canadian passport;

➖ Appointed Primate of the Tavush Diocese in 2015, became Archbishop on February 17, 2023;

➖ Advocates for a transitional government to ensure national unity and fair elections:

➖ Intends to discuss impeachment proceedings against Pashinyan with all parliamentary factions.

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ABCs of Abrams’ weak spots: comprehensive list of problems with US’ top tank revealed in Ukraine

The unfortunate souls manning Ukraine’s Abrams main battle tanks have revealed the heavy armored behemoths’ weak spots. These include:

◻️ Armor insufficiently strong to stop modern Russian weapons. “It doesn’t protect the crew. For real, today this is the war of drones. So now, when the tank rolls out, they always try to hit them,” one tanker complained.

◻️ A Russian military on the hunt specifically for the $10 million apiece tanks – which stick out on the battlefield like a sore thumb thanks to their ‘thicc’ dimensions - weighing 67 tons, nearly 10 meters long, 3.6 meters wide and standing almost 2.5 meters tall.

◻️ Technical issues – from rain, fog and condensation wreaking havoc on electronic components to a capricious and maintenance-intensive engine and transmission design.

◻️ Lack of shells suitable for use as artillery. “We had a case when we fired 17 rounds into a house and it was still standing,” one of the tankers said.

◻️ Sitting duck status on the front due to lack of air and artillery support that NATO tankers are used to when attacking weaker countries somewhere in the developing world.

◻️ Problems stemming from Ukraine’s geography – including struggles with mud and snow, and a girth and weight that’s too much for some local bridges.

◻️ Issues from the Abrams’ status as fuel hogs, with the tanks known to consume up to 3 gallons per mile (7 liters per kilometer).

◻️ Adding insult to injury, part of the problem stems from Ukraine getting a so-called ‘monkey model’ variants of the tank – a dumbed-down version custom-built for Kiev which lacks the tanks’ vaunted depleted uranium armor plating (using tungsten armor instead), and lacking the Trophy active protection system.

Russia has destroyed or severely damaged up to 10 of the 31 M1A1 SA Abrams sent to Ukraine.

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🇮🇱 No business like war business: Israeli defense contractors’ profits boom while economy takes a beating

Israel’s Central Bank expects the war in Gaza to cost a whopping 250 billion shekels ($67.4 billion US) through 2025, as defense spending as a share of GDP jumps from 5.3% to 9%. Q4 of 2023 saw Israel’s GDP drop by nearly 20% relative to the third quarter, with consumption dropping 27% and investment by 70%.

But as the civilian economy suffers, Israel’s arms makers have no complaints, boasting record profits. Israel’s top three defense giants – Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and Elbit Systems have each enjoyed surging stock prices and orders growing at a pace beyond their ability to keep up.

◻️ IAI reported a 7% growth in sales to $5.3 billion in 2023, a 49% jump in net profit, with production ranging from drones, missiles, bombs, radars and electronic warfare articles to space-based defenses. Its order backlog has soared to $18 billion.

◻️ Rafael – makers of Tamir missiles for the Iron Dome and an array of other air defense and anti-tank missiles and drones, saw a record 21% increase in sales and a whopping 85% increase in order volume, with net profits hitting $158 million – a 17% jump from 2022, and the backlog of orders reaching over $14 billion.

◻️ Elbit, makers of much of the “guts” of Israeli weapons, plus drones, communications equipment, small arms, cluster munitions and armored vehicles, saw profits jump 8% in 2023, with revenues reaching nearly $6 billion, and Q1 2024 results put out this week showing $1.6 billion in revenues, and a $20.4 billion order backlog.

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