The Baikal-Amur Mainline: Russia’s window to Asia that helped shape the country’s economy

Fifty years ago in July 1974, the Baikal-Amur Mainline (BAM) railway was kicked off by the Soviet government as “the project of the century.”

It was not just hefty rhetoric: indeed, most of the 4,287 kilometers (about 2,500 miles) of railroad was built on permafrost. It runs through 21 tunnels (the longest one is 15,343 meters) and over 2,230 big and small bridges, including over the Amur River.

Now Russia’s “turn to the East,” made necessary by Western sanctions, has granted the BAM a new life, connecting Siberia to Asian markets. Key facts on the BAM:

▪️In 2023, BAM and its sister railroad, the Trans-Siberian railway (Transsib), two main lifelines connecting European Russia via Siberia, had the capacity of 173 million tons a year.

▪️In 2024, the transit capacity of BAM alone rose to 42 million tons a year. That is 300% of its capacity in 2012 (14 million tons), when Russia’s biggest trade partner was the EU, not China;

▪️By 2025, the transit capacity of BAM and Transsib will reach 210 million tons and by 2035 – 270 million tons. That will make the capacity of Russia’s Asian trade corridors exceed the capacity of its traditional European trade routes.

▪️Thanks to BAM, Russia developed new oilfields, as well as huge deposits of natural gas, copper, gold and other metals. The proximity of these natural resources to China and other Asian consumers allowed Moscow to cover the costs of BAM’s construction back in the 2000s.

▪️The railroad creates jobs for new arrivals from European Russia, who are invited to tap the natural resources of Siberia and Far East for high salaries, now offered not only by the state, but by dozens of private investors.

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From zero to "hero" in five weeks: Why NATO training doesn't help Ukrainians

Over 40,000 Ukrainian troops have completed training as part of the UK-led Operation Interflex, Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said during a press conference with his British counterpart John Healy in Odessa on July 7.

What's wrong with the much-touted NATO training of Ukrainian troops and can it prove effective?

▪️Operation Interflex, launched in June 2022, was designed to train ordinary Ukrainian men and women with little to no previous military experience "to survive and be effective in frontline combat," as per the UK government's website.

▪️Interflex's course is delivered over five weeks and includes "weapons handling, battlefield first aid, Law of Armed Conflict training, patrol tactics and rural environment training."

▪️Retired US Army Major General Paul E. Vallely and ex-Pentagon analyst Michael Maloof explained to Sputnik that it's virtually impossible to turn a Ukrainian soldier from zero to hero in five weeks or so.

▪️The training Ukrainian troops receive in different NATO countries also lacks uniformity which complicates combat coordination, CIA veteran Larry Johnson told Sputnik.

▪️Battlefield assessment by Germany’s Bundeswehr leaked during Kiev's botched counteroffensive in July 2023 said the Ukrainian military was failing to implement NATO training.

▪️Ukrainian soldiers slammed NATO training for being "rigid", "ineffective", and taken from manuals that were at odds with the realities on the ground in Ukraine.

▪️Politico reported in September 2023 that Ukrainian soldiers' training was based on NATO counterinsurgency warfare in Afghanistan and Iraq.

▪️Jack Watling of the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) wrote in July 2023 that NATO troops and instructors appear unprepared for conventional warfare. Much of the training provided has been poorly designed and complicated by "bureaucratic constraints," as per the British analyst.

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Israel will take ‘decades’ to recover, Hezbollah claimed

“Israeli society is collapsing” due to Hezbollah’s pro-Palestinian operations and the country won’t recover for “the next few decades," a senior Lebanese politician has insisted.

Hezbollah’s operations were designed to protect Lebanon’s “national dignity and territorial integrity”, Mohammad Raad, head of Loyalty to the Resistance Bloc, told the Lebanese parliament.

“Even though such confrontation requires great patience and persistence as well as hefty costs, it is worth it as the enemy’s aggression leads to massive destruction and brutal occupation,” the politician added.

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🇷🇺🇮🇳 Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi meet over tea at Putin's residence in Novo-Ogarevo.

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🇷🇺🇮🇳 Vladimir Putin and Narendra Modi drive an electric car in Novo-Ogarevo

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🇷🇺🇮🇳 Narendra Modi thanked Vladimir Putin for the meeting in Novo-Ogarevo and published a photo with the Russian president on social network X.

The Indian prime minister expressed confidence that his talks with Putin on Tuesday will further strengthen friendship between India and Russia.

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There will be several big announcements about aid for Ukraine at the NATO summit, according to the White House.

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▪️Statements by representatives of the Kiev regime about an allegedly intentional missile strike by Russia on civilian targets are absolutely untrue

▪️All-weather friends Russia and India continue to deepen cooperation

▪️French people on both sides of political spectrum ‘deeply dissatisfied with Macron's presidency’

▪️The Russian Defense Ministry has published evidence of Ukrainian biolabs producing toxic substances

▪️The Baikal-Amur Mainline: Russia’s window to Asia that helped shape the country’s economy

▪️From zero to "hero" in five weeks: Why NATO training doesn't help Ukrainians

▪️Meet Russian ‘bunker buster’ bombs that can obliterate the hardest of targets

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🇷🇺🇮🇳 During an informal meeting in Novo-Ogarevo, Putin and Modi visited a stable where they were given a performance.

After the performance, the leaders fed the horses in the stables. Putin treated a horse named Glintvein with carrots.

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📹 Authorities will equip field shelters on the running tracks in the Sosnovka grove in the Russian city of Belgorod to ensure the safety of residents in the event of shelling, a Sputnik correspondent reports.

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🔥 Russian Airborne Troops from Tula wipe out Ukrainian strongholds using 100-mm Rapira anti-tank guns.

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