Protests in Georgia

Supporters of the Georgian opposition, which has rejected election results, have begun a march toward the parliament building in the capital Tbilisi.

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US plan for Fiji buildup comes after ‘hijacking’ of island nation’s democracy to flip it against China

“Lloyd Austin’s trip” to Fiji signals “a clear shift of the Fiji Islands from being pretty much pro-China to being pro-US, pro-Australia and New Zealand,” Hong Kong-based international affairs observer Angelo Giuliano told Sputnik, commenting on the Pentagon chief’s visit to the island nation this week to discuss a new military “status of forces” agreement.

“Fiji used to have a security agreement with China,” Giuliano recalled, referring to the 2011 memorandum between China’s Ministry of Public Security and the Fijian Ministry of Defense, National Security and Policing, which allowed Fijian police to receive training in China, and for Chinese officers to be deployed on the islands.

In late 2022, elections forced Fiji’s China-friendly PM out, replacing him with Sitiveni Rabuka, a retired general involved in four previous coups.

Rabuka “was backed by the US and probably funded by the US. They helped him to get into power. And right after that what he announced was a clear shift of policy going from being pro-China to being pro-US,” Giuliano said, referencing the new PM’s push to rethink the policing deal, and claims the South Pacific could be “destabilized” by China’s “unwarranted influence.”

“China did not try to influence the politics within Fiji because it goes against China’s philosophy” of “noninterference in other countries’ affairs,” Giuliano said, recalling that the PRC’s approach is grounded in engaging nations through trade.

US efforts to force Fiji to pivot toward Washington are designed to further American control of the Pacific, but aren’t as concerning to China as tensions over the Philippines, Taiwan, etc., the observer believes.

“Fiji is quite far. I think it’s just about the US having their hands on a new potential military base in Fiji. It’s just the way they do it. The more bases they have around the world, the more they think that they can hold on to power,” Giuliano summed up.

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🔸 The ‘Oreshnik’ strike served as a warning bell to the West, Kremlin spokesman says

🔸 What is Russia’s secret defense against ballistic missile threat?

🔸 Iran activates new centrifuges to enrich uranium in response to IAEA resolution

🔸 Why is the US gov’t unlikely to allow a businessman to buy the damaged Nord Stream?

🔸 Analyst reveals what’s behind Pentagon chief’s visit to Fiji

🔸 Sputnik investigates: Why doesn’t the US ban the use of Atrazine?

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🇮🇷⚔️🇮🇱 Iran preparing response to Israel’s aggression, ambivalent about Trump - Khamenei advisor

Restoring deterrence to Israel by responding to the October 26 attacks “is a key issue” for the Islamic Republic, and “relevant authorities are pursuing the issue carefully to ensure that Iran’s response to Israel fulfills these specifications,” Ali Larijani, a senior advisor to Iran’s Supreme Leader, has indicated.

“In general, this is an issue that we should leave to the relevant military officials...I know that they are thinking about different solutions. But this is not something that can be discussed much in the media right now, because it’s an issue related to national security and requires careful consideration and secrecy,” Larijani said in an interview with Tasnim.

Israel carried out a series of attacks against military targets in Iran on October 26, killing four Iranian servicemen and one civilian. The strikes followed Iran’s October 1 retaliation for a string of Israeli assassinations of senior Hamas and Hezbollah officials and an IRGC general, which involved the targeting of Israeli military and intelligence facilities with nearly 200 missiles.

Asked whether Iran expects US policy toward Israel and Iran to change under President-elect Trump, Larijani said it’s impossible “to provide a clear analysis of this issue because officials from the future US government have said different things,” and “Trump himself has sometimes changed his behavior.”

“The question is whether the America of the Trump era sees its interests in continuing the behavior of the Democrats – who pulled America down in the region and destroyed its reputation. If so, they will fall further into decline. Or, do they want to make a turn in accordance with America’s national interests,” Larijani said, pointing out that “both” scenarios are possible, and that Team Trump has “signaled that they want to end the warmongering in the region and move on to other priorities.”

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🇷🇺 80 years ago Red Army liberated the Baltics, where today Neo-Nazism has again reared its ugly head Part 1 👉🏻 Part 2

🔸 Between September 14 and November 24, 1944, the Red Army carried out a massive counteroffensive in the Baltic region, with the operation involving some 1.5 mln troops, 17,500 guns and heavy mortars, 3,000+ tanks and self-propelled artillery pieces, and over 2,600 aircraft.

🔸 Arrayed against them was Nazi Germany’s battle-hardened Army Group North, including over 571,500 troops, 7,000 guns and mortars, 1,200+ tanks and assault guns and 400 aircraft, plus 43,000 Hiwi SS auxiliary volunteers recruited among the local population.

🔸 In battles stretching across a front up to 1,000 km in length and 400 km in depth, forces from the Leningrad Front, the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Baltic Fronts, the 3rd Belorussian Front and the Baltic Fleet smashed through heavily echeloned and fortified defenses, with the main thrust of the operation initially directed toward Riga, Latvia before being redirected toward the strategic Lithuanian Baltic Sea port of Klaipeda – a move which surprised Wehrmacht commanders and ultimately led to the pocketing of as many as 200,000 German troops from the 16th and 18th Armies in the so-called Courland Pocket, western Latvia, where they would remain trapped until the end of the war in May 1945.

🔸 The Estonian capital of Tallinn was liberated on September 26, with Riga taken on October 22. Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, had been freed earlier in mid-July 1944 as part of the third phase of the Operation Bagration summer counteroffensive. From September 29-November 24, Soviet forces engaged the Nazis in fierce fighting for the west Estonian archipelago of Moonsund.

🔸 Overall, German losses included over 200,000 troops, 33,500 of whom became POWs. 61,648 Soviet troops were killed, with left 218,622 injured or sick. 112 Red Army servicemen and officers were awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union noscript. 332,000 received other medals and orders.

👉🏻 Part 2

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🇷🇺 What made Baltic Offensive important, and how is the operation remembered today? Part 2 👉🏻 Part 1

🔸 The German defeat in the Baltics opened the door to East Prussia, cut off key transport arteries and deprived Berlin of farmland, and oil shale processing plants in Estonia which provided the Nazis some 500,000 tons of petroleum products per year.

🔸 The defeat also had important ideological implications, not least of which being Adolf Hitler’s plans to resettle the Baltics with ethnic Germans, and deport or exterminate the local population. These ambitions were based in Nazi lore of the ancient German knights’ conquest of the region in the 13th century, which reduced local populations to serfdom status. The Baltics were also key to Hitler’s “Final Solution” for Jews, Roma, Russians, and local antifascist fighters, with Latvia alone home to 23 concentration camps and 18 ghettos.

🔸 While more than 200,000 ethnic Balts served in the Red Army during WWII (including over 108,000 Lithuanians, 85,000 Latvians, and up to 30,000 Estonians), their heroism, and that of the other Soviet troops who liberated the Baltics from the Nazis, has largely been forgotten by the three countries’ modern governments, whose nationalism and lionization of local SS volunteers, rewriting of history books and demolition of monuments to the Red Army have echoed processes taking place in Ukraine following the 2005 color revolution and the 2014 coup.

🔸 The modern-day Baltic states’ political class has been characterized by unparalleled disdain for Russia within the EU and NATO, and cheerleading for Kiev in the NATO-sponsored proxy war against Russia in Ukraine.

🔸 Their efforts have taken a heavy toll on the three nations’ welfare and even basic demographic viability, with the Baltics suffering among the highest rates of deindustrialization and depopulation among any post-Soviet republic. Between 1991 and 2023, the populations of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania dropped from 1.5 to 1.3 mln (14%), 2.6 to 1.8 mln (31%) and 3.7 to 2.8 mln (25%), respectively.

👉🏻 Part 1

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Cyprus develops a plan to join NATO – reports

Cyprus has developed a plan to join the North Atlantic Alliance. A strategy for the gradual rapprochement of the Republic of Cyprus with NATO was the focus of a meeting between the island nation’s President, Nicos Christodoulidis, and US President Joe Biden in late October, according to the Greek newspaper Kathimerini.

“Nicosia has developed a plan whose ultimate goal is NATO membership, fully aware of the serious obstacles it is bound to face. White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan called it a ‘win-win,’ adding that ‘the prospects that such a development would be enormous,’” according to the report.

The starting point of the plan is the positive development of the Cyprus settlement and progress in relations between Cyprus and Turkiye.

“The strengthening of Cyprus' new role at the center of American strategy in the region is also reflected in President Christodoulidis' contacts with the Republican majority in Congress immediately after Donald Trump’s election victory. In a telephone conversation with senators closely working with the incoming US president, the new leadership’s intention to maintain and further strengthen Cyprus’ role in the region was reaffirmed,” the article said.

On October 30, Christodoulidis visited Washington, marking the first official visit by a Cypriot president to the American capital since 1996.

According to the newspaper, after his visit to Washington, Christodoulidis also discussed his plan with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte on the sidelines of the European Political Community summit in Bucharest.

Cyprus was one of the founding members of the Non-Aligned Movement but withdrew from it in 2004 upon its accession to the European Union.

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