International
Russia and NATO, the antagonism that can lead to direct confrontation
The Kremlin warned today on the 75th anniversary of NATO that relations between Russia and the Western bloc are on the verge of “direct confrontation” due to the involvement of the allied countries in the war in Ukraine.
“Relationships, practically, have now led to a level of direct confrontation,” said Dmitri Peskov, presidential spokesman, at his daily telephone press conference.
The antagonism between Moscow and the Alliance has experienced very tense moments since 1949, both in the times of the Soviet Union – construction of the Berlin Wall, Cuban Crisis, invasion of Czechoslovakia and Afghanistan – and with the Russian Federation since 1991 (bombing of Yugoslavia and the war with Georgia).
But the tension has reached unsuspected limits since Russia started the military campaign in Ukraine in February 2022, a conflict that has strengthened NATO, something that took the Kremlin on guard off guard.
“NATO continues to demonstrate its essence, since NATO was conceived as an alliance, configured, created and directed by the United States as an instrument of confrontation, especially on the European continent. And, in this regard, it continues to fulfill its function,” said the presidential spokesman.
Peskov assured that this block “at the present time does not contribute in any case to the security, predictability and stability of security on the continent.”
“Contrary, it is a destabilizing factor,” he said.
In addition, he accused the allies of continuing their approach and reinforcing the presence of their military infrastructure near the Russian border, one of the arguments used at the time by Moscow to invade the neighboring country.
The Kremlin has been accusing NATO of participating “directly” in the war in Ukraine for months by supplying huge amounts of weapons to Kiev, which, according to Moscow, will not prevent its victory and will only prolong the conflict.
“The NATO countries, the Alliance itself, is not that it is constantly increasing (their presence), but that it has already been involved in the conflict in Ukraine,” Peskov said.
In turn, Moscow has condemned the comments of some European leaders – specifically, the French President, Emmanuel Macron – on the possible sending of troops to Ukraine, something that the White House has totally ruled out.
In fact, the Kremlin today denied “plans to make contacts at the highest level,” in particular with Macron.
“President Vladimir Putin remains open to dialogue with those who express an interest in developing relations with our country,” said Peskov, who reiterated that the president “always” is willing to sit down and negotiate “to solve the most complex global and regional problems.”
At the same time, Russia has denied plans to attack NATO member countries and that it has “aggressive intentions” against Poland and the Baltics.
“Now they say that Ukraine is about to lose, which cannot be allowed, since as soon as Ukraine loses, Russia will attack NATO. Our president has already said it, ‘silly and nonsense,’” said Sergey Lavrov, Russian Foreign Minister.
That does not detract from the fact that the Baltics have decided to strengthen security and that Finland and Sweden, neutral countries with pragmatic relations with Moscow for decades, decided to join NATO.
That is considered Putin’s biggest miscalculation, since Russia now has 1,300 kilometers more border with the Alliance than before the war.
The brutal attack on March 22 against a concert hall on the outskirts of Moscow, which left 145 dead and highlighted the lack of foresight of the Russian security forces, has only exacerbated the tension.
The West warned about possible jihadist attacks two weeks in advance, warnings that were disqualified by Putin, who insists on the existence of a “Ukrainian print.”
“Russia behaves in such a way in the international arena that it can hardly be attacked by Islamic fundamentalists,” Putin said when meeting with the union members on Thursday.
The newspaper ‘The Washington Post’ reported that the United States even mentioned the Crocus City Hall as a possible target, news that was immediately branded as “disinformation” by Moscow.
“Today, Ukraine (…) has become an openly terrorist state,” Lavrov said.
Precisely, the defense ministers of Russia, Sergei Shoigu, and France, Sébastien Lecornu, addressed the fight against international terrorism on Wednesday in their first telephone conversation in a year and a half.
“France does not have any information that allows a link to be established between this attack and Ukraine. We ask Russia to stop manipulating,” said the official statement issued by Paris.
International
The United States accuses Russia of using chemical weapons against Ukraine
The U.S. State Department determined that Russia has used chemical weapons against Ukraine with agents that constitute a violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CAQ) and will impose sanctions on those responsible.
The United States determined that Russia has used chloropicrin, a pesticide used as a suffocating gas in World War I and banned internationally. He has used it in Ukraine to force the departure of troops from fortified positions.
For this reason, the United States has imposed new sanctions on individuals and organizations related to this use of chemical weapons.
“We make this determination, in addition to our conclusion that Russia has used riot control agents as a method of war in Ukraine, also a violation of the CAQ,” the State Department said.
The United States considers that the use of this chemical armament is not isolated and “is probably driven by the desire of the Russian forces to expel Ukrainian forces from fortified positions and achieve tactical advances on the battlefield.”
The Treasury and State Departments sanctioned two people, six Russian entities and four companies. All associated with Russia’s chemical and biological weapons programs.
Chloropicrin is used as a tear agent, but it is prohibited in armed conflicts. In a trench war you can’t escape its effects and you can suffocate.
International
Trump promises the largest deportation of migrants in history, “they are going to destroy the country”
The former president of the United States and Republican pre-candidate Donald Trump promised to carry out the “highest deportation” of migrants in the country’s history if he returns to the White House after the elections on November 5, because “they are going to destroy the country.”
“Allowing the entry through the southern border of millions and millions of people, many of them very bad, is not sustainable. They are going to destroy the country. We are going to do the biggest deportation in history. We have no other choice,” he said at a campaign rally in Waukesha, in the key state of Wisconsin.
The former president once again accused his rival, Democratic President Joe Biden, of having applied an open border policy during the last four years that has resulted in an “invasion” of migrants.
Trump made these statements a day after an interview with Time magazine was published in which he detailed that he plans to deploy the Army to persecute and detain undocumented migrants if he wins the elections.
In the same interview, he did not rule out the possibility of building new migrant detention camps. Although he did not point it out as a priority since his plan is to deport them quickly.
Trump, who won the elections in 2016 after promising to build a wall on the border with Mexico, has put migration back at the center of his campaign, which has become one of the issues of greatest concern for voters.
The Republican took advantage of a pause in the open criminal trial he has in New York to campaign in Wisconsin and Michigan. Places where he is practically tied with Biden in the polls.
The New York tycoon already visited these two states in the midwest of the country in April and then also insisted on the issue of migration, since he accused the current president of having caused a “bloodbath at the border.”
The Biden Administration annulled Trump’s policy that facilitated the return of hot migrants. It launched humanitarian permit programs for people from several countries, while restricting asylum applications at the border.
More than two million people were arrested last year when crossing the southern border of the United States irregularly.
International
‘Gaby’ Carrizo, the unpopular ruling presidential candidate for the Presidency of Panama
José Gabriel Carrizo, the current Panamanian vice president, better known as ‘Gaby’, aspires to the historic Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) to lead Panama again for another five years after next Sunday’s elections, in which he participates with low popularity rates.
Carrizo, the ruling party’s candidate for the Presidency in conjunction with the Molinera party, and who this Wednesday closes his campaign in Panama City, is at the queue of the polls among the five candidates with options, although the strong base of the PRD in the country, the party of the iconic general Omar Torrijos, cannot be underestimated.
The polls that ‘Gaby’ does lead are those of rejection, with between 50% and 60% of the participants in some surveys who assured that they would “never” vote for him.
“Don’t eat a story (…) we are going to win the elections in a forceful way,” Carrizo said on Wednesday at the closing ceremony of the campaign before a mass of members of the PRD, and assured that the polls “really that they do not want to publish” predict that triumph.
A lawyer by profession, he has been a member of the majority party of Panama since 2007 and in 2019 he became the youngest vice president in Panamanian history at just 36 years old, after Laurentino Cortizo won that year’s elections.
‘Gaby’, 40, has had a lot of visibility within the Executive, which has led to it being popularly pointed out as one of the main faces behind the different scandals that have enveloped the current Government since its inception and that increased with the COVID-19 pandemic.
That year, Carrizo defended the transparent management of the $1,457 million approved during 2020 to combat the pandemic in Panama.
Carrizo has also had a step run over by the presidential debates or during interviews with some media, when making mistakes when explaining his proposals, defending for example that “Panama is safer than France” or that they want to “pass Panama from the first world to the third world.”
This triggered a wave of jokes on social networks that the same candidate used in his favor to campaign with humor, a tone of his political strategy.
In the third and final debate he made the decision not to participate, arguing that José Raúl Mulino, candidate who leads the polls for the Realizing Goals party and substitute for the disabled former President Ricardo Martinelli (2009 – 2014), did not join the debate, as he had not done in the previous ones.
“In the case of the vice president candidate, I think he was looking for an excuse not to come because the last interventions have really been disastrous for him,” José Blandón, the running mate for vice president of Rómulo Roux of Democratic Change, told EFE after the debate.
The youngest of the eight candidates for the Presidency, starts with his main proposal to reduce the working week by maintaining 40 hours in fewer days, a system similar to the one already implemented in some European countries: “Work four days, pound three,” he says on his advertising posters and social networks.
Carrizo has given continuous mass baths in the provinces of Panama during his campaign explaining his electoral promises, which include that cut in working days, salary increases – including for security groups -, free medicines and promotion of tourism, among others.
“When you ask how much 4×8 is (referring to the ruling you had in one of the debates by saying 40 and not 32) answer that there are a thousand sticks (tickets) for your pocket,” the candidate shouts eagerly in one of his videos.
The United States accuses Russia of using chemical weapons against Ukraine
Trump promises the largest deportation of migrants in history, “they are going to destroy the country”
‘Gaby’ Carrizo, the unpopular ruling presidential candidate for the Presidency of Panama
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