(March 10, 2026)
For Russia, which remains one of the world’s largest oil exporters despite Western sanctions following its invasion of Ukraine, the price rally directly translates into stronger state revenues.
Henning Gloystein, managing director for energy and resources at Eurasia Group, said Russia has “already hugely benefited” from the crisis after Washington granted India a temporary waiver allowing it to continue purchasing Russian crude.
(March 23, 2026)
The war in Iran is spiking global oil prices, and Russian President Vladimir Putin couldn’t be happier.
The war has bottled up one-fifth of the world’s oil, putting a premium on the remaining supply, including Russian barrels.
(March 3, 2026)
For long-range defence, Iran has developed the Bavar-373 which has comparable capabilities to the Russian S-300. For short range air defence, the country has reverse engineered the Chinese HQ-7 as the Ya Zahr, and in 2021 the Zoubin system was unveiled.
Besides these copy cat systems, the country also leans on ageing Russian air defences, most notably the S-300PMU-2 battery.
However, Israel destroyed a significant number of these components in October 2024 and again during the 12-Day War the following year. Worse still, the Israeli Defence Forces learned all they can about the system in 2015 during joint air drills with Greece, which formerly operated its predecessor, the S-300PMU-1.
The exercise allowed Israel to develop comprehensive electronic warfare (EW) technologies specifically designed to compromise radars like those used with S-300 batteries: the Icebreaker missile and Haroop loitering munitions.
(July 18, 2026)
Pakistan deployed the HQ-9 battery to Saudi Arabia in May 2026 under the Strategic Mutual Defence Agreement, according to the Times of Islamabad and The Daily Star. The system is operated exclusively by Pakistani military personnel — not Saudi or American crews — and functions as a standalone package integrated with Pakistan’s own command-and-control architecture rather than with Saudi Arabia’s existing air defense network, according to Defence Security Asia reporting from May 2026. The Jerusalem Post noted that Pakistan “deploys the defenses as part of a package because of their interoperability with other Pakistani systems,” a formulation that carries an embedded concession: the HQ-9 is not interoperable with anything else at the base.
(…)
The HQ-9 family’s combat record is now the most extensively documented peacetime marketing success that has failed every wartime test it has faced. During Operation Sindoor in May 2025, Indian Air Force Su-30MKI fighters launched two BrahMos-A air-launched cruise missiles at Pakistan’s Nur Khan Airbase near Rawalpindi, and Pakistan fired approximately 18 HQ-9B interceptors in response, according to Indian Defence Research Wing. The result was zero confirmed intercepts — both BrahMos missiles struck their targets, an 0-for-18 record that prompted Brandon J. Weichert, national security writer at The National Interest, to call the system “a Frankenstein’s Monster” reverse-engineered from Russian S-300 technology.
Trump has thanked China’s Xi Jinping and Russia’s Vladimir Putin for being “neutral” during the US-Israel war on Iran.
“I just want to thank them because they made it a lot better,” Trump said, adding that China was “terrific” and made efforts to help settle the conflict.
You are an idiot. And you‘re not alone with that. Even a small group of people out of the eight billion people on Earth could have stopped the West Asia War; the onslaught in Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Iran and even in Israel. But not a single parliament, lawmaker, NGO, journalist, or whatever-movement on Earth, not even the Good Guys, have been digging into the core of the issue; of what really happened.
And I can prove it.
(June 10, 2026)
„Just as we witnessed the liberation of Damascus, Aleppo, and Karabakh, God willing, one day we will also witness the liberation of Jerusalem,“ Interior Minister Mustafa Ciftci said during a speech at a conference.
„Just as in the past, those lands will be ours once again,“ Ciftci vowed, and said, „God willing, they will come under our sovereignty and dominion once more.“
„Because we have a global leader like Recep Tayyip Erdogan at our helm,“ he said. „A world leader.“
(June 10, 2026)
„Türkiye‘s security begins not in Hatay, but in Aleppo, Damascus and Beirut. Neither will we tolerate any faits accompli in our brothers‘ countries, nor will we turn a blind eye to aggression,“ he said, stressing that the country‘s security extends beyond its borders.
President Erdogan also referred to what he described as Israelis’ „delusion of the Promised Land,“ saying Türkiye was fully aware of its ultimate objective.
„By the will of God, we will never allow this,“ he said.
“The value is that you can move these quickly,” she said. “They are mobile launch systems, in some cases man-portable. We don’t know how high the Reaper was flying. Based on the released video, it may have been relatively easy for them to shoot down, but it still indicates they retain some remaining air defence capability.”
Iran’s larger air defence network has been badly damaged. It was built around older radar-guided surface-to-air missile systems, including domestically produced batteries and Russian-supplied missile defence systems such as the S-300. Israeli and US attacks are widely believed to have degraded much of that network.
(August 7, 2021)
Because they want to.
(August 28, 2025)
“Finally, something no one else has,” a Russian journalist says during a TV documentary on the country’s largest drone factory. “Such mass production of two-stroke engines doesn’t exist anywhere else in Russia.”
The factory in question, Alabuga, 600 miles east of Moscow in Russia’s Tatarstan region, has been pumping out increasing numbers of the Iranian-designed Shahed-136 attack drone (known in Russia as Geran), but the man behind the site believes this may be one of its greatest achievements.
(October 27, 2015)
In Russia, Eisenkot met with his Russian counterpart, General Valery Vasilevich Gerasimov – the first time chiefs of staff from Russia and Israel held a direct meeting in Moscow. Eisenkot also participated in part of the meeting held between Netanyahu and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Afterward, the two sides agreed to set up a joint working group led by the deputy chiefs of staff from each country.
(March 3, 2026)
Iranian air defence sites have been subjected to aggressive electromagnetic spectrum operations but in tandem, its defences have also been targeted kinetically.
(…)
For long-range defence, Iran has developed the Bavar-373 which has comparable capabilities to the Russian S-300. For short range air defence, the country has reverse engineered the Chinese HQ-7 as the Ya Zahr, and in 2021 the Zoubin system was unveiled.
Besides these copy cat systems, the country also leans on ageing Russian air defences, most notably the S-300PMU-2 battery.
Who do you not know!
On Jun 8, 2018, at 17:39, jeffrey E.
you do know that kathy ruemmler is my close buddy
(February 16, 2026)
Epstein was keen to profit from armed conflicts on the African continent. While negotiating DP World’s access to Nigeria, he was also helping Zeitlin navigate around U.S. sanctions on Ivan Glasenberg, the Israeli-South African CEO of mining giant Glencore, and Oleg Deripaska, then-chairman of the Russian aluminum titan Rusal. Glencore’s operations had been disrupted by a fraud probe into their dealings with Israeli mining kingpin Dan Gertler in Congo-Kinshasa. “Do you know Oleg Deripaska or Ivan Glasenberg?” Zeitlin asked Epstein. “Easy,” Epstein replied.
The American financier had deep ties to Israeli mining and military outfits in Africa, which he helped support alongside former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak—a close associate with whom Epstein corresponded almost daily. “With civil unrest exploding in ukraine syria, somolia, libya, and the desperation of those in power,” Epstein wrote in a 2014 email to Barak, “isn’t this perfect for you.” Barak replied, “You’re right [in] a way. But not simple to transform it into a cash flow.”
(August 7, 2021)
Weil sie es wollen.
(August 7, 2021)
Because they want to.
(January 29, 2026)
Sharaa told Putin that Russia „plays an important role in stabilising“ both Syria and the region as a whole.
Earlier this week, the Reuters news agency reported that Russia was withdrawing forces from Qamishli airport in northeast Syria, although it was expected to maintain its larger Hmeimim air base and Tartous naval facility on Syria‘s Mediterranean coast.
An unnamed Syrian source told Reuters that the withdrawal is likely a gesture of goodwill, and a way of signalling that Moscow does not wish to be dragged into the fighting between Syrian forces and the SDF.
However, it‘s no secret that Putin wishes to preserve Russian influence over Syria and its neighbours.
(September 12, 2025)
As I’ve discussed at length recently, we have already witnessed the death of the global trading system as we have known it. But this slide away from the rules-based system isn’t limited to trade. It is evident in the use of military force as well.
Three examples of unilateral military action over the past couple weeks are particularly instructive:
(…)
That is the real Hobbesian peril. Each of these actions can be seen as an isolated instance, but if one or two or three countries take kinetic action unilaterally, it risks creating a permission structure where others feel there are no guardrails to constrain them.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with President Trump yesterday in Mar-a-Lago to discuss how the Gaza ceasefire plan will move into the next phase. (…)
Trump said he was angry yesterday after Putin informed him about the alleged attack. Trump also acknowledged that no one has independently confirmed the incident.
(December 9, 2025)
A year after Israeli forces entered southern Syria, crossing into a UN buffer zone and in some cases beyond, its occupation remains and the frequency of the Israeli military raids on towns is increasing. An Israeli incursion in the town of Beit Jinn at the end of November left at least 13 Syrians dead, including two children.
Residents say they have traded the tyranny of Assad for a military occupation. Checkpoints are now operated by Israelis, not Assad officers. Night-time raids and phone searches continue.
(September 12, 2025)
As I’ve discussed at length recently, we have already witnessed the death of the global trading system as we have known it. But this slide away from the rules-based system isn’t limited to trade. It is evident in the use of military force as well.
Three examples of unilateral military action over the past couple weeks are particularly instructive:
(…)
That is the real Hobbesian peril. Each of these actions can be seen as an isolated instance, but if one or two or three countries take kinetic action unilaterally, it risks creating a permission structure where others feel there are no guardrails to constrain them.
(October 30, 2025)
Barak felt enormous urgency to secure a face-to-face meeting with Putin as soon as possible, before the conflict escalated further. Besides Epstein, he also requested comments from Ron Dermer, close confidante to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was preparing to become Israel’s next ambassador to the U.S. Barak wrote to Dermer, “i don’t care how you’ve corrected it. yours will be always better in clarity and conciseness than mine. try earlier. i don’t want events to overwhelm us.” Dermer swiftly returned a refined copy with more fluent English.
As was typical of Epstein’s style, he sent back a rough cut riddled with spelling and grammatical errors. Unlike Dermer’s narrower cut, Epstein significantly revised Barak’s piece, and added a new title: “Wait Until It’s Too Late.”
(November 12, 2025)
As the House of Representatives moves closer to forcing the release of the Epstein files by the Department feel Justice, we turn now to look at a new series by Drop Site News looking at Epstein’s ties to Israeli intelligence and how he secretly brokered numerous deals for Israeli intelligence.
On Tuesday, Drop Site revealed an Israeli spy stayed for weeks at a time with Epstein in Manhattan. Drop Site has also looked at Epstein’s role brokering a security agreement between Israel and Mongolia and Epstein’s role in setting up a backchannel between Israel and Russia on Syria.
Israel claims it has attacked Syria to protect its Druze minority, but analysts say its primary goal is to “divide and weaken” the country while expanding its hegemony in the Middle East.
Israel on Wednesday launched what it said were “dozens” of strikes across Syria, including in the capital, escalating a conflict with a fledgling government that was already grappling with domestic unrest in which scores of people have been killed.
Israel tied Wednesday’s strikes and others this week to that internal conflict, saying it was attacking forces of the new Islamist government to protect the Druze minority.
(March 14, 2016)
„We do have this kind of coordination to avoid misunderstanding and accidents,“ Yaalon explained in a speech at the Wilson Center. He described the mechanism as „very useful.“
Israel was one of the first countries to establish a military to military communication channel with Russia after Moscow announced its engagement in airstrikes in Syria this past September.
(October 27, 2015)
In Russia, Eisenkot met with his Russian counterpart, General Valery Vasilevich Gerasimov – the first time chiefs of staff from Russia and Israel held a direct meeting in Moscow. Eisenkot also participated in part of the meeting held between Netanyahu and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Afterward, the two sides agreed to set up a joint working group led by the deputy chiefs of staff from each country.
Bushehr is Iran‘s only operating nuclear power plant and was built by Russia. Located on the Gulf Coast, at Bushehr, Russian fuel is used and then taken back to Russia when its spent in order to reduce nuclear proliferation risk, reported Reuters.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia has up to 600 staff at Bushehr, including 250 permanent workers and others on temporary assignment. He said Israel had issued a promise to Russia over their safety.
(today)
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Aragchi plans to travel to Moscow on Monday, June 23, for talks with Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin. This was reported by NBC News journalist Andrea Mitchell, who spoke with the Iranian Foreign Minister, according to UNN.
(November 10, 2024)
Days later, Netanyahu and Putin — who have a long and, until recently, close friendship — discussed the S-400 sale as well as Russia’s involvement in Syria. The S-400 sale didn’t materialize, neither in 2020 nor to date, despite Iran’s pleadings over the subsequent years and Russia’s dependence on Iran for drones for its war with Ukraine.
Had Iran persuaded Russia to sell it the S-400, the Israel Air Force could have been hard-pressed to achieve mastery over Iran’s skies.
“A fly can’t buzz above Syria without Russian consent nowadays,” an Israeli defense official told the International Crisis Group after Russia installed and manned the S-400 in Syria, a long-standing Russian ally that Russia defends.
Speaking to Russia’s Izvestia newspaper on Friday, the country’s Permanent Representative to the International Organizations in Vienna, Mikhail Ulyanov, reaffirmed the Kremlin’s readiness to assist both Tehran and Washington in resolving their outstanding differences.
“The Russian Federation has repeatedly stated its readiness to assist Iran and the United States in reaching an agreement on nuclear issues,” the official said.
(November 10, 2024)
Days later, Netanyahu and Putin — who have a long and, until recently, close friendship — discussed the S-400 sale as well as Russia’s involvement in Syria. The S-400 sale didn’t materialize, neither in 2020 nor to date, despite Iran’s pleadings over the subsequent years and Russia’s dependence on Iran for drones for its war with Ukraine.
Had Iran persuaded Russia to sell it the S-400, the Israel Air Force could have been hard-pressed to achieve mastery over Iran’s skies.
“A fly can’t buzz above Syria without Russian consent nowadays,” an Israeli defense official told the International Crisis Group after Russia installed and manned the S-400 in Syria, a long-standing Russian ally that Russia defends.
(October 27, 2015)
In Russia, Eisenkot met with his Russian counterpart, General Valery Vasilevich Gerasimov – the first time chiefs of staff from Russia and Israel held a direct meeting in Moscow. Eisenkot also participated in part of the meeting held between Netanyahu and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Afterward, the two sides agreed to set up a joint working group led by the deputy chiefs of staff from each country.
The Gaza war and its aftermath in Lebanon and Syria seem to have strengthened the hands of Israel and Turkey, while weakening those of Iran and its allies. At the same time, the return of Trump appears to have brought the US even closer to Israel, and upped its opposition to Iran.
But how much this is truly a departure from the past should not be overstated. Most powers, such as in the Gulf and Egypt, have had to adapt to the new circumstances, but their policy positions have not drastically altered.
(December 13, 2012)
Die neuesten Äußerungen von Sergej Lawrows Stellvertreter, Mikhail Bogdanov, sind ein weiteres, unleugbares Anzeichen dafür, dass die derzeitige Regierung in Moskau, wenn nicht sogar Russlands Präsident Wladimir Putin, bei der laufenden Invasion und Zerschlagung Syriens durch Proxy-Armeen einfallender Militärmächte – namentlich der Türkei, Frankreich, U.S.A., Großbritannien, sowie diverser asiatischer Kirchenstaaten und Monarchien – aktiv oder passiv kollaboriert.
Following Assad’s downfall, Russia relocated its troops and assets from all over Syria to its main hub at the Hmeimim air base near Latakia. There has been no indication that Moscow was preparing to evacuate the Hmeimim base or the naval facility in Tartus altogether.