Author: Vasil Iarajuli

Ankara (17/12 – 60). Turkish Defense Minister Yasar Guler said on December 15 that Turkey is willing to provide military training for Syria’s army if requested by the country’s new authorities. “[Turkey] is ready to provide the necessary support if the new administration requests it,” Guler said. Despite Ankara denying that it provided support for Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) — a designated terrorist group that led the overthrow of former dictator Bashar al-Assad’s regime earlier this month — President-elect Donald Trump characterized the post-Assad situation as an “unfriendly takeover” by Turkey during a news conference on December 16. In a…

TBILISI, Georgia (AP) — Police and demonstrators scuffled again Tuesday in Georgia’s capital as officers moved before dawn to break up a camp protesting the results of last month’s parliamentary election and demanding a new vote. Thousands of people later returned and set up camp again. The round-the-clock protest in Tbilisi follows the Oct. 26 election that kept the governing Georgian Dream party in power. Opponents say the vote was rigged and suspect neighboring Russia’s influence. Many Georgians viewed the election as a referendum on the country’s effort to join the European Union. As police moved to disperse the camp on a central…

It was bitter cold, but I don’t remember freezing or being cold. Hemingway wrote that the air was so cold when you took a breath it was like drinking water. We travelled by train, then we walked through the cold streets, no bus was running, we had to hustle to catch the last ride up the mountain, then it was up to the mountain, bundled up in two thick woolen blankets with the snow showering us. It was warm looking out of the peep hole I created, flying up the mountains sitting on the last ride of the day. The…

London 30 October (20). In 2014, Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula. That same year, Russian special operation forces captured Donetsk and Luhansk, two of the main cities in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine and created puppet pro-Russian regimes there to further destabilize Ukraine. Media, academic and general coverage of the War on the Doorsteps of Europe received shock, disbelief and a bizarre debate on the greatness of the Russian Federation. In particularly a German article received my attention which ought to be considered. The Russian Federation is morally bankrupt. Regardless of the BRICS meetings and the self-flagellation of its…

The Ukrainian project “I Want to Live” on Oct. 23 called on North Korean soldiers to surrender to Ukrainian forces in a new Korean-language video. Launched in September 2022 by Ukraine’s Main Directorate of Intelligence, the 24-hour “I Want to Live” hotline helps Russian soldiers willingly surrender themselves or their units to the Ukrainian army. The Russian military is promised that after surrender, they will be held in compliance with the Geneva Conventions. “You must not die senselessly in a foreign land. You must not repeat the fate of hundreds of thousands of Russian soldiers who will never return home!” the…

Saudi Arabia’s plan to increase crude production could seriously undercut Russia’s fossil fuel revenues needed for its war against Ukraine, Politico reported on Oct. 3. Riyadh plans to abandon its unofficial price target of $100 per barrel and drive up production to ensure its dominant position in the global market, even at the cost of dropping oil prices, the Financial Times reported last week, citing its sources. Russia is greatly reliant on oil and gas profits, which have represented almost one-third of the country’s total federal revenue in 2023 and 42% in 2022. Fossil fuel profits thus play a key role in funding Russia’s expensive war machine.…

Sanjiva Weerawarana is a Sri Lankan success story. He founded enterprise software firm WSO2 in 2005, got it close to $100 million in ARR as its CEO, then sold it to private equity firm EQT for $600 million in May. He sometimes drives for Uber, too. Sri Lanka isn’t renowned for its startup ecosystem, but one company has been something of an outlier in the South Asian island nation these past two decades. WSO2, an open source enterprise software provider with customers such as Samsung, Axa, and AT&T, recently agreed to be acquired by private equity giant EQT, at a valuation TechCrunch reported at the time…

‘The logic of retaliation had to be abandoned, and civilian populations had to be protected,’ Macron tells his Iranian counterpartFrance urged Iran on Wednesday to do everything in its power to avoid a new military escalation in the region. French President Emmanuel Macron expressed his deep concern over the rising tensions in the region in a phone call to Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, according to a statement by the French Foreign Ministry. Macron called on Pezeshkian “to do everything in his power to avoid a new military escalation, which would be in nobody’s interest, including Iran’s, and which would do…

Dozens of Russian military personnel are being trained in Iran to use the Fath-360 close-range ballistic missile system, two European intelligence sources said, adding that they expected the imminent delivery of hundreds of the satellite-guided weapons to Russia for its war in Ukraine. Russian defence ministry representatives are believed to have signed a contract on Dec. 13 in Tehran with Iranian officials for the Fath-360 and another ballistic missile system built by Iran’s government-owned Aerospace Industries Organization (AIO) called the Ababil, said the two intelligence officials, who requested anonymity in order to discuss sensitive matters. Citing multiple confidential intelligence sources,…

Beijing, Dushanbe announced upgrading of diplomatic relations. Chinese President Xi Jinping has promised to defend the “territorial integrity” of Tajikistan as he announced a boost to diplomatic relations with the neighbouring country on a rare visit. Xi arrived in the Tajik capital Dushanbe, Thursday night from Kazakhstan following a gathering of leaders of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), during which he held talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin and urged the bloc to “resist external interference”. Central Asia is a vital link in China’s flagship Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a massive infrastructure project that Beijing has used to expand…