"America has a message for countries and companies doing businesses with Russia: You’re with us or against us": Will it work? Battlefield metrics
When I see this headline, and I wonder what people are to make of it, the situation is that Russia right now is regressing into a purely North Korean Mode of Putin style Russian Juche, with all the horrors that implies, while regressing into a low tech war where the use of later era Warsaw pact equipment, but also some vintage world war II tanks will be used as modern human wave assaults in lieu of anything else
Where we see the tipping point The US demands are laid out as follows:
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1. Continue to provide Moscow with material support or
2. Keep doing business with countries that represent 50 percent of the global economy.
Those are the choices to be laid out, senior Treasury officials told reporters on a call Friday. They spoke on the condition of anonymity to preview the travel plans.
Treasury officials Liz Rosenberg and Brian Nelson — specialists in sanctions and terrorist financing — will travel to Europe this month to meet with leaders of financial institutions in Switzerland, Italy and Germany. They plan to share intelligence on potential sanctions evaders and to warn of the potential penalties for failure to comply with international sanctions.
Rosenberg will also make a stop in the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan to urge the country’s private businesses not to provide material or intelligence support to the Kremlin. Earlier this year, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken?visited?Kazakhstan to pledge U.S. support for its independence and to stress the importance of respect for “sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence.”
Central Asian states?have been neutral?on Ukraine, neither supporting Russia’s invasion nor U.S. and Western condemnations of the war.
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Putin is betting upon Western collapse, even if he loses 1 million casualties. Minding that, the fence sitting in Central Asia and other places will be affected by this event
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Ukraine is training eight new military units called 'storm brigades' comprised of 40,000 soldiers as part of the planned counter-offensive attack against Russia in the near future,?according to a new report by Reuters.?
As Russia continues its attacks in?eastern Ukraine,?Kyiv has bolstered its recruiting campaigns in order to attract new volunteers.?
"I want the war to be over as soon as possible, and I hope the strike brigade will make it happen a lot faster," Aleks, a translator with no prior military experience, told Reuters at an undisclosed location in Ukraine. Aleks did not give his last name for security reasons.?
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In short, battlefield metrics by June will determine which way countries from Central Asia and beyond now respond as to the choice of either Russia or its opponents in the next several months
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America has a message for countries and companies still doing businesses with Russia: You’re with us or against us
Central Asian states have been neutral on Ukraine, neither supporting Russia’s invasion nor U.S. and Western condemnations of the war.
BY?FATIMA HUSSEIN??AND??THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
April 07, 2023 4:40 PM EDT
Top sanctions officials from the U.S. Treasury Department plan special international trips this month to pressure firms and countries still doing business with Russia to cut off financial ties because of the?war on Ukraine.
The message is that those working with Russia’s government must decide:
1. Continue to provide Moscow with material support or
2. Keep doing business with countries that represent 50 percent of the global economy.
Those are the choices to be laid out, senior Treasury officials told reporters on a call Friday. They spoke on the condition of anonymity to preview the travel plans.
Treasury officials Liz Rosenberg and Brian Nelson — specialists in sanctions and terrorist financing — will travel to Europe this month to meet with leaders of financial institutions in Switzerland, Italy and Germany. They plan to share intelligence on potential sanctions evaders and to warn of the potential penalties for failure to comply with international sanctions.
Rosenberg will also make a stop in the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan to urge the country’s private businesses not to provide material or intelligence support to the Kremlin. Earlier this year, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken?visited?Kazakhstan to pledge U.S. support for its independence and to stress the importance of respect for “sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence.”
Central Asian states?have been neutral?on Ukraine, neither supporting Russia’s invasion nor U.S. and Western condemnations of the war.
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Senior Treasury officials on Friday pointed to Russia’s slowing economic growth as a sign that efforts to sanction Russian oligarchs and large swaths of the Russian economy have been successful. The?value of the ruble?also is falling.
Officials credit the?oil price cap plan?that was rolled out at the end of 2022 among Group of Seven countries in an effort to clamp down on Vladimir Putin’s access to cash as he wages war on Ukraine.
The countries have agreed to pay $60 per barrel for Russian oil. The intention is to deprive Putin of money to keep prosecuting the war while still allowing oil to flow out of Russia and help to keep global prices low.
Thus far, the U.S. and allies have directly sanctioned more than 2,500 Russian firms, government officials, oligarchs and their families. The sanctions block them from access to American bank accounts and financial markets, preventing them from doing business with Americans, traveling to the U.S. and more.
On the anniversary of the invasion, the U.S. began taking aim at entities that helped Russia evade earlier rounds of sanctions. Russia’s metals and mining sectors are also among those targeted in what Treasury has called one of the most significant sanctions actions to date.
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Also
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Ukraine is training 40,000 'storm brigade' troops to strengthen the planned counter-offensive against Russia
Isobel van Hagen?Apr 8, 2023, 8:36 AM
Ukraine is training eight new military units called 'storm brigades' comprised of 40,000 soldiers as part of the planned counter-offensive attack against Russia in the near future,?according to a new report by Reuters.?
As Russia continues its attacks in?eastern Ukraine,?Kyiv has bolstered its recruiting campaigns in order to attract new volunteers.?
"I want the war to be over as soon as possible, and I hope the strike brigade will make it happen a lot faster," Aleks, a translator with no prior military experience, told Reuters at an undisclosed location in Ukraine. Aleks did not give his last name for security reasons.?
Dmytro, another recruit who previously worked in a currency exchange office, said, "I wanted to join even more because I want revenge, as harsh as it may sound in the 21st century. We have to get revenge for all our people, for the murdered children."
The recruitment campaign for new brigades, drafted by the Interior Ministry rather than the army, began in February, according to the news outlet.?
The new military units will fight with the Ukrainian army, but it will take up to four months to train those without any previous military experience, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko told Reuters. Former police officers or soldiers could be trained in two months, he said.?
2.5% of the brigades were made up of female fighters, he added.?
"For them, the objective is to liberate Ukraine," Klymenko said in an interview in Kyiv. "We are writing the great history of our state for many future decades."
Late last month, in a secret location, members of the "Border of Steel" brigade were trained in target practice, flying drones, and rescuing injured soldiers.?
The other brigades are named Hurricane, Spartan, Chervona Kalyna, Frontier, Rage, Azov, and Kara Dag — a mountain in?Crimea.
More than a year into Russia's invasion of the country,?a counter-offensive operation?is considered crucial for Ukraine. If the fighters are unable to take back territory from occupying Russian troops, it could prompt Western allies to propose negotiations between Kyiv and Putin's regime.??
Valeriy Padytel, commander of Border of Steel, would not hint at when they would launch their attack: "We will keep training, will train all the time while the brigade is being formed and while we are waiting for battle orders," he told Reuters.
Andrew Beckwith , PhD