editdos:And it was 7:00:24 EDT that AM and Max , from a distance greater than 3,000 miles did hit the "submit" button at precisely the same moment on the same thread:)
it's an epiphany, now what were we saying?(vbg) wellesianlamontaineruminantwantstosavvysabewhatevermortimersnerddidit---honest:)
Russian and Chinese commanders laid wreaths at a war memorial Russian and Chinese armed forces have begun their first joint exercises, involving some 10,000 personnel.
Marines will storm beaches, to be joined by paratroopers in a mock invasion of an imaginary country.
The eight-day operation got under way in Vladivostok, in Russia's far east, with consultations between military delegations from the two countries.
Analysts say the two sides are signalling they are prepared to counter US dominance in international affairs.
The manoeuvres are being watched closely by Washington, but the US has not chosen to send official observers.
"We are following the exercises," US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said this week.
"We expect that they will be conducted in a manner that supports some mutual goal of regional stability shared by the United States, China and Russia."
They will be also be monitored in Taiwan, which China regards as a renegade province.
'No threat'
But China and Russia have stressed that the exercises, dubbed Peace Mission 2005, are not designed to intimidate.
"Our exercises don't threaten any country," General Yuri Baluyevsky, the head of the Russian armed forces general staff, told a news conference in Vladivostok.
General Liang Guanglie, chief of the general staff of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, said they were designed to "protect peace and stability in our region and the whole world".
He said they were part of the "fight against international terrorism, separatism and extremism".
He denied the two countries were planning some kind of military union.
The exercises, involving air, sea, and ground units, involve mainly Chinese troops and will climax next week with an amphibious and paratroop landing on China's Shandong peninsula in the Yellow Sea.
Heralding the start of the drills, the Russian and Chinese commanders laid wreaths at a World War II memorial in Vladivostok before a Russian honour guard, and veterans from both countries also placed flowers there.
Moscow (AFP) Aug 17, 2005 Russia plans another substantial increase in defense spending next year to pay for across-the-board military upgrades, development of new weapons systems and improved social benefits for defense-sector employees, news agencies said Wednesday.
A draft 2006 budget allocates 668.3 billion rubles (24 billion dollars, 19.5 billion euros) for spending on national defense, an increase of nearly 22 percent on this year's defense budget and a figure equivalent to about 2.75 percent of Russia's projected gross national product.
The draft 2006 budget heralds a third consecutive year of significant increase in Russian defense spending in real terms, and came as President Vladimir Putin reiterated that upgrading the country's armed forces remained a priority of his presidency.
"I remember a time when ships stood idle in port, when planes did not fly. At the beginning of the 1990s, servicemen had their caps snatched off their heads when they rode on public transport," RIA-Novosti news agency quoted Putin as saying aboard a naval cruise in the Barents Sea on Wednesday.
"A lot has changed since then. ... Problems remain, but critical changes regarding the combat readiness of the armed forces have been made."
In the past two days, Putin has underscored the priority his administration attaches to rebuilding Russian defenses, breaking the sound barrier as he took the pilot's seat of a supersonic strategic bomber on Tuesday and attending strategic naval exercises on Wednesday.
The headline figure cited by Russian news agencies is dwarfed by basic US defense expenditure, which has been well in excess of 400 billion dollars for years and projected to rise by at least five percent in 2006 based on pending Pentagon budget requests.
The United States alone spends about as much on defense annually as all other countries of the world combined, according to independent international defense specialists.
Look at this battle shaping up. This is threatening to Russia, the littoral Caspian states and China, the entire area will be held hostage. Many of the following countries are SCO. Just a feeling, I think they will play along with the U.S. and switch to Russia and China whom they perceive as less demanding when the bombs start flying.
The Pentagon is to tighten control over Caspian and Russia will include the Caspian and Barents Seas in its national system of global control in the next two years, Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said. So you ask who will have control, Russia or the U.S.? #msg-7142644
Moscow is getting ready for the great war in Northern Caucasus. By the beginning of 2005 Moscow has concentrated 300 000 soldiers in Caucasus . Part of them, more than 100 000 (according to some data up to 200 000), are directly in the Chechen Republic .
In the beginning of 2006 the brigades and battalions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Northern Caucasus will be replaced with regiments and divisions. Instead of battalions with 600 trunks there will be regiments with 2000. Besides in Dagestan and Karachaevo - Circassia will be based 2 additional mountain brigades. Officially they will serve supposedly " for the protection of borders ". But actually the task of the mountain brigade in Karachaevo - Circassia consists in protection of the Black sea coast against attacks of mojaheds, and the brigade in Dagestan will defend the coast of Caspian sea from attacks of mojaheds from the Chechen Republic . #msg-7395990
Meanwhile Bush is backing the Chechens. #msg-4307815
On April 11, John J Fialka of the Wall Street Journal revealed that the US Department of Defense will spend $100 million over the next few years to establish the "Caspian Guard", a network of police forces and special operations units "that can respond to various emergencies, including attacks on oil facilities". Russia is also expanding its Caspian Fleet, as it too presses its claims to offshore fields in the region. Under such circumstances, it is all too easy to imagine how a minor confrontation could erupt into something much more serious, involving the US, Russia, Iran, and other countries. #msg-6368606
Russia has proposed a Caspian flotilla which would be a task group of the littoral states’ ships, and as such billed as a regional force. #msg-7000730
If Russia is forced into a war of any length in the Northern Caucasus and the U.S. sits on the sidelines there is the potential for Moscow to become sufficiently weakened and the U.S. will have an opportunity to take over the Caspian. Putin has to go in hot and heavy and then turn to the problem of the U.S. presence in Russia’s near abroad. It is imperative that China step in to help Russia and they have indicated they will do so.
Azerbaijan again is the key to taking over Iran.
What a mess!
-Am
Pentagon to tighten control over Caspian
18/08/2005 11:52 The US Department of Defense will oversee a $130 million effort over the next six years to bolster security in the Caspian Sea region, US military officials said. The United States, by implementing the program called the Caspian Guard Initiative focusing on Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, the two most Western-leaning countries in the area, aims to improve patrol services in the Caspian, ensure regional border security, prevent the flow of terrorists, arms and drugs, and promote overall stability, said lieutenant-colonel Scott Sweetser, who assisted in coordinating the program for the US European Command. "In 2004, special units of the European Command started training members of Azeri navy on intercepting terror and trafficking of drugs and weaponry through the Caspian as part of the Caspian Guard program. Future training will include border patrol."
The US hopes to build command-and-control centers as well as centers directing air and maritime security operations in both countries, Sweetser told US Stars and Stripes military newspaper.
Sweetser said the United States also built an interim maritime command and control center in Baku which it hopes to expand.
Azerbaijan is of particular interest to the United States, as it borders on Russia in the north, with the nearby Chechnya region, and Iran to the south, which makes it a potential transit territory for terrorists, he said. "Also important are energy projects on transportation of hydrocarbons from Baku to Tbilisi and Turkey. Protection of natural resources is therefore an integral part of the Caspian Guard program as well."
Sweetser did not rule out that the Caspian Guard may be expanded in the coming years.
The 'expansion' probably implies drawing Turkmenistan to the program, as the other two Caspian littoral states - Russia and Iran - are highly unlikely to join it. Russia is the United States' rival for influence in the region, while Iran is seen by the US as a country with nuclear and terror threat.
The interests of the United States in the region develop as Azerbaijan asserts itself as a key player in reducing US dependence on Middle East oil. The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan main export pipeline launched this year is considered crucial in this respect, according to news reports.
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