Silent Lonesome Man

When the advisor to the Ukrainian government, Mikhaylo Podolyak, made his statement worrying about Russia's intention to scale back from original invasion, he had also mentioned that the Russian MP from Moscow requested Russia to "denazify" other countries like Poland, Moldova and the Baltics on his tweet. While how far real it is is much for debate, Podolyak's tweet actually struck to our mind: Putin is planning for a greater war, and for more destruction, probably all of Europe. But while the rest of Europe is worrying about being embroiled to war, another sign that China is planning for a future war has been ongoing. Like Russia, China is led by a powerful dictator, Xi Jinping, who has accumulated power similar to that of Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping, and maybe even more powerful than those two because he inherited a country, whose economy is standing 2nd in the world and deeply integrated globally, with a military far more powerful than that of Russia. Ever since

In 1997, a book was published with the support within the Russian Ministry of Defence. This book was written by Alexander Dugin, a neo-fascist and ultranationalist Russian, whose worldview has been skewed and one-sided at best. But his book has become one of the best sellers within Russia and it has become the powerful tool of Russian military and political education that would go on to dominate the Russian government for next decades. That book? Foundations of Geopolitics. The book, written by Dugin, underlined one thing: alliances and annexation. In Dugin's argument, Russia's future has to be dictated in the hand of strongman, and to rout out every kind of American and British influence. He also called for Europe to be settled under Russian term, meaning Finlandisation, while encouraged, at least, the regimes of Turkey, Iran and China to be freed of doing actions as long as they don't antagonise Russia. To make the explanation short: Dugin encouraged Russia to take firmer

“Who wishes to fight must first count the cost.” - Sun Tzu. “No battle was ever won according to plan, but no battle was ever won without one.” - Dwight Eisenhower. When China has been doing in South China Sea is now seen as " the largest military buildup since the World War II ", it can be understood that the Chinese state is planning for a total war. China's growing efforts to militarise its disputed territories came with no surprise. The Chinese are watching the war in Ukraine, where its ally, Vladimir Putin's Russia, has waged against since 23 February. Initially, Beijing expected Russia would make a swift blitzkrieg to conquer Ukraine, taking Kyiv with little bloodshed. One another thing for China to watch the Russian invasion was, if it could help the United States feel distracted and would halt its pivot to Asia, China could enhance its power in Asia. A Russian victory would've been even more to celebrate for China, if it could have really happened. However

On 29 May 2013, in the port city of Cam Ranh, the Vietnamese People's Armed Forces issued its declaration, establishing the country's first-ever submarine force. The submarine force Vietnam established was part of the country's ongoing modernisation effort, to catch up with its Southeast Asian neighbours that have the same force earlier, and also to deal with the much stronger Chinese submarine force. But while the submarine force was established in 2013, it was not until 15 January 2014, that Vietnam officially received the first submarine. A Kilo-class made. The Kilo class submarine was built by none other but Russia, the country that Vietnam has a good, old relationship. Vietnam bought the submarine squad in 2009 as part of their contract with Rosoboronoexport, and its future sailors were educated by the Russians. It succeeded just that. By that time, Vietnam had yet to get American lethal arms, due to weapon embargo imposed on her following the Vietnam War. Fast forwar

Already we have seen how the situation played out, already two teams have booked places in Qatar, and there shall be a potential third, fourth and maybe a fifth to qualify. Group A Lebanon vs Syria Lebanon 's 1-1 draw to Iraq in Sidon had effectively crippled the Lebanese from dreaming further for the World Cup, as their distance with the UAE is now just a win. However, Lebanon can still think about it, in case the Lebanese can ever obtain wins in the next two games while the UAE fail against Iraq and South Korea. This is possible for the first task, as the upcoming opponent for Lebanon is Syria , a team that has been, alongside Iraq, winless after eight games. This is the chance for Lebanon to gain their first-ever home win, already been beaten painfully by Iran, South Korea, the UAE before only won a point after facing Iraq. While the H2H is not totally favourable, with just five wins out of 24 meetings, the Lebanese have been undefeated against Syria since 2013 (3W, 1D). With Vi

Recent reports from various media outlets indicated that growing dissatisfaction toward the Joe Biden Administration among the Saudi government of the young Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman has led the Crown Prince to shun the U.S. President. This is extremely relevant when Putin's Russia waged an invasion on Ukraine, when the Crown Prince, by a shock move, ghosted Biden but responded to a call by the Russian dictator. Riyadh has demonstrated clearly that it will not respond to any American attempt calling for help unless the United States realigned its policy to Saudi interests, and to further enhance the economic threat, Saudi Arabia has even extended its invitation to Chinese leader Xi Jinping to visit the country and moving toward using Chinese yuan in foreign trade exchange instead of U.S. dollar. President Biden could only make calls with the Crown Prince's father, King Salman . Yet the move of MBS could not come at the time when everything is not in favour of the Crown

When we look at various internet websites, notably YouTube or Twitter, about the recent Russian invasion of Ukraine, one of the surprise supporters of Russia invading Ukraine come from Africa. To be precise, many Africans, in particular, support Russia from the first days because of historical involvement in the continent. Yet, it is too easy to judge that the Russian assault on Ukraine is echoed by Africans, if you are too blind of geography. The continent is not monolith, and Africans are not just the dark-skinned. It also included the Afro-Malay sea surfers in East Africa, Arabised Blacks from Niger-Congo delta, the lively Southern African tribes with their warrior mentality, and even the North Africans of Amazigh, Arab and partially Turkish/European origins. Failure to understand that not all Africans supporting Russia may have exacerbated the differences, not just between Africa and the West, but also between Africans themselves. Sadly, these divisions have been long, if not sayin

When Ukraine's Active Group released their survey about how do Russians view their country's invasion of its neighbour Ukraine, the result was a massive shock: 86.6% of Russians tolerate and support the potential assault on the territory of the European Union. In addition, the other results as followed could also examine this: 75.5% of Russians approve the idea of a military invasion in the next country. Moreover, according to the survey, 75% of respondents tolerate to a varied extent the use of nuclear weapons by their government. Only 13.4% of Russians have a negative attitude to the military invasion in other countries, 46% of respondents are absolutely sure that the Russian government should attack the EU, and 40.6% assume a permissible expansion of hostilities. In the same survey, three countries that according to the poll will be targeted by Russia are: Poland (75.5%), the Baltic countries, among which Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia (41%), Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Slova