[AlAhram] Tajikistan checked the combat readiness of its armed forces in the biggest such exercise in the country's history as the Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... makes sweeping gains in neighbouring Afghanistan
The 230,000 members of the Central Asian country's security forces were alerted for the test at 4 am (0100 GMT Wednesday) on the order of President Emomali Rakhmon.
Dushanbe also relocated 20,000 troops to strengthen its force on the border with Afghanistan.
The Taliban in recent weeks have brought huge swathes of Afghanistan under their control as foreign troops draw down, including the main Shir Khan Bandar border crossing with Tajikistan.
The military inspection was the first of its kind in the ex-Soviet country's 30-year history.
It involved testing of all weapons used by the Tajik army, including ground, aviation and artillery forces.
The operation was broadcast on Tajik state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
and ended with a military parade headed by Rakhmon in which he called on Tajiks to be "ready to defend peace and stability" in the region.
"The situation in our neighbouring country -- the Islamic Theocratic Republic of Afghanistan -- especially in its northern regions that border our country -- remains extremely complex and uncertain," Rakhmon said.
"It is getting more complicated day by day and even hour by hour," he said.
He called on the armed forces and law enforcement agencies to "ensure the highest level of combat readiness to prevent potential threats" and to "ensure the protection of the state border".
Rakhmon, who has led Tajikistan since 1994, then spoke to his Russian ally, President Vladimir Putin ...President-for-Life of Russia. He gets along well with other presidents for life. He is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substance. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to him. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substances... The Kremlin said the pair discussed the situation in Afghanistan and that the phone call took place "on the initiative of the Tajik side".
The test comes after Russia said it would stage military drills with Tajikistan and Uzbekistan near the border with Afghanistan next month.
The Taliban's offensive has seen a stream of Afghans make their way across the Tajik border.
[SPUTNIKNEWS] Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has once again proposed a peace agreement to Armenia that will be based on respecting each other's territorial integrity and include delimitation of national borders."We have sent a note to Armenia, a [draft] peace agreement ... I have repeatedly said that we are ready and let us start the talks. Is the war over? Over! Do you want peace, Armenia? It seems that yes! Then why would not you like to sign a peace agreement! Recognize our territorial integrity, sign a peace agreement and settle the border delimitation issue. In this regard, our agenda is in line with the EU, Ottoman Turkish and Russian agenda," Aliyev told the Azerbaijani state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
on Thursday.
The president added that the risk of a new military conflict in the Nagorno-Karabakh region must be minimized.
The decades-long Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan flared up in late September, resulting in multiple military and civilian casualties on both sides. The hostilities ended after the sides agreed to a Russian-brokered ceasefire on November 9. The Armenian-backed self-proclaimed Republic of Artsakh lost huge territories as a result of the escalation of tensions. The ceasefire deal also resulted in the deployment of Russian peacekeepers to the region.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/23/2021 00:00 ||
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Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[FBwatch] Two Tu-160 strategic missile carriers of long-range aviation performed a planned flight in the airspace over the neutral waters of the Barents and Norwegian seas.
Fighter escort was provided by the crews of MiG-31 aircraft of the air force and air defence formation of the Northern Fleet.
Long-range aviation crews regularly fly over the neutral waters of the Arctic, the North Atlantic, the Black Sea and the Baltic Sea, the Pacific Ocean.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
...the Pashtun equivalent of men...
