www.zerohedge.com
Washington is trying to pressure Egypt into closing its airspace for all Russian military flights, but the regional US ally isn't having it, which also awkwardly comes following a recent Pentagon leak showing Cairo planned to supply Moscow with rockets.
"Egypt has ignored U.S. requests to close its airspace to Russian military flights, American and Egyptian officials said, testing the limits of Washington’s ability to choke off Moscow’s supplies ahead of an expected Ukrainian counteroffensive," The Wall Street Journal reports Friday.
"The U.S. and Ukraine persuaded countries including Turkey, Jordan and Iraq to cut access for at least some Russian military planes last year after the invasion of Ukraine, forcing Moscow’s aircraft to fly 2,000 extra miles and up to five hours further to reach strategic bases in Syria," the report continues.
Washington's concern is that Russia has likely been using Egyptian airspace to transport weapons from its arms depots elsewhere in the Middle East - for example in Syria where since 2015 it's had a significant military build-up, particularly focused along the coast.
Flight records cited in the WSJ report showed that at least seven such military flights which utilized this Syria route, before heading to Russia's Black Sea region.
Egypt over the past multiple decades has been just behind Israel as a top recipient of US foreign aid, to the tune of about $1.3 billion annually. In recent years Congress has made moves to withhold some of this if it doesn't better servce US interests. Washington has long propped up Egypt's military largely in order to keep the peace with Israel.
For example a State Department fact sheet has reviewed that "Since 1978, the United States has provided Egypt with over $50 billion in military and $30 billion in economic assistance."
Last month the Washington Post reported on a leaked slide which was part of the "Discord leaks" of Pentagon documents. The slide said that Sisi recently ordered production of up to 40,000 rockets to be covertly shipped to Russia.
he top secret document, dated to Feb. 17 of this year, included a summary of conversations between the Egyptian president Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and his senior military officials. "In the document, Sisi instructs the officials to keep the production and shipment of the rockets secret 'to avoid problems with the West,'" the Washington Post wrote. Artillery rounds and gunpowder were also mentioned.
Countries like Egypt (viewed as close American allies) caught shipping weapons into Russia would not only prove highly embarrassing for the Biden administration, but could possibly trigger US sanctions, or at least the freezing of defense aid to the country.
www.reuters.com
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Russian plans to build a unique multifunctional nuclear service vessel to support its ambitions to continue the growth of the Northern Sea Route through the Arctic. The order for the vessel was recently awarded to the JSC Baltiysky Zavod shipyard, part of the United Shipbuilding Corporation. Rosatomflot, which oversees shipping in the Arctic, plans to have the ship operational by 2029.
As part of its efforts to expand Arctic shipping, Russia is continuing to build a fleet of nuclear-powered icebreakers and ships. During a recent meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian leaders, they pointed out that the government is supporting the efforts highlighting that they have placed the nuclear-powered containership Sevmorput, a 34,600 dwt vessel carrying up to 1,324 TEU, in service on the NSR as well as commissioning a new nuclear-powered icebreaker Ural (7,154 dwt). They also thanked the government for the decision to proceed with the fifth and sixth icebreakers.
Rosatomflot’s vision for the new multipurpose vessel is to perform a range of support activities for the nuclear fleet. The vessel would provide for the recharging of the nuclear power plants on the existing icebreakers. It would also support Russia’s vision for the Akademik Lomonosov FNPP floating nuclear power plants.
“When building nuclear-powered icebreakers today, we must simultaneously think about how to efficiently and economically carry out their maintenance in 10, 20, 30 years,” said Alexei Rakhmanov, General Director of USC. “Starting to build a multifunctional nuclear-technological service vessel, we want to ensure the long and safe operation of nuclear-powered icebreakers, floating nuclear power units, and, in general, the entire Atomflot.”
The design concept calls for a vessel that would be used to recharge the reactors as well as to store both fresh and spent nuclear fuel. It would be able to accept, store, and distribute liquid radioactive waste generated during the operation of the ships and provide new nuclear fuel. The spent fuel would be assembled into shipping containers for transfer to reprocessing. The vessel would also handle the decontamination of removable equipment from the ships’ reactor plants and refueling equipment.
The plans developed by the Central Design Bureau call for a 22,661 dwt vessel. It will have an overall length of approximately 520 feet. It will operate at a speed of 12 knots and its hull will be ice reinforced.
The government will finance 50 percent of the construction cost. Rosatom will be responsible for the other half of the cost of construction. The construction contract was signed on May 25 by the Acting General Director of FSUE Atomflot and the JSC Baltiysky Zavod shipyard general director.
'Is Macron discretely begging Putin?'
'Putin: The destruction of US hegemony is inevitable.''Goodbye to US hegemony and hello to multipolar world': The neo-colonial system which exploits the resources of the whole world will be history, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.
24 May, 2023Fair multipolar world will be achieved – Putin
Russia and its international partners will build a fair multipolar world together, Russian President Vladimir Putin has saidwww.rt.com
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