RUSSIA & NOVOROSSIYA

JOHN HELMER—In his opening Steenhuis claimed it was forbidden to make video recordings for re-broadcast. The lack of a document or film archive means the Dutch are restricting the press to presence at a designated courtroom in the Schiphol building and to listen there, making notes as the proceedings unfold. The Dutch Government is also deciding who may attend from the press, and who may not. The court’s livestream link acknowledges it is live; no recovery is possible, officially.  

MoA—President Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey and President Vladimir Putin of Russia met today in Moscow. They had a 160 minute long talk under 4 eyes and another round with their relevant staff. The parties agreed on a new ceasefire in Idleb governorate.

GEORGE ELIASON—This is the first interview in what will be an ongoing series covering all the different aspects of nation-building in both Lugansk People’s Republic and Donetsk People’s Republic.”  The series will cover the problems both young countries are facing as they develop and the solutions both republics are implementing. Beginning with written interviews, this series will also include video interviews and reports. Follow-up interviews will show progress and setbacks the republics are facing and explore why.

MoA—The Pentagon announced that it will not provide air support to Turkey. It will also not send any Patriot air defense to Syria but President Trump promised to ask other NATO countries to do so. They are likely to deny the request. It seems that Pentagon has won the fight with the State Department which supported the Turkish push for protection.

The Turkish president Erdogan said that Turkey has no “particular problem” with Russian and Iran aligned forces in Idleb. This comes after Iran and Hizbullah had warned that Turkish troops in their now surrounded ‘observation posts’ would be easy targets. The Turkish units which have invaded Idleb were quiet today.

WHITNEY WEBB—Though the exact motivation behind the military’s interest in such technology is unknown, the Pentagon has been open about the fact that it is devoting much of its resources towards the containment of what it considers the two greatest threats to U.S. military hegemony: Russia and China. China has been cited as the greatest threat of the two by several Pentagon officials, including John Rood, the Pentagon’s top adviser for defense policy, who described China as the greatest threat to “our way of life in the United States” at the Aspen Security Forum last July.