DAILY GEOPOLITICAL INSIGHTS: The Daily Geopolitical News Roundup & Analysis for Wednesday 13th July 2023
DAILY GEOPOLITICAL INSIGHTS: The Daily Geopolitical News Roundup & Analysis including the NATO Summit, Russia & China …
13th July 2023
DAILY GEOPOLITICAL INSIGHTS: The Daily Geopolitical News Roundup & Analysis including the NATO Summit, Russia, China
Good Morning from the GEÓ Newsroom in Gibraltar. While the analysts and industry pundits prepare to mull over the outcome of the NATO Summit in Vilnius, predictably Russia has honed in on US President Joe Biden’s closing statement.
NATO & Russia
The US President stated that Russian President Vladimir Putin had a “craven lust for land and power” and had badly misjudged the resolve of the military bloc (NATO) to support Ukraine. “When Putin, and his craven lust for land and power, unleashed his brutal war on Ukraine, he was betting NATO would break apart … But he thought wrong,” He went on to say “NATO is stronger, more energised and yes, more united than ever in its history. Indeed, more vital to our shared future.”
Following on from the Vilnius Summit and in an act of solidarity Biden flew to Helsinki at the start of a five day trip around Europe. While in Finland he will meet with the country’s president, Sauli Niinistö, as well as leaders from other Nordic nations including Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Iceland.
Finland joined as NATO’s newest member earlier this year, an entry that effectively doubled the alliance’s border with Russia and neighbour Sweden is poised to join NATO as its 32nd member country in a good old fashioned “quid pro quo” after it pledged that it would increase cooperation with Turkey on counterterrorism efforts while backing Ankara’s bid to join the European Union.
´Abandon Plans´
This kind of “inflammatory” talk is guaranteed to have Putin incandescent with rage prompting his Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to say there will no end to the Ukraine War while the west maintains its ambition to defeat Russia.
“The USA and its NATO satellites are creating the risk of a direct military confrontation with Russia and this can have catastrophic consequences,” Lavrov said in an interview with the Russian online newspaper Lenta.ru.
His rhetoric was echoed by Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy secretary of Russia’s Security Council, warned that assistance for Ukraine from NATO members brought the threat of a third global conflict closer.
The Wagner Group
It is being widely reported across the wires that Russia´s Defence Ministry has said that Wagner Group mercenaries are towing the party line and have nearly completed the handover of their weapons after the Groups troops supported their leader and “marched on Moscow”
The disarming of Wagner is surely just for Putin to save face with the Russian people who are becoming increasingly vocal about Putin´s lack of strength and direction as leader with many saying its a matter of months before the diminutive despot is replaced. On the downside for Russia this surely signals an end to the mercenary group’s operations on the battlefield in Ukraine and in our opinion they were the only “Credible Force”
Where is Yevgeny Prigozhin ?
Meanwhile, and on the subject of Wagner, our man in Moscow has reported that there is continued uncertainty about the fate of the Mercenary Group´s Chief – Yevgeny Prigozhin and the exact terms negotiated by Belarus President
Exactly what the fate of the former confident will be is anybody’s guess right now-Under the deal brokered by Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, Prigozhin would go to neighbouring Belarus, which has supported Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The official line from Belarus was that charges against Prigozhin of mounting an armed rebellion were supposed to have been dropped according to Putin to “Save Bloodshed” but will they be? – Unlikely with Putin´s reputation for meting out “Death Warrants” to all those who have been disloyal to him
Joe Biden Image Credit: U.S. Commission on Civil Rights
Wagner Group Image Credit: RG72
DAILY GEOPOLITICAL INSIGHTS: The Daily Geopolitical News Roundup & Analysis including NATO, Russia & China
