Russia's military building up at Finland's border over potential NATO clash, WSJ reports
These efforts include expanding military bases near the Russian city of Petrozavodsk, around 160 kilometers (100 miles) east of Finland, the planned site for a new headquarters that could potentially command tens of thousands of troops, the outlet wrote.
Western military and intelligence officials are reportedly warning that these units could form the "backbone" of Russia's forces preparing to confront NATO.
Since the start of Russia's all-out war against Ukraine, NATO officials have increasingly warned Moscow could launch aggression against the alliance's members in the coming years.
Finland, which shares a 1,300-kilometer (800-mile) border with Russia, has accused Moscow of ramping up hybrid operations against the Nordic country since it joined NATO in 2023.
Russia's military is currently heavily engaged in Ukraine, suffering massive losses in manpower and equipment. This has forced Moscow to redeploy forces from other areas over the past years, with a media investigation saying last June that most of the Russian ground units previously stationed near Finland were dispatched to Ukraine.
Christopher Cavoli, commander of U.S. forces in Europe, nevertheless warned earlier this month that Russia is rebuilding its forces much faster than previously anticipated.
"Despite extensive battlefield losses in Ukraine, the Russian military is reconstituting and growing at a faster rate than most analysts had anticipated," Cavoli told a U.S. Senate committee.
According to the general, the U.S. expects Russia to produce 250,000 artillery shells per month, which could help it build a stockpile three times larger than the U.S. and Europe combined.
Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov said last December that Russia must be ready for a potential conflict with NATO in the next 10 years. Moscow has also issued a number of veiled and overt threats to the West over its support for Kyiv, including warnings of a possible nuclear response.
NATO countries in Russia's vicinity have intensified their preparations for a possible conflict. Poland and the Baltic countries moved to abandon a treaty banning land mines and are strengthening the borders shared with Russia and its ally Belarus while urging higher defense spending across the alliance.
Read also: North Korea confirms for first time it has deployed troops to fight alongside Russia in Kursk Oblast
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Chicago Tribune
a few seconds ago
- Chicago Tribune
Texas House approves redrawn maps sought by Trump ahead of 2026 elections
AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas House on Wednesday approved redrawn congressional maps that would give Republicans a bigger edge in 2026, muscling through a partisan gerrymander that launched weeks of protests by Democrats and a widening national battle over redistricting. The approval came at the urging of President Donald Trump, who pushed for the extraordinary mid-decade revision of congressional maps to give his party a better chance at holding onto the U.S. House of Representatives in the 2026 midterm elections. The maps, which would give Republicans five more winnable seats, need to be approved by the GOP-controlled state Senate and signed by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott before they become official. But the Texas House vote had presented the best chance for Democrats to derail the redraw. Democratic legislators delayed the vote by two weeks by fleeing Texas earlier this month in protest, and they were assigned round-the-clock police monitoring upon their return to ensure they attended Wednesday's session. Texas lawmakers return home after walking out of legislature and spending two weeks in Illinois to prevent GOP remapThe approval of the Texas maps on an 88-52 party-line vote is likely to prompt California's Democratic-controlled state Legislature this week to approve of a new House map creating five new Democratic-leaning districts. But the California map would require voter approval in November. Democrats have also vowed to challenge the new Texas map in court and complained that Republicans made the political power move before passing legislation responding to deadly floods that swept the state last month. Texas Republicans openly said they were acting in their party's interest. State Rep. Todd Hunter, who wrote the legislation formally creating the new map, noted that the U.S. Supreme Court has allowed politicians to redraw districts for nakedly partisan purposes. 'The underlying goal of this plan is straight forward: improve Republican political performance,' Hunter, a Republican, said on the floor. After nearly eight hours of debate, Hunter took the floor again to sum up the entire dispute as nothing more than a partisan fight. 'What's the difference, to the whole world listening? Republicans like it, and Democrats do not.' Democrats said the disagreement was about more than partisanship. 'In a democracy, people choose their representatives,' State Rep. Chris Turner said. 'This bill flips that on its head and lets politicians in Washington, D.C., choose their voters.' State Rep. John H. Bucy blamed the president. 'This is Donald Trump's map,' Bucy said. 'It clearly and deliberately manufactures five more Republican seats in Congress because Trump himself knows that the voters are rejecting his agenda.' Why dozens of Democrats left Texas and how Republicans want to punish themThe Republican power play has already triggered a national tit-for-tat battle as Democratic state lawmakers prepared to gather in California on Thursday to revise that state's map to create five new Democratic seats. 'This is a new Democratic Party, this is a new day, this is new energy out there all across this country,' California's Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom said on a call with reporters on Wednesday. 'And we're going to fight fire with fire.' A new California map would need to be approved by voters in a special election in November because that state normally operates with a nonpartisan commission drawing the map to avoid the very sort of political brawl that is playing out. Newsom himself backed the 2008 ballot measure to create that process, as did former President Barack Obama. But in a sign of Democrats' stiffening resolve, Obama Tuesday night backed Newsom's bid to redraw the California map, saying it was a necessary step to stave off the GOP's Texas move. 'I think that approach is a smart, measured approach,' Obama said during a fundraiser for the Democratic Party's main redistricting arm. The incumbent president's party usually loses seats in the midterm election, and the GOP currently controls the House of Representatives by a mere three votes. Trump is going beyond Texas in his push to remake the map. He's pushed Republican leaders in conservative states like Indiana and Missouri to also try to create new Republican seats. Ohio Republicans were already revising their map before Texas moved. Democrats, meanwhile, are mulling reopening Maryland's and New York's maps as well. However, more Democratic-run states have commission systems like California's or other redistricting limits than Republican ones do, leaving the GOP with a freer hand to swiftly redraw maps. New York, for example, can't draw new maps until 2028, and even then, only with voter approval. In Texas, there was little that outnumbered Democrats could do other than fume and threaten a lawsuit to block the map. Because the Supreme Court has blessed purely partisan gerrymandering, the only way opponents can stop the new Texas map would be by arguing it violates the Voting Rights Act requirement to keep minority communities together so they can select representatives of their choice. Democrats noted that, in every decade since the 1970s, courts have found that Texas' legislature did violate the Voting Rights Act in redistricting, and that civil rights groups had an active lawsuit making similar allegations against the 2021 map that Republicans drew up. Republicans contend the new map creates more new majority-minority seats than the previous one. Democrats and some civil rights groups have countered that the GOP does that through mainly a numbers game that leads to halving the number of the state's House seats that will be represented by a Black representative. State Rep. Ron Reynolds noted the country just marked the 60th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act's passage and warned GOP members about how they'd be remembered if they voted for what he called 'this racial gerrymander.' 'Just like the people who were on the wrong side of history in 1965, history will be looking at the people who made the decisions in the body this day,' Reynolds, a Democrat, said. Republicans spent far less time talking on Wednesday, content to let their numbers do the talking in the lopsided vote. As the day dragged on, a handful hit back against Democratic complaints. 'You call my voters racist, you call my party racist and yet we're expected to follow the rules,' said State Rep. Katrina Pierson, a former Trump spokesperson. 'There are Black and Hispanic and Asian Republicans in this chamber who were elected just like you.' House Republicans' frustration at the Democrats' flight and ability to delay the vote was palpable. The GOP used a parliamentary maneuver to take a second and final vote on the map so it wouldn't have to reconvene for one more vote after Senate approval. House Speaker Dustin Burrows announced as debate started that doors to the chamber were locked and any member leaving was required to have a permission slip. The doors were only unlocked after final passage more than eight hours later. One Democrat who refused the 24-hour police monitoring, State Rep. Nicole Collier, had been confined to the House floor since Monday night. Some Democratic state lawmakers joined Collier Tuesday night for what Rep. Cassandra Garcia Hernandez dubbed 'a sleepover for democracy.' Republicans issued civil arrest warrants to bring the Democrats back after they left the state Aug. 3, and Republican Gov. Greg Abbott asked the state Supreme Court to oust several Democrats from office. The lawmakers also face a fine of $500 for every day they were absent.
CNBC
a minute ago
- CNBC
Red carpet for Putin, trade relief for China, penalties on India: Inside Trump's peculiar policy playbook
President Donald Trump is pursuing an unusual strategy — courting Russian President Vladimir Putin, holding fire on Beijing, all the while turning the screws on a close ally: India. Despite India being one of the earliest nations to engage in negotiations with the Trump administration, there is still no sign of it sealing a deal with the U.S. New Delhi is now also staring at a secondary tariff of 25% or a "penalty" for its purchases of Russian oil that is set to come into effect later this month. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Tuesday escalated criticism against India, accusing it of profiteering from cheap Russian oil imports and threatening to further raise tariffs on Indian goods. "We have planned to up the tariffs on India — these are secondary tariffs for buying the sanctioned Russian oil," Bessent told CNBC on Tuesday. Earlier this week, White House trade advisor Peter Navarro condemned the Asian giant's dependence on Russian oil as "opportunistic" and undermined international efforts to isolate Russia's war economy. "India acts as a global clearinghouse for Russian oil, converting embargoed crude into high-value exports while giving Moscow the dollars it needs," Navarro said in an op-ed for the Financial Times . By now the world is getting used to the ad-hoc and sometimes contradictory ways in which the Trump administration is pursuing its agenda. Professor at the East Asian Institute at the National University of Singapore Bert Hofman The sharp rhetoric threatens to unravel years of improving ties between Washington and New Delhi — with India saying the U.S. was targeting it unfairly over its Russian oil purchases. "By now the world is getting used to the ad-hoc and sometimes contradictory ways in which the Trump administration is pursuing its agenda," said Bert Hofman, professor at the East Asian Institute at the National University of Singapore. India has emerged as a leading buyer of Russian oil, which has been sold at a discount since some Western nations shunned purchases and imposed restrictions on Russian exports over Moscow's invasion of Ukraine in 2022. It was the second-largest purchaser of Russian oil, importing 1.6 million barrels per day in the first half of this year, up from 50,000 bpd in 2020, though still trailing China's 2 million bpd imports, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Washington has not placed secondary tariffs on China for its Russian oil purchases. India has reiterated that it was the U.S. administration that had asked it to purchase Russian oil to keep the markets calm, while pointing to the European Union and even the U.S.' existing trade with Moscow. The country has taken aim at Washington, saying U.S. continues to import uranium hexafluoride for its nuclear industry, palladium for the electric-vehicle industry, as well as fertilizers and chemicals from Russia. U.S. bilateral trade with Russia in 2024 stood at $5.2 billion, down from nearly $36 billion in 2021, government data showed. Bilateral trade between New Delhi and Moscow reached a record $68.7 billion for the year ended March 2025. In comparison, the European Union's trade with Russia stood at 67.5 billion euros ($78.1 billion) in 2024, while its services trade in 2023 was at 17.2 billion euros, according to European Commission data . "India has been victimized by these pressure tactics that that the Trump administration is trying to carry out. Trump is clearly using tariffs as a pressure tactic against Russia," Michael Kugelman, director of the South Asia Institute at Washington-based think tank Wilson Center, told CNBC's " Squawk Box Asia ." Another factor determining the U.S. approach to India is that Trump feels "aggrieved," over how Modi undercut his bid to claim credit for playing a role in the India-Pakistan ceasefire, Kugelman emphasized. Adding to Trump's grievances is India's "unwillingness to lower barriers" to exports of American agricultural products such as soybeans and corn, Kevin Chen Xian An, associate research fellow at S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies pointed out. Oil trade for ceasefire Trump's true agenda has little to do with Washington's stated goal of curbing Moscow's oil revenues, but extracting leverages from the trading partners, according to several geopolitics experts. "The overarching objective for the Trump administration is to extract concessions from countries to figure out some justification for levying taxes on trade so that the government can fund its tax reductions on American citizens' income," said Drew Thompson, senior fellow at the think-tank RSIS. "It's not based on foreign policy principles [but] on power politics and gaining leverage," Thompson added. Last week, Trump rolled out a red carpet to greet Putin on his first visit to the U.S. in about a decade, sharing a ride with him in the presidential limousine to the venue. While the meeting did not appear to have produced meaningful steps toward a ceasefire in Ukraine — a goal Trump had set ahead of the summit — both leaders described the meeting as "productive." Speaking at the joint news briefing following the talks , Putin reiterated that "for the conflict resolution in Ukraine to be long-term and lasting, all the root causes of the crisis ... must be eliminated; all of Russia's legitimate concerns must be taken into account." Kirill Dmitriev, one of Putin's top negotiators, hailed Monday's talks in Washington as an "important day of diplomacy," emphasizing Moscow's opposition to any short-term ceasefire deal with Ukraine. Trump is trying to "maximize his leverage ... pressuring India, and Russia via India," to get a trade deal with the former and a ceasefire pact with the latter, said Matt Gertken, chief geopolitical and U.S. strategist at BCA Research. These will eventually help boost Republicans' prospects in the upcoming midterm election, Gertken added. Not provoking China While India faces steep tariffs for its purchases of Russian crude, China, which has remained the largest importer of Russian crude, has been spared such levies. Trump said last Friday he was not considering retaliatory tariffs on China for buying Russian oil, but might consider it in two or three weeks. China's purchases of Russian oil have risen to 46% of overall exports from Russia in the first half of this year, from 34% in 2022, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, followed by India which imported around 36% of Russia's supplies. When asked about China's role in Russian oil purchases, Bessent suggested that Beijing's imports were less egregious in the eyes of the Trump administration because it had already been a big buyer even before Russia invaded Ukraine. Going soft on China may also reflect Trump's desire not to scuttle a potential high-profile summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping in the coming months and the conclusion of a lasting trade deal, said Stephen Olson, a senior visiting fellow at ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute. The secondary tariffs on India may be intended as "a shot across Russia's bow" to show that the U.S. could turn up the pressure by extending similar tariffs to China, if Russia is not more compliant, Olson added. Following weeks of escalating tensions, Beijing and Washington agreed in May to suspend the hefty duties and loosen several punitive measures imposed in April, as both sides continued to work on hammering out a durable deal. Beijing has leveraged its sheer dominance of rare-earth minerals crucial for military and industrial use in its negotiations with Washington, maintaining a tight control on exports of the critical minerals. The relationship with China is complicated, and the Trump administration has not yet come out with "a clear, coherent policy toward China. Sometimes it seems like it wants to compete with China economically. Other times it seems like it wants to reach some type of understanding or a or a detente," Kugelman said.
The Hill
an hour ago
- The Hill
Work begins in Finland on a new Canadian icebreaker for Arctic defense
HELSINKI, Finland (AP) — Dignitaries at a steel-cutting ceremony Wednesday in Finland marked the start of work on a new Canadian icebreaker to be named the Polar Max and aimed at bolstering Arctic defense. The event marked the concrete beginning of a trilateral partnership of the United States, Canada and Finland announced by the White House in July 2024 to bolster defenses in a region where Russia has been increasingly active. Russia has vastly more icebreaker ships than the U.S. and Canada at a time when climate change has made the remote but strategically important Arctic more accessible. The Icebreaker Collaboration Effort, or ICE Pact, aims to leverage Finland's advanced shipbuilding expertise and technologies to help meet U.S. and Canadian demand for new icebreakers. Canada's minister for defense procurement, Stephen Fuhr, said his country is bringing its coast guard into the military and that investing in the Arctic is important for the future. 'The North is opening up, there are many reasons to be up there,' Fuhr said. 'There's security issues, resource development.' The hull will be built at Helsinki Shipyard before being transported to Canada where it's expected to be completed in Levis, Quebec by 2030. Quebec's Economy Minister Christopher Skeete highlighted the benefits of cooperating on the building of the new icebreaker. 'It's a partnership and we have a shared responsibility for the North, so this is a unique and very opportune partnership that allows us to leverage the strengths of both our countries in terms of maritime Arctic protection,' he said. 'The North is becoming more and more accessible, there are more and more rivalries in the North, and so we have to be prepared to assert our sovereignty out there,' Skeete added. During a NATO summit in June, U.S. President Donald Trump said Finland was the 'king of icebreakers' and suggested the U.S. might be willing to buy as many as 15 of them, including the used icebreaker that Trump said might be immediately available. 'We're trying to make a good deal,' Trump said. According to a U.S. Government Accountability Office report, the U.S. hasn't built a heavy polar icebreaker in almost 50 years. The last remaining one in service is the 399-foot Coast Guard Cutter Polar Star commissioned in 1976. During a talk in February at the RAND research organization, U.S. Coast Guard Vice Admiral Peter Gautier said the agency has determined it needs eight to nine icebreakers — a mix of heavy polar security cutters and medium Arctic security cutters. Building an icebreaker can be challenging because it has to be able to withstand the brutal crashing through ice that can be as thick as 21 feet (6.4 meters) and wildly varying sea and air temperatures, the report said.
