Latest news with #militarisation
Reuters
a day ago
- Politics
- Reuters
Russia says it is monitoring reported positioning of US nuclear weapons in UK
MOSCOW, July 22 (Reuters) - Russia said on Tuesday that it detected a rise in international tensions and was monitoring developments after Britain's Times and Telegraph newspapers reported that the United States had stationed nuclear weapons in Britain for the first time since 2008. Asked about the reports, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: "We see a line towards escalation of tensions, towards militarisation, including nuclear militarisation." He added: "Our relevant departments are monitoring developments in this area and formulating tasks to ensure our security against the backdrop of what is happening."
CTV News
a day ago
- Politics
- CTV News
Russia says it is monitoring reported positioning of U.S. nuclear weapons in U.K.
A guard patrols in front of the walls of the Kremlin at dusk in Red Square, during the 2018 soccer World Cup in Moscow, Russia, Saturday, June 30, 2018. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell) Russia said on Tuesday that it detected a rise in international tensions and was monitoring developments after Britain's Times and Telegraph newspapers reported that the United States had stationed nuclear weapons in Britain for the first time since 2008. Asked about the reports, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: 'We see a line towards escalation of tensions, towards militarisation, including nuclear militarisation.' He added: 'Our relevant departments are monitoring developments in this area and formulating tasks to ensure our security against the backdrop of what is happening.' (Reporting by Dmitry Antonov; Editing by Mark Trevelyan and Kevin Liffey)
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Russia's Medvedev says preemptive strikes against the West could be needed, TASS reports
MOSCOW (Reuters) -Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Thursday that the West was practically waging a full-scale war against Russia and that Moscow should respond in full and, if necessary, launch preemptive strikes, the TASS state news agency reported. Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, cast himself as a liberal moderniser when he was president from 2008-2012, but has since emerged as an anti-Western Kremlin hawk. Diplomats say his remarks give an indication of thinking among some within the political elite. "What is happening today is a proxy war, but in essence it is a full-scale war (launches of Western missiles, satellite intelligence, etc), sanctions packages, loud statements about the militarisation of Europe. "It's another attempt to destroy the 'historical anomaly' hated by the West - Russia, our country," TASS cited Medvedev - who accused the West of trying to undermine Moscow for centuries - as saying. "We need to act accordingly. To respond in full. And if necessary, launch preemptive strikes," Medvedev was quoted as saying, adding that many in the West had treachery in their blood and an outdated view of their own superiority. The U.S.-led NATO military alliance casts Russia as a major threat and politicians across Western Europe have said that Russia, which in 2022 sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine, could one day attack a member of NATO. Medvedev dismissed claims that Russia could one day attack NATO or Europe as complete rubbish, noting that President Vladimir Putin had repeatedly rejected such assertions too. "The statements of Western politicians on this topic are complete nonsense. I would add that this nonsense is being deliberately thrown into the information space in order to destabilise an already difficult situation. This is another flank of the West's open war against us," he said. Russia and the United States are by far the world's biggest nuclear powers, with about 87% of all nuclear weapons, followed by China, France, Britain, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea, according to the Federation of American Scientists. Solve the daily Crossword
Reuters
7 days ago
- Politics
- Reuters
Russia's Medvedev says preemptive strikes against the West could be needed, TASS reports
MOSCOW, July 17 (Reuters) - Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Thursday that the West was practically waging a full-scale war against Russia and that Moscow should respond in full and, if necessary, launch preemptive strikes, the TASS state news agency reported. Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, cast himself as a liberal moderniser when he was president from 2008-2012, but has since emerged as an anti-Western Kremlin hawk. Diplomats say his remarks give an indication of thinking among some within the political elite. "What is happening today is a proxy war, but in essence it is a full-scale war (launches of Western missiles, satellite intelligence, etc), sanctions packages, loud statements about the militarisation of Europe. "It's another attempt to destroy the 'historical anomaly' hated by the West - Russia, our country," TASS cited Medvedev - who accused the West of trying to undermine Moscow for centuries - as saying. "We need to act accordingly. To respond in full. And if necessary, launch preemptive strikes," Medvedev was quoted as saying, adding that many in the West had treachery in their blood and an outdated view of their own superiority. The U.S.-led NATO military alliance casts Russia as a major threat and politicians across Western Europe have said that Russia, which in 2022 sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine, could one day attack a member of NATO. Medvedev dismissed claims that Russia could one day attack NATO or Europe as complete rubbish, noting that President Vladimir Putin had repeatedly rejected such assertions too. "The statements of Western politicians on this topic are complete nonsense. I would add that this nonsense is being deliberately thrown into the information space in order to destabilise an already difficult situation. This is another flank of the West's open war against us," he said. Russia and the United States are by far the world's biggest nuclear powers, with about 87% of all nuclear weapons, followed by China, France, Britain, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea, according to the Federation of American Scientists.
The Guardian
05-07-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
As the world grows more unpredictable, Australia's defence should be focused on people, not purchases
Australians have long taken some comfort in the protection afforded by geography and the tyranny of distance. It was an article of faith that Australia would have 10 years warning to prepare for any conflict, and that the nation the defence minister calls our capital-A ally would spring to our defence. The 10-year buffer was debunked in the 2020 defence review, and the update two years later concluded that the Australian Defence Force 'as currently constituted and equipped is not fully fit for purpose'. As the US administration scrambles many of the accepted norms of the past 80 years and urges all its allies to spend more money to militarise, the reliability of our Ally is now a matter of intense public debate. But this is not just a geopolitical dilemma, or an abstract discussion about scenarios. A recent report by the Australian National Audit Office highlights shortcomings in the defence department in managing contracts and even investigating bribery claims. It also found it failed to provide regular formal and detailed ministerial briefings about the scale of imminent threats. This suggests that greater security would not necessarily be assured by spending billions more on big, shiny machines and weapons that inevitably cost more than predicted and, almost as inevitably, fail to live up to the sales spiel embodied in the tender document. The shortcomings that cause concern about security lie even closer to home. The number of people employed in the ADF has been falling for decades. At last count there were only 57,226 permanent staff in the army, navy and air force, another 32,560 in the reserves and a similar number of civilians in the department. By comparison, Woolworths employs 210,000 people. If the pandemic taught us nothing else, it is that food security is important. But so is national security. That takes on many new dimensions these days on land, sea, air, space and in cyberspace, and most importantly security in our homes, cities and communities. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email Australia is still low on the list of countries facing imminent invasion or attack but attempts to neutralise the continent could arrive with devastating stealth. The rumble of natural disaster and war is such a constant these days that it is easy to forget that when they land, they erupt in a flash. One day you are going about your normal life and then suddenly it changes, everything you took for granted gone. For years the consequences of these catastrophes have provided an unwelcome backdrop to daily life. Images of death and devastation delivered by terrifying military machines in Ukraine, Gaza, Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Sudan and Iran flicker across our screens, competing with images of lives and communities devastated by floods, fires, droughts and cyclones. It is striking that even in the publicly available documents about defence preparedness, climate change is a major talking point. Reading between the lines, it's not hard to see that the destructive regional impact of climate change – inundated islands, devastated economies, shattered lives – keeps defence strategists up at night. Experience has shown that when natural disasters strike, resilience is tested to breaking point. We have become accustomed to hearing that the ADF is being deployed to assist during climate-triggered disasters, sometimes with tragic unintended consequences, as the 2020 Canberra fires and the tragic accident near Lismore during the recent Ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred. The review of defence capacity has made it clear that the ADF should only be used as a 'last resort' during disasters, a recommendation that the government agreed to 'in principle'. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion In the last three years one disaster has piled on another and the troops have been rolled out to support the largely volunteer emergency services workers. But there is no public sign of discussion about an alternative civilian defence force being actively developed – people with the skills to know what to do when disaster happens. One of the more important observations in the review that didn't make it into the recommendations was about social resilience. Resilience is an overused weasel word, but making it real means 'equipping communities to absorb shocks, adapt to new conditions, and (potentially) transform itself as a result of particular shocks'. Looking around the world, there are lessons about how this might be done, and ANU's National Security College has begun a national consultation about what Australians think security might look like, beyond the missiles, drones, frigates, fighter planes and submarines. Nations that share borders with potential aggressors, like Finland and Poland, have maintained active civil defence operations, or those living with threat, like Taiwan and Israel, have built bunkers, car parks that transform into hospitals to protect citizens. Nearly a third of the funds that the Nato countries agreed to commit to increased defence spending demanded by the US is going to this civilian security, protecting the infrastructure that makes life possible. In Australia we have barely begun to have this conversation, though we are told almost daily that the threat is growing. The pandemic and natural disasters highlighted the gaps, but typically we stalled on the next steps. Activating real civic resilience could be a KPI for the prime minister's progressive patriotism, much as his predecessor John Curtin once did. This might be more effective than shipping more dollars overseas to buy ever more complex machines that can, as we see nightly on the news, be destroyed by another even bigger machine. Julianne Schultz an emeritus professor at Griffith University and the author of The Idea of Australia
