By Vestnik Kavkaza
In response to the news about the plans by the British PM David Cameron to send military trainers to Ukraine, the editorial staff of the Guardian wrote that "Britain’s decision to send military advisers to Ukraine is a signal that such territorial aggression is unacceptable. In practical terms, the arrival of up to 75 non-combat personnel will not change the balance of power in the east of the country, not least because the small UK contingent will be posted well away from any fighting.... The presence of British soldiers on Ukrainian soil raises the stakes in terms that Mr Putin will understand. It signals a different form of solidarity with a bullied country from all the warnings, summits and sanctions that we have seen." The editorial board urged other European leaders to follow Mr Cameron's decision. "Sending trainers to Ukraine is a better course of action than sending the kind of weaponry that some US voices have been calling for – an option for intensifying the bloodshed, which would only be met with fresh Russian military escalation," the article reads.
The Guardian also reports that Norway is planning to restructure its military response to Russia's "increased aggression". "Ine Eriksen Soreide said that Russia had recently re-opened military bases in its far north that had been shut down after the cold war, and that there had also been an increase in flights by Russian warplanes close to Norwegian airspace," the article reads. It is also reported that Norway was increasing its military cooperation with the Baltic countries. Moreover, Norway said it was ready to expand training of Ukrainian soldiers.
"South Africa spied on own government to get facts on joint project with Russia," the British newspaper the Guardian writes. "South Africa’s intelligence service relied on a spy 'with direct access to the Russian government' to find out details of its own government’s involvement in a $100m (£65m) joint satellite surveillance programme with Russia, the leaked spy cables obtained by al-Jazeera and shared with the Guardian reveal." The satellite system, Project Condor, was launched in December last year. The project has been kept a secret. According to the leaked report, the satellite system would allow Africa "to conduct its own aerial surveillance in Africa, potentially right up to Israel for strategic military purposes." The leaked report suggests that South Africa is seeking closer cooperation with Russia and that both countries are trying to challenge the domaination of African arms by the US and France in the region. The project has not yet been implemented.
“Now Is Not the Time to Give Up on Russia,” Huffington Post reports. “It's a misreading of history to believe that Europe, the U.S. and Russia are destined to be long-term adversaries. After all, the world didn't endure five decades of the Cold War just so we could slip back into a Cold War posture at the first sign of trouble. The situation in Ukraine isn't about Russia's strength; it's about Russia's weakness. After all, what did Putin do? He sent members of the Russian army, which spends $78 billion a year to Ukraine's $1.6 billion, across his own peaceful border to start a local war in the last country in Eastern Europe that was threatening to abandon Russia and turn to the West. As many have written, his real fear isn't to have a NATO-aligned Ukraine on its border, but a prosperous, Democratic Ukraine on its border, showing Russians a shining example of what life could like with the West.”
