Imperial Odds & Ends

 

• Stars & Stripes reports: Snakes, spiders and thick jungle added realism to training on Okinawa where Marines spent last week honing skills they’d need to fight and win against a well-equipped enemy force on Pacific islands. About 800 Marines participated in the Jungle Warfare Exercise in Okinawa’s Northern Training Area from May 24 to 28. The scenario pitted members of the 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, out of Camp Lejeune, N.C., against an opposing force from 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment out of Marine Corps Base Hawaii. The training simulated the sort of engagements Marines might face going up against a peer-level adversary contesting key maritime terrain in the first island chain, which runs through Okinawa, Taiwan, the Philippines and Borneo.

• The Russian Ministry of Finance will introduce changes to the structure of the National Wealth Fund within a month, as the share of the US dollar will decrease to zero and the share of yuan will grow to 30 percent. "Just as the Central Bank, we made a decision to reduce the National Wealth Fund investment in dollar assets ... We made a decision to abandon the dollar assets completely and to increase the share of euros and gold instead. The share of dollars will amount to zero, euros - 40 percent, yuan - 30 percent, gold - 20 percent, pound and yen - 5 percent each", Siluanov told reporters at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF).

• Andrei Martyanov's blog reports: Switzerland will not accept certificates on COVID-19 vaccination with Sputnik V for the media accreditation at the upcoming Russia-US summit in Geneva, Pierre-Alain Eltschinger, a spokesman for the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, told Sputnik on Wednesday. Considering the fact that Vladimir Putin and Russian delegation to summit in Geneva are all vaccinated with Sputnik V, Russians finally have their excuse to cancel a generally useless summit and not attend it. 

• Donbass Insider reports: In an interview with Govorit Moskva (“Moscow Speaks”), former Ukrainian Prime Minister Nikolay Azarov confirmed that in April this year [President] Vladimir Zelensky had planned to let Ukrainian neo-Nazis attack the DPR and LPR (Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics), and that this plan was cancelled following Russia’s military training on its border. In March this year, the intensification of the Ukrainian army’s shelling of the DPR and LPR and the media preparations that had been launched in Ukraine raised fears of an offensive against the two Donbass republics. Nikolay Azarov confirmed the reality of these plans for an offensive against the Donbass and explained why it did not take place. “Zelensky had plans and there were hotheads who wanted to implement them. There were even plans, they had planned attacks in three different directions to reach the border, etc.,” said the former Ukrainian prime minister. According to Nikolay Azarov, it was the Ukrainian neo-Nazis who had to take care of the Donbass problem (specifically, annihilating the DPR and LPR) for Zelensky.

• Strategic Culture Foundation reports: New revelations concerning Denmark’s systematic spying upon its closest neighbor leaders—Germany, France, Norway and Sweden—since 2013 were broadcast and published online by the public service medium Danmark Radio (DR), May 30. EU/NATO allies have been spied upon for the United States by the Danish Intelligence Service (Forsvarets Efterretningstjeneste-FE), and without knowledge of parliament and, perhaps, even government leaders. France, Norway and Sweden leaders spied upon have come forth with strong critiques and demands for an investigation, for full clarity, and an end to such “grotesque” behavior. They backed up Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel critical statements in 2014 when Edward Snowden revealed that the U.S. tapped into her private cell phone calls. This spying by FE is code named Operation Dunhammer. In addition to spying upon its neighbors, FE has been illegally and systematically spying upon its own citizens for United States economic profit and political interests.