>Russia’s new foreign policy strategy identifies China, India as main allies

...not THE main allies. Iran, Syria, Nicaragua, Venezuela, NK and Belarus are also on the Main Allies list. Most of the world are on their naughty list.

I suspect this is purely because a Russian intelligence operative, who lived in Maryland using forged Brazilian identity documents, has been charged with espionage and other crimes by the US Department of Justice. Victor Muller Ferreira, a Brazilian national, was stopped from entering the Netherlands in June 2022, where he had intended to join the International Criminal Court (IOC) as an intern on forged papers.

A few days after Cherkasov returned to Brazil, a federal court in Guarulhos, a suburb of Sao Paolo, found him guilty of having used the identity of a dead Brazilian citizen to forge identity papers, which he then used to enter and leave Brazil 15 times over 10 years. The 10-year period had started in 2010, when Cherkasov had entered Brazil using his real Russian identity. But when he left the country a few months later, he did so using the forged identity that had allegedly been provided to him by Russian intelligence. Having examined the charges against Cherkasov, the court jailed him for 15 years.

Now the United States Department of Justice has charged Cherkasov with a list of new crimes, including acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign power and repeatedly carrying out visa, bank and wire fraud.

I expect Russia want him back and will offer to trade Evan Gershkovich sometime in the future.

Unfortunately sanctions have resulted in a huge current account surplus in Russia due to import bans, accelerating the de-dollarization of its economy and driving the appreciation of the ruble. It's up over 40% against the $ from a year ago so they have no shortage of Rubles. It's just they can't purchase many foreign goods with them. And nobody else wants them!

https://www.intellinews.com/the-ruble-recovers-december-losses-as-new-year-starts-266384/

In July 2017, in an interview with Echo of Moscow radio station, Alexei Navalny said that if elected Russian president, he would provide a "fair referendum" in the occupied Crimea and try to involve Ukraine and the EU. He was not if favour of returning Crimea to Ukraine.

"As president, I can guarantee one thing - that I will hold a fair referendum there, I will try to normalize the situation. We will try to involve Ukraine in this referendum and in the tripartite commissions together with the European Union. Honestly, if not cunning, I doubt that Ukraine recognizes this referendum", - Navalny said. "There are two million people with Russian passports. That is already some incomprehensible forcemeat. You can't turn this stuffing back. Therefore, there is no simple solution to the Crimean problem", - he said.

India receives more foreign aid ($4.2B) from the West than any country in the world (mostly from Germany and Japan). Something is wrong!

China lost it's way a while back with COVID. They have only realised it now. The deaths start very soon in massive numbers. Worldwide consumer products and logistics will be hit big time. We will all feel the consequences.

As a side note...NATO (reserve) tanks get about 10 hours of maintenance every month for each and every vehicle. There's 100's of different mechanical mechanisms (weapons loading actions, main gun elevation, ammo movement trollies, turret gears, engines, transmissions, suspension on each wheel, and the pivots on each track link) that need to be properly lubed and kept free of rust and moisture. Then there's the hydraulic systems that can sit without seals corroding and the fluids collecting moisture. Then you get to the electronics, the batteries, the generators etc.. The Russians haven't needed more than a few planes or tanks at any one time since Afghanistan in the 80s. Nowhere near the NATO schedule. Same goes for Missiles, ICBM's, AA, helios, Howizers, Training, etc. Americans aren't going without free health care for nothing!

It's not so much a problem of the ammunition its the artillery barrels not being re bored or serviced. The propellant charge and the weight of the projectile are variable. Shooting a lot of heavy projos with full charges will cause considerably more wear. A higher rate of fire accelerates wear, too. As a rule of thumb, though, it's usually around 2000–3000 shots. The effect on the gun is inevitable.

It's up to Sberbank to come up with a legal alternative way for Glencore to pay the bill, inform Clencore of the method, then if they refuse, sue. Simples.

It's more to do with industry and it's use of LNG than individual citizens...

The EU consumption of natural gas has dropped by 20.1% in the period August-November 2022, compared with the average gas consumption for the same months (August-November) between 2017 and 2021. The demand is not currently there but remains to be see what the Russian discount price will be. I Imaging Europe has little appetite for Russian Gas though at any price.

>Israel fights all of Russia's enemies

...I don't think so.

Israel can't have it both ways... either Israel sticks out it's neck for Ukraine or it lives with the consequences of Russia building closer ties with Iran and Syria.

Iran has vowed to annihilate Israel and, whatever its chances of ultimate success, it has taken concrete steps to do so—including positioning its constellation of “Resistance Axis” proxy militias on three of Israel’s borders, upgrading their arsenals with increasingly accurate and longer-range missiles, and pursuing its capability to reinforce these militias with a nuclear umbrella.