A Russian drone hit a Polish village and damaged home …

As The Times reports about the drones shot down in Poland:

The Shahed 136 — or Geran 2 in Russian — has become the most frequently used in the Ukraine war. Russia has begun mass producing them on their own soil.

The plant in Alabuga in the Tatarstan region of Russia, is staffed primarily with migrant labour, some of which is from Africa. Japanese media also reported that the supreme leader of North Korea, Kim Jong-un, is to send 25,000 workers there.

Not everything is made in Russia. The four-cylinder engine is made by a Chinese company, Xiamen Limbach, while the high-tech parts of the drone — the signal generators and converters — are manufactured by the Beijing Microelectronics Technology Institute.

It’s noteworthy that almost a third - 1.5% - of the new Nato members’ defence spending target of 5% of GDP is earmarked for areas be- yond traditional military defence, e.g., to combat such arson attacks, or cyber attacks, disinformation campaigns, and similar threats.

This is not about the price, it’s about counterfeit products. Chinese companies are free to develop their own brands and sell it cheaper, but here they just copy foreign brands and violating trademarks.

They are Russian citizens and have “failed to submit the necessary documents to obtain a residence permit [and] also missed the deadline to apply to take a required Latvian language exam”.

Exploited in Russia: African women forced to make drones

They hoped for a better career but ended up in Russia’s war factories. A new study reveals how young women, mainly from Africa, have been being exploited. Some of those affected have shared their stories.

Russian spy agency disinfo campaign targets German Chancellor Merz, claims Nazi family ties fuel “obsession” to send Ukraine Taurus missiles

But they are not alone I guess …

Yes, and it’s not only Russia. All authoritarian governments are doing this.

Foreign influence comes easy if the own people have little expertise. I am sure China and Russia welcome this.

Tankies in full force here in this thread?

Authoritarian regimes have been abusing Interpol’s Red Notice system In one of their articles, the Red Notice Monitor analyses that Interpol Has a China Problem: How the People’s Republic of China Exploits International Mechanisms

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has weaponized international law enforcement mechanisms, particularly INTERPOL, to target political dissidents, human rights defenders, and critics of its regime. This strategy represents a profound and systemic threat to international law enforcement. The exploitation is emblematic of China’s broader strategy of transnational repression – sophisticated, far-reaching, and deeply troubling.

This was in the Black Sea and not in the Gulf of Mexico. This comparison doesn’t make sense imo.

Is Müllermilch still active in China? (Back in 2011, the company bought a stake in Hua Xia Dairy Farm, one of the largest Chinese companies in the sector.)

Vladimir Putin wanted Russia to join Nato but did not want his country to have to go through the usual application process and stand in line “with a lot of countries that don’t matter”, according to a former secretary general of the transatlantic alliance.

George Robertson, a former [UK] Labour defence secretary who led Nato between 1999 and 2003, said Putin made it clear at their first meeting that he wanted Russia to be part of western Europe. “They wanted to be part of that secure, stable prosperous west that Russia was out of at the time,” he said.

The Labour peer recalled an early meeting with Putin, who became Russian president in 2000. “Putin said: ‘When are you going to invite us to join Nato?’ And [Robertson] said: ‘Well, we don’t invite people to join Nato, they apply to join Nato.’ And he said: ‘Well, we’re not standing in line with a lot of countries that don’t matter.’”

A strike on a nine-story residential building in the west of Kyiv killed at least two people, a mother and her two-month-old son, prosecutors said.

More than a dozen others were wounded, according to police.

People like Farage are saying something every day, and they often say today the opposite of what they’ve said yesterday. It is unsubstantial, but it keeps them in the media and helps to sow division among democratic societies which is exactly what far-right (and far-left) groups and their foreign-state supporters like Russia and China are aiming at. OP’s post history is an almost perfect example for this.

Scores of Birds Stricken in Krasnodar After Latest Black Sea Oil Spill

A local wildlife rehabilitation center reported taking in water birds coated in oil along beaches near Novorossiysk and Anapa, the latter of which is a popular tourist destination. Many birds suffered chemical burns, poisoning and dehydration, according to center staff.

“Birds are collected night and day, many of them [are found] dead,” the center wrote in a Telegram post on Tuesday, after earlier saying that three of 24 birds taken in for treatment had so far died.

It’s no up to Putin to say what happens in a sovereign country.

Russia, China, and other autocracies.

Sánchez showed a willingness to frame a values-based foreign policy that could transcend what he described as the transatlantic bond.

What values form this ‘value-based foreign policy’ if he just contract China’s Huawei to store judicial wiretaps in Spain, against the explicit concerns of Spain’s EU and transatlantic partners? (At the same time, however, Spanish government cancels contract with the country’s Telefonica for using Huawei gear, which is a somewhat interesting move.)

What values does Mr. Sanchez hold if his relationship with China - which is a dictatorship, according to a wide range of human rights activists and even some Western politicians - is apparently that close?