Senegal is also royally pissed. The west was already losing any foothold it had in north africa and especially the sahel, having us band together with Al Qaeda like we did in Syria is not helping us make friends

So we armed some terrorists (that never comes back to bite us), killed some russians, and got western bases shut down and kicked out of niger.

Whats the geopolitical strategy here? Russia can replace Wagner mercenaries. We can't replace a fallen empire.

Correct, Ukraine is irrelevant politically, however perception of western-aligned countries teaming up with literal machete wielding, civilians beheading ISIS is bad and unspinnable.

As much as I would love to gloat and celebrate continuous acts of ignomy by various (un)elected leaders of the “free world”, loss of power projection by the combined west - which has driven economic and industrial development of our planet forward - is going to set our civilization back decades and will usher in a new era of instability and human suffering. Gone is the era of Kennan, Brzezinsky and Kissinger who got replaced by the likes of Kallas, Baerbock and Johnson.

I've heard rumors that it's mostly anti-air defenses/ EW stuff.
Most likely in retaliation for israel sending patriots/drones/ew to Ukraine.

Yall were warning em for a while:

Israel's potential transfer of Patriot missile defense systems to Ukraine will have political consequences, Russia's UN envoy Vasily Nebenzya said.

"The weapons, whoever they are sent by <...> to Ukraine, will eventually be destroyed, just like other Western and US weapons. That is obvious. But I assume that this could of course have certain political consequences," he said at a news conference, when asked how this development could affect relations between Israel and Russia.

Aug 6 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin has asked Iran's Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei for a restrained response to Israel's suspected killing of the leader of Hamas, advising against attacks on Israeli civilians, two senior Iranian sources said.

Brilliant move by Russia.

So the Iranians got really scared the last time one f35 destroyed their AA systems. So Russia drops off a couple of s400s and says no crazy shit allowed. Russia comes away looking like it stabilized the region (temporarily that is).

Imagine if China Send some stealth drones to Iran to shoot rubber pellets at BiBi.

Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) has introduced a groundbreaking hybrid aerial underwater vehicle (HAUV) named Nezha-SeaDart. Capable of vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) from both land and water.
https://armyrecognition.com/news/navy-news/2024/china-unveils-revolutionary-nezha-seadart-hybrid-aerial-underwater-vehicle-for-cross-domain-missions#google_vignette

It's a small Chinese drone that goes underwater and pops out to hit something. There are rumors that this tech has already been given to iran(no source)

Russia has a complex relationship with Israel. A lot of Jews emigrated from the USSR and still have a lot of ties to eastern Europe. Approximately 15% of Israelis speak Russian, which is telling of what i just said.

Neither side really is provocative to each other on a maximalist basis. Contrary to what's spammed on the internet, Israel has largely not thrown its weight behind Ukraine, nor has Russia undermined Israeli interest in the ME.

The Russians publicly may call for pro-Muslim outcomes in Palestine but it's mostly lip service, because they now rely on a bunch of Muslims for trade and want to have a good relationship with the likes of Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Iran, and so on-- crucially important more than ever partners, especially as they got disconnected from the west. They really have not armed some of these proxies which could actually pose a threat to Israel though. Similarly, Israel tends to stay away from striking Russian-linked basis in Syria, or don't really contribute much despite western calls for their involvement in giving Ukraine high grade weapons.

This balance has been tested lately IMO. They can't pretend to be Iran's friend with asking to build trading lanes through Iranian territory to the Arabian sea, or some of these other partnership initiatives without giving something back, so i really do think they probably did give them a fair amount of defensive capabilities, but they really could do so much more. Russia really could upset the regional balance by providing know how to Iran, Houthis, etc, which is another key reason why it was absolutely retarded to get under their skin with Ukraine, when they could clap back in places that are much more meaningful to us from a strategic perspective.

This post was edited by ofthevoid on Aug 6 2024 09:07am

Anyways Ukraine goes for another PR stunt crossing into Kursk for no real good reason looks like Neu York, which was long a bastion on frontlines is about to fall. Ukrainian accounts confirm that at least portion of the town is under Russian control.

https://x.com/JulianRoepcke/status/1820861044434055587

You guys are acting like the military juntas in the Sahel are clearly better than whichever rebels they're fighting.
Also, the West had "lost" the Sahel months (if not years) ago, that's not a new development spurred by Ukraine's recent shenanigans.