Russians stray into area of NATO drill – Britain sends up RAF Typhoon fighters

The strain in relations between Russia and other nations is showing up because, while a NATO drill is on in the Baltic Sea, the Russians strayed near to the area and Britain scrambled its RAF Typhoon jets.
This has been reported in news.sky.com dated 17 June 2015.

It seems the RAF Typhoons were scrambled three times in the last 24 hours from Estonia to intercept Russian jets that were flying too close to NATO military exercises in the Baltic. Britain has taken serous note of this and has warned Moscow the NATO exercises were "not a game".
Defense Secretary Michael Fallon has remarked that UK will do all that is necessary and, with other alliance members, will defend Eastern Europe's borders.
Incidentally, the Royal Navy Flagship is participating in an amphibious landing exercise on a beach in northern Poland – the location is within 100 miles from the Russian state of Kaliningrad. The military exercise involves some 17 NATO militaries comprising 5,600 troops and 49 vessels were involved.
The intention of the exercise is to express solidarity with Eastern Europe in the face of a Russian threat. It may be recalled that the tensions began with the annexation of Crimea by Russia in early 2014. Russia-backed separatist rebels have seized land in the east after the annexation.
(Image wikimediacommons.org)

A few more must reads -
Airbus to showcase its E-Fan 2.0 silent plane in Paris Air Show

Music is a great healer – listen to classical music and lower your blood pressure

Taxi strike in Kolkata opens the doors for Uber and Ola cabs

Pickles and yoghurt help youngsters to tackle social anxiety


MI5 warns – extremists on the prowl in the streets of Britain

ISIS militants ambush and kill Taliban fighters in Afghanistan

British would-be jihadists are making detour to Syria via Canada to avoid detection


How retired persons keep themselves busy

Learn to embrace the mall culture

Time weighs down heavily on retired men

President Obama says arming Ukraine is an option in case all others fail

#angelamerkel #barackobama #ukraine #EU #francoishollande Ukraine is gradually becoming a major issue between the two super powers and both the US and Russia are snapping at each other’s feet while the whole world waits with bated breath for the outcome. President Obama is, apparently, losing patience and he has confirmed that his administration is examining an alternative like sending arms to Ukraine to help the country beat back Russian-backed separatists, in case diplomacy fails as reported in foxnews.com dated 9 February 2015.
The President made these comments at the time of a joint press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, following a meeting between the two leaders at the White House.
Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande have been trying to push through a peace plan. They have plans for a summit later this week with the leaders of both Russia and Ukraine and president Obama wants to give sufficient time for those talks space to play out.
He has once again stressed that a diplomatic resolution to this issue must be encouraged – however, lethal military aid is on the table. He has added that he has yet to take a decision on whether to approve such a plan.
Of course, Angela Merkel does not favor the arming of Ukraine by the US and wants to pursue a peaceful solution.
Already plenty of sanctions have been imposed on Russia because of its annexing Crimea and the European Union has decided to temporarily hold off slapping more sanctions on Russians and Ukrainian separatists as they wait for the outcome of the peace talks.
The death toll in the violence in Ukraine ever since the Russian annexation of Crimea is now more than 5,300 as per UN tally and has increased over the past two weeks.

Putin signs defense deals with India, the United States not amused

In his eagerness to make more and more friends, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi treats all leaders on the same platform - and, in doing so, he is probably ruffling many feathers.
At this moment, Russian President Vladimir Putin is in India and has signed a number of defense and nuclear deals. But, the United States is not amused because one member of Putin’s team is Sergey Aksyonov, the Prime Minister of Crimea and Putin has earned a bad name because of his annexing of Crimea that once was a part of Ukraine.
This is a peculiar issue - the fact that Russia and India are concluding business ties, especially in the field of nuclear power when the US-India civilian nuclear deal is yet to attain fruition. It is bound to create complications. It may be recalled that the US had tried to isolate Putin for his invasion of Ukraine and a cold war is raging between the two super powers.
India does not support western sanctions against Russia for his actions in Ukraine, but it has also not approved the Russian annexation of Crimea either. Hence, the Prime Minister of Crimea in the team with Russian President has raised many eyebrows.
Anyway, New Delhi had indicated to Washington that it was not ''officially aware'' of Aksyonov's presence in the Putin delegation and, the US accepted that on face value but has asked for further clarifications. Incidentally, Petro Poroshenko has lashed out at India for entertaining the Crimean leader – in Petro’s words, India was placing more importance on money than values by welcoming the Aksyanov.
This incident could become an embarrassment when President Barack Obama visits India in late January to be chief guest at India's Republic Day parade – it is an occasion for New Delhi to showcase its military hardware, most of which is of Russian origin.