DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ One year on, Russia's war in Ukraine ramps up fears over Europe's next security 'soft spot'
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-20 | by ( Sam Meredith | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +8 min

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, North Macedonia President Stevo Pendarovski said that, aside from Kyiv, he believed that the Western Balkan region was the "soft spot" of Europe's security architecture. For sure, the Western Balkans is a second battleground for Russia in terms of foreign interference and information manipulation. Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesĆerimagić said Russia's war in Ukraine provides Europe with a clear opportunity to cement stability in the Western Balkans. "For sure, the Western Balkans is a second battleground for Russia in terms of foreign interference and information manipulation. watch nowNorth Macedonia's Pendarovski last month described the U.S. as a "key player" in supporting Western Balkan countries through Russia's war in Ukraine.

[1/2] U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris is welcomed at Munich's airport by Bavarian state premier Markus Soeder before heading to the venue of this year's Security Conference in Munich, Germany, February 16, 2023. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, French President Emmanuel Macron and U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris are among many top officials attending the Munich Security Conference, a major annual global gathering focused on defence and diplomacy. As Russian troops massed on Ukraine's borders, Western leaders in Munich urged President Vladimir Putin not to invade and warned of dire consequences if he did so. Delegates will also discuss the far-reaching global impact of the war, on issues ranging from energy supply to food prices. This year, Russian leaders will be notable by their absence.

☆ Rising tensions with Russia have NATO militaries worried about the revival of a Cold War-era submarine threat
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( Constantine Atlamazoglou | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

A top concern is that those subs could be used to attack or interfere with undersea cables and pipelines. Ander Gillenea/AFP/Getty ImagesConcern about Russia's expanding underwater capabilities and the danger they pose to critical underwater infrastructure has risen since Russia seized Crimea in 2014. Since then, Russian submarines have deployed more often and for longer and their activity close to critical undersea infrastructure has increased. Recent Russian submarine activity does suggest an increasing focus on being able to get into the Atlantic and closer to the US East Coast. At a Senate hearing in February 2020, the head of US European Command was asked if US forces have "sufficient visibility" on Russian submarines in the Atlantic.

☆ Invited by Russia, Roger Waters tells UN: Ukraine invasion illegal
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( Michelle Nichols | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Ambassador Ferit Hoxha told the 15-member Security Council. Soon after Moscow's Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, Russia introduced tough new laws on spreading "misinformation" about the war or discrediting the Russian army. Russia called the Security Council meeting on Wednesday to discuss the delivery of weapons to Ukraine and asked Waters to brief. While Waters condemned Russia's invasion of Ukraine as illegal, he also said it "was not unprovoked" and he also condemned "the provocateurs in the strongest possible terms." "The only sensible course of action today is to call for an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine," Waters saidUkraine's U.N.

[1/2] Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy greets U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris during a joint meeting of U.S. Congress in the House Chamber of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, U.S., December 21, 2022. REUTERS/Jonathan ErnstWASHINGTON, Feb 6 (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris is expected to discuss Washington's future support for Ukraine when she travels to a major European security conference in Germany next week, as Russia's invasion nears the one-year mark. Harris will travel to Munich, Germany, from Feb. 16 to 18 to attend the Munich Security Conference as Ukraine, still waiting on promised longer-range Western missiles and battle tanks, readies itself for a new Russian offensive that could begin next week. Support for Ukraine has included $29.3 billion worth of pledged security assistance and an unprecedented use of economic sanctions, including an oil price cap, which have severely impacted Moscow. Harris met with and briefed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy at last year's conference, which was held just days before Russia's Feb. 24, 2022, invasion of Ukraine.

☆ Russia's war in Ukraine backfired by uniting NATO, even as cracks emerged over nearly a year of fighting
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-30 | by ( Jake Epstein | John Haltiwanger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

When Putin invaded Ukraine, he miscalculated the response from Western countries. NATO has been largely united in its response to Russia's war, consistently providing Kyiv with military aid. Russian President Vladimir Putin has effectively succeeded in remaking the Western bloc, Araud said, adding that "the Western alliance is back." After the Soviet Union collapsed, both Finland and Sweden became NATO partner countries but stopped short of pursuing full membership. Even under the intense pressure of war, the alliance is "holding the way that they have in the past," he said.

☆ A decade of quiet preparations helped Ukraine turn the tables on Russia's bigger, better-armed military, experts say
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-29 | by ( Constantine Atlamazoglou | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

Following Russia's 2014 attack, Ukraine's military set out to improve and modernize its forces. In the years that followed, Ukraine's military underwent a period of preparation that helped it blunt the full-scale invasion that Russia launched in February 2022. Training for artillery troops was also intensified. However, Russia's tanks still outnumbered Ukraine's nearly four to one when the invasion started. Prior to 2022, Ukraine's military had struggled to retain troops, but high turnover during those years meant Ukraine had a large pool of civilians with military training.

☆ For the 2nd year in a row, Iran is sailing its biggest warship around the world to show off its growing navy
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( Constantine Atlamazoglou | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Iranian warships left Iran in September on what one official said was a journey around the world. Visiting far off landsIranian navy Makran near the Strait of Hormuz in May 2021. They have repeatedly seized Iranian arms shipments bound for Yemen and have often had tense encounters with Iranian warships. Iran has also started an indigenous shipbuilding program to grow its navy, which is designed to defend the Persian Gulf. "Yet the focus of Iran will continue to be the Persian Gulf, the Gulf of Oman, and the Indian ocean.

“There have been about 1,300 Russian tank losses … so the actual numbers of new tanks [for Ukraine] in a military sense are not that significant. There’s a lot of Ukraine and 20, 30, 40 tanks does not go that far,” said Ronald Ti, an expert in military logistics at King’s College, London. Nevertheless, the move to create a new “tank coalition,” as some officials called it, has been widely welcomed in Ukraine. Zelenskyy has said Ukraine requires around 300 tanks in order to successfully defend its territory from an expected Russian spring offensive, and to begin winning back territory ceded to Moscow since the invasion began last February. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, seen in Berlin on Wednesday, has faced prolonged criticism for a reluctance to send military equipment to Ukraine.

☆ As fighting rages in Ukraine, the US is sending drones to keep an eye on another tense corner of Europe
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( Constantine Atlamazoglou | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

US Air Force MQ-9 Reaper drones deployed to Greece during the final weeks of 2022. Operating from Larissa air base, the drones will keep an eye NATO's borders in southeastern Europe. The deployment comes as NATO grapples with the war in Ukraine and with tensions between Turkey and Greece. Predator in the skiesUS Air Force airmen do pre-flight checks on an MQ-9 at Andersen Air Force Base in Guam in May. A US Air Force F-15C at Larissa Air Base in May 2021.

☆ Russians are posting footage of air-defense systems being installed on Moscow's roofs, a sign the Kremlin may fear an attack
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-20 | by ( Matthew Loh | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Russian Telegram channels are posting footage of anti-air systems installed on Moscow's rooftops. The footage, which Insider was unable to independently verify, has since been reposted several times on Twitter. On January 13, Russia's longer-range S-400 surface-to-air-missile systems were also seen deployed in photos posted by the anti-war Telegram channel CHTD. The images, which Insider was also unable to independently verify, show the systems installed in two parks near central Moscow. Russian state media and officials have not addressed the new footage of the missile systems so far.

LONDON/WASHINGTON, Jan 6 (Reuters) - A Russian hacking team known as Cold River targeted three nuclear research laboratories in the United States this past summer, according to internet records reviewed by Reuters and five cyber security experts. Cold River has escalated its hacking campaign against Kyiv's allies since the invasion of Ukraine, according to cybersecurity researchers and western government officials. 'INTELLIGENCE COLLECTION'In May, Cold River broke into and leaked emails belonging to the former head of Britain's MI6 spy service. Reuters was unable independently to confirm why Cold River targeted the NGOs. "Google has tied this individual to the Russian hacking group Cold River and their early operations," he said.

☆ Germany's Scholz: We must avoid dividing world into Cold War-style blocs
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-05 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

BERLIN, Dec 5 (Reuters) - German Chancellor Olaf Scholz warned against creating a new Cold War by dividing the world into blocs and called for every effort to be made to build new partnerships, writing in an opinion piece for Foreign Affairs magazine published online on Monday. The West must stand up for democratic values and protect open societies, "but we must also avoid the temptation to once again divide the world into blocs," wrote Scholz in the piece. "This means making every effort to build new partnerships, pragmatically and without ideological blinders," he added. Scholz singled out China and Russia in particular as two countries that pose a threat to a multipolar world, which requires stronger European and transatlantic unity to overcome. "Germans are intent on becoming the guarantor of European security that our allies expect us to be, a bridge builder within the European Union and an advocate for multilateral solutions to global problems," wrote Scholz.

☆ Finnish leader says the brutal truth is Ukraine shows Europe isn't 'strong enough' without the US
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-02 | by ( John Haltiwanger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

"I must be brutally honest with you, Europe isn't strong enough right now," Sanna Marin said. "We would be in trouble without the United States," Marin added. "I must be brutally honest with you, Europe isn't strong enough right now. We would be in trouble without the United States," Marin said during remarks at a think tank in Sydney, Australia, per Reuters. "The United States has given a lot of weapons, a lot of financial aid, a lot of humanitarian aid to Ukraine and Europe isn't strong enough yet," Marin said.

☆ Russia's Lavrov says European security body is hobbled by West
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-01 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Dec 1 (Reuters) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday that big problems had accumulated in the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), accusing the West of spurning the chance to make it a real bridge with Russia after the Cold War. Lavrov made the comments at the start of a news conference during which he gave a long recital of Russian historical grievances against the West, saying the "reckless enlargement" of NATO had devalued the basic principles of the OSCE. "Taking advantage of its numerical superiority in this organization, the West has been trying for many years to, if you like, privatise it. Or perhaps it's more correct to say it is trying to carry out a takeover raid on the OSCE, to subjugate this last platform for regional dialogue," said Lavrov. Reporting by Reuters Editing by Andrew OsbornOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ An often overlooked Swedish fighter may be the jet Ukraine needs to take on Russia now, experts say
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-01 | by ( Constantine Atlamazoglou | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

The Saab JAS 39 Gripen fighter jet has earned high marks for its capabilities and affordability. But buyers have often passed on the Gripen in favor of other jets, including the US-made F-35. A Saab JAS 39C Gripen jet during an air show in June 2011. US Air Force F-16s with Swedish air force JAS 39 Gripens over the Baltic Sea during an exercise in June 2018. A new Brazilian Air Force F-39E Gripen at an air base in Brasilia in October 2020.

☆ The deadly missile incident in Poland is a 'propaganda gift' for the Ukrainians and Zelenskyy, Russia expert says
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-16 | by ( Erin Snodgrass | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Two people were killed after Russian-made missiles landed in Poland, according to reports. The incident could benefit Zelenskyy's efforts to stir up further assistance, a Russia expert said. "This is a propaganda gift for the Ukrainians," said Simon Miles, an assistant professor at Duke. But what marks the first seeming spillover of Russia's war beyond Ukraine could ultimately benefit Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's ongoing efforts to stir up additional assistance and support, a Russia expert told Insider. On top of being a fatal tragedy for Poland, the Tuesday incident also bolsters Ukraine's ongoing wartime rhetoric.

☆ Rising tensions between 2 of NATO's biggest militaries are driving fears of the first war between alliance members
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-02 | by ( Constantine Atlamazoglou | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Greece and Turkey have two of NATO's largest militaries and are in an important corner of Europe. Their tensions have escalated in recent years, stoking new fears about the first war within NATO. Greece's defense spending in 2022 was the highest in the alliance as a share of GDP. (NATO also calls for 20% of members' defense spending to go toward equipment purchases and upgrades.) Greece's defense minister said that "as long as there is a threat of territorial sovereignty, it renders futile any attempt at communication."

☆ Europe's militaries have been working together for years to keep an eye on what Russia is up to at sea
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-31 | by ( Constantine Atlamazoglou | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

The Nord Stream pipeline sabotage in September drew new attention to maritime threats in Europe. European militaries have already been working on new ways to protect undersea infrastructure. Although the pipelines were not in use— Nord Stream 1 was shut down in March by EU sanctions against Russia, and Nord Stream 2 wasn't yet operational—the incident highlights the risks to underwater infrastructure. Even before the war in Ukraine, Western officials had grown worried about increasing activity by Russian ships and submarines around underwater cables crossing the Atlantic. "Russia is clearly taking an interest in NATO and NATO nations' undersea infrastructure," the admiral said at the time.

☆ Biden knows there are limits on American power, but they're nowhere to be found in his first major security strategy
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-25 | by ( Gil Barndollar | Defense Priorities | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

This month, the Biden administration released its long-delayed National Security Strategy. The brief moment of post-Cold War American hyperpower is long gone, a victim of both natural power dynamics and three decades of incessant American foreign policy hubris and error. Six months before the assault on Ukraine began, the Biden administration admitted the limits of American power in another land that defeated Russian invaders: Afghanistan. The saving grace of the National Security Strategy may be its meaninglessness. The Biden administration's actual emerging national security strategy could be far better than the document lets on.

☆ Ukraine's surprise attack on Putin's 'miracle' bridge is more than just a military loss for Russia
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-23 | by ( Constantine Atlamazoglou | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

The bridge between Russia and the Crimean Peninsula was hit by a surprise attack on October 8. Bridge over troubled waterThe Crimean bridge on October 9. Contributor/AFP via Getty ImagesThe Crimean bridge is very important to the Russian war effort in Ukraine. Vehicles wait to cross the Crimean bridge on October 9. Happy birthday, Mr. presidentUkrainians pose with a mock postage stamp depicting the Crimean Bridge on fire on October 8.

☆ NATO navies are teaming up for the first time to practice using drones to hunt submarines and other undersea threats
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-21 | by ( Constantine Atlamazoglou | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

The exercise, Dynamic Messenger 22, was held in the waters off of Portugal's Troia Peninsula from September 23 to September 30. NATO Maritime CommandDynamic Messenger 22 involved 1,500 personnel from 16 NATO member-states operating more than 18 ships and 48 unmanned vehicles. NATO Maritime CommandMany NATO members see unmanned maritime assets as valuable additions to their fleets, and the role of those assets in alliance naval exercises has increased in recent years. A concerted effortA drone helicopter in use during NATO exercise Dynamic Messenger. NATO Maritime CommandREPMUS — short for "Robotic Experimentation and Prototyping using Maritime Uncrewed Systems" — supports NATO's Maritime Unmanned Systems Initiative, which was launched in October 2018 to promote the use of unmanned systems in the alliance's naval operations.

☆ Trump's yearslong crusade against Ukraine has finally come home to roost as Republicans call for abandoning Kyiv
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-20 | by ( John Haltiwanger | Sonam Sheth | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

US aid to Ukraine could be in jeopardy if Republicans win the House in the midterms. Several GOP lawmakers and candidates have signaled they would support reducing or cutting off Ukraine aid. In April, 10 House Republicans voted against a bill allowing the Biden administration to more easily lend military equipment to Ukraine. The following month, 57 House Republicans voted "no" on a nearly $40 billion aid package for Ukraine. Some GOP opposition to continuing aid to Ukraine is tied to Trump's "America First" policy vis-a-vis foreign affairs.

☆ NATO is pouring concrete to support new 'battlegroups' in 4 countries amid rising tensions with Russia
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-19 | by ( Constantine Atlamazoglou | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

NATO now has some 40,000 troops under its direct command in Eastern Europe — 30,000 of them in those eight battlegroups. More than a tripwireUS soldiers at a base in Latvia to support NATO's battlegroup there on February 25. Hungary had refused to accept NATO troops, with its foreign minister saying before Russia attacked Ukraine that Hungary's military could defend the country. Following Russia's invasion, Hungary was persuaded to host a few hundred NATO troops in a battlegroup that it would lead. Accommodating and integrating an influx of NATO troops is not easy, even for countries that are eager to counter Russia.

☆ A quiet US move in the Mediterranean may help put more pressure on Russia, but not everyone in NATO is happy about it
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-17 | by ( Constantine Atlamazoglou | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

The US lifted its 35-year-old arms embargo on the Republic of Cyprus in September. But the US decision has rankled Turkey, which is at odds with NATO ally Greece over the island. Increased cooperationThe Cypriot Underwater Demolition Team and US Naval Special Warfare Task Unit Europe train in Cyprus in September 2021. "This is a landmark decision, reflecting the burgeoning strategic relationship between the two countries, including in the area of security," Cypriot President Nikos Anastasiades said after the announcement. Cyprus is one of many points of contention between Greece and Turkey, whose worsening relations have worried other NATO members.

Search resuls for: "European Security"

25 mentions found