Politics
If Putin wants to remake the Soviet Union, what country would Russia target next?
![If Putin wants to remake the Soviet Union, what country would Russia target next? If Putin wants to remake the Soviet Union, what country would Russia target next?](https://newspub.live/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/1646651128_MAP_WORLD_FORMER_SOVIET_STATES_IN_NATO_2.png)
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“I’ve learn most of every thing he’s written,” President Biden stated of Russian President Vladimir Putin final week. “He has a lot bigger ambitions in Ukraine. He needs to, in reality, reestablish the previous Soviet Union. That’s what that is about.”
Many specialists imagine that Biden is true. In an usually cited and maybe extremely revealing remark years in the past, Putin stated that he believed the autumn of the Soviet Union was the best geopolitical tragedy of the twentieth century.
Putin presently has his fingers full with a stronger-than-expected resistance to his conflict on Ukraine – together with at residence – although his huge army is anticipated to finally prevail. Most imagine, nevertheless, that it isn’t a matter of if, however somewhat when and the place, the Russian president begins pressuring, coercing or attacking different nations as he tries to reconstitute one thing akin to the Soviet Union.
The Baltics
Many are retaining one eye on Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania as Putin wages his conflict on Ukraine. That is as a result of the three Baltic States sit sandwiched between Russia, its shut ally Belarus, the Baltic Sea and the Russian territory of Kaliningrad.
A map reveals the boundaries of the previous Soviet Union, with NATO “Baltic” states highlighted. Many speculate these nations might face covert motion and cyberattacks from Russia quickly.
(Fox Information)
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As a result of all three nations are NATO members, it isn’t anticipated that Putin would take bodily aggressive motion towards them, in accordance Penn State professor emerita of political science Donna Bahry.
“The Baltics are weak, however a direct Russian army strike towards NATO nations appears unlikely for now,” Bahry informed Fox Information Digital. “That doesn’t rule out Russian efforts comparable to cyberattacks and different covert actions. In actual fact, all three Baltic nations have skilled cyberattacks from Russia for some years.”
Former Protection Intelligence Company officer Rebekah Koffler additionally informed Fox Information Digital {that a} army assault is very unlikely. However she stated Putin could hit the Baltics with “non-kinetic actions” that might embrace not solely cyberattacks however digital warfare, “any form of destabilization like covert ops,” and even staging a protest.
“He’s not gonna go along with army operations or any form of kinetic motion towards any NATO nation such because the Baltics,” she stated. “However because the battle escalates, and particularly if he is on the shedding facet, I totally anticipate him to ratchet up non-kinetic actions.”
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R Avenue Institute Cybersecurity and Rising Threats Director Tatyana Bolton, in the meantime, informed Fox Information Digital that whereas Putin’s timeline is probably not fast, she believes Putin needs to finally achieve management of the Baltics. She stated the West ought to do every thing in its energy to salvage Ukraine, which she stated could be key to deterring any future Putin assault on the Baltics.
![Russian President Vladimir Putin during a news conference in the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Feb. 1, 2022.](https://newspub.live/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/putin1.png)
Russian President Vladimir Putin throughout a information convention within the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Feb. 1, 2022.
(Yuri Kochetkov/Pool Photograph by way of AP)
“This might take months or years, however I feel that is precisely what he is making an attempt to do. He is making an attempt to take one piece at a time to reassemble what he believes was the best nation on this planet,” Bolton stated.
Koffler additionally stated it is extremely unlikely Russia would take kinetic motion quickly towards different NATO members or some other “actually Western nation.” This would come with, she stated, non-NATO members Finland and Sweden, regardless of hypothesis about Putin’s curiosity within the Swedish island of Gotland.
Different post-Soviet states
Romania and Georgia could face a extra fast menace than the Baltics, Bahry and Koffler stated.
Any space the place the Russians have their quote-unquote peacekeeping forces… or something that has disputed territory [is vulnerable].
“Will Putin now transfer shortly towards different post-Soviet states? Extra army assaults on different post-Soviet nations appear unlikely for now,” Bahry stated. “However Putin might ramp up stress on the nations with nearer ties to the EU, comparable to Moldova and Georgia — for instance, by recognizing the independence of Transnistria or annexing South Ossetia.”
Koffler stated these former Soviet states are certainly “weak,” as a result of they don’t seem to be in NATO and since they’ve disputed territory.
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“Positively a menace to Moldova,” Koffler stated. “Any space the place the Russians have their quote-unquote peacekeeping forces… or something that has disputed territory comparable to Transnistria in Moldova, comparable to Abkhazia and South Ossetia in Georgia.”
Koffler stated these areas “may very well be on the goal record, together with on this section of the operation, particularly if he’s perceiving that he is on the shedding facet.” What might maintain Putin again from going after these areas, Koffler stated, is the very fact a lot of his army is preoccupied in Ukraine for now.
![The boundaries of the former Soviet Union are shown on a map. Former Defense Intelligence Agency officer Rebekah Koffler said any former Soviet state that's not in NATO is vulnerable to Russian action right now.](https://newspub.live/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/5d00219c-MAP_WORLD_TERRAIN_BOUNDARIES_OF_FORMER_SOVIET_UNION_w_BORDER.png)
The boundaries of the previous Soviet Union are proven on a map. Former Protection Intelligence Company officer Rebekah Koffler stated any former Soviet state that is not in NATO is weak to Russian motion proper now.
(Fox Information)
What the West can do
Even though kinetic motion is unlikely, Koffler stated it’s nonetheless crucial to “shore up” the Baltics with Western troops. However she stated that should be carried out rigorously “in order that Putin does not interpret our actions as offensive as an alternative of defensive… Keep in mind, he is paranoid.”
Retired CIA station chief Dan Hoffman additionally acknowledged the difficulty with the notion of NATO build up troops within the Baltics. He stated a buildup of Western forces in these three states bordering Russia would feed into the “enemy on the gates” propaganda Putin makes use of on his individuals. However, Hoffman stated, it is nonetheless crucial to extend the western army presence within the Baltics.
“Even when there’s a 2% likelihood Putin invades Estonia, you higher be there and prepared with an entire lot of troops or else that’s 100% of you getting your a– kicked,” he stated.
Bahry stated “NATO would have problem countering a direct Russian strike on the Baltics proper now,” however that the SWIFT sanctions the West is imposing are “a giant step.” In the long run, Bahry stated, power independence often is the West’s greatest transfer to counter Russia.
“European nations must be diversifying each the categories and provides of power they use, to scale back dependence on Russian gasoline exports,” she stated. “That’s not simply an power safety difficulty for Europe. It’s additionally a method to scale back the stream of income going to the Russian authorities and its army.”
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Politics
Black Californians warn Newsom of 'direct impact' on Harris after Democrats kill slave reparation bills
![Black Californians warn Newsom of 'direct impact' on Harris after Democrats kill slave reparation bills Black Californians warn Newsom of 'direct impact' on Harris after Democrats kill slave reparation bills](https://static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/09/AP24244812299639.jpg)
Black activists at the California assembly threatened a “direct impact” on Vice President Harris’ presidential campaign after state Democratic lawmakers held off on two bills that would have greenlighted slavery reparations.
Last week, the California legislature approved proposals allowing for the return of land or compensation to families whose property was unjustly seized by the government, and issuing a formal apology for laws and practices that have harmed Black people. But none of those bills would provide widespread direct payments to African Americans. After hours of heated debate and protests on Saturday, state lawmakers left out two bills – Senate Bills 1403 and 1331 – that would have created a fund and an agency to oversee reparation measures.
“The speaker needs to bring the bills up now, now, now. These are their bills. They have their names on the bills. They’re killing their own bills because they’re scared of the governor,” one Black man, a member of the Coalition for a Just and Equitable California, said in the rotunda on the last day of the legislative year on Saturday. “Now listen, they’re gonna see this, and they’re gonna get mad at us. They killing their own bills, and then they’re gonna get mad at us. They’re killing their own bills because they’re scared of the governor. We don’t care. Bring the G– d— bills up now, now, now.”
“We need to send a message to the governor,” a Black woman who is part of the same group chimed in, according to video shared on X. “The governor needs to understand the world is watching California and this is gonna have a direct impact on your friend Kamala Harris who is running for president. This is going to have a direct impact, so pull up the bills now, vote on them and sign them. We’ve been waiting for over 400 years.”
“We have the votes,” the man added.
CALIFORNIA REPUBLICAN LAWMAKER REACTS TO ‘CRAZY’ BILL THAT WOULD GIVE UNDOCUMENTED FIRST-TIME HOMEBUYERS MONEY
Assemblymember Isaac Bryan, right, talks to members of Coalition for a Just and Equitable California about two reparations bills in the rotunda on the last day of the legislative year Saturday, Aug. 31, 2024, in Sacramento, Calif. (AP Photo/Tran Nguyen)
State Sen. Steven Bradford, who authored the measures, said the bills failed to move forward out of fear that Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom would veto them.
“We’re at the finish line, and we, as the Black Caucus, owe it to the descendants of chattel slavery, to Black Californians and Black Americans, to move this legislation forward,” Bradford said, urging his colleagues to reconsider Saturday afternoon, according to the Associated Press.
“We owe it to our ancestors,” Bradford added, according to the Sacramento Bee. “And I think we disappointed them in a way.”
California Legislative Black Caucus Chair Assemblymember Lori Wilson said Saturday that the Black Caucus pulled the bills, adding the proposals need more work.
“We knew from the very beginning that it was an uphill battle…. And we also knew from the very beginning that it would be a multiyear effort,” Wilson told reporters.
![Black activists demand California lawmakers take up reparations bills](https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/09/1200/675/AP24244812327525.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
Members of Coalition for a Just and Equitable California protest in the rotunda on the last day of the legislative year Saturday, Aug. 31, 2024, in Sacramento, Calif. (AP Photo/Tran Nguyen)
Newsom has not weighed in on most of the bills, but he signed a $297.9 billion budget in June that included up to $12 million for reparations legislation. However, the budget did not specify what proposals the money would be used for, and his administration has signaled its opposition to some of them. Newsom has until Sept. 30 to decide whether to sign the bills that passed.
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Democratic Assemblymember Reggie Jones-Sawyer, who is Black, called his bill to issue a formal apology for discrimination “a labor of love.” His uncle was part of a group of Black students who in the 1950s were escorted by federal troops past an angry white mob into Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, three years after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that school segregation was unconstitutional. The students became known as the “Little Rock Nine.”
![Black reparations activists at California legislature](https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/09/1200/675/AP24244812326156.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
Members of Coalition for a Just and Equitable California demand lawmakers take up a vote on two reparations bill in the rotunda on the last day of the legislative year Saturday, Aug. 31, 2024, in Sacramento, Calif. (AP Photo/Tran Nguyen)
“I think my grandmother, my grandfather, would be extremely proud for what we are going to do today,” Jones-Sawyer said ahead of the vote on the legislation that was passed. “Because that is why they struggled in 1957, so that I’d be able to — and we’d be able to — move forward our people.”
Newsom approved a law in 2020 creating a first-in-the-nation task force to study reparations proposals. New York and Illinois have since followed suit with similar legislation. The California group released a final report last year with more than 100 recommendations for lawmakers.
Newsom signed a law earlier this summer requiring school districts that receive state funding for a career education program to collect data on the performance of participating students by race and gender. The legislation, part of a reparations package backed by the California Legislative Black Caucus, aims to help address gaps in student outcomes.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Politics
Opinion: Should a five-time loser with grand juries be president?
![Opinion: Should a five-time loser with grand juries be president? Opinion: Should a five-time loser with grand juries be president?](https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/82a042a/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3518x1847+0+252/resize/1200x630!/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F03%2Fad%2F280d56bc423c98543309d3f66721%2Ftrump-capitol-riot-78748.jpg)
By now, two months before the presidential election, we voters ought to have seen a verdict in the federal criminal case against the three-time Republican nominee accused of conspiring to overturn the result of the previous contest. (That’s a sentence I never thought I’d write.)
But there is no verdict against defendant Donald Trump, U.S. history’s biggest sore loser, thanks to the Supreme Court. Its right-wing super-majority — half of whom were selected by Trump, and two of whom should have recused themselves — dallied for half the year before issuing a surreal ruling in July granting the former president, and all future presidents, broad immunity from criminal liability for official acts, even for purportedly official acts intended to dynamite democracy’s foundation: free and fair elections.
Opinion Columnist
Jackie Calmes
Jackie Calmes brings a critical eye to the national political scene. She has decades of experience covering the White House and Congress.
So much for no person being above the law.
Thanks to special counsel Jack Smith, however, voters at least have a revised indictment against Trump in the Jan. 6 case. On Tuesday a new grand jury charged him with the same four conspiracy and obstruction crimes alleged in last year’s indictment, stripped of supporting material that might run afoul of the Supreme Court’s new tests for what is or isn’t an official act.
It’s far too late for a trial, and hence a verdict, before Nov. 5. And Trump’s team almost certainly will argue all the way back to the high court that Smith’s “superseding indictment” violates the justices’ immunity ruling.
Yet if nothing else, the retooled indictment is a useful refresher for those who’ve forgotten about, or become inured to, Trump’s antidemocratic outrages, the ones that made him the first American president to resist the peaceful transfer of power.
And more than that, the charges are a reminder about just why Trump wants to be president again: to avoid criminal liability and possibly prison. If reelected, he could thwart the rule of law, not uphold it as the oath of office demands. Trump could — would — make the Jan. 6 case go away, along with the separate federal charges against him for keeping classified documents. While he’s at it, he has promised to pardon hundreds of charged and convicted Jan. 6 insurrectionists, whom he grossly calls government “hostages.” He could also pardon himself, of course, for his alleged federal crimes (but not state charges).
After the grand jury action last week, former Justice Department official and MSNBC legal analyst Andrew Weissmann helpfully tweeted, “For those counting, FIVE separate grand juries (scores of citizens) have now found probable cause that Trump committed multiple felonies.”
Yes, for all of Trump’s daily lies that he’s being railroaded by “the Biden-Harris Regime” and its “weaponized” Justice Department, the facts are that many average Americans have heard evidence and decided against Trump. They’ve done so not only in those five grand juries, but also in several state trial juries that found him liable for sexual abuse and defamation, and guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records to hide hush money payments to a porn star from voters before the 2016 election.
With that last judgment, Trump achieved another contemptible first: No other president has been convicted of felonies. Sentencing in the hush money case, in New York, was delayed until Sept. 18, thanks to the confusion spawned by the Supreme Court’s immunity decision, and Trump has asked for a further delay — past election day, natch. Judge Juan M. Merchan should proceed with the sentencing. Sure, Trump would cry foul. But all we’ve seen to date is excessive legal deference toward the lawless former president, his incessant whining about witch hunts notwithstanding.
Which brings us back to Smith’s overhauled Jan. 6 indictment, and its welcome reminder of Trump’s unprecedented power grab. The 36 pages are a maddening must-read for undecided voters, a ticktock of his falsehoods and scheming from the 2020 election through the violence of Jan. 6, 2021. Yet nearly four years later, instead of being held responsible, Trump is a candidate for reelection.
Smith strained to steer clear of Trump’s supposedly official acts, in keeping with the Supreme Court’s warped ruling. Out, for example, are accounts of his vile efforts to force Justice Department aides to lie about election fraud, as a pretext for lawsuits; they were his executive branch employees. But campaign advisors should be fair game for the prosecutors, and the indictment still recounts Trump’s refusals to accept their assertions and proof that he’d lost, that there was no fraud. Trump instead kept his aides spreading lies — “conspiracy s— beamed down from the mothership,” one wrote in an email cited in the indictment — and working on illegal slates of alternative state electors.
The document retains some details of Trump’s belittling pressure on Vice President Mike Pence. “You’re too honest,” the liar in chief once erupted, exasperated that Pence wouldn’t agree to throw out the electoral votes of pro-Biden battleground states during Congress’ Jan. 6 certification. And it includes Trump’s private and public haranguing of state officials to do his illegal bidding; they’re not feds, and presidents have no official role in states’ vote-counting.
Alas, for now all we have, still, are the charges, no trial and no verdict. But that fact defines the stakes for the 2024 election: A vote for Trump is a vote against his accountability. It’s really that simple.
@jackiekcalmes
Politics
Gold Star families slam Kamala Harris for 'playing politics' over Trump's visit to Arlington National Cemetery
![Gold Star families slam Kamala Harris for 'playing politics' over Trump's visit to Arlington National Cemetery Gold Star families slam Kamala Harris for 'playing politics' over Trump's visit to Arlington National Cemetery](https://static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/08/kamala-graves-arlington-1.jpg)
Vice President Kamala Harris was recently excoriated by Gold Star family members who accused the Democratic presidential candidate of politicizing an incident at Arlington National Cemetery on Monday.
The messages were posted on former President Trump’s Instagram account. Eight videos, each featuring different parents of service members killed by ISIS-K terrorists amid the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan on Aug. 26, 2021, were published in total.
The videos were released in the wake of a statement published by Harris on Saturday, where the vice president criticized Trump for taking photographs at a wreath-laying ceremony event on Monday. The Army said this week that an Arlington National Cemetery official was “abruptly pushed aside” while interacting with Trump’s staff.
“As Vice President, I have had the privilege of visiting Arlington National Cemetery several times,” Harris said. “It is not a place for politics. And yet, as was reported this week, Donald Trump’s team chose to film a video there, resulting in an altercation with cemetery staff.”
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Kamala Harris was called out by Gold Star families over a statement she released about Trump on Saturday. (Getty Images)
“Let me be clear: the former president disrespected sacred ground, all for the sake of a political stunt,” she claimed, before adding that she would “never politicize” such an event.
The Gold Star family members maintained that they had asked Trump for photographs, as opposed to Trump taking pictures to advance his campaign. In one video, the father of Marine Lance Cpl. Jared Schmitz called Harris’ post “heinous, vile and disgusting.”
“Why did we want Trump there? It wasn’t to help his political campaign,” Mark Schmitz said in the video. “We wanted a leader. That explains why you and Joe didn’t get a call.”
Darren Hoover, the father of Marine Staff Sgt. Taylor Hoover, said that Harris lacks “empathy and basic understanding” about Monday’s event, and stressed that Trump’s appearance was respectful.
HARRIS SLAMS TRUMP OVER ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY ALTERCATION, PROMPTING FIERY RESPONSE FROM JD VANCE
![Trump Harris split image](https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/08/1200/675/Copy-of-Side-by-Side-split-9.png?ve=1&tl=1)
Vice President Kamala Harris slammed former President Donald Trump over last week’s incident at Arlington National Cemetery. (Getty Images)
“In keeping with the reverence and respect that is given to all members of our military that are buried there, we invited President Trump,” he said. “We are the ones that asked for the video and the pictures to be taken at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier.”
Hoover also added that Trump has “been there for us from the very beginning,” and criticized Harris for “playing politics” over the incident.
“You should be ashamed and embarrassed [about] your lack of empathy and decency as a human being,” the father added. “You are only in this for the power and prestige. You don’t care for our military or the citizens of this country.
![Trump at Arizona rally](https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/08/1200/675/AP24237043125176.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally at the Desert Diamond Arena, Friday, Aug. 23, 2024, in Glendale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
“You should hang your head in shame at your actions or lack thereof.”
Fox News Digital reached out to the Harris campaign for comment.
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