• New US military contingent begins its work in Lithuania

    New U.S. troops stationed in Rukla, Lithuania have begun their work, as reported by delfi.lt.

    According to the news portal, the contingent consists of about 260 servicemen. The American troops will continue exercises through the end of June in Lithuania. U.S. ground troops in Lithuania and other Baltic States have been revolving since the spring of 2014.

    Other allies have sent troops to Lithuania on an irregular basis; however the decision on whether to deploy a regular battalion consisting …

  • Europol: The Russian mafia has penetrated European football clubs

    The Portuguese Police and the EU Police Service, Europol, stated that they have uncovered a cell of influential Russian mafia members which is likely laundering money through European football clubs.

    Europol’s statement published on May 4th said that this group, by providing financial support to the clubs, has established control over them, and subsequently could launder money through player transfers.

    Searches of several football clubs were conducted in Portugal as part of the investigation …

  • Lavrov: Russia would consider selling tanks, armored vehicles and combat aircraft to Iran

    Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, has said that Russia would consider selling tanks, armored personnel carriers and combat aircraft to Iran.

    “Bans against Iran for certain weapons such as tanks, armored personnel carriers and combat aircraft were removed and instead changed to five-year licensing regimes. This means that Iran can now consider buying these types of weapons. We will definitely consider their proposals if they contact us in this regard. I will however repeat that the S-300 …

  • Estonian Defense Minister: Russia regularly violates our airspace

    Russian warplanes regularly violate Estonian airspace. This was reported by the Minister of Defense of Estonia, Hannes Hanso, during a visit to Paris on the 3rd of May. He added that this is “extremely reckless behavior” by Moscow.

    “They are violating our airspace fairly regularly. They fly over the Baltic Sea with their transponders switched off,” Hanso reported.

    He added that even though military radar can detect a plane which has its transponders turned off, civilian aircraft are unable to …

  • US tanks arrive in Georgia for joint military exercises

    More than a dozen US M1A2 Abram tanks have arrived in Georgia to participate in the Noble Partner 2016 military exercises, Radio Svoboda reported.

    The exercises involving American, Georgian, and British soldiers will begin on May 11th.

    The Abrams tanks and Bradley M2 infantry fighting vehicles arrived in Vaziani, a suburb of Tbilisi, on Thursday, at a former Russian army base.

    "Exercise Noble Partner is a bilateral effort focused on enhancing U.S. and Georgian NATO Response Force …