Lake Vostok is more than 2 miles below Antarctica

A breathlessly excited Alexander Yelagin, head of the Russian Vostok mission, told reporters that “An event that has been keeping the world scientific community on tenterhooks for the last few months occurred on February 5 at 8.25 p.m. Moscow time… specialists with the glaciological and drilling unit of the 57th Russian Antarctic expedition through deep ice borehole 5G penetrated the relict waters of sub-glacial Vostok.”

Is there life in Lake Vostok?

It has long been suspected that Lake Vostok, which has been cut off by ice for tens of millions of years, contains life forms that will have developed along a separate evolutionary path. The question is important not just because of what it will tell us about the development of life on earth, but because of what it might tell us about the chances of life developing on other planets – for example Europa, Jupiter’s icy moon, or even below the surface of Mars.

Russian scientists have big plans to test this theory. Their next step will be to take samples from the lake, to establish whether any life exists so far below the Antarctic ice. Although, unfortunately for the impatient among us, they’ll have to wait until the Antarctic summer begins in May to start work on this.

The lake is thought to be more than 300 metres deep, though, and it may take some time to establish whether or not there is life under Antarctica. The first samples will only be taken at the surface of the lake, so even if they don’t contain any life it is still quite possible that life exists deeper down, and robot probes are also being developed to explore the lake further.

British and American competition

Although Russian scientists are the only ones exploring Lake Vostok, there are hundreds of other subglacial lakes scattered around Antarctica, and there is a race underway to see which team can be the first to return with water samples from other subglacial lakes.

A British team is drilling down to Lake Ellsworth, almost 2 miles belolw Western Antactica, and an American team is drilling down to Lake Whillans.

The British and American teams have an edge over the Russians, in that they are using much more modern hot water drills, which can drill through ice in a matter of days and not years. Rather boringly each of the teams seems to be stressing that it’s about bringing back scientific knowledge, and not who is first:

“It’s not a race for penetrating a glacial lake,” said Martin Siegert from the British team drilling down to Lake Ellsworth. “We’re not adventurers. We’re doing science. There are questions we’re asking and trying to answer.”

But, frankly, who is he trying to kid?

Russians drill into Antarctic Lake Vostok is a post from: Siberian Light

The bill, which would punish any “public activities promoting sodomy, lesbianism, bisexuality and transgender identity” with a fine of up to $1,600 (50,000 roubles) was passed by an overwhelming majority in its first reading in the St Petersburg City Duma amidst some frighteningly stupid rhetoric.

Vitaly Milonov, who wrote the draft legislation, was initially relatively restrained and restricted himself only to bland comments like “the rising popularity of sexual deviations negatively affects our children”, but others were much more colourful in their commentary.

Take as an example, this quote from a city councilor who had earlier proposed banning the rainbow symbol:

“On St. Petersburg day we had posters all over the city with portraits of Peter the Great and a brightly colored rainbow under it. How can there be a rainbow, which is the international gay symbol? And we have day-care centers called Rainbow and drug stores called Rainbow all over the city!… We are going to die out soon.”

(This quote, by the way, is borrowed from a brilliantly titled NYT blog “Russia’s War Against Rainbows”.

Because the bill was being sponsored by the ruling United Russia party that dominates the City Duma the next two readings required to turn the bill into law were expected to be little more than a formality. However, opposition to the bill has gradually grown and it now looks like the City Duma are going to think again. The second reading of the bill has been postponed to allow time for a face-saving review of the legislation’s wording.

It would be nice to think that the reason for this is the level of domestic opposition to the bill. There has certainly been strong criticism of the bill at home – for example protests in St Petersburg where protesters held up placards urging politicians not to be so afraid of them – “I am a lesbian – do not be afraid of me, Babich!”. Others noted that United Russia’s willingness to promote this bill was linked to their sliding poll numbers – “they need to get as many votes as they can, so they are appealing to the least educated, downtrodden section of people who have a lot of phobias, including homophobia,” said Igor Kochetkov, the head of the LGBT group Coming Out. But from what I can tell, it hasn’t really struck much of a chord with the wider Russian population who on the whole look to be fairly apathetic about the proposals.

Instead, it seems to me as though it is only really since international criticism began to gather pace that the bill’s progress has slowed. Whereas initially only activist and human rights groups like Amnesty International were publicly objecting to the bill, now politicians and governments around the world are sitting up and taking notice. Not all have had the courage to take a firm stance in opposition to the bill – for example, the Australian Parliament debated a motion to censure the Russian Government earlier today and, rather ludicrously voted not to take any action. But, perhaps most importantly, the US State Department has come out firmly in opposition – in a statement earlier today a spokesman told reporters:

“We are deeply concerned by proposed local legislation in Russia that would severely restrict freedoms of expression and assembly for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals, and indeed all Russians. As Secretary Clinton has said, gay rights are human rights and human rights are gay rights.”

It’s unclear what will happen next with this bill but I would imagine (and very much hope) that it will be quietly shelved to avoid further embarrassment for the Kremlin.

Opposition to Russia’s ‘Anti-Gay’ bill gathers pace is a post from: Siberian Light

The news comes almost immediately after a customs and trade monitoring agreement between Russia and Georgia which had been holding up Russian accession for years.

Only two hurdles now remain between Russia and full WTO membership – the Ministerial Conference, attended by representatives of each member state, must approve Russian accession at its meeting of 15-17 December, and then Russia itself must ratify the decision by 15 June 2012.

Under the terms of the deal Russia will have to make a number of changes. Most notably, it will have to cut import tariffs on a wide range of goods – its 2011 average import tariff ceiling of 10% will be cut by more than a fifth, to a maximum of 7.8% – and eliminate a number of state subsidies. The full terms of the deal can be found in the announcement on the WTO website.

As you would expect, the analysts are all over this news. And, as you’d expect, reaction is mixed. For example, the Wall Street Journal thinks that it will benefit Russia’s economy and – more importantly – increase the rule of law in Russia. Bloomburg, on the other hand, chooses to focus on the negative, noting that although Russian industry will get a boost from WTO membership, it will also annoy everyone else by not playing by the rules.

Global reaction has been pretty positive, though, on the whole. US President Barack Obama told reporters that “Russia’s WTO accession would be yet another important step forward in our reset of relations with Russia, which has been based upon the belief that the United States and Russia share many common interests, even as we disagree on some issues.” His next step will be to recommend that the US Congress repeals the Jackson-Vanik amendment, a Cold War hangover that prevents the US from granting favoured trading nation status to countries that restrict human rights. Whether Congress will do what he asks is another question…

Smaller countries, such as Finland, which is Russia’s third largest export market, have also welcomed the deal.

On a slightly lighter note, the deal will, at a stroke, almost halve the landmass of countries no longer in the WTO – the only holdouts now being countries marked in grey on this map – notably all the Central Asia countries, a few African and Middle Eastern countries and some of the poorer and more troubled parts of Eastern Europe. Oh, and North Korea. Now that’s a club that I’m sure Russia will be happy to be leaving behind.

Russia WTO entry – all but guaranteed is a post from: Siberian Light

It’s far from clear what the Russian authorities would propose to do with Bout if they got him home, though.

Would they cut a deal that allowed Bout to serve out the remainder of his sentence in a Russian jail? If so, given the state of Russia’s prisons, it’s hard for Russia to be overly critical of conditions in American prisons which, although definitely not good, are certainly no worse than conditions in Russian prisons.

Or would they simply set him free? One of the central criticisms of the Bout trial has been that the US simply did not have jurisdiction over this crime. If that’s the case, then when he got back to Russia, surely Bout would attempt to make the argument again in a Russian court and to have his sentence overturned.

In reality, there is almost zero chance of the US turning over a convicted Bout to Russia, so I have to conclude that this is merely posturing on the Russian Government’s part to attempt to keep up the pressure and potentially influence the verdict of the – inevitable – appeal.

Changing tack slightly, it’s fascinating to see how Russian media is covering the story. Coverage on Russia Today has been particularly negative, giving coverage to theories that Bout’s case is just a symptom of a wider anti-Russia strategy by the US-Government. In one article RT quotes author and investigative journalist Daniel Estulin as saying “Victor Bout is a pawn in the international, global game, where Russia – is the endgame. Russia is still the only nation that can stand up to NATO, the US aggression.” In another, they choose to focus on “America’s Hidden Skeletons”.

My favourite, which I’ll leave you with, is this video from RIA Novosti, which highlights a rather bonkers pro-China Occupy Wall Street protester who has taken up Bout’s cause with enthusiasm.

“Bring Bout Back!” says Russia is a post from: Siberian Light

Russia 9:15 Georgia

Visiting Russia needing a win to secure a Grand Slam of five victories out of five in this season’s tournament, Georgia scored two tries en route to a 16:9 victory over their hosts.

The game was fairly even throughout the first half – both sides traded penalties to leave the score at 3:3 at the break. But two Georgian tries in the second half, versus two Russian penalties was the difference between the sides.

The match was the first between the two countries played on Russian soil since their brief 2008 war and, as expected, it was a tense affair. Not just on the pitch, where at one point there was a mass brawl, but off the pitch as well. According to reports in the Georgian press, some of the Georgian players had trouble getting to the match, and Russian TV took a last minute decision not to provide Georgian TV companies with a live feed of the match.

Although there were problems with the live feed, there were fortunately cameras at the match, and you can view a video of the match highlights here:

Portugal 46 − 24 Ukraine and Romania 64 − 8 Spain

No surprises in the other two matches, as Portugal and Romania both recorded fairly easy wins.

Portugal will probably be a bit disappointed that they weren’t able to put more points past Ukraine, but they scored the tries they needed to secure a bonus point.

Romania also scored a bonus point as they romped to an unexpectedly easy win over Spain, who chose to rest many of their best players ahead of the forthcoming Hong Kong Sevens tournament. A mistake in my opinion, as this leaves their team second from bottom in the table, instead of in the second position that a victory would have secured.

European Nations Cup Table

Georgia have five wins out of five, and top the table by a huge margin. They’ve clearly been the best team this season, and it’ll be a huge shock if their performances next season don’t secure them the title in this two-season tournament.

What next?

November’s Rugby World Cup awaits for Georgia, Russia and Romania. But before then, each of the teams will participate in summer warm up tournaments.

IRB Nations Cup 2011

Georgia and Romania, plus Portugal who so nearly qualified for the World Cup, will play in the IRB Nations Cup 2011, where they’ll take on the South African Kings, the Argentina Jaguars, and fellow World Cup minnows Namibia.

Matches will be played in Bucharest on the 10th, 15th and 19th June.

Churchill Cup 2011

Russia will again play in the Churchill Cup. This year’s Cup will be divided into two pools of three teams. Russia will take on Canada and Italy A in Pool B, while England Saxons, Tonga and the United States will compete in Pool A.

An odd feature of this tournament is that every team will get to play in a ‘final’ match, against their compatriots in the opposite pool. So, the winners of each pool will meet in the Cup Final, the runners up in each pool will meet in theta Plate Final, and the wooden spoon rivals will meet in the Bowl final.

If the tournament goes to form, then Russia and the USA are likely to finish last in their pools, which could set up an intriguing clash between the two ahead of the hotly anticipated World Cup clash.

2011 Churchill Cup matches will all be played in England on June 4th, 8th, 12th and 18th.

We’ll bring you updates from each tournament, as well as coverage of the Rugby World Cup, so keep an eye out for our coverage.

Georgia beat Russia to top ENC rugby table is a post from: Siberian Light

Although there were initial worries that Russia would be embarrassed by revelations coming out of the leaked US embassy cables, it seems like there isn’t anything in them that wasn’t already common knowledge and certainly – to date – no smoking guns have been found that would provide any real evidence of corruption by high level Russian officials, let alone the hoped for revelations that Putin was on the take.

Instead, the Russian Government have realised that the US, by taking the whole affair far to seriously, is the party looking stupid, and the Kremlin is contentedly crowing.

Calls in the US for wikileaks to be prosecuted have given great ammunition to those who want to criticise the US for talking the talk when it comes to freedom of speech, but not walking the walk. And the arrest of Wikileaks head Julian Assange has allowed people like Dmitry Rogozin, the Russian Ambassador to NATO, to criticise the United Kingdom for not respecting freedom of speech – in a tweet he noted drily that Assange’s arrest demonstrated that political persecution was still alive and well in the West:

На мой взгляд, судьба Ассанжа говорит об отсутствии свободы СМИ на Западе, наличии политических преследований и нарушений прав человека.

And the latest – Russia has gleefully seized the opportunity to suggest that Assange has done such a service to the world that he should be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. The Guardian reports:

“Public and non-governmental organisations should think of how to help him,” the source from inside president Dmitry Medvedev’s office told Russian news agencies. Speaking in Brussels, where Medvedev was attending a Russia-EU summit yesterday , the source went on: “Maybe, nominate him as a Nobel Prize laureate.”

Next thing you know, they’ll be offering Assange a seat in the Duma, so that he can claim immunity from prosecution…

Update: A day later, and Putin weighs in directly, telling journalists at a press conference:

“If there is democracy, it must be a full one. Why did they jail Mr. Assange? Is that democracy?

You know what our villagers say: while someone’s cow is mooing, yours better be silent.”

Source: ABC News

I don’t actually think that this particular arrest of Assange is politically motivated (although I think it’s likely he might have faced a politically motivated arrest sooner or later if this handily timed Swedish prosecution hadn’t been available). Putin’s comments do, though, put into perspective US and UK criticisms of Russia. Sure, there are politically motivated arrests in Russia, but not as many as the regular knee jerk reactions coming out of the US and UK would make you believe.

Russia: “We love Wikileaks!” is a post from: Siberian Light

Arctic Progress looks set to be an important blog covering a region that, until now, has received little mainstream coverage and certainly no real blog coverage that I’m aware of. And it seems as if Anatoly has picked a perfect time to launch his blog – arctic ice is melting, opening up direct shipping routes between Europe and Asia, oil deposits are being discovered all over the place (the latest is in Greenland), and the region’s ecology is in delicate balance, so whatever happens over the next fifty years will shape the destiny of this region, and perhaps even the world.

As Anatoly notes, “Arctic history begins this year… We are the observers of the start of a new era.”

Russia is one of the major countries with an interest in the region (others include the United States, Canada and the Scandinavian countries) so I’m sure that Arctic Progress will contain plenty of information relevant to Russia-watchers.

One interesting post relevant to Russia that’s already appeared is Anatoly’s report that, after receiving a $5 billion bailout from Russia last year, Iceland has offered its Keflavik airbase to ECA Program Ltd, a private military company that plans to station up to 30 Su-27 fighter jets there. ECA plan to buy the jets from Belarus (price not known, but it would be the largest purchase of military jets by a private company to date) and to use them for mock-dogfights that will help to train air-forces around the world.

Anatoly speculates that they could be a front for either the Russian or Chinese secret services, or potentially even a US “black-operations” programme. Having done a bit of research on PMCs in the past, I wouldn’t be surprised if the less prosaic truth is that it simply a company with an innovative, albiet very expensive and politically sensitive, idea to make money.

Having read the initial posts over at Arctic Progress I know I’ll be subscribing. I encourage you to check it out too.

New Blog: Arctic Progress is a post from: Siberian Light

At the heart of the debate is the question of who owns property and the means of production. Under a capitalist system, property can be privately owned, and pretty much anyone can set up a business and sell their product on what is called the ‘free market. Under a communist system, all property and means of production are (theoretically at least) owned by the people, in the guise of the state.

In a pure communist system, all decisions about what should be produced and what policies should be followed are made by society as a whole, in the best interests of society as a whole. The ideology of Communism was most famously outlined by Karl Marx. In practice, in a country like Russia, with hundreds of millions of people, decisions needed to be devolved to a small, select group of people who acted in the interests of the people. At least, this is the theory. In practice, of course, the communist governments of the 20th century tended to be corrupt and incredibly inefficient in most areas.

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Communism is seen a discredited economic model, and capitalism has become the predominant economic model in use today.

Capitalism can take different forms, and no countries in the world currently have what economists would call a pure capitalist system. Perhaps the most capitalist country in the world is the United States of America, and this country was the leader of the Capitalism vs Communism debate of the 20th century.

Today, with the fall of the Soviet Union in 1989, most countries in the world have a capitalist economy of some form or another.

The most notable communist country was, of course, Russia, in its Soviet Union guise. The Soviet Union was established on December 30, 1922, following the Russian Revolution and Russian Civil War – not, as is commonly assumed, in 1917. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union (which many historians now equate in many ways to an Empire), Russia is transitioning to a capitalist economy, a process which is fraught with challenges for the country and its people.

Other important communist countries include many of the countries of Eastern Europe, which were forcibly converted to communism following the second world war, and China, which became a communist or socialist state led by Mao after the Chinese Civil War. China is still nominally a communist country, although in reality, it is rapidly opening up to the free market, while remaining a one party state.

North Korea is perhaps the most well known communist holdout – it’s brand of Stalinism endures, although many will say that it is actually a country under the rule of a dicator.

Capitalism versus Communism is a post from: Siberian Light

All that really remains is to await their head to head match, which will probably decide who wins the title, and who is placed in which World Cup Group. More of that later, though. First, the match reports:

Spain 20 – 38 Russia

Russia were always the favourites to win this tie, but the margin of victory doesn’t tell the full story of what was a very close match in which the unfancied Spanish gave their all. Four minutes into the second half, Russia were ahead by a mere three points, the score 20-23, and they were by no means certain of victory.

Up until then, the two teams had been trading penalties and tries more or less evenly. Although Spain had opened the scoring with an early penalty, it was Russia who crossed the try line first, Victor Gres diving over after just eight minutes to soothe the Russian team’s early nerves. Russia must have thought that they would run away with the match when, just six minutes later, Igor Klyuchnikov broke the try line yet again. A quick conversion from fly-half Yury Kushnarev, and Russia were flying at 14:3.

But Spain showed real grit to put their first try on the board after just 18 minutes of play, and a penalty after 24 minutes brought them back within a point of Russia – 13:14.

Although another couple of penalties allowed Russia to pull away slightly – by just after half time their lead had been restored to a slightly more comfortable ten points – the Spanish demonstrated that they weren’t done yet as they powered over the line for their second try of the match. The conversion made the score 20:23 with just four minutes gone of the second half.

Spain continued to battle, but Russia’s endurance and greater experience showed in the end as they relentlessly ground away, their consistency allowing them to break the Spanish line twice in the last 20 minutes of the game to put the result beyond doubt. Russia’s final two tries came from fly half Kushnarev (who is proving himself to be one of the real stars of this Russian team) and Alexander Yanyushkina.

Portugal 10 – 16 Georgia

In possibly the most important match of the round, Portugal gave their all, but saw their hopes of an automatic qualification place for the RWC dashed by a very strong Georgian team.

Tries from Georgian scrum half Irakli Abuseridze and Portugal’s Australian fly-half Adrian Gardner (who you’ll remember also crossed the line in last week’s match against Russia) demonstrated that there was very little between the two teams early on. In fact, by the half, there were only three points between the two teams.

However, as in the Russia-Spain game, Georgia’s experience and the strength of their forwards told in the second half. Although Portugal put up an impressive fight, a penalty and drop goal allowed Georgia to ease away to a 16:10 victory.

Portugal will be gutted at the way that this tournament has turned out for them – in the four matches against top teams Russia and Georgia they have drawn one and lost three by margins of four points, four points and six points respectively. There has, in truth, been almost nothing to choose between the three teams and, had the luck gone with them, they could easily have been top of the table leaving Russia and Georgia to scrap it out for the second qualifying spot.

All of Portugal’s hopes now will rest on finishing third, which will put them through to a complex play off system against other, lower ranked, European teams. If they can secure third place, they should still have a good chance of getting to the World Cup.

Romania 67 – 5 Germany

Perhaps best to draw a veil over this game. Germany are sadly showing that they are outclassed at this level, and will probably welcome a drop back to the second division to regroup. Romania on the other hand, will have been pleased to have a confidence boosting workout ahead of next week’s trip to snowy Russia.

Where does this leave the teams?

[table id=4 /]

A quick look at the table shows that Russia and Georgia are now virtually out of reach of third placed Portugal. For Russia to be overhauled, they would need to lose all of their next three matches, including against wooden spoon favourites Germany. If we assume that Georgia and Russia have now cemented their qualification to RWC 2011, the only issues still in doubt are who out of Georgia and Russia will top the table, and whether Portugal or Romania will grab the third place spot, which offers a back door playoff route to the World Cup Finals.

The title will be decided by Russia and Georgia’s trip to Turkey in March (a neutral venue, because of the 2008 war between the two countries). Winner of the European Nations Cup will have the honour of playing in Pool B of the 2011 Rugby World Cup against Argentina, England, Scotland and another (not yet decided) qualifier. Runner up will be placed in Pool C, where they will face matches against Australia, Ireland, Italy and the United States.

Russia are probably the favourites to finish second, which would certainly set up an intriguing Russia vs United States match. However, the cynic in me also notes that Pool C is the easier of the two groups and asks, would Georgia prefer to finish second in order to qualify for the easier group. Georgia are a nation on the cusp of making a big breakthrough on the world stage. I think that they could easily beat the United States, and could give a demoralised Italian side a very good run for their money.

European Nations Cup Rugby: Russia and Georgia march on is a post from: Siberian Light

In late February it was discovered that India and USA have begun consultation at the high level about question of cooperation in the area of ballistic missile defence. According to a statement by Robert Gates, US Secretary of State for Defense, the question was about US participation in the development of an Indian ballistic missile defence system.

“We’re beginning to talk about conducting a joint analysis on what India’s needs would be in the realm of missile defence, and where co-operation might help advance that.”

This is a very important project for Deli, because India is facing threats from neigbouring states� threats, especially from Pakistan, which has nuclear weapon. This expansion of military cooperation between India and USA implies certain consequences for geopolitics.

India�s entering to American influence is one more stage in the development of the so called Big Asia Belt, which includes all the countries from Turkey to Iraq, Afganistan and Pakistan to Indo-China. Russia left this region in 2003 giving up its base in Vietnam. As a result there are only two countries which are free of American military influence in this region � Iran and China.

Cooperation in the area of ballistic missile defence development gives the US an opportunity to include India in the global American anti-missile system. However, taking into account military activity in Caucasus, cooperation between Deli and Washington may lead to Russian concerns that any Southern missile defence system would also be directed at Russia. Therefore, it is necessary to pay attention to the fact, that Robert Gates visit to India synchronized with preparations for the placement of the American anti-missile system in Czech Republic and Poland. And, at the same time NATO has been holding a summit where a key item on the agenda was whether to include Ukraine and Georgia as NATO members and whether to begin cooperation with these countries in the anti-missile sphere.

Does Russia still sell what countries want to buy?

Russia has been selling military equipment to India for many years. Also it has been negotiating for the last 5 years about the creation of an Indian missile defence system based on the Russia C-400 system.

However, Russia has not proved a reliable supplier, and a few big contracts have been broken. India accuses Russian producers, because they often don�t deliver on time, or ask for more resources. Moreover, India complains that Russian equipment is often of very low quality.

One of the biggest scandals happened 4 years ago. India discovered a lot of defects in the anti-air system �Shtil-1�, which has been installed on 3 destroyers. These system even couldn�t hit the target! As a result, a �Rosoboronexport� � Russia�s ams export agency � were fined $40 million.

Currently there is a conflict between India and �Rosoboronexport� which touches on reconstruction of the aircraft �Admiral Gorshkov�. Accordng to the contract which was signed 4 years ago, reconstruction of the aircraft must be done by 2011. But Russia recently said that expenses for modernization described in the contract were twice under-estimated. That is why Russia has asked to prolong the time of works and asked for more finances. The same thing has happened with other projects. One month ago India rejected to accept submarine �Sinduvijay� which has been reconstructed in Severodvinsk.

A lot of claims have been made against other projects: planes have defects which make them impossible to use, components are supplied with a huge delay and their quality is very low. All this makes India less likely to buy Russian military equipment. Currently India buys weapons in USA and following the recent visit of Robert Gates to India, it was decided to begin cooperation in the sphere of nuclear technologies.

Similar problems complicate relations between Russia and China. China already has given up to buying Russian military equipment. Algeria also refused to accept planes and tanks because their quality doesn�t correspond international norms.

Russian euphoria, which appeared in 2003-2005 with growth of orders for military equipment, resulted in over-estimation of forces and capacities by Russian organizations which were producers of military equipment. They signed more contracts for weapon supply than they could realize.

All this has almost destroyed the image of Russia in the sphere of militaty technologies. And in fact Moscow soon will find out itself sidelined in the market of military equipment, particularly in the Asiatic market.

In my opinion Russia will lose its place in the market, if does not take certain measures to improve of its image among countries currently looking to buy military equipment. In particular, it must ensure that it makes a realistic estimation of its capacities � financial and timings � and ensure that the equipment it supplies is of sufficient quality.

Is the US replacing Russia as Asia’s arms supplier? is a post from: Siberian Light