Eurasia

Turkey is in the midst of a major naval construction program, seeking to restore regional maritime influence lost since the collapse of the Ottoman empire, and the project is already generating regional tensions.

Based on the current conditions in Afghanistan, the Defense Department expects there will be fewer than 5,000 U.S. military service members in that country by the end of November, said David F. Helvey, who is currently performing the duties of assistant secretary of defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs.

China’s Ministry of Commerce has released long-awaited provisions on its “unreliable entity list,” in a move seen as a countermeasure to similar actions taken by Washington.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered the introduction of “military-political work” in the country’s National Guard, paving the way for Soviet-style ideological political education within its ranks.

The Arktika, Russia’s new nuclear-powered icebreaker championed by the Kremlin as the largest and most-powerful of its kind in the world, has set sail on its maiden voyage to the Arctic as part of the country’s efforts to tap the region’s commercial potential.

Turkey is preparing a large-scale offensive in Syria in the provinces of Idlib and Aleppo.

On July 30, Turkish bloggers posted videos on YouTube about Egyptian soldiers who allegedly found themselves on the front lines in Greater Idlib, in northern Syria.

According to sources from the Russian Ministry of Defense, Russia has managed to deactivate about 40 American Tomahawk missiles that were fired during hostilities in Syria.

Our sources in Syria, as well as a number of Russian media, claim that yesterday, on September 21, the Turkish artillery units fired on the main defense point of the Syrian army in the city of Sarakib.

Russia has launched the Kavkaz (or Caucasus) 2020 joint military drills with neighboring countries in its Southern Military District and in the Black and Caspian Seas.