For its old rival Russia, the United States has never given up using political, economic, and military means to "dismember" it, splitting it into several European countries of different sizes, thereby consolidating the hegemonic position of the United States in the world. The collapse of the Soviet Union 30 years ago made Westerners rejoice that they won the Cold War victory on their own, and today, 30 years later, because of the existence of Putin, a "political giant", Russia still maintains its last glory as a world power.
In recent times, the continuous deterioration of relations between the United States and Russia has put the two sides in danger of war for a time, and the confrontation between Russia and Ukraine, NATO's eastward expansion, arms control negotiations, and the two sides have engaged in a sword-rattling game on many issues related to security and strategy. In the past 24 hours, three fierce confrontations broke out between the United States and Russia, with sanctions, confrontations, countermeasures, and warnings repeatedly staged, and a realistic version of the international political struggle drama was staged.
First Round of Confrontation: US Politicians Clamor for "Sanctions against Putin"
At a time when the U.S. Congress is about to vote on a sanctions bill on the Nord Stream-2 project, some U.S. politicians have begun to prepare for new sanctions against Russia, even including Russian President Vladimir Putin.
According to insiders in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which has a high rate of appearance, if the Russian side does not heed the advice to "invade" Ukraine, then the United States plans to impose economic sanctions on a large number of senior Russian officials, including freezing their assets and bank accounts in the United States, and prohibiting them from economic transactions with the United States.
This threatening rhetoric of the United States has long been strange to the Chinese people, but unlike in the past, American politicians have proposed for the first time that The current Russian President Vladimir Putin will be included in the sanctions list. This kind of inclusion of heads of state of other countries in the sanctions list will not only not be conducive to promoting the settlement of the "Nord Stream-2" issue, but on the contrary will become the fuse of a new round of conflict between the United States and Russia, and the scope and intensity of the new round of confrontation between the two countries will certainly rise to another level.
The second round of confrontation: Russia-NATO Council convenes, the United States and Russia "differences are difficult to bridge"
Just after the seven-hour-long U.S.-Russia strategic talks, high-profile talks between Russia and NATO, the Russia-NATO Council meeting, began. This negotiation on international peace and security has attracted the participation of many heavyweight officials, INCLUDING Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, US Deputy Secretary of State Sherman, representatives of NATO countries, and the deputy foreign and deputy defense ministers of Russia as opposing parties.
As expected, the core points of the negotiations between the two sides focused on several clichéd topics, such as the Confrontation between Russia and Ukraine, NATO's expansion into Eastern Europe, and arms control negotiations and military transparency that tested military mutual trust between the two sides. NATO warned Russia that once the Russian military chooses to "invade" Ukraine, then the NATO group will take "actions other than economic sanctions and diplomatic threats."
In response, at a press conference after the meeting, the Russian deputy foreign minister said, "If NATO turns to a comprehensive policy of containing Russia, then Moscow will definitely take countermeasures." ”
NATO, which was supposed to disappear with the end of the Cold War, not only exists but also poses a threat to regional and world peace, which is the most absurd thing of the 21st century.
The third round of confrontation: the first flight of the Russian new bomber Tu-160M was successful, and the US anti-missile network was useless
If neither the United States nor Russia took advantage of each other in the first two rounds of confrontation, then the successful first flight of the new Russian bomber Tu-160M can be said to have completely locked the victory of the Russian side.
Quoting Russian media reports, on January 12, Russia's first newly developed Tu-160M strategic bomber conducted its first flight experiment in Kazan, the flight time lasted about half an hour, the flight altitude was about 600 meters, with the steady landing of the behemoth, marking the first flight of the new generation of Russian bombers was a complete success.
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia lost the ability to build long-range strategic bombers for a long time because the Tu-160 production line was scattered in the hands of the republics. In order to solve this urgent need, the Russian government allocated funds to start a comprehensive transformation and upgrading of the Tu-160, so that the country has the ability to develop a new generation of Tu-160M, after several years of efforts, Russia finally made progress in the field of strategic bombers.
Compared with the previous generation Tu-160, the latest Tu-160M has been comprehensively improved in power, radar, and weapon systems, and through the long-range cruise missiles it carries, it can launch a preemptive conventional strike or even a nuclear strike outside the US anti-missile defense circle, and the anti-missile network carefully constructed by the United States will no longer be able to pose a threat to Russia.