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506th IR RU News and Deployment Updates / News Article - The International Report - 27MAY2022

« Last post by SSG Speirs on May 27, 2022, 08:03:19 AM »

The International Report
May 27th, 2022

Finland ‘Highly Considering’ Application to NATO in Wake of Finnish-Russo & Russian Civil Conflicts



Finland's President Markus Laakso
(AFP by Jetty Images)

HELSINKI, FINLAND - In a press conference, Finland's President Markus Laakso said: "Today, in a decision by myself and the Finish foreign policy committee, we have together decided that Finland will explore the possibility of applying for NATO membership." When asked what motivated the historic move, President Laakso stated that being a member of the military alliance will "maximize" Finland's security after Russia's involvement in Eastern Europe over the last year.

Finland shares a 1336-kilometer border with Russia; if it joins the military alliance, Russia's land border with NATO territories would roughly double. Given this proximity, there is a risk that the move from Helsinki could spark aggression from Russia, which has repeatedly expressed its opposition to NATO's enlargement.

Last week, Russia's foreign ministry said Finland joining NATO would be a "radical change" in the country's foreign policy. "Russia will be forced to take retaliatory steps, both of a military and technical nature, to stop threats to its national security arising," it said in a statement.

KEY POINTS

• Finland is considering applying for NATO membership, President Markus Laakso stated in a Press Conference
• Particular historic significance, as Finland has been maintained neutrality throughout the Cold War
• Finland shares a 1336-kilometer border with Russia; if it joins the military alliance, the land border that Russia shares with NATO territories would roughly double.

Erzikistan In, Turkmenistan Out: What The New Flow of Gas For China Means


SHANGHAI, CHINA - The Asian Continental Energy Conference ended this past week with a major shake-up in the economic sector. Chinese Foreign Affairs Minister Fan Zheng finalized the details of a prospective ten-year import contract with neighboring Iran to supply the industrial megalodon with as much as forty percent of its projected energy use via natural gas.

There has been no mention however of any change to gas contracts between China and Russia, signaling potential turbulence in the energy diplomacy between the two massive countries. Though no reasons were specified, speculation about political and civil conflict instability from the past year in Russia is believed to be the driving force behind the lack of expanded investment by the PRC, rather looking to source natural gas from among more stable, and predictably, the more strategically beneficial partnerships to be had through Iran and Erzikistan.

The Chinese investment in Erzikistan natural gas extraction began last year by way of cooperation with China’s existing oil interests in Iran, which continue to suffer from trade and import embargoes from much of the rest of the world and was left with little choice or negotiation regarding the agreement to provide the PRC with the ability to tap into available deposits.

Meanwhile, Erzikistan has enjoyed stable profits through both Iran and Chinese investment in developing three new offshore drilling platforms in the Black Sea, as well as multiple refineries and processing facilities for both cruise oil and natural gas, as well as a marked increase in overall economic productivity since the country's near-collapse in 2016. Subsequent intervention in the region by US military forces later that year had successfully curtailed what was discovered to be Iranian-backed efforts to destabilize the neighboring nation in order to harvest under-capitalized natural resources within Erzikistan.

The announcement also marks the end of Chinese natural gas imports from Turkmenistan, which comes as another indication of wavering international approval of newly elected Turkmenistani President Stepan Murtazayev. It is estimated that Turkmenistan accounted for as much as ten percent of all-natural gas supplied to China over the last decade, contributing greatly to its economic stability. It is yet to be seen how much of an impact this will have on the Turkmen nation but is projected to be a substantial blow to the mainline energy-exporting that the country has prided itself on for a half-century.


AUTHORIZED FOR DISTRIBUTION BY 1-506th S-2
Reviewed By: 1LT Jason Mallory, SSG Erik Speirs

The entirety of this document represents fictional works of the 506th Infantry Regiment Realism Unit, S-2 Intelligence Shop, developed for use within the Arma 3 military simulation video game, and exists purely for entertainment and educational purposes only. The story, all names, characters, and incidents portrayed are fictitious. No identification with actual persons (living or deceased), places, buildings, and products is intended or should be inferred.

The included images or video media was created using content of Bohemia Interactive a.s. Copyright © 2013 Bohemia Interactive a.s. All rights reserved. See http://www.bistudio.com for more information.

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506th IR RU News and Deployment Updates / News Article - The International Report - 26MAY2022

« Last post by 1LT Mallory on May 26, 2022, 05:00:05 PM »

The International Report
May 26th, 2022

14 Killed in Chinese Consulate Riot in Kafistrop, PRC Vows “Swift restoration of order”

RONDON, KAFISTROP - The People's Republic of China's Foreign Ministry condemned a riot in Rondon yesterday in the capital city of Rondon that killed 14 protesters and injured dozens more. The PRC reported two consulate staff members were injured during the incident, but otherwise no fatalities.


Photo by Nassor Koury, TIR - 2022

"This demonstration of disdain for order in favor of crude barbarism towards the PRC and its devotion to fruitful relations with Kafistrop will not stand. Our commitment to the investment and mutual gain of both our countries is beyond reproach, and such flagrant disregard for convention and diplomacy marks a dark day for both our countries..." the PRC Deputy Foreign Minister Deng Tu stated in a press conference yesterday.

Chinese interest met opportunity mutually beneficial for them and the African nation of Kafistrop in late 2009 at the turn of new maritime projection and regional influence initiatives hinted at by the Politburo during an annual conference in Beijing, as well as a direct move aimed at expanding sea power & power projection capabilities from the Horn of Africa, across the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea & in direct competition to US/UK-led international maritime security efforts by way of the Combined Maritime Forces (CMF), based out of the Kingdom of Bahrain. Shortly thereafter, several significant investments from some of China's largest industrial construction firms were announced, with seaport renovations and maritime shipping infrastructure updates beginning the following year, becoming operational in mid-2011. To top off the port infrastructure development and $80M trade deal between Kafistrop and China, then-Prime Minster of Kafistrop Faris Zawan landed an estimated $2.61 billion dollar-valued annual lease as the managing investor and security provider for the port, though the actual funds paid to Kafistrop has been estimated to be significantly lower, as the PRC had resorted to writing much of the paid cost in the form of sustained military presence and transfer of hardware to the nation.

Fast forward to 2019, where a previously minor public disapproval of the influx of Chinese money and infrastructure has turned into full-blown organized dissent against the Kafistropi government, with anger split between government corruption and the seemingly unaddressed malnutrition and food shortage issues that have plagued every nation of the Horn, including Kafistrop, for decades. United Nations humanitarian assistance operations began in 2017, though with faltering effectiveness and increasing indicators of the country becoming a failed state, US and European-based humanitarian NGOs were becoming less frequent, and in last 2018, the United States began taking a more active role in peacekeeping and humanitarian assistance operations, until engagements between US military forces and Kafistropi military personnel began to occur. Around the same time, the Chinese began to limit trade, while also shifting the presence of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) forces stationed at the port. However, several military analysts familiar with the events, as well as a spokesperson with the Pentagon argued instead that the Chinese military continued trade with Kafistrop during this time, providing material support by way of small arms and heavy weapons to the nation, many of which were used against US military personnel throughout the conflict. After a series of seemingly benign incidents between the Kafistropi Elite Guard Corps and US forces deployed in central Kafistrop, the government of Kafistrop announced a formal declaration of war against US and UN peacekeeping forces remaining in the country, while simultaneously attacking military and distribution infrastructure being utilized by US forces, the most significant of which included an insider-initiated attack at an airbase in the Anizay Province, forcing the withdrawal of more than a battalion's worth of US forces operating out of the airbase as a result.

The US intervention in Kafistrop concluded in late 2019 after the seizure of the capital, and ushered in a period of peace and rebuilding afterward, however, the PRC's return to the country was marred by the lack of support against dissidents in the months preceding the conflict, and also by the very concept of "business" in the form of China's "exploitation of Kafistrop without regard" to the people of the country. Protests and public disapproval of continued Chinese presence, even on a diplomatic note, have continued since the reopening of their consulate in early 2020, and with this latest loss of life, the situation is sure to get worse.


AUTHORIZED FOR DISTRIBUTION BY 1-506th S-2
Reviewed By: 1LT Jason Mallory, SGT Neil White

The entirety of this document represents fictional works of the 506th Infantry Regiment Realism Unit, S-2 Intelligence Shop, developed for use within the Arma 3 military simulation video game, and exists purely for entertainment and educational purposes only. The story, all names, characters, and incidents portrayed are fictitious. No identification with actual persons (living or deceased), places, buildings, and products is intended or should be inferred.

The included images or video media was created using content of Bohemia Interactive a.s. Copyright © 2013 Bohemia Interactive a.s. All rights reserved. See http://www.bistudio.com for more information.

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506th IR RU News and Deployment Updates / News Article - The International Report - 24MAY2022

« Last post by 1LT Mallory on May 24, 2022, 07:00:01 PM »

The International Report
May 24th, 2022

Russian Civil War ‘Ceasefire’ Uncertain as Talks Begin

VIENNA, AUSTRIA - While the ceasefire across northwestern Russia between separatist Nationalist Russian Union (NRS) forces and the rest of the Federation has held for just over two weeks now, the tension between each couldn't be overstated as talks began today at the United Nations Offices in Vienna.


Photo by Renee Wells, TIR 2022

What started last April as a Russian military intervention in Finland with ostensibly legal precedent engineered into the treaty, at a time when Finland was all but required to enable Russian industrial investment in the country by way of natural gas exploration had quickly deteriorated into a full-scale military crisis that threatened to drag the entirety of the European Union (EU) and several North Atlantic Alliance (NATO) member states into war across northern Europe and Russia. The United States deployed troops in early May of 2021 in order to enable EU-led peacekeepers to restore order and stability to Finland amid incidents of Russian military aggression, and eventually the shootdown of American Airlines Flight 270, a passenger jet that was part of a series of commercially chartered evacuation flights from Helsinki to Chicago in April of 2021. Soon thereafter, the Russian military formed a joint peacekeeping and assistance coalition, deployed as part of the Northern Assistance Force Peacekeeping Initiative. However, this initiative was a resounding failure, instead serving as the vehicle from which a Russian rebellion sprung from & enabled the further deployment of Russian military forces into Finland.

The emergence of an internal power struggle within the United Russia party of the Gosduma led to a soft coup de tat attempt by a coordinated effort of Russian political and military leaders, casting the briefly focused "Russo-Finnish War" into the middle of a Russian civil conflict. The rebellion, calling themselves the One Russia Nationalist Movement, and later known as the Nationalist Russian Union (NRS, as abbreviated in Cyrillic) began with the oblasts of Murmansk, Pskov, Novgorod, and Arkhangelsk oblasts, as well as the Republic of Karelia, and later included the Sverdlovsk oblast. The NRS was initially headed by Yevgeny Lyutov, a well-known pro-nationalist powerhouse in the Gosduma, and a retired colonel in the Russian military. However, Lyutov was apprehended in September of 2021 by Russian loyalist authorities and awaits trial for capital crimes, including treason. Now-former Russian Colonel-General Artur Bokaryov, who initially served as the military commander of the NRU, now maintains leadership of the fractured remnant military forces of the NRU, who remain scattered across the Karelia and Sverdlovsk regions of northwestern Russia.

Neither the NRU's Bokaryov nor Russia's President Svetla Basuda were present themselves in Vienna as talks began, as each leader has been quoted on several occasions as holding a particularly low opinion of one another as a result of being on opposite ends of the civil conflict within their country. "The judgment of the Russian people will grant traitors like Artur Bokaryov the perdition they deserve- there will be no mercy for crimes he and the radicals that follow men like him have committed against the State and the world over." President Basuda was quoted back last October as Bokaryov's succession to lead the NRU in its entirety was announced.

The international community watches with equal parts interest and concern as the once great superpower attempts to head off its continued decline through these crucial negotiations, however, if the current atmosphere here at the Vienna International Centre after the first day is any indication of progress, the road to an amicable peace is likely to be both long and tumultuous.


AUTHORIZED FOR DISTRIBUTION BY 1-506th S-2
Reviewed By: 1LT Jason Mallory, SGT Neil White

The entirety of this document represents fictional works of the 506th Infantry Regiment Realism Unit, S-2 Intelligence Shop, developed for use within the Arma 3 military simulation video game, and exists purely for entertainment and educational purposes only. The story, all names, characters, and incidents portrayed are fictitious. No identification with actual persons (living or deceased), places, buildings, and products is intended or should be inferred.

The included images or video media was created using content of Bohemia Interactive a.s. Copyright © 2013 Bohemia Interactive a.s. All rights reserved. See http://www.bistudio.com for more information.

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506th IR RU News and Deployment Updates / News Article - The International Report - 24MAY2022

« Last post by 1LT Mallory on May 24, 2022, 06:30:16 PM »

The International Report
May 24th, 2022

Turkmen "Election" Results Spark Protests & Unrest

ASHGABAT, TURKMENISTAN - With the announcement of Turkmenistani President Usmon Murtazayev's step down from power in mid-April, the prospect of an actual election for the head of state could be called an exercise in futility, though with several key community figures from the cities of Mary, Dashoguz, and Turkmenbashi, it seemed as if that prospect was at least, being seriously entertained for the first time under the Murtazayev regime.

That is until the election results were tallied last week, with a reported 638,920 votes for the President's son and appointed Vice President, Stepan Murtazayev, out of a combined reported turnout of 641,904 "votes".

The evidently rigged election was condemned by several countries across Asia and the West. United States Secretary of State Martha Wyngaard called the election "an insult to the very concept of the electoral process, and one the people of Turkmenistan won't likely forget." Neighboring Uzbekistani Foreign Minister Surat Nurmatov stressed concern over a potential backlash by the Turkmen people that may spill into the neighboring nation. "There are no such things as a problem limited to one of [our countries] us... Every concern here which affects one of us affects all in this part of the world, and raises equal concern."   

There were limited specific reports as to the overall feeling among Turkmen citizens, but a livestream showing a large crowd of several thousand protesters was visible via several social media outlets for around an hour yesterday evening before ending abruptly. Internet access is relatively widespread across Turkmenistan, but severely restricted and throttled to traffic beyond most Turkmen-hosted domains. Additionally, foreign press outside of the government-controlled National News (TNN) is severely restricted and often prohibited from airing live broadcasts, requiring screening and editing by the state first to ensure all footage released portrays the nation, government, and its people in the best possible way.   

The newly confirmed Turkmen leader assumed office last week as protests across various villages and towns throughout Turkmenistan continued on, seemingly growing in size and intensity by the day. The Turkmen military has been deployed in limited numbers to support local police efforts but has remained largely hands-off from any attempts to disrupt or disband the protesters, likely to mitigate any sort of escalation as a result of their deployment in the face of the resentment felt by Turkmen citizens, particularly throughout the village cities of Mary, Turkmenbashi, and Dashoguz. However, the anger and betrayal of a fixed election aren't soon to dissipate, and with both local and international skepticism emerging, the 38-year-old new President Stepan Murtazayev will have an uphill battle to convince the Turkmen people and the world of any merit stemming from his quasi-election and ascent to his position as the leader of Turkmenistan. 


AUTHORIZED FOR DISTRIBUTION BY 1-506th S-2
Reviewed By: 1LT Jason Mallory

The entirety of this document represents fictional works of the 506th Infantry Regiment Realism Unit, S-2 Intelligence Shop, developed for use within the Arma 3 military simulation video game, and exists purely for entertainment and educational purposes only. The story, all names, characters, and incidents portrayed are fictitious. No identification with actual persons (living or deceased), places, buildings, and products is intended or should be inferred.

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Computer Hardware / Re: 1660 TI for Sale $200

« Last post by SPC R. Gonzalez on May 24, 2022, 01:04:28 PM »

I have an ASUS 1660 TI. This card is part of the 20 generation, but does not have RayTracing so it didn't receive the 20-series branding. This card is great for 1080p gaming, only upgrading so I can go to ultrawide 1440p gaming. Selling it for about 1/3rd the retail price @$100.

For anyone considering, that's a fine card really… I run it on my PC at 1080p and gives Ultra or Ultra(-) with 60+ FPS for every other game until now, along with my Ryzen 7…

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Computer Hardware / Re: 1660 TI for Sale $200

« Last post by SGT Price on May 24, 2022, 04:21:45 AM »

Did Price talk you in to doubling the, well, price?

It's sort of an oxymoron, but I make moments priceless when I am involved.

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Computer Hardware / Re: 1660 TI for Sale $200

« Last post by SGT A. Hawkins on May 23, 2022, 06:35:53 PM »

Did Price talk you in to doubling the, well, price?
Alrighty then. I’ll sell my 1660ti for $350. Beat that.

I was going way under the going price back then as well. I had a habit of throwing away money.

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Computer Hardware / Re: 1660 TI for Sale $200

« Last post by SSG Beckett on May 23, 2022, 05:59:58 PM »

Did Price talk you in to doubling the, well, price?
Alrighty then. I’ll sell my 1660ti for $350. Beat that.

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Computer Hardware / Re: 1660 TI for Sale $200

« Last post by PFC C. T. Brown on May 23, 2022, 01:27:35 PM »

I have a Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 in my laptop, love it.

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Computer Hardware / Re: 1660 TI for Sale $100

« Last post by SGT A. Hawkins on May 23, 2022, 01:09:16 PM »

I'll be upgrading to the 3070ti. It's performance boost is worth the slight increase in cash