"After the collapse of the USSR Washington and its European satellites deliberately brought the military infrastructure closer to our borders, creating unacceptable threats to the security of the Russian Federation," Anatoly Antonov noted 💬"The statements in Vilnius confirmed the anti-Russian drive of NATO. Without exaggeration, Russia is identified as the main threat to the North Atlantic Alliance. All the bloc's resources have been thrown into the fight against our country. Defense contractors are profiting off the ‘hybrid war’ unleashed by Washington while ordinary citizens in Western countries are paying for it. Few here care about the fate of Ukrainians, thrusted by US and NATO curators into a ‘slaughterhouse,’" the diplomat stressed as quoted by the Russian Embassy on its Telegram channel. ● "We are stunned by the outright falsification of the truth, which is used by the Summit participants to justify their aggressive policy against Russia. Our enemies without any evidence are trying to lay on us the responsibility for the crisis of the European security architecture. Once again they pretend that they know nothing about the promise, given to Mikhail Gorbachev by ex-Secretary of State James Baker about non-expansion of NATO to the East. After the collapse of the USSR Washington and its European satellites deliberately brought the military infrastructure closer to our borders, creating unacceptable threats to the security of the Russian Federation," the envoy noted. ● "The meeting in Vilnius has demonstrated the bloc's intention to concentrate more and more troops on Russian borders. We have nowhere to retreat. The aggressive decisions of the Summit will not undermine Russia's confidence in the rightness of its actions. We have no doubt that all goals of the Special Military Operation will be fully achieved," Antonov added.

■ US explains why Ukraine can’t join NATO now (RT.com)
■ Zelensky Slams NATO’s Vague Commitment on Ukraine’s Membership (Antiwar.com)
■ US delegation ‘furious’ over Zelensky tweet – WaPo (RT.com)
■ Live Updates: Day 2 of NATO Summit in Vilnius (Sputnik News)
■ Ukraine could skip step on path to NATO membership – Stoltenberg (07/11/23)
■ The Blob Begins to Quiver (James Howard Kunstler)
■ Nationalism and fascism in Ukraine: A historical overview (Konrad Kreft & Clara Weiss)(06/10/14)

The discovery made by Russian authorities in the Donetsk Region shed light on what US government agencies have been up to in Ukraine over the past few years. | Information manuals, often trotted out as 'educational material' printed with the help of Western government agencies and NGOs, which instruct college students about the basics of political activism, were discovered by authorities in the city of Volnovakha that was earlier controlled by the Kiev regime until 2022 when it was liberated by Russian forces. ● A Ukrainian-language book entitled “Democracy: From Theory to Practice” teaches students how to organize small youth groups in order to engage in political 'activism'. The book, among other things, advised students to vigorously use popular social media platforms in order to maximize the effect of their activism.

William Van Wagenen | The Taliban has not once, but twice eradicated Afghanistan's poppy cultivation, the world's largest source of heroin. Despite western accusations, it has never been The Taliban behind the Afghan drug industry, but only ever the US and its allies, with billions in profits breezily laundered through the global financial system. | In the aftermath of the chaotic US and UK withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021, Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir warned in the Washington Post of the dangers of “ignoring one important consequence of the Taliban takeover: the coming boom in Afghanistan’s narcotics trade.” Mir then boldly predicted that, “in the next few years, a flood of drugs from Afghanistan may become a bigger threat than terrorism.” This projection of an international drug trade boom seemed plausible, considering the longstanding accusations that the Taliban funded their two-decade insurgency against the occupying forces by controlling opium production. In fact, it was believed that 95 percent of heroin used in Britain originated from Afghan opium. ● [W]estern displeasure towards the Taliban's efforts to dismantle the global heroin trade may seem perplexing at first glance. However, a closer examination of events in Afghanistan reveals a different perspective. Under the guise of the “War on Terror,” the 2001 US and UK invasion was driven in part by the desire to restore the heroin trade, which the Taliban had abruptly terminated just a year earlier. The western powers sought to reestablish the lucrative flow of billions of dollars that the heroin trade provided to their financial systems. In fact, “For 20 years, America essentially ran a narco-state in Afghanistan.”

■ Opium poppy harvest in Afghanistan at record high in 2014
■ Record levels of Heroin enters world market from Afghanistan
■ NATO helping boost Afghan heroin production: Russia
■ Over 20 Tons of [CIA's] Heroin Seized in Afghanistan
■ Connecting the Dots: Afghan Heroin, NATO, Azerbaijan Hub & Cargo Business
■ Afghan drugs: Opium price rises by 133%
■ Afghan opium poppy cultivation jumps

American media outlets are trying to make Russians rebel at Washington’s behest, the Foreign Intelligence Service has claimed | US authorities are urging the country’s media outlets to propagate falsehoods about Russia in a bid to undermine its stability amid the ongoing stand-off between Moscow and the West, the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) has claimed. In a statement on Monday, the agency quoted its director, Sergey Naryshkin, as saying that “the US State Department … basically dictates to the American media what exactly they should write and say,” adding that it “has finally turned into the ‘Ministry of Truth’.” The comment was an apparent reference to the fictional ministry tasked with falsifying historical events from George Orwell’s world-renowned dystopian novel ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’. ● The SVR, citing intelligence data, claimed that last month the department sent instructions to several major media holdings, including AT&T, Comcast Corporation, Graham Media Group, Nash Holdings, Newsweek Publishing and The New York Times Company, telling them to “reflect events in and around Russia in a distorted manner.” According to the agency, these outlets were tasked with convincing Russian citizens that there was a need for a “forceful struggle against the authorities, up to an armed rebellion.”