John Langtry

First Resident Australian Ambassador to Mongolia (2015-2019)

[Sari Arho Havrén @SariArhoHavren]

Putin’s departure would test whether China has built durable architecture or merely a relationship. My read: the dependency is now structural enough (payment rails, trade composition, tech substitution, military coordination) that even a Western-leaning successor needs years to unwind it.

There is an overlooked vulnerability: Beijing has no succession influence mechanism in Moscow. No party-to-party depth, no elite penetration comparable to Pyongyang or even Minsk. China’s best Russia policy bet rests on one man’s survival.

On a separate note: CRINK logic weakens badly in scenarios 2 and 3: Russia is an important security provider. Remove or destabilise it, and the division of labour that makes the axis work starts to unravel.

5/5 end

[Australian Embassy, Mongolia @AusAmbMongolia]

Sight for All байгууллагаас зохион байгуулсан нүдний даралт (глауком)-ын чиглэлээр хөтөлбөрөө амжилттай дүүргэсэн эмч нартаа баяр хүргэе.

🇦🇺 Засгийн газрын дэмжлэгтэйгээр хэрэгжсэн энэхүү хөтөлбөр нь нүдний эмч нарыг мэргэшүүлэх, 🇲🇳-д нүдний эрүүл мэндийг сайжруулах зорилготой.

[John Langtry @langtry_john]

They should, but Beijing is betting that they won’t.

[Sari Arho Havrén @SariArhoHavren]

European capitals should coordinate, summon their respective Chinese envoys and raise the same issue in cohort. China obviously responds that this is smearing and slander.
Then the capitals should sanction China because sanctions actually change China’s behaviour.

Oh well, this was a moment of unfounded dreaming. Half of the capitals don’t really care about China supporting Russia’s war efforts.

[Australian Embassy, Mongolia @AusAmbMongolia]

Congratulations to the graduates of @sightforall’s Glaucoma Fellowship!

Supported through the 🇦🇺 Government’s ANCP, this partnership strengthens specialist eye care capacity and helps improve eye health outcomes in 🇲🇳.

[Stephen Dziedzic @stephendziedzic]

When you look at the Asian language education crisis in Aus you can quickly get lost in a thicket. So many different stakeholders/institutions, not many obvious levers to pull. Not easy to turn the ship around. But some interesting ideas being floated:
https://t.co/t0KwiFV8DY

[Sari Arho Havrén @SariArhoHavren]

Wang Yi started his Nordic tour yesterday in Denmark.

Against the backdrop of Trump's desire to acquire Greenland, I found it interesting that the sovereignty language in the Chinese readout (as per Xinhua so far) has been upgraded:

In the May 2025 Beijing talks, Wang said China "fully respects Denmark's sovereignty and territorial integrity on the issue of Greenland".

Yesterday, the formula shifted to: China "supports Denmark in safeguarding its national sovereignty and territorial integrity," framed as consistent with the UN Charter, but explicitly paired with appreciation for Denmark's adherence to the one-China principle.
I doubt that Denmark has adhered to the one-China principle rather than the one-China policy, and, in fact, I have not yet found any mention of "one-China" in any format on Rasmussen's part. Wang Yi's pairing raises the question of whether China's support for sovereignty and territorial integrity is now transactional on adherence to the one-China principle.

In Denmark's case, "respects" has evolved into "supports" in 14 months, and it comes three days after the same formula was extended to Belarus. Given the context (Trump's stated intent to acquire Greenland, which Rasmussen has called "totally unacceptable"), Beijing deploying "supports Denmark in safeguarding" toward a NATO founding member over a dispute with Washington is clearly been used opportunistically as a wedge instrument, offered precisely where the sovereignty threat comes from the US rather than Russia.

Worth watching whether the same construction appears in the Stockholm, Helsinki and Oslo readouts, or whether Denmark gets it uniquely because of Greenland and the US. Particularly with Finland, with 1,340 km (830 miles) border with Russia, will be interesting to see whether China respects or supports Finland's territorial integrity. (@elinavaltonen).

[Jürgen Nauditt 🇩🇪🇺🇦 @jurgen_nauditt]

Merz’s total failure on the Baltic Sea.

Sweden takes action—while Germany kowtows to Putin’s rust buckets!
What a pathetic, dangerous failure by Chancellor Friedrich Merz!

Since March 2026, Sweden has significantly tightened controls on the Russian shadow fleet, forcing the Russians to give the country a wide berth. Consequently, these dilapidated, uninsured, sanctions-busting Putin tankers simply shifted their routes closer to the German coast.

Sweden regularly warns German authorities.

And what does Merz’s government do? Nothing at all. No inspections. No seizures. The ships are simply allowed to sail on—31 tankers have even entered Germany’s 12-mile zone with impunity. This is not merely negligence; it is a direct violation of German sovereignty. These old scrap-heap tankers—which funnel billions into the war chest of the perverted dictator in Moscow—are ticking environmental time bombs. A single accident, and the Baltic Sea off Rügen, Usedom, or the Mecklenburg coast would be contaminated.
Then there is the terror threat: espionage, preparations for sabotage, and potential for blackmail.

During a visit to the Navy, Merz talks big about the "real threat posed by Russia"—yet simultaneously allows Putin’s shadow fleet to chug undisturbed through German territorial waters.
Sweden shows how it’s done.

Germany under Merz demonstrates only one thing: weakness, cowardice, and a total inability to defend its own interests and national security. Instead of acting decisively, the Chancellor allows Russia to bypass sanctions, exploit our waters, and make us look like a toothless tiger in the eyes of the world.

[Jarl Finland @jalle51]

DAY 6 OF THE 40-DAY CAMPAIGN: RUSSIAN BANKS BLEEDING 13 BILLION RUBLES A DAY AS CASH PANIC STRIKES! 📉💸🇷🇺

Behind the Kremlin's war propaganda lies a terminal domestic meltdown. According to official Russian Central Bank data, a massive crisis of confidence has triggered a run on the country's banks. For the fifth consecutive month, liquid capital is fleeing the financial system.

In June alone, hard currency in circulation surged by a staggering 449.7 billion rubles—an 18% acceleration compared to May. Since February, Russians have drained a monumental 1.903 trillion rubles from the system, averaging a systemic loss of 12.6 billion rubles every single day.

Why are Russians hoarding paper cash under their mattresses?

The Gray Market Explodes: Businesses are shifting to cash transactions to evade heavy wartime tax hikes.

Fear of Grid Collapses: Citizens are hoarding physical banknotes out of sheer terror over potential internet blackouts and institutional failures.

The Deputy Chairman of Sberbank openly admitted this is "a highly disturbing phenomenon" because the withdrawn cash is being permanently hoarded and never recirculates into ATMs or bank terminals.

My take – How this fuels the inflationary spiral:This cash flight is an economic death sentence. The Central Bank is forced to print massive amounts of paper currency to replenish dry ATMs, rapidly devaluing the ruble. To slow the panic, the state is trapped into maintaining suffocating interest rates, which prevents local companies from borrowing to produce goods. The result? Severe product shortages and skyrocketing prices.
The Russian people no longer trust Putin, their banks, or the digital value of their currency. The clock is ticking, the vaults are emptying, and the ruble is losing its grip! ⏳💸📉

SOURCE: Financial tracking from the Central Bank of Russia via Interfax and The New Voice of Ukraine (July 2, 2026). Executive testimony by Yury Belikov (CEO of Expert RA) and Taras Skvortsov (Deputy Chairman of Sberbank).

[Bonnie Glaser / 葛來儀 @BonnieGlaser]

Poll: respondents in eight countries leaned toward stronger relations with China, nine favored the US and seven were split between the two. Across 14 countries, the most common answer was “I don’t know” when asked whether they back Washington or Beijing more. https://t.co/9uk8MlI1NH

[Sari Arho Havrén @SariArhoHavren]

My read of Wang Yi’s Nordic tour through the Finnish lens: “Trust in Washington may have collapsed, but the threat perception of the Russia-China partnership has, if anything, hardened.”

Beijing is “testing the death of the transatlantic pact” — but Russia remains the existential threat for the Nordics, not a bargaining chip.”

2/

[Sari Arho Havrén @SariArhoHavren]

Fast forward. Today the FT reports VW plans to cut up to 100,000 jobs — one in six worldwide — and end production at four German plants, explicitly to counter Chinese rivals. The carmaker that taught China to build cars is now being undone by the industry it helped seed.

How long can the EU afford to sit on its hands?

https://t.co/8QeXH62veD

2/3

[Kate from Kharkiv @BohuslavskaKate]

HODGES: Imagine in a country like Russia, which has more oil and gas resources than almost anybody on planet, you have queues at gas stations due to gas shortages. So, Ukraine has hit on theory of victory for how they’re going to do this. And Russians don’t seem able to stop it.

[John Langtry @langtry_john]

Sehr gut gesagt.

[Anna @AnnaDeMilanese]

Moderator: „Wir haben von Sacharowa gehört – die es für nötig hielt, uns darüber zu informieren –, dass in Italien alles zusammenbrechen wird, wenn wir Kyjiw weiterhin unterstützen.“

Senator @CarloCalenda:
„Sacharowa ist Abschaum. Vielleicht müssen wir erst einmal verstehen, wer die Russen eigentlich sind. Sie sind diejenigen, die ukrainische Kinder nach Russland verschleppen; sie sind diejenigen, die Zivilisten töten.
Ich sehe so viele Menschen mit einer öffentlichen Plattform, die ständig sagen: ‚Nun ja, aber Russland hat schließlich seine Gründe.‘
Russland hat absolut keine Gründe; es ist ein Land, das von skrupellosen Mördern regiert wird, die keinen Wert auf das Leben legen und keinerlei Moral besitzen. Es gibt nur eine Möglichkeit, darauf zu reagieren: mit Entschlossenheit und Stärke, indem wir den Ukrainern helfen, sie auf dem Schlachtfeld zu besiegen.“

[Bonnie Glaser / 葛來儀 @BonnieGlaser]

World Bank to phase out China lending by 2031 https://t.co/ItJokFI5bV via @ft

[Australian Embassy, Mongolia @AusAmbMongolia]

🎉Congratulations to the 2025–2026 DAP grant recipients!

We thank all organisations who applied this year and shared their ideas to create positive change in their communities.

We look forward to seeing the impact of these projects and the difference they will make across 🇲🇳.

[Yasmina @yasminalombaert]

Crack’s in putin’s crumbling empire growing wider by the day.

As of July 1, 2026, Kazakhstan’s new constitution has officially kicked in, and the message to Moscow is loud and clear: The Soviet-era free pass for the Russian language is over.

For decades, the Russian language held a privileged spot in Kazakhstan’s law, sitting “on an equal footing” with Kazakh. It was a lingering badge of colonial dominance that Moscow leveraged to keep its grip on the region. Now, that constitutional requirement has been downgraded. Russian is no longer "equal"—it’s merely used “alongside” the state language.

It’s a polite, legal way of saying, "We aren't a Russian satellite anymore."

Under the old rules, officials were forced to accommodate Russian at every turn. Now, that obligation is gone. You want to conduct state business in Russian? You’d better have a specific reason to ask for it. The default is now, and will remain, Kazakh.

Putin loves to talk about protecting Russian speakers to justify his land grabs, but he’s powerless to stop this. He can scream at his television in the Kremlin all he wants, but he can’t dictate the constitution of a sovereign nation.

The Soviet shadow is finally receding, and for the Kremlin, it’s just one more sign that their "great power" status is becoming a joke. The neighbors are leaving, and they aren't looking back.

Video:

"In Kazakhstan, monumental amendments to the Constitution were adopted. It is clearly visible how, with this decision, the Kazakhs are moving away from Moscow. Nearly 90 percent of citizens voted for amendments in which the status of the Russian language was downgraded, and the Parliament was returned its original name — the Kurultai. Kazakhstan is following a truly Turkic path. Now the constitution begins with the lines: 'Preserving the continuity of the thousand-year history of the Great Steppe.' Kazakhstan strives to become a center for the countries of the Great Turan, and this unification inevitably detaches all of Central Asia from the influence of the Russian world."

[Euan Graham @graham_euan]

Worth noting the obvious but important point that 🇨🇳’s representative in 🇦🇺 not only sees attacks on the intelligence agencies and FVEY network as consistent with bilateral ‘stabilisation’, but that stabilisation offers him a platform to do so through the media.

[BRP Sierra Madre @BRPSierraMadre]

44 CHINESE VESSELS IN JUST ONE WEEK. THIS IS NOT PRESENCE — THIS IS PRESSURE. | While Beijing talks about “peace and stability,” the reality in the West Philippine Sea tells a different story: swarming Philippine waters with coast guard ships and warships as part of its calculated gray zone strategy — coercion without declaring conflict.

China calls it patrols. The region calls it intimidation. The world sees it for what it is: expansion disguised as diplomacy.

#BRPSierraMadre #DefendTheTruth #WestPhilippineSea #WPS #PhilippineSovereignty #NotOneMore #FactsMatter

[Anna @AnnaDeMilanese]

MAGYAR: 15.000–20.000 RUSSISCHE SOLDATEN IM FEUERSACK IM SÜDEN. 🇺🇦

Eine russische Gruppe von 15.000 bis 20.000 Soldaten soll im Süden eingekesselt sein. Rückzugswege abgeschnitten. Logistik zerstört.
Funkmitschnitte zeigen Panik auf russischer Seite — abgeschnittene Soldaten diskutieren offen im Funkverkehr die einzige Alternative zur Kapitulation.
Während Moskau von einer „großen Offensive" spricht, soll sich im Süden das genaue Gegenteil abspielen.

[UnveiledChina @Unveiled_ChinaX]

How far is the Chinese Communist Party willing to go to fuel Russia's war machine while explicitly lying to the world about its neutrality?

A groundbreaking Reuters exclusive reveals that Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov personally authorized a top-secret military training program inside China for around 200 Russian troops. High-ranking generals from both countries directly supervised the operations, and multiple trained Russian personnel have already been deployed to fight in Ukraine.

The details are chilling. This covert collaboration featured a three-week tactical course in Beijing dedicated to sensitive Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) defense. Under the direction of Chinese Major General Li Jinsun, head of the PLA's Military Academy of Radiological, Chemical and Biological Defence, Russian forces studied a model nuclear reactor, conducted chemical and radiation reconnaissance, and learned how to protect military ventilation systems from toxic contamination.

This deep collusion completely shatters the CCP's claims of being a peaceful mediator. European Union Foreign Policy Chief Kaja Kallas confirmed that Brussels has verified the covert training through its own channels and is actively evaluating harsh new sanction implications. European officials are now urging the bloc to look past traditional trade priorities, shift toward urgent security threats, and aggressively confront Beijing as a decisive enabler of Russia’s war.

By covertly instructing an invading army in highly sensitive warfare tactics, the CCP is accelerating a dangerous global economic and security fragmentation.

How should global leaders respond to this massive security threat?
#CCP #Russia #UkraineWar #CBRN #EUSanctions #Geopolitics #GlobalSecurity