How Russia Can Improve Brazil’s Military and Economy

How Russia Can Improve Brazil’s Military and Economy

Cooperation Continues to Improve Between Russia and Brazil

by InfoBricsFebruary 19, 2020

Submitted by InfoBrics, authored by Paul Antonopoulos, Research Fellow at the Center for Syncretic Studies…

Last week the Russian ambassador to Brazil, Sergey Akpov, said that despite the acquisition of the Russian Pantsir-S1, air defense systems not being a priority for Brasilia, Moscow continues to consider Brazil as a promising market to sell weapons and military equipment. For the diplomat, there are good prospects for cooperation in the area to strengthen ties between the two BRICS countries.

Russia has proven it is willing to transfer sensitive technology and sell widely to many different states, such as India. India can manufacture the SU-30MKI fighter jet entirely itself because of technology that was passed on by Russia. This has been possible because India, also a BRICS country, has been receptive to Russian cooperation and investment. A major problem that Russia has in Brazil is the powerful Western lobby which somewhat attempts to prevent Brazilian companies from being interested in partnering with Russian companies. Effectively Russian companies have difficulty carrying out projects in Latin America’s biggest country.

Without a Brazilian partner capable of absorbing the technology and that is reliable, Russia will not be able to sell to the country unless they create their own factory and manufacturing bases. Effectively, Russia needs to create an industrial base in Brazil if it wants to sell weapons and military equipment to the country. As Brazil is in the middle of an economic crisis, the South American giant is unlikely to reject a Russian manufacturing base in Brazil.

Brazil’s presidential frontrunner says he will move Israel embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem

As evangelicals bid to move embassy, ‘Brazil’s Trump’ says he will if elected

At parliamentary event feting Israel’s 70th birthday, Christian conservatives propose to join Latin American countries relocating embassies to Jerusalem; Brazil’s Jews are torn

By VIVIANE VAZ25 May 2018, 2:15 pm

Main image by AP/Eraldo Peres

With considerable fanfare, a small number of Latin American countries have followed the example of United States President Donald Trump and are transferring their embassies in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Guatemala and Paraguay moved their missions to Jerusalem in recent days with public celebrations. Honduras has promised to follow.

At the same time, nearly unnoticed, a session in the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies, organized by the Evangelical Parliamentary Front — a conservative faith-based congressional caucus — paid homage to the 70th anniversary of “the Rebirth and Declaration of the State of Israel.”

Brazil’s military dictatorship leaves a paper trail in the CIA archives

Brazil’s military dictatorship leaves a paper trail in the CIA archives

The leading candidate for the Brazilian presidency promotes the same state-sponsored repression that the Agency supported for years in Latin America

Written by Lucas Smolcic Larson

Edited by JPat Brown

On October 28th, polls show Brazil will likely elect a candidate who openly praises the country’s military dictatorship - the period from 1964 to 1985 marked by censorship, extrajudicial killings, and torture of political opponents. Former army captain Jair Bolsonaro is not subtle in his pining for a time when Brazil was governed by force and ruled by fear, especially for leftists, Afro-Brazilians, and the poor.

In 2016 while a representative in the Brazilian Congress, Bolsonaro dedicated his vote to open impeachment proceedings against then-president Dilma Rousseff to Alberto Brilhante Ustra, the Brazilian intelligence officer responsible for the torture of hundreds of leftists, including Rousseff herself. Bolsonaro’s statements leave little doubt as to his stance on the subject:

“I’m pro-torture, and the people are too.”

“You won’t change anything thing in this country through voting - nothing, absolutely nothing. Unfortunately, you’ll only change things by having a civil war and doing the work the military regime didn’t do. Killing 30,000 starting with FHC [former president Fernando Henrique Cardoso]. Killing. If a few innocent people die, that’s alright.”

“The dictatorship’s mistake was just torturing and not killing.”

Bolsonaro’s promises to purge leftists and instruct the police to kill indiscriminately have gained him massive traction in a Brazil that saw 63,000 violent deaths last year and that is mired in economic crisis that many attribute to years of corruption in the center-left Worker’s Party. (The reality, as always, isn’t so simple). Bolsonaro has garnered endorsements from the Klu Klux Klan, international condemnation, and scores of ‘meet the Brazilian Trump’ reports in American media.