NewRulesGeopolitics

Our story starts with the Be-200, a Russian amphibious jet used for fire-fighting Be-200 carries up to 12,000 litres (3,200 gallons) of water, and can be refilled mid-flight by scooping up water from lakes/seas/oceans Here’s a video demonstration below👇

Be-200 has plenty of experiences battling fires in the Siberian region of Yakutia, which frequently suffers from wildfires It’s also been deployed in Israel, Spain, France, Turkey, and Indonesia In other words, the Be-200 has a solid track record

What does the Be-200 have to do with California? Did you know that there was serious push for California to ACQUIRE the Be-200 for its fire fighting force? There were even discussions about MANUFACTURING the plane in Santa Maria, California

Here’s a 2017 letter from Russian Minister of Trade and Industry Denis Manturov to California Governor Jerry Brown offering to provide California with the Be-200 Russia was more than willing to send its most effective fire-fighting jet to California

Back in 2018, a California-based company, Seaplane Global Air Services, announced that it had signed a contract for the delivery of 10 Be-200s from Russia At the time, many saw this as the first step towards providing California’s firefighters with a FLEET of Be-200 jets

But as Los Angeles continues to burn, there are no Be-200s flying overhead to help contain the flames This begs the obvious question: Why did California turn down the opportunity to strengthen its firefighting arsenal and bring high-paying manufacturing jobs to the state?

The first reason is the arrogance and stupidity of California politicians When Russia offered to provide California with Be-200s back in 2017, the state publicly declared that it didn’t need any more fire-fighting planes Needless to say, this statement aged like milk

To be fair, California politicians are not the only ones to blame for this debacle FEMA threatened “to sic federal authorities” on local officials who tried talking to the Russians about the Be-200 You can’t make this stuff up

But finally, we have to address the elephant in the room: Sanctions After the start of the Ukraine conflict, all the pages dedicated to a potential joint project between Californian companies and Russia’s Be-200 manufacturers were removed from the website

We don’t know all the circumstances surrounding the collapse of talks for California to acquire the Be-200, but we think it’s reasonable to conclude that anti-Russia sanctions were a major reason After 2022, there’s no way this deal could’ve gone through

At the end of the day, US political elites would rather see California BURN than accept help from Russia They rather FORFEIT well-paying manufacturing jobs for Americans than be seen doing joint projects with Russia This is what UKRAINE FIRST looks like

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