Entering Russia would become a "military nightmare" for any army, according to a rating of the hardest countries to invade compiled by Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet. Military might, the size of territory and the difficulty of terrain are among the key factors that determine the country's defensive capability, the paper wrote.

Based on these criteria, the Swedish journalists pointed out that "whomever considers the idea of invading Russia must be prepared to handle all kinds of terrain." The enemy would face desolate mountains, impenetrable swamps, frozen tundra, turbulent rivers, and dark forests in Russia, they said, adding that hot summers and chilling winters would also pose a challenge.

"And then we have the Russians themselves, who for thousands of years, having participated in both large-scale wars and guerrilla warfare, gained a lot of experience," the article said.

The conclusions made by Svenska Dagbladet are backed by Russian history itself, as the country has never been conquered since the creation of a centralized state in Russia in the early 15th century. The Russians have thwarted all attempts to invade their land, defeating among others the armies of French Emperor Napoleon in 1812 and Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler in 1941-45 - who were both considered unstoppable at the time.

Ever since the Israeli-Syrian skirmish (falsely reported as an Israeli-Iranian clash in Syria by the mainstream press), questions have been circulating about what this means for Syria, Israel, Iran and the region, even the rest of the world. Was the retaliation by Syria all that was needed to finally make Israel understand that there might be consequences for its actions? Is this the beginning of a wider war between the two? What will be the response of the United States? The response of Russia?

While a full-on military conflict between Syria and Israel did not happen in the hours after the missiles ceased firing, it was announced by the Russians that Russia would not be sending its famed S-300s to Syria. This was despite a warning by the Russians earlier that the previous U.S. missile strikes against Syria removed all "moral hurdles" previously in Russia's way to do so. The new Russian announcement seemed to coincide with a trip to Russia made by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who has been campaigning against a transfer of those air defense missile systems for quite some time. As a result, many have been wondering whether or not Russia is going back on its support of Syria or if it is becoming infected with the virus that has made the United States exist in a symbiotic relationship with Israel. Indeed, this one announcement is leading many to question Russia's entire relationship with Israel.

"When the rivers and air are polluted, when families and nations are at war, when homeless wanderers fill the highways, these are the traditional signs of a dark age."- Pema Chodron, When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times

Those coming of age today will face some of the greatest obstacles ever encountered by young people.

They will find themselves overtaxed, burdened with excessive college debt, and struggling to find worthwhile employment in a debt-ridden economy on the brink of implosion. Their privacy will be eviscerated by the surveillance state. They will be the subjects of a military empire constantly waging war against shadowy enemies and government agents armed to the teeth ready and able to lock down the country at a moment's notice.

As such, they will find themselves forced to march in lockstep with a government that no longer exists to serve the people but which demands they be obedient slaves or suffer the consequences.

It's a dismal prospect, isn't it?

Unfortunately, we who should have known better failed to guard against such a future.

Worse, we neglected to maintain our freedoms or provide our young people with the tools necessary to survive, let alone succeed, in the impersonal jungle that is modern America.

We brought them into homes fractured by divorce, distracted by mindless entertainment, and obsessed with the pursuit of materialism. We institutionalized them in daycares and afterschool programs, substituting time with teachers and childcare workers for parental involvement. We turned them into test-takers instead of thinkers and automatons instead of activists.

We allowed them to languish in schools which not only look like prisons but function like prisons, as well-where conformity is the rule and freedom is the exception. We made them easy prey for our corporate overlords, while instilling in them the values of a celebrity-obsessed, technology-driven culture devoid of any true spirituality. And we taught them to believe that the pursuit of their own personal happiness trumped all other virtues, including any empathy whatsoever for their fellow human beings.

No, we haven't done this generation any favors.

Based on the current political climate, things could very well get much worse before they ever take a turn for the better. Here are a few pieces of advice that will hopefully help those coming of age today survive the perils of the journey that awaits:

Director-turned-Twitter-troll, John Brennan sent out a cryptic tweet on Sunday quoting Cicero which had many wondering if he sent out a thinly veiled threat to Trump.

John Brennan is in hot water which is why he continues to lash out at President Trump from his Twitter account. Brennan is caught in a perjury trap over his statements about Hillary's phony dossier in a May 2017 testimony to the intel panel.

Obama's former CIA chief was also involved in setting up Russian espionage traps for minor players in Trump's camp, according the investigative reporter, Paul Sperry.

Brennan posted a cryptic tweet Sunday which had Twitter buzzing.

Have we been looking in the wrong place - at the wrong country - to unearth the so-called 'foreign meddling' in the 2016 US election all along? If Obama administration plotted with British Intelligence to spy on & generally sabotage Trump candidacy and ultimate presidency, that's a violation of International Intel Laws.

Yesterday's release of Peter Strzok's texts is perhaps the most damning of them all!!!

It connects three key people critical to the conspiracy to subvert the US election, frame an innocent citizen (Trump) and then to destroy an elected POTUS.

President Trump meets with FBI, DOJ and DNI

President Trump is meeting Monday with Senior FBI, DOJ and DNI officials at the White House to discuss classified documentation requested by the House Intelligence Committee and whether or not members of the Obama administration authorized the use of a long-time informant of the CIA and FBI to investigate members of his 2016 campaign. The meeting came on the heels of the President's demand Sunday for the Justice Department to investigate the FBI's operation, known as Crossfire Hurricane, which included surveillance of members of the Trump campaign.

And this meeting is crucial because it will be a major opportunity for the President to order the Justice Department and FBI to turn over classified information requested by the House Intelligence Committee that may finally lead to the answers related to the scope of the FBI's surveillance on the Trump campaign. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, FBI Director Christopher Wray and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats will be at the White House to discuss the classified nature of the request by the committee and they will argue against the disclosure of the documents.

Ever since the suspected poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal on British soil, for which the Kremlin has been duly blamed, the recovering pair has not been seen. Russia says the Skripals are being held against their will.

If ever the world needed the likes of a Sherlock Holmes to help solve a crime, now is certainly the time. But even London's legendary super sleuth would have trouble cracking the case of the missing Skripals - Sergei and his daughter, Yulia - and not least of all because their story is deeply fraught with political intrigue and skullduggery.

Indeed, not only does the British government refuse to share information on the case with Russia - despite the fact that it involves an apparent murder attempt on two Russian citizens - it has even refused to allow family members from visiting the victims in England.

A nuclear-powered underwater drone capable of unleashing two megatonnes of hell to destroy enemy naval bases with massive tsunamis is under development in Russia, according to a state news agency.

"It will be possible to mount various nuclear charges on the 'torpedo' of the Poseidon multipurpose seaborne system, with the thermonuclear single warhead similar to the Avangard charge to have the maximum capacity of up to 2 megatonnes in TNT equivalent," a source in the Russian defense sector told TASS on Thursday.

With the drone's nuclear munition, the underwater craft "is primarily designed to destroy reinforced naval bases of a potential enemy," the source explained.

"Thanks to its nuclear power plant, the Poseidon will approach the target for an intercontinental range at a depth of over 1 km and at a speed of 60-70 knots (110-130 km/h)," another source revealed to TASS.

Meanwhile, TASS explains to its readers, "it has no official confirmation of this information," however, being a government-owned corporation in Russia, it is likely this knowledge is coming from insiders to combat an informational war with the West.

Another unnamed source supposedly tied in with the Russian defense sector said, "the Poseidon drone will join the Russian Navy under the existing armament program for 2018-2027 and will be carried by a newly specialized submarine currently under construction at the Sevmash Shipyard."

Public records show Stefan Halper, the foreign policy expert "outed" as an FBI informant that spied on Donald Trump's presidential campaign, was paid a large sum in 2016 for work he did for the Obama administration.

The Department of Defense paid Halper $282,295 on September 27, 2016 - just months before the 2016 presidential election - for work titled, "INDIA AND CHINA ECON STUDY," says USASPENDING.gov, a website that tracks spending data for the U.S. government. This sum was one of two payments made to Halper for the job; the second, worth $129,280, was made on July 26, 2017. The record lists Halper's "Period of Performance" as September 26, 2016 to March 29, 2018.

USASPENDING.gov shows the Department of Defense paid Halper a total of $1,058,161 for work between 2012-2018. The work designated for "India-China" study comprised nearly 40 percent of that compensation.

The contents of the work listed above are presently unknown.

Recent reports detailed Halper's interactions with three members of the Trump campaign - Carter Page, Sam Clovis, and George Papadopoulos.

An unmanned aircraft of unknown origin has been shot down near the Russian Khmeimim airbase in Syria. No one was injured in the incident and the base did not sustain any damage, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

The flying object came close to the military facility late on Monday and was destroyed by the base air defenses. Khmeimim airfield continued to operate normally following the incident.

Several videos, purportedly showing the moment the drone was shot down, have since emerged on social media. RT has not been able to independently verify their authenticity.