U.S.
to pre-position tanks, artillery in Baltics, eastern Europe
MSN,
23
June, 2015
The
United States will pre-position tanks, artillery and other military
equipment in eastern and central Europe, U.S. Defense Secretary Ash
Carter announced on Tuesday, moving to reassure NATO allies unnerved
by Russian involvement in Ukraine.
Carter,
during a trip to Tallinn, said the Baltic states - Estonia,
Lithuania, Latvia --
as well as Bulgaria, Romania and Poland agreed to host elements of this heavy equipment. Some of the equipment would also be located in Germany.
as well as Bulgaria, Romania and Poland agreed to host elements of this heavy equipment. Some of the equipment would also be located in Germany.
The
U.S. decision to stage heavy equipment closer to Russia's borders
aims to speed deployment of rotating U.S. forces as NATO steps up
exercises in Europe following Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimea
region last year.
Neighboring
NATO countries, especially the former Soviet Baltic states with their
Russian minorities, fear Russia could foment trouble on their
territories. Moscow denies any such intention.
Flanked
by defense chiefs from the Baltic states, Carter quoted Obama during
a visit to Estonia saying: "You lost your independence once
before. With NATO, you will never lose it again."
"That’s
because the United States and the rest of the NATO alliance are
absolutely committed to defending the territorial integrity of
Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania," Carter said.
Under
NATO's founding treaty, an attack on any member state would
constitute an attack on all parties. Russia accuses the West of
violating post-Cold War arrangements by extending NATO to Russia's
frontiers, something the West denies
Estonian
Defense Minister Sven Mikser welcomed the decision, on
pre-positioning as did representatives from Latvia and Lithuania.
Mikser said his nation was ready to host pre-positioned equipment and
a rotational presence of U.S. forces.
"We
have reasons to believe that Russia views the Baltic region as one of
NATO's most vulnerable areas, a place where NATO's resolve and
commitment could be tested," Mikser said.
CONDEMNATION
IN MOSCOW
The
United States had not formally disclosed where in Europe the
equipment would be stored before Tuesday but news reports about
military planning triggered an angry response from Moscow ahead of
Carter's trip to Europe this week.
©
REUTERS/Yuri Gripas U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter speaks at
a news conference at the Pentagon in Washington
A
Russian defense ministry official said stationing tanks and heavy
weapons in NATO states on Russia's border would be the most
aggressive U.S. act since the Cold War.
President
Vladimir Putin, who denies any direct involvement in Ukraine and
accuses the West of stirring tensions, announced Russia would add
more than 40 intercontinental ballistic missiles to its nuclear
arsenal this year.
Carter
has condemned Putin's return to what he considers Cold War-style
rhetoric.
A
fact sheet provided by the U.S. military said the United States'
pre-positioning would include about 250 tanks, Bradley infantry
fighting vehicles and self-propelled howitzers.
The
amount of equipment that would be temporarily stored in each country
would be enough to supply either a company, so enough for about 150
soldiers, or a battalion, or about 750 soldiers. Much of it is
already in Europe, officials say.
Carter
said the equipment would move around as needed, to support exercises
in Europe.
U.S.
officials say Ukraine has illustrated the importance of being able to
counter "hybrid warfare", the blend of unidentified troops,
propaganda and economic pressure that the West says Russia has used
there.
It
also involves cyber warfare. Carter also announced plans on Tuesday
to work with an Estonia-based NATO cyber center to help allies
develop cyber defense strategies and critical infrastructure
protection planning.
NATO vs Russia: ‘US tries to create enemy out of nothing’
The
Ukrainian crisis is about Ukraine, but not about Central or Western
Europe, says Jonathan Steele, Guardian international affairs
columnist. But NATO needs to justify its existence and sell arms,
that’s why a demonization of Russia is taking place.
On
Monday, US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter claimed America will
provide more aircraft, weapons and soldiers to NATO’s rapid
reaction force in Europe. This is meant to help Europe face security
threats including Russia. Earlier, the US announced plans to store
battle tanks, combat vehicles and heavy weapons for as many as 5,000
troops in Eastern Europe.
Minsk accords must be implemented in full, including political parts – FM Lavrov
The
Minsk agreements on Ukraine crisis reconciliation, which have no
alternatives, must be fully implemented, including the political
aspects outlining constitutional reforms, said Russian FM Sergey
Lavrov after the Normandy Four group ministers’ meeting.
Європа – це Україна !
23
June, 2015
Did
they expect us to treat them with any respect?
They can polish their medals and sharpen their
Smiles, and amuse themselves playing games for awhile.
Boom boom, bang bang, lie down you’re dead.
They can polish their medals and sharpen their
Smiles, and amuse themselves playing games for awhile.
Boom boom, bang bang, lie down you’re dead.
The
Maidanites had this great slogan “Україна – це Європа!”
or “The Ukraine is Europe”. It was short, emphatic and
utterly meaningless – hence it’s appeal and success.
Predictably it took the Ukronazis less than a year to show the world
that in terms of violence, corruption, social rights, human rights,
social organization, culture etc. the Ukraine was much more akin to
some failed African state than to any West European country and that
it would be much more accurate to say “The Ukraine is Africa”.
The
Ukraine is Africa!
Still,
the original slogan “Україна – це Європа!” has a
kernel of truth to it, especially if flipped around.
Європа
– це Україна !
Think
of it: what has the Ukainian civil war shown about Europe?
It
has shown that the EU is a spineless and voiceless US colony with no
foreign policy at all. That EU officials are no less corrupt
than the Ukrainian ones (and I am not even sure of which ones are
cheaper to purchase!). This crisis also also shown that the EU
has absolutely no moral or civilizational values, that all the
so-called “EU values” are just a thin veneer of respectability
over a systematic use of double-standards. For the life of me I
cannot think of a single reason to call Poroshenko or Bokassa or
Mobutu more corrupt or less principled than Merkel, Hollande or
Cameron.
The New
Europe?
European
politicians are all lining up to defend the putative rights of
homosexuals, but when bona
fide Nazis
use weapons of war against entire cities (including chemical
munitions and ballistic missiles) the noble Europeans either look
away, or provide the Nazis with more money, guns and mercenaries.
Numerous
Russian politicians have reported that in their private conversations
with European diplomats the latter have admitted many times that they
fully understood Russia’s stance, but that they could not say so
openly. So they are *knowingly* supporting the wrong side.
Furthermore,
it is becoming increasingly clear that the EU bureaucracy does not
care in the least about what most Europeans think, not about Russia,
not about the Ukraine, Greece or the EU expansion into Central
Europe. In fact, the comprador “elites” of the EU treat
they own people with no less contempt than they have for their
supposed “principles”. For years now the EU has adopted
laws and regulations which were going categorically against both the
objective interests and the will of the majority of Europeans and
they are still doing so today.
While
these were certainly not saints, there used to be politicians in
Europe (de Gaulle, Mitterrand, Schmidt, or even Thatcher) who at
least had their own views and who were not just the subservient
puppets of the White House. I submit that nowadays EU
leaders are no less US puppets than Poroshenko.
It
is quite amazing for me to watch the very same Europeans who had the
gall and arrogance to tell Russia that the future of the Ukraine was
“none of your business” (that is quite literally what they said)
also accept that the future of the Ukraine would be totally
controlled by the United States.
Furthermore,
just as their Ukrainian counterparts, EU politicians have apparently
simply given up on any hope on getting any respect on the part of
their own people: in Europe, just as in the Ukraine, the authority of
the heads of state is based on their power whereas in Russia the
power of Putin is based on his authority.
Finally,
just as the Ukraine the southern parts of the country are prone to
resistance and, when possible, revolt, so in the EU we see a “protest
belt” in the south from Spain to Greece.
Of
course, the EU is still immensely richer than the truly devastated
Ukraine. But the writing is on the wall: the Ukraine has become
Africa and the EU has become the Ukraine.
The
Saker
23.06.2015 Crisis News: Ukrainian Defense Ministry Aid Joins DPR Militias
Member of Kiev's top brass ‘defects’ to anti-govt forces, predicts more like him
A
man claiming to be a Ukrainian major general and former assistant to
the country's defense minister has announced he is now working with
the forces of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic.
"I
am Ukrainian Armed Forces Major General Aleksandr Kolomiyets. My
latest posts are chief analyst of the Ukrainian armed forces,
assistant to the Ukrainian defense minister," the man said at a
news conference at the Donetsk news agency loyal to the
self-proclaimed republic. Kolomiyets had also spent 19 years as the
chief enlistment officer in the Donetsk region
Gorlovka residents are desperate under constant shelling, damning Kiev regime and its forces
Ukraine’s President Poroshenko Says Overthrow of Yanukovych Was a Coup
Eric
Zuesse
23
March, 2015
Ukraine’s
President Petro Poroshenko requests the supreme court of Ukraine to
declare that his predecessor, Viktor Yanukovych, was overthrown by an
illegal operation; in other words, that the post-Yanukovych
government, including Poroshenko’s own Presidency, came into power
from a coup, not from something democratic, not from any authentic
constitutional process at all.
In
a remarkable document,
which is not posted at the English version of the website
of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, but
which is widely reported outside
the United States, including
Russia, Poroshenko,
in Ukrainian (not in English), has petitioned the Constitutional
Court of Ukraine (as it is being widely quoted in English):
“I
ask the court to acknowledge that the law ‘on the removal of the
presidential title from Viktor Yanukovych’ as
unconstitutional.”
I
had previously
reported, and
here will excerpt, Poroshenko’s having himself admitted prior to 26
February 2014, to the EU’s investigator, and right after
the February 22nd overthrow of Yanukovych, that the
overthrow was a coup, and that it was even a false-flag operation, in
which the snipers, who were dressed as if they were Ukrainian
Security Bureau troops, were actually not, and that, as the EU’s
investigator put his finding to the EU’s chief of foreign affairs
Catherine Ashton [and with my explanatory annotations here]:
“the same oligarch [Poroshenko — and so when he became President he already knew this] told that well, all the evidence shows that the people who were killed by snipers, from both sides, among policemen and people from the streets, [this will shock Ashton, who had just said that Yanukovych had masterminded the killings] that they were the same snipers, killing people from both sides [so, Poroshenko himself knows that his regime is based on a false-flag U.S.-controlled coup d’etat against his predecessor]. … Behind the snipers, it was not Yanukovych, but it was somebody from the new coalition.”
This
was when Ashton first learned that the myth that Yanukovych had been
overthrown as a result of public outrage at his having rejected the
EU’s offer of membership to Ukraine was just a hoax.
(Actually, the planning for this coup was already under way in the
U.S. Embassy by
at least early 2013, well prior to Yanukovych’s EU decision.
Furthermore, the
Ukrainian public’s approval of the government peaked right after
Yanukovych announced his rejection of the EU’s offer,
but then the U.S.-engineered“Maidan”
riots caused that approval to plunge.)
If
the Court grants Poroshenko’s petition, then the
appointment of Arseniy Yatsenyuk by the U.S. State Department’s
Victoria Nuland on 4 February 2014, which
was confirmed by the Ukrainian parliament (or Rada) at the end of the
coup on February 26th, and the other appointments which were
made, including that of Oleksandr Turchynov to fill in for Yanukovych
as caretaker President until one of the junta’s chosen candidates
would be ‘elected’ on May 25th of 2014, which ‘election’
Poroshenko won — all of this was illegal.
However,
this illegality had already been known. It was already explained in
detail on 28 February 2014, that, “Yanukovych’s
removal was unconstitutional.” That’s
for lawyers; but, now, finally, Ukraine’s Constitutional Court is
faced with the shocking predicament of Ukraine’s own President, who
won his post as a result of this coup, requesting them to
“acknowledge” that it was a coup, much as the founder of the
“private CIA” firm Stratfor had even called it, “the
most blatant coup in history.” (It
was that because the
authentic video and other evidence of
its having been a Washington job was so massive.)
Also in
the news now is
that Dmitriy
Yarosh‘s
Right Sector — the
same group that Washington had hired for the coup and for the ethnic
cleansing campaign in Ukraine’s former Donbass region —
have announced that
they will assemble in Kiev on July 3rd to overthrow
Petroshenko unless he restarts right now the war against Donbass. The
people whom Washington paid to oust Yanukovych are planning to do the
same to Poroshenko. There is a struggle
inside the Obama Administration about
how far they can successfully go with their Ukrainian nazis not
formally leading the country.
Washington
is having a hard time keeping in line the Ukrainian
nazis upon
whom Washington’s plan
for Ukraine has
been based. Ukraine’s nazis are thirsting for Russian blood, and
want to slake their thirst faster than the Obama Administration is
willing to go along with. Washington’s previous “F—k
the EU!” hasn’t
worked as well as they had hoped. There is thus increasingly bad
blood between the Obama Administration and the Ukrainian
enforcers upon
whom Obama has been relying.
Basically,
Poroshenko now is torn between the EU, on one side, and Ukraine’s
well-armed nazis, on the other; and, thus far, the ultimate decider,
U.S. President Obama, who has needed cooperation both from Ukraine’s
nazis and from the EU, in order for his Ukrainian gambit against
Russia to work, is on the fence between those two sides. John Kerry
sides with the EU; Victoria Nuland sides with the nazis. But Obama
himself hasn’t yet played his hand.
Investigative
historian Eric
Zuesse is
the author, most recently, of They’re
Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records,
1910-2010, and
of CHRIST’S
VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that Created Christianity,
and of Feudalism,
Fascism, Libertarianism and Economics.
Yatsenyuk to Washington: Please Buy Ukraine!
” One dollar? I’ll take it!” Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk is asking the U.S. to please join its privatization efforts this year as the struggling nation looks to raise capital as it reforms its economy. (Photo by Carsten Koall/Getty Images)
Ukraine PM is asking the US to please buy up state assets Kiev is selling in its new sweeping privatisation drive
German intelligence warns NATO about Ukraine's pursuit of nuclear weapons
 |
| 1. Research reactors 2. Sources of ionized radiation 3. Special plants 4. Nuclear Power Station blocks |
The
German intelligence service expressed concern about the plans of Kiev
to resume research on nuclear weapons development
Putin
addresses SPIEF 2015: 'Russia is open for the world' (FULL SPEECH)
While
much of the world focused last week on whether or not the Federal
Reserve was going to raise interest rates, or whether the Greek debt
crisis would bring Europe to a crisis, the
Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague awarded a $50 billion
judgment to shareholders of the former oil company Yukos in their
case against the Russian government. The
governments of Belgium and France moved immediately to freeze Russian
state assets in their countries, naturally provoking the anger of the
Russian government.
The
timing of these actions is quite curious, coming
as the Greek crisis in the EU seems to be reaching a tipping point
and Greece, having perhaps abandoned the possibility of rapprochement
with Europe, has been making overtures to Russia to help bail it out
of its mess. And with the IMF's recent statement pledging its full
and unconditional support to Ukraine, it has become even more clear
that the IMF and other major multilateral institutions are not
blindly technical organizations, but rather are totally subservient
lackeys to the foreign policy agenda emanating from Washington. Toe
the DC party line and the internationalists will bail you out
regardless of how badly you mess up, but if you even think about
talking to Russia you will face serious consequences.
The
United States government is desperately trying to cling to the notion
of a unipolar world, with the United States at its center dictating
foreign affairs and monetary policy while its client states dutifully
carry out instructions. But the world order is not unipolar, and the
existence of Russia and China is a stark reminder of that. For
decades, the United States has benefited as the creator and defender
of the world's reserve currency, the dollar. This has enabled
Americans to live beyond their means as foreign goods are imported to
the US while increasingly-worthless dollars are sent abroad. But is
it any wonder after 70-plus years of a depreciating dollar that the
rest of the world is rebelling against this massive transfer of
wealth?
The
Europeans tried to form their own competitor to the dollar, and the
resulting euro is collapsing around them as you read this. But the
European Union was never considered much of a threat by the United
States, existing as it does within Washington's orbit. Russia
and China, on the other hand, pose a far more credible threat to the
dollar, as they have both the means and the motivation to form a
gold-backed alternative monetary system to compete against the
dollar.
That
is what the US government fears, and that is why President Obama and
his Western allies are risking a cataclysmic war by goading Russia
with these politically-motivated asset seizures. Having run out of
carrots, the US is resorting to the stick.
The
US government knows that Russia will not blithely accept Washington's
dictates, yet it still reacts like a petulant child flying into a
tantrum whenever Russia dares to exert its sovereignty. The
existence of a country that won't kowtow to Washington's demands is
an unforgivable sin, to be punished with economic sanctions,
attempting to freeze Russia out of world financial markets; veiled
threats to strip Russia's hosting of the 2018 World Cup; and now the
seizure of Russian state assets.
Thus
far the Russian response has been incredibly restrained, but that may
not last forever. Continued
economic pressure from the West may very well necessitate a
Sino-Russian monetary arrangement that will eventually dethrone the
dollar. The
end result of this needless bullying by the United States will hasten
the one thing Washington fears the most: a world monetary system in
which the US has no say and the dollar is relegated to playing second
fiddle.
Greenwald: Putin's 'Trolls' Are No Match for UK's Internet Manipulation Program
NSA files published by Greenwald expose unit within British intelligence that plants stories, sets up bogus sites and plants comments on the Internet in a far more systematic way than anything the Russians are accused of.
NSA files published by Greenwald expose unit within British intelligence that plants stories, sets up bogus sites and plants comments on the Internet in a far more systematic way than anything the Russians are accused of.
A typical day in Russia, or the UK?
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