RT News - December 4th 2022 - The Weekly

Stop press news - US military bases in Europe put on high ‘terror attack’ alert – media (see below)

Marine Le Pen's National Rally (RASSEMBLEMENT NATIONAL) has won the majority of votes in France, after a snap election was called by Emmanuel Macron last month. There were celebrations across France with fireworks and bonfires and the "usual" waste bins set ablaze as the police tried to disperse the crowds. (I don't know why they were trying to disperse the crowds?) The police used tear gas and other anti-citizen dispersion force which wound the elated crowds up. Marine Le Pen gave an announcement speech, saying "the people have spoken"
After that Gabriel Attal (Macron's Prime Minister) gave a speech saying "we must stop the Rassemblement National from dominating and running the country with their nefarious plan it has in mind" (Recall something similar after the historic Rochdale election and Rishi Sunak as he inferred that George Galloway was responsible for all the problems that ail Britain simply because he was elected !! See https://twitter.com/HussainShafiei/status/1763644589393465560 &
this video from Neil Oliver explains it much better https://youtu.be/DT0Ro3TiHWA)
Rachel Marsden explains more about the yesterday's vote.
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In South Africa the government will be a new start for the country, "unprecedented" with so many different parties properly represented and with a say - the country may be of true unity, for the first time in modern history. Noluvuyo Kunge explains more (it's complex). Even the cabinet will comprise of members of the various parties - not just "the ruling one" but some key areas will remain under Pres. Ramaphosa's control. Sipho Seepe (former .gov advisor) gives comments.
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Ukraine: "Nobody in the west cares about peace - it's not them or their families dying" that's according to Pres. Vucic of Serbia who is complaining that the China peace proposals are not even being considered.
- In the Donetsk republic, Russian forces progress and take several settlements.
- At the weekend the IMF approved a $2.2 billion loan to Ukraine (see https://rumble.com/v54ixnu-rt-news-june-29-2024-late-belgrade-serbia-israeli-embassy-attack..html for more detail) One of the conditions for the loan is that Ukraine's state corruption needs to be addressed. Roman Kosarev reports. Ukraine was the first country to receive a loan whilst it was at war https://www.bbc.com/news/business-65034765
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In Kenya, protests continued all last week and weekend, protesting IMF loans and a finance bill proposed by Pres. Ruto. Even though he rescinded the bill, the protests continued about dealings with the IMF. 23 people died in the protests at the hands of the police and hundreds were injured.
Martin Dolzer (former German politician) talks about "IMF dependency"
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The US, South Korea and Japan are conducting their first trilateral military exercises called "Freedom Edge" (see https://www.navy.mil/Press-Office/News-Stories/Article/3819224/trilateral-statement-first-execution-of-multi-domain-japan-rok-us-exercise-free/) North Korea isn't happy about this as this has followed immediately after the announcement of defence-only, strategic partnership documents signed between DPRK and Russia, during Pres. Putin's visit to North Korea and Pres. Kim Jong-Un. Prof. Victor Gao comments, hoping that the US and it's allies will start to promote peace, not more war.
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Protests in Israel turned violent last night as the crowds clashed with "security forces" (police?). They are protesting about conscription of the Ultra-Orthodox Jewish population of Israel who have until now been excluded from the draft. These protest could have political ramifications which call for elections.
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Short take: Paris burns as the National Rally party takes the lead in the French legislative elections. With President Macron’s defeat on the cards, the nation’s Prime Minister issues a stark warning. South Africa’s president names a new coalition cabinet, with the opposition making its debut in the new government after weeks of political wrangling. Ukraine is told by the IMF to crack down on its rampant corruption as the financial institution releases another tranche of aid to Kiev from its bailout package.

Below A) US military bases in Europe put on high ‘terror attack’ alert
1) Zelensky outlines model for talks with Russia
2) National Rally set for historic election victory in France
3) Hungary’s Orban announces new EU Parliament alliance (plus extras)
4) French authorities accused of ‘social cleansing’ before Olympics
5) US to unblock bomb shipments to Israel
6) (reposts) Fewer and fewer Westerners are buying the ‘Atlanticism’ idea NATO

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A) US military bases in Europe put on high ‘terror attack’ alert – media 1 Jul, 2024 04:25

The sites that have reportedly increased their security include the US European Command headquarters in Germany

All American military bases in Europe have been placed on high alert due to a potential terrorist threat against the facilities or personnel, several US media outlets reported on Sunday, citing sources at the Pentagon.

“There is credible intel pointing to an attack against US bases in Europe over the next week or so,” an unnamed official told Fox News.

According to the source, different installations, including the army garrison in Stuttgart, Germany, which hosts the US European Command, increased their threat posture to the so-called Force Protection ‘Charlie,’ which “applies when an incident occurs or intelligence is received indicating some form of terrorist action or targeting against personnel or facilities is likely.”

A threat level of this kind has not been activated “in at least 10 years,” a US official stationed at one of the bases told CNN, adding that it is generally applied when the military faces an “active-reliable threat.”

The US Army operates a system called Force Protection Condition (FPCON), which is designed “to counter terrorists or other hostile adversaries." Its threat levels are designated as Normal, Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, and Delta, with Charlie and Delta being the highest states of alert.

A spokesperson for US European Command Commander Dan Day declined to comment on the exact nature of the threat, saying that the Pentagon is “constantly assessing a variety of factors that play into the safety of the US military community abroad” and takes extra steps to ensure the safety of the service members.

“USEUCOM constantly monitors the security environment to ensure its personnel are informed and best postured to assure the safety of their individual person, family, and loved ones. As always, USEUCOM advises personnel in the European theater to remain vigilant and stay alert at all times,” he added, as quoted by CNN. https://edition.cnn.com/2024/06/30/politics/us-military-bases-europe-alert/index.html

While the details of what has triggered the alert remain unclear, European authorities have reportedly warned of a potential terrorist threat amid the ongoing soccer championship in Germany and the upcoming Olympic Games in France.

German authorities have deployed over 500 international police officers to assist with security during the tournament, with Interior Minister Nancy Faeser saying at the time that the country was preparing “for all conceivable dangers, from Islamist terror to violent criminals and hooligans.”

The French government has raised the national security system to the highest level as well, saying that officials are “actively monitoring terrorist threats from organized groups and radicalized individuals.”
https://www.rt.com/news/600234-us-military-bases-in-europe/
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1) Zelensky outlines model for talks with Russia 30 Jun, 2024 23:02

Intermediaries could help reach a lasting settlement with Moscow, the Ukrainian leader said

Kiev does not rule out future peace talks with Moscow but they can only be held through intermediaries, Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky told the Philadelphia Inquirer on Sunday. He suggested that the format used to broker the 2022 Black Sea grain deal could be useful for this purpose.

Kiev has previously refused to accept Russia’s terms as a basis of talks and accused Moscow of being incapable of good-faith negotiations. In late 2022, Zelensky even issued a decree, proclaiming the “impossibility” of holding talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Moscow, meanwhile, has maintained that it is ready to restart negotiations but only if Kiev renounces claims on the territories that have been acquired by Russia during the conflict. In autumn 2022, four former Ukrainian territories – the two breakaway Donbass republics and the regions of Kherson and Zaporozhye – formally joined Russia following a series of referendums. Ukraine has never recognized the voting results and continues to lay claim to these regions, as well as Crimea, which joined Russia following a similar referendum in 2014.

In his interview with the Philadelphia Inquirer, Zelensky said that Ukraine “can find a model” for a potential settlement with Russia. He pointed to the deal brokered two years ago by Türkiye and the UN that allowed the establishment of a corridor for agricultural exports from Ukrainian ports.

According to Zelensky, Ankara and the UN had signed separate agreements with Moscow and Kiev. “It worked,” he said, adding that the grain corridor then existed “long enough.”

Moscow and Kiev were close to reaching another grain deal in March, but Ukrainian negotiators abruptly walked away after two months of talks, according to Reuters.

Agreements on “territorial integrity, energy and freedom of navigation” could be struck between Moscow and Kiev in the same format, Zelensky stated. He suggested that other countries could be invited to mediate.”No one should say that it is … just Europe and the US,” he said, adding that nations from Asia, Africa, and South America should participate as well and help prepare the documents that would be presented to Moscow and Kiev.

“So far, there is only this model,” Zelensky said. He stressed, however, that the final agreement should “suit” Kiev and be based on Ukraine’s terms.

Zelensky has long sought to promote his own 10-point “peace formula,” most recently during the summit in Switzerland on June 15-16, which Russia did not attend. Moscow has flatly rejected Zelensky’s terms, insisting that the status of its newly acquired territories is non-negotiable. Putin further demanded in June that Kiev withdraw all troops from the parts of the four Russian regions it currently controls.

According to Putin, Ukraine must also renounce its plan to join NATO and become a neutral country, as well as limit the size of its army.

Despite rejecting Russia’s terms, Kiev has recently been signaling its willingness to end the fighting. In June, the deputy head of Vladimir Zelensky’s office, Igor Zhovkva, said that Ukraine wanted “peace as soon as possible.” Zelensky himself said last week that Kiev did not want to “prolong the war” and make it “last for years.”
https://www.rt.com/russia/600232-zelensky-model-talks-russia/
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2) National Rally set for historic election victory in France – exit poll 1 Jul, 2024 00:50

The right-wing party is projected to win the first round of the snap parliamentary election

The right-wing National Rally (RN) party is set to win the first round of the French snap parliamentary elections held on Sunday, exit polls show. The result is a stunning defeat for President Emmanuel Macron and his centrist Together (Ensemble) coalition

Macron called for an early vote following the poor performance of his Renaissance Party during the European Parliament election last month, when RN led by Jordan Bardella won the most seats allotted to France.

According to the projections released on Sunday night by pollsters Ipsos and Talan, RN and its allies are leading with 33.2% of the vote, followed by the left-wing New Popular Front bloc (28.1%). Macron’s coalition is third with 21%. The turnout rate was estimated at 65.5%, the highest France has seen in four decades.

According to the projections by Radio France Internationale (RFI), RN is poised to secure between 230 and 280 seats in the 577-member National Assembly, while an estimate for Macron’s bloc is between 70 and 100 seats.

RN supporters celebrated their win, as party leaders have urged them to “mobilize” for the second round of voting on July 7.

“The French people have almost wiped out the Macronist bloc,” said Marine Le Pen, RN’s former long-time leader who currently leads the party’s faction in parliament. “The second round will determine the [final] outcome,” she added, stressing that RN needs to win an absolute majority in order for Macron to nominate Bardella for prime minister.

Macron reacted to the upset by urging voters to “block the far right” and form a coalition to prevent RN from controlling the parliament.

“The time has come for a broad, unequivocally democratic and republican alliance for the second round,” Macron said on Sunday, noting that the high turnout has demonstrated “the importance of this election for all our compatriots and the desire to clarify the political situation.”

Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said that “not a single vote should go to National Rally,” arguing that the country “must stop” the right from gaining an absolute majority.

New Popular Front leader Jean-Luc Melenchon described Sunday’s results as a “heavy and undisputable” defeat of Macron’s alliance, but also urged the French people to unite against RN.
https://www.rt.com/news/600233-national-rally-set-historic-victory/
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3) Hungary’s Orban announces new EU Parliament alliance 30 Jun, 2024 16:12

Three parties have created the Patriots for Europe to secure more influence for right-wing leaders

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has announced the creation of a new EU Parliament alliance, in cooperation with right-wing parties from Austria and the Czech Republic. The announcement comes a day before Budapest takes on the rotating six-month EU presidency.

The new group, presented as “Patriots for Europe” comprises Fidesz, the party led by Orban; the Czech Republic’s largest opposition bloc, ANO, chaired by the country’s former prime minister, Andrej Babis; and the Austrian Freedom Party (FPO), headed by Herbert Kickl.

“Today we are creating a political formation that I believe will very quickly become the largest faction of the European right-wing,” Orban said during a press briefing which was also attended by Babis and Kickl. The Hungarian leader expressed hope that the alliance would dominate the right of the EU’s political spectrum.

The bloc's policies must be altered in accordance with the results of the latest European Parliament elections, according to the Hungarian leader, who stressed that the current parliamentary groups will inevitably split.

The results of the election carried out on June 9 revealed that citizens across the 27-nation bloc had mostly shifted away from the left, although the performance of the right-wing and conservative parties varied from country to country. The ruling coalitions in Germany, France and Italy were effectively trounced by the right.

Orban’s Fidesz won 11 seats in the EU parliament, while FPO and ANO have six and seven seats respectively, with all three parties becoming strongest in their countries' elections.

In a statement to the media, the leaders of the three parties expressed hope that the new group would be joined by many other European parties in the coming days.

Hungary is set to take over the presidency of the Council of the European Union on July 1 and will remain in charge until the end of the year. During the period, Hungarian diplomats will chair meetings in Brussels and shape the EU’s political agenda.

Orban has faced sharp criticism in the EU for pursuing policies that run counter to those of Brussels. Since the beginning of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, Budapest has refused to provide weapons to Kiev, calling for a diplomatic solution instead, and has maintained economic ties with Russia. The prime minister had previously said that the results of the election had won time for the bloc and “slowed the train hurtling towards war.”
https://www.rt.com/news/600219-hungary-austria-czech-parliament-group/

=======RELATED from 19 Jun, 2024

Hungary unveils MEGA slogan for EU presidency

Budapest aims to ‘Make Europe Great Again’ when it takes the reins next month

Hungary has revealed that the slogan for its upcoming presidency of the European Union will be ‘Make Europe Great Again’ (MEGA).

Observers immediately noted the similarity to the ‘Make America Great Again’ (MAGA) motto deployed by Donald Trump during his successful US presidential campaign in 2016.

Hungary is set to take over the presidency of the Council of the European Union on July 1 and will remain in charge until the end of the year. During the six-month period, Hungarian diplomats will chair meetings in Brussels and shape the EU’s political agenda.

Hungary’s minister for European Union Affairs, Janos Boka, told a press conference on Tuesday that the slogan refers to a proactive presidency and aims to show that “together we are stronger than apart,” according to local media.

Boka downplayed the similarity of Hungary’s motto to Trump’s, joking that “I am not aware that Donald Trump has ever wanted to make Europe great,” according to Agence France-Presse.

Hungary is taking over the EU reins in “a very difficult environment,” he added, citing “a war in our neighborhood” in reference to the Ukraine conflict. He also cited illegal immigration as another of the most pressing issues the region must deal with.

Boka went on to say that “we should be allowed to remain who we are when we come together,” according to Politico.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has faced criticism in the EU for pursuing policies that run counter to those of Brussels.

Since the start of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, Budapest has refused to provide weapons to Kiev, calling for a diplomatic solution instead, and has maintained economic ties with Russia.

Earlier this year, Orban flew to US to meet with Republican presidential frontrunner Trump. Following the talks, the Hungarian prime minister claimed that Trump had shown himself to be “pro-peace.” That stance puts him in alignment with Hungary, unlike the current US administration and many EU members, Orban added.

Trump, in turn, described Orban as a “fantastic” leader.

Hungary has also faced criticism in the EU for following its own migration policy in an apparent contradiction with the bloc’s rules. The European Court of Justice (ICJ) imposed a €200 million ($216 million) fine on Budapest last week for restricting access to international protection procedures and illegally removing third-country nationals.

Defending his stance on the Ukraine aid and immigration Orban has argued that his policies aim to defend the interests of the Hungarian people.
https://www.rt.com/news/599558-hungary-mega-slogan-eu-presidency/

==========RELATED from 14 Jun, 2024

Hungary threatens EU over ‘insane’ migrant fine – media

The bloc’s top court has imposed a €200 million penalty on Budapest for “deliberately” violating refugee laws

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has threatened Brussels with retaliation after an EU court slapped Budapest with a €200 million ($216 million) fine over its asylum policy, according to national media.

The European Court of Justice (ICJ) imposed the penalty on the Orban government on Thursday, accusing it of “deliberately avoiding” compliance with the bloc’s refugee laws. The ICJ also ruled that Budapest must pay an extra fine of €1 million a day until it changes its policies.

Shortly after the ruling was announced, Orban took to social media to describe it as “outrageous and unacceptable.”

“It seems that illegal #migrants are more important to the Brussels bureaucrats than their own European citizens,” the prime minister said in a post on X (formerly Twitter).

Orban also reportedly threatened retaliation in an interview with Radio Kossuth on Friday.

“We’ll figure out a way, so it hurts Brussels more than it hurts us,” the leader said, without elaborating, according to Hungarian news outlet Liner.hu and Bloomberg.

Obran described the fine as “a huge amount” and claimed that it was unprecedented. “It’s just insane,” Liner.hu quoted the prime minister as saying.

The ICJ ruling relates to a 2020 judgement that found that Hungary had restricted access to international protection procedures, unlawfully detained asylum seekers in transit, and illegally removed third-country nationals. Hungary has since closed transit zones but otherwise has not complied with the ruling, which “constitutes a serious threat to the unity of EU law,” the court said in a statement.

Hungary has taken a hard stance on migrants from outside the EU since the number of daily arrivals more than quadrupled during the migrant crisis of 2015, which saw over a million people arrive on the continent, mostly from Syria and Afghanistan. In September and October of that year, Hungary put up fences at its southern borders with Serbia and Croatia.

The standoff comes as Hungary is set to take over the EU presidency on July 1. Orban’s government has also consistently criticized the Western approach to the Ukraine conflict. Budapest has opposed NATO’s funding and arming of Ukraine, as well as the sweeping sanctions on Russia, instead calling for a ceasefire and diplomatic solution.
https://www.rt.com/news/599293-hungary-threatens-eu-migrants-fine/
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4) French authorities accused of ‘social cleansing’ before Olympics 30 Jun, 2024 20:12

A group of NGOs has accused the government of forcibly removing the homeless from Paris ahead of the 2024 Summer Games

The number of forcible eviction operations launched against squatters and people sleeping outside in the French capital has rapidly grown over the past year, more than 80 NGOs said in a report, blaming the practice on the upcoming Olympic Games which Paris is about to host.

Orders issued by the local and regional authorities allowing the forced dislodgement of squatters have more than tripled over the past three years in the Paris region, one such group monitoring evictions said, according to France 24. The group’s data show that there were only 15 such removals between May 2021 and April 2022, while between May 2023 and April 2024, there were almost 50.

An umbrella group called Le Revers de la Médaille (The Other Side of the Medal) claimed that authorities in Ile-de-France – the region that includes Paris and its suburbs – have a particularly “high propensity” to resort to such measures. It also accused the French government of what it called “social cleansing.”

“This acceleration in the pace of evictions and the offering of temporary housing coincides with the arrival of the Olympics,” Theo Ferignac, an activist with Law Access Collective, told France24. “These figures clearly show the desire to have as few homeless camps as possible in Paris this summer.”

According to France24, the authorities launched at least three major forced eviction operations in the Paris suburbs between April 2023 and April 2024 – each involving the displacement of hundreds of people, including the homeless, squatters and migrants.

The people who are displaced are encouraged to take buses provided by the authorities to move to other parts of France, the broadcaster reported. There, they are often housed in temporary reception centers with a maximum capacity of 50 people for a period of some three weeks. After that, they are just told to leave these shelters as well, France24 reported.

According to The Other Side of the Medal, some 3,958 out of the 6,000 homeless and squatters living in Ile-de-France in 2023 were moved to temporary reception centers in other regions. The practice caught the attention of the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Housing, Balakrishnan Rajagopal. “How does France justify this?” he wrote on X (formerly, Twitter) in April.

The French authorities have consistently denied that the evictions had anything to do with the Olympics. “This emergency accommodation policy aims to spread the burden across the country ... Operations of this type are carried out regularly, it's not dictated by the Olympic and Paralympic agenda,” French Sports Minister Amelie Oudea-Castera said in March.

The Paris mayor’s office pointed to the overburdened emergency accommodation system in the French capital. The number of people without accommodation in Paris has grown by a “worrying” 16% since 2023, it told France24.

Other regions did not appreciate the government’s policy either. “It's more a case of displacing the problem rather than solving it,” said Strasbourg's deputy mayor Floriane Varieras. “The problem of homelessness is not going to be solved just by ‘regional temporary shelters’.”
https://www.rt.com/news/600231-french-authorities-social-cleansing-olympics/
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5) US to unblock bomb shipments to Israel – Axios 30 Jun, 2024 14:56

The IDF will receive a large batch of 500-pound bombs in two weeks, the outlet’s sources claim

The US has decided to release a shipment of 1,800 bombs to Israel that was suspended several months ago amid concerns over destruction in the Gazan city of Rafah, Axios reported on Thursday.

According to unnamed US and Israeli officials who spoke with the news site, the administration of US President Joe Biden is willing to send a batch of 500-pound (226kg) bombs that were put on hold in April. At the time, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin cited Israel’s failure to heed warnings that it “shouldn’t launch a major attack into Rafah without accounting for and protecting the civilians that are in that battle space.”

Axios suggested the unfreezing means the US is now less worried that Israel could use those bombs in Gaza, as it seeks to improve relations with its key Middle East ally, which had been strained since the start of the Israel-Hamas war last October. The bombs are reportedly due to be delivered in two weeks, after Israel’s operation in Rafah is over.

US and Israeli officials are still in talks on another part of the shipment that includes 1,800 2,000-pound (900kg) bombs, the report said. Axios also noted that negotiations on releasing arms to Israel were delayed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s public jabs at Washington on the matter.

On Friday, Reuters reported that since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, the US has provided Israel with a total of 14,000 of the 2,000-pound bombs, 6,500 500-pound bombs, 3,000 Hellfire missiles, and other munitions. Washington has also sent $6.5 billion in security assistance since October 7.

The hostilities between Israel and the Gaza-based militant group Hamas have so far claimed the lives of more than 37,000 Palestinians and 1,400 Israelis, while causing unprecedented destruction and a humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
https://www.rt.com/news/600225-us-israel-bombs-shipment/
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REPOST 19 Jun, 2024

6) Fewer and fewer Westerners are buying the ‘Atlanticism’ idea

A recent poll has shown a growing number of people in the US and Western Europe are tired of NATO’s professed goals

As a political de-facto entity, the post-Cold War West has always struggled to articulate a common purpose. The underlying cause of this difficulty is that the real existing (as opposed to the ideologically imagined) West – despite appeals to historical, cultural, and value commonalities – is defined by geopolitics. It emerged out of World War II as a sphere of Cold War US domination and hegemony, especially in Western Europe. The declared purpose – subservience to US empire? This is not the kind of thing that lends itself to open acknowledgement.

The reach of this American empire, dating back to at least 1823 – the year of the original if somewhat casual announcement of the Monroe Doctrine – has, of course, not been restricted to this West. Ask those it bruised, bought, subjugated, and often killed in South America, Africa, Asia, and Oceania. But the West is special, in that it holds a particularly important and privileged position. Some American strategists – such as the late, Polish-born Zbigniew Brzezinski – have made a fetish out of arguing that without Ukraine, Russia cannot be an empire. While it is by no means clear that post-Cold War Russia wants an empire (not the same as a sphere of influence), it is certain that the US cannot be one without its hold over Europe – that is, the Atlantic edge of the Eurasian ‘heartland’.

And yet, when the Cold War ended, there was no conceivable good security reason for European states to remain subservient to the US. The Soviet Union and its Eastern European military alliance – the Warsaw Pact, an organization that President Joe Biden can now only remember as “that other outfit” – were gone, and the EU, with all its flaws, could have provided an institutional basis for establishing an autonomous European power bloc second to none in the world.

There would have been no need for abrupt economic or, for that matter, political disruption either. Ideally, Europe could have maintained a cooperative-competitive relationship with the US, while gradually but persistently transforming it into one between equals. Now, a third of a century after the end of the Soviet Union, we should be living in that kind of world. If the end of the Cold War liberated Eastern Europe from Soviet hegemony, it should also have ended American hegemony in Western Europe, too. Instead, it brought that hegemony to almost all of Europe.

For Western European elites – most of all in Paris and Berlin (London would always have been a spoiler) – failed abysmally at what Bismarck called “seizing the mantle of history.” Rather than responding to a fundamental geopolitical shift with a strategy of their own and in Europe’s interests, they held tight to Washington and – with few, ultimately irrelevant exceptions – obediently followed its power-drunk elites into their ‘unipolar moment’ delusions, including catastrophic interventions in the Middle East and the expansion of NATO.

Ironically, the main result of this pusillanimous non-strategy was to produce the world of conflict and extremely high tension that we see now. If Europe had acted as a balancer between the US on one side, and Russia and China on the other, it could have made a decisive contribution to making Washington more rational, and ultimately, smoothing the inevitable transition to a multipolar world.

The Europeans could, for instance, have stopped the reckless dead-end policy of offering a NATO membership perspective to Georgia and Ukraine. They knew it was dangerous, which is why they objected at the Bucharest meeting in 2008. But then, of course, they caved. The result: Two wars, one (Georgia) short and lost, the other (Ukraine) long, ongoing, devastating, and with the real potential to go first regional and then global.

This brings us to the present. The ‘unipolar moment’ which never really was is well and truly over. Russia has the upper hand in the Ukraine conflict, that is, the single most hubristic and risky undertaking of the post-Cold War West. If in 2022, Westerners mused about how Moscow could possibly quit the war without a catastrophic loss of face, that shoe is now on the other foot. It is hard to see how the West can wind down its proxy war without suffering unprecedentedly severe damage from a combination of mutual blame-game recrimination and loss of credibility.

Against this background, the New York-based Institute for Global Affairs of the Eurasia Group geopolitical consulting firm has published a report, based on representative polling, that points to some important divergences within the West. As the authors of the report acknowledge, their sample of the West is limited to the US, France, Germany, and Great Britain, and the European states were “selected for their geopolitical influence and geostrategic importance to the US,” even though they are “not especially representative of Europe – or even Western Europe – as a whole.”

While the polls were conducted according to professional standards and much of the accompanying commentary is reasonably factual, ideological bias should also be considered. Eurasia Group is deeply in sync with American geopolitics. The dissidents’ voice this is not, as attentive readers can guess, for instance, from the grotesquely cautious phrasing of a question about Israel’s atrocities in Gaza – respondents are coyly asked if they feel that what Israel is doing ‘resembles’ war crimes. Sure, the way Al Capone ‘resembled’ a mafia don.

Yet the mainstream angle of a survey that also comes with lofty rhetoric about the ‘rules-based order’ and ‘beacons of liberal democracy’ makes signs of divergence and dissonance within the West only more pertinent. While the report covers much ground – including attitudes toward ‘democracy’, China, and Israel – two points stand out with regard to the relationship between the US and its Western European clients. First, the polls found majorities in all four countries surveyed in favor of a negotiated end to the Ukraine war. Second, they revealed that many European respondents distrust the US.

Regarding the Ukraine conflict, there “is broad transatlantic support for urging a negotiated settlement to end” it. Note the details here. These respondents are not simply articulating a desire for peace. Rather, they believe that Western governments should push Kiev to accept a compromise. Across the US and the three European countries, the three factors shaping the respondents’ positions the most are their concern to avoid “escalation to a wider regional war that draws in other European countries,” to avoid “direct war between nuclear-armed powers,” and to prevent “the further suffering of the Ukrainian people.”

Importantly, positions associated with the declared policies and propaganda of both Ukraine and Western governments did badly. Compare, for instance, 38% of American and 47% of European respondents in favor of “avoiding escalation to a wider regional war,” against 17% in the US and 22% in Europe who still believe in “fully restoring the pre-2022 invasion borders of Ukraine” (already excluding Crimea, incidentally, and thus a more moderate position than Kiev’s official war aims). And the answering options: “deterring strong autocratic countries from invading weaker democratic neighbors,” and “weakening Russia to punish it for its aggression” – classics of anti-Russian information war – found even less agreement.

Concerning European attitudes toward the US, there is a preponderant consensus – shared, as it happens by the US respondents – that Europe should either “be primarily responsible for its own defense, while aiming to preserve the NATO alliance with the United States” (the majority view) or even “manage its own defense and seek a more neutral relationship with the United States.” In France, Germany, and Great Britain, 86-93% of respondents chose one of these two options. On the other side, only 8-13% opted for “The United States should be primarily responsible for Europe’s defense.”

Clearly, many Europeans do not like their massive dependence on Washington. While many of them want a cooperative relationship, including NATO, they would prefer a Europe that could take care of itself. Others want that and, in addition, more distance from America, and while this is a minority view, those minorities are substantial. Even in Great Britain, which traditionally is especially close to the US, 17% are for more neutrality toward Washington; in Germany, 25%, and in France, once the home of Gaullism, 31%.

One reason for these attitudes is that Europeans do not trust the US very much. While a majority still believes that Washington’s commitment to its security obligations is either ‘somewhat’ (46%) or ‘very reliable’ (6%), almost as many respondents think the opposite: 36% see America as ‘somewhat’ and 10% as ‘very unreliable’. In Germany, the share of the skeptics approaches – and in France reaches – 50%.

The survey’s authors speculate that these results could reflect anxiety over a future Trump presidency or “be connected to a perception of a longer-term decline in America’s status as the sole superpower in a unipolar world.” In reality, both factors are likely to play a role. More importantly, in the long run, this is a distinction that will not make a difference. Donald Trump’s isolationism (for want of a better term) is a symptom of America’s decline. As is sometimes the case, the disruptive candidate is merely the one uncouth enough to draw the inevitable conclusions in public.

It is ironic but also telling that this survey bears the title ‘The New Atlanticism’. Ironic, because if anything, it shows that Atlanticism is tired. Telling, because it raises an obvious question: What is this rather ersatz ‘ism’, haplessly named after an ocean? The authors would probably answer that it has something to do with history, liberal democracy, individualism, the rule of law, civil society, etc. But even if we accept at face value – for the sake of argument – these simple ideological memes and Western self-idealizations, how do they add up to a relationship in which the US keeps subordinating Europe?

Indeed, these high ideals contradict the brute realities of American empire. In that sense, Atlanticism is what modern ideologies usually are – a fundamentally dishonest story rationalizing the powers-that-be. The most interesting thing about this survey is the evidence that even now, exposed to intense and systematic fearmongering, substantial numbers of Western Europeans are not fully persuaded by this story.
... " The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT. " ...
https://www.rt.com/news/599503-us-europe-poll-ideia-atlanticism/
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REPOST - part 2 from 14 Jun, 2024

6a) Russia and NATO are drifting towards a major war

It’s not impossible that the Ukraine conflict could eventually lead to a nuclear conflict, in which there will be no winners (By Ivan Timofeev, programme director of the Valdai Club.)

Is it possible that NATO forces could become directly involved in the military conflict between Russia and Ukraine? Until recently, such a question seemed very hypothetical given the high risks of escalation of the military confrontation between the US-led bloc and Russia into a large-scale armed conflict. But this scenario should be taken seriously now.

The direct participation of individual NATO countries or the entire bloc in hostilities could gradually spiral out of control. Crossing red lines can lead to the belief that there will be no consequences for engaging in war. The result of such movements can manifest itself at an unexpected moment and lead to a much more dangerous situation than the current one.

Strictly speaking, NATO countries have long been involved in the conflict. This takes several forms.

First, Western countries provide Kiev with substantial financial and military assistance, including increasingly advanced and destructive weapons systems. As the stockpiles of Soviet-style kit in the arsenals of the USSR’s former allies in the Warsaw Treaty Organisation have been depleted, the Ukrainian army is receiving more Western systems and ammunition. So far, mass deliveries have been limited by the production capacity of the Western defence industry and size of existing stockpiles. But if hostilities are prolonged, industrial capacity has the potential to grow. Increasing supplies are also inevitable in the event of a peaceful pause, which would allow Ukraine to prepare for a new phase of hostilities. Russia can hardly hope that the West lacks the political will and resources to increase support for Kiev. Moscow appears to be preparing for the worst-case scenario, namely a steady increase in substantial and long-term military assistance to Ukraine. In addition to the supply of arms and ammunition, this aid includes the training of personnel, help with the development of military industry and infrastructure, and the reimbursement of expenses in other areas that allow Ukraine to focus its resources on the defence sector.

Second, Ukraine receives extensive Western support in the form of intelligence, including technical data from satellites, radars, reconnaissance aircraft, etc. The information received enables a wide range of operations, from scoping the theatre of operations to the identification of specific targets. Data providers can be selective in granting the Ukrainian side access. But its use in military operations against Russia is not in doubt.

Third, military specialists who are citizens of NATO countries are involved in combat operations. Their role does not always appear to be official. They may be ‘volunteers’ or simply mercenaries, whose participation the authorities of their countries turn a blind eye to. Russian estimates put their number at around 2,000 in October 2023. Whether that is accurate or not, it’s clear that foreigners are fighting on Ukraine’s side, that their participation is systematic rather than accidental, and that at least some of them are citizens of Western countries.

Their involvement has not yet created an excessive risk of direct military confrontation between Russia and NATO. For Kiev’s Western partners, the sluggish pace of the conflict allows them to gradually improve the quality of their support for Ukraine. Cruise missile deliveries have long been commonplace. The arrival of US fighter jets is only a matter of time. The Russian army is “grinding down” the Western equipment that arrives. But foreign supplies to Ukraine also require a concentration of resources on the Russian side.

A significant escalation factor that would amplify the risk of a direct clash between Russia and NATO, could be the appearance of military contingents form bloc members on the territory of Ukraine. The prospect of such a scenario has already been mentioned by some Western politicians, although their view has not been supported by the US and isn’t an official NATO position. A number of the bloc’s leaders have distanced themselves from supporting the idea of sending troops to Ukraine.

What might trigger such a decision and how might it be implemented? The most likely factor for direct intervention by individual states or NATO as a whole would be a possible major military success by the Russian army. So far, the front has remained relatively stable. But the Moscow's military has already achieved significant local victories, increased pressure, seized the initiative, extended the offensive front and possibly built up reserves for more decisive action.

There are no signs of a repeat of last year’s Ukrainian counteroffensive. Kiev is reportedly short of ammunition, although this shortfall could be filled in the future by external supplies. Periodic attacks on Russian territory with cruise missiles, drones and artillery cause damage and casualties, but do not disrupt the stability of the front.

Moreover, such strikes embolden Russia's determination to create buffer zones, i.e. territories from which Kiev will not be able to attack targets in Russian regions.

A possible collapse of certain sections of the Ukrainian front and significant territorial advances of Russian forces towards the west is becoming more and more realistic scenario.

The fact that no deep advances and breakthroughs have occured for some time does not mean that there is no possibility in the future. On the contrary, thire probability is increasing due to the army’s experience in combat, the supply of the military-industrial complex to the front, losses on the Ukrainian side, delays in the delivery of Western equipment, and so on.

The Russian army’s ability to make such advances and breakthroughs is also increasing. A catastrophic scenario for individual Ukrainian groups is not predetermined, but it is probable. A major breakthrough of the Russian army towards Kharkov, Odessa or another major city could become a serious trigger for NATO countries to introduce the question of intervention in the conflict into practical terms. Several such breakthroughs, simultaneous or successive, will inevitably raise the issue.

Here, individual countries and the bloc as a whole face a strategic fork in the road. The first option is not to intervene and to support Ukraine only with military equipment, money and ‘volunteers’. Perhaps to admit defeat and try to minimise the damage through negotiations, thereby preventing an even greater catastrophe. The second option is to radically change the approach to involvement in the conflict and allow direct intervention.

Intervention can take a number of forms. It may involve the use of infrastructure, including airfields of NATO countries. It could mean the mass deployment of certain communications and engineering units and air defence systems, while avoiding their presence on the front line. An even more radical scenario is the deployment of a contingent of certain NATO countries on the border between Ukraine and Belarus. Finally, an even more radical option is the deployment of military contingents from NATO countries on the front line, which would probably be categorically unacceptable to the bloc.

Each of these scenarios involves a direct clash between Russian and NATO forces. Such a situation would inevitably raise the question of deeper bloc involvement and, in the longer term, the transfer of military conflict to other areas of contact with Russia, including the Baltic region. At this stage, it will be even more difficult to stop the escalation. The more losses both sides suffer, the more the maelstrom of hostilities will grow and the closer they will come to the threshold of using nuclear weapons. And there will be no winners.

These are all hypothetical options. But they need to be considered now. After all, not so long ago such significant military deliveries to Ukraine seemed unlikely to anyone, as much as the conflict itself, three years ago. Now it is an everyday reality. The dangers of movement towards a major war between Russia and NATO should be taken seriously.
(This article was first published by Valdai Discussion Club, translated and edited by the RT team.)
https://www.rt.com/russia/599286-russia-nato-ukraine-conflict/
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https://abcnews.go.com/International/several-us-military-bases-europe-heightened-state-alert/story?id=111560635

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/06/30/politics/us-military-bases-europe-alert/index.html

https://abcnews.go.com/International/several-us-military-bases-europe-heightened-state-alert/story?id=111560635

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/06/30/politics/us-military-bases-europe-alert/index.html

United Nations: China has called on the West to stop abusing unilateral sanctions and do their share in deescalating the Ukraine crisis, saying dialogue and negotiation are the only viable solution to the conflict.
India also took the floor at the UN General Assembly, saying the interests of both Russia and Ukraine must be respected, to achieve peace. That's as Kiev rejects the possibility of speaking with Moscow.
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In an exclusive interview to 'Going Underground' renowned investigative journalist Seymour Hersh breaks down the US sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines, which he recently exposed in a bombshell report that's been denied by Washington. Trailer : https://rumble.com/v2aoakq-seymour-hersh-talks-nord-stream-revelations-with-going-underground.html?mref=6zof&mrefc=6
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Moscow says Ukraine is preparing to invade the neighbouring self-proclaimed republic of Transdniester (often known as Transnistria) where Russian peacekeepers have been stationed for more than three decades to prevent a military escalation. (QS: Over the past year, there have been protests in Moldova, situated along the south and west of the self-identifying neutral state of Transnistria. Transnistria is a narrow strip of land between the Dniester river and the Ukrainian border and it broke away from Moldova in 1990. It has it's own government, Vadim Krasnoselsky won the presidential election with 79.4% of the vote. The Moldovan government called on "foreign partners" not to send observers to the elections in Transnistria, saying that the elections are a threat to Moldova’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. Transnistria held an independence referendum in September 2006 but it isn't recognised by Moldova or the "international community", saw the territory reassert its demand for independence and vote in support of union with Russia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_Transnistrian_independence_referendum ) A really cracking video from B & B can be found here (recommended fun, 18 mins long https://youtu.be/5kVnrqBb6y4 ))Show more

Africa, Nigeria elections: Tomorrow (Saturday) see the chance for Nigerians to select one of 18 candidates as their president. RT continues the special coverage with many contributions and takes. Poloum David reports. (QS - who is your money on?). Meanwhile the USA is "encouraging" people to vote in their own inimitable way and completely out of the blue (QS a bit like Pres Obama taking days out to visit Britain during the Brexit campaign/vote - which in my opinion has come to nothing and we might as well not have bothered. USA via EU and a corporate/bank based, non-representative government system, was never going to let Britain become independent again). Achike Chude comments on the strangeness of the address by U.S. .gov. Watch RT on Rumble live stream or shorts for updates or check in here on this channel twice a day.

Donbass/Donetsk: **Stop Press** Russian troops have taken the key village of Berkhovka, north of Artyomovsk. (via TASS - MILITARY OPERATION IN UKRAINE24 FEB, 06:26
Wagner Group founder: Berkhovka village by Artyomovsk fully under Russian forces’ control
The village of Berkhovka is located northwest of Artyomovsk MOSCOW, February 24. /TASS/. The village of Berkhovka, seven kilometers north of Artyomovsk (Ukrainian name: Bakhmut) in the Donetsk People’s Republic, has been fully taken under the control of Russian forces, the founder of the Wagner private military company, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said.

"Berkhovka is fully taken under our control. Vagner PMC units are in full control of Berkhovka," Prigozhin’s press service quoted him as saying on Friday on its Telegram channel.
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Below, via RT website ---- - A) --- Ukrainian FM dodges question on strikes deep into Russia
B) --- Russia-EU relations ‘no longer exist’ – Moscow
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2) --- Seymour Hersh explains why US blew up Nord Stream
3) ---US expands probe of cancer risks at ICBM bases
4) --- ISIS women force boys to impregnate them – media (bizarre)
4a) --- ‘ISIS bride’ loses citizenship appeal
5) --- Ukraine demands Germany cross all weapons ‘red lines’
6) --- From Vikings to PMCs: How Russia fought wars during its thousand year history **Feature**
7) --- Helicopter with Iranian sports minister crashes
8) --- Can India supplant China as the voice of the Global South?
9) --- NATO blasted for comparing Ukraine conflict to Star Wars and Harry Potter
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23 Feb, 2023 18:15

A) --- Ukrainian FM dodges question on strikes deep into Russia

Kiev “can guarantee” it will use longer-range weapons to “liberate” the territories it claims, Dmitry Kuleba says

Ukraine is committed to using Western-supplied arms to seize back its former territories from Moscow, Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba said on Thursday. The top diplomat, however, stopped short of giving a promise to not use such weaponry to strike deep into the rest of Russia.

Speaking to Sky News, the minister reiterated Ukraine’s repeated requests for modern Western-made jets. So far, however, no country has provided Kiev with such aircraft, while numerous top officials have expressed fears that doing so would greatly escalate the hostilities and may potentially lead to a direct collision between NATO and Russia.

“We’re using weapons which we receive from partners to strike Russia in the occupied territories of Ukraine,” Kuleba told the outlet, apparently referring to the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, which, along with Kherson and Zaporozhye Regions, overwhelmingly voted to join Russia last autumn – just as the Crimean peninsula did in 2014.

When pressed on whether Kiev could promise that it would not use long-range weapons and jets for strikes inside Russia, Kuleba dodged the question, offering a somewhat vague “guarantee” instead.

“We can guarantee that we will be using Western weapons to liberate Ukrainian territories,” he stated.

Moscow has repeatedly accused the collective West of enabling Ukraine to strike deeper into Russian territory. In his annual address to the Federal Assembly earlier this week, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Kiev’s handlers had been directly involved in drone attacks on the country’s facilities housing strategic, nuclear-capable aviation.

“We know that the West was directly involved in the attempts by the Kiev regime to strike the bases that house our strategic aircraft,” Putin stated. “The drones used [in the raids] were equipped and upgraded with help from NATO experts.”

Citing the ongoing hostilities and the Western involvement in them, the Russian president announced the decision to suspend the 2010 New START Treaty with the US that caps the number of nuclear warheads that can be possessed and the means of delivery, as well as allowing for inspections of each other’s nuclear arsenal.

“I want to emphasize: The US and NATO are saying outright that their goal is to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia. And, after this, they are going to tour our defense sites as if nothing is happening?” Putin stated in his address.
https://www.rt.com/russia/571986-ukraine-western-weaponry-strikes/
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23 Feb, 2023 18:44

B) --- Russia-EU relations ‘no longer exist’ – Moscow

The bloc chose economic ruin to be a vassal of the US, Moscow’s envoy to the UN has said

Relations between the European Union and Russia are practically nonexistent, consumed by the abyss of EU subservience to the US, the Russian Permanent Representative to the UN Vassily Nebenzia told the Security Council on Thursday.

Moscow had said in June 2022 that the “bottom had fallen out” when it came to relations with Brussels, Nebenzia said in his speech at the UN.

“It turns out there was an entire abyss below still, that swallowed up not only our relations – which are basically nonexistent now – but also the EU itself,” he said.

“A year after completely severing ties with our country, the GDP growth of the EU has stuck near zero. At the same time, record inflation rates are measured by double-digit indicators. Rejoicing that it jumped off the ‘Russian gas needle,’ the EU got hooked on ‘hard drugs’ – expensive American liquefied natural gas,” the Russian diplomat added.

Nebenzia also accused the EU of openly discussing how to dismember and destroy Russia. Earlier this week, the Estonian prime minister suggested Russian history needs to be rewritten and its population re-educated, to protect Europe from “Russian imperialist dreams.”

Never in the history of Europe has the continent been so “subservient” to the US, Nebenzia argued, pointing to last September’s sabotage of Nord Stream.

“Things have come to the point where Brussels has silently swallowed that its closest ally blew up the main gas pipeline, which was also paid for by European investors,” he said, adding that EU members are even covering up inconvenient truths in order to shield the US.

The twin pipelines running under the Baltic Sea were built to supply the continent with Russian natural gas via Germany. Denmark, Sweden and Germany have refused Russian requests for information about their investigation into the blasts.

In an article published earlier this month, American investigative journalist Seymour Hersh claimed the US and Norway had conspired to destroy the pipelines and described how they carried it out. Russia has called for a UN investigation into the sabotage. The US has denied any responsibility for the Nord Stream bombing.
https://www.rt.com/news/571987-russia-eu-relations-nordstream/
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23 Feb, 2023 22:13

2) --- Seymour Hersh explains why US blew up Nord Stream

Political reasons drove the decision to detonate the charges, says the investigative journalist

US President Joe Biden ordered the destruction of the Nord Stream pipelines in order to make sure Germany could not change its mind about sanctions against Russia and weapons shipments to Ukraine, investigative journalist Seymour Hersh said in an interview with ‘Going Underground’.

Earlier this month, Hersh published an article that blamed the US and Norway for the series of explosions that disabled both Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2, the pipelines under the Baltic Sea built to supply Western Europe with Russian natural gas.

In an interview with Afshin Rattansi this week, Hersh said the US intelligence community hatched the plan “in late 2021,” before the escalation of hostilities in Ukraine. When Biden and Under Secretary of State Victoria Nuland both publicly spoke about “stopping” and “ending” Nord Stream 2, however, Hersh claimed the spies were upset, “because it was supposed to be a covert operation.”

“The people who did this thing in the intelligence community, they initially thought it was a great idea,” Hersh told Rattansi. According to his story, the bombs were planted in June, during the scheduled BALTOPS 2022 naval exercise off the Danish island of Bornholm. The bombs went off in late September, as Ukraine was facing “a serious issue” on the battlefield.

“It’s not going to help the war. What he was doing it for, was to prevent Germany and Western Europe, in case the winter came quickly, from opening up the pipeline,” Hersh said.

The rationale for the mission was “to make sure that Europe keeps on supporting NATO and keeps funneling arms into what is clearly a proxy war against Russia that’s being fought right now,” he added.

Asked whether Moscow had somehow missed the American involvement, and focused on the UK instead, Hersh said he had not spoken to anyone in Russia. One thing he could say is that it would be “absolutely insane” for Russia to blow up its own pipeline. Just about everyone in the pipeline business agrees with that assessment, he added.

The White House, the Pentagon and the State Department have all disavowed Hersh’s article as “fiction” and denied all accusations of US involvement in the attack on Nord Stream. Russia has called for an independent UN investigation into what it described as an act of international terrorism.

The full interview will air on Saturday’s episode of Going Underground. Trailer : https://rumble.com/v2aoakq-seymour-hersh-talks-nord-stream-revelations-with-going-underground.html?mref=6zof&mrefc=6
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https://www.rt.com/news/571996-seymour-hersh-going-underground/
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23 Feb, 2023 21:00

3) ---US expands probe of cancer risks at ICBM bases

The Air Force has pledged to conduct a comprehensive assessment of a possible link between missile jobs and lymphoma cases

The US Air Force has launched an investigation of cancer risks for service members at the country’s intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) installations, formalizing and expanding a probe that was spurred by a report last month of lymphoma cases among missileers who had worked at a Montana base.

General Thomas Bussiere, commander of US ICBM forces, approved a comprehensive study of cancer risks at missile bases in Montana, Wyoming and North Dakota, the Air Force announced on Wednesday. A US Space Force officer reportedly revealed last month that 36 missileers who had been stationed at Montana’s Malmstrom Air Force Base as far back as 25 years ago had been diagnosed with cancer, including ten cases of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL).

“Air Force Global Strike Command and our Air Force takes the responsibility to protect airmen and [Space Force] guardians incredibly seriously, and their safety and health continues to be my priority,” Bussiere said in a statement. “We also continue to be committed to remaining transparent during this process and we pledge to continue to maintain an open dialogue with members, their families and stakeholders throughout this process.”

US Senator Jon Tester, a Montana Democrat, said NHL cases among former missileers appear to be far higher than the national average. He noted that only around 400 airmen work in Malmstrom’s 150 Minuteman III missile silos. NHL is considered a rare cancer in the US, with an average of just 19 new cases diagnosed annually per 100,000 people. The former airmen are well below the median diagnosis age of 67, he added.

Missileers can be exposed to a variety of toxins and chemicals, such as radon, asbestos, lead and polychlorinated biphenyls. Health concerns date back to well before the Minuteman era. Military.com noted that from 1975 to 1979, there were 125 leaks of propellant from Titan II missiles at bases in California, Arizona, Arkansas, and Kansas. One such leak killed two airmen and forced the evacuation of a small Kansas town.

The Air Force Medical Service (AFMS) said an investigation of cancer concerns at Malmstrom in 2001 found no increased rates of NHL among missileers. “However, we acknowledge time has passed,” the AFMS said, adding that it has a responsibility to re-examine possible health risks to service members.
https://www.rt.com/news/571997-us-probes-cancer-risk-at-icbm-bases/
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23 Feb, 2023 18:39

4) --- ISIS women force boys to impregnate them – media

Female detainees in Syrian camps have reportedly used teen males as sex slaves to help populate the so-called Caliphate

Women ISIS devotees held in Syrian detention camps have forced boys as young as 13 to serve as sex slaves to impregnate them and help boost the population of the “Caliphate,” the Daily Beast reported on Thursday.

At least ten boys at Camp al-Hawl in northeast Syria were conscripted to have intercourse with dozens of women, the US media outlet said, citing unidentified Syrian Defense Force (SDF) officials. The Syrian government has detained about 8,000 ISIS-affiliated women and children since the terrorist group’s defeat in 2019. Adult male ISIS members are held in separate camps.

“We are being forced to have sex with the ISIS women, to impregnate them,” two teens identified as Ahmet, 13, and Hamid, 14, told a guard at Camp al-Hawl. “Can you get us out of here?” One of the boys was required to have sex with eight ISIS women in just a few days.

Security forces confirmed that teen boys at Camp al-Roj, also in northeastern Syria, had been subjected to similar exploitation, the Daily Beast said. In fact, one of the boys collapsed and was hospitalized after being given a Viagra-like substance to make him perform. Mothers at al-Roj, seeking to protect their sons from sexual enslavement, have begged camp authorities to transfer their boys to rehabilitation centers.

Syrian defense officials have recently adopted a policy of moving boys who have reached puberty to such rehabilitation facilities, where they receive anti-extremism counseling and are prepared for reintegration into society. The United Nations decried the policy last week, calling it “unlawful” and suggested that they may be “forcibly disappeared” or sold.

Many of the ISIS women have refused repatriation to their home countries for themselves and their children. Others, such as “ISIS bride” Shamima Begum of the UK, were stripped of their citizenship and barred from returning.
https://www.rt.com/news/571990-isis-women-use-boys-as-sex-slaves/
================
22 Feb, 2023 14:27

4a) --- ‘ISIS bride’ loses citizenship appeal

Shamima Begum will remain imprisoned in Syria

Shamima Begum, who left the UK at 15 to join the Islamic State terror group, has lost an appeal against an earlier decision to strip her of her British citizenship. Despite Begum’s admission that she voluntarily traveled to the ‘Caliphate,’ her lawyers tried to make the case that she was trafficked.

Begum was stripped of her citizenship in 2019 on grounds of national security, after she was discovered in a detention camp in Syria following the defeat of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS). She had left London four years earlier to join the group, marrying a jihadist shortly after arriving in Syria and having three children, all of whom died.

Begum, now 23, challenged the government’s decision at a secret hearing in November, but the Special Immigration Appeals Commission ruled on Wednesday that it was lawful.

In his ruling, Judge Robert Jay wrote that while the national security threat posed by Begum is debatable, this issue is “for the secretary of state to evaluate and not for the commission.”

Begum’s legal team argued that then-Home Secretary Sajid Javid failed to consider whether the teenager had been a victim of child trafficking when she left for Syria in 2015. Jay wrote that while “there was a credible suspicion that Ms Begum had been trafficked to Syria” and sexually exploited, the evidence of this was insufficient to trump Javid’s national security concerns.

Since she was discovered in Syria, Begum has spoken extensively to the press, becoming one of the most widely-known ‘ISIS brides.’ She told reporters in 2019 that she didn’t regret making the trip, and that the sight of severed heads “didn’t faze me at all.” In further interviews she described terror attacks on British soil as “justified,” but insisted that she was ready to return to the UK and live a regular life.

Despite losing her British citizenship, Begum is not stateless, and is a citizen of Bangladesh by descent. However, she has made no attempts to seek transfer to Bangladesh, where Foreign Minister Abdul Momen warned in 2019 that she would face the death penalty for terrorism.
https://www.rt.com/news/571920-shamima-begum-citizenship-appeal/
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23 Feb, 2023 20:34

5) --- Ukraine demands Germany cross all weapons ‘red lines’

Berlin should supply fighter jets and warships to Kiev, a scandal-plagued diplomat has said

Berlin should cross its “self-drawn red lines” and provide Kiev with “all available” arms, Andrey Melnik, Ukraine’s deputy foreign minister and former envoy to Germany, said on Thursday.

Speaking to the German DPA press agency, Melnik lauded Berlin for making the decision to “break an epochal taboo” and pledge support to Kiev early in the conflict with Russia. However, the diplomat stressed that the pledge had actually turned into a “zigzag course,” with Berlin erecting numerous obstacles on its own path to supplying Ukraine with weapons.

“The implementation of this turning point lags considerably, it is more reminiscent of a zigzag course with many setbacks rather than of a strategic advance,” Melnik stated, admitting that there were still way too many “brake pads” on that path, particularly in Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democratic Party (SPD).

“We the Ukrainians therefore call on the Chancellor to cross all self-drawn red lines and to provide Ukrainian armed forces with all available weapon systems,” the diplomat said, adding that Kiev expects more “courageous” decisions from the ruling coalition. The new weapons deliveries for Kiev could include fighter jets, as well as warships and submarines, Melnik suggested.

The diplomat, whose tenure as Kiev’s ambassador in Berlin extended into the early phase of the ongoing conflict, has repeatedly made headlines for insulting German officials and politicians. Most notoriously, he branded Scholz “an offended liverwurst” for his taking issue with Kiev’s negative view toward German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. Melnik is also known for repeatedly posting foul-mouthed tweets and becoming embroiled in a spat over Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk’s controversial peace plan for Ukraine.
https://www.rt.com/russia/571992-ukraine-germany-red-lines/
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23 Feb, 2023 18:48

6) --- From Vikings to PMCs: How Russia fought wars during its thousand year history **Feature**

How military service in the world's largest country has evolved, from Tsars to Bolsheviks to the modern state

For over 100 years, Russia has celebrated Defender of the Fatherland Day on February 23. The holiday, which originally glorified the Red Army, took on wider meaning after the fall of the USSR. Presently, the holiday sees Russians celebrating all those who served in the military in defense of their country.

It is roughly equivalent to the American Veteran's Day or the British Armed Forces Day.

The military has always been respected in Russia. But over the country’s thousand-year history, the system has undergone major changes.

Varangians: Strangers from the north
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At the dawn of the existence of Rus, the Slavic tribes that populated the land that would become Russia had no army of their own. Whenever conflicts became violent, they resembled 'wall on wall' fist fights. These confrontations continued in this manner until the Slavs learned the art of war from their northern neighbors and colonizers – the Varangians.

The Varangian guard, which took control of the trade route that passed through central Rus to the Greek civilizations, called themselves 'rowers', since they used row boats in their military campaigns. It is thought that the ancient Scandinavian word “rōþr” at some point evolved into the similar sounding 'rus'. It’s highly likely that the future name of Russia thus sprang from the self-designated name of the Varangian warriors.

The people of Rus wore simple shirts and helmets. They were mainly armed with spears and axes, while a sword marked a warrior’s superior status. They fought on foot, moving along rivers on boats called drakkars, which were rolled over rapids. The Varangians engaged in the great Viking tradition of trade and raids – pretty much the same as in Western Europe at the time.

One of the most famous Varangians and first rulers of Rus was Grand Prince Svyatoslav, who fought Bulgaria, the Byzantine Empire, and the Khazar khaganate. Some sources mention large raids as far away from the center of Rus as the southern Caspian lands.

Boyars-Vigilantes: The first warriors in Rus
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As the ancient Russian principalities were established, grew more powerful, and formed a settled economy, the Varangian-Rus people increasingly assimilated. In their turn, the Slavs adopted Varangian methods of warfare. This process, along with the need to protect the territories under their control, resulted in the formation of a new kind of military organization – the princely vigilante squad.

These were boyar warriors from among the prince’s loyal inner circle. They equipped themselves with war horses, armor, pikes, and swords at their own expense. In military campaigns, the unit was accompanied by a foot detachment of 200-300 spearmen. These combat groups were quite mobile and were able to quickly respond to the raids of the Polovtsians and Pechenegs. Unfortunately, by the time of the Mongol invasion, these detachments had not sufficiently evolved – still small in number and dispersed, they could not effectively fight the horde from the East.

Streltsy: The first permanent army
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Despite the defeat by the Mongols, the vigilantes and local militias continued fighting during the internecine wars of the 14th and 15th centuries, until a single state was formed under Ivan the Terrible.

It was then that the first unified regular army appeared in Russia, called the Streltsy. This reform occurred in 1550 and a special order (ministry) was created. This first army wasn’t large – it consisted of no more than 3,000 soldiers. However, the Streltsy were paid and were not obliged to work the land, which greatly facilitated social mobility in those days. The privileges, allowance, and a rather free lifestyle made the new profession extremely popular, and within 50 years, there were over 20,000 Streltsy in Moscow and the regions.

The Streltsy wore a kaftan and gloves and had uniform weapons. They were armed with a “bardishe” (poleaxe with a long shaft), a “pischal” (the Russian equivalent of an arquebus or long gun), and a saber. To achieve greater firing accuracy during important battles, the shaft of a bardishe was used to support the pischal. The Streltsy also often carried low-power powder grenades.

In addition to military duties, the Streltsy had civic duties, acting as policemen and firemen, They also often interacted with the local cavalry. In battle the Streltsy were directly responsible for the capture of Kazan (1552) and Astrakhan (1556), and most importantly, the retention of these territories.

Russia learns from the West
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After the fall of the Rurik dynasty and the onset of the Smuta (The Time of Troubles), Russia was forced to adapt and change its military system because of the prolonged war with Poland and the occupation of Russia’s northern territories by Sweden. To fight the occupation, “foreign formation regiments” were organized. These military units were made up of servicemen, “willing” free people, foreigners, Cossacks, and other mercenaries.

The new regiments did not replace the Streltsy but used more modern tactics to fight. This included the placement of pikemen in front of the musketeers, which increased the tactical manoeuvrability of combat detachments.

By the 1630s, the foreign formation regiments had evolved into the first Hussar and Reiter companies. These were in fact knights with long pistols. They wore cuirasses and helmets, but when attacking, they fired dozens of heavy bullets at the enemy and then either retreated to reload or finished the enemy off with daggers and these meter-long pistols.

Peter the Great’s reforms – the first conscription army in Russia
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Although the Hussar and Reiter regiments were quite effective, they still weren’t large enough. The Streltsy, who took on the role of a mass army, unfortunately engaged in a dispute with the young Tsar Peter I. The conflict prefaced large-scale military reform. In 1705, the future emperor and founder of the Russian Empire issued a decree “On the recruitment of soldiers from free people”. It was then that the term “recruit” was legally endorsed. Peter I “copied” this innovation from Sweden, which had a strong regular army.

The decree stated that from each village, town, community, and household, one person (except for the head of the family and the breadwinner) must be sent to the army for a lifetime of service and must become a soldier. This person was to be chosen by lot. In the early years of the law, all classes were subject to conscription. All nobles were obliged to serve in the army, and communities were required to regularly provide a certain number of recruits between the ages of 20-35.

In addition to the professional army, Peter I also established the Russian navy, military industry, and military academies.

By the end of Peter the Great’s reign, the regular army numbered 200,000 to 300,000 in all military service branches. This was an impressive number for a country with a population of 13 million. The duration of military service also became shorter over time. Lifetime military service was dispensed with, and soldiers went into “reserve”, being called to the army only in case of war. However, for many decades the duration of military service didn’t drop below 20 years.

The army of the Empire
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The next major reform of the Russian army took place in the 19th century. Any defeat brings with it necessary lessons, and such was the case with the Crimean War, which resulted in Milyutin's sweeping reforms. The main innovation was the transition from Peter the Great’s recruitment system to universal military service – a standard practice in European armies. From that time on, all men between the ages of 21 and 40 were required to be on active military duty. In the ground forces, the duration of service was 15 years: six years of active service and nine years in reserve. After that, men were enlisted in the State Militia (the reserve of the armed forces, convened only in case of war) until they turned 40.

Additionally, instead of permanent armies and corps, Milyutin formed military districts with stationed units. This meant that soldiers and officers no longer had to permanently live in tents.

The second half of the 19th century was also marked by qualitative changes. Particular attention was paid to the army’s technical equipment. The end of the century saw the development of aeronautical and railway units. In 1885, a team of military aeronauts was formed (using hot air balloons or airships), with the East Siberian Field Aeronautical Battalion taking part in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905. In 1911, the first aviation detachment appeared in Russia, and by the beginning of the First World War, there were 39 such groups. The famous “Ilya Muromets” heavy bombers also appeared at that time.

In those years, state-owned factories and logistics expanded, all combat units were equipped with machine guns, and telephone lines were installed between the various units.

Fundamental changes also concerned military service admission. The term of active service in the infantry and foot artillery was three years, in other branches of the ground forces it was four years, and in the Navy, it was five. Some categories of citizens were given privileges. Men who were unable to carry weapons for health reasons and some clergy were exempt from military service.

The Soviet Army
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In the first months after the October Revolution of 1917, the Soviet government sought to create an army based on the militia system. This supposed that during peacetime, military units would consist only of the accounting apparatus and limited command staff, drawing upon locally registered fighters in times of need.

In the first months following the revolution, the army was composed of volunteers with the number of troops reaching just below 200 thousand. In order to create a regular army, the resolution "On the organization of the Red Army" was adopted on July 10, 1918. Men from 18 to 40 years old were subject to conscription and by November 1921, the Red Army numbered 5.5 million.

Nazi Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union became a real test for the army, and the Soviet military system was not ready for it. Victory in the war cost the USSR the lives of tens of millions of people.

The conflict completely transformed Russia’s military system. In 1946, the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army was replaced by the Soviet Army. In the 1950s, the Armed Forces of the USSR were equipped with nuclear missiles and other advanced military equipment. The Soviet Armed Forces consisted of Ground Forces, Strategic Missile Forces, Air Defense Forces, the Navy, and the Air Force. This has all been inherited by the Russian Federation.

Present times
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In Russia’s recent history, the army was at its largest in December 1991, when it numbered about 3.8 million servicemen. In 1992, Boris Yeltsin reduced the number of servicemen to 2.1 million in 1994 and by 1996, to 1.7 million.

At the end of August 2022, Vladimir Putin signed a decree increasing the personnel of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation from 1.9 million to 2.04 million. This came into effect on January 1, 2023.

The Ukraine conflict has impacted Russian military service. Partial mobilization was announced for the first time in the history of the Russian Federation, and 300,000 people who had previously served in the army were called up. Moreover, private military companies became more prominent in light of the conflict.

Among these, the most widely known organization is PMC Wagner Group – currently one of the most effective units of the Russian military.

By Anatoliy Brusnikin, Russian historian and journalist
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https://www.rt.com/russia/571930-from-varangians-to-partial-mobilization/
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23 Feb, 2023 15:01

7) --- Helicopter with Iranian sports minister crashes

His adviser was killed, while other people on board sustained injuries

A helicopter carrying Iranian Sports Minister Hamid Sajjadi crashed while landing in the southern part of the country on Thursday. According to local authorities, the minister’s adviser was killed in the crash, while the top official himself, as well as other passengers and crew members, sustained minor injuries and has been taken to the hospital.

The accident took place while the aircraft was landing at the sports complex in the city of Baft. Local governor Mohammad Mehdi Fadakar said that the aircraft had 12 passengers on board.

Citing an eyewitness, the IRNA news agency reported that Sajjadi appeared to be in “good condition.” Meanwhile, his adviser, Esmail Ahmadi, died in the crash.

Photos and videos released by local media outlets show a helicopter turned over on its roof, with no signs of fire or smoke. The helicopter also seems to have lost its trail. Other pictures show a sizable crowd not far from the aircraft’s wreck, as well as emergency services vehicles parked nearby.
https://www.rt.com/news/571979-iran-helicopter-minister-crash/
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22 Feb, 2023 08:59 -- OP ED --

8) --- Can India supplant China as the voice of the Global South?

New Delhi seeks to expand its influence over Asian, African and Latin American countries looking for ways out of Beijing’s debt burden. By Joydeep Sen Gupta, Asia Editor
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India is pulling out all the stops to emerge as the self-appointed leading voice of the Global South by dislodging its ‘hostile’ neighbor China.

The developing economies in Asia, Africa and Latin America, collectively dubbed the Global South, will come under New Delhi’s soft power lens at the first G20 finance ministers and central bank governors meeting under India’s G20 presidency, which will be held in Bengaluru on February 24 and 25. India’s Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Reserve Bank governor Dr Shaktikanta Das will jointly chair the meeting.

To be sure, in its bid to become the voice of the Global South, India is going up against the financial muscle of China, which is giving away billions of dollars in soft loans and grants to these developing economies. One example of this is Chinese President Xi Jinping’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), extended to around 150 countries and at an estimated cost of $8 trillion, of which Beijing has spent upwards of $1 trillion.

New Delhi is taking a contrarian stance to China’s and is trying to impress upon the cash-strapped nations across these three continents the importance of debt relief. Otherwise, they may end up with what happened in Sri Lanka last year, where an unprecedented economic crisis triggered in part by external debt led to massive anti-government protests. Pakistan, too, is heading for a similar economic crisis.

India is keen to chart its own course as New Delhi is ‘cocking a snook’ at the US and Western sanctions over Russia’s military operation in Ukraine, which enters its second year on Friday – the day the meeting in Bengaluru starts.

The US courts India
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India is willing to play ball with Russia over energy security, while Washington simply can’t afford to isolate New Delhi because of its growing geostrategic and economic heft.

In absolute numbers, China’s economy is far stronger than India’s. For instance, while data shows that the gross domestic product (nominal) of both Asian countries was almost equal in 1990, China has since forged ahead at a tremendous pace. As of 2021, China’s GDP was 7.7 times greater than India’s, while on purchasing power parity (PPP), China outpaced India by 2.7 times.

However, there appears to be a discernible shift in the power structure. India, under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is working on making itself more attractive for foreign investments, which were pegged at about $85 billion last year, compared to China’s $189 billion. The paradigm shift is in the works because American policymakers are acutely mindful of the fact that Indian economic growth holds the key to Washington’s lofty strategic ambitions in the Indo-Pacific.

Successive US administrations – irrespective of their political hues – are in favor of made-in-India products having access to American markets, as China loses its manufacturing sheen to other Asian nations such as Vietnam, Malaysia, Bangladesh, India and Taiwan.

In the shifting geostrategic power structure, as exemplified by the running feud between the US and both Russia and China, more emphasis is being laid on the Quad grouping: the US, India, Japan, and Australia.

New Delhi’s priorities
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India’s priorities during the year-round G20 activities include pushing for a raft of reforms in global institutions, creating awareness of the dire need for economic aid for low- and middle-income countries, who are facing mounting debts and cannot service them. Climate initiatives and sustainability challenges also figure high on the agenda, according to India’s Chief Economic Adviser V Anantha Nageswaran.

India’s G20 sherpa Amitabh Kant, too, has been turning up the heat on China to come clean on its loans to the developing countries.

“China needs to come out openly and say what their debt is and how to settle it,” said Kant, according to a Bloomberg news report. “It can’t be that the International Monetary Fund [IMF] takes a haircut and goes to settle Chinese debt. How is that possible? Everybody has to take a haircut,” the sherpa was quoted as saying.

According to World Bank, the world's 74 lowest-income nations are indebted to China to various degrees. Countries heavily in debt to China are largely located in Africa, but there are several nations in Central Asia, Southeast Asia and the Pacific as well. Of the $35 billion that these low-income nations, such as Angola, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the Maldives, owed in debt service payments last year, about 37% or $13.1 billion was to state-run Chinese entities.

Challenges before the Global South
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The Global South is facing critical issues like an unabated rise in the prices of crude oil, food, and fertilizers, in addition to the mounting debt and rapidly deteriorating economic growth. Last November, during his talks with Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow, Jaishankar said, “The Global South feels the pain [of rising prices].”

He spelled out India’s need to buy oil from Russia. “India is the third-largest consumer of oil and gas, where incomes are not very high. We need to look for affordable sources, so the India-Russia relationship works to our advantage. We will keep it going.”

Voice of the Global South Summit
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Earlier, Jaishankar had defined the thrust of New Delhi’s G20 presidency, and referred to India as “the voice of the Global South.” Modi appeared to have taken a cue from Jaishankar and convened a virtual summit of developing countries on January 12–13, which he christened the “Voice of the Global South Summit.”

Eight ministerial-level thematic sessions were held, which involved the ministers of finance, trade, environment, energy, health, and education. Two sessions were for the foreign ministers, where the focus was on the priorities of the Global South, and their suggestions for India as the G20 president.

Valuable input was provided by foreign participants. For example, Mozambique’s President Filipe Nyusi emphasized the need for concerted international efforts to focus global attention on promoting the interests of the developing world. Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari drew attention to the huge debt burden that had derailed many countries’ development plans.

“Developing countries should put forward ‘a common agenda’ to present our collective demands to the Global North,” he said.

Bangladesh’s PM Sheikh Hasina Wajed presented a bouquet of six proposals: maintaining world peace and stability; creating a new paradigm to tackle inequality holistically in accord with sustainable development goals; special financing for the most vulnerable nations; bridging digital divides; ensuring that all human beings, including Myanmar’s Rohingya refugees sheltered in her country, have an equal right to lead a decent life; and fostering tripartite cooperation to ensure global human development.

Modi emphasized that the Global South wanted “a globalization that brings prosperity and well-being to humanity as a whole.” He added that “a human-centric globalization” was the need of the hour and solemnly assured his guests that “India's G-20 Presidency will attempt to voice the views of the Global South on these important issues.”

New Delhi touted it as the biggest digital conference of the leaders and ministers of the developing world. “As far as India is concerned, your voice is India's voice. Your priorities are India's priorities,” Modi said.

Altogether, 125 nations took part in the digital conference. The geographical breakdown was 29 countries from Latin America and the Caribbean, 47 countries from Africa, seven countries from Europe, 31 countries from Asia, and 11 countries from Oceania. Of them, 11 countries participated at the leaders’ level at the inaugural session and seven countries took part in deliberations at the concluding session, both chaired by Modi.

Terming the summit “a unique beginning,” India’s Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra stressed that its key feature was “the need for articulating the voice of the Global South in international institutions and for reforming them for a balanced representation of the developing countries.” He promised “the strongest endeavors” by the government to channel their ideas, priorities and concerns into the G20 process, piloted by India.

In its quest to become a leader among developing economies, India is facing great challenges, but is firmly set on exploiting every opening and take its place among the key figures of the emerging multipolar world. And it has the edge necessary to do so, thanks to its equidistant ties to the US and Russia and robust trade links to China, which have endured despite the two nations’ cross-border disputes.

" ... The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.... "
https://www.rt.com/india/571865-india-supplant-china-beijing/
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23 Feb, 2023 22:26

9) --- NATO blasted for comparing Ukraine conflict to Star Wars and Harry Potter

A Twitter thread likening warfare to the cult classics has backfired spectacularly for the US-led military bloc

NATO produced a bizarre Twitter thread, likening the ongoing hostilities between Ukraine and Russia to pop fiction sagas like Harry Potter and Star Wars, on Thursday.

The thread, posted on the official Twitter account of the military bloc, highlighted an interview with a Ukrainian soldier that was released a week ago. The tweets included quotes from the article, accompanied by an assortment of wartime photos, including the ill-fated quote by the soldier.

“We are Harry Potter and William Wallace, the Na’vi and Han Solo. We’re escaping from Shawshank and blowing up the Death Star. We are fighting with the Harkonnens and challenging Thanos,” the servicemen said.
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https://twitter.com/NATO/status/1628687961477750790
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The bizarre reference, and the thread as a whole, promptly went viral, with social media users flocking to NATO’s feed to share their opinions on the article. All in all, reactions appeared to be overwhelmingly negative, with critics condemning the bad taste of such references.
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https://twitter.com/stillgray/status/1628738736040349698
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Political and cultural commentator Ian Miles Cheong, for instance, wrote that “Russia should win for this tweet alone.” Another user said he thought the US-led bloc was a “serious organization,” apparently implying that the thread proves otherwise.

Some slammed the references as of extremely poor taste, given the vast scale of the ongoing hostilities and accused the alliance of generally romanticizing war. Others perceived the thread as an attempt to better connect with younger audiences, stating that it had clearly fallen flat.
https://www.rt.com/news/571998-nato-ukraine-star-wars/
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Pres. Putin Speech: Today, Pres. Putin addressed the Federal Assembly in his annual speech. Many important topics were addressed, including Russia suspending its participation in the START nuclear weapons treaty with the US but is not abandoning the pact. The announcement came from Pres. Putin during his annual address to the Russian parliament today. He also talked of NATO's complicity in the Ukrainian attacks on Russian air bases. Murad Gazdiev reports. (see posts below, incl. link to full speech)
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RT spoke to the heads of the new regions of Russia, Donetsk and Lugansk republics, Zaporozhye and Kherson. They said the message from Pres. Putin was vital.
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Pres. Putin Speech, Some reactions: Is the conflict in Ukraine entering a new phase between NATO, EU against Russia? Ralph Niemeyer expresses concerns as the U.S. wants to deindustrialise Europe and a major recession is looming because of sanctions and the energy crisis U.S.A. and E.U. have provoked. He says the U.S.A. are conducting a separate ECONOMIC war against Germany. (QS we know where that led us before don't we...)
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Africa's comment: The conflict in Ukraine has wide ranging, detrimental impact especially because of western sanctions and supply chain shortages; every world economy is hit from high tech to food and agriculture. Serge Bayala comments.
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The Perils of Hegemony: A new report from Beijing lays out what it calls 'the perils of US hegemony' painting a picture of the lengths Washington goes - to achieve its vision of global 'democracy'. The time of the delivery of the report was important as it arrived on the same day Pres. Joe Biden made his visit to Kiev. (see below)
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Stop fuelling the fire! : A senior Chinese official gives a ringing endorsement to current ties between Beijing and Moscow with a high level meeting taking place in the Russian capital.
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South Africa: Today it was Armed Forces day and they held their annual parade. It commemorates a tragedy of WW1 when hundreds of lives were lost on the S.S. Mendi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_MendiShow more

Iraq/U.A.E. energy cooperation: The new agreement will allow Iraq to improve it's economy greatly. Saad All Muttalibi gives details. Nearly a quarter of the world's energy is based in the Gulf and it's important that countries work together as a natural matter rather than the imposed contexts of super-powers.
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70 million children do not have access to education, especially those in conflict zones and regions where there have been natural disasters, according to the UN. In Afghanistan a young teacher is trying to change that for his country and is just getting on with it and teaching outside! His project is called "Today Child" His name is Wazir Khan.
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Link to Pres. Putin's speech in full (English) https://rumble.com/v2abl0u-president-putin-delivers-the-annual-address-to-federal-assembly-english-ful.html?mref=6zof&mrefc=7
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i) --- Putin accuses NATO of direct involvement in attacks on Russia
Below, via RT website ----- A) --- Western bet on neo-Nazis in Ukraine, failed sanctions and key nuke deal suspension: Highlights from Putin’s major speech
B) --- What you need to know about the US-Russia nuclear treaty that Moscow suspended
C) --- Putin accuses NATO of direct involvement in attacks on Russia
D) --- Putin tells Russian business where the future lies
E) --- Moscow summons US ambassador
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1) --- NATO reacts after Moscow puts major nuclear accord on ice
1a) --- Russia suspends last nuclear treaty with US
2) --- Xi Jinping planning Moscow trip – WSJ
2a) --- China unveils global security paper
2b) --- Chinese report decries US hegemony
3) --- Pres. Biden's remarks - in a nutshell
4) --- DeSantis takes aim at Biden over Ukraine
5) --- EU prolongs Russia sanctions

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21 Feb, 2023 13:55

i) --- Putin accuses NATO of direct involvement in attacks on Russia

Experts from the US-led bloc helped equip Ukrainian combat drones that struck deep across the border, the president says

NATO helped Ukraine conduct drone attacks on Russian airfields that house long-distance nuclear-capable bombers, President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday. He made the statement during the annual address to the Federal Assembly, which comprises both chambers of the country’s parliament, as well as to senior Russian officials.

“We know that the West was directly involved in the attempts by the Kiev regime to strike the bases that house our strategic aircraft,” Putin said.

“The drones used [in the raids] were equipped and upgraded with help from NATO experts.”

On December 5, UAVs attacked Dyagilevo and Engels military airfields located 500km (310.6 miles) and 700km (435 miles) from Ukrainian-held territory respectively. Three servicemen were killed and two aircraft received minor damage, the Russian Ministry of Defense said at the time. A similar drone raid on Engels Air Force Base in Saratov Region occurred on December 26, when three people were killed and no planes were damaged, according to the MOD.

" ... I want to emphasize: The US and NATO are saying outright that their goal is to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia. And, after this, they are going to tour our defense sites as if nothing is happening? ... "

The 2010 treaty replaced the first START agreement signed by the US and the Soviet Union in 1991. Last month, the US accused Moscow of refusing to “facilitate inspection activities.” Putin also said that Russia’s requests for inspections have either been ignored or rejected.
https://www.rt.com/russia/571843-putin-accuses-west-drones/
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21 Feb, 2023 16:44

A) --- Western bet on neo-Nazis in Ukraine, failed sanctions and key nuke deal suspension: Highlights from Putin’s major speech

The Russian leader did not mince his words as he outlined tensions with the West during a major address to parliament

Russia attempted to peacefully resolve the issues involving Ukraine after 2014, but Western leaders were secretly preparing a completely different scenario, President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday during his address to the Federal Assembly, the country’s main legislative body.

Speaking to both chambers of parliament as well as senior officials and public figures, the Russian leader touched on a variety of key topics during a speech lasting almost two hours.

From the military operation in Ukraine to economic and social issues, here is a recap of what the president said.

World should not be divided
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Russia not only intends to firmly protect its own interests, but also its belief that the modern world should not be divided into “civilized countries” and “all the rest,” Putin said. He stressed the need for close partnerships without exceptionalism and resorting to aggression.

The president insisted that Moscow remains open to constructive dialogue with the West, and continues to call for a united and fair global security system. However, Putin claimed that instead of cooperating, the West has only issued a muddled response and hidden behind the umbrella of NATO, which continues to expand its borders towards Russia while American military bases spread throughout the world.

Why Russia acted in Ukraine
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Putin recalled that all of Russia’s security guarantee proposals were rejected outright by the US and NATO, which he said made it clear that the go-ahead for aggressive actions by Kiev had already been given. According to the president, there was clear evidence that another “punitive action” was being planned in Donbass for February 2022.

Putin said Kiev and its Western backers initiated the conflict in Ukraine, while Russia is now using force to put an end to it.

West doesn’t care who it uses against Moscow
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Western nations used the “despicable method of deceit” during campaigns in Yugoslavia, Iraq, Libya, and Syria, Putin argued. Regarding Ukraine, Putin said the West had openly admitted that the 2014-2015 Minsk agreements were a bluff. While “Donbass was burning and blood was being spilled,” Ukraine’s backers “were playing with people’s lives,” he stated.

Putin continued by claiming that the West does not actually care who it supports in its fight against Russia, which is why it turns a blind eye to Ukrainian fighters openly celebrating notorious Nazi divisions and bearing their insignia.

Putin asserted that the Ukrainian people have become expendable hostages for Kiev and its Western backers, who have occupied Ukraine in a political, military, and economic sense, devastating the country for the past several decades.

Consequences of long-range arms supplies to Kiev
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Putin suggested that the West is treating Ukraine as a battering ram against Russia, and is using the battlefield as a test-firing range. However, he stressed that one thing “everyone should understand” is that the longer the range of Western weapons systems being delivered to Ukraine, the farther Russia will be forced to move the threat away from its borders. “It’s only natural,” said the president.

West wants a global conflict
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Western elites no longer hide their true intentions and are openly calling for a “strategic defeat for Russia,” Putin added. He accused them of trying to transform a local conflict into a global confrontation, but argued that Russia will “react accordingly” to any threats.

At the same time, Putin insisted that the West recognizes that it cannot defeat Russia militarily, which is why it is launching increasingly aggressive information attacks against Russian culture, history, the Orthodox Church, and other traditional values.

Sanctions have failed
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The West has not only opened a military and information frontline against Russia, but also an economic one, according to Putin. However, its efforts have backfired and ultimately failed, despite attempts to spark inflation, crash the ruble, and blatantly steal Russia’s foreign exchange reserves, he added.

“Anti-Russian sanctions are only a tool,” Putin observed, claiming that the goal, as Western officials themselves have stated, is to “force suffering” upon Russian citizens. “But they miscalculated, and Russia’s economy proved much more robust than the West expected,” the president argued.

Russia is not just adapting to new realities, but is bringing its economy to new frontiers and working with its partners on establishing a stable and secure system of international settlements, independent of the dollar or other Western reserve currencies, Putin explained.

New START suspended
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Putin stated that Moscow is well aware of the West’s involvement in attempts by Ukrainian forces to strike Russia’s strategic aviation. This, coupled with “absurd” requests from NATO to be allowed to inspect Russia’s defense facilities within the framework of the New START nuclear treaty, leaves Moscow no choice but to temporarily withdraw from the agreement, the president announced.
https://www.rt.com/russia/571853-putin-federal-assembly-recap/
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21 Feb, 2023 14:37

B) --- What you need to know about the US-Russia nuclear treaty that Moscow suspended

New START is the last surviving agreement from the Cold War era effort to avert nuclear apocalypse

Russia is suspending participation in a key nuclear arms reduction treaty with the US, President Vladimir Putin announced on Tuesday. He cited Washington’s failure to keep its end of the bargain and its deepening involvement in the Ukraine conflict.

The New START Treaty is the last surviving relic of the effort by the US and USSR to avert nuclear annihilation by accepting restrictions on their arsenals and building mutual trust.

Cold War legacy
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START stands for “Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty” and was originally the name of a document signed by US President George H. W. Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in 1991.

It was part of a decades-long effort by the two superpowers to put limits on the number of strategic nuclear weapons in their possession in a way that would give neither side an advantage.
The same process produced the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABM), which protected deterrence capabilities by restricting the use of missile interceptors, and the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF), which banned shorter-range nuclear-capable missiles to reduce tensions in Europe.

The New START is the latest successor to the nuclear cap deal, signed during the Barack Obama administration.

Trust but verify
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The treaty puts a limit on nuclear devices and the means of their delivery, including ICBMs (intercontinental ballistic missiles), SLBMs (submarine-launched ballistic missiles) and long-range bombers, that the parties may have and deploy. The ceilings are still high enough to keep the US and Russia the biggest nuclear powers in the world.
The treaty also gives the parties the privilege of inspecting each other’s military sites to verify compliance.

Deteriorated security architecture
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Much of what the USSR and the US created in the name of strategic stability has since been eradicated.
US President George W Bush pulled his country out of the ABM Treaty, claiming that the US had to defend itself and Europe from “rogue states” – Iran and North Korea. In Moscow’s eyes, the interceptor launch sites that the US subsequently built in Eastern Europe are a major threat, since they could potentially be used to fire cruise missiles against Russia.

The INF Treaty was scrapped by US President Donald Trump, who claimed that Russia was in breach and that it restricted the Pentagon in its confrontation with China. He also killed off the Open Skies agreement, which allowed member states, including the US and Russia, to conduct flyover inspections to monitor military deployments.

The Trump administration intended to let New START expire, but Joe Biden’s election victory allowed him to renew it until 2026.

Another key military agreement involving the US and Russia, the 1990 Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) was de facto ended on Moscow’s initiative, after it suspended participation in 2007. The Russian government cited NATO’s expansion in Europe as breaking the spirit of the deal.

Inspections quarrel
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Amid the conflict in Ukraine, the US and Russia have accused each other of failing to facilitate inspections under the New START. NATO jumped on Washington’s bandwagon earlier this month with a formal statement condemning Moscow for alleged violations.

As Putin announced the decision to formally suspend participation, he accused NATO of helping Ukraine launch drone attacks on Russian airfields where long-range bombers are based. With Washington pursuing a “strategic defeat” of Russia, it made no sense to stick to the deal, he stated.
The Russian leader added that the arsenals of the UK and France would need to be accounted for in any future agreement on nuclear reduction.
https://www.rt.com/russia/571841-new-start-treaty-explainer/
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21 Feb, 2023 13:55

C) --- Putin accuses NATO of direct involvement in attacks on Russia

Experts from the US-led bloc helped equip Ukrainian combat drones that struck deep across the border, the president says

NATO helped Ukraine conduct drone attacks on Russian airfields that house long-distance nuclear-capable bombers, President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday. He made the statement during the annual address to the Federal Assembly, which comprises both chambers of the country’s parliament, as well as to senior Russian officials.

“We know that the West was directly involved in the attempts by the Kiev regime to strike the bases that house our strategic aircraft,” Putin said.

“The drones used [in the raids] were equipped and upgraded with help from NATO experts.”

On December 5, UAVs attacked Dyagilevo and Engels military airfields located 500km (310.6 miles) and 700km (435 miles) from Ukrainian-held territory respectively. Three servicemen were killed and two aircraft received minor damage, the Russian Ministry of Defense said at the time. A similar drone raid on Engels Air Force Base in Saratov Region occurred on December 26, when three people were killed and no planes were damaged, according to the MOD.

Speaking on Tuesday, Putin said Moscow will temporarily withdraw from the 2010 New START Treaty with the US, which caps the number of nuclear warheads and the means of delivery, and allows for inspections of each other’s nuclear arsenal.

I want to emphasize: The US and NATO are saying outright that their goal is to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia. And, after this, they are going to tour our defense sites as if nothing is happening?

The 2010 treaty replaced the first START agreement signed by the US and the Soviet Union in 1991. Last month, the US accused Moscow of refusing to “facilitate inspection activities.” Putin also said that Russia’s requests for inspections have either been ignored or rejected.
https://www.rt.com/russia/571843-putin-accuses-west-drones/
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21 Feb, 2023 14:24

D) --- Putin tells Russian business where the future lies

Investing domestically will help preserve wealth and aid the economy, according to the president

Russian businesspeople should invest more in their own country in order to support the economy and preserve their own wealth, according to President Vladimir Putin.

During his address to the Federal Assembly on Tuesday, Putin urged entrepreneurs who are currently faced with the “predatory behavior of the West” as a result of sanctions to not cling to the past and attempt to sue someone abroad. It is pointless to “run around with outstretched hands and humiliate yourself,” the president said, noting that he had warned them about such risks earlier.

According to Putin, big Russian businesses should understand that for the West they will remain second-rate strangers and the titles of “count, peer and mayor” will not help.

“The sources of wellbeing and the future for businessmen of the Russian Federation should be in their native country, then there will be a strong, self-sufficient economy,” Putin stressed, encouraging businesses to reorient their investments.

“I am addressing the representatives of our business [community], I know many personally and for many years … Launch new projects, earn money, invest in Russia, invest in enterprises and jobs, help schools and universities,” the president urged.
https://www.rt.com/business/571828-putin-russian-businesses-investments/
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21 Feb, 2023 14:03

E) --- Moscow summons US ambassador

Russia’s Foreign Ministry has denounced Washington’s “growing involvement” in the Ukraine conflict

Russia issued “a formal demarche” to US ambassador to Moscow Lynne Tracy on Tuesday over Washington’s continued efforts to arm Ukraine, the Foreign Ministry said.

The move comes shortly after US President Joe Biden promised more military aid to Ukraine during his surprise visit to Kiev on Monday.

In a statement, the ministry said that it was protesting “the growing involvement of the United States in hostilities on the side of the Kiev regime.”

According to the ministry, the US is “pumping the Ukrainian military with arms and providing it with targeting information for strikes on Russian military and civilian infrastructure.” Such policies “clearly prove that assertions of the American side that the US is not a party to the conflict are inadequate and false,” it added.

Moscow reminded the US ambassador that both Western-supplied weapons and the personnel who are operating them, including US citizens, are “legitimate targets” for Russia’s military.

The ambassador was also told that “the current aggressive course of the US to deepen confrontation with Russia in all areas is counterproductive,” the statement read.

At the same time, the ministry noted that if the US wanted to de-escalate the situation, it should “take steps envisaging the withdrawal of US-NATO military and equipment, as well as the cessation of hostile anti-Russian activities.”

It also pointed out that the US should offer an explanation for the explosions that ruptured the Nord Stream gas pipelines last September, adding that Washington should not “hinder an objective investigation to identify the culprits.”

Earlier this month, American investigative journalist Seymour Hersh published a bombshell report laying blame on Washington for orchestrating attacks on the infrastructure. The US has denied any involvement.

The demarche came after Biden traveled to Kiev on Monday to meet with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, pledging another $500 million in military aid to Ukraine, including more artillery ammunition, rockets, and anti-armor systems.

According to the Pentagon, as of February 20, the US has committed some $30 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since Russia started its military operation against the neighboring state almost one year ago. The military aid includes M1 Abrams tanks, heavy artillery, air defense systems and other equipment.
https://www.rt.com/russia/571846-moscow-summons-us-ambassador/
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21 Feb, 2023 14:45

1) --- NATO reacts after Moscow puts major nuclear accord on ice

Less arms control makes the world more dangerous, the bloc’s chief Jens Stoltenberg said

Russia should reconsider its decision to suspend the New START nuclear arms control treaty with the US, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has said.

This comes after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that Moscow was withdrawing from the last remaining nuclear accord with Washington earlier on Tuesday.

“I regret the decision by Russia to suspend its participation in a New START program,” Stoltenberg told a press conference. “More nuclear weapons and less arms control makes the world more dangerous,” the NATO chief added. “That is why I’m calling on Russia today to reconsider its decision.”

The New START treaty caps the number of warheads and the means of their delivery, as well as allows for inspections of each other’s nuclear arsenal.

The 2010 agreement, signed by then presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev, replaced the first START treaty concluded by the US and the Soviet Union in 1991.

Moscow and Washington extended the New START for five years in 2021, when ties between the two powers were already strained. The relations reached a new low after Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine last February and the US, together with other NATO members, began supplying Kiev with weapons.

In late January, Washington accused Moscow of violating the treaty by refusing to conduct inspections. On Tuesday, Putin claimed that the West was directly involved in helping Ukraine conduct drone strikes on Russian airfields that house long-distance nuclear-capable bombers.

According to the president, Russia’s requests for inspections laid out in the treaty have been either ignored or rejected. He said it did not make sense to adhere to the New START treaty any more under such circumstances.
https://www.rt.com/news/571847-stoltenberg-russia-nuclear-deal/
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21 Feb, 2023 10:51

1a) --- Russia suspends last nuclear treaty with US

Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced the country’s temporary withdrawal from the New START Treaty

Moscow is suspending its participation in the last remaining nuclear treaty between Russia and the US, President Vladimir Putin has announced. During his key address to the Russian parliament on Tuesday, he noted that Moscow will not exit the New START Treaty, but is temporarily withdrawing.

Explaining the decision, Putin stated that the agreement was initially drawn up under completely different circumstances, when Russia and the US did not perceive each other as adversaries. Now, however, according to the president, not only is the US issuing ultimatums to Russia, but NATO itself has essentially made an application to become part of the treaty as well.

The bloc members are now demanding an inspection of Russia’s strategic facilities, Putin said, noting that Moscow’s requests to inspect Western nuclear facilities under the treaty are systematically denied with only formal explanations for the rejection.

Putin noted that the US has continued to insist on maintaining hegemony, while its NATO partners openly admit that they want to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia.

“Russia cannot ignore this. We cannot allow ourselves to ignore this,” he said.

"..Before we return to discussing this agreement, we must understand for ourselves what the intentions of countries like France and the UK are and how we will consider their strategic arsenals as well, which is the cumulative striking potential of NATO..."

The New START Treaty was originally signed in 2010 by then-Presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev, and aimed to cut in half the number of strategic nuclear missile launchers deployed around the world. Under the treaty, both countries were supposed to allow the other side a limited number of inspections per year to verify compliance with the agreement. Unless extended, the treaty was set to expire in 2026.
https://www.rt.com/russia/571834-russia-suspends-key-nuclear-treaty-putin/
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21 Feb, 2023 16:51

2) --- Xi Jinping planning Moscow trip – WSJ

The Chinese leader will use the visit to promote Beijing’s Ukraine peace plan, the outlet reported

Chinese President Xi Jinping will travel to Moscow for a meeting with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in the coming months, the Wall Street Journal claimed on Tuesday. Reports of the trip come as Beijing looks to take a leading role in resolving the conflict in Ukraine.

The visit will take place sometime in April or early May, the American newspaper said, citing “people familiar with the plan.” The sources claimed that Xi will use the summit with Putin to push for multiparty peace talks aimed at ending the fighting in Ukraine.

Successive rounds of peace talks failed last year, with Kiev abruptly withdrawing from negotiations in Istanbul in April. Russian officials and others elsewhere have claimed that Western powers pressured Ukraine into abandoning the talks, despite an agreement being close at hand.

Chinese Foreign MInister Wang Yi announced last week that Beijing will soon release a paper outlining its “position on the political settlement of the Ukraine crisis.” Wang said that the plan will respect the “territorial integrity and sovereignty” as well as the “legitimate security concerns” of both Russia and Ukraine.

However, the minister suggested that China’s push for peace may meet the same end as last year’s negotiations did, as “some forces might not want to see peace talks materialize,” in what was seen as a thinly-veiled reference to the West’s alleged intervention in Istanbul.

Wang arrived in Moscow on Tuesday, and the Wall Street Journal said he will discuss Xi’s visit with Russian officials. Wang is scheduled to meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Wednesday, but it is still unclear whether he will speak with Putin.

China has taken a relatively neutral stance on Ukraine, with its Foreign Ministry repeatedly calling for peace talks while labeling the US the “main instigator” of the conflict. Beijing has refused to join the Western-led sanctions regime against Russia, and has strengthened its trade ties with Moscow since the start of the military operation in Ukraine last February.
https://www.rt.com/news/571863-china-xi-moscow-trip/
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21 Feb, 2023 11:26

2a) --- China unveils global security paper

The document offers a sharp rebuke of “the Cold War mentality,” hegemonism, and unilateralism

China has released its Global Security Initiative Concept Paper, which focuses on preventing conflicts and promoting global security, while blasting the use of sanctions in foreign policy.

The initiative, which was unveiled by the Foreign Ministry on Tuesday, hinges on several core concepts and principles meant to help both China and the international community navigate in what the document describes as an “era rife with challenges.”

It prioritizes UN-centered security governance, stating that “the Cold War mentality, unilateralism, bloc confrontation and hegemonism contradict the spirit of the UN Charter and must be resisted and rejected.”

Countries should also uphold the consensus that “a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought,” the initiative reads, adding that the nuclear powers should strengthen dialogue and cooperation to mitigate the risk of a nuclear stand-off.

The document went on to stress the need to take the “legitimate security concerns of all countries seriously,” while respecting their sovereignty and territorial integrity.

The program paper also made an appeal to resolve international disputes exclusively through diplomacy. “War and sanctions are no fundamental solution to disputes; only dialogue and consultation are effective in resolving differences,” it said, adding: “abusing unilateral sanctions… does not solve a problem, but only creates more difficulties and complications.”

Addressing the conflict between Moscow and Kiev, the paper highlighted the need to “support political settlement of hotspot issues such as the Ukraine crisis through dialogue and negotiation.”

Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang said the initiative strives to establish a human community with a shared future, and that it “is open and inclusive” for any nation to join.

The idea of the initiative was first put forward by Chinese President Xi Jinping in April 2022 as a means to “uphold the principle of indivisible security” in the world.

This comes one day after China released a report titled ‘US Hegemony and its Perils’, blasting Washington for escalating the great power competition across the globe, staging ‘color revolutions’, and stoking regional tensions under the guise of promoting democracy.
https://www.rt.com/news/571831-china-global-security-paper/
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20 Feb, 2023 13:52

2b) --- Chinese report decries US hegemony

Washington uses the rest of the world for its economic benefit, displaying “arrogance and prejudice,” the keynote document says

The US has been abusing its hegemonic position in the world for decades to reap benefits for itself and sow rivalry and instability in other nations, a report published on Monday on the Chinese Foreign Ministry's official website claims.

The document seeks to draw international attention “to the perils of the US practices to world peace and stability and the well-being of all peoples.” It offers examples of Washington’s purported selfishness in the areas of politics, the military, the economy, technology and culture.

For a century, the US has treated Latin America as its backyard, where those who resist the US face “political interference, military intervention and regime subversion,” the text claims. Elsewhere, it creates divisive blocs under its influence, and fosters “color revolutions” against opponents. Lately Washington has posited the false dichotomy of “democracies vs. autocracies” and arbitrarily labels nations as members of one of the camps.

The use of force has been a feature of US expansionism since its independence, the document says. Since 2001 alone, wars launched by Washington “in the name of fighting terrorism have claimed over 900,000 lives with some 335,000 of them civilians.”

The Pentagon has used an array of “appalling methods” of war, from biological weapons in Korea to depleted uranium munitions in more recent times, “causing… countless civilian casualties and lasting environmental pollution,” the piece notes.

The US government has used the dollar’s status as the global reserve currency, and its influence on the international financial system, to quash competition and slap unilateral sanctions against opponents. Washington “is basically collecting ‘seigniorage’ from around the world,” and during the Covid-19 pandemic, disrupted the global economy by injecting trillions of dollars into it, the report says.

The report accuses the US of using its status as a leading technological power to conduct electronic surveillance and espionage, including against its closest allies, as well as cyberwarfare, noting that having the leverage of big tech companies allows the US government to censor speech online and push its narratives on a global scale, while silencing critics.

The document concludes that the US should do some “soul-searching” and change its approach, as “the historical trends of peace, development, cooperation, and mutual benefit are unstoppable.”
https://www.rt.com/news/571773-chinese-report-us-hegemony/
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3) --- Pres. Biden's remarks - in a nutshell

https://rumble.com/v2acujg-bidens-remarks-in-a-nutshell-ukraine-conflict-is-a-test-for-us-and-eu-woo-w.html?mref=6zof&mc=dgip3&ep=2

Don't know what else to say about this one

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21 Feb, 2023 15:44

4) --- DeSantis takes aim at Biden over Ukraine

The US president’s administration has no strategic objective in Ukraine, the Florida governor says

Joe Biden is pursuing a ‘blank check’ policy towards Ukraine, while turning a blind eye to the most pressing issues in America, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has said, commenting on the US president’s surprise visit to Kiev on Monday.

“We have a lot of problems accumulating here in our own country that he [Biden] is neglecting,” DeSantis told Fox News’ ‘Fox & Friends’ several hours after the US leader arrived in the Ukrainian capital.

“He’s very concerned about those borders halfway around the world [in Ukraine]. He’s not done anything to secure our own border [with Mexico] here at home,” said DeSantis, who some believe is preparing to run for president in 2024. He also called out Biden for the “national humiliation” of “having China fly a spy balloon clear across the continental US.”

On the topic of America’s military support for Ukraine amid the conflict with Russia, the governor insisted that the Biden administration has “effectively [given Kiev] a blank check with no clear strategic objective identified.”

“I don’t think that it’s in our interest to be getting into a proxy war… over things like the [Ukrainian] borderlands or over Crimea,” DeSantis said.

While Russia is “hostile” to the US, it does not pose the same level of threat to the US as China does, according to the governor.

“The fear of Russia going into NATO countries and all that, and steamrolling, you know, that has not even come close to happening,” he said, referring to Western claims that Russia plans to invade NATO nations.

DeSantis claimed that the conflict in Ukraine would not have broken out in the first place if not for “the weakness that the president showed during his first year in office.” DeSantis is expected by many to be Donald Trump’s main rival for the Republican presidential nomination next year.

During his trip to Kiev, which lasted just five hours, Biden once again assured his Ukrainian counterpart, Vladimir Zelensky, of Washington’s support and pledged another $500 million in lethal aid to his government.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who delivered an address to the Federal Assembly on Tuesday, warned the West against supplying longer range weapons to Kiev. If this happens, Russia’s forces will have to move deeper into Ukrainian territory “to push the threat away from our borders,” he explained.
https://www.rt.com/news/571842-desantis-biden-ukraine-visit/
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21 Feb, 2023 09:02

5) --- EU prolongs Russia sanctions

A tenth round of restrictions is expected later this week

The European Union has extended for another year an array of anti-Russian sanctions imposed over the conflict in Ukraine. At the same time, the bloc’s leadership acknowledged that it is running out of targets for new restrictions.

The decision adopted by the EU Council on Monday means the measures have been prolonged until at least February 24, 2024.

Members pledged “unwavering” support for Kiev in its fight against Moscow, with the foreign ministers of EU states expressing solidarity in a video address. The bloc’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, accused Russia of attacking a “peaceful neighbor” one year ago, and claimed that Moscow had expected to win the conflict “in a few days.”

The Russian government has insisted that its military operation was necessitated by Kiev’s continued attacks against civilians in Donbass and the creeping expansion of NATO into Ukraine.

The EU has been targeting Russia with sanctions since 2014, when an armed coup in Kiev toppled the Ukrainian government and prompted the region of Crimea to break away and rejoin Russia.

Since last February, the EU has cut much of its trade with Russia, leading to consequences such as a surge in energy prices. This week, a tenth package of sanctions is expected to be adopted. The new blacklist will reportedly feature high-tech goods, but also some symbolic items, including toilets.

However, European Council President Charles Michel acknowledged last week that there are “not many things left” for Brussels to target. Speaking to a Belgian newspaper, the official argued that “each debate on sanctions is much more difficult than the previous one.”

The latest stumbling block was reportedly synthetic rubber. Some member states such as Poland want to ban trade in the compound with Russia, while others, including Germany and Italy, opposed such a move, Politico reported last week. EU member states previously clashed over proposed restrictions on Russian hydrocarbons, petroleum products, diamonds, and nuclear technology.
https://www.rt.com/news/571817-eu-sanctions-russia-prolonged/
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Donbass: Continued shelling of civilian only areas in Donetsk City has killed one civilian and at least three more wounded, according to local officials, who say Kiev used US-supplied MLR HIMARS rockets. Several residential areas were hit by Ukrainian shelling on Friday. Roman Kosarev reports (and came under fire). In terrorist style, the Ukrainians are waiting for emergency services to arrive and fire again. NB HIMARS rockets are very precise; these are no accidents.
Belgorod: Shebekino: Residential areas have come under Ukraine shelling again; three civilians have been wounded and buildings and cars were struck.
Zaporozhye: One civilian was killed and one wounded as HIMARS rockets fragmented and damaged homes.
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Ukrainians who have moved to Poland talk about the broken promises of Pres. Zelensky and how this has resulted in the failure to bring peace in Donbass.
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Ukraine has suffered heavy casualties and forced conscription is now the order of the day; the west is ignoring it as "Ukrainians are fighting for European values". An activist talks about the Kiev regime.
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Russia's ambassador to the United Nations Vassily Nebenzia, spoke to RT about the arms being supplied to Ukraine and says they are fuelling the conflict. Last week he and Roger Waters (Pink Floyd) spoke in the UN security council about the dangers of this conflict continuing (QS excerpt - here is the full interview https://rumble.com/v2952wc-you-will-never-erase-russia-from-the-world-map-we-are-a-major-player-vassil.html?mref=6zof&mrefc=7 ) -
In an exclusive talk, RT hears from Russia's ambassador to the UN about rising global condemnation of weaponry supplies to Kiev and how western powers are turning a blind eye to the criticism.Show more

Iran marks the 44th anniversary of its Islamic revolution commemorating the country's unity, while also sending a message, they say, that the US has failed to contain the will of Iranian citizens. Yousef Jalali report from Tehran.

Africa, Nigeria: Late last year the Nigerian government decided to change the bank notes but haven't allowed enough time for the old ones to be exchanged, leaving people without cash to live. There's also a problem with getting fuel for vehicles etc in Africa's largest oil producing country. There's an election coming up and people there aren't a bit happy. Poloum David reports.

Earthquakes, Türkiye/Syria: More than 24,000 people have been confirmed dead since last Monday's Earthquake/s and aftershocks. Rescuers continue in the search for survivors but their chances are fading as time passes. There is more than just searching to be done. Those who have survived need shelter and food and counselling. Many have lost some or their entire family. It's bitter cold. Peter Scott reports from Diyabakir and talks to survivors.
Syria: The areas hit by the aftershocks are devastated which was made worse by sanctions imposed by US and allies in the form of embargoes and inability to transfer any aid from anyone in the bloc. Some sanctions have now been lifted, days after the tragedy. Russia and the Arab countries of the middle east were there to help with volunteers and humanitarian aid. Whole families are sleeping outside in the bitter cold as their homes are collapsed or unsafe. Hussein Iyad speaks to survivors and reports. Pres. Assad arrived to Jableh to help and thank the volunteers and official crews.

Olympics: 35 countries demand that Russia is banned from the Olympics in 2024 (QS these are the same countries who refused to condemn the glorification of Nazism in the United Nations vote of December, 2022 https://twitter.com/DontDenyThe/status/1613597395597799425 - also see yesterday's post for news article https://rumble.com/v291o54-rt-news-february-10th-2023-late.html?mref=6zof&mrefc=6 news articles 8 and 9 ) Alan Moore reports.
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11 Feb, 2023 15:20

A) --- Russian military shares details of ‘massive’ strikes on Ukraine

All intended targets were hit, Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov says

Large-scale Russian missile strikes on Friday brought the operations of Ukraine’s key defense enterprises to a halt and prevented Kiev from redeploying reserves and foreign hardware to the battlefield, Russia’s Defense Ministry has said.

The attack involved high-precision, long-range air, sea, and land-based weapons as well as drones, the ministry’s spokesman, Lieutenant General Igor Konashenkov, told reporters during his daily briefing on Saturday.

It targeted critically important energy facilities, providing power to Ukraine’s defense enterprises and the country’s transport system, he said.

“The goals of the massive strike were achieved. All of the intended facilities were hit,” Konashenkov said.

As a result of the bombardment, “the operations of energy-intensive enterprises of the [Ukrainian] military-industrial complex were stopped. The redeployment of foreign weapons, ammunition, and reserves by rail to the areas on the front lines was also blocked,” the spokesman noted.

Air-raid warnings had been activated all across Ukraine since early Friday. Reports of explosions came from the capital Kiev, along with the regions of Kharkov, Odessa, Dnepr, Nikolaev, Lviv, Ivano-Frankovsk, and other locations.

Ukraine’s Air Force said that at least 71 cruise missiles were fired by Russian long-range bombers and navy vessels from the Black Sea. Most of those missiles were shot down by air defenses, it claimed.

Ukraine’s energy operator, Ukrenergo, has confirmed that several of its high-voltage sites nationwide were hit. The company said it had to implement emergency shutdowns to preempt possible damage to the power grid from overload.

The country’s railway operator, Ukrzaliznytsia, also said the power cuts had delayed a number of trains and led to some electric locomotives being replaced with backup diesel engines.

Moscow has stepped up the pressure on Ukraine since October last year, when it accused Kiev of using “terrorist tactics” and of targeting Russian infrastructure, including the strategic Crimean Bridge. Since then, a number of large-scale missile strikes have been carried out against Ukrainian military installations and energy facilities, leading to rolling blackouts across the country.
https://www.rt.com/russia/571336-ukraine-strike-energy-transport/
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11 Feb, 2023 09:53

1) --- Russia explains stance on peace talks with Ukraine

Any conflict ends with negotiations, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin has said

Russia remains ready for peace talks with Ukraine but these should take place with no preconditions and ought to account for realities on the ground, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin has said.

“There have already been negotiations” between Russian and Ukrainian representatives in Minsk and Istanbul, several weeks after the outbreak of the conflict in February last year, Vershinin told broadcaster Zvezda on Saturday. “As you remember, they were interrupted by the Ukrainian side.”

Decisions on such issues as a peace process “aren’t made in Kiev. The decisions are made in other capitals, first of all in Washington and Brussels. And that's whom one should address” about talks, the senior diplomat pointed out.

As for Russia’s stance, he reiterated that “any military action concludes with negotiations and, as we’ve said earlier, we’ll obviously be ready for such negotiations.”

However, Vershinin stressed that talks should take place “without preconditions, based on the reality that exists” and “taking into account the goals that had been voiced publicly” by Moscow.

On Friday, US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby insisted that it was “really up to [Ukrainian] President [Vladimir] Zelensky to determine if and when negotiations are appropriate, and certainly under what circumstances.”

Washington will “stay at the task of supporting Ukraine so that they can succeed at the battlefield” against Russia as that will allow Zelensky to have “the wind at his back” when such talks begin, Kirby pointed out.

Last week, former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, who'd mediated contacts between Moscow and Kiev, claimed that the negotiations that took place between the sides in Istanbul in late March were “blocked” by Kiev’s Western-backers. “I think there was a legitimate decision by the West to keep striking [Russian President Vladimir] Putin… I mean the more aggressive approach,” he said.

Russia and Ukraine haven’t met at the negotiating table since then, with Zelensky signing a decree in autumn officially banning him from any dialogue with Putin.

The Ukrainian leader is currently pushing forward with his ten-point “peace plan,” which, among other things, calls for Russian forces to withdraw to borders claimed by Ukraine, to pay reparations and to submit to war-crime tribunals.

Moscow has turned down those demands as “unacceptable,” saying that they were actually a sign of Kiev’s unwillingness to solve the crisis through diplomatic means.
https://www.rt.com/russia/571324-ukraine-peace-talks-vershinin/
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11 Feb, 2023 09:40

2) --- US defense official flags 'no objections' to Kiev attacking Crimea

Washington will not limit Ukrainian strikes on territory it claims as its own, Celeste Wallander said

The US would have no objections to Ukrainian forces striking targets inside Crimea with American-supplied weapons, a senior defense official said on Friday.

Dr Celeste Wallander, Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, was asked whether Washington supports Kiev in seizing Crimea, or at least in striking Russian targets there. The peninsula overwhelmingly voted to become part of Russia in 2014 following a Western-backed coup in Kiev.

Speaking at the Center for a New American Security, Wallander reiterated that the US “supports Ukraine's territorial integrity and sovereignty over its internationally recognized borders, and that includes Crimea.” With this in mind, the official argued that Kiev “has the right to defend every inch of its territory.”

As long as Ukraine “identifies operational value in targeting Russian forces on Ukrainian territory… we don’t have objections and do not seek to limit Ukrainian military operations to achieve their objectives.”

She also commented on remarks made by Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley, who warned in January that it would be “very difficult” for Ukraine “to militarily eject the Russian forces” from all the territories they currently control.

“I am not going to contradict general Milley, and I think he was giving a hard-headed assessment of the scale of the challenge,” she said.

In January, The New York Times reported, citing sources, that the administration of US President Joe Biden was warming to the prospect of helping Ukraine to target Crimea, “even if such a move increases the risk of escalation.”

On February 3, the US announced a new $2.17 billion security package for Ukraine which included ground-launched, small-diameter bombs (GLSDB) with a range of up to 150 kilometers (93 miles). While the Pentagon said that this long-range capability would enable Ukrainians “to take back their sovereign territory,” it declined to speculate about Kiev's future potential operations.

Last week, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who now serves as Deputy Chair of the nation’s Security Council, warned that any attack on Crimea would be interpreted as an attack on the country itself. Kiev, he said, must understand that such moves would be “met with inevitable retaliation using weapons of any kind.”
https://www.rt.com/russia/571323-us-no-objections-crimea-attack/
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10 Feb, 2023 17:56

3) --- UN condemns executions of Russian POWs by Ukrainians

The UN human rights watchdog is aware of a new graphic video purportedly showing the execution of Russian POWs by Ukrainians and has raised the issue with Kiev

The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) is aware of recently-emerged footage apparently showing the execution of Russian soldiers who had surrendered by Ukrainian troops, a spokeswoman for the UN watchdog, Marta Hurtado, has said.

“We have raised concerns about the treatment of prisoners of war, including alleged killings of POWs by the Ukrainian Armed Forces, with Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense,” Hurtado told TASS in a statement on Friday.

The graphic video in question surfaced earlier this week, filmed by an armed individual speaking Ukrainian and demanding answers from three men in military uniforms lying on the ground. After failing to elicit a coherent response from them, the man shoots one of the men in the head multiple times at point blank range.

One of the men, lying motionless on the ground, also has visible blood around his head, apparently getting shot and killed before the video started. A fellow Ukrainian soldier appeared to try to reason with the gunman, pointing out that the third captive was holding a grenade. The killer briefly showed his face at the very end of the video, concluding it with an obscenity and ‘Glory to Ukraine’ slogan, which is commonly associated with World War II-era Nazi collaborators but is widely used in present-day Ukraine.

Additional footage seemingly filmed in the immediate aftermath of the incident showed the killer trying to provide excuses to justify his actions. The UN is aware of this footage as well, Hurtado said, adding that none of the excuses actually have merit.

“We are also aware of another video that has appeared on social media platforms that includes additional footage of the original incident and also appears to show a Ukrainian soldier confessing [to] the killing and trying to justify it by alleging that the victims refused to surrender or that they were part of the Wagner Group military and security contractors fighting on behalf of the Russian Federation,” the spokeswoman said. “These excuses do not provide justification for the soldier's actions under international humanitarian law.”

According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the killing of unarmed soldiers who surrendered is a “widespread practice” by Kiev’s troops, and multiple incidents of this sort have occurred amid the ongoing conflict, with some of them published online by the killers themselves. The Russian Investigative Committee said on Thursday that the footage appeared to show the recent murder of three Russian POWs by “Ukrainian nationalists,” pledging to investigate further and identify the perpetrators.
https://www.rt.com/russia/571297-un-ukraine-pow-execution/
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10 Feb, 2023 21:55

4) --- Wagner boss estimates how long Ukraine conflict will last

The hostilities between Moscow and Kiev might drag on for three more years, Yevgeny Prigozhin believes

The ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine will likely continue for up to three more years, depending on the goals Moscow actually pursues, Wagner private military group founder Yevgeny Prigozhin has said. The businessman made the remarks in an exclusive interview with Semyon Pegov of the independent WarGonzo project on Friday.

“If we need to cover the DPR and LPR, then we need to work for at least another year and a half or two,” Prigozhin stated, referring to the territories of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, which were recently incorporated into Russia.

Should Russia seek to “go toward the Dnepr,” a major river separating Ukraine into roughly two halves, the conflict will last even longer and drag on for up to three more years, Prigozhin suggested. At the same time, the founder of the private military group noted that in any conflict, the destruction of the enemy’s army must be the priority, rather than a desire to seize territories from the adversary.

Prigozhin also revealed, apparently jokingly, that should Moscow also seek to reach all across Europe toward the English Channel, he already has a perfect plan for such an endeavor. To achieve that goal, everyone in Russia must drop any leisure activity, put on their “working suits,” and work tirelessly. Some spoils of the campaign, however, including “France, Italy, Bulgaria and something else,” should be ceded afterwards to Ukrainians, since they are set to “suffer here with us” much more.

Founded in 2014, Wagner has mainly operated as a security contractor in Africa and the Middle East until now. The precise details of its deployments have not been made public, while Prigozhin denied his ties to the group and its very existence until last year.

The group has been an active participant in the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, scoring several victories against the Ukrainian troops. The achievements have also earned the company wide international attention, with the US declaring Wagner a “transnational criminal organization” last month.
https://www.rt.com/russia/571310-wagner-boss-ukraine-conflict/
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11 Feb, 2023 13:58

5) --- Russia reveals who calls the shots in Ukraine conflict

Only Western capitals can force Kiev into holding serious talks with Moscow, Russia's UN envoy has said

Ukraine has shown no interest in finding a diplomatic solution to its ongoing conflict with Russia, Vassily Nebenzia, Moscow’s permanent representative to the United Nations, said on Friday. He noted that, while the West could bring Kiev to the negotiating table with Moscow, it has so far been reluctant to do so.

Speaking in an interview to RT’s Caleb Maupin, Nebenzia was asked about the prospects for a settlement of the Ukraine conflict in the situation where Western leaders insist that the conflict could end only in Moscow’s defeat.

The envoy noted that the West is "now talking about dismembering... and destroying Russia," adding that some statements by Western officials on the matter "go beyond not just simply diplomacy but civilized communication."

He reiterated that Russia is still ready for serious negotiations, which were interrupted by Kiev "on the order of their masters and sponsors in April last year." Against such a backdrop, the high-ranking diplomat noted that Moscow did not see any Ukrainian attempts to conduct meaningful dialogue, pointing out that Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky himself had signed a decree prohibiting talks with the current Russian leadership.

Nebenzia went on to blast Kiev’s diplomatic initiatives on the matter as a "joke," referring to a ten-point "peace formula" proposed by Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky that, in particular, demanded that Russia withdraw its troops from all territories claimed by Kiev and that a tribunal to prosecute Moscow’s alleged war crimes be established.

Besides, Moscow knows for sure that Kiev is "not calling the shots," Nebenzia said. Those who can force Kiev to conduct serious negotiations, "they live in this country [the US], somewhere in Europe, on one of the islands across the English Channel," he added.

"If they are willing to do so, they will engage, but we don’t see any willingness on the part of the sponsors of Kiev to go to negotiations with Russia and do it seriously," the ambassador pointed out.

Russia believes that Western countries are waging a proxy war against it in Ukraine. On Tuesday, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu claimed that the US and its allies are trying to prolong the conflict between Moscow and Kiev by supporting Ukraine with heavy weaponry, warning that such policies could "lead to an unpredictable escalation."

In spring 2022, Russia and Ukraine held several rounds of talks, with Moscow initially voicing optimism about the peace process. However, Ukraine abruptly withdrew from the negotiations shortly after a visit by then-British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to Kiev on April 9.
https://www.rt.com/russia/571332-russia-west-calls-shots-ukraine/
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11 Feb, 2023 18:24

6) --- Serbia may soon be forced to sanction Russia – Vucic

Western pressure on Belgrade will drastically increase as the Ukraine conflict escalates, the Serbian president said

The moment is approaching when Serbia will have no choice but to give in to Western demands to sanction its ally Russia, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has said.

In an interview with Prva broadcaster on Friday, Vucic said he expects “a major escalation” in the conflict in Ukraine over the next six months. The fighting to date will feel like “almost nothing, compared to what’s coming,” he warned.

This situation “will affect our country as the pressure on Belgrade, in terms of its relations with Russia, will become two or three times tougher – despite already being very strong now,” the president said.

Sanctioning Moscow over its military operation in Ukraine and recognizing the independence of the breakaway province of Kosovo have been singled out by Brussels as key conditions for Belgrade’s bid to join the EU.

Vucic, who has been rejecting both demands for months, now says the moment may eventually come when Belgrade would have to join the EU’s curbs on Moscow.

“Let us push like this as long as we can, I will know when the moment is right, and I will not hide anything from people. That moment [when Serbia sanctions Russia] has been approaching for a long time, I am afraid that it’s not even months away,” he said.

The Serbian president revealed that he used to believe that the West, which is backing the Kiev government with weapons, funds and intelligence, was getting the upper hand in Ukraine. However, “at this moment, it’s no longer entirely clear who is winning in Ukraine,” he added.

Moscow’s chances of succeeding have been boosted by the fact that there is now “unity” among the Russian people regarding the conflict, especially after the announcement by Berlin and some other countries last month that German-made Leopard tanks would be supplied to Kiev, he said.

According to Vucic, it’ll be “difficult” for Serbia no matter who prevails in Ukraine. “The West doesn’t want a country allied with Russia in the middle of Europe. On the other hand, Russia doesn’t want to lose everything it has in the Balkans,” he said.

That’s why Belgrade remains among the few international players who speak about the need for a diplomatic solution to the crisis, but “no one is allowed to mention peace anymore,” he stated.
https://www.rt.com/news/571340-vucic-serbia-sanctions-ukraine/
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19 Jan, 2023 18:09 --- RECALL

6) --- Serbia urged to align with EU

The European Parliament says it regrets Belgrade’s low level of compliance with the bloc's position on Russia

The European Parliament (EP) has adopted a resolution calling on Serbia to align with the EU’s common foreign and security policies (CFSP), especially those dealing with sanctions against third countries, such as Russia. The EP stressed that Belgrade's candidate status obliges it to adhere to the EU’s values and rights, while Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic believes the bloc to be hypocritical.

The resolution, published on Wednesday and based on the annual CFSP report for 2022, stressed that it was important that Western Balkan countries be brought into full alignment with EU policies. The document’s authors drew special attention to Serbia’s relationship with Russia, its lack of condemnation of Moscow’s actions in Ukraine, and the "consequences of this relationship in the Western Balkans."

The EP insisted that any "new accession negotiation chapters" regarding Belgrade’s EU membership, should only be opened after "Serbia bolsters its commitment to reforms in the areas of democracy and the rule of law."

Serbia was also urged to normalize relations with Kosovo based on "mutual recognition," and Belgrade was chastised for its "continuous pattern of escalatory actions." The EP reiterated its position that Kosovo’s independence is "irreversible" and urged the five EU member states that have yet to recognize it, Spain, Slovakia, Cyprus, Romania, and Greece, to do so "with immediate effect."

Vucic has blasted the resolution as hypocritical and has called it a prime example of the West’s "shameless" behavior.

"They organized violent secession of our territory. How far could this shameless behavior go? I do not have the words." Vucic said on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Wednesday.

"Everything I heard, no one wants to hear or see that there is a different point of view, the only thing they are interested in is an independent Kosovo, sanctions on Russia, there is no opposition," he added.

Serbia's Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic also condemned the report and stated that "before lecturing Serbia on its failure to align with EU foreign policy, the EP should align with the fundamental principles of international law regarding the protection of the territorial integrity of world states."

NATO took control of Kosovo in 1999, after months-long bombings of Serbia on behalf of ethnic Albanian insurgents. The province’s provisional government declared independence in 2008, with US and EU backing. With support from Russia and China, Serbia has resisted pressure to recognize it ever since.
https://www.rt.com/news/570159-serbia-align-eu-policies/
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11 Feb, 2023 11:09

6a) --- Serbia responds to 'cancel-Russian-culture' calls

Aleksandar Vucic told the media that his government, despite being “on the European path,” will not cancel the Russian classics

Serbia will not jump on the Russia-bashing bandwagon and cancel the country’s culture, President Aleksandar Vucic has told media. He explained that preserving the Russian classics in the public domain is as important as guarding national financial interests.

In an interview with Serbia’s Prva news channel broadcast on Friday, Vucic acknowledged that his country largely depends on the West in terms of investment. For this reason, the president noted, those who call on Belgrade to cut these ties “don't know how the country works.”

Vucic went on to argue that the notion that Serbia should “break completely with Russia,” and “throw out [novelist] Dostoyevsky, [composer] Tchaikovsky and [writer] Tolstoy” is equally absurd.

“That can't be Serbia, we have to take care of the soul of our people,” the president clarified.

Last month, during a press conference in the Russian embassy in Belgrade, President Vladimir Putin’s special envoy on international cultural cooperation, Mikhail Shvydkoy, announced that Belgrade and Moscow were discussing holding a year of cultural exchange in 2024.

Several renowned Russian musicians will visit Serbia already this year. On top of that, a meeting of Russian and Serbian academia is also in the pipeline, Shvydkoy revealed.

Following the start of Russia’s military operation against Ukraine in late February 2022, a number of European cultural venues have canceled the staging of artworks which have Russian origins and have also barred some Russian performers who have refused to denounce Moscow’s actions.

Certain politicians in the EU have also spoken in favor of such bans.

As recently as early January, Lithuanian culture minister Simonas Kairys spoke in favor of a “mental quarantine” on Russian culture, claiming the latter is being used by Moscow as a “weapon.”

Earlier, the Cardiff Philharmonic Orchestra in Wales erased music by Russian composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky from a concert program, while Britain's Royal Opera House called off a tour by the Bolshoi Ballet.

Netflix, in turn, put on hold the production of ‘Anna K,’ an adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s novel ‘Anna Karenina’.

Commenting on these tendencies, Russian President Vladimir Putin has drawn parallels between Western efforts to cancel Russian culture to the Nazi practice of book burning.
https://www.rt.com/russia/571322-serbian-president-russian-culture/
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1 Feb, 2023 02:37

7) --- Biden meets with Brazil’s president

The two leaders remain split on the conflict in Ukraine, with the White House questioning whether peace talks are “appropriate”

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has met with his US counterpart Joe Biden, their first face-to-face discussion since Lula’s election win last year. While Brazil’s leader proposed a path to end fighting in Ukraine, the Biden administration all but rejected the idea.

Meeting at the White House on Friday, the two leaders put a heavy focus on climate change and the “defense of democracy,” in view of Brazil's wave of chaotic unrest that followed last year's presidential election.

“Both our nations’ strong democracies have been tested of late – very much tested – and our institutions were put in jeopardy,” Biden said at the beginning of the talks, referring to the US’ own bout of unrest following its 2020 presidential race. “But both in the United States and Brazil, democracy prevailed.”

Lula thanked Biden for showing “solidarity” after his election victory amid protests and rioting, going on to compare the attack on Brazil’s National Congress by protesters earlier this year to the “Capitol invasion” in the United States on January 6, 2021.

The Brazilian leader also outlined several areas on which Brazil and the US could work together, including the preservation of democratic institutions, curbing climate change and fighting racial inequality.

After the meeting concluded, Lula told reporters that he would like to make efforts to end the conflict in Ukraine, calling to bring together a “group of countries that aren’t directly or indirectly involved in the war… so that we can have a possibility to build peace.”

“That is, I'm convinced that we need to find a way out to end this war,” he continued, adding: “I found Biden shared the same concern.”

While the two leaders did not publicly discuss the conflict raging in Eastern Europe on Friday, US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby appeared to throw cold water on Lula’s peace talks proposal.

Asked about the idea during a press briefing, Kirby said an end to the fighting “doesn’t appear to be in the offing,” arguing that the US would have to “stay at the task of supporting Ukraine so that they can succeed at the battlefield.”

“It’s really up to President [Vladimir] Zelensky to determine if and when negotiations are appropriate and certainly under what circumstances,” he said. “As President Biden has said countless times, ‘Nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine.’”

Since taking office, Lula has declined to follow the US lead in supplying arms and other military hardware to Kiev, and previously voiced skepticism over the Western sanctions campaign targeting Russia’s economy. During an interview with Time magazine last year, while he was still a front-runner in Brazil’s presidential race, Lula said both Ukraine and Russia bore responsibility for the conflict, a view starkly at odds with Washington and its allies.
https://www.rt.com/news/571311-biden-meets-brazil-president/
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RECALL ---- 31 Jan, 2023 08:26

7a) --- Brazil makes proposal on Ukraine peace talks
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Countries should form a group dedicated to brokering negotiations between Moscow and Kiev, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has said

The world should form a club of countries focused on achieving a peace settlement between Russia and Ukraine, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Monday. He added that, unlike many Western nations, Brazil would not offer weapons to Kiev.

“It is necessary to constitute a group with enough strength to be respected at a negotiating table, and sit down with both sides,” the president, who is commonly known just as Lula, stated. He was speaking in Brasilia, the nation’s capital, after meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

Lula mentioned the G20, an informal club of the world's biggest economies that began meeting regularly after the start of the 2008 financial crisis.

“We want to propose [a type of] a G20 to put an end to the Russia-Ukraine conflict.”

“Brazil will make an effort,” Lula declared, adding that he had discussed the matter with Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron. He claimed he would also speak about the issue with US President Joe Biden, Chinese President Xi Jinping and other world leaders.

At the same time, the Brazilian president stressed that his country would not be sending weapons to Ukraine.

Brazil has no interest in passing on ammunition to be used in the war between Ukraine and Russia. Brazil is a country of peace. At this moment, we need to find those who want peace, a word that until now has been used very little.

Last week, Germany, together with the US and several other NATO members, pledged to provide Kiev with heavy armor for the first time. The Kremlin has maintained that the deliveries will only further escalate the conflict, and that Western tanks will “burn” on the battlefield.

Brazil also decided not to impose sanctions on Russia after Moscow launched its military operation in Ukraine last February. Lula’s predecessor, former President Jair Bolsonaro, said at the time that restrictions imposed on Russia by the US and EU “did not work.”
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11 Feb, 2023 07:40

8) --- US unveils new sanctions on China
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The restrictions come days after the Pentagon brought down a suspected Chinese ‘spy balloon’

The US announced new sanctions against China on Friday, targeting six companies linked to Beijing’s suspected surveillance program. The move comes after a Chinese “spy balloon” was spotted and shot down in US airspace.

In a statement, the US Commerce Department said the entities were being blacklisted for supporting China’s “military modernization efforts, specifically those related to aerospace programs.” These included airships, balloons and related materials used by Beijing for intelligence and reconnaissance.

The new restrictions will make it harder for the sanctioned companies to obtain US technologies. The targeted entities include Beijing Nanjing Aerospace Technology and China Electronics Technology Group Corporation’s 48th Research Institute.

China’s “use of high-altitude balloons violates our sovereignty and threatens US national security,” Under Secretary of Commerce for Industry and Security Alan Estevez stated. He said the sanctions would make clear that entities seeking to undermine Washington’s national security “will be cut off from accessing US technologies.”

The ‘spy balloon’ saga started last week when the Pentagon said it was tracking a suspected Chinese surveillance airship over the US state of Montana. Two days later, it was brought down by a F-22 fighter jet over the water off the coast of South Carolina. While the Pentagon accuses China of using the balloon to “surveil strategic sites” in the US, Beijing described the vessel as a “civilian airship” which strayed into the US territory due to force majeure circumstances.

China’s foreign ministry said some US politicians and media outlets had “hyped” the incident as a pretext to “attack and smear China,” reiterating that Beijing has “never violated the territory and airspace of any sovereign country.” It described claims that China was targeting the US with an airship surveillance system as nothing but “information warfare.”

US President Joe Biden found himself in hot water over his handling of the incident, with many lawmakers from both sides of the aisle complaining that the balloon should have been downed sooner. However, Biden said he did not want to destroy the aircraft over land due to safety concerns, adding that he didn’t view the incident as a major security breach.

On Friday, the Pentagon also said the president had ordered an unidentified high-altitude object near Alaska to be shot down “out of an abundance of caution.” The department said it did not know to whom the object belonged, but noted that it “posed a reasonable threat to the safety of civilian flight.”
https://www.rt.com/news/571314-us-sanctions-china-spy-balloon/
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11 Feb, 2023 13:59

9) --- Tulsi Gabbard slams ‘dangerous’ Clinton following India trip

The noted Hillary Clinton critic said that the visit shows she is ‘envious’ of the Biden presidency

Former Democratic US Representative Tulsi Gabbard has continued her long-running feud with Hillary Clinton following the ex-Secretary of State’s recent visit to India. She told Fox News that the trip served little purpose, and shows that former presidential candidate is a “dangerous character” who is “envious” of Joe Biden.

Clinton arrived in India on February 5, visiting salt pan workers in Gujarat where she announced a $50-million initiative intended to empower women and communities to fight against climate change.

However, Gabbard – who left the Democrat Party last year – has since said that Clinton’s visit to drum up support for alternative clean energy shows that she still covets diplomatic authority and is “envious” of Joe Biden's presidency.

“Her desire to be commander-in-chief that she’s had for a very long time has nothing to do with ensuring the safety and security of the American people,” Gabbard said on FOX News’ ‘Jesse Watters Primetime’ show Thursday. “It has everything to do with the fact that if there’s a war to be fought, she wants to be the one with her finger on that proverbial trigger.”

She added that she believes Biden to be “channelling her warmongering ways.” Clinton has previously referred to Gabbard as a “Russian asset,” which prompted the former Hawaii Democrat to launch a defamation lawsuit.

Gabbard also stated that Clinton’s visit to India did nothing to address India’s more pressing issues, such as tensions with its neighbor Pakistan, and that its only benefit was to increase her own public profile. “This is what makes her such a dangerous character,” Gabbard said. “She feels that she’s not accountable to anyone because she’s not suffering those consequences.”

While in India, Clinton said that the country was ideally positioned to implement clean energy methods, which, she claimed, would increase economic growth. She referenced solar power facilities at a salt pan farm she'd visited in Surendranagar as evidence of this.

Clinton also used the visit to praise self-employed Indian women who have chosen to work in roles such as street vendors, farmers and laborers.
https://www.rt.com/news/571330-gabbard-hillary-clinton-india/
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11 Feb, 2023 14:44 OP-ED

10) --- The new US plan for calming Palestine-Israel tensions is already failing

Washington’s proposal looks like mutual de-escalation between Palestine and Israel, but fails to acknowledge facts on the ground - Robert Inlakesh

The US Biden administration has reportedly presented a plan to cool tensions between Palestinians and Israelis, which have dramatically escalated since the formation of Israel’s new right-wing government.

As reported by Axios, following up on a request made by US secretary of State Antony Blinken, during his visit to the Middle East late last month, his Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, Barbara Leaf, stayed behind and worked on presenting a roadmap towards preventing a violent escalation in the region. Antony Blinken had urged both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to “pause” provocative steps in order to avoid further hostilities.

The requests made by the Biden administration were originally geared towards the Palestinian Authority (PA) taking significant steps, whilst minimal requirements were put on the Netanyahu government. Antony Blinken urged Mahmoud Abbas to implement a “security plan” presented by US security coordinator Lt. Gen. Michael Fenzel, who proposed creating a special PA Security Force wing that would be trained by the US to fight Palestinian militias that have formed over the past two years in the Jenin and Nablus areas. Later on, the US also requested that Israel reduce the number of raids on Palestinian towns and refugee camps, in addition to halting their plans for significant settlement expansion; both of which Israel refuses to follow through on.

Rogue militias
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In September of 2021, the Jenin Brigades armed group announced its formation out of the Jenin refugee camp, later growing and expanding its areas of operations to the wider Jenin area. The armed group does not have any traceable command-and-control structure. It consists primarily of men between the ages of 18 and 25, mostly formed of members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) movement and Fatah Party members who are no longer loyal to the ruling clique in the party that commands the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority. Later, in September of 2022, the Lions’ Den armed movement also announced its formation in the old city of Nablus, claiming to belong to no political party. Due to the rise of newly formed armed groups, which hasn’t happened in the West Bank since the early 2000s, the Palestinian Authority’s security forces have lost control of much of the northern West Bank.

The US proposal for the Palestinian Authority to form a special force to fight against the armed militias is an extremely dangerous intervention in the affairs of the region. It is reminiscent of the UK-backed “peace bands” formed under the British Mandate in the late 1930s, when the British took the initiative to use Palestinians to fight each other. However, unlike then, there is no support for anti-militia activities from the Palestinian public today. In fact, the overwhelming majority support the Jenin Brigades, Lions’ Den and other armed groups, according to all available polling data. The PA has been significantly weakened over the past three years due to a financial crisis, corruption, the lack of any diplomatic breakthroughs, the postponement of national elections, and the killing and detention of Palestinians for the sake of Israeli security.

Third Intifada coming?
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The Palestinian Authority has even been engaged in limited armed exchanges with the newly formed militias in the West Bank over the past year, triggering mass protests from angry West Bank residents. The number one issue that Palestinians in the West Bank have with the PA is its ‘security coordination’ with Israel, which essentially means that the PA’s security forces work with the Israeli military, intelligence and border police, in order to combat Palestinian threats against Israelis, but not the other way around. When Israel raided the Jenin refugee camp last month, killing 10 Palestinians, including three civilians, one of whom was an elderly woman, the PA announced the suspension of security coordination in response.

The US assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs met last week with Israel’s National Security Advisor Tzachi Hanegbi, and President Abbas’ senior advisor, Hussein al-Sheikh, to propose that the Palestinian Authority return to security coordination with Israel, in exchange for Israel slowing down settlement expansion. The US also sought for the PA to pause its attempts to take Israel before the International Court of Justice and the UN for alleged war crimes – a move for which the PA has been punished with Israeli sanctions.

Last Thursday, CIA director Bill Burns expressed his concern over the possibility of a ‘third intifada’ [Palestinian uprising] erupting inside the West Bank, stating that “a lot of what we’re seeing today has a very unhappy resemblance to some of those realities that we saw then [during the Second Intifada] too”. His concern is congruent with the reality on the ground, where last year was the deadliest for West Bank Palestinians since the end of the Second Intifada in 2005, according to the United Nations. Palestinian attacks against Israeli settlers and soldiers are also a daily occurrence now.

Two-state solution blocked
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Despite the US government clearly identifying the nature of the escalation, it shows complete ignorance of its own role in creating the current hostilities. The bulk of the US secretary of state’s visit to Palestine-Israel was tailored to forwarding Arab-Israeli normalization efforts and to expanding the ‘Negev Forum’, which Morocco, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt form with Israel, in order to advance their own ties. At the same time, Antony Blinken spoke of reaching a “two-state solution” between Palestinians and Israelis as being the only path to any lasting peace.

Under the Arab Peace Initiative of 2002 (also known as the Saudi Initiative), a “two-state solution” (meaning the recognition by Israel of a Palestinian state and the end of occupation of Palestinian territories) is a precondition for the normalization of ties between Israel and Arab states. By pushing for normalization without that precondition, Blinken effectively seeks to deprive the Palestinian Authority of its best bargaining chip and leaves it powerless to extract any concessions from the Israeli government, whose officials will not even consider sitting down for meetings with their Palestinian counterparts.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has already stated that he is not willing to halt settlement expansion, as proposed by the US government, with Israel’s Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich, openly announcing that there will be no freeze on settlement construction, which is considered illegal by the UN and most world powers. Israel has also announced its intention to increase raids and further military activities in the West Bank, in what it deems to be a preparation for likely hostilities during the Muslim Holy month of Ramadan.

Hope for Palestinians is the only way to peace
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Despite the PA having announced the end of its security coordination with Israel, it is clear that some coordination is still occurring and that the announcement was more of a public relations move for President Abbas, who is feeling the pressure from a disgruntled Palestinian population. This in itself is a key indicator that the PA is feeling the pressure from Palestinian society at large and a sign that any US-trained PA force to combat the militia groups could lead to a disaster, whereby the Ramallah-based authority could even be overthrown due to the outrage such a step would cause. When the CIA worked to create the “new PA security force” during the latter years of the Second Intifada, it only worked after the PA itself had participated in the fight against the Israeli military and still maintained some degree of popular support. In addition to this, the Israeli army had conducted ‘Operation Defensive Shield,’ which led to the assassinations or arrests of the most prominent militia leaders inside the West Bank.

The only way the PA could possibly regain control of Jenin and Nablus is by proving to the Palestinian people that it is on their side, and not fighting for the US and Israel. It is also the reality that many of the leading fighters in the militia groups, especially in Jenin, are actually members of the PA’s security forces that have gone rogue. Armed militias also seem to be forming in areas like Bethlehem, al-Khalil and even Jericho, which proves that the re-emergence of the armed struggle in the West Bank is not only limited to the north of the territory.

The only way to properly combat the escalation and to stop this from growing into a much larger confrontation, is to provide hope for the Palestinian people inside the West Bank, something that the US will not even consider. Instead of the US working as an objective mediator, it works solely for Israel’s immediate interests and accepts the political restraints of each Israeli government as an excuse for repeatedly violating its own red lines. The US considers every single Palestinian political party as a terrorist organization, other than the mainstream branch of the Fatah Party, meaning that they will not even talk to any Palestinian representatives other than those that adhere to their own demands. The obsessive pursuit of Saudi Arabia normalizing ties with Israel, seemingly for political gain on behalf of the Biden administration, also contributes to robbing Palestinians of any hope for peace.

The situation inside the West Bank cannot be resolved using bombs and bullets. Even if every single member of all the armed groups were to be killed, the same problem would again emerge for Israel in the future. Despite this, Washington will never look critically at what is going on and realize that there are two sides to this conflict. At this time the US government is dealing with the escalation as if Israel has a termite problem and not that there are people who are rising up in an ongoing struggle for statehood.

Robert Inlakesh is a political analyst, journalist and documentary filmmaker currently based in London, UK. He has reported from and lived in the Palestinian territories and currently works with Quds News. Director of ‘Steal of the Century: Trump's Palestine-Israel Catastrophe’.

" ...The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.... "
https://www.rt.com/news/571334-us-israel-palestine-peace/
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