Puppet MastersS


Sherlock

Uncovering untold secrets of NATO -- a monstrous remnant from Cold War days


Xinhua
Tue, 26 Apr 2022 18:17 UTC
uncle sam and nato
As the Russia-Ukraine conflict rages on, tensions between NATO and Russia have verged on downright hostilities.

The gloomy reality on the ground brings up a question as to why, more than 30 years after the end of the Cold War, the world appears to have regressed to where it ever was.

Thanks to their intentionally neglected nuance in depicting the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Western media have framed Russia as the lone villain. Close scrutiny of regional geopolitics, however, makes clear that NATO, a remnant from Cold War days, bears responsibility for precipitating the current crisis, not least for its relentless expansion at the expense of Russia's security concerns.
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Oil Well

EU to boost Russian gas imports through countries willing to pay in rubles - 4 EU countries have made payments in rubles


RT
Wed, 27 Apr 2022 17:54 UTC
Gas pipelines
© REUTERS / Christian Charisius
The European Union plans to significantly increase the purchase of Russian natural gas through countries that are ready to pay for the commodity in rubles, TASS news agency reported on Wednesday citing a government source in Brussels.

"An emergency meeting of the Gas Coordinating Group took place today in view of the situation in Poland and Bulgaria. A temporary decision was made to significantly increase gas purchases from Russia through the remaining channels, which will allow Poland and Bulgaria to purchase additional volumes of gas on the European market. The EU is also working with all partners to ensure an increase in gas supplies, primarily liquefied natural gas (LNG)," the source was cited as saying.

The move is aimed to compensate for the lack of supplies to Poland and Bulgaria after Russian energy giant Gazprom announced that it would no longer deliver gas to the two countries due to their refusal to adhere to the new ruble-based gas payment mechanism. Last month, Russia demanded that buyers from "unfriendly" countries open ruble accounts in a Russian bank for the transfer of payments. The measure covers only the countries that placed sanctions on Moscow over Russia's military operation in Ukraine.

"In the long term, EU countries confirm their intention in the shortest possible timeframe - within months or years - to minimize or completely end the supply of gas from Russia, replacing it with other sources. The EU will speed up the transition to green energy," the source added, echoing earlier statements by various EU officials who called on the bloc to reduce its reliance on Russian gas in light of the events in Ukraine.

Comment: The absurdity of the politics of petulance. Poland has already raised its bid for reverse gas supplies from Germany so it doesn't have to pay Russia in rubles. Austria has already agreed to pay in rubles, and has set up an account to do so. Germany insists paying for rubles does not undermine sanctions.

Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the European Commission, is calling the scheme "blackmail." She described the move as "unjustified and unacceptable," adding that it further highlighted the "unreliability of Russia as a gas supplier." Of course, the EU's raft of sanctions and the general Western response to Russia intervening in Ukraine, including freezing of Russian assets abroad, must be completely justified, acceptable, and highlight the reliability of Western nations as international partners.

The Kremlin responded:
"This is not blackmail. Russia has been and remains a reliable supplier, committed to its obligations. The conditions that were outlined in the presidential decree, the need for them was caused by unprecedented hostile steps against us," Peskov stated, adding that the decision was communicated to natural gas buyers long before it took effect. "We've been robbed of a significant amount of our reserves. And this required a transition to a new system."


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Megaphone

China issues 'color revolution' warning for Kazakhstan


RT
Wed, 27 Apr 2022 17:59 UTC
Kazakhstan bombing
© Rasul Nazyrov / Sputnik
The Chinese defense minister has said Beijing stands opposed to foreign intervention in Kazakhstan, warning of "color revolutions" launched under the guise of protests while also vowing to support the country's efforts to "safeguard national security."

Following a meeting with Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev in Nur-Sultan on Monday, Defense Minister Wei Fenghe touted the "bright future prospects" offered by bilateral ties, also touching on the threat posed by foreign interference.

"China firmly opposes external forces deliberately instigating a 'color revolution' in Kazakhstan, and supports Kazakhstan in taking effective measures to safeguard national security and social stability," Wei said, as cited by the Defense Ministry. "We must be alert to some major powers interfering in Central Asia and disrupting the security of Central Asia."
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Dominoes

Ukraine could dissolve into several states - Moscow


RT
Tue, 26 Apr 2022 17:44 UTC
ukraine flag
© AP / Alexei Alexandrov
The policy pursued by the West and the "Kiev regime" it controls may ultimately result in Ukraine falling apart and ceasing to exist as a unified state, the secretary of Russia's Security Council, Nikolay Patrushev, has predicted.

"Finding no positive ways to win Ukrainians over to its side, Washington, long before the 2014 coup d'etat, has been persuading Ukrainians of the supremacy of their nation and hatred toward everything Russian," Patrushev told the Rossiyskaya Gazeta newspaper in an exclusive interview, excerpts from which were published Tuesday.
Today, the peoples living in Ukraine are held together only by fear of nationalist battalions. Such a policy of the West and the Kiev regime it controls can result only in disintegration of Ukraine into several states.
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Wolf

Shaping the Russiagate hoax: Durham has hundreds of e-mails between Fusion GPS and reporters

Techno Fog
The Reactionary
Wed, 27 Apr 2022 14:47 UTC
hillary clinton michael sussmann
© Getty Images/CSPANFailed candidate Hillary Clinton and indicted Clinton machine lawyer Michael Sussmann
Special Counsel John Durham just filed this motion in response to the efforts of Hillary for America, Fusion GPS, et al. to keep secret (by use of the attorney-client and work product privileges) communications involving Fusion GPS. You can read it here.

Durham states the "purported privilege holders who have intervened do so in a case in which the defendant has denied representing any client when he brought the Russian Bank-1 allegations to the FBI." The privilege controversy thus entraps Sussmann to a certain extent, seemingly precluding his denial that he was working on behalf of a client. Brilliant.

Additionally, Durham casts doubt on the declaration of Marc Elias that Fusion GPS was retained to provide "legal advice." Here he makes a key point:
"if rendering such advice was truly the intended purpose of Fusion GPS's retention, one would also expect the investigative firm to seek permission and/or guidance from [Hillary for America] or its counsel before sharing such derogatory materials with the media or otherwise placing them into the public domain."

Comment: An earlier Techno Fog piece on the "legal advice" Killary was acting on. The whole article is worth a read:
Having already produced thousands of pages of materials requested by grand jury subpoenas, they're all desperate to keep these remaining records secret. We can't help but think the information is damaging. How damaging might it be? Damaging enough for this fight.

We also can't help but believe Hillary for America, Fusion GPS, Sussmann, and the rest of them will lose this fight to keep these records secret. Here's a quick rundown of why (Durham's motion to compel goes into more detail on the legal arguments, if you're curious) Durham will likely get these documents and e-mails:
  1. The actual work was political, not legal. Previous statements confirm that Fusion GPS was retained for political research, and not for "legal advice" or for the purposes of litigation. Fusion was hired to perform "political work" - specifically, "deep research on Trump." As Simpson and Fritsch wrote, Elias "loved" the Trump/Russia narrative and "Fusion's research team would soon be hired and given wide latitude to go where the story led it." As Durham observed, Fusion GPS wasn't providing legal advice when it met with Rodney Joffe or promoted the Alfa Bank allegations.
  2. Fusion GPS shared its findings with the U.S. government and the press (related to #1). I won't provide all contacts, but will summarize some briefly. Christopher Steele met with the FBI in July 2016, and continued his contacts with them until he was terminated as a source for his contacts with David Corn. The FBI would later use Bruce Ohr as a conduit to Steele. Fusion GPS would meet with reporters leading up to the 2016 election and pressure newsrooms and reporters to publish the Alfa Bank hoax. Likewise, Sussmann would provide the Fusion GPS opposition research to reporters.
  3. The "privilege" was always a pretext. In Fusion GPS's initial meeting with Marc Elias, he said "Fusion would only be reporting to him" for "legal reasons: if Fusion's communications were with a lawyer, they would be considered privileged and kept confidential." Elias then structured the retention agreement with Fusion GPS to be for "legal advice" - despite their conversation that Fusion GPS would be conducting opposition research. Or are we to believe that the mighty Marc Elias needs legal advice from Glenn Simpson and Christopher Steele?
  4. While Hillary for America, et al. make sweeping generalities about legal services Fusion GPS provided, they did not address the communications and documents that are subject to Durham's motion to compel. The court will look at the emails/documents specifically and make his own judgment.


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War Whore

UK says it backs Ukraine's right to attack Russian territory as Kremlin claims NATO is fighting a proxy war

Catherine Neilan
Business Insider
Tue, 26 Apr 2022 12:51 UTC
ukrainian soldier UK weapon
© Alex Chan Tsz Yuk/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty ImagesA Ukrainian soldier demonstrates a weapon provided by the UK in April 2022.
It is "completely legitimate" for Ukraine to attack Russian territory, a British defence minister has said, as Russia accused the NATO military alliance of waging a proxy war.

James Heappey, the UK armed forces minister, told Times Radio on Tuesday that Ukraine was justified in seeking to disrupt Russian supplies.

"In war, Ukraine needs to strike into its opponents' depth to attack its logistics lines, its fuel supplies, its ammunition depots, and that's part of it," he said.

Comment: Of course the NATO is going to discount the legitimate reason for Russia's actions as "nonsense," and scoff at their warnings of possible escalations, even nuclear strikes. But Russia certainly doesn't see it that way. More from RT:
The Russian Ministry of Defense has accused London of a "direct provocation" after British Armed Forces Minister James Heappey encouraged Ukrainian forces to use UK-supplied weapons to attack targets inside Russia. Any attempts to do so would invoke an immediate response, the ministry warned in a statement on Tuesday.

"We want to emphasize that London's direct provocation of the Kiev regime to such actions, should they attempt to do so, will immediately lead to our proportional response. As we have warned, the Russian armed forces are on standby around the clock to retaliate with long-range high-precision weapons against decision-making centers in Kiev," the military warned.

The ministry went on to say that "advisers from one of the Western nations" located in these centers "won't necessarily be a problem" in Russia's decision-making regarding retaliatory measures.

...

The UK has been among the top arms suppliers of Kiev, pouring thousands of anti-tank missiles into the country ahead of the large-scale Russian military operation that kicked off in late February. Prime Minister Boris Johnson recently announced an additional £100 million ($130 million) package of heavy weaponry for Kiev, which includes anti-aircraft weapons, drones, and various armored vehicles.

Moscow has warned the West against ramping up weapon supplies, with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stating that the conflict has effectively turned into a "proxy war" waged by NATO against Russia. The country's military has repeatedly targeted depots where these supplies are amassed and will continue doing so, he said.

"These weapons will be a legitimate target for the Russian Armed Forces," Lavrov stated. "Warehouses, including in the west of Ukraine, have become such a target more than once. How else? NATO is essentially going to war with Russia through a proxy and arming that proxy. War means war."


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No Entry

Russia halts gas supplies to Bulgaria and Poland after failing to pay for fuel in rubles


RT
Wed, 27 Apr 2022 06:17 UTC
Bovanenkovo gas field
Incoming pipelines leading to the Bovanenkovo gas field on the Yamal peninsula in the Arctic circle, Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Region, Russia
Gazprom, Russia's main natural gas supplier, has announced a complete halt in gas exports to Bulgaria and Poland on Wednesday after the two countries refused to make payments in rubles. According to a statement, supplies will not resume until Sofia and Warsaw comply with the new terms.

The Saint Petersburg-based energy giant warned that should Bulgaria and Poland start siphoning off Russian transit gas intended for other countries, it will reduce supplies by the amount Sofia and Warsaw has illegally withheld.

In a statement early on Wednesday, the company explained that "as of the end of the working day on 26 April, Gazprom Export had not received ruble payments for gas deliveries in April from the companies 'Bulgargaz' (Bulgaria) and PGNiG (Poland)," as required under President Vladimir Putin's decree dated 31 March. It noted that "payments for gas delivered since 1 April must be made in rubles," and that both companies had been notified of this "in a timely manner."

Comment: Notably Poland and Bulgaria have two of the more compliant vassals in Europe in the US proxy-war against Russia; could one of them be the unnamed country mentioned in the most recent Blinken-Zelensky meeting that is training Ukraine's troops?
Austin will announce that the six-day training of the first tranche of 50 Ukrainian artillerymen is wrapping up and the next set of soldiers begin training after that. The training is taking place outside Ukraine in another European host nation that wishes to remain anonymous.
Also check out SOTT radio's: NewsReal: UK Govt Now Says Russia Might Win in Ukraine After All



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Bad Guys

China's capital city warns of more Covid cases and begins mass testing in the central business district

Evelyn Cheng
CNBC
Mon, 25 Apr 2022 08:44 UTC
Beijing Covid Testing.
© Jiang Qiming | China News Service | Getty ImagesChina’s capital city of Beijing reported a spike in Covid cases over the weekend and began mass testing Monday in the business district of Chaoyang. Within the district, one community that’s pictured here became classified as a high-risk area.
  • China's capital city of Beijing reported a spike in Covid cases over the weekend, and warned more would be found since the virus had spread undetected in the city for a week.
  • The city's business district of Chaoyang began three days of mass testing on Monday for anyone living or working in the region.
  • The increase in cases in Beijing come as mainland China faces its worst Covid outbreak since early 2020 and most of Shanghai, China's largest city, remains under prolonged lockdown.
China's capital of Beijing warned over the weekend that Covid had spread undetected in the city for a week, and that more cases would be found with investigation.

The main business district of Chaoyang began three days of mass testing on Monday for anyone living or working in the region, which is home to many embassies and foreign businesses. The district accounted for most of the 42 new Covid cases reported in Beijing since Friday.

Only specific apartment buildings have been locked down in Beijing. Schools mostly remain open, but the Chaoyang business district ordered a halt of all in-person group activities and training courses, including arts and sports.

Comment: What is going on in China?

We can be sure that it has nothing to do with the pandemic. It looks like we will have to wait and see what is behind this zero Covid policy in China, after a majority of countries in the world are lifting all Covid mandates.

See also:

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Attention

The west has created an empire of lies presupposing the destruction of Russia

Ivan Egorov
StalkerZone Org
Wed, 27 Apr 2022 06:42 UTC
Nikolay Patrushev, Secretary of the Russian Security Council, in an interview with Rossiyskaya Gazeta, spoke about the tasks of the Russian special operation and the role of the United States in supporting neo-nazis. And also - about the near future of Europe, the Russian gold and foreign exchange reserves and sanctions. And also about what changes await our country in the near future.

Chess Game
© StalkerZone Org
Nikolay Platonovich, today, perhaps, the term "Cold War II" no longer seems an exaggeration. The Americans do not hesitate to declare that they won the confrontation with the USSR and that now they will also win. How do you assess these views?

Nikolay Patrushev: Tragic scenarios of global crises, both in past years and today, are being imposed by Washington in its quest to consolidate its hegemony, resisting the collapse of the unipolar world. The United States is doing everything to ensure that other centres of the multipolar world do not even dare to raise their heads, and our country not only dared, but publicly declared that it will not play by the imposed rules. They tried to force Russia to give up its sovereignty, identity, culture, and independent foreign and domestic policy. We have no right to agree with this approach.

In an attempt to suppress Russia, the Americans, using their proteges in Kiev, decided to create an antipode of our country, cynically choosing Ukraine for this, trying to divide essentially a single nation. Having failed to find any positive basis for attracting Ukrainians to its side, long before the 2014 coup d'etat, Washington instilled in Ukrainians the exclusivity of their nation and hatred of everything Russian. However, history teaches that hatred can never become a reliable factor of national unity. If there is anything that unites the peoples living in Ukraine today, it is only the fear of the atrocities of nationalist battalions. Therefore, the result of the policy of the West and the Kiev regime controlled by it can only be the disintegration of Ukraine into several states.

Europe, as you warned a year ago, ended up facing an unprecedented crisis, including one caused by the flow of Ukrainian refugees. How can this affect the internal situation in the European countries themselves?

Nikolay Patrushev: Europe is facing a deep economic and political crisis for their countries. Rising inflation and declining living standards are already taking a toll on the wallet and mood of Europeans. In addition, large-scale migration adds new challenges to old security threats, such as illegal drug distribution and transnational crime. Almost five million Ukrainian migrants have already arrived in Europe. In the near future, their number will grow to ten million. Most of the Ukrainians who have come to the West believe that Europeans should support them and provide for them, and when they are forced to work, they start to rebel.

Representatives of the criminal community who have escaped from Ukraine will try to occupy niches that are favourable to them and put local criminal groups under control, which will undoubtedly be accompanied by a complication of the criminal situation in Europe. A "new breath" will also be received by a widespread business as the sale of orphaned children taken from Ukraine for subsequent illegal adoption in Europe. The West is already facing a revival of the shadow market for purchasing human organs from socially vulnerable segments of the Ukrainian population for clandestine transplant operations for European patients.

The flow of migrants from Ukraine began long before 2022, and now it reminds Europe of long-forgotten diseases. After all, only a tenth of refugees from Ukraine are vaccinated against coronavirus infection, viral hepatitis, tuberculosis, rubella and measles. Because in this former prosperous republic of the Soviet Union, the system of sanitary and epidemiological control and primary health care has been almost completely destroyed.

The goal of denazification is to destroy the neo-nazi foothold created by the West's efforts on our borders
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Bizarro Earth

Threat to national sovereignty set to go down May 22-28 at WHO World Health Assembly

Leo Hohmann
leohohmann.com
Mon, 25 Apr 2022 00:00 UTC
WHO World Health Assembly
'The World Health Organization is attempting a power grab' — quietly setting up a single globalized response to all future pandemics

As previously reported at LeoHohmann.com, the deep state predators in the U.S. and Western governments have decided the world needs a centralized pandemic response controlled and run by the United Nations World Health Organization via an international treaty.

According to the WHO's website, on March 30, 2021, it announced an "urgent call for an International Pandemic Treaty," stating that such a treaty is needed to orchestrate a single globalized response to pandemics. And, "25 heads of government and international leaders" have come together in a joint call to form the treaty.

Don't forget that Yuval Noah Harari, the chief advisor to Klaus Schwab and the World Economic Forum, has stated that globalist elites will use "crises" to bring about world government.

"Catastrophe opens the door" to massive changes that people would otherwise never accept, Harari has said.
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