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© Sputnik/Vadim Savitskii/Russian Defence MinistryRussian peacekeepers' checkpoint in the city of Bendery, Moldova
A series of explosions shook the capital, Tiraspol, at the end of April, and shots have been heard near the border with its war-torn neighbor. Several key military and infrastructure buildings were hit - the Ministry of State Security, a TV and radio center, as well as the largest ammunition warehouse in Eastern Europe. The Transnistria issue has simmered on the fringes of global politics since the original fighting was settled on July 21, 1992, and a ceasefire was signed.
Now, 30 years later, this 'frozen conflict' is challenging European security once again. RT explains who could benefit from an escalation in Transnistria and how developments in the region will be affected by Russia's special military operation in Ukraine.
Explosive situation
The breakaway Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic (PMR) was one of the first regions to go on high alert after the Russian operation began in February. The majority of its residents take a pro-Moscow stance, and since the beginning of the 1990s, Transnistria has severed ties with Moldova and has relied on the Kremlin's support. Geographically, however, the PMR is close to the southwest of Ukraine, bordering Odessa and Vinnitsa.
© Sott.net
This week on NewsReal, Joe and Niall discuss (briefly) the latest 'current thing' (the monkeypox scare), the 'global famine' the US government is blaming on Russia, British monkey-business, the 'evacuation' of Nazis from Azovstal, Dubya's greatest-ever Bushism, and more signs and symptoms of the West's dizzying decline and decay.
Running Time: 01:49:20
Download: MP3 — 75.1 MB
"I've never seen anything of this magnitude," said National Pandemic Fraud Recovery Coordinator Roy Dotson, who has 30 years experience in law enforcement, during a discussion on combating fraud organized by the Bethesda Chapter of AFCEA. "It was an online application so pretty simple. You could look up whatever information you wanted or use other people's identification, PII [Personal Identifiable Information], and put that in, and the money just flowed to whatever accounts you wanted it to."
The lesson? "I've learned that fast money equals fast crime," said Dotson.
Comment: See also:
- Democrat-run states 'redirected' COVID-19 relief funds to implement CRT in public schools
- Criminals have stolen nearly $100 billion in Covid relief funds, Secret Service claims
- Man spent millions in Covid relief payments on luxury cars & private jets
- Appellate Court strikes down racial and gender preferences in Biden's COVID relief law
- Ohio bribes residents to get vaccines with million-dollar lottery using Federal COVID relief funds
- Disabled white farmer sues Biden admin over 'racist' COVID relief plan
The Grayzone can exclusively reveal that Patel appears to be embroiled in a covert "research and influence operation," directly inspired by MI6 "principles and methods" and guided in part by Richard Dearlove, the foreign spying agency's former chief.
While the Home Secretary may not be fully apprised of the dark forces swirling around her, and the purposes for which she is being exploited, there is incontrovertible evidence that her ministerial agenda and Home Office policies are being directly influenced as a result of her links to the shady group.
Comment: For more on Priti Patel's murky history, see below:
- Operation Surprise: leaked emails expose secret intelligence coup to install Boris Johnson
- UK Home Sec Priti Patel accused of "vicious" bullying campaign against top civil servant
- What the Priti Patel scandal tells us about the dark operations of UK's powerful Israel lobby
- Nothing to see here: Priti Patel was part of CIA-linked lobby group with husband of Assange judge
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks during a news conference following a NATO summit in Brussels on March 24.
Erdogan spoke by phone separately on May 21 with Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson and Finnish President Sauli Niinisto, telling Andersson that Stockholm must stop its "political, financial, and military support" for terrorist groups, according to Erdogan's office.
Longtime NATO member Turkey has been especially critical of Sweden for showing leniency toward the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which Turkey and its Western allies list as a terrorist group, and the followers of Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom Ankara holds responsible for an attempted coup in 2016.
Comment: See also:
- Croatia's President is latest NATO member voicing opposition to Sweden and Finland joining
- Turkey's Erdogan puts the brakes on NATO's nordic expansion
- Erdogan says Sweden & Finland should NOT come to Turkey to convince it to approve NATO membership bids
- Sweden to join NATO with Finland as US-led war on Russia escalates
- Finland officially announces support for NATO membership
- Sweden's ruling party divided over moves towards Nato membership
© unherd.com
The Italian political theorist Giorgio Agamben points out that, in fact, the "state of exception" has almost become the rule rather than the exception in the Western liberal democracies over the last century. The language of war is invoked to pursue ordinary domestic politics. Over the past 60 years in the United States, we have had the war on poverty, the war on drugs, the war on terror, the war on Covid, the war on disinformation, and the war on domestic extremism.
A variation on this theme is the utility of moral panics — spiritual warfare — for pursuing top-down projects of social transformation, typically by administrative fiat. The principle of equality under the law, which would seem to be indispensable to a liberal society, must make way for a system of privileges for protected classes, corresponding to a moral typology of citizens along the axis of victim and oppressor. Victim dramas serve as a permanent moral emergency, justifying an ever-deeper penetration of society by bureaucratic authority in both the public and private sectors.
Once this pattern of government by emergency snaps into focus, one experiences a Gestalt shift. The self-image of the liberal West — as based on the rule of law and representative government — is in need of revision. Our society's response to Covid brought this anachronism to mass awareness.
Comment: Contextual explanations do not get much better than this.
© UnknownTaliban
According to claims made by the NRF's Ali Nazary, head of NRF's foreign relations, a fully-fledged offensive has been launched in the Panjshir valley, in at least three districts. The NRF has a presence across Afghanistan's many provinces. As Ali Nazary told the Associated Press of France in an interview, the NRF will launch operations in all the provinces to drive out what it calls illegal occupants (i.e., the Taliban) of power in Kabul.
Comment: USA is up to its old tricks...theme and variation.
© AFP/Olga MaltsevaFormer German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder
Instead, the European Parliament has now drafted a resolution - non-binding at this stage - urging Brussels
"to extend the list of individuals targeted by EU sanctions to the European members of the boards of major Russian companies and to politicians who continue to receive Russian money."The resolution does not name any names, but such an extension would mean that Schroeder, as well as several others, could become the target of asset freezes and property confiscations. Such measures are currently being applied to Russian 'oligarchs', who have lost their mansions and yachts on EU territory. Now, the bloc could start taking away property from its own citizens.
© Reuters/Brian SnyderRobby Mook, Campaign Manager for U.S. Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, and Communications Director Jen Palmieri (L), talk to reporters onboard the campaign plane enroute to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, U.S. October 28, 2016.
Former FBI General Counsel James Baker testified Thursday that the bureau investigated the data alleging a Trump connection to the Kremlin-linked bank, and found that "there was nothing there."
Mook was called to the stand for testimony by Michael Sussmann's defense Friday.
Comment: The masterminds have created the cliff. Will we again line up and step off?