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Russia possesses weapons capable of wiping out any enemy, including US — Patrushev


TASS
Mon, 27 Mar 2023 13:47 UTC
Security Council Secretary Nikolay Patrushev

FILE PHOTO: Security Council Secretary Nikolay Patrushev. It was stressed that the view held by US politicians that Russia won't be able to retaliate against a US pre-emptive nuclear strike is a short-sighted and dangerous stance
Russia possesses advanced unique weapons capable of wiping out any enemy, including the United States, Security Council Secretary Nikolay Patrushev said in an interview with the Rossiyskaya Gazeta daily on Monday.

"Russia is patient and does not intimidate anyone with its military advantage. However, it possesses advanced unique weapons capable of destroying any enemy, including the United States, in case of a threat to its existence," the security chief said.

The view held by US politicians that Russia won't be able to retaliate against a US pre-emptive nuclear strike is a short-sighted and dangerous stance, Patrushev stressed.

Comment: Some commentators are speculating that the weapons Patrushev is referring to could be the SARMAT missile, which, back in 2016, Russia Behind The Headlines notes as:
A new ballistic missile with a destructive power 2000 times greater than the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki is being tested near the Ural Mountains before it enters service with the Russian Strategic Forces. Armed with 10 independently steerable warheads - and numerous decoys - a single RS-28 'Sarmat' intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) can end all human life in an area as large as Texas. According to one US writer, the 100 ton behemoth makes America's 39 ton Minuteman look like a "rocket propelled toothpick".

The western media, for once, is spot on. The 'Sarmat' is the son of the SS-18 'Satan' - the NATO codename for the nearly 50 year old RS-36, which is currently the most powerful missile in existence. The Sarmat will not only have stealth features but can travel vast distances - exceeding 11,000 km - so that it can be launched over either the North or South Poles, creating huge certainty in the enemy's mind. These features make it an extremely useful weapon of strategic deterrence.
That said, there are a variety of other weapons, both officially acknowledged, and not, that he, and his colleagues, may have in mind:


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Arrow Down

Why Crashing Banks Will Usher in Central Bank Digital Currency

Dr. Joseph Mercola
Mercola.com
Mon, 27 Mar 2023 00:00 UTC
CBDC and the FED
Three large banks failed in a single week in March 2023, and the ripple effect could easily take down the entire banking system, although government officials insist the banking sector "remains strong" and that the problems faced by these banks "do not appear to be widespread."1

Cascading Domino of Bank Failures

The cascading bank failures began March 8 with the shut down and liquidation of the crypto bank Silvergate Capital.2 As reported by Government Executive:3
"During 2022, Silvergate's deposit base grew dramatically, almost doubling its assets to $210 billion. But the bank did not have either the administrative capacity or market demand to lend out all of the money, as banks normally do.

So, it invested the excess deposits in Treasury bonds and mortgage investment products. But the bond purchases became a problem as the Federal Reserve began to raise interest rates to address inflation."

Comment: All of the above is to say nothing of: Ellen Brown: The Looming Quadrillion Dollar Derivatives Tsunami

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Toys

'Show some respect': Estonia's PM objects to Russians laughing about West's failing sanctions efforts on the internet


Mriya
Sun, 26 Mar 2023 22:51 UTC
Kaya Kallas

Prime Minister of Estonia Kaya Kallas
"The approval of each package of sanctions against Russia is a complex process that involves all EU members. It takes weeks, months to approve new sanctions. Nevertheless, Russians allow themselves to joke on the Internet about each new package of sanctions, they openly mock our work. I ask them to take this seriously and show at least some respect" .

Comment: Four days ago Reuters reported that Estonia's PM rejected easing the sanctions:
Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas on Thursday spoke against any weakening of sanctions against Russia under a deal to export Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea, and called for the G7 to tighten its oil cap to squeeze Russia's revenue more.

"We know that Russia is earning less from the oil... we see the economic sanctions, including the oil price cap, are having an effect on the Russian economy and their ability to fuel the war machine," she said on arriving to talks among the EU's 27 national leaders in Brussels on Thursday and Friday.


Maybe Russia is making a bit less from selling oil, but citizens of the West are paying up to 3 times the cost for gas, and their governments have been threatening them with rolling blackouts all winter. Meanwhile the West has hypocritically and humiliatingly resorted to buying Russian energy from intermediaries.


"We should continue with that," she said, adding that Estonia would agree to raise the cap again should oil prices rise. She spoke against any weakening of sanctions against Russia as sought by Moscow in the grain deal talks.

"We shouldn't weaken the sanctions," she said, adding Russia could still use 18 ports for its agri-food exports to third countries and that only a dozen-or-so of Russian banks were targeted by Western sanctions.
See also:

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Sheeple

The Season is Here

James Howard Kunstler
Clusterfuck Nation
Fri, 24 Mar 2023 00:00 UTC
UnkSam
© Getty Images
"Depend upon it, sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully." — Samuel Johnson
Of course, the newspaper USA Today chose transgender activist Leigh Finke for its Women of the Year award because in the USA of the here-and-now (today, for instance), boundaries are a thing of the past, and if a woman of the year happens to come with the "package" that signifies male-of-the-species, you'd better ignore that incongruity and go along with the gag — or prepare for the punishments that will rain down until your morale improves.

The transgender movement has crystalized into the Party of Chaos's favored instrument for enforcing its ethos of unreality on a population obdurately stuck on thinking in categories, on making hateful distinctions between things. Better to live in a protective miasma of undifferentiated sensation than a cruel state based on pattern recognition where one is incessantly prompted to understand how objects and life-forms around us differ, where things begin and end, and what all that means relative to your own supposed amorphous existence.

Mattias Desmet, Belgian author of the 2022 book, The Psychology of Totalitarianism, proposed that a political faction subject to "mass formation psychosis" — the group hysteria that sets the scene for tyranny — would demand that the public swallow a cavalcade of increasingly absurd ideas in order to soften up their brains, so as to make it easier for leaders (influencers) to push them in any desired direction. I would propose that we have probably achieved peak brain-softening in this land.

Comment: Interview with James Howard Kunstler here.

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Bizarro Earth

'One Health', ESG & 'Sustainable Development': Inside the WHO's 'Pandemic Treaty'

Simon Elmer
Off Guardian
Mon, 13 Mar 2023 00:00 UTC
WHO icon
© WHO
World Health Organization
The World Health Organization is the One Ring to Rule them All, and its written goal, inscribed in fiery letters along both sides of its band, is the Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response Treaty. Fashioned by the Dark Lord of the Twenty-first Century, the United States of America, in its own iteration of Mount Doom, it only appears to yield US sovereignty to an external organisation.

In reality and practice, as this article will show, the Treaty will give Washington increased power over the G20 nations — the holders of the other 'rings' — and through them the rest of the Western World: not only its people but also its animals, its eco-systems, its resources. This, and not the health of the globe, is its dark purpose.

THE CIVIL WAR

The World Health Organization, which since January 2020 has received $782 million in grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is a corporate-funded and lobbied agency of the United Nations without legal jurisdiction over the populations of its 194 member states — to which it acts, at least in principle, in an advisory role.

But that's going to change soon.

On 3 March 2022, as lockdown regulations were revoked across Europe and NATO declared its proxy war on Russia, the European Council adopted a decision to authorise the opening of negotiations for an international Treaty on Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response. Under the terms of this Treaty, the member-states of the World Health Organization will be legally bound to implement restrictions on human rights and freedoms — such as further lockdowns, mandatory face masking, compulsory gene therapy, a system of digital identity and programmes of surveillance and censorship — all on the judgement of the WHO.

Comment: Distracted by internal political issues, Ukraine war, the banking collapse, gender wars...the insidious global takeover of 'health' without option is nearly upon us, all largely funded and directed through one man:



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Pistol

UN Rights official concerned over summary executions of POWs by both Russia, Ukraine


RFE/RL
Sat, 25 Mar 2023 00:00 UTC
Bogner
© social media
The head of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, Matilda Bogner
The United Nations has expressed deep concern over what it says were summary executions of prisoners of war (POWs) by both Russian and Ukrainian forces on the battlefield.

The head of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, Matilda Bogner, said at a press conference in Kyiv on March 24 that her organization had recently recorded killings by both sides.
"We are deeply concerned about...summary execution of up to 25 Russian prisoners of war and persons [out of action because of injury] by the Ukrainian armed forces, which we have documented. This was often perpetrated immediately upon capture on the battlefield. While we are aware of ongoing investigations by Ukraine authorities into five cases involving 22 victims, we are not aware of any prosecution of the perpetrators."
Almost half of the 229 Russian prisoners of war interviewed by members of the mission claimed torture or ill-treatment, according to Bogner.

Bogner also expressed deep concern over the alleged executions of 15 Ukrainian prisoners by Russian armed forces after their capture. She said the Wagner mercenary group was responsible for 11 of those killings.

Comment: See also:

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Question

Mystery object found near Nord Stream pipeline could point to culprit

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Fri, 24 Mar 2023 02:48 UTC
unknown object
© Danish Ministry of Defense
Unknown object
Russia says it is supporting efforts to recover forensic evidence from the underwater site of the Nord Stream sabotage blasts, which may provide clues as to the culprit behind it. Images of a new mystery object have emerged, with Moscow saying it is vitally important that it be carefully examined.

The Kremlin in a Friday briefing called the recovery and examination of the object "critically important" as it has been discovered lying next to one of the damaged Nord Stream pipelines.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said during a daily briefing:
"It is critically important to determine what kind of object it is, whether it is related to this terrorist act - apparently it is - and to continue this investigation. And this investigation must be transparent."
The Danish Energy Agency has invited the Russia's Gazprom (owner of Nord Stream 2 AG) to assist in salvaging the mystery object. It was actually Putin who was the first to publicly reference the object and ongoing investigative efforts to ascertain what it is, per the AFP:
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who revealed the discovery of the object earlier this month, said experts believe that the object could be a signal antenna to activate an explosive in that part of the pipeline.

...The Danish energy agency released a photo late Thursday of the cylindrical object standing near the Nord Stream 2 pipeline at the bottom of the sea.

The agency said it is "possible" that the object is a maritime smoke buoy, 40 centimeters tall and 10 centimeters wide, and that it "does not pose an immediate safety risk."

Comment: See also: Seymour Hersh: The Nord Stream Cover-up

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Stop

Ukraine not ready for offensive - Zelensky


RT
Sat, 25 Mar 2023 10:30 UTC
zelensky
© Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/AFP
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky
Kiev's troops are suffering from a lack of ammunition, the Ukrainian president has said...

Ukraine has not yet accumulated enough resources to stage an offensive, President Vladimir Zelensky has admitted.

In an interview released on Saturday by the Japanese newspaper Yomiuri, Zelensky said that the situation on the frontline "was not good," explaining that Kiev's forces lacked enough ammunition to launch an operation.

On the subject of an offensive, the Zelesnky stated:
"We can't start [it] yet. Without tanks, artillery and [US-supplied rocket launchers] HIMARS, we cannot send our brave soldiers to the front lines. We are waiting for ammunition to arrive from our partners."
Zelensky claimed Russian troops had been firing three times as many shells as the Ukrainian side. In light of this, he reiterated his calls for Kiev's Western backers to send more arms and urged them to sign off on deliveries of fighter jets.

Comment: No tanks, artillery, rockets, ammo...new shirt?

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Document

Russia should copy US 'Hague Invasion Act' - top lawmaker


RT
Sat, 25 Mar 2023 18:24 UTC
Volodin
© Sputnik/Vladimir Fedorenko
Russian State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin
Moscow should have a right to take any step necessary to protect Russian citizens, the State Duma chair believes...

Russia needs legislation that would give its president free rein when defending the country's citizens in case international structures, such as the International Criminal Court (ICC), make decisions that contradict the nation's constitution, the State Duma Chairman, Vyacheslav Volodin said on Saturday. He cited US law as an example.

The US adopted the American Service-Members' Protection Act in 2002 - nicknamed "The Hague Invasion Act." The legislation was designed to protect America's military personnel as well as elected and appointed officials from prosecution by international criminal courts, to which Washington is not a party.

The act authorizes the US president to use "all means necessary and appropriate to bring about the release of any US or allied personnel" detained or imprisoned on behalf of the ICC, since the US is not a party to the Rome Statute regulating its activities. The authorization implies potential military action, leading to the act's informal name.

According to Volodin, Russia needs to move in the same direction. The lower house head suggested further strengthening national legislation by banning outright any ICC activities on Russia's territory and introducing criminal liability for aiding or supporting the international body's activities.
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Attention

Why's the west paranoid about the Putin-Xi summit?

Salman Rafi Sheikh
New Eastern Outlook
Sun, 26 Mar 2023 19:31 UTC
Xi and Putin
© Grigory Sysoyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP
Chinese President Xi Jinping, left, and Russian President Vladimir Putin walk after their talks at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Monday, March 20, 2023.
The recently concluded summit consolidated Russia's and China's joint bid to challenge the US-dominated global system as well as concerted US efforts to undermine, using any means, emerging global powers. That the push to challenge this system is gaining momentum, evident from the support that both Russia and China continue to receive from the non-Western world, has left the West - especially, the US - paranoid about the future of the system they created after the Second World War. This growing paranoia is at the heart of an arrest warrant that the International Criminal Court issued last week against Putin. Ridiculous as this may sound, such actions only reveal the West's inner anxieties about the failure of their combined efforts to defeat Russia in Ukraine.

On the contrary, even as reports in the mainstream US media show, assembling enough military strength from within NATO countries for Ukraine against Russia has become an extremely difficult task, as more and more NATO countries are becoming "worried" about their own ammunition stockpiles. In addition to this, as reports in the US media show, there are growing differences between Washington and Kyiv as well with regard to the conduct of the war. How will Russia be defeated in such a case? For many Western powers - especially, the US and its old allies (the UK) - this is nothing short of a nightmare.

This nightmare is exacerbated by the Russia-China alliance. China, as it stands, has more manufacturing capacity today than the US-Europe combined. And, it is strong enough a military power to confront any western power in the Pacific or beyond. What can the West do to break this alliance? There is virtually no way the West can do any damage to this alliance; hence, the growing paranoia.
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