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Putin making sense: Russia will never allow loss of its own sovereignty and development prospects


ITAR-TASS
Mon, 25 Apr 2016 16:08 UTC
Vladimir Putin
© Mikhail Klimentyev/Russian Presidential Press and Information Office/TASS
Russia will never allow the loss of its own sovereignty, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday at the forum of the All-Russia People's Front.

"If we agreed and said yes [to other countries], we would be good for everyone. However, we would gradually lose our significance, and the next step after losing the significance, I think, would be the irreparable loss of our sovereignty and loss of future prospects," Putin said adding that "we will never allow that."

"Not many [countries] want such an independent, effective player that knows his own worth and is capable of stating them. They will try to bring him down a little, put him in his place," he noted.

"We do not ask anyone for anything, apart from what belongs to us. And we are ready to look for compromise," he stressed. "We understand that the world does not consist of only our interests, and others have their own interests," he added.
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Top Secret

U.S. spy chief looking at sub-optimal ways to disclose number of Americans caught in internet data grabs


Reuters
Mon, 25 Apr 2016 10:14 UTC
James Clapper
© Reuters/Carlos Barria
James Clapper
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said Monday his office was looking at "several options" to publicly disclose an estimate of the number of U.S. persons caught incidentally in Internet surveillance intended for foreign targets.

"We are looking at several options right now, none of which are optimal," Clapper told reporters at a breakfast hosted by the Christian Science Monitor news organization, though he cautioned the task would be difficult and potentially run afoul of privacy considerations.

Clapper's comments came in response to a letter sent last week by 14 bipartisan lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives, pressing the country's top spy to provide a public estimate of the number of Americans ensnared in data grabs of foreign Internet communications traffic. They said the information was needed to gauge possible reforms to the controversial program.

(Editing by Bernadette Baum)
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Info

Austrians surprised by results of presidential elections first round


Sputnik
Mon, 25 Apr 2016 15:49 UTC
Austria election campaigne posters
© REUTERS/ Leonhard Foeger
Reinhard Pickl-Herk, a spokesman for the Green Party, said that the result of the first round of the presidential elections in Austria with most votes secured by the far-right politician Norbert Hofer was not predicted by any opinion polling.

The outcomes of the first round of the presidential elections in Austria with most votes secured by the far-right politician Norbert Hofer came as a shock for many Austrians, a spokesman for the Green Party told Sputnik on Monday.
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Pistol

Wave of 'bizarre suicides' & murders in Ukraine: Former MP shot dead in Kiev


RT
Mon, 25 Apr 2016 15:43 UTC
Ukraine MP Kalashnikov murdered
© glavpost.com
Oleg Kalashnikov
​A former Ukrainian MP and active anti-Maidan activist, Oleg Kalashnikov, has been killed in his flat in Kiev. His killing is the latest in a series of odd deaths plaguing former government officials and ex-President Yanukovich's party members

The 52-year-old was found dead at his residence in Kiev on Wednesday evening. His death was "caused by a gunshot," the Interior Ministry said in a statement announcing a police inquiry. Ukraine's criminal investigation chief Vasily Paskal, took the investigation under personal control and promised to share motives and the preliminary results of the probe with reporters as soon as they become available.

The investigation is focused on five possible motives for the crime, according to Interior Minister's senior adviser, Anton Gerashchenko.

So far the investigation considers the primary possible motive behind the killing to be Kalashnikov's "political activity" linked with his "participation in the organization and financing" of counter-revolutionary events in Ukraine. Gerashchenko emphasized that Kalashnikov "had knowledge" of the anti-Maidan movement that resisted the coup last year and continues to challenge new authorities in Kiev.

"Without any doubt the deceased knew a lot about who and in what way financed anti-Maidan, which cost Yanukovich and his camarilla several million hryvnias per day. He takes these secrets with him to the grave," Gerashchenko said, also listing some other leads on his Facebook page. Business debts, personal enmity, burglary attempt and"other versions of murder"are listed among other possible motives.
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Jet2

Tensions rising: NATO aircraft allegedly escorted Russian jets over Baltic Sea last week


Sputnik
Mon, 25 Apr 2016 15:41 UTC
F-16 fighter jet
© Sputnik/ Alexander Kovalev
NATO fighter jets based on Lithuania's Siauliai and Estonia's Amari air bases, were allegedly scrambled three times last week to intercept the Russian warplanes over the Baltic Sea, Lithuania's National Defense Ministry said Monday.

"On April 18, NATO fighter jets conducting the Air Policing Mission in the Baltic States from Siauliai Air Base were scrambled to intercept military aircraft of the Russian Federation flying from and back to Kaliningrad. The aircraft flew in international airspace above the Baltic Sea without having pre-filed flight plans, with their onboard transponders switched off, and did not maintain radio communication with air traffic control centres," the ministry said in a statement.
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Eye 2

Foul play suspected after Kiev politics expert plunges to his death


RT
Mon, 25 Apr 2016 15:24 UTC
kiev political expert murdered
© Andrey Stenin / Sputnik
Kiev police are investigating possible foul play after a prominent politics expert fell to his death from the ninth floor. The deceased had called for a peaceful resolution of the conflict in eastern Ukraine and had branded recent political turmoil "a plot by oligarchs."

Andrey Doroshenko was an independent political consultant and a regular guest on Ukrainian political talk shows. His body was found on Sunday in a street in the eastern part of the capital. Doroshenko apparently fell from the window of a stairway landing in a nearby house, which is located about five minutes' walk from the man's home, Ukrainian media reported.

The police are treating the 40-year-old's death as suspicious and are investigating it as a possible murder. He died a few weeks after his home was robbed, his neighbors told journalists. No apparent reason why he would commit suicide was immediately reported.

The expert was a regular on Ukrainian TV political talk shows and panels. Among other things, in his latest interviews he had called for internationally-backed peace talks between Kiev and rebel forces in the east, similar to how the 1995 Dayton Agreement put an end to one of the Yugoslav wars. He also accused Ukrainian oligarchs of stage-managing the latest political crisis in the country through MPs they sponsor.

Comment: Another round of purges?

Wave of 'bizarre suicides' & murders in Ukraine: Former MP shot dead in Kiev

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Snakes in Suits

She's back: Nuland to visit Ukraine to discuss reforms, Minsk Accords


Sputnik
Mon, 25 Apr 2016 15:37 UTC
Petro Poroshenko and Victoria Nuland
© REUTERS/ Mykola Lazarenko/Pool
Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland will make a stop in Ukraine today to discuss with senior officials and party leaders the country's reforms and the implementation of the Minsk accords, the US Department of State announced in a statement on Monday.

"On April 25, Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland will travel from Hannover, Germany, to Kiev, Ukraine, to meet with senior Ukrainian government officials, political party leaders, Rada members, and civil society representatives," the statement said. "[Nuland would] discuss a range of bilateral and regional issues, including reform priorities and Minsk implementation."

Nuland's visit to Kiev comes as Ukraine is undertaking a range of reforms, including anti-corruption measures, power decentralization and the reorganization of the national energy sector, in order to obtain the latest bailout package from the International Monetary Fund.
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Radar

Jamming the airwaves: Russia starts trial of electromagnetic warfare system


RT
Mon, 25 Apr 2016 15:24 UTC
Russian electronic warfare (EW) system
© Mikhail Voskresenskiy / Sputnik
A ground-based, unified electronic warfare (EW) system at the MAKS-2015 International Aerospace Salon in Zhukovsky near Moscow.
Russia's electronic warfare equipment producer launched tests of a tactical electromagnetic combat complex fully integrated with latest air-defense systems. It guarantees complete neutralization of all enemy electronics.

Factory testing is underway for components of the new system, capable of protecting troops and civilian facilities from air and space attacks, a representative of Russia's leading producer of electronic warfare systems, Radio-Electronic Technologies Concern (KRET), told TASS. The tests are expected to be completed by the end of 2016.

Integrated with air defense systems and networks, the new complex "maintains automated real-time intelligence data exchange with the airspace defense task force" to facilitate centralized target distribution, the source said.
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Jet5

More threats towards Russia: US deploys F-22 stealth fighter jets to Romanian base on Black Sea


RT
Mon, 25 Apr 2016 15:08 UTC
Two F-22 Raptor fighter jets
© Justin Connaher / Reuters
Two American F-22 Raptor 5G stealth fighter jets and a refueling aircraft have been deployed to an airfield in Romania as manifestation of NATO's support to its Eastern European members against "Russian aggression."

The US Air Force aircraft arrived at the air base on the Black Sea, less than 400km from the Russian military stronghold of Sevastopol on the Crimean Peninsula.

"For the first time in Romania, the next-generation combat aircraft F-22 Raptor, part of the US Air Force Europe mission, arrived today at Mihail Kogalniceanu military base," the US Embassy said on its Facebook page Monday.
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Info

Germany to invest €65mn for its own section at Turkish air base for Tornado jets


RT
Mon, 25 Apr 2016 14:52 UTC
German Tornado jets
© Tobias Schwarz / Reuters
German Air Force is reportedly to have its own section at the Turkish Incirlik Air Base, which is already used by American warplanes to attack targets in Syria. The planned project will cost €65 million and is to be finished by summer 2017, Der Spiegel reports.

The air base is located in southern Turkey east of Adana close to the Mediterranean coast. Ankara allowed the US to use it for its Syrian campaign against Islamic State on the condition that it would not be used to support America's Kurdish allies, whom the Turks see as a threat. Saudi Arabia has a presence at Incirlik as well.

The base international club welcomed Germany as its new member in December 2015, when the European country started flying reconnaissance missions as part of the US-led coalition. According to a report published Monday by Spiegel Online, the presence may soon become permanent.
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