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Western destabilization: Russia alarmed over turbulence in neighboring countries


TASS
Mon, 18 Jul 2016 18:29 UTC
Dmitry Peskov
© Mikhail Metzel/TASS
Russian president’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov
Russia is worried over political turbulence in neighboring countries but is confident in due security level at its borders, Russian president's press secretary Dmitry Peskov said on Monday.

"Naturally, turbulence at our borders is alarming and we have to keep a close eye on the situation, analyze it," he told journalists when asked whether Russia plans to enhance control at its borders following aggravation of the political situation in a number of neighboring countries, such as Turkey, Armenia and Kazakhstan.

"The country's security along its border perimeter is ensured at a proper level. However necessary measures are being taken in view of the latest reports," Peskov said.

At the same time, he noted that the situation in Turkey, Armenia and Kazakhstan cannot be considered in the same way. "Each concrete case should be analyzed individually," he added.

Comment: The CIA and their black ops buddies are very busy destabilizing the Russian zone of influence.

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Attention

President Lukashenko calls on KGB to be prepared in case of coup attempt in Belarus


Fort Russ
Mon, 18 Jul 2016 17:41 UTC
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko
© Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko
Commenting on the situation in Turkey, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko expressed concern over the situation in his state and called upon the head of the KGB to defend his country from a possible coup. This has been reported by local media.

Lukashenko stated that the conflict in Donbass, NATO's expansion to the East, the coup attempt in Turkey, and attacks on police in Armenia and Kazakhstan are worrying him.

"I cannot but be disturbed by the situation surrounding Belarus. Thank God that we have so far managed to contain all sorts of negative manifestations...."

Lukashenko accordingly instructed the head of the KGB to more attentively follow the situation in Belarus in order to defend the state when need be.

"The situation is very difficult. We should therefore maintain peace and calm in the country no matter what it takes," the Belarusian president added.
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Boat

Why is Russia staying silent on the South China Sea dispute?

Hugh Clement
Philippine News
Tue, 21 Jun 2016 17:24 UTC
Chinese Russian flags
© Flickr/ Mark Turner
The tension over territorial disputes in the South China Sea have seems to overcome even the issue before of Senkaku/Diayu Islands. Vietnam and the Giant country are also involved in their worst political conflicts which are already decades over a platform of oil drilling near the Paracel Islands.

And because of the anti-China protests in Vietnam, this brought the relation of both countries' to a temporary freeze. Moreover, the Philippines' detention of Chinese fishermen has increased the discord between the China and the country.

And will all these conflicts occurring at the same time, the issue in the South China sea becomes even more serious.

Behind this picture of the issue, we have seen the United States criticizing China, expressing support for Vietnam and guarded the Philippine Military. But we haven't heard Russia, China's "strategic partner," take a stand on this big issue, who now think that the relationship between Russia and China are not as good as before. Even on the Senkaku/Diaoyu dispute between Vietnam and China, Russia has kept a cryptic position.

In a report by Mu Chunshan, a Beijing-based journalist on The Diplomat he said, "In my eyes, however, this does not mean that Russia's is of two minds in its relationship with China."

Comment: Russia understands the Chinese situation better than most because it experiences the same covert warfare and policies of 'containment' from the US that China has. To say Russia isn't an ally of China because it has no treaty like the US does with the Philippines or Japan is disingenuous. Those treaties make these counties vassals of the US, not allies. The US has no allies in the world - only pawns and inferiors in their eyes that it uses to maintain its hegemony. Russia has its plate full and it knows where and when to choose its battles.

See also: Pepe Escobar: The Hague's South China Sea ruling puts China between a rock and a hard place

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Light Saber

Erdogan: Turkey is ready to work with Russia and Iran to restore regional peace


TASS
Wed, 20 Jul 2016 17:23 UTC
erdogan
© Murat Cetinmuhurdar, Presidential Press Service, Pool via AP
Turkey is ready to work towards restoration of peace and stability in the region together with Russia and Iran, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a telephone conversation with Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani on Monday.

"Today, we are determined more than ever before to contribute to the solution of regional problems hand in hand with Iran and Russia and in cooperation with them," the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) quoted Erdogan as saying. The Turkish president informed Rouhani about the situation in Turkey. "At present, the situation is getting back to normal but it is too early to say that everything is over," Erdogan said.

For his part, Hassan Rouhani gave credit to the courage and political maturity of the Turkish people who stood up to defend the legitimate authorities.

"Stability and tranquility in Turkey have a positive impact on the atmosphere in the whole region. We have no doubt that tranquility in the Islamic world countries does not suit terrorists and some superpowers," the Iranian president stressed. He said that the past few days had shown who was Turkey's friend or enemy both at home and abroad.

A group of insurgents took an abortive coup attempt in Turkey late on July 16. The main confrontation took place in Ankara and Istanbul. The country's leaders announced later that the coup attempt had been thwarted. According to the latest reports, 208 Turkish nationals died, 100 insurgents were killed and about 1,500 people were injured.

Comment: This statement is not going to make the reality-creators in Washington very pleased. Unfortunately for them, their attempted coup is only going to push Turkey closer to Russia.

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Wall Street

The Turkish & Ukrainian coups: The keyword for the West is 'interests' not 'democracy'

Bryan MacDonald
RT
Wed, 20 Jul 2016 16:40 UTC
Turkish coup
© Reuters
Who would have imagined that the people who helped bring you the 2014 Kiev Maidan coup are now apparently opposed to the removal of elected leaders by force?

If they've somehow seen the light after those efforts contributed to the destruction of Ukraine, that'd be fair enough, but it doesn't appear to be the case.

In reality, if you'll excuse the allusion to Damascus, there hasn't been a bunch of Pauline conversions. Instead it's all about 'interests' and it doesn't seem to matter how shameless or brazen they are in pursuing them.

Pro-NATO politicians in Europe and North America have long used the pretence of "democracy promotion" to justify the club's relentless expansion eastwards. For all that, their reaction to last weekend's events in Turkey has finally blown that cover. Because, let's be frank, sensible folk have long insisted that their real ambition has always been to install or maintain western-friendly regimes in strategically important countries. At this time, the response to the Ankara turmoil seems to confirm those suspicions.
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Bullseye

Top Brit think tank: Brexit offers 'serious blow' to TTIP

Steve MacMillan
New Eastern Outlook
Wed, 20 Jul 2016 00:00 UTC
TTIP woman
© www.breitbart.com
The tyrannical corporate trade deal, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), is increasingly facing a multitude of challenges that threaten to derail the entire agreement. With negotiations officially beginning in 2013, US trade officials were arrogantly forecasting that a deal would have been reached by the end of 2014. Today in 2016, 14 rounds of intense negotiations later, there is a serious potential that a deal will not be reached by the end of this year, if at all.

There are, and will continue to be, many implications of the momentous Brexit vote; but one implication that has got less media coverage than it deserves is how it further impedes and complicates TTIP negotiations. In an article for one of the most influential organisations in the UK, the Royal Institute for International Affairs (or Chatham House), Geo-Economics Fellow, Marianne Schneider-Petsinger, admits that the Brexit vote is a "serious blow" to the chances of TTIP being concluded in the immediate future. Petsinger argues that as Britain was one of greatest advocates for TTIP within the EU, the US has lost an important partner who shares Washington's fervour for corporate fascism. Petsinger adds that even though a British exit from the EU will severely delay negotiations, TTIP will still survive the vote.

Comment: TTIP: Corpocratic government with license to abolish all that does not serve its purpose. That Brexit was accomplished by the Brits, shows a renewal in public involvement, a resolve to challenge and win over authority that doesn't support the majority and a will to remain independent and democratic (if that is even still a semi-operating concept).

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Light Sabers

Theresa May's statements on "Russian threat" criticized by Kremlin and Jeremy Corbyn


RT
Wed, 20 Jul 2016 16:24 UTC
theresa may
© Neil Hall / Reuters
Moscow has countered the statements made by new British PM Theresa May on Monday. She addressed lawmakers saying that there is a "real" danger from Russia as she pushed for the renewal of the UK's nuclear deterrent.

"The Kremlin regrets the statement of the Prime Minister," said Dmitry Peskov, the presidential spokesperson, as cited by TASS. "Russia is one of the main guarantees of international stability as well as nuclear and strategic security, it is an absolutely indisputable fact," he added.

Peskov also recalled that Moscow "very actively participates" in the process of nuclear non-proliferation.

Russia, along with the US, is part of a Treaty for Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (START), signed in 2010 between US President Barack Obama and then-Russian leader Dmitry Medvedev. The treaty expires in 2021.
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Wall Street

Just a drop in the bucket: Federal agents surprised an HSBC official in arrest for FX rigging probe

Tom Schoenberg and Patricia Hurtado
Bloomberg
Wed, 20 Jul 2016 16:05 UTC
HSBC bank
Federal agents surprised an HSBC Holdings Plc executive as he prepared to fly out of New York's Kennedy airport late Tuesday, arresting him for an alleged front-running scheme involving a $3.5 billion currency transaction, according to three people familiar with the matter.

Mark Johnson, HSBC's global head of foreign exchange cash trading in London, was held in a Brooklyn jail overnight and will appear in court Wednesday, one of the people said, asking not to be identified because the details of his arrest aren't public. The U.S. unsealed charges against him and Stuart Scott, the bank's former head of currency trading in Europe, making them the first individuals to be charged in the long-running probe.

The arrest and charges are a coup for the Justice Department, which has struggled to build cases against individuals in its investigation into foreign-exchange trading at global banks. U.S. prosecutors once had so much confidence in the quality of evidence they were gathering thanks to undercover cooperators that in September 2014, then-Attorney General Eric Holder said he expected charges against individuals within months. The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority also found it difficult to make cases against currency traders and announced in March that it was dropping its efforts.
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Chess

Turkey neglected the Gulen network, did not see a need to fight it


Sputnik
Wed, 20 Jul 2016 15:48 UTC
Turkey coup
© Reuters/ Murad Sezer
In an interview with Sputnik, retired Major General Ahmet Yavuz pointed the finger at high-ranking Turkish military officials who he said turned a deaf ear to ongoing warnings of Fethullah Gulen supporters acting within the Turkish army. The interview came after Turkish authorities said late last week that an attempted military coup had taken place in the country, which they blamed on a group led by Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen, who currently lives in self-imposed exile in the United States.

For his part, the former chief of the General Staff of the Turkish Armed Forces Necdet Ozel told Turkish television last week that officers supporting Gulen had managed to blend in well, "otherwise we would have excluded them from the army." Commenting on that, Yavuz admitted that "everyone showed negligence, including me" and that "if there is a problem, I have to ask what my share of responsibility had been."

"Commanders cannot justify themselves by making statements that they had no specific reasons. We did not see a genuine drive to fight the Gulen movement. We have talked about the Gulen group developing within the army for years, but no one listened to us," he said. While suggesting that all those involved in last week's military coup were members of the Gulen organization, Yavuz at the same time warned against jumping to conclusions.

Comment: Gulen's organization within the Turkish government is just code for the US dominance throughout Turkey's political, judicial, and military systems. Such a vast network isn't possible to be run by a rogue preacher out of a small Pennsylvania town. Yavuz gave a pretty clear nod to US/NATO participation when he spoke of the group's "military intelligence capabilities." Turkey accepted this influence until the failed coup attempt. The network and the players involved were obviously known by the Turkish leadership, which is evident by the quick apprehension of this fifth column.

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Eye 2

Wahhabism in Saudi Arabia: A faith anchored in hate and bigotry backed by the West

Catherine Shakdam
The Duran
Tue, 19 Jul 2016 15:48 UTC
wahhabism
© Muhammad Hamed
While world nations remain mostly oblivious to the crippling danger presented by Saudi Arabia - a nation which wealth has shielded it from criticism, and whose leaders have stood immune from legal pursuits, the Kingdom has a lot to answer to ...

Actually it is not so much Saudi Arabia as a political construct which should worry you, but rather the faith it has leaned on to draw legitimacy from: Wahhabism.

Born in the desert of Nejd in the 18th century - an unwelcoming stretch of land which for centuries has echoed from the war cries of looters and tribal warlords, Wahhabism came into the world courtesy of one self-professed Islamic erudite: Muhammad ibn Abdul-Wahhab. A follower of Ibn Taymiyyah, Ibn Abdul-Wahhad imagined himself a religious authority so grand that only his teachings could be deemed worthy - a sanctity onto Islam, the one school of thought to surpass all others, and in shame bind them!

Or so he claimed ...or so he made others believe!

An ascetic, violent and reactionary faith, Wahhabism is not just anchored in bloodshed, it has been weaved around hate, bred on exclusion, and grown on ignorant bigotry.
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