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Russia's relationship with China at highest level in history - Putin

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© AFP / Alexei NikolskyRussia's President Vladimir Putin (R) and his Chinese couterpart Xi Jinping.
Russia-China cooperation has reached its highest level ever, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said in an interview with Chinese media on the eve of his visit to Shanghai, where a record package of documents is expected to be signed by the two nations.

Below is the full transcript of the Russian president's interview with Chinese Central Television, Xinhua news agency, China News Service, The People's Daily, China Radio International, and Phoenix Television.

Question: What are your expectations concerning the upcoming visit to China? What results do you expect from the Summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia in Shanghai?

Vladimir Putin: I am always happy to visit hospitable China. It is a pleasure to see how our neighbour is transforming right before our eyes. Shanghai is a vivid illustration of this.

Establishing closer ties with the People's Republic of China - our trusted friend - is Russia's unconditional foreign policy priority.

Stock Down

Is billionaire George Soros engineering another Black Wednesday?

George Soros
© unknownGeorge Soros
September 16th 1992 became known as Black Wednesday after George Soros, the Hungarian born banker, short sold sterling, which forced the UK government to withdraw the pound from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism. He became known as 'the man who broke the bank of England'. It is said he made more than a billion dollars overnight. You can read more about that here.

Soros is not beyond positioning himself where he will profit by stock market crashes. A short time ago he was in the news because he made a billion dollar bet against the S&P 500, a move that some claimed signalled trouble ahead for the stock markets. This week his name is once again being bandied about in financial circles.

Bad Guys

North Carolina Senate committees pass bill that would lift fracking moratorium

fracking
© David McNew/Getty ImagesThe sun rises over an oil field over the Monterey Shale formation where gas and oil extraction using hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is on the verge of a boom on March 24, 2014 near Lost Hills, California.

Raleigh - Two state Senate committees on Tuesday unanimously passed legislation that would lift the state's fracking moratorium next summer, with a key legislator expressing confidence that the measure would come before the full Senate this week.

The bill would lift the moratorium on shale gas drilling on July 1, 2015, allowing the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources to start issuing permits to energy companies for hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling.

Fracking supporters say the day has been a long time coming and predicted domestic energy exploration would generate thousands of jobs and millions of dollars of revenue for the state's economy.

"North Carolina has been working on shale gas exploration for four years," said Sen. E.S. "Buck" Newton, a Republican from Wilson. "North Carolina has missed out on a lot of opportunity."

Environmental groups complain the bill breaks a pledge that lawmakers had made twice before not to lift the state's fracking moratorium until all safety rules were in place and approved by the legislature. A previous attempt to lift the moratorium fell apart in the N.C. House last year when lawmakers upheld the drilling ban as a necessary public protection and environmental safeguard.

On Tuesday, the bill passed the Senate Commerce Committee and the Senate Finance Committee, with some Democratic members asking for assurances that the public and the environment will be protected from chemical spills and other accidents.

Republican Sen. Tom Apodaca of Hendersonville, chairman of the Senate Rules Committee, said the Energy Modernization Act would be heard by the full Senate on Wednesday and Thursday, then forwarded to the House for debate.

"It'll be a little welcome-back present after Memorial Day," Apodaca said.

War Whore

Poor me! Washington plays victim of espionage

china us flag
© usindependent.com
The US Justice Department on Monday filed criminal charges against five Chinese army officers, claiming that they helped Chinese firms steal business information on US companies and that all of them came from Unit 61398 of the Chinese People's Liberation Army. Since February last year, the US government has been accusing the same unit of theft of US trade secrets.

The Department of Justice issued "wanted" posters for the officers with their photos. The Wall Street Journal stated in an article "the indictment may act instead as a public effort to name and shame the suspects."

The 48-page indictment providing details of the officers looks "real." Nevertheless, the specific country that made the allegations is the one that spies both home and abroad with the PRISM program of the National Security Agency (NSA), revealed by Edward Snowden, former NSA contractor. Washington was condemned by international public opinion and therefore its pretentious accusation against Chinese army officers is ridiculous.

The US government's claims that Chinese army officers have gathered US business intelligence in an organized way are beyond our imagination. It's fresh to us that Chinese military and civil companies have such a close relationship.

Perhaps all countries believe the US is the No.1 intelligence power. It has been taking bold steps in cyber espionage, as was shown by Snowden. Washington has also helped the rest of the world comprehend the meaning of "intelligence superpower" by not only collecting overseas information but also playing the victim role.

Comment: All this hoopla about Chinese spying, with nary a whisper about the decades of intelligence theft committed by Israel against the US. Curious, isn't it? A small sample:

Extent of Israeli spying 'shocking'- senior US intelligence officials
CIA considers Israel one of its biggest spy threats, but the U.S. continues to fund their military adventures
U.S. accuses Israel of 'alarming, even terrifying' levels of spying
The History of Israeli Spying: The Mother of all Scandals
Safe heaven: Israeli spy hid in US vice president's bathroom


Megaphone

Best of the Web: The Saker's mini Ukraine situation report - May 21: Jen Psaki's latest lie

psaki

It's not really news, but it still amazes me: for two days in a row now, Jen Psaki, speaking for the regime in Washington, has declared that the USA has doubts about the real affiliation of the Russian journalists working for the Russian news outlet LifeNews. Even though the professional record of these journalists is in the public domain and very well known (they have worked for many years, including abroad), Mrs Psaki believes it is possible that they were spies. Ditto for the reporters of Russia Today which are still being held incommunicado.

Also in the news, the house of Oleg Tsarev has finally been burned.

I say 'finally', because:

1) The oligarch-mobster Kolomoisky had promised that to Tsarev
2) Tsarev had predicted that too
3) The house next to Tsarev had already been torched by mistake


I suppose that Mrs Psaki will speak of a "natural fire", or "spontaneous combustion" or even an "operation of Russian special forces" and threaten Russia with more sanctions.

As for the Western media, it couldn't care less. Just like when Uncle Sam bombed the TV station in Belgrade. After all, anybody opposing the AngloZionist Empire is a) a propagandist and b) subhuman.

Comment: The logic of the AngloZionist Empire is close. It works much better when flipped: Anybody who supports it (and by default, the 'government' in Kiev) is either a) a propagandist (i.e., a govt/military-hired cyber troll) or b) a psychopath. Only a psychopath can justify and support the junta's criminal, inhuman actions over the previous months.


Briefcase

Russia and Cuba sign rapid response to security threat deal

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© ©Photo: Flickr.com/@Doug88888/cc-by-nc-sa 3.0
The Security Council of Russia and the Committee for National Security and Defence of Cuba signed a memorandum on cooperation in Moscow on Wednesday and agreed to set up a joint working group, Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolay Patrushev said at a joint meeting.

Yesterday, a Cuban delegation headed by special spokesman for the chairman of the Council of Ministers and the State Council of Cuba Alejandro Castro Espin arrived in Moscow and had a meeting with the leaders of the Investigative Committee of Russia.

Patrushev said that the situation in the world is changing fast, so now Russia and Cuba will have an opportunity to respond to the events in a more rapid manner.

Document

Wikileaks: Secret cable reveals Russia warned U.S. in 2008 meddling in Ukraine could split country

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© RIA Novosti
A secret cable released by Wikileaks on Tuesday revealed that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned Washington as far back as 2008 that US-EU-NATO meddling in Ukraine could split the country in two.

"Following a muted first reaction to Ukraine's intent to seek a NATO Membership Action Plan (MAP) at the Bucharest summit (ref A), Foreign Minister Lavrov and other senior officials have reiterated strong opposition, stressing that Russia would view further eastward expansion as a potential military threat," said the 2008 cable classified by William Burns, than US Ambassador to Moscow and currently the US Deputy Secretary of State.

"NATO enlargement, particularly to Ukraine, remains 'an emotional and neuralgic' issue for Russia, but strategic policy considerations also underlie strong opposition to NATO membership for Ukraine and Georgia. In Ukraine, these include fears that the issue could potentially split the country in two, leading to violence or even, some claim, civil war, which would force Russia to decide whether to intervene," the cable said.

Comment: To get an outline of the history and real players in the Ukraine meddling and subsequent coup, see:
Battleground Ukraine: A comprehensive summary


Recycle

Prince Charles's idiotic verdict on Russian leader's non-invasion of Ukraine: 'Putin is behaving just like Hitler'

putin charles hitler
One of these things is not like the others...
Prince Charles has sensationally likened Vladimir Putin to Adolf Hitler.

In a withering verdict on the actions of the Russian president in Ukraine, he told a woman who lost relatives in the Nazi Holocaust: 'And now Putin is doing just about the same as Hitler.'

The prince's extraordinary intervention is certain to cause international controversy.

It is likely to be seen as a criticism of the West for failing to confront Mr Putin over his seizure of Crimea. The annexation was the first by a major power in Europe since 1945.

Observers have compared the crisis in Ukraine with Hitler's takeovers of Czechoslovakia and Poland.

They have pointed to the similar use of disguised special forces to stir up tensions in disputed areas.


Comment: Is that the best that these 'observers' can come up with? Last time we checked, Poland and Czechoslovakia did not vote almost unilaterally to join Hitler's Germany. Neither did the Nazis annex them without the use of force. The ONLY similarity is that a region once drawn within the borders of one country is now drawn within another's, a similarity so nebulous as to be all but meaningless. Where have all the brain cells gone?


Charles, who is scheduled to meet Mr Putin at the D-Day commemorations in France on June 6, made his well-intentioned but unguarded comment during a visit to the Canadian Museum of Immigration in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Newspaper

Russian Parliament attacks Ukrainian detention of Russian reporters - demands immediate release

Oleg Sidyakin and Marat Saichenko
© www.lifenews.ruJournalists Oleg Sidyakin and Marat Saichenko.
The Russian Lower House calls the detention of Russian reporters in Ukraine a crime against the freedom of speech, and urges international journalist groups and human rights organizations to denounce the Kiev authorities.

An official State Duma motion on the holding of Russia's Lifenews journalists Marat Saichenko and Oleg Sidyakin has been prepared by the majority United Russia caucus. It was supported and jointly drafted by all four parliamentary factions.

It was passed unanimously on Wednesday afternoon.

The document reads that the reporters detained in Ukraine and charged with terrorism fell victim to a provocation and should be released immediately.

Comment: With every move it makes, Kiev makes it crystal clear that it has succumbed to the mass disease of pathocracy. One of the key features of a pathocracy (a government and society ruled by psychopaths and other personality-disordered individuals) is the 'increasingly arbitrary' nature of its accusations. Emotionally charged words like 'terrorist' grow beyond what their semantics allow: they become catch-all phrases for anyone the government sees as a threat. One of the first groups to get such a label is that of reporters not owned and controlled by the state. In a sense, the junta is correct: reporters are enemies of the state -- they are dangerous. However, the reason they endanger the state is by exposing its inherently criminal nature. They tell the truth. A pathocratic regime cannot stand in the face of the truth about its nature: the fact that it murders, tortures, and lies indiscriminately.


Cut

U.S. damaging ties with China over cyberspying charges

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© FBI The FBI issued a "Wanted" poster for the five army officers. Be afraid! Be so afraid!
China on Tuesday warned the United States was jeopardizing military ties by charging five Chinese officers with cyberspying and tried to turn the tables on Washington by calling it "the biggest attacker of China's cyberspace."

China announced it was suspending cooperation with the United States in a joint cybersecurity task force over Monday's charges that officers stole trade secrets from major American companies. The Foreign Ministry demanded Washington withdraw the indictment.

The testy exchange marked an escalation in tensions over U.S. complaints that China's military uses its cyber warfare skills to steal foreign trade secrets to help the country's vast state-owned industrial sector. A U.S. security firm, Mandiant, said last year it traced attacks on American and other companies to a military unit in Shanghai.

The charges are the biggest challenge to relations since a meeting last summer between President Barack Obama and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, in Sunnylands, California.

Ties already were under strain due to conflicts over what Washington says are provocative Chinese moves to assert claims over disputed areas of the East and South China Seas. Beijing complains the Obama administration's effort to shift foreign policy emphasis toward Asia and expand its military presence in the region is emboldening Japan and other neighbors and fueling tension.

Beijing has denied conducting commercial spying and said it is a victim of computer hacking, but has given little indication it investigates foreign complaints.


Comment: The U.S. just can't help but to shoot itself in the foot by continuing to distance itself from the world. Its global hegemony is falling apart at the seams, and it's because of its own doing. Instead of being a genuine leader in global economics, it's taken on a foreign policy that requires the destruction of other nations for its continued survival. The U.S. was stopped in Syria and is now being thwarted in the Ukraine. World powers are reorganizing without the influence of the US, and it's lashing out with blatant hypocrisy.

See:

Beijing denounces U.S. hypocritical hacking charges against Chinese army officers

The birth of a Eurasian century: Russia and China do Pipelineistan

Goodbye petrodollar: Russia's VTB and Bank of China agree on domestic currency settlements

It's a done deal! Russia and China seal historic multibillion gas deal