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Western intel hacked 'Russia's Google' Yandex in late 2018 to spy on accounts

Christopher Bing, Jack Stubbs, Joseph Menn
Reuters
Fri, 28 Jun 2019 02:21 UTC
Yandex
© REUTERS/Shamil Zhumatov
Russian 'Google' Yandex
Hackers working for Western intelligence agencies broke into Russian internet search company Yandex in late 2018 deploying a rare type of malware in an attempt to spy on user accounts, four people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

The malware, called Regin, is known to be used by the "Five Eyes" intelligence-sharing alliance of the United States, Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, the sources said. Intelligence agencies in those countries declined to comment.

Western cyberattacks against Russia are seldom acknowledged or spoken about in public. It could not be determined which of the five countries was behind the attack on Yandex, said sources in Russia and elsewhere, three of whom had direct knowledge of the hack. The breach took place between October and November 2018.

Yandex spokesman Ilya Grabovsky acknowledged the incident in a statement to Reuters, but declined to provide further details. "This particular attack was detected at a very early stage by the Yandex security team. It was fully neutralized before any damage was done," he said.
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Arrow Up

Putin asks BRICS nations to increase national currencies in trade


RT
Fri, 28 Jun 2019 10:11 UTC
BRICS Money
© Unknown
Russian President Vladimir Putin has called on Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) to develop settlements in national currencies instead of the commonly used currencies like the US dollar.

"Cooperation in terms of developing the use of our national currencies in international settlements seems very promising," Putin said in Osaka, Japan at a meeting of BRICS leaders in advance of the G20 summit.

Five-nation bloc BRICS represents more than 40 percent of the world's population. The five countries have a combined nominal GDP of US$18.6 trillion, which is about 23 percent of the gross world product.

According to International Monetary Fund estimates, member states are responsible for more than half of the global economic growth of the last 10 years.

According to the Russian president, the integration of payments systems and the establishment of an independent channel on information exchange could facilitate the stability of the banking systems of the five countries. "I think this is extremely important today," he said.

Comment: More from RT: Russia & China agree to increase use of the ruble and yuan
Moscow and Beijing have inked an intergovernmental agreement to switch to national currencies in bilateral trade and boost cross-currency settlements up to 50 percent as they ramp up efforts to move away from the US dollar.

The document was signed by Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov and the head of the People's Bank of China, Yi Gang, earlier in June, Izvestia reports.

Moscow and Beijing are currently developing new mechanisms of cross-border payments between Russian and Chinese businesses, the newspaper said, citing a letter from Deputy Finance Minister Sergey Storchak to Anatoly Aksakov, the head of the financial market committee of the State Duma (lower chamber of Russia's parliament). The two sides may settle payment gateways between their domestic alternatives to the traditional SWIFT system, Russia's System for Transfer of Financial Messages (SPFS) and China's Cross-Border Inter-Bank Payments System (CIPS).

The two countries will have to develop ruble and yuan financial instruments to boost cross-currency trade and mitigate risks of exchange rate fluctuations, according to Aksakov. He added that in the coming years, the share of settlements in national currencies between Russia and China could increase fivefold - from 10 to 50 percent.

The mechanism of payments in national currencies is set to be developed by next year. At first, major companies with state participation from sectors such as energy and agriculture will switch to it. The yuan-ruble payments will also be made on existing contracts which stipulate settlement in dollars.


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Russian Flag

Trump invited to Moscow for 2020 Victory Day celebrations bodes to be Russiagaters' darkest hour!


RT
Fri, 28 Jun 2019 13:51 UTC
Victory Day Parade
© Sputnik/Alexey Kudenko
Russian Victory Day
'Russiagate' theorists and Trump haters may soon have their worst nightmare come true - the US President hinted that he could travel to Moscow next year to mark Victory Day alongside Vladimir Putin.

Mueller fans are probably shaking in their boots, as Donald Trump "responded very positively" to an invitation to come to Moscow for the 75th anniversary of victory in the World War II, Putin's aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters during the G20 summit in Osaka.

The two Presidents discussed their countries' involvement in the war, mentioning "the Soviet contribution to that victory."

If that comes true, the liberal Twitterati will surely collapse in full-on meltdown, but Trump will not be the first US president to have visited the Victory Day parade in Moscow. George W. Bush was on the Red Square in 2005, while his Democratic successor, Barack Obama, declined the invitation to came to the commemorative parade in 2010.

Instead, the US sent 76 troops from the Army's 18th Infantry Regiment which had taken an active part in the 1944 D-Day offensive in Europe. The US personnel paraded through Red Square alongside British and French soldiers, as well as troops from former Soviet republics.
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Bullseye

Putin Says 'Liberal Idea Obsolete': The Woke Suffer Existential Shock

Simon Rite
RT
Fri, 28 Jun 2019 17:23 UTC
donald Tusk
© www.imago-images.de
Donald Tusk has a moment of existential brain freeze
I imagine a shocked hush descending on newsrooms across the western world; perhaps a disturbance in the woke forcefield had warned them in advance. Vladimir Putin had questioned liberalism.

In an interview with the Financial Times ahead of the G20 meeting in Japan, the Russian President gave his view of : "...the so-called liberal idea, which has outlived its purpose."

The shock in the headlines was palpable, how could anyone question the dominance of liberalism? Liberals will accept anything (literally, that is the point) but they turn distinctly authoritarian when their beliefs are questioned.

Comment: The full interview:



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Question

Maduro claims advisor responsible for coup attempt in Venezuela is a CIA agent

Paul Antonopoulos
Fort Russ News
Fri, 28 Jun 2019 16:57 UTC
ivan Simonovis venezuela cia
© CNN Espanol
The ex-commissar of the Caracas Metropolitan Police, Ivan Simonovis met with Elliott Abrams June 27, 2019
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro described the former adviser Iván Simonovis as a murderer and was blamed for the violence that occurred during the 2002 coup against Hugo Chavez.

Maduro said the former adviser had always been an agent of the US Central Intelligence Agency.

"The assassin [Ivan] Simonovis was received as a hero in Washington, as a CIA agent who has been his whole life, he is a murderer, a criminal, a murderous murderer [...]," Maduro said.

Simonovis was under house arrest, from which he escaped on 16 May last. The former aide spoke about the escape plan to escape his home, where he served the prison sentence.
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Yoda

UN torture rapporteur talks to RT about op-ed on Assange rejected by MSM: 'Not high on news agenda'


RT
Fri, 28 Jun 2019 16:20 UTC
nils melzer chris hedges RT interview
© RT
The UN rapporteur on torture told RT about the fanciful excuses Western media used to avoid publishing his damning op-ed on the extreme pressure Julian Assange was exposed to - despite covering every wild allegation against him.

A host of reputed Western media outlets turned a deaf ear to Nils Melzer and his op-ed in which he said Julian Assange was exposed to enormous psychological trauma and isolation while in the Ecuadorian Embassy, and afterwards in the UK high-security prison.
Some of them said it wasn't high enough on their news agenda, some of them said it wasn't within their core area of interest.



Comment: So press freedom and the protection of journalists is not a "core interest" of these outlets? That pretty much tells one everything about the true nature of the Western media


Comment: Chris Hedges interviews Nils Melzer on June 9, 2019 just after his visit with Julian Assange in Belmarsh Prison:



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Chess

Iran says alternative sanctions-busting payment system with EU is operational


RT
Fri, 28 Jun 2019 16:28 UTC
iran mural
© AFP / Atta Kenare
A mural painting in Tehran
The European financial settlement mechanism (INSTEX), aimed at circumventing US sanctions against Iran, is working and transactions are already happening, according to Iran's JCPOA envoy.

The payments mechanism was established by the European Union to keep trading with Tehran despite US sanctions in order to keep the nuclear deal with Iran alive.

The US re-imposed sanctions against the Islamic Republic following Washington's withdrawal from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

The US has been mounting pressure on Iran and anyone breaking its sanctions against the country, threatening to punish any company that continues doing business with the Islamic Republic, including the purchasing of Iranian oil.
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Eye 1

Orwell's 1984 no longer reads like fiction. It's the reality of our times

Robert Bridge
RT
Fri, 28 Jun 2019 16:06 UTC
1984
© Getty Images / gremlin
70 years ago, the British writer George Orwell captured the essence of technology in its ability to shape our destinies in his seminal work, 1984. The tragedy of our times is that we have failed to heed his warning.

No matter how many times I read 1984, the feeling of total helplessness and despair that weaves itself throughout Orwell's masterpiece never fails to take me by surprise. Although usually referred to as a 'dystopian futuristic novel', it is actually a horror story on a scale far greater than anything that has emerged from the minds of prolific writers like Stephen King or Dean Koontz. The reason is simple. The nightmare world that the protagonist Winston Smith inhabits, a place called Oceania, is all too easily imaginable. Man, as opposed to some imaginary clown or demon, is the evil monster.

In the very first pages of the book, Orwell demonstrates an uncanny ability to foresee future trends in technology. Describing the protagonist Winston Smith's frugal London flat, he mentions an instrument called a 'telescreen', which sounds strikingly similar to the handheld 'smartphone' that is enthusiastically used by billions of people around the world today.
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Cult

#Resistance 101: Leaked internal document exposes Google encouraging employees to protest - provides the approved slogans


RT
Fri, 28 Jun 2019 14:51 UTC
protest against google
© Reuters / Jeenah Moon
An exhaustive "how-to" guide for Google employees who'd like to protest but don't know how has been leaked by Project Veritas, further destroying the company's claims it is apolitical after the leak of an incriminating video.

Titled "The Beginner's Guide to Protesting (#GooglersUnite)," the document instructs burgeoning activists in everything from protest chants to proper protesting attire. Its stated purpose is to "ensure that everyone feels comfortable and pumped about Resist@Google.com marches/protests" - suggesting that such activism was not only encouraged by Google but also backed by the company, using company resources.

While it's unclear how extensively the document was circulated inside Google, the use of company email to organize protests and the fact that ready-to-print protest signs were stored on company servers appear to directly contradict Google's protestations that the company is ideologically neutral. It clearly refers to multiple protests - employees are advised to "debrief afterwards with resist@google.com" to discuss what could be "improved for next time."

Comment: Love him or hate him James O'Keefe's Project Veritas is performing an important civic services in bringing to light the real views of various members of the elite to light, namely a deep, abiding contempt for the general public. That would be you. Some examples See the full Project Veritas Google expose at the bottom of this article, before it gets taken down again.

Why did YouTube competitor Vimeo also ban Project Veritas' Google expose?

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Attention

Memo to Trump: Trading out Bolton for Tulsi would be a smart move

Patrick J. Buchanan
buchanan.org
Fri, 28 Jun 2019 14:42 UTC
tulsi gabbard
"For too long our leaders have failed us, taking us into one regime change war after the next, leading us into a new Cold War and arms race, costing us trillions of our hard-earned tax payer dollars and countless lives. This insanity must end."

Donald Trump, circa 2016?

Nope. That denunciation of John Bolton interventionism came from Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii during Wednesday night's Democratic debate. At 38, she was the youngest candidate on stage.

Gabbard proceeded to rip both the "president and his chickenhawk cabinet (who) have led us to the brink of war with Iran."

In a fiery exchange, Congressman Tim Ryan of Ohio countered that America cannot disengage from Afghanistan: "When we weren't in there they started flying planes into our buildings."
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