The overwhelming majority of Russians view negative foreign media coverage of President Vladimir Putin and of Russia in general as an attempt to destabilize the country, pollster VTsIOM revealed Wednesday.

The poll revealed that 87 percent of respondents see such ulterior motives in critical remarks released by foreign media outlets. A mere 4 percent of respondents said such criticism was intended to improve the country's situation.

Of the 1,600 people polled, 82 percent said those who condemn Putin's policies want to see the Russian government's collapse.

Similarly, 87 percent of respondents said they considered such criticism of Putin to be baseless, while the same number said such comments were a result of the Russian president following policies independently of the rest of the international community.

China respects the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, Chinese Foreign Ministry's spokesperson Hua Chunying said commenting on the elections in Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics (DPR and LPR) Monday.

"China upholds the principle of non-interference in others' internal affairs and respects sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine. We hope that all parties will hold dear the ceasefire that is not easily achieved, keep calm, exercise restraint, properly resolve relevant differences through dialogue and consultation and work in concert to push for the political settlement of the crisis," the spokesperson said.

Elections in the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics, aimed at legitimizing new authorities, went ahead on Sunday with no significant incidents and with high voter turnouts.

Two Air Force nuclear commanders have been fired, with a third facing disciplinary measures, after the service cited a "loss of confidence" in their ability to lead their units, once again drawing attention to troubles within the US nuclear corps.

The terminations come as the Air Force continues to reckon with leadership problems. Earlier this year, nine nuclear commanders were fired in connection to a test-cheating scandal, which implicated dozens of missile launch officers.

Col. Carl Jones, the No. 2 commander of the 90th Missile Wing at F.E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyoming, was the most high-profile of the two commanders to be dismissed on Monday. Jones was responsible for 150 Minuteman 3 nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles - the Air Force has 450 total - but his superiors determined there was "a loss of trust and confidence in his leadership abilities."

According to Air Force Global Strike Command spokesman Lt. Col. John Sheets, Jones displayed conduct unbecoming of an officer and a gentleman, as well as mistreatment of those below his rank.

"In four separate instances, Jones acted in a manner that degraded his status as a senior officer and wing leader, including maltreating a subordinate," Sheets told AP.

Meanwhile, Lt. Col. Jimmy "Keith" Brown was also fired due to questions over his leadership, with Sheets saying he "engaged in unlawful discrimination or harassment." Brown apparently "made statements to subordinates that created a perception within his squadron that pregnancy would negatively affect a woman's career."

Our Strategy Keeps Failing

We've repeatedly noted that giving arms to the "moderate" Syrian rebels is idiotic ... as they'll just end up in the hands of the Islamic State.

Even the CIA told Obama that this strategy wouldn't work.

So we're shocked - shocked! - that one of the biggest "moderate" rebel groups backed and armed by the U.S. has just been wiped out ... and all of their arms and bases taken by ISIS.

The Telegraph reports:

Two of the main rebel groups receiving weapons from the United States to fight both the regime and jihadist groups in Syria have surrendered to al-Qaeda.

The US and its allies were relying on Harakat Hazm and the Syrian Revolutionary Front to become part of a ground force that would attack the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil).

For the last six months the Hazm movement, and the SRF through them, had been receiving heavy weapons from the US-led coalition, including GRAD rockets and TOW anti-tank missiles.

But on Saturday night Harakat Hazm surrendered military bases and weapons supplies to Jabhat al-Nusra, when the al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria stormed villages they controlled in northern Idlib province.

***

The development came a day after Jabhat al-Nusra dealt a final blow to the SRF, storming and capturing Deir Sinbal, home town of the group's leader Jamal Marouf.

***

"As a movement, the SRF is effectively finished," said Aymen al-Tammimi, a Syria analyst. "Nusra has driven them out of their strongholds of Idlib and Hama."

The collapse of the SRF and attacks on Harakat Hazm have dramatically weakened the presence of moderate rebel fighting groups in Syria, which, after almost four years of conflict is increasingly becoming a battle ground between the Syrian regime and jihadist organisations.

For the United States, the weapons they supplied falling into the hands of al-Qaeda is a realisation of a nightmare.

Why did we get involved in the middle of Syria's civil war, again?

Following Ukraine's parliamentary elections on October 26, the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics voted for their own leaders and lawmakers of their respective local parliaments on Sunday, November 2.

The voter turnout was high, according to foreign observers from Russia, South Ossetia, Serbia, Montenegro, Israel, France, the United States and other countries.

Foreign observers monitoring elections in Ukraine's self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic mark a high voter turnout at polling stations which opened at 8 am, Moscow time.

"We have just visited a polling station that was filled to capacity. My first impression is that people show huge interest in the elections," Manuel Ochsenreiter from Germany told TASS.

One example of the interest showed in the elections is a group of about 20 people that arrived at the Luhansk's polling station half-an-hour before it opened.

One of the observers of the November 2 elections said that there were no violations as of yet and that the elections are proceeding calmly.

There were even polling stations set up in Russia for refugees that have fled from the Western-backed junta government in Kiev and people were also given the opportunity to vote via the internet.

Pressenza has recently re-launched an article written by Silvia Cattori, that reported the documentary made by Anastasia Popova and transmitted by the channel Russia 24. This publication has attracted praise and criticism for the point of view about what is happening in Syria that is very different from the one circulating in the European media.

For this reason we decided to pursue this issue by talking to the author of the report, a young journalist who covered the "Arab spring" in different countries and has spent some time in Syria, in contact with many people involved in the conflict.

Anastasia, first of all many thanks for your willingness. How long have you been in Syria with your crew?

We were there for 7 months in total, from August of 2011, when there was no war yet, until now when the war in full swing. So, you can say that all the events unfolded right in front of our eyes. On average we were on the ground in Syria for about a month at a time, from Deraa to Idleb and Aleppo and from Latakia along the Turkish border to al-Qamishli and down to Deir Ez Zour.

What is your general impression about the state of the conflict?

From the time when we arrived in August all the way until December, what struck us the most was the difference between what was being said about Syria from the outside and what was actually happening inside the country. Sometimes it would reach the point of absurdity, when we would get calls from our channel asking us about so-and-so square where an anti-government demonstration was being shot at by tanks or artillery. We would get to that square and there was literally nothing - a few pedestrians and a policeman directing traffic.

Dear GATA:

I have to ask you something, as you may be among the few people I can trust. (At least I think you are people and not an Internet-derived scam.)

Am I imagining everything that's happening or have I just been brainwashed into believing it? Are the things that people like Andrew Maguire, Eric Sprott, and Egon von Greyerz say really true and factual or just hearsay and nonsense?

I can't believe my eyes -- and no regulators or others in authority are doing anything about it. Is this all a dream? Thousands of futures contracts dumped in the middle of the night to smash gold down?

Are you real? Is the stuff GATA has dug up and archived real?

I'm so mad I could strangle somebody. Please tell me this is all a joke and to walk away. This is almost worse than Nazi Germany.

-- D.C.

* * *

Dear D.C:

Yes, the totalitarianism here is far more effective because it is largely surreptitious.

Years ago I wrote that if the United States occupied South Africa militarily and stole everything and shipped it out of the country, at least South Africans would see and understand what was happening to them and who was doing it. But rig the currency markets and you accomplish the same looting and hardly anyone can figure it out.

Today, Canada began bombing Iraq and Syria, justified in large part by a 'terror attack', the narrative for which is falling apart. I've written previously about the suspicious background to the attacks in Ottawa and another city near Montreal a few weeks ago, but new details have emerged that pose serious questions about the official narrative surrounding the Ottawa war memorial and parliament shooting by Michael Zehaf-Bibeau.

Stephen Harper is the most deeply reviled Prime Minister in Canada's history. On the world stage, he is the servant of Big Oil boiling oil out of tar-sands to destroy major river systems and pollute the planet with dirty oil, while his attack dog John Baird leads the warmongering and bullying of nations like Iran and Syria targeted by the US-Israeli axis.

He is the most despotic and toxic first minister in the life of our country. His administration defunds every social program and life protective system it can. It strips the country of its public information infrastructures at every level - including now the gagging of non-profit NGO's by eliminating their charitable status if they question any policy of his regime.

Just as his friend George Bush Jr., Harper holds government by big-money backing, continual lies, attack ads, and life-blind policies to enrich the already rich. Canada's neo-con political class may have its head on backwards, but Harper is very cunning in skirting, subverting and perverting the law to abuse power at every level. He is the poster boy of the global corporate agenda of wrecking society and its common life support systems.

A Ukrainian lawmaker, who is also the leader of a volunteer battalion, says brigades like his are ready to "intrude" into Russia to carry out attacks on Russian territory.

Yuri Bereza, the leader of the Dnepr-1 battalion, made the remarks during a televised interview with a Ukrainian broadcaster.

"Today, we are ready not just to defend [Ukraine], but to invade the Russian Federation, break into it with reconnaissance detachments and sabotage groups," said Bereza.

The Ukrainian MP also spoke about conducting bomb attacks inside Russia before he was cut off by the host of the program.


Bereza's volunteer battalion is one of the dozens of brigades set up this year by pro-EU protesters and members of right-wing party Right Sector following the ouster of President Viktor Yanukovych.

The battalions have been fighting along with Kiev's government forces against the pro-Russia forces in the country's restive eastern regions and have been accused of using fierce tactics.

The United Nations (UN) recently released a report on the human rights situation in Ukraine, accusing the volunteer battalions of violating international humanitarian laws.

Ukraine, along with Western powers, accuses Russia of having a hand in the Ukrainian crisis, but Moscow denies the allegation.

Ukraine's mainly Russian-speaking eastern regions have witnessed deadly clashes between Ukrainian troops and pro-Russia protesters after the Kiev government launched military operations in mid-April in a bid to crush protests.