Russia is not waging war in Ukraine's east, and is not supplying rebels with military equipment, according to Russian deputy defense minister Anatoly Antonov. The anti-Kiev forces get their arms at old Soviet storages - same as government troops do.

"Surely, Russia doesn't wage any war. Vladimir Putin's policy is aimed at not allowing the situation to develop according to the worst-case scenario. There are, unfortunately, forces that try to push two peoples against each other to start a real war between Russia and Ukraine," Antonov said, speaking with journalists in Slovakia.

Addressing the claims that Russia supplies weapons to the eastern Ukrainian self-defense forces, he explained where the militia may get their weaponry from.

"First, one shouldn't forget that Ukraine used to be a part of the Soviet Union. There were many weapon storages on the territory of the Soviet Union, so when Ukraine and Russia became independent states, clearly some storages remained on Ukrainian territory.

"Currently, in the region engulfed by this disaster, by the bloodshed, where the "punishment" operation is being carried out by Kiev against its own people, some of these storages have been seized by the self-defense forces. That's why saying that Russians supplied the weapons to Lugansk and Donetsk is simply incorrect. Look at the Ukrainian army's weaponry. It's fighting with the Russian weapons - or, more precisely, with Soviet weapons," Antonov said.

Another source is operational trophies, the deputy defense minister said. "The self-defense forces seize large amounts of National Guard's and the Ukrainian army's weapons. Hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers fled into Russia, leaving the weapons they used to own," he added.

Ex-Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev has urged Kiev to bring their military operation in eastern regions to an end. Russia, he added, is doing the right thing by keeping away from interfering with the neighboring country, thus saving thousands of lives.

"It must be stopped immediately," Gorbachev told RSN Radio, referring to Kiev's "anti-terrorist" operation, launched in April this year in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions. Gorbachev cited UN figures on the conflict: as of August 13, over 2,000 people were killed there.


"They must do everything possible to stop murdering each other; it is one nation," Gorbachev said. However, he warned that this should remain Ukraine's own business.

"If [other] states get involved, the scope may widen and everyone would want a hand there - we may end up with a terrible slaughter in Europe," he said. "We can't afford it."


Gorbachev also praised Russia's policy of staying away from direct engagement, commenting on the accusations coming from the West that Moscow has started a "military intervention."

"If our country intervenes, such a fire could break out that the whole world wouldn't be able to put it out. And it is right that the politicians are upholding their position," Gorbachev said.

The wars in Ukraine, Syria and Iraq are 4th generation wars. These wars are not waged by governments but by rogue networks who in part enter symbiotic relationships and in part cannibalize on one another. Besides being a threat against targeted nation states and alliances, these networks are mounting frontal assaults against the political systems in which they have embedded themselves. These networks are abusing democratic systems as their play-toys and are mounting the greatest of all threats against the sovereign within democratic systems, the people themselves.

4th Generation Wars and Oligarchical Anarchy. 4th generation warfare was developed on the basis of the perceived need to end the cold-war stall-mate that had made head-on military confrontations between superpowers or alliances impossible. The foundation was laid by think-tanks around Zbigniev Brzezinski and the establishment of Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan during the 1980s. The first actual 4th generation war was that directed against Yugoslavia.

From Yugoslavia to Ukraine. It is a well-established and documented fact that the internal conflict in Yugoslavia was manufactured by an alliance of Slovenian, Croatian separatists with ties to WWII German National Socialism. National Socialism has also been entrenched in the political system of the USA, its military-industrial complex, and post-WWII civilian and military intelligence services in the USA and NATO.

As international lawyer Christopher Black noted in our joint article, written by Black, Fetzer, Mezyaev and Lehmann, titled "South East China Sea, A Perfect Crisis for the International Crisis Group", these Slovenian and Croatian networks received covert support via the German intelligence service BND as well as via the Vatican. The fact was also noted by Prof. Michel Chossudovsky, in his article "German Intelligence and CIA supported Al Qaeda sponsored Terrorists in Yugoslavia".

4th generation wars like those in Yugoslavia, Libya, Syria, Iraq and Ukraine are planned years, sometimes decades in advance. Alexander Mezyaev noted in our joint article that the retired French Brigadier General Pierre Marie Gallois made a stunning confession in that regard.

Absurdity beyond comprehension.

Washington supported the Free Syria rebels who aligned themselves with the terrorist group called Al-Nusra to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad,

Then the Syrian rebels and other groups in Iraq form another terrorist organization who call themselves the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

The consequences of Washington's policies of aiding the Syrian rebels including ISIS have served a purpose. ISIS has spread to both Syria and Iraq gaining territory. ISIS has claimed it has executed 250 Syrian soldiers last weekend as they seized an airbase in the province of Raqqa.

Washington considers the advancement of ISIS a threat to its national security. As reported by the Associated Press, US surveillance planes were already deployed to pinpoint specific targets. The article titled 'US surveillance planes fly over Syria, officials say' stated that

"Two U.S. officials said Monday that Obama had approved the flights, while another U.S. official said early Tuesday that they had begun. The officials were not authorized to discuss the matter by name, and spoke only on condition of anonymity."

An oil tanker traveling off the Texas coast with $100 million of disputed Kurdish oil has gone missing.

According to Reuters, the vessel completely disappeared from satellite tracking Thursday, showing no position on the AIS tracking system used by the U.S. Coat Guard.

A spokesperson for the Coast Guard was not immediately available for comment to TheBlaze, but an official told Reuters that it's possible the ship turned off its locating device, had some of its antennas removed from service, or sailed beyond a point that can be monitored with antennas that track transponders.

More accusations fly across the media, like so many flocks of Canada geese, of direct Russian involvement in Ukraine. Much is made of an interview with Donetsk National Republic leader Alexander Zakharchenko, in which he "admits" there are Russian volunteers fighting on his side.

To the west, that's all the proof they need. There are 1000 Russians in Ukraine, cries NATO. That doesn't make them the Russian army though. If there are only 1000, that would be disappointing. These are people who are seeing their family just across the border shot to bits.

That Zakharchenko also said there were French and other nationals fighting on the same side is not deemed worth reporting. Just like not much has been made of the many thousands of German, British, French, Belgian, Dutch, Canadian and American nationals fighting in Syria and Iraq, mostly on the side of the IS. Other than the British guy in the beheading video, and the US citizen who got killed.

The man who now leads them warned his American captors, "I'll see you guys in New York."

They could exploit the porous southern U.S. border for an attack, and on Thursday President Barack Obama said, "We don't have a strategy yet" to fight them.

The Islamic State has blitzed its way into control across a huge swath of Syria and Iraq in recent months, and on Friday, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia issued a dire warning: Jihadists could reach Europe and America in a matter of months.

As Agence France-Presse reported Saturday:

"If we ignore [the Islamic State], I am sure they will reach Europe in a month and America in another month," [King Abdullah] said in remarks quoted on Saturday by Asharq al-Awsat daily and Saudi-backed Al-Arabiya television station.

"Terrorism knows no border and its danger could affect several countries outside the Middle East," said the king who was speaking at a welcoming ceremony on Friday for new ambassadors, including a new envoy from Saudi ally the United States.

As he listed the atrocities the Islamic State has committed, the Saudi king plead for western aid.

"It is no secret to you, what they have done and what they have yet to do," King Abdullah said, citing jihadists' penchant for beheading their enemies. "I ask you to transmit this message to your leaders: 'Fight terrorism with force, reason and speed.'"

Citizen advocates warn that the "whole world is watching" as city cuts off water to thousands of most impoverished residents

Despite widespread public outcry and international condemnation, the city of Detroit on Tuesday resumed shutting off the water supply to thousands of city residents.

Ending the month long moratorium on shutoffs, Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD) public affairs specialist Gregory Eno confirmed to Common Dreams that the city turned off the water to roughly 400 households that are delinquent on their water bills and have not yet set up a payment plan. More shutoffs are expected.

According to the citizens group Detroit Water Brigade, the only thing that changed since shutoffs began in March is that the city has lowered the required down payment water bills from 30% to 10%. "The water is still too expensive for Detroit," they said. Detroit is one of the poorest cities in the United States with over 38% of the population living below the poverty line, according to Census Bureau statistics.

Members of the Detroit Water Brigade are calling on the city to halt the shutoffs altogether and consider alternatives for helping people pay their bills, arguing that restricting access to water for the city's poorest residents is "doing nothing more than hurting people," DWB volunteer DeMeeko Williams told a local CBS affiliate.

"Today it is 90 degrees in the city of Detroit," Williams continued. "Elderly people need water, children need water to hydrate themselves - to stay cool."

The European Union (EU) has readied a fresh wave of sanctions against Russia with warnings that the escalating crisis in Ukraine is putting all of Europe at risk of conflict.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said as he visited Brussels to plead with EU leaders for tougher measures, arguing that Kiev and Moscow were on the verge of "full-scale war".

Fears of a wider confrontation spiraled after claims that Russia has sent troops to help fight a new offensive by pro-Kremlin rebels that has wrested several southeastern Ukrainian towns from Kiev's control.

European economic sanctions against Russia may backfire on the EU, said the President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz on a press-conference following the European Council Summit in Brussels.
According to Schulz, economic sanctions against Russia may influence Moscow's stance on the Ukrainian conflict, but they will not go without negative consequences for the European Union and its member countries.

On Saturday, the European Council gathered in Brussels, to appoint senior positions and discuss further economic sanctions against Russia over its alleged participation in the Ukrainian conflict.