© Dylan Martinez / Reuters
Puppet Masters
© David Khizanishvili / Sputnik
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili during a joint media conference with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in July 2008.
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili during a joint media conference with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in July 2008.
Dmitry Medvedev, who was Russia's president in 2008 when Georgia attacked its breakaway region of South Ossetia, triggering a war with Russia, gave an extensive interview on those events just as the 10th anniversary looms. Speaking to the Kommersant newspaper, he recalled how Russian policies during and after the crisis were taken and what long-term consequences the decade-old war has today.
Asked whether the war, which was based on old ethnic rivalries in Georgia, was inevitable, Medvedev insisted it was the result of a decision taken by Georgian leadership and then-President Mikhail Saakashvili.
"The root of the problem was certainly in the events of the 1990s and the decisions taken during the 1990s in Tbilisi, which were not accepted in either Abkhazia or South Ossetia," he said, referring to the bloody conflicts in the two regions in the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union, which resulted in their de-facto independence.
Comment: The brief war in 2008 certainly anticipated much of what we're seeing today, ie. a NATO/Western-influenced country or forces invades/attacks a country Russia is allied with - Russia responds brilliantly - Russia gets demonized by the West and forces of Empire for doing so. See also:
- The South Ossetia war 9 years later: EU investigation ignored and 'nobody paid the price' for 2000 killed
- Following the Crimean example: South Ossetia planning referendum to join Russia
- Georgia's ex-president thanks Kiev for support in 2008 South Ossetia conflict
© Katehon
Senator Graham bragged that the bill would include "everything but the kitchen sink" in its attempt to ratchet up tensions with Russia.
Sen Cory Gardner (R-CO) bragged that the new sanctions bill "includes my language requiring the State Department to determine whether Russia merits the designation of a State Sponsor of Terror."
Does he even know what the word "terrorism" means?
Comment: Moscow plans to respond in kind:
Moscow is ready for the bill introduced by US senators on measures against the Kremlin elite and on banning transactions related to Russia's new sovereign debt, Chairman of the Russian State Duma's (lower house) Financial Markets Committee Anatoly Aksakov told Nezavisimaya Gazeta. The lawmaker noted the US sanctions' impact on Russia's financial system would be insignificant. "It is more symbolic and moral rather than important in material terms," he said.
A source close to the Kremlin has not ruled out that Russia could retaliate with its "crushing" military and strategic measures and review some its international commitments.
"If the unproven meddling in US election gives them the right to cause economic damage and deal a blow to the nation's welfare, it's not surprising that Russia could draw up measures, including military and strategic ones, which can result in irreparable losses for the Americans' economy and profits," the source told the paper.
© Reuters
Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro (R) and Bolivia's President Evo Morales in Caracas, Venezuela April 15, 2018.
Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro (R) and Bolivia's President Evo Morales in Caracas, Venezuela April 15, 2018.
Morales, Bolivia's staunchly anti-American president, took to Twitter to accuse the US of having "plans" for Venezuela, a day after Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro was targeted by armed drones during a military parade in Caracas. Shortly after, Maduro blamed the "Venezuelan ultra-right in alliance with the Colombian extreme right" for the attack.
Morales pointed out the fact that then-CIA director and current Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had openly boasted about the CIA's dealings with Mexico and Colombia, in hopes of fostering a "transition" in Venezuela.
"On 07/20/17, then chief of the CIA, Mike Pompeo admitted efforts with Mexico and Colombia to foster a 'transition' in Venezuela. Then, on 8/10/17, in the White House, Trump pressed his aides to invade Venezuela. The world is well aware of the plans of the US against Venezuela," Morales tweeted on Sunday. In follow-up tweets, Boliva's leader cited reports that US President Donald Trump had explored a "military option" against Caracas, describing such actions as "Yankee Interventionism."
Comment: Washington's denials about the recent attempt on Maduro's life are clearly not too credible!
See:
- Venezuelan President Maduro survives assassination attempt during public speech (UPDATES)
- 'Attempt to destabilize Venezuela': Russia condemns attack on Maduro - US denies involvement
© AVN
Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro has survived an apparent attack on his life during a military parade.
Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro has survived an apparent attack on his life during a military parade.
Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro has survived an apparent attack on his life during a military parade celebrating the 81st anniversary of the Bolivarian National Guard in the capital, Caracas.
Comment: It was also the one-year anniversary of Venezuela's new Constituent Assembly, condemned by the Global Fake News Media as 'anti-democratic', which their Fake Intel Controllers apparently decided to mar with their particular brand of 'democratic terrorism'.
In a televised national address late Saturday, Maduro said he was fine and laid blame for the attack firmly at the feet of "right-wing imperial forces" who he said had hired the would-be assassins.
"I must inform that they have been captured - those who attempted to take my life - and they are being processed. I won't say more, but the investigation is very advanced.
Comment: Maduro has made some additional comments on the attempted assassination:
The Venezuelan President has in turn announced that the investigation into his attempted assassination has already made significant progress: "preliminary investigation indicates that many of those responsible for the attack, the financiers and planners, live in the United States in the state of Florida."UPDATES 5 AUGUST, 12:30 CET
Maduro has said that he has "no doubt" that the perpetrators include US-backed Colombian and Venezuelan terrorists, including outgoing Colombian leader Juan Manuel Santos himself, engaged in a "right-wing plot" to overthrow Maduro.
"I hope the Trump administration is willing to fight terrorist groups that commit attacks in peaceful countries on our continent, in this case Venezuela", Maduro proclaimed on national television.
Indeed, it would not be a conspiracy to suggest that the Venezuelan opposition, which is no stranger to terrorist tactics to achieve their aims of disruption, is behind this. As logically follows, it would by no means be hyperbole to suggest that the CIA and US government have a hand in this.
Evidence to support this is not only the overall track record of US Imperialism in Latin America, notorious for coup d'etats, disappearances, and support for brutal military dictatorships, but more recently, the coup attempts in Venezuela in April 2002 and two attempts at destabilization using the guarimbas in 2014 and 2017.
US Imperialism and the Venezuelan comprador bourgeoisie have proven unsuccessful at dislodging the Bolívarian Revolution from power. They've lost dozens of elections and most recently, Maduro was re-elected President, and regional and local elections saw a consolidation of wins for the PSUV and revolutionary groups. It is no wonder they are stooping to desperate tactics like this drone attempt.
Today's event also takes place just days after Maduro reached crucial new agreements with the peasant movement. Maduro wants to meet their demands for (1) security from the political assassinations of campesinos by Colombian paramilitaries, (2) more land to farm, and (3) credits and technology.
Additionally, Maduro has unleashed investigations against corrupt bureaucrats who sabotaged the state oil company. This represents a continuation of the deepening of the Bolivarian revolution amidst the food crisis caused by capitalist hoarders.
It can be safely assumed that the Bolivarian security forces will pursue the perpetrators of this assassination attempt and the popular forces of Venezuela will secure their areas in case of an escalation from nearby Colombia, which was recently made a member of NATO by the US.
Another update, courtesy of RT:
Unconfirmed media reports indicated that a splinter group called 'Flannel Soldiers' claimed credit for the attack. Spain's El Mundo newspaper cited a Twitter account under a similar name which alleged "the operation was to fly drones loaded with C4," but said they were shot down by the presidential guard before reaching their target.The Colombian government has of course denied any involvement. It's interesting, however, that outgoing Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos - a Nobel Peace Prize laureate despite waging a border war against Venezuela - 'predicted' just 5 days previously that he foresees "regime change" in Caracas "in the near future."
According to Gregory Wilpert, co-founder of Venezuelanalysis website, those who orchestrated the plot hoped that "the military would rise up against the president and would take it as an opportunity to organize a coup and overthrow the government."
23:30 CET
US National Security czar John 'Evil Ned Flanders' Bolton has piped up to declare that the US govt was "not involved" in the assassination attempt against Maduro.
Bolton was apparently just letting everyone know. Because, ya know, many people were suspecting precisely that.
Which is interesting because it means that even the the US govt. knows that everyone else knows that the US govt. has a long track record of assassinating or otherwise overthrowing the democratically-elected leaders of other nations.
But America's the greatest democracy on earth, don't ya know.
UPDATE 6 August
A video was posted on social media by by Cesar Guardiola, a security adviser and retired military serviceman, purportedly showing the drone exploding. Maduro can be heard giving his speech in the background as the camera focuses on a drone flying in the sky. The drone is then seen to be engulfed in a fireball, followed a split second later by a loud bang. Venezuelan Minister of Communication and Information Jorge Rodriguez announced that six people had been detained in connection with the reported plot to kill Maduro.
© Lucas Jackson / Reuters
Alex Jones at a rally during the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, July 18, 2016
Alex Jones at a rally during the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, July 18, 2016
Editor's note: Cnet has revealed that Jones' Linkedin account has also been deleted by Linkedin. This makes it clear that the "hate speech" justification given by Youtube, FB et al, is a narrative hiding the real reason: deliberate censorship.The US Constitution explicitly forbids government censorship. So Silicon Valley big-tech companies made themselves the gatekeepers of 'goodthink,' de-platforming anyone who runs afoul of their arbitrary 'community standards.'
Alex Jones, the host of InfoWars, has often been derided by establishment media as a conspiracy theorist. Yet on Monday, Apple, Spotify, YouTube and Facebook proved right the motto of his show - "There's a war on for your mind!" - by blocking or deleting InfoWars accounts from their platforms, saying he allegedly engaged in "hate speech" and violated their "community standards."
Simply put, these corporations appointed themselves arbiters of acceptable political thought, and censored Jones for failing to comply with arbitrary political standards set in Silicon Valley boardrooms, not at the ballot box.
Comment: That these corporations have been doing this is no secret. However with this latest concerted effort to ban InfoWars from their platforms under their vague "community standards", will we see more alternative sources hit by the ban-hammer? And will the blatant censorship and constant oppression drive users to other platforms? Although they don't (yet) have the reach, these newer ones (like Steemit or Dtube), are decentralized, put power back into the hands of the people and are growing in number. It might be our best chance at fighting back. See also: In America, corporate censorship is state censorship
Facebook shut down InfoWars permanently, calling it 'hate speech', without notifying them what precisely constituted the hate speech. Apple removed all their podcasts for the same 'reason'. Jones's YouTube channel had 2.4 million subscribers. After YT banned him, subscribers were met with an invitation to unsubscribe from the now inaccessible channel. The absurd thing is this: it's not the government doing the censorship (i.e. Trump's White House) - it's the high-level corporate world; the 'Deep State'. That should show everyone where the real power lies. It's no coincidence that their behavior bears a striking resemblance to the Soviets...
"Civil wars don't start with gunshots, they start with words," the representatives were told. "America's war with itself has already begun. We all must act now on the social media battlefield to quell information rebellions that can quickly lead to violent confrontations and easily transform us into the Divided States of America."
Yes, this really happened.
In a Twitter posting on August 5, department spokeswoman Heather Nauert wrote: "Assistant Secretary [Wess] Mitchell convoked #Russia Chargé [Dmitry] Zhirnov to answer for the Kremlin's attempts to use social media accounts to promote violent and divisive causes in the U.S. -- we will not tolerate this aggressive interference."
The tweet linked to a statement issued on August 1 regarding Facebook's July 31 announcement that it had discovered "sophisticated" efforts, possibly linked to Russia, to manipulate U.S. politics ahead of November's congressional elections.
Comment: The stunning lack of evidence for such claims really doesn't matter to these people because allegation after allegation is all the public needs to accept that there is a 'case' against Russia.
© Getty Images
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo
Pompeo launched another verbal assault against the Iranian leadership as the first element of reintroduced US sanctions kicked in on Monday. The penalties affect existing contracts between foreign companies, which flooded the Islamic Republic after the 2015 nuclear deal, and Tehran.
Calling the Iranian government "bad actors," Pompeo stressed that the sweeping sanctions that are to hit Iran are necessary to make it "behave like a normal country." He added that it would "require enormous change" on Iran's part for the US to review its increasingly hostile approach to Tehran.
Until that happens, the sanctions will be enforced rigorously, the top US diplomat said, as quoted by AP.
Comment: A 'One Size Fits All' policy works once. Even less when accompanied by belligerence.
© Vladimir Fedorenko / Sputnik
US Senator Rand Paul • Senator Konstantin Kosachev
US Senator Rand Paul • Senator Konstantin Kosachev
Paul announced that he had "invited members of the foreign affairs committee of Russia to come to the United States to meet with us in Washington," after meeting with Konstantin Kosachev, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in Russia's upper house. The two sides are hoping to organize a meeting in a neutral, third country, the Kentucky lawmaker told reporters.
Marking the second US congressional delegation to Moscow in a month - Senator Richard Shelby and a group of US lawmakers held talks with senior Russian officials in July - Paul said that part of the purpose of his trip was to promote greater dialogue between Moscow and Washington.
Comment: Someone, besides Trump, has got to reach out and restart the dialogue.
Comment: For context, the first call between Yulia and Viktoria was in early April, where Yulia told her everything was fine. Viktoria was in the news several times after that, as the UK denied her visa requests to visit Yulia. During one of her media appearances, she told Ruptly that Yulia's speech sounded scripted, which may explain what Yulia said in the call above: "As I have already said, I do not understand why the statements that I make [are subjected to speculation]. The tone was not right, she had practiced it, she had not. This is none of your business!"
Sergei Skripal was released from hospital in mid May, following which Yulia gave her first TV 'appearance', which also seemed scripted. In her written statement she refers to the "assassination attempt" on her and her father using a "nerve agent", but she makes no allusion to the accusations that the Russian government was responsible, even expressing her future wish to return to Russia. Read with Slane's speculation above in mind, it makes sense to think that she was unaware of the accusations, and that her handlers had been telling her of Viktoria's media appearances, making public the details of their conversation. That would also explain her wish for privacy.