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Russia creating coalition with Gulf countries to help solve Syria crisis - will Saudis join?


Sputnik
Wed, 03 Aug 2016 20:05 UTC
putin
© Sputnik/ Alexei Druzhinin
Russia stands a pretty good chance of attracting the Gulf Cooperation Council countries' support while resolving the Syrian crisis. For its part, Riyadh has signaled recently that it is interested in building close relations with Moscow regardless of a difference of opinion on the Syrian crisis.

Russia's charm offensive launched by President Vladimir Putin in the Gulf back in 2012 has borne fruit, according to Samuel Ramani, a DPhil candidate in International Relations at St. Antony's College, University of Oxford.

"Through stronger investment linkages and diplomatic overtures, Russia has attempted to carve out a more prominent geopolitical role in the Persian Gulf... Stronger relations between Moscow and Saudi Arabia's closest allies have caused some GCC [the Gulf Cooperation Council] countries to be more receptive to Russia's calls for a political solution in Syria. Saudi Arabia's fear of being isolated from the Arab world's consensus could cause Riyadh to eventually soften its belligerent anti-Assad approach and diplomatically reengage with Russia," Ramani writes in his article for The National Interest.

According to the British academic, the dire prognoses that Russo-Gulf relations would tremendously deteriorate in the wake of Moscow's involvement in Syria have been proven wrong.
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Che Guevara

Not mincing words: Erdogan determined to smash NATO secret army Gladio involved in attempted Turkish coup


Sputnik
Wed, 03 Aug 2016 19:43 UTC
erdogan
© AFP 2016/ STR / TURKISH PRESIDENTIAL PRESS OFFICE
According to Turkish media reports, there was a secret NATO structure involved in the attempted coup that took place in Turkey on July 15, German newspaper Deutsche Wirtschafts Nachrichten wrote.

The media source, referring to reports of Turkish media, wrote that this structure has primarily been used by the British and Americans to influence political events in Turkey.

The newspaper also noted that Fethullah Gulen, a US-based Muslim cleric, who was accused by the Turkish government of plotting the coup, could also be a part of this structure.

"If one wants to again create relationship of trust with the Western institutions, Gladio [clandestine NATO structure] in Turkey must be eliminated as it already was in several Western countries" Turkish journalist Ozcan Tikit wrote for newspaper Habertürk.


Comment: Really? Which ones? Everywhere we look in the West, all heads bow to Washington and London.

Inquiring minds would like to know!


Comment: It really does look like Turkey is going to go through with this.

For background on Operation Gladio, see:

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Gold Seal

The attempt to ban Team Russia from the Olympics could be a big mistake

Alexander Mercouris
The Duran
Wed, 03 Aug 2016 18:56 UTC
Maria Kuchina
© REUTERS
Maria Kuchina of Russia kisses her gold medal as she poses on the podium after the women's high jump event during the 15th IAAF World Championships at the National Stadium in Beijing, China, August 30, 2015.
Amidst all the discussion of the Russian Olympic Doping scandal, one point which has not been made is that those who have tried to use the scandal to expel Russia from the Rio Olympics and from the Olympic movement have made a colossal mistake.

Anyone who spends any time in Russia quickly learns two things: that Russians take sport very seriously and that they take great pride in their country's success in it. I suspect that those who were behind the campaign know this perfectly well and pressed their campaign in the knowledge that being expelled from the Olympics would be something that to Russians would really hurt.

If so then then they have made a huge mistake. Not only did the campaign ultimately fail in its plan to get Russia expelled from the Olympic movement. It has made the Russians very angry as they have watched their national team and their athletes - sporting heroes for many Russians - abused and humiliated in the most cruel and unfair way.
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Vader

Donald Trump's "Russian connections" are a dangerous, distracting side show when Killary has plans for war in Syria

Alexander Mercouris
The Duran
Wed, 03 Aug 2016 18:39 UTC
hillary war syria
© The Duran
As Hillary Clinton's advisers plan for war in Syria, the media and political class talk about Trump's non-existent Russian links.

To an outsider, US elections can seem like surreal affairs. As Hillary Clinton's supporters openly plan war in Syria the media and political class froths over a mythical connection between Donald Trump and Russia.

Over the last week the big foreign policy story in the US election has been Donald Trump's supposed connection to Russia, and Russia's supposed role in the DNC emails leak. This is absurd. There is no evidence Donald Trump has any important connection to Russia or is in any way a Russian agent. As an international businessman he has obviously had the odd dealings with Russian businessmen but on any objective assessment his financial involvement in Russia has been slight. He has no big investments there, owns no big properties in Moscow, has built no "Trump Towers" in Moscow or St. Petersburg, and owns no large hotels there.

Far too much is being made of the fact that some Russian and Ukrainian money may have found its way into Trump's businesses. The reality is that investment by Russian and Ukrainian oligarchs in the New York property market in which Trump is a major player has been huge. By way of example the Russian - Ukrainian billionaire oligarch Leonid Blavatnik owns a $77 million apartment in the ultra-elite apartment building at 834 Fifth Avenue. The penthouse in the same building was formerly owned by Trump's prime media tormentor Rupert Murdoch (it now belongs to Murdoch's ex-wife Wendi Deng).
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Eye 1

Companies that peddle surveillance tech to help spy on public exposed in new database


RT
Wed, 03 Aug 2016 18:35 UTC
surveillance tech
© Reuters
Corporations that develop technology used to spy on citizens are being added to a new searchable database compiled by human rights NGO Privacy International (PI).

PI has developed the Surveillance Industry Index database in conjunction with software group Transparency Toolkit. It contains details of more than 500 surveillance technology firms around the world and more than 1,500 brochures advertising their products.

The database also contains 600 reports by specialists on where the technology has been exported to, government licenses and technical details.

"We've been researching the global surveillance industry since 2010. The industry is opaque by design - they don't want to be held accountable for the actions they take," PI advocacy officer Matthew Rice told the International Business Times on Wednesday.
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Handcuffs

Cleaning house: Ex-mayor gets 12 years in central Russia bribery scandal


RT
Wed, 03 Aug 2016 18:19 UTC
russian mayor bribery charges
© Alexander Vilf / Sputnik
Former Yaroslavl Mayor Yevgeny Urlashov (right), charged with accepting a bribe, at a haring in the Basmanny District Court which considers extending his detention.
A district court in the central Russian city of Yaroslavl has sentenced former mayor Evgeny Urlashov to 12.5 years in prison for extorting a multimillion-ruble bribe from a street cleaning company.

The court also sentenced Urlashov's former aide, Aleksey Lopatin, to seven years, but fully acquitted the former mayor's deputy, Dmitry Donskov, who had also faced charges within the same case.

The court also ordered the former mayor to pay a fine of 60 million rubles (about US$900,000 at current rates).

Urlashov's case dates back to July 2013, when he was detained and charged with attempted large-scale bribery. Four more people - local civil servants and managers of municipal companies - were implicated in the case. Urlashov had worked as Yaroslavl mayor for about a year before his detention.

According to investigators, a group of Yaroslavl city officials headed by Urlashov attempted to extort a bribe from a local businessman who was working on a city contract. The mayor and his aides reportedly wanted a kickback of 45 million rubles (over $1.2 million at that time) from the cleaning company, threatening not to accept the work and delay payment if their demands were not met.
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Heart - Black

UK Home Office rules refugee detainees can be held in solitary confinement against medical advice


RT
Wed, 03 Aug 2016 18:12 UTC
uk protesters
Detainees held at Britain's already controversial immigration detention centers can be put in solitary confinement against medical advice and without explanation, staff are being told in new Home Office guidelines.

A draft of the new rules, seen by the Independent, advises detention center personnel that any detainee believed to be "stubborn, unmanageable or disobedient" may be held in solitary confinement for up to two hours without being given a reason for the sanction.

Detainees may be ordered to stay in solitary confinement for two weeks or longer if authorization is given by senior management. Staff are instructed to "consider" medical advice in cases where solitary confinement may be "seriously detrimental to a detainee's health or is life threatening," however they may choose to disregard the advice so long as they "clearly explain the rationale," the paper reports.

Rights group Liberty slammed the government for the new rules, saying it "should be ashamed at its failure to afford even the most basic dignity and security to those within its care."
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Yoda

Putin's star rising in the Middle East


Middle East Briefing
Wed, 03 Aug 2016 17:48 UTC
Putin
Just three or four years ago, no one was talking seriously about a role for Russia in the Middle East. It is indeed amazing how Vladimir Putin, with minimum investment, has achieved all this in such a short time. He is now publicly invited by Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir to enter the region through the widest gate now available: Saudi Arabia. He will have an extremely important meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in August. He is considered by Iran as a close ally. And he is the guarantor of the Assad regime, and seen as a close friend in Cairo.

It is unquestionably an impressive record. But how could the Russian President accumulate all these gains in such a short period of time and with a small fraction of what George W. Bush and Dick Cheney spent on the catastrophic invasion of Iraq? And does the rising star of Putin in the Middle East show us that what we are actually seeing is the beginning of the end of the West's "special role" in the region, which started over a century ago with the "Arab Revolution" of 1916 and the British-French colonial rule over that part of the world?

As no one could see that the invasion of Iraq in 2003, a move of sheer arrogance of power, would lead to all that, no one can yet place the current developments within a clear historic perspective. But it is interesting to see how the manifestation of power in Iraq in 2003 led to the advance of one strategic adversary of the West, Vladimir Putin, to moving into what had remained a Western-controlled region for over 100 years.
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Play

South Front: A look at Russia's Sukhoi jets, heavy clashes in Aleppo, rebels use chemical weapons (VIDEOS)


South Front
Wed, 03 Aug 2016 17:23 UTC
south front
Syrian War Report - August 3, 2016: Heavy Clashes in Aleppo City

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Eye 2

Human rights groups blast Australian government for "deliberately inflicting suffering and abuse" on refugees


RT
Wed, 03 Aug 2016 17:46 UTC
protesters
© Amnesty International
Human rights groups have blasted the Australian government for its treatment of refugees who were sent to the Pacific island of Nauru, saying few other countries go to such lengths to deliberately inflict suffering on those seeking refuge and freedom.

Around 1,200 men, women and children who tried to reach Australia by boat were forcibly settled on the island nation of Nauru, where they have been subjected to "severe abuse, inhumane treatment, and neglect" according to Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty International.

"Australia's policy of exiling asylum seekers who arrive by boat is cruel in the extreme," said Senior Director for Research at Amnesty Anna Neistat, who managed to visit the island for 12 days in July and speak to 84 refugees and asylum seekers from Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Somalia, Bangladesh, Kuwait and Afghanistan.

To put media off, or to make life as difficult as possible for them to visit the island, the Nauru authorities charge $5,800 for a journalist visa application, which is nonrefundable.

"Few other countries go to such lengths to deliberately inflict suffering on people seeking safety and freedom," she added.
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