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Russia offers India way of bypassing Western sanctions


RT
Sat, 30 Apr 2022 14:46 UTC
Modi Putin
© File PhotoFILE PHOTO: India PM Narendra Modi • Russian President Vladimir Putin. Moscow reportedly wants dollar payments for oil, ruble or rupee for rest.
Moscow has reportedly proposed a plan for India to pay for Russian oil in US dollars or euro, while using a rupee-ruble-denominated mechanism for other goods.

The new mechanism is designed to allow more trade in local currencies as economic pressure mounts on Russia over its military operation in neighboring Ukraine, according to people with knowledge of the matter quoted by Bloomberg.

The proposals were reportedly discussed between Russian central bank officials and their Indian counterparts with the participation of officials from the finance ministry.

Comment: See also: Can India facilitate the Global South's alternative financial transactions with Russia?

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MIB

Serbia to speak on Russia sanctions in 1 week, President admits to being pressured to change neutral stance


RT
Sat, 30 Apr 2022 15:53 UTC
Vucic
© AFP / ANDREJ ISAKOVICSerbian President Aleksandar Vucic. Previously opposed to sanctioning Moscow, President Aleksandar Vucic has come under intense pressure from Washington to relent.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has said that he will issue a statement on possible anti-Russia sanctions early next month, but will be guided by "the interests of Serbia" alone. Vucic has vehemently opposed penalizing Moscow for its offensive in Ukraine, but has come under pressure from the US to change his stance.

"As for us and the imposition of sanctions, I will talk about this more and more thoroughly on May 6," Vucic told reporters at a military expo near Belgrade on Saturday, according to RIA Novosti. While acknowledging that he has been under pressure from unnamed politicians to acquiesce to the West's sanctions regime, Vucic added that "our policy should be a policy of responsibility, a policy of development for Serbia, which will think about the interests of Serbia at every moment."

Comment: One wonders why Vucic is waiting a week to announce his position? However, If Vucic changes his stance on the sanctions - that are woefully backfiring on Europe - one can presume that the pressure and blackmail likely succeeded. Note that Serbia has been under threat of Western regime change efforts in recent years: Serbian minister warns of possible coup after Serbia's elections because of country's neutral stance towards Russia

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Calendar

US weapons supply to Ukraine prepped in January


RT
Fri, 29 Apr 2022 17:45 UTC
Capitol/Gun
© CNN
A scheme to send US weapons to Ukraine, using the "lend-lease" formula pioneered during WWII to skirt neutrality laws, was officially approved by Congress this week. However, it was put together all the way back in January - more than a month before Moscow recognized the Donbass republics as independent and sent troops into Ukraine.

Republican Senator John Cornyn introduced the Ukraine Democracy Defense Lend-Lease Act, also known as S.3522, on January 19, 2022. This is according to the official Congress.gov page for the bill. On the same date, it was co-sponsored by senators Benjamin Cardin, Jeanne Shaheen and Roger Wicker.

Senators Richard Blumenthal and Lindsey Graham endorsed it the very next day, January 20. Other endorsements trickled in over the following weeks, with a total of 14 senators on board by February 9, again according to Congress.gov.

Russia did not recognize the independence of Donetsk and Lugansk until February 21. The "special military operation" to demilitarize Ukraine began on what was already February 24 in Washington.
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Dollar

'A downpayment on WWIII': Peace advocates blast Biden's ask for more Ukraine aid

Brett Wilkins
Common Dreams
Thu, 28 Apr 2022 00:00 UTC
Biden
© Anna Moneymaker/Getty ImagesUS President Joe Biden announces added support for Ukraine's war
Roosevelt Room, White House • April 28, 2022
Peace advocates reacted to Thursday's request by U.S. President Joe Biden for $33 billion in additional aid to Ukraine by warning against what they called a dangerous escalation and by accusing the administration of misplaced priorities.

Biden is asking Congress for additional funding for war-ravaged Ukraine, including more than $20 billion in "security and military assistance," $8.5 billion in economic aid, and $3 billion in "humanitarian assistance."

Biden claimed:
"It's not cheap. But caving to aggression is going to be more costly if we allow it to happen. We either back the Ukrainian people as they defend their country, or we stand by as the Russians continue their atrocities and aggression in Ukraine every day."
The president's appeal for additional funds comes on top of the $4.6 billion in security assistance the U.S. has given Ukraine since January 2021, including $3.7 billion since Russian forces invaded the country in February.

Medea Benjamin, co-founder of the women-led peace group CodePink, called Biden's request
"a down payment on World War III. Biden's call for an enormous $33 billion for Ukraine is over half the entire budget for the State Department and USAID. We need diplomacy, not billions more in weapons!"

Comment: Who benefits? Biden and the MIC.

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Oil Well

Spite, meet nose: More EU nations reject Moscow's gas-supply terms


RT
Sat, 30 Apr 2022 17:12 UTC
gas ruble coins
© Global Look Press / Nikolay Gyngazov
Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said on Friday that Prague has no plans to pay for Russian gas deliveries in rubles, as demanded by Moscow.

He was quoted by media after speaking at a joint press conference with his Polish counterpart, saying: "As for the ruble payment, the Czech Republic does not intend to give in to Russia's blackmail. Other countries that agree to this are making a mistake. It is a violation of sanctions. It is dangerous."

Danish energy group Orsted has also signaled it has no intention to pay for gas supply in the Russian currency. The company's CEO Mads Nipper explained to Market Wire: "This is because we are devastated over what happens [in Ukraine] and refuse to give in to unilateral demands from Russia and Gazprom."

Comment: Italy is in agreement (for all the good it will do them):

Toeing the Empire's line: Italy rejects ruble payment for Russian gas

Other EU countries are more pragmatic:

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Bullseye

U.N. committee finds Brazil graft probe violated Lula's rights

Emma Farge
Reuters
Thu, 28 Apr 2022 17:39 UTC
Brazil President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva
© REUTERS/Carla CarnielFormer Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva speaks during an event at the Heliopolis slum, in Sao Paulo, Brazil April 21, 2022.
The U.N. human rights committee said on Thursday that Brazil graft investigators violated due process in bringing a case against former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva that led to his imprisonment and barred him from running for office in 2018.

The finding follows a decision last year by Brazil's Supreme Court to annul his corruption conviction, allowing him to run for president again in this October's election.

Lula, who spent a year and a half in jail, called the U.N. decision "extraordinarily soul-cleansing" as he prepares to run against far-right incumbent President Jair Bolsonaro.

Comment:

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Headphones

FBI searches of data collected without a warrant nearly tripled in 2021


Yahoo! News
Fri, 29 Apr 2022 17:31 UTC
Office of the Director of National Intelligence logo
© ODNI
The FBI made nearly 3.4 million queries last year to a database of information collected without a warrant, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said on Friday, nearly tripling from the previous year.

The FBI data, which ODNI said was being included for the first time in its transparency report, included some 1.9 million queries done as part of investigations into attempts by foreign cyber attackers to compromise U.S. critical infrastructure, like U.S. power plants.

The 3.4 million from December 2020 to November 2021 is up from the 1.3 million queries from December 2019 to November 2020.

Comment:

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Bullseye

White House plan to 'streamline' seizure of Russian private assets to fund proxy-war in Ukraine goes against all legal norms - Moscow


RT
Fri, 29 Apr 2022 18:14 UTC
oligarch Viktor Vekselberg
FILE PHOTO: Civil Guards stand by the yacht said to be owned by the Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, on April 4, 2022.
Washington's plan to expand its authority to "seize and forfeit" the assets of so-called Russian "oligarchs" to provide financial aid to Kiev is nothing but "expropriation" that tramples on the very right to private property, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists on Friday.

"This is a very dangerous precedent," he warned, adding that such an action would be a "grave violation of any legal norms."

Such a move can only cause "deep incomprehension and rejection," Peskov said, adding that the very fact that the US government is contemplating such a move shows "just how fragile all the universally accepted foundations have become" in the field of private property rights, as well as in economics and politics.


Comment: It also reflects just how desperate, irrational, greedy, and brazen, those running the US are.


"This is nothing but simple expropriation of private property that [the US] seeks to falsely justify."

Comment: It's one thing for the deep state to rig the markets 'behind the scenes' (albeit rather obvious), it's quite another for the US to unilaterally and brazenly steal assets of private individuals - and worse, with the theft of Russia's foreign reserves, billions of dollars of assets belonging to a world super power - but, with the strengthening of the ruble, and the pivot to the East, it's clear there's growing sentiment amongst investors that the US is a liability they will no longer risk hedging their bets with.

Also check out SOTT radio's: NewsReal: UK Govt Now Says Russia Might Win in Ukraine After All



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Sherlock

Explosions rock Kiev during UN chief's visit


RT
Fri, 29 Apr 2022 04:43 UTC
kiev missile building un
© AP / Emilio MorenattiEmergency services are working in the area following an explosion in Kiev, Ukraine, April 28, 2022
Ukraine's President Zelensky accuses Russia of striking the capital 'immediately after' his talks with Antonio Guterres

At least five cruise missiles struck Kiev on Thursday evening, President Volodymyr Zelensky has claimed, accusing Moscow of carrying out the strike to deliberately "humiliate" the United Nations as Secretary-General Antonio Guterres visited the Ukrainian capital.

"This says a lot about Russia's true attitude to global institutions, about the efforts of the Russian leadership to humiliate the UN, and everything that the organization represents," Zelensky said in his Thursday night address.


Comment: The same Russia that has, up to now, done pretty much done everything legally, whom the UN actually blocked from officially presenting evidence of war crimes by Ukraine?


Comment: If Russia is responsible, they're likely to admit it, and, as the last two months of the incursion have demonstrated, it will probably be because, as Moscow recently announced, any shipments of weapons into Ukraine, as well as facilities harbouring the neo-Nazis, are considered legitimate targets for neutralisation.

It's notable that it occurs during a UN visit to Russia and Ukraine, because the West prefers to stage its false flags amidst high profile events - this chemical weapons attack in Syria as just one example - but it could also be that Russia is simply seizing the opportunities as they present themselves.

Also check out SOTT radio's: NewsReal: UK Govt Now Says Russia Might Win in Ukraine After All



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Biohazard

US comments on chemical attack accusations against Russia


RT
Fri, 29 Apr 2022 09:35 UTC
secretary of state anthony blinken
© AP / Carolyn Kaster
Washington has been "very much focused" on the matter but is unable to verify reports, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.

The United States has not been able to verify reports of the alleged use of chemical weapons by Russian forces in Ukraine but is "very, very much focused" on the matter, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said during a hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Thursday.

Republican Representative Adam Kinzinger asked Blinken to provide an update on the government's recent claims that chemical weapons may have been used by Russia. Noting that it might be more appropriate to discuss this issue "in a different setting," Blinken underlined that the US government is looking at the matter "very, very carefully."

Comment: See also:

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