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Putin outraged by ongoing fraud at Vostochny Cosmodrome construction: 'They keep stealing in hundreds of millions'


RT
Mon, 11 Nov 2019 16:58 UTC
Vostochny Cosmodrome russia putin space program
© Sputnik / Aleksey NikolskyiVladimir Putin inspects the construction of the Vostochny Cosmodrome in 2015
Dozens of people have already been put in prison over the massive embezzlement during the construction of the Vostochny Cosmodrome, but somehow it hasn't been enough to set things straight there, Vladimir Putin pondered.

The Russian president grilled the government for allowing misappropriation of state funds at the Vostochny Cosmodrome and other large-scale state construction projects on Monday. He reminded the ministers that it wasn't the first time he has addressed the problem.
We've said it a hundred times - work transparently as big money is being allocated; it's practically a national project. But no, they keep stealing in hundreds of millions!

Comment: Such a massive construction project will present opportunities for the unscrupulous to take advantage. Kudos to Putin for keeping the pressure on the project managers to be alert to waste and fraud, and making examples of those who were caught. The U.S. Defense Dept. could take a page from Russia. Maybe that's why Russia has leapfrogged over the rest of the world in defensive weaponry, while the U.S. takes delivery of overbudget, useless projects such as the F-35 fighter jet?

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Better Earth

Pakistan opens its doors for Sikh pilgrims as fears grow in India that intentions behind it are not so blessed

Ashish Shukla
RT
Mon, 11 Nov 2019 17:00 UTC
indian sikh
© REUTERS/Akhtar SoomroIndian Sikh pilgrim poses for a photogrpah while visiting the Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur, Pakistan November 9, 2019.
India doesn't believe it is reading too much in the designs of arch-rival Pakistan in opening up its doors for Sikh pilgrims to visit the resting place of their founder, Guru Nanak Dev, within its territory.

The two prime ministers, Narendra Modi and Imran Khan, stood at two sides of the border to facilitate the first batch of 500 Sikh pilgrims make a 4-km trek to the holiest of their shrines, Gurudwara Darbar Sahib, on Saturday.

India sensed a chill behind the warm words wafting through from across the border as Imran Khan bemoaned the lockdown in Kashmir, and his foreign minister, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, mocked if India could do the same for Muslim pilgrims longing to visit their holy places in Kashmir.

A few days ago, India was stung when Pakistan released an official video welcoming pilgrims which showed images of three major slain militants who wanted to carve out a separate homeland for Sikhs in the Indian state of Punjab in the 80s.

Though the separatist movement for Khalistan, a homeland for Sikhs, petered out in the 1990s, there is still fire in the dying embers and India believes Pakistan would do its best to stoke its decades-long military doctrine of "bleeding India with a thousand cuts."

Comment: At least one good thing has come out of the decision:

See also:

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Che Guevara

Best of the Web: US 'coup d'état': Bolivian President Evo Morales announces his resignation, UPDATES


RT
Sun, 10 Nov 2019 20:57 UTC
Evo Morales
© Reuters/Carlos Garcia RawlinsBolivia's President Evo Morales addresses the media at the presidential hangar in the Bolivian Air Force terminal in El Alto, Bolivia, November 10, 2019.
Bolivia's President Evo Morales has resigned, shortly after the country's military urged him to do so. Two officials next in line to take over the government also left as the country is in turmoil after weeks of protests.

"I resign from my position as president so that (Carlos) Mesa and (Luis Fernando) Camacho do not continue to persecute socialist leaders," Morales said during a televised address naming the leaders of the opposition.

Morales said that he decided to leave the post in hopes that his departure would stop the spate of violent attacks against officials and indigenous people, "so that they [protesters] do not continue burning the houses [of public officials]" and "kidnapping and mistreating" families of indigenous leaders.

"It is my obligation , as the first indigenous president and president of all Bolivians, to seek this pacification," he said, adding that he hopes opposition would "understand the message."

Shortly after the announcement his Vice-President Alvaro Marcelo García Linera also submitted his resignation. The next person in line to take over the government, the president of the Senate Adriana Salvatierra, resigned soon after.

Comment: UPDATE: RT, 10/11/2019: 'Morales' resignation undermines claim he is a dictator, US may be behind push to oust him
Washington has played a hand in the resignation of Bolivia's president Evo Morales, human and labour rights lawyer Dan Kovalik told RT. The US has been stirring unrest for years with millions of dollars in democratic aid, he said.
Luis Fernando Camacho
© Reuters/Carlos Garcia RawlinsPolice officers escort Luis Fernando Camacho, a Santa Cruz civic leader and major opposition figure, as he waves a national flag during a protest against Bolivia's President Evo Morales in La Paz, Bolivia November 10, 2019.
"I think this is a bad thing that's happened and I see the hands of the US behind it," Kovalik said, adding that there has been "evidence released of conversation between the White House and opposition leaders," indicating that anti-Morales protests might have been a "coordinated" campaign.

"And we know that the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) has been spending millions of dollars in Bolivia for years trying to undermine Evo Morales"

A CIA offshoot of sorts, the NED channeled nearly $1 million into the South American country in 'democracy promoting' aid in 2018 alone. A huge chunk of the funds was used by International Republican Institute (IRI), in charge of promoting right-wing agenda.


Morales' decision to resign rather than cling to power while risking lives of his supporters, who turn out for mass rallies in his name, "undermines the claims that he is some sort of a dictator," Kovalik said. "That shows a lot about who he is. That shows that Morales cares about his own country... he's shown himself to have the well-being of his own people at heart."

Morales, once a very popular leader, was faced with a wave of unrest and mutiny from the military. Kovalik believes that outside interference might have played a role in such a change of heart.


"Of course, people change their minds about things, but I also think there've been some manipulation of the public in Bolivia."
UPDATE: RT, 11/11/2019: Morales denounces 'coup d'état', as opposition says warrant issued for his arrest
Police and military have been on the lookout for Evo Morales, who has just resigned as Bolivia's president, opposition has claimed. Morales dubbed the arrest warrant "illegal," while police chief denied its existence altogether.

"I denounce in front of the world and the Bolivian people that a police official publicly announced that he was instructed to execute an illegal arrest warrant against me; in addition, violent groups assaulted my home. The coup destroys the rule of law."

Earlier, Bolivian protest leader Luis Fernando Camacho has said that an outstanding warrant exists for the socialist leader's arrest.

"Confirmed!! Arrest warrant for Evo Morales !! The police and the military are looking for him in Chapare [rural province in the northern region of Cochabamba], a place where he hid," Camacho wrote, adding that the military seized the presidential plane Morales used to get to his political stronghold of Chimoré in the Department of Cochabamba, 300 kilometers (186 miles) east of La Paz, from where he announced his resignation.

However, Commander of Bolivia's National Police Yuri Calderón has dismissed reports that an order for Morales' arrest is currently being served. In the comments broadcast on national TV, Calderón said that police have received no such document from the prosecutor's office.
UPDATE: RT, 11/11/2019: Former President and VP of electoral commission arrested
The commander of Bolivia's National Police, Yuri Calderón, has dismissed reports that an order for Morales' arrest is currently being served.

"There is no arrest warrant for Morales nor for any other ministers of his cabinet. A request has been put in with the Attorney General... for the issuance of an arrest warrant for the perpetrators and accomplices of those who violated the electoral process. This is an absolute lie." He confirmed, however, that the former president and vice president of the electoral commission were arrested on Sunday. A video of the arrest has been circulating online.



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People

Political deadlock again: Neither party gains majority in Spain's election


RT
Sun, 10 Nov 2019 23:27 UTC
Spain
© REUTERS/Sergio PerezSpain's acting Prime Minister and Socialist Party leader Pedro Sanchez
Spain is facing a hung parliament again as neither the right nor left blocs gained enough votes to form a majority. The right-wing Vox party more than doubled its number of seats, coming in third in the snap election.

The fourth election in four years has not resulted in a clear winner among the parties in Spain. The ruling Socialists gained 120 seats in the 350-seat parliament and are facing the same problem they had after the April election when they failed to form a coalition. The conservative People's Party came in second with 88 seats, and the right-wing Vox party came in third with 52 seats, up from 24 in April.

Vox's leader, Santiago Abascal, said he wants to build a "patriotic alternative," though he didn't go into details.

A 176-seat majority is needed to form a government. Left-wing Unidas Podemos got 26 seats and said it hoped for a coalition with the Socialists, but their attempt to unite forces failed in April.

Comment: Hung parliaments, coalitions and voter fatigue are becoming the standard throughout Europe (and elsewhere) party because, increasingly, left and right-wing parties are essentially pushing the same agenda, but one group seeing a significant rise in votes are populist and nationalist parties: Also check out SOTT radio's:

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Video

Best of the Web: Syria's Assad gives exclusive interview to RT UK on manufactured origins of 'civil war' and US control of 'ISIS'


Sputnik
Mon, 11 Nov 2019 08:18 UTC
Having endured a deadly, drawn-out civil war which is gradually drawing to a close, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is facing the daunting task of reuniting and reconstructing a devastated nation, filling in the power vacuum in newly-liberated parts of the country and overcoming a Western-imposed economic blockade.

Syrian President Bashar Assad
© RTSyrian President Bashar Assad during his interview with RT's Afshin Rattansi
The Presidential Palace in Damascus overlooks the Syrian capital, but the most troubled parts of the war-ravaged country are out of sight.

The future of those lands, as well as the broader question of how to solve the ongoing political imbroglio and rebuild Syria, are on Bashar al-Assad's mind as he speaks in his first interview to foreign media in over a year.

The president talks to RT's Afshin Rattansi about the origins of the conflict that engulfed his country and the role of Western governments in it, and gives his take on the recent and future developments in Syria and elsewhere.


On the interview embargo

Bashar al-Assad, who turned 54 in September, last gave an interview to a foreign news outlet in June 2018. He says he had stopped speaking to Western media completely because of their hunt for a "scoop", but feels now that "public opinion in the world, and especially in the West, has been shifting during the past few years".

"They know that their officials have told them so many lies about what's going on in the region, in the Middle East, in Syria, in Yemen," he says of the Western public. "They know there is a lie, but they don't know the truth; so, I think, it's time to talk about this truth."
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Eye 1

US threatens Serbia with sanctions, scrambles to thwart possible S-400 deal

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Mon, 11 Nov 2019 07:35 UTC
russia serbia
© EWBVladimir Putin and Aleksandar Vučić
In a largely unreported but hugely important story that played out this week in the Balkans, Washington is putting immense pressure on Serbia to shelve future plans for acquiring Russia's advanced S-400 air defense missile systems.

The controversy began Wednesday when Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic told a public television broadcaster in an interview that he had a desire to purchase the S-400 but lacked the funding to do so, and at one point said "Serbia was ready to accept S-400s from Russia as a gift," according to TASS.

"You know, when you have such a weapon, no one would attack you. Neither US nor any other pilots fly where S-400s are operational: Israeli pilots do not fly either over Turkey or Syria, except for the Golan Heights. We have aviation, which the strongest than ever before. We will be strengthening the air defense with Pantsyr systems and other things, which are not on the sanctions list," Vucic said in the interview.


Comment: It's notable that when the Serbian President is thinking of countries that are potentially threatening the US and Israel seem to be the first that come to mind.


Comment: Serbia isn't naive, the US-backed NATO war on its country was proof enough that, without adequate defenses, one is vulnerable to the whims of the psychopathic powers. Perhaps Serbia will be forced to choose between US sanctions or the security provided by Russian weaponry, finding relief in any assistance the growing list of sanctioned countries and their allies can offer each other:

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Newspaper

Saudi Aramco will offer less than 1% of shares to individual investors in IPO

Joanna Tan
CNBC
Sat, 09 Nov 2019 12:00 UTC
Aramco
© Hamad Mohammed | ReutersSignage of Saudi Aramco's initial public offering (IPO) is seen during a news conference by the state oil company at the Plaza Conference Center in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia November 3, 2019.
Saudi Aramco will sell up to 0.5% of its shares to individual investors in what could be the largest initial public offering in history.

The world's biggest oil company released a prospectus Saturday, providing further information but without revealing the precise size of its planned share offering.

Saudi Aramco said the process begins Nov. 17 and closes Dec. 4. A final offer price, as well as the number and percentage of company shares that will be sold, will be determined at the end of that period.

Comment: See also:

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2 + 2 = 4

Best of the Web: James Le Mesurier: British spy trainer behind White Helmets 'found dead' in Istanbul

Bel Trew
The Independent
Mon, 11 Nov 2019 11:44 UTC
White helmets exposed
Le Mesurier was in the thick of it
James Le Mesurier, who helped found the "White Helmets" a volunteer first responder group in Syria, has been found dead near his home in Istanbul, the organisation and a diplomat have said.

The former British Army officer was the director of Mayday Rescue charity that trained members of the Syria Civil Defence or White Helmets, playing a major role in its creation in Turkey in 2013.

He was awarded an Order of the British Empire for his work three years later.

His death comes just days after he was accused of being a spy in a tweet by the Russian foreign ministry.

It is not known how Mr Le Mesurier died, but Turkish media reported he may have fallen from the balcony of his apartment in the Turkish city.

Comment: Note that this British outlet is trying to imply that the Russians killed him because Zakharova tweeted about his notorious 'White Helmets' outfit last week!

Uhm, non-sequitur much?

UN Weapons Inspector Scott Ritter points out that:
"...the organizational underpinnings of the White Helmets can be sourced to a March 2013 meeting in Istanbul between a retired British military officer, James Le Mesurier — who had experience in the murky world of private security companies and the shadowy confluence between national security and intelligence operations and international organizations — and representatives of the Syrian National Council (SNC) and the Qatari Red Crescent Society. Earlier that month, the SNC was given Syria's seat in the Arab League at a meeting of the league held in Qatar.

So here we have a civil defence organisation being established in Syria by an ex-British army officer, a man with a background in the shadowy world of private security, in conjunction with a Syrian opposition group in exile."


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Radar

Technical leap: Army chief says Iran used domestically-built air defence system to down 'foreign drone'

Oleg Burunov
Sputnik
Sun, 10 Nov 2019 21:50 UTC
iran mersad missile defense
© HEHRMersad is an Iranian made advanced medium range Air defense missile system developed in 2010
The downing comes a few months after Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) destroyed a US spy drone that the IRGC said had violated Iranian airspace.

Iran has downed an intruding unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) with the domestically made missile defence system Mersad, Army Commander Major General Abdolrahim Mousavi was quoted by the Tasnim news agency as saying on Saturday.

He added the Iranian military has yet to fully retrieve the drone's wreckage in the southwestern port city of Mahshahr, which is why it remains unclear which country is behind sending the UAV to the Islamic Republic.
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Light Saber

House GOP wants Hunter Biden, Ukraine whistleblower to testify publicly in impeachment

Christian Vasquez
Politico
Sat, 09 Nov 2019 19:12 UTC
nunes schiff
© Alex Wong/Getty ImagesRep. Devin Nunes (left) and Rep. Adam Schiff
House Republicans have included the Ukraine whistleblower, Hunter Biden and his business partner in their list of witnesses to testify at next week's public impeachment inquiry hearings.

But House Democrats have final approval over which witnesses will be called so it's unlikely that many on the GOP's list will be called in.

"Americans see through this sham impeachment process, despite the Democrats' efforts to retroactively legitimize it last week," House Intelligence Committee member Rep. Devin Nunes wrote in a letter Saturday to committee chairman Adam Schiff.
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