Puppet MastersS


Oil Pipeline

Is a Russia-US Nord Stream revival really possible?

Igbal Guliyev
RT
Mon, 31 Mar 2025 15:16 UTC
Pipeline workers
© Sean Gallup/Getty ImagesWorkers at the construction site of the facility on the receiving end of the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline.
While still hypothetical, a Moscow-Washington deal to restore the gas pipeline would reshape energy diplomacy and bring new challenges.

With Donald Trump's return to the White House, the world is bracing for yet another shift in global energy politics. For years, the United States has fought fiercely against Russian gas dominance in Europe, imposing sanctions, lobbying against Nord Stream 2, and promoting its own liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports. Yet, behind the scenes, something unexpected seems to be unfolding.

Recent reports suggest that American investors are quietly exploring opportunities in Russian pipeline projects, raising questions about a potential recalibration of Washington's energy policy. Could the US actually seek a deal with Russia over Nord Stream? And if so, what would that mean for Europe, global energy markets, and the fragile geopolitical balance?

At first glance, the idea of a US-Russia energy rapprochement seems almost unthinkable. But dig deeper and you'll find that in the world of energy diplomacy, pragmatism often trumps ideology. This article breaks down the key forces at play, exploring why Washington might be reconsidering its stance, how Europe is reacting, and what this could mean for the future of global energy.
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Handcuffs

British Council institutes harsher criminal sentencing, but only for white men

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Tue, 01 Apr 2025 02:45 UTC
Starmerbobs
© UnknownBritish PM Keir Starmer and Bobbies
The Sentencing Council of England And Wales, a non-departmental public body (faceless bureaucracy) which determines the guidelines for court punishments of convicted offenders, has recently made controversial changes and ignited a firestorm among the native British populace.

The council has announced that special exceptions in sentencing will be made for ethnic minority offenders (the majority of violent crime in Britain) and religious minority offenders, as well as female offenders. In other words, everyone except white males will enjoy reduced sentencing, creating a two tier justice system that targets white men for harsher treatment.

Conservative shadow justice minister Robert Jenrick has called the guidance "two-tier justice" and "blatant bias" against Christians and straight white men, as he said it would make "a custodial sentence less likely for those from an ethnic minority, cultural minority, and/or faith minority community".
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Attention

Germany deploys troops to Russia's doorstep for first time since the Nazis


RT
Thu, 03 Apr 2025 13:15 UTC
Germany 45th Armored Brigade Lithuania
© Alexander Welscher / picture alliance via Getty ImagesThe activation ceremony of Germany’s 45th Armored Brigade in Lithuania, April 1, 2025.
The German military has begun its first permanent deployment of troops on foreign soil since World War II. The 45th Armored Brigade is being positioned in Lithuania, near Russian ally Belarus, as Berlin prepares for a potential conflict in the coming years.

On Tuesday, a ceremony was held outside Vilnius, with Brigadier General Christoph Huber assuming command of the newly established unit, as reported by the German Bundeswehr Association (DBwV) lobby group and state media.

"We have a clear mission. We have to ensure the protection, freedom, and security of our Lithuanian allies here on NATO's eastern flank," the general said during the ceremony.
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MAGA

Trump slaps at least 10% tariffs on imports in 'Declaration of Economic Independence'

Steven Nelson
New York Post
Wed, 02 Apr 2025 13:15 UTC
Trump levies tariffs
© REUTERSTrump imposed major levies on friendly countries, including 20% on the European Union’s members.
President Trump declared a national emergency Wednesday to impose his sweeping "Liberation Day" tariffs on almost all imports — with a new 10% baseline rate and harsher "reciprocal" levies on dozens of countries, including key allies such as European Union members, Japan and Israel.

Trump called the move a "Declaration of Economic Independence" and waited until stock trading ended for the day at 4 p.m. ET to announce the details.

"This is one of the most important days, in my opinion, in American history. It's our Declaration of Economic Independence," the president, 78, said in the Rose Garden.

"Factories will come roaring back into our country — and you see it happening already. We will supercharge our domestic industrial base. We will pry open foreign markets and break down foreign trade barriers."
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Putin

Transactional weakness tips the balance of power - 'Hold to no illusions; there is nothing beyond this reality'

Alastair Crooke
Strategic Culture Foundation
Mon, 31 Mar 2025 00:00 UTC
Putin
© UnknownRussian President Vladimir Putin addressing his audience
A U.S. economic 're-balancing' is coming. Putin is right. The post-WWII economic order 'is gone'

The post-WWII geo-political outcome effectively determined the post-war global economic structure. Both are now undergoing huge change. What remains stuck fast however, is the general (Western) weltanschauung that everything must 'change' only for it to stay the same. Things financial will continue as before; do not disturb the slumber. The assumption is that the oligarch/donor class will see to it that things remain the same.

However, the power distribution of the post-war era was unique. There is nothing 'forever' about it; nothing inherently permanent.

At a recent conference of Russian industrialists and entrepreneurs, President Putin highlighted both the global fracture, and set out an alternate vision which is likely to be adopted by BRICS and many beyond. His address was, metaphorically speaking, the financial counterpart to his 2007 Munich Security Forum speech, at which he accepted the military défie posed by 'collective NATO'.

Putin is now hinting that Russia has accepted the challenge posed by the post-war financial order. Russia has persevered against the financial war, and is prevailing in that too.

Comment: The Difference: Trump purposes what is on the table. Putin studies its structure.

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Attention

Western 'interventionism' has turned Bosnia and Herzegovina into a 'failed state' - Bosnian Serb leader


RT
Wed, 02 Apr 2025 13:36 UTC
Dodik/Putin
© Mikhail Tereshchenko/SputnikRussian President Vladimir Putin • President of Republika Srpska (Serb Republic) Milorad Dodik
Western interference has turned Bosnia and Herzegovina into a "failed state," and the country now needs Russia's help to resolve the crisis, Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik has told RT. Dodik, the president of Republika Srpska - the Serb-majority autonomous region within Bosnia and Herzegovina - arrived in Russia on Monday for talks with President Vladimir Putin.

Bosnia and Herzegovina was created under the 1995 US-brokered Dayton Peace Agreement, which ended the civil war in the former Yugoslavia. It formed a state comprised of the Bosniak-Croat Federation and Republika Srpska, with a tripartite presidency and an international overseer - the Office of the High Representative (OHR), now held by Christian Schmidt, a former German lawmaker appointed in 2021.

Dodik has long rejected the OHR's authority, accusing it of overreach and undermining Republika Srpska's autonomy. He was sentenced in February to a year in prison and a six-year political ban for defying the OHR. Sarajevo issued a national arrest warrant for him and is reportedly seeking Interpol warrants.
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Sherlock

Le Pen conviction: How France's courts keep sidelining the establishment's political rivals

Rachel Marsden
RT
Tue, 01 Apr 2025 16:15 UTC
Marine Le Pen
© Sam Tarling / Getty ImagesMarine Le Pen
Earlier this week, the anti-establishment French political leader whom all polls suggest would easily win the presidency, if the vote were held tomorrow, was barred from running for office for five years. How convenient.

Right-wing National Rally leader Marine Le Pen has been found guilty in a Paris court of embezzling European Union funds. Accused of enabling a system whereby aides hired to serve in Brussels ended up doing work for the party, she was also fined an sentenced to two years of home detention under electronic monitoring. The allegations against Le Pen, dating back to at least 2014, were so old that they could have qualified for a French pension. But now the verdict conveniently takes her out of the 2027 election cycle.

If you were looking for a foolproof way to supercharge support for Le Pen's party, congratulations, French judiciary - you nailed it. There's no better way to fire up a political movement than to turn its leader into a martyr of a state that looks to be meddling with citizens' democratic options. Just ask Romania's Câlin Georgescu, who was on his way to victory before getting politically kneecapped by the system: arrested, accused of foreign funding, then ultimately just dismissed for a paperwork technicality.

And what happened next? His replacement, George Simion, is now surging in the polls. Who could've seen that coming? (Spoiler: Everyone.)
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Bullseye

Italy calls Le Pen sentence a blow to democracy


RT
Tue, 01 Apr 2025 16:10 UTC
Marine Le Pen
© Getty Images / Chesnot / ContributorMarine Le Pen

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has condemned the conviction of French presidential hopeful Marine Le Pen, saying it undermines the voice of millions of voters.

On Monday, Le Pen, the former leader of the conservative National Rally (RN) party, was sentenced to four years in prison for embezzlement, two of them suspended, and barred from holding public office for five years. If the conviction stands, it effectively rules her out of the 2027 presidential race.

Commenting on the verdict, Meloni told Italian newspaper Il Messaggero on Tuesday: "I don't know the merit of the objections made to Marine Le Pen, nor the reasons for such a harsh decision. But I think that no one who cares about democracy can rejoice in a sentence that affects the leader of a large party and takes away representation from millions of citizens."

Meloni joined a chorus of French and international politicians in criticizing the ruling, which many called undemocratic. Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini on Monday described the verdict as a "declaration of war by Brussels." US President Donald Trump also weighed in, saying the criminal prosecution of Le Pen reminded him of the legal challenges he faced under former President Joe Biden's administration.
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Eye 2

NBC has film proving Oswald 'Couldn't have been the shooter,' GOP rep claims

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Sun, 30 Mar 2025 11:08 UTC
Lee Harvey Oswald's assassin, Jack Ruby (top right)
Cameras captured Lee Harvey Oswald's assassin, Jack Ruby (top right) posing as a reporter at Oswald's midnight press conference on Nov 22 1963. Ruby killed Oswald two days later.
The Republican congresswoman who's leading a task force on the declassification of JFK and other assassination files made a sensational claim on Friday evening, stating that NBC News possesses film evidence proving that Lee Harvey Oswald could not have shot Kennedy -- and that she's now working to obtain it.

Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna made the jarring allegation in an interview with Jesse Watters on Fox News. Luna is chairwoman of the Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets, a subcommittee of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. She told Watters that the task force will be holding an April 1 hearing on the tens of thousands of documents that have been declassified pursuant to President Trump's executive order and a 1992 act of Congress.

Then she dropped her bombshell:
"It was made aware to me this evening that NBC actually has a video that's never been seen before. We're actually going to be sending a letter requesting that from NBC because it allegedly shows Oswald near the vehicle when the assassination took place, which means that he couldn't have been the shooter."

Comment: See also:

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USA

Kiev backs minerals deal 'beneficial to US and America' - FM


RT
Wed, 02 Apr 2025 19:36 UTC
FILE PHOTO: Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andrey Sibiga
© Getty Images / NurPhoto / ContributorFILE PHOTO: Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andrey Sibiga
The gaffe occurred during remarks by Andrey Sibiga on a potential agreement between Kiev and Washington

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrey Sibiga appeared to confuse Ukraine and the US while speaking on Tuesday about a potential agreement between the two countries on critical minerals.

Comment: The FM "appeared to confuse", but "did not correct himself" and was essentially correct in stating that an agreement "would serve the national interests of both the United States and America", given the conditions, including: "The US would reportedly recoup all aid provided to Ukraine since the 2022 escalation of the conflict with Russia, and would impose a 4% annual interest rate on the total before Kiev could access any of the profits from the joint extraction fund." All the destructive consequences of fighting a proxy war on behalf of the US and allied European elites amount to nothing. This situation could be a lesson not only for Ukraine, but also for citizens of the European vassals. Will they take it now, or do they prefer the Ukrainian process, if not in terms of an armed conflict then in terms of a societal collapse?

Related to this article, the former president of Ukraine, Pyotr Poroshenko has commented on the negotiations. From the same source, there was:
1 Apr, 2025 14:46
Zelensky botching resource deal talks with US - ex-president
The agreement raises concern about whether Ukraine will remain a sovereign nation, Pyotr Poroshenko has said

The Ukrainian government's attempts to negotiate a favorable rare-earths agreement with the US have backfired, sparking concerns about the country's sovereignty, former President Pyotr Poroshenko has claimed.

In a post on X on Monday, Poroshenko charged that Vladimir Zelensky and his top negotiators are "clearly unable to cope with extremely serious challenges" posed by dialogue with the US regarding a deal that would grant Washington access to Ukrainian mineral deposits.

Poroshenko noted that the idea of a resource deal was first introduced by Zelensky, but "due to frankly unprofessional approaches, Ukraine lost the opportunity to fix the parameters of this agreement within the framework of a political memorandum."

"As a result, the state of preparation of this document, which appeared in the press, already raises serious concerns as a threat, in particular, to state sovereignty and European integration," the former president said. He claimed that further US military and financial assistance to Ukraine hinges on the success of the deal.

Poroshenko also warned that the back-and-forth around the deal had already triggered "anti-American hysteria" in Ukraine, which he said "is definitely not a constructive way to develop diplomatic solutions."

To rectify the situation, Poroshenko suggested that the "Ukrainian negotiating delegation, which bears direct responsibility for the failure on the American direction, needs serious changes and professional strengthening."

He also noted that the Ukrainian parliament could play a role in the process and table proposals for the American side, adding that he and his allies are demanding an urgent meeting on the matter.

Ukraine and the US were poised to sign a deal in late February, but the ceremony was derailed by a public clash between Zelensky and US President Donald Trump, who accused the Ukrainian leader of ingratitude and reluctance to make a peace deal with Russia.

In addition, while Trump has portrayed the deal as a way for Ukraine to pay back past US assistance, Zelensky has insisted that Kiev owes Washington nothing.

Last week, the Ukrainian leader said the new framework of the minerals deal now looks different from the one the sides wanted to sign in February, although he did not reject it.

Trump has suggested that Zelensky is trying to back out of the agreement, warning that he will have "big problems" if he does so.
The US may get its deal, Poroshenko and co may even get a chance to make small, insignificant amendments, but as a positive, it does seem that with the excruciating pain of realizing they have been had, scales are slowly coming off the eyes of more Ukrainians, to be more precise of the eyes of those that are left, after millions have emigrated, territories have been lost, and many hundreds of thousands have died at the front. It will be question for historians to discuss when Ukraine lost its independence.

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