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Russian press review: Why Trump's hawkish adviser is coming to Moscow and why Israel struck Syria


TASS
Wed, 27 Jun 2018 17:34 UTC
US national security adviser John Bolton
© AP Photo/Evan VucciUS national security adviser John Bolton

Kommersant: White House's super hawk tasked with preparing Putin-Trump summit

US National Security Adviser John Bolton, a longtime fierce critic of Russia, is coming to Moscow on Wednesday to prepare for the first full-fledged summit between Russian and US Presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, Kommersant business daily writes.

Bolton is expected to hold talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and First Deputy Security Council Secretary Yuri Averyanov. The main point on the visit's agenda will be a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, which is scheduled for Wednesday afternoon, according to the sources.

Before joining the Trump administration, Bolton had warned that making any agreements with the Kremlin was risky and called on the White House to abandon cooperation with Moscow. Now Bolton's visit will be devoted to discussing the agenda and other issues regarding the imminent Putin-Trump summit, which is expected to take place in mid-July in a European capital.
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Extinguisher

Medvedev gives orders to prepare reciprocal anti-US sanctions similar to those Europe and China made


RT
Wed, 27 Jun 2018 14:29 UTC
Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev
© Ekaterina Shtukina / SputnikPrime Minister Dmitry Medvedev holds a meeting of the Government Commission on the draft federal budget for 2019 and the planning period of 2020-2021
PM Dmitry Medvedev has ordered the Russian Economy Ministry to prepare an answer to "openly discriminative" steel and aluminum duties introduced by the United States, noting that Europe and China had already made their moves.

Speaking at the Wednesday government session dedicated to international trade issues, Medvedev stated that the restrictions introduced by Washington "cannot be left unanswered." "The European Union and the People's Republic of China have already taken reciprocal steps. We should start thinking about our reciprocal measures, I am asking the Economy Ministry to prepare the necessary proposals," he said.

Medvedev also told Russian ministers that as western nations maintained their anti-Russian sanctions, Moscow would consider the extension of its reciprocal measures into 2019. At the same time he added that Russia was not questioning its membership in the World Trade Organization and told the officials to make the most of the WTO legal tools to tackle with the sanctions problem.

Comment: Whatever one thinks of Trump's tariffs (ostensibly to make America great again economically), much of the world now in a position to respond are 'fighting back':

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Light Saber

Trump keeps up attack on 'unhinged' Maxine Waters, says 'I'm not going anywhere!'


RT
Wed, 27 Jun 2018 15:15 UTC
trump waters
© ReutersPresident Donald Trump and Rep. Maxine Waters
President Donald Trump continued his offensive on Democrat congresswoman Maxine Waters, branding her the "unhinged face of the Democrat party." Trump's tweet comes after Waters called for the public harassment of Trump staff.

"Congratulations to Maxine Waters, whose crazy rants have made her, together with Nancy Pelosi, the unhinged FACE of the Democrat Party," the President tweeted on Wednesday.

"Together, they will Make America Weak Again! But have no fear, America is now stronger than ever before, and I'm not going anywhere!"
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Network

Bolton arrives in Moscow to visit with Putin - Summit between Trump and Putin agreed upon


RT
Wed, 27 Jun 2018 15:08 UTC
putin and bolton
© Mikhail Metzel/TASSJohn Bolton enjoys a photo op with his favorite villain. From the book.
US-Russia relations are at their lowest ebb since the end of the Cold War. Will arch-hawk John Bolton, who came to Moscow, pave the way for Trump-Putin talks and help heal bilateral ties? In a sense, yes, analysts say. Did he come to set up a Trump-Putin meeting?

US National Security Advisor John Bolton has arrived in Moscow on Wednesday afternoon amid speculation that he could lay the groundwork for a much-anticipated one-on-one between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. Though an official announcement of the summit has not yet been made, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told MSNBC: "I think it's likely President Trump will be meeting with his counterpart in the not too distant future following that meeting [Bolton's visit]."

Asked if Trump will visit Russia in the summer, Pompeo said he was not aware of the president's schedule. Meanwhile, Moscow continues to maintain silence on the issue. "We're not ready yet to speak of any deadlines," Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for the Kremlin, told Russian media.

Comment: Putin's presidential advisor Yury Ushakov announced that a date and venue for the Putin/Trump summit has been agreed upon during Bolton's visit:
The two leaders are likely to meet midday and hold one-on-one negotiations, followed by a joint press-conference, Ushakov told RIA Novosti.

The talks between Putin and Trump may last "for a few hours," he said, adding that a working breakfast and other protocol events are also scheduled.
It was also reported that Putin suggested to Bolton that he could advise the Americans on another issue: the World Cup:
"I'd like to congratulate you on US winning the right to host the football World Cup in 2026. So far we've managed to organize this championship at a decent level. We'd be happy to share our experience with you


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War Whore

Mueller goes after Trump ally Erik Prince's phones, computer

James Gordon Meek
ABC News
Mon, 25 Jun 2018 14:20 UTC
Erik Prince
© Justin Chin/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesErik Prince, chairman of Frontier Services Group Ltd., speaks during a Bloomberg Television interview in Hong Kong, China, on March 16, 2017.
Special Counsel Robert Mueller is digging deeper into Trump ally and Blackwater founder Erik Prince, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the matter.

Prince, America's most famous private military contractor, acknowledged last week that he "cooperated" with Mueller's investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election after falling under scrutiny amid questions about an alleged effort to establish a backchannel between the Trump administration and the Kremlin, something Prince has vehemently denied.

ABC News has since learned that Mueller is also reviewing Prince's communications, a sign that Mueller could try to squeeze Prince, as he has others, probing potential inconsistencies in his sworn testimony in an attempt to pressure him to turn into a witness against other targets of the investigation. In response to questions from ABC News, a spokesperson for Prince released a statement noting that Prince has provided Mueller with "total access to his phone and computer."

Comment: Erik Prince, founder of Blackwater,Xe/Academi mercenary group,is another one of those slippery characters found on the edges of official power. Prince and his ilk are useful in that they are employed to accomplish what cannot be officially sanctioned, and they make a handsome profit doing so.

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Star of David

SOTT Focus: Why Israel's Expansionist and Ethnic-Cleansing Ambitions Will Fail

Andrés Perezalonso
Sott.net
Wed, 27 Jun 2018 15:32 UTC
Israeli soldiers Palestinian boy Jerusalem
Israeli soldiers arrest Palestinian teen Fawzi Muhammad Al-Juneidi in Jerusalem, Dec. 8, 2017. You need an army to get a stone-throwing boy - yet stone throwers keep coming. What to do?
As the world is distracted with the Football World Cup, some observers of the situation in Palestine have been concerned about the possibility of Israel carrying out a major military operation in Gaza. Four years ago, towards the end of the World Cup in Brazil, Israel launched Operation Protective Edge, which according to UN figures resulted in the death of 2,256 Palestinians, of which 1,563 were civilians. The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights specifies that this included 293 women and 556 children. The extremely high proportion of civilian deaths was a consequence of Israeli soldiers' orders to fire at every person in sight, as the whistleblower organization Breaking the Silence revealed. It was also consistent with the old unspoken Israeli objective of ethnically cleansing Palestine.

Israeli media has recently disclosed that the country has plans for a full-scale invasion which would cut Gaza in half and occupy part of it. So confident are they on their ability to "create a considerable change on the situation" that the army "is already considering alternatives to the Hamas government". Earlier on Thursday, Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan told Army Radio: "I don't want to launch an operation, but there is a good chance that we will have no other option but to go in so that we can create durable deterrence." This was said in reference to the burning kites that Gazan demonstrators fly across the border, pointing out that those responsible should be shot, "age doesn't matter, they're terrorists and the danger they create must be prevented." Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, also a member of the security cabinet, argued that "there is no difference between a burning kite and a Qassam rocket, and we should not tolerate the kites." She has a point in that Qassam rockets are about as effective as the kites - both being largely symbolic gestures of defiance than credible weapons of war.
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Bad Guys

Ukraine expels RT & Rossiya 24 journalists invited to OSCE press freedom event


RT
Wed, 27 Jun 2018 11:34 UTC
russia today censor
Ukraine has expelled RT's Middle East Bureau correspondent Paula Slier and Rossiya 24 news channel's Evgeny Primakov, banning them from attending a conference on freedom of speech, which was organized by the OSCE in Kiev.

The event organized by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe is ironically aimed at strengthening media freedoms and protection of free speech in a time of conflict in Ukraine, Slier reported from the departure lounge of an international airport in Kiev.

She was stopped on Tuesday morning at the customs for a check and later told that she is barred from entering the country. The authorities said she has been banned for five years, but offered no explanation why and her deportation papers only state that a decision not to let her in was taken "by an authorized state body of Ukraine."

Comment: The Russian Foreign Ministry has responded to Kiev's ban on Russian journalists. Xinhua reports:
"We consider these restrictive measures as another confirmation that Kiev is not going to stop an extensive repression campaign against the media, in particular Russian media, in order to suppress freedom of speech in the country," a ministry statement said. [...]

Moscow also expects from the OSCE and other relevant international organizations a more serious response to Kiev's policy of restricting freedom of speech, it said, referring to the criticism by OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Harlem Desir.
However, few international organizations have condemned Kiev's flagrant violation of press freedom. RT reports:
Even some outspoken Kremlin critics showed concern for Kiev's actions. Journalist Alexey Kovalev, editor of Codaru.com, said that the Ukrainian government had hit a new low, and that its use of Russia as a bogeyman to "justify anything" was "coming to an end."

But as far as international organizations are concerned - unfortunately there aren't many more statements of condemnation to be found.

"No one is going to shed a tear in the West in this current political environment for any Russian journalists because they're deemed as sort of illegitimate," Patrick Henningsen, editor-in-chief of 21 Century Wire, told RT. "I don't see any calls of indignation about what has happened here, I don't expect any. And I think even from some NGOs, some have become very politicized - including Reporters Without Borders."


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Stop

Moscow: UK attempt to turn OPCW into 'politicized prosecutorial body' will undermine int'l security


RT
Wed, 27 Jun 2018 11:34 UTC
Boris Johnson
© Yves Herman / ReutersUK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson addresses a special session of the OPCW in the Hague
Moscow strongly opposes the UK's attempts to give chemical watchdog OPCW authority to pin the blame in chemical attack probes, as it may turn the body into a political tool and undermine the entire international security system.

An ongoing special conference of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in The Hague was called by Britain, which insists that the body should have the power not only to investigate alleged chemical attacks as it does currently, but also to identify the culprit and assign guilt. The draft proposal, swiftly supported by London's allies, represents "a direct invasion of the exclusive prerogatives of the UN Security Council," the head of the Russian delegation, Georgy Kalamanov, said in his speech at the conference, adding that it also "undermines the authority of the OPCW and the very integrity of CWC (Chemical Weapons Convention)."
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Attention

Flashback FBI agents ready to revolt over Comey's poor handling of Clinton probe

Paul Sperry
New York Post
Thu, 06 Oct 2016 20:54 UTC
Hillary Clinton Comey
Veteran FBI agents say FBI Director James Comey has permanently damaged the bureau's reputation for uncompromising investigations with his "cowardly" whitewash of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's mishandling of classified information using an unauthorized private email server.

Feeling the heat from congressional critics, Comey last week argued that the case was investigated by career FBI agents, "So if I blew it, they blew it, too."

But agents say Comey tied investigators' hands by agreeing to unheard-of ground rules and other demands by the lawyers for Clinton and her aides that limited their investigation.

"In my 25 years with the bureau, I never had any ground rules in my interviews," said retired agent Dennis V. Hughes, the first chief of the FBI's computer investigations unit.

Instead of going to prosecutors and insisting on using grand jury leverage to compel testimony and seize evidence, Comey allowed immunity for several key witnesses, including potential targets.

Comment: After 2 years, it's all coming out now. About time. See also:

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Attention

Austria launches migrant 'deterrent' drill involving helicopters, hundreds of soldiers & police


RT
Tue, 26 Jun 2018 15:38 UTC
migrants
© FILE PHOTO Lisi Niesner / Reuters
Hundreds of Austrian soldiers and police were involved in a border protection exercise that simulated containing migrants amid fears neighboring Germany might begin to turn away new arrivals trying to cross their frontier.

Austrian authorities deployed 600 police, 400 soldiers and two Black Hawk helicopters on Tuesday in an exercise which simulated arrival of hundreds of migrants on the country's border with Slovenia, local media reported.

"A state that in the worst case cannot protect its borders loses its credibility," Interior Minister Herbert Kickl of the Freedom Party (FPO) told reporters, as cited by Reuters. "I am determined that events like those of 2015 must not occur again. And that is exactly the message we want to send from here."

Comment: The newly elected parties in Austria's parliament have wasted no time in implementing the policies they campaigned on. From defying the EU immigration mandates to rejecting the West's belligerent attitude to the emerging powers, particularly Russia and China: Also check out SOTT radio's: The Truth Perspective: Weapons of Mass Migration: Interview with Michael Springmann on Europe's Migrant Crisis

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