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Георгиевская ленточка

Flashback Russia's philosophy of foreign policy: The historical backdrop

Sergey Lavrov
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation
Thu, 03 Mar 2016 14:46 UTC
Sergey Lavrov
© Vladimir Pesnya / Sputnik
International relations have entered a very difficult period, and Russia once again finds itself at the crossroads of key trends that determine the vector of future global development.

Many different opinions have been expressed in this connection including the fear that we have a distorted view of the international situation and Russia's international standing. I perceive this as an echo of the eternal dispute between pro-Western liberals and the advocates of Russia's unique path. There are also those, both in Russia and outside of it, who believe that Russia is doomed to drag behind, trying to catch up with the West and forced to bend to other players' rules, and hence will be unable to claim its rightful place in international affairs. I'd like to use this opportunity to express some of my views and to back them with examples from history and historical parallels.

It is an established fact that a substantiated policy is impossible without reliance on history. This reference to history is absolutely justified, especially considering recent celebrations. In 2015, we celebrated the 70th anniversary of Victory in WWII, and in 2014, we marked a century since the start of WWI. In 2012, we marked 200 years of the Battle of Borodino and 400 years of Moscow's liberation from the Polish invaders. If we look at these events carefully, we'll see that they clearly point to Russia's special role in European and global history.
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Attention

Sources say North Korea would hold talks if South Korea supports peace treaty with US

Hong Soon-do
Asia Today
Mon, 31 Jul 2017 15:14 UTC
Pyongyang
© CNN
North Korea is said to be willing to hold ministerial talks with South Korea if the South allows and supports a peace treaty between Pyongyang and Washington. Besides, the North seems to have a plan to freeze its nuclear program and ultimately discuss the issue of Korean reunification. In other words, North Korea has clearly set its policy not to respond to South Korea's proposal to hold inter-Korean military and Red Cross talks as long as the South keeps its stance as in the past.

According to influential Korean and Chinese sources familiar with North Korea's information on Monday, North Korea is ready to respond to inter-Korean talks at any time. But the biggest obstacle seems to be the fact that there aren't much benefits in return to attract North Korea.

Y, who served as a senior official in Liaoning provincial government situated on the China-North Korea border, said, "North Korea is not opposed to inter-Korean dialogue itself. It wouldn't want to talk for nothing." He said it's obvious that North Korea rejected the South's recent proposal for military talks. He claimed that the North Korea might accept the South's offer if the South shows a positive attitude toward signing of Pyongyang-Washington peace agreement, saying, "I recently met a senior official of the North Korean Embassy. He talked about a precondition to the talks. It was South Korea's acceptance and support for conclusion of Pyongyang-Washington peace treaty."
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Fire

Maduro 'ready for national dialogue' amidst violence by the opposition for the new Constituent Assembly


RT
Mon, 31 Jul 2017 13:11 UTC
Opposition versus sympathize
The sympathizers versus the opposition, a spontaneous milieu of demonstrations and violence.
Venezuela's newly-elected Constituent Assembly will be a "place for dialogue," President Nicolas Maduro pledged after a Sunday vote marred by violence and boycotted by the opposition. The leader stated he is still ready to talk to those "who want peace."

Maduro noted during an event on Sunday, aired on Venezuela de Television, that the 545-seat Constituent Assembly, which will have the power to draft a new constitution, has legal powers to "deprive the parliamentary immunity of those who should be deprived of it."

The leftist president said he still "calls for a national dialogue, but only with a good Venezuela that wants peace," Tass reported. "I ask our countrymen to close ranks so that the assembly can be a place of dialogue," Maduro said, cheering the results of the vote. Venezuela's chief prosecutor's office reported 10 deaths in fresh rounds of clashes on Sunday as people in opposition hotbed Caracas rallied against the new assembly, AP and Reuters reported.



Comment: Apparently one man's democracy is not the same as another's. The West has had its eye on Venezuela for decades and not for pure reasons. Whether the new Assembly gets the chance to prove its merit, or is taken down by outside-inside forces, there should be regard for those who have stepped out of the box in order to effect a new paradigm. What they had was not working. Mitts off! Venezuela should be for the Venezuelans, however they want it.

See also: Trump may be many things, but he is not the Venezuelan Supreme Court

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Snakes in Suits

Trump may be many things, but he is not the Venezuelan Supreme Court

Joe Emersberger
venezuelanalysis.com
Sun, 30 Jul 2017 00:00 UTC
symbol constituent assembly
© Venezuelanalysis.com"The Constituent Assembly is going ahead!"
The Trump administration has threatened Venezuela with economic sanctions if the government proceeds with a vote to elect a Constituent Assembly to rewrite the constitution - the Venezuelan constitution that is. Venezuela is not about to rewrite the U.S. Constitution or some other country's constitution. That clarification is necessary because the Trump administration and other governments (Canada, Colombia etc..) seem to have collectively appointed themselves the Supreme Court of Venezuela.

constituent assembly chart
© telesurSanctions for this?
It should also be noted that Venezuelan opposition leaders have effectively been imposing economic sanctions on their own country for quite some time. Since winning control over the National Assembly in 2015, Henry Ramos Allup and Julio Borges (who have each been National Assembly President) have boasted of blocking Venezuela's access to foreign loans. According to the opposition-aligned pollster, Datanalisis, 55% of Venezuelans disapprove of that opposition tactic and only 31.7% approve. As for the sanctions Trump has threatened, 65% are opposed and only 26% are in favour. Unsurprisingly, people living through a major economic crisis tend not to be in favor of deliberately making it worse. All of this is taking the numbers of an opposition-aligned pollster at face value. Public hostility towards economic sanctions, whether imposed by Trump or by opposition leaders, is probably even more widespread than what Datanalisis has reported.

Comment: According to a recent Reuters article:
Maduro insists opposition leaders are U.S. pawns with the intent to sabotage the economy and bring him down by instigating violence as part of an international right-wing conspiracy led by Washington and promoted by Venezuelan and foreign media.
Is Maduro's assessment correct? One would have a higher suspicion of diversion and overstatement if this was a unique scenario. Unfortunately, the suspicion leans the other way. At least the Venezuelans are willing to address their political situation and seek a better framework even if it means altering their constitution. The US ignores the one it has and chips away at the Bill of Rights.

To see the framework for the Constituent Assembly, go here.

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Display

President Vladimir Putin signs bill banning web anonymizers in Russia


RT
Mon, 31 Jul 2017 14:18 UTC
Internet
© Alexey Malgavko / Sputnik
Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a bill banning the use of any technology or software that allows access to websites that have been officially blocked on Russian territory, specifically targeting so-called web anonymizers.

The bill was drafted in early June this year and passed by both chambers of the Russian parliament earlier this month. Its sponsors were lawmakers from three parliamentary caucuses - the majority party United Russia, the Communist Party and the center-left opposition Fair Russia.

They noted that bans issued on certain websites by Russian courts and state agencies for publishing extremist or dangerous information were contradicted by the fact that those restrictions could be easily circumvented by using readily-available web tools.

The proposed countermeasures include a ban on websites, hardware and software that allow users to bypass the restrictions, and mainly target so-called anonymizers and virtual private networks that allow users to pretend that they are operating from outside Russia.
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Chess

Russia's expulsion of US embassy staff in Moscow unprecedented; could impair US intelligence gathering and 'democracy promotion'

Alexander Mercouris
The Duran
Mon, 31 Jul 2017 14:47 UTC
us embassy moscow
© Sputnik/ Iliya Pitalev

Russia's expulsion of 755 personnel from US diplomatic missions in Russia is of an unprecedented scale in modern history and could deal a devastating blow to US intelligence and 'democracy promotion' operations in Russia.

Last autumn, as the Obama administration considered mass expulsions of Russian diplomats from the US in response to the burgeoning Russiagate scandal, John Tefft - the US ambassador to Russia - is reported to have warned against taking this step. Tefft's reasons for opposing it were that the likely strong response from the Russians, which would lead to expulsions of US diplomats from Russia, would threaten the effective work of the US embassy in Moscow and of the US consulates in Russia.

The Obama administration in the end failed to heed Tefft's warning. Though in the event the Russians in December stayed their hand as they waited to see what the new Trump administration would bring, now that the US Congress has voted to increase the sanctions on Russia and with the return of seized Russian diplomatic properties in the US ruled out, the Russians have finally responded. Their response must however go beyond Tefft's worst fears.
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Passport

Putin signs law to revoke convicted terrorists of Russian citizenship


RT
Mon, 31 Jul 2017 09:27 UTC
Passport
© Said Tzarnaev / Sputnik
Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed into law a bill allowing the cancellation of Russian citizenship for naturalized Russians convicted of terrorism-related crimes.

The bill was previously approved by both houses of the Russian parliament, the State Duma and the Federation Council, on June 19 and 25 respectively. The legislation was put forward in April this year following a terrorist attack in the St. Petersburg Metro, which left 14 people dead and dozens injured. The attack was carried out by a Kyrgyz-born naturalized Russian citizen.

The new law was signed by Putin on Sunday and will come into force on September 1. It stipulates the deprivation of Russian citizenship if a person is found guilty of terrorism-related crimes, including an international terrorist act, calls for terrorism or the justification of it, and training, organization or participation in a terrorist group.

However, the rule is applied only to naturalized citizens, whose citizenship granting can be rescinded. A person would also be stripped of citizenship if they are convicted of armed rebellion, the violent seizure of power, hate crimes targeting certain ethnic or religious groups, an assassination attempt on a government or public official, or an attack on a person or a body under international protection, among other charges, if those crimes were connected with terrorism.
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Snakes in Suits

No surprise: S. Korea and US in talks to resume THAAD deployment after Pyongyang missile launch


RT
Mon, 31 Jul 2017 14:41 UTC
Terminal High Altitude Area Defense interceptor
© Courtesy Leah Garton / Reuters
Seoul has begun talks with the US to resume the deployment of Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) units, according to South Korea's Defense Ministry. It comes days after Pyongyang launched a missile which Washington and Seoul believe was an ICBM.

"As for the deployment of six (THAAD) launchers, South Korea and the US will make a decision after consultations," Ministry of National Defense spokesman Moon Sang-gyun said during a Monday press briefing, as quoted by Yonhap news agency.

"Such discussion is currently going on, but further consultations are needed for the specific issues of when and how," he added.

It comes after North Korea's Friday test launch of a missile which Seoul and Washington believe was an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).

South Korean President Moon Jae-in ordered that four remaining interception missile launchers be "temporarily" deployed while environmental assessments continue to take place.

Comment: Makes one wonder if N. Korea is being manipulated so Washington can have the desired outcome with S. Korea.

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Info

China shrugs off Trump's 'doing nothing' claims over N. Korea, keep trade issues seperate


RT
Mon, 31 Jul 2017 14:33 UTC
Beijing, China
© Oleksiy Maksymenko / Global Look Press
Beijing has told Washington not to link the North Korean crisis to bilateral trade, saying they are "two completely different domains." It comes after US President Donald Trump criticized China for "doing nothing" over Pyongyang's continued missile tests.

Over the weekend, President Trump tweeted he was "very disappointed" with China, saying it "does nothing for us with North Korea, just talk." The statement came just two days after Pyongyang launched an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), claiming the rocket could hit the entire US mainland.

"Our foolish past leaders have allowed them [China] to make hundreds of billions of dollars a year in trade," Trump wrote.

China hit back on Monday, urging Washington to keep the two issues separate.

"We think the North Korea nuclear issue and China-US trade are issues that are in two completely different domains. They aren't related. They should not be discussed together," Chinese Vice-Commerce Minister Qian Keming told journalists, as cited by the South China Morning Post.

Comment: Washington is just getting started on ramping up the N. Korea threat:

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Info

Trump tweets 'highest stock market ever', slams Congress' exemption from 'disastrous' ObamaCare

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Mon, 31 Jul 2017 14:18 UTC
Donald Trump
© Carlos Barria / Reuters
President Trump is active this morning. His first tweet of the week was a shot across the bow of Congress (who exempted themselves from Obamacare because it was such a disaster) and suggesting - shockingly to many in DC - that insurance companies may face some pain...


But then, having discussed the "bad", he pivoted to what he sees as "the good" - the stock market, unemployment, and wages - proclaiming there is "No White House Chaos"...

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