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White House: Relations with Russia have improved over last several months, Trump continues to seek areas of cooperation

Putin zahvalio Trumpu na CIA-inim podatcima koji je omogućio Rusiji da spriječi teroristički napad
© Reuters / Global Look Press
According to the White House, Trump "is focused on continuing to find areas of cooperation where they can be found while being ever vigilant at protecting America's interests".

Washington believes that US-Russian relations have improved in the past several months. At the same time, US President Donald Trump continues to seek areas of cooperation, a senior White House official said at a special briefing dedicated to the upcoming unveiling of the new US National Security Strategy.

"The president [Trump] spoke to president Putin on the phone and we issued a readout summarizing the call. This is a great example of cooperation when there is a shared interest. We've seen some of that also this year in Syria against ISIS [the Islamic State terror group outlawed in Russia - TASS]," the briefing's host said.

Light Sabers

US and Canada warned by Russia about consequences of sending arms to Ukraine

ukraine tanks
© Mykola Lazarenko/Press Office of the President of Ukraine/TASS
Russia has warned the US and Canada about consequences of arms shipments to Ukraine. Speaking at a meeting of the UN Security Council, Russia's first deputy permanent representative to the UN, Pyotr Ilyichev said that shipments of US and Canadian weapons to Ukraine are pushing the country's leadership to new military adventures.

The diplomat drew attention to reports that Canada announced its readiness to issue licenses to its companies for arms deliveries to Ukraine, and American companies, in particular the manufacturer of hand grenade launchers Airtronic USA, "are already supplying weapons to Kiev, gaining a consent of both the State Department and the Pentagon behind-the-scenes, although officially the US declares that there is no final decision on this matter."

"We would like to recommend those who are pushing (the countries) to such decisions and take them, to think about responsibility. It is clear that the pumping of Ukraine with American and Canadian means of war pushes the country's leadership, which sabotages the Minsk agreements, to new military adventures. Everyone should understand that the conflict in the Donbass will not be resolved by force, and those who give arms to the murderers will be to blame for the death of people there, "Ilyichev said.

Earlier it was reported that Canada had put Ukraine on the list of countries that are allowed to sell Canadian automatic weapons. The corresponding information was published by the Canada Gazette, the official publication of the Canadian government. The document notes that applications for the import or export of goods, according to national legislation, are considered by the Government of Canada on a case-by-case basis in accordance with Canadian international and defense policies. At present, this list includes 39 countries, most of them are NATO members.

Comment: Previously: The Handsome Hypocrisy of Justin Trudeau: SJW Leader of Canada Sells Weapons to Ukraine


Russian Flag

Putin's vision: Russia must become world leader in knowledge, intellect, culture

putin
© Michael Klimentyev / SputnikRussian President Vladimir Putin attends the 'Russia Focused on the Future' forum of the United Popular Front movement
Vladimir Putin has told a forum of his supporters that he sees the main objectives of his new presidential program as maintaining Russia's freedom, social stability and leading place among world nations.

Speaking at the Tuesday session of the "Forum of Actions" organized by the All-Russian Popular Front movement incumbent president Vladimir Putin said that Russia had to fulfill the principal historical tasks of the moment, such as population growth, creation of a new economy and development of its Arctic and Far East regions.

Putin also emphasized the importance of keeping up with the ongoing revolution in production technologies, healthcare and education. "Shielding ourselves from these international tendencies or trying to keep up with someone is definitely not our choice, it cannot be our choice," he said, adding that Russia had all opportunities to restore the spheres of economy where it used to be a world leader.

"We will definitely break through to new competences that we need for our development; there is no doubt about it. We must become leaders in knowledge, in intellect, in social and cultural development," Putin told his supporters.

Comment: And this is why Vlad will probably go down in history as Russia's greatest leader. He doesn't just say the right things, he emulates Russian values, and gets results:


Info

Putin to meet with Serbian president to discuss bilateral cooperation, energy projects and international agenda

Serbian President Alexandar Vucic  and Russian President Vladimir Putin
© RFE/RLSerbian President Alexandar Vucic and Russian President Vladimir Putin
Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold talks with Serbia's President Alexandar Vucic in Moscow on Tuesday.

Vucic is on a working visit in Russia until December 20.

As the press service of the Kremlin reported earlier, the leaders will discuss the development of the Russian-Serbian strategic partnership in the political, trade-economic and cultural areas, as well as current issues on the international and regional agenda. A number of bilateral documents are planned to be signed, as well as statements for the media.

Gold Coins

Pakistan examines use of yuan instead of dollar in trade with China

Yuan dollar
© Global Look Press
The government of Pakistan is considering a proposal to start using the Chinese yuan in trade with China, according to the Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal, as quoted by Pakistan's English-language daily Dawn.

"We are examining the use of yuan instead of the US dollar for trade between the two countries," the minister told the media after the official launch of the Long Term Plan (LTP) for the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

Bilateral trade between Pakistan and China was worth $13.8 billion in 2015 to 2016, a decade after the countries signed a free trade agreement. Pakistan will continue to use the rupee domestically, according to Iqbal.

Comment: At this point, it is probably not a question of if Pakistan will dump the dollar in their trade with China, but when.

China-Pakistan Corridor is 'core component' of One Belt One Road Initiative says Pakistan PM


Propaganda

US insists WannaCry accusations against North Korea 'based on a true story'

virus cyber attack
© Monika Skolimowska / Global Look Press
A Trump official claims in an op-ed that the US has proof that it was North Korea behind the WannaCry cyber attack, citing a "careful investigation." However, he also launched into various allegations against other countries.

In a Wall Street Journal op-ed titled "It's Official: North Korea Is Behind WannaCry," White House Homeland Security advisor Tom Bossert claimed on Monday that the US's findings in their investigation are "based on evidence."

North Korea is named by Bossert as the culprit in the attack, however, no particular organization or person affiliated with the North Korean government was specifically named in the homeland security advisor's Op-Ed.

The US is not the only country that attributes the WannaCry attack to North Korea, Bossert adds.

Star of David

Israeli saber-rattling: Mad dog Lieberman sez all Hamas tunnels to be 'destroyed within months'

palestinian rockets
© Suhaib Salem / ReutersPalestinian militants show a home-made rocket
Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman says Tel Aviv will no longer allow a game of "ping-pong" rocket exchanges to take place with Hamas.

"In the next few months all existing tunnels will be blown up and destroyed" by new technologies invented by Israel, Lieberman said during an interview with RTVI, adding that Israel is aiming to put an end to the "ping-pong" of rocket exchanges.

His comments come amid increased tensions between Israel and Palestinians - who are supported by Hamas - after US President Donald Trump's official recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

According to Lieberman, Hamas is solely responsible for the escalating violence in the Gaza Strip and argues that a large-scale attack from Hamas is inevitable, stating that "should Hamas be faced with the alternative of losing power or attacking Israel, without a doubt, Hamas will choose another conflict with Israel."

Display

Russia's Kaspersky Lab taking Trump administration to court over software ban

Kaspersky Lab
© Associated PressHeadquarters of Kaspersky Lab in Moscow.
Russian tech company Kaspersky Lab sued the Trump administration in U.S. federal court Monday over its decision to ban the company's software products at all federal agencies due to national security concerns, reports Reuters. The firm argues that the Department of Homeland Security deprived it of due process and unfairly damaged its reputation.

Why it matters: Kaspersky Lab, the world's largest private cybersecurity company, has been accused of helping Moscow in their intelligence efforts, though they have repeatedly denied any such connection.

Details of the ban: In September, DHS ordered all government agencies to remove Kaspersky Lab software from their devices within 90 days. The ban officially went into effect last week when President Trump signed legislation codifying it.

Statement from Kaspersky Lab

"DHS failed to provide Kaspersky Lab with adequate due process and relied primarily on subjective, non-technical public sources like uncorroborated and often anonymously sourced media reports and rumors in issuing and finalizing the Directive," the company's CEO Eugene Kaspersky wrote in an open letter. "DHS has harmed Kaspersky Lab's reputation and its commercial operations without any evidence of wrongdoing by the company."

Comment: More background: The possible reason: Kaspersky CEO: U.S. attacks us because we found something U.S. doesn't like
According to US media reports in October 2017, an employee from the National Security Agency (NSA) elite hacking unit lost some of the agency's espionage tools after storing them on his home computer in 2015. The media jumped to blame Kaspersky Lab and the Kremlin.

Following the reports, the company conducted an internal investigation and stumbled upon an incident dating back to 2014. At the time, Kaspersky Lab was investigating the activities of the Equation Group - a powerful group of hackers that later was identified as an arm of the NSA.

As part of Kaspersky's investigation, it analyzed information received from a computer of an unidentified user, who is alleged to be the security service employee in question. It turned out that the user installed pirated software containing Equation malware, then "scanned the computer multiple times," which resulted in antivirus software detecting suspicious files, including a 7z archive.

"The archive itself was detected as malicious and submitted to Kaspersky Lab for analysis, where it was processed by one of the analysts. Upon processing, the archive was found to contain multiple malware samples and source code for what appeared to be Equation malware," the company's October statement explained.

The analyst then reported the matter directly to Eugene Kaspersky, who ordered the company's copy of the code to be destroyed.

On Thursday, Kaspersky Lab issued another statement concerning this incident following a more extensive investigation. The results of the investigation showed that the computer in question was infected with several types of malware in addition to the one created by Equation. Some of this malware provided access to the data on this computer to an "unknown number of third parties."

In particular, the computer was infected with backdoor malware called Mokes, which is also known as Smoke Bot and Smoke Loader. It is operated by an organization called Zhou Lou, based in China.



Chess

Trump doesn't need to fire Mueller, Russiagate is collapsing under the weight of its own absurdity

Mueller
© ABC News
The last few weeks have witnessed a string of articles and editorials in the media and from senior Democrats warning about supposed plans by President Trump and Trump supporting Republicans in Congress to sack Special Counsel Robert Mueller and to close down his Russiagate probe.

These 'warnings' typically come with claims that following the indictment of Michael Flynn Mueller is supposedly 'closing in' on Trump and that this explains why Trump and his supporters in Congress want to get rid of him.

Document

Moscow remands suspected Norwegian spy after he's found with classified documents

top secret classified
© DNY59 / Getty Images
A Moscow court has remanded a Norwegian citizen in custody on suspicion of espionage. Russia's special services caught the suspect as he was reportedly receiving classified documents on the Russian Navy.

On Tuesday, a Russian district court ruled that Frode Berg should continue to be remanded in custody after he was detained in Moscow two weeks ago. "The court satisfied the prosecutors' motion seeking to remand the defendant Berg in custody until February 5, 2018," Ekaterina Krasnova, the court's press secretary told journalists.

The Norwegian embassy in Moscow has not commented on the arrest so far.