Puppet MastersS


Chess

Putin replaces one liberal for another as Economics Minister

Putin on RT
© Michael Klimentyev / Sputnik"Wow, just wow."
To those who long for a purge of liberals from the Russian government President Putin's appointment of Maxim Oreshkin as Economics Minister to replace Alexey Ulyukaev - the previous Economics Minister sacked in disgrace following his arrest on bribery charges - will come as a major disappointment.

Little is known about Oreshkin, but his record clearly points to him being a liberal. A graduate of the ultra-liberal Higher School of Economics, his background is in banking, where he has previously held executive positions with Rosbank, Credit Agricole, and VTB Capital.

Oreshkin worked in the Ministry of Finance from 2013 and was appointed Deputy Finance Minister in March 2015.

Oreshkin's past connection to VTB - the Russian bank that recently managed Russia's successful eurobond sales - suggests that he may have been the official within the Finance Ministry who was ultimately responsible for those sales. His promotion to Economics Minister may be his reward for their success.

In other words Putin appears to have replaced one liberal (Ulyukaev) with another (Oreshkin).

Megaphone

Russian UN envoy: French call for UNSC meeting on Aleppo a distraction from Mosul humanitarian problem

iraq special forces
© Khalid al Mousily / ReutersA member of Iraqi special forces carries an injured girl from clashes in Mosul, Iraq, November 29, 2016
The French call for an emergency UN Security Council (UNSC) meeting on Aleppo is an attempt to distract attention from humanitarian issues of the Western-backed operation in the Iraqi city of Mosul, said Vitaly Churkin, Russia's envoy to the UN.

Paris is pushing for the meeting in order to "distract attention from what is going on in Mosul where the situation - in many respects, including humanitarian - is much more dramatic than in eastern Aleppo," Churkin told reporters.

"With all the gravity of the situation [in eastern Aleppo] - where you have fighting going on - it has some indication of improvement," he added.

The envoy also called the French initiative an attempt "to accuse the Syrian government and Russia of something, especially, at the time when the Syrian authorities launch a counter-offensive in an attempt trying to regain control of some territories."

Network

Trump and May have second phone conversation over NATO spending

trump may
© Reuters
British Prime Minister Theresa May and US President-elect Donald Trump discussed NATO spending in their second phone conversation since the populist tycoon stormed to victory in Washington.

Hopes of a pre-Christmas face-to-face meeting appear to have been squashed, but a Downing Street spokesperson told the Times on Wednesday that the two had agreed to meet as soon as they could and to stay in contact.

The spokesperson said the two leaders had decided "their teams should continue to build close relationships through this period, including with a meeting of their National Security Advisers in the United States before Christmas."

The two apparently discussed NATO spending, and the symbolic two percent of gross domestic product (GDP) member states are required to spend on defense.

Quenelle

Russian MOD: The Castello Road to deliver humanitarian aid to eastern Aleppo liberated

A general view taken on September 16, 2016, shows the rubble-strewn Castello Road, the main route for humanitarian assistance in to divided Syrian city of Aleppo
© Karam Al-Masri / AFPA general view taken on September 16, 2016, shows the rubble-strewn Castello Road, the main route for humanitarian assistance in to divided Syrian city of Aleppo
The Castello Road, viewed by many in the media as the "only way" to deliver humanitarian aid to the Syrian city of Aleppo, has been liberated by the Syrian Army, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

"As a result of effective actions by the Syrian government forces, the Castello Road is now completely liberated. Thus, there are no impediments for humanitarian aid to be delivered to the people of Aleppo," the head of operations for Russia's General Staff, General Lieutenant Sergey Rudskoy, announced on Wednesday.

The route, which has been dubbed "death road" and the "only secure route into eastern Aleppo" by the western media, has been cited as one of the main obstacles for UN aid to be brought into eastern Aleppo.

The organization said that since July, when fighting between government forces and militants in the Syrian city intensified, its workers were unable to help civilians in eastern Aleppo, as the crucial road to reach them was cut off.

Play

South Front: Full Liberation of Aleppo is Near (VIDEOS)

south front
A large buildup of pro-government forces took place in southern Aleppo. Hezbollah and Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba deployed a significant number of manpower to the area. This move has once against fueled massive speculations in pro-government media outlets that the Syrian army and its allies are going to advance in the direction of Khan Tuman. However, this move can be hardly expected in the near future.


Question

Real fake news exposed: Did the BBC fabricate news of chemical attacks in Syria to start a war?

fake news
"The press has been routinely creating fake news reports to start a war," exclaims Armstrong Economics' Martin Armstrong, pointing to a recent report exposing The BBC allegedly faking news over chemical attacks in Syria...
What follows is shocking evidence that crisis actors, green screens, CGI, and paid propagandists are being used to fake worldwide events in order to scare people into giving up liberties and sending us into war. To say this was shocking would be to put it lightly.

From video proof showing "dead soldiers" killed by "chemical weapons" walking around after they thought the videos stopped recording, to digitally altering sounds to add in "explosions" that never happened, this segment demonstrates some of the most damming evidence against the media ever shown on television.
Armstrong continues... "This is a serious issue for the press is conspiring against the people to create war, sell climate change, and rig elections. This is by no means something new."

They taught me in high school history class about how the press started the Spanish-American War by reporting that the Spanish attacked a US ship, which never happened.


Георгиевская ленточка

Russia's MOD chides US, UK, France and UN as not 'eager to provide aid' for liberated civilians in eastern Aleppo

civilians eastern Aleppo
© SANA / ReutersSyrians that evacuated the eastern districts of Aleppo gather to board buses, in a government held area in Aleppo, Syria in this handout picture provided by SANA on November 29, 2016.
Not a single offer to deliver humanitarian aid to the 90,000 residents living in the neighborhoods of East Aleppo that have been freed from terrorists by the Syrian army has been made by the US, UK, France, or the UN, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

"While Western countries and representatives of various international organizations were vocal about the need to make humanitarian deliveries to eastern Aleppo possible when it was fully under rebel control, they seem to have lost interest in helping the stricken residents now that they've been liberated by government forces," Russian Defense Ministry spokesman General Igor Konashenkov said on Wednesday.

"In the last few weeks, they [Western countries] were insistently demanding that humanitarian convoys be ensured access to the rebel-held parts of eastern Aleppo. However, now, two days since over 90,000 Aleppo residents were liberated from the terrorists, it turns out that not a single offer to provide humanitarian help to them has been submitted either by the office of UN special envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura, or the UK, the French foreign ministries, or the US State Department," Konashenkov elaborated, adding that nothing is preventing aid deliveries at the moment.

Konashenkov says the apparent reluctance of Western governments to provide aid to East Aleppo's recently liberated residents now that it's actually possible to deliver it suggests that those powers weren't really concerned about those supplies reaching the civilian population in the first place.

"Apparently, this aid was intended for some other people living in the eastern Aleppo neighborhoods," he said, implying that it had really been meant for the militants fighting the Syrian government there.

Comment: Russia pulls another bit of the mask off the psychopathic West.


Info

Take Erdogan's statements on regime change in Syria for what they are: Hot air

syria
A video has just surfaced where Erdogan brags about how Turkey's military operation in northern Syria has always been for the purpose of advancing regime change, causing a panic on alternative and social media that President Putin and the Iranian Supreme Leader were both devilishly tricked by the wily Erdogan in falling for Turkey's "Trojan Horse" rapprochements with their countries. The reactionary narrative is predictably one of "I told you so!", with advocates on the verge of "celebrating" what the Sultan has just proclaimed, despite this supposedly being "proof" that Moscow and Tehran are just so woefully incompetent that they couldn't even see a threat to their Damascus ally when it was staring them in the face this entire time.

The intentions of those peddling this narrative vary widely, and it's not the author's purpose to speculate on what's behind their joyful glee now that their dire anti-Syrian "prediction" has supposedly come to pass. Instead, it's much more constructive to examine what's wrong with this narrative and prove how categorically false it really is, with the tangential hope that this solid refutation will allow objective observers to identity the alternative and social media personalities which have "jumped the gun" on this whole episode and may have inadvertently revealed their true biases as a result.

Before proceeding, the reader should be reminded that the trilateral relationship between Russia, Turkey, and Iran has been flimsy from the get-go, owing mostly to the fact that it had been historically unprecedented until the first efforts were made at forming the Tripartite this summer (and which the author has thenceforth written about in a book-length article series for Katehon). There's always a chance that Erdogan really is as nefarious as his most virulent detractors claim that he is, and that a betrayal of Russia and Iran might indeed be imminent, but for now at least, that hasn't happened, and here's why.

Comment: Russian Deputy FM Mikhail Bogdanov points out the obvious:
This runs counter to all agreements. First, Resolution 2254, Resolution 2268, decisions of the Vienna format, Lausanne format. We have been participating in these formats jointly with Turkey.
Translation: Erdogan knows this and knows what the response would be if he were really serious about it. Peskov and Zakharova had similar reactions:
Peskov told journalists: "Erdogan's statement is really news. This is a very serious statement, a statement which, overall, is discordant with previous ones, and a statement which is discordant with our own understanding of the situation as a state whose armed forces are the only ones legitimately present on the territory of the Syrian Arab Republic on the basis of the legitimate authorities' corresponding appeal. This is very important to remember."

The Kremlin's spokesperson also noted that it is too early to speak of any possible impact of Erdogan's words on Russian-Turkish relations. "This statement is new. Therefore, we count on an explanation of this position before passing any judgement," Peskov added.

The spokeswoman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, Maria Zakharova, remarked earlier that Moscow is dealing with the Syrian issue on the basis of existing agreements with Turkey. "We rely on those statements which were repeatedly made by Ankara and in particular those by the leader of Turkey publicly which lie at the heart of the agreements to which Turkey is a party," the diplomat emphasized, adding that this not only concerns bilateral documents, but also international agreements which Turkey has signed onto.



Che Guevara

Zakharova: UN aid in Syria politicized, most convoys go to militant-held areas

maria zakharova
Russia said on Wednesday that the delivery of humanitarian aid by the UN in Syria is politicized as most UN help was going to militant-held areas.

Russia's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters in her press briefing in Moscow that only 1 percent of UN aid was being directed to Deir Ezzur, where she said at least 200,000 people were trapped by ISIL militants and in need of supplies, Sputnik reported.

Zakharova said Moscow has repeatedly introduced humanitarian pauses in Aleppo to help civilians however the militants use the truce to regroup and replenish arms and ammunition, stressing that such issue is politicized.

However, she said that Moscow is ready to work with all international humanitarian organizations on the issue of humanitarian aid delivery.
"We strongly believe that humanitarian issues should not become a tool for political pressure or serve as means of flirting with terrorists or shielding them."

Rocket

Russian air defense forces in Crimea on high alert following Ukraine's missile launches in Black Sea

Russian soldier
© Vitaliy Nevar/TASS
Russia's air defense forces in Crimea are ready for Ukraine's missile launches in the Black Sea and have been put on high alert, a source in the Crimean defense structures told TASS on Wednesday.

"Ukraine's firing exercises are a sort of a PR-move aimed at creating a nervous situation but in any case the military perceive this as a real and potential threat and, therefore, the Russian air defense forces in Crimea have been placed on enhanced alert," the source said.

"This refers not only to ground-based but also to shipborne air defense forces as ships of the Black Sea Fleet are self-sustained combat units for repelling any threats," the source said.

Comment: See also: Ukraine decided to hold missile-firing exercise over Crimea without Moscow's approval