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2017 start date to fingerprint all foreigners arriving in Russia


RT
Thu, 24 Nov 2016 14:10 UTC
fingerscan
© www.pond5.comIs it yours?
Russia's deputy interior minister has told the press that in 2017 fingerprinting will become an obligatory procedure for all foreigners arriving in the country. "The Interior Ministry initiates the process to introduce obligatory fingerprinting for all foreigners arriving on Russia's territory," Aleksandr Gorovoy said. The official also said that Russian police was thankful to all foreign colleagues who had showed understanding in connection with this program.

In late 2014, President Vladimir Putin signed an order on obligatory biometric registration of all foreign citizens and persons without citizenship who receive entry visas. The move was meant to improve the effectiveness of law enforcement, including the prevention of illegal migration and barring suspected terrorists from entering the country.

The initial proposal had been put forward by the Russian Foreign Ministry in reply to the introduction of universal fingerprinting of Russians wishing to enter the European Union that happened in 2015. Several years before the order was signed the head of the Russian Investigative Committee (the federal agency dealing with important crimes) suggested a similar idea, but it was not implemented because putting the necessary equipment on all border crossings turned out to be too expensive.

In November 2014, MPs from the populist nationalist LDPR drafted a motion requiring universal fingerprinting and DNA profiling of all Russian citizens for reasons of security. The sponsors of the bill said that it would help law enforcers and society through allowing the scrapping of other forms of ID and significantly cut red tape. The bill has never made it through the parliament. At present Russian law enforcers use the Automated Fingerprint Identification System or ADIS to hold data on convicted criminals and military personnel.

Comment: Once one country changes protocol and procedure, at some point, all of them will follow suit.

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Sheeple

No longer a 'black sheep', Hungary PM expects improved relations under Trump


RT
Fri, 25 Nov 2016 16:31 UTC
Orban
© Blogs - Financial TimesHungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban
The position of Budapest on Washington's foreign policy list has apparently "improved remarkably," Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said, following a phone conversation with US President-elect Donald Trump. "Donald Trump has made it clear that he regards Hungary highly," Orban told his country's leading business daily, Vilaggazdasag, on Friday, as quoted by Reuters. "I spoke on the phone with the new US president and I can say that our position has improved remarkably," the Hungarian PM said.

Having expressed certainty that the two nations' diplomatic ties could improve with the incoming US leader, Orban said he had been invited to Washington for talks, although no date was specified. "I told him [Trump] that I have not been there [to Washington] for a long time as I was regarded as a 'black sheep,'" he told the daily, adding that his remarks apparently made Trump laugh, as he replied that "so was he."

The Hungarian billionaire investor-turned-politician, who has been in power since 2010, was among the first in Europe to announce his clear preference for the Republican candidate during the race for the White House. He also said that Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton would be "deadly" for Hungary.

Comment: Orban has only ever been a politician; was never a billionaire investor. He has been criticized by the West of centralizing legislative and executive power, curbing civil liberties, restricting freedom of speech, weakening the constitutional court and judiciary, cronyism and nepotism...which sound more like some other country and politicians we know and detest. Instead, Orban's political philosophy is a closer reflection of the peasant and working classes, promoting national sovereignty along with a healthy distrust of US-European ideology.

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Shoe

EU will allow Ukrainians with biometric passports to travel visa-free to most countries


BBC
Thu, 24 Nov 2016 21:04 UTC
Poroshenko juncker tusk
© EPAUkraine's President Petro Poroshenko (C) met European leaders Jean-Claude Juncker (L) and Donald Tusk (R) at the summit
Ukrainian citizens will be able to travel to most EU countries without a visa, European Council President Donald Tusk has announced.

He said the country had met relevant standards "perfectly" and in the coming weeks EU officials would work out how the scheme will be implemented.

The announcement was made at a meeting of Ukrainian and EU leaders in Brussels on Thursday. Corruption in Ukraine and the country's future were also discussed.

The visa-free scheme will allow Ukrainians with a biometric passport to enter the Schengen area - including some non-EU areas such as Switzerland and Iceland, but not the UK or Ireland - without a visa for up to 90 days.

Mr Tusk said: "The last three years have seen the birth of a new Ukraine, that advances its democracy and economy through sometimes very tough reforms.
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Network

Erdogan, Putin and now Trump: A new balance of power to be defined


Sputnik
Fri, 25 Nov 2016 14:23 UTC
Turkish flags
© AP Photo/ Thanassis Stavrakis
Thursday marked the one year anniversary of Turkey's downing of a Russian Aerospace Forces Su-24 jet in the Syrian sky while it was on an anti-terror mission, which gravely affected relations between the two countries. One year on, Turkish politicians tell Sputnik what helped the two to ease tensions and reset relations after the incident.

A year ago, on November 24, 2015, a Turkish General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon fighter launched an air-to-air missile at a Russian Sukhoi Su-24 combat aircraft which was on an anti-terror mission in Syrian airspace.

According to Col. Gen. Viktor Bondarev, the commander of the Russian Aerospace Forces, Turkey's F-16 fighters then ambushed the Su-24 in the sky as they were otherwise unable to reach the area on time after taking off from the nearby airfield. He added that the Russian Su-24 was tracked by Turkish Air Force radar for 34 minutes.

Commander of the Russian jet Lt. Col. Oleg Peshkov and navigator Capt. Konstantin Murakhtin managed to eject before the plane hit the ground in an area where fighting raged between the Syrian army and terrorists.

Comment: Assuming Trump fully understands and wants to correct the dynamics involved (which he may be close to given a number of his public statements regarding Russia) the key question then would seem to be how far the US deep state/military-industrial-complex is willing to go to sabotage any efforts he makes towards rapprochement. If past acts and events are any indication, the new president of the United States will have a very difficult time of it.

See: Trump vs. the National Security State: The Chances of a Revolution in US Foreign Policy

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Dollars

Jihadists 'used UK welfare payments to fund Paris & Brussels terrorist attacks'


RT
Fri, 25 Nov 2016 16:59 UTC
Mohamed Abrini
© Federal police / AFPMohamed Abrini
Jihadists accused of carrying out terrorist attacks in Paris and Brussels used British welfare payments to fund the assaults, a court has heard.

Two Birmingham men handed £3,000 (US$3,730) to Mohamed Abrini - who is thought to be the man wearing a hat in CCTV footage taken at Brussels airport before and after the attack there in March - before he flew to Paris and disappeared.

Zakaria Boufassil, 26, from Birmingham, stands accused of making the payment, which was withdrawn from the bank account of Belgian national Anouar Haddouchi, who had been claiming benefits while living in the West Midlands.

Comment: See also:

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Arrow Up

Egypt set to expand Russian industrial zone in Suez, 77,000 new jobs possible


RT
Fri, 25 Nov 2016 14:29 UTC
New Suez Canal
© Mohamed Abd El Ghany / ReutersA cargo ship passes through the New Suez Canal in Ismailia, Egypt
The area of the Russian industrial park on the Suez Canal is to be expanded from 80 to 2,000 hectares (20 sq. km.), said Russia's Industry and Trade Minister Denis Manturov.

"Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has decided to allocate 80 hectares to us in the eastern part of Port Said on the Suez Canal. In the future Cairo is ready to expand this zone to 2,000 hectares," Manturov said on Friday.

Manturov says work on the intergovernmental agreement may be finished in the first quarter of 2017. Construction of the industrial park will start in 2018.

Comment: Is it really so complicated? Most of the world's governments just want to make smart mutually-benefitting business with one another and do not see the need to finance large proxy hordes of raping and pillaging head-choppers in order to secure profits.

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Chess

'Kvetching': Picks for military key positions in Trump's administration

Melvin Goodman
Counterpunch
Fri, 25 Nov 2016 20:58 UTC
Donald Trump
© Photo by DonkeyHotey
President-elect Donald Trump's authoritarian style and personality, which attracted an overwhelmingly authoritarian following, is manifesting itself in the selection of his national security team. The appointment of Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn as the national security adviser is particularly worrisome because of the general's lack of experience in strategic policy and his controversial stewardship as the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency. More recently, we have learned that general officers are being given consideration as secretaries of state, defense, and homeland security. Trump is putting at risk the Constitution's support for civilian control of the military as well as decision-making in the use of force as well as national security policy in general.

What is at stake in this case is the deepening cultural divide between the military and civilian worlds, particularly the increased militarization of national security policy that has taken place over the past two decades. The administrations of Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama have catered to the military, and have appointed too many general and flag officers to positions that should be in the hands of civilians. President Obama was particularly guilty in this regard, rewarding general officers with ambassadorial positions and naming a retired marine general to the post of national security adviser. The general, James Jones, was a poor fit in terms of both management and substantive support, and was soon forced out of the White House.

With the exception of the first appointment to the post of director of national intelligence, John Negroponte, all of Bush's and Obama's intelligence stars have been general and flag officers, and during this period we have witnessed a significant decline in the production and usefulness of strategic intelligence. Obama also demonstrated too much deference to the military when he retained Bush's secretary of defense, Robert Gates, as his own in order not to create concerns about reform of the military within the Pentagon.
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Bad Guys

Charity states that 1 in 3 children vanished after the demolition of Calais migrant camp


RT
Thu, 24 Nov 2016 01:53 UTC
calais jungle
© Pascal Rossignol / Reuters
After the demolition of the Calais 'Jungle' migrant camp, about a third of the children previously residing in the squalor who were being tracked by a UK charity have now reportedly gone missing.

The Refugee Youth Service (RYS) said,"a third of the 179 children tracked in October have gone missing after the eviction of the 'jungle'."

"We are disheartened that once again children, the most vulnerable of refugees, have gone missing following the chaotic eviction in Calais. It is particularly worrying that alarm bells are not being raised," said Refugee Youth Service co-founder Josie Naughton.

After the camp which, according to some estimates, housed over 10,000 migrants was demolished following fierce clashes between migrants and police, many unaccompanied children had no place to go. Some minors were reportedly even used to pick fruit at a local farm, just to survive, the Safe Passage UK program previously said.

Comment: We don't think it's a stretch to think that some of these children could've been victims of human trafficking, or used as sources for organ harvesting. Many of those in positions of power have 'appetites' that would make an ordinary person sick to the stomach. And there are always traffickers willing to procure what they want.

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Star of David

Trump should put a halt to Israel's new sub program; support for Israel not a blank check

Dov S. Zakheim
The National Interest
Mon, 21 Nov 2016 00:00 UTC
israel sub port
© The National Interest/Wikimedia CommonsDolphin II–class submarine INS Tanin at the HDW shipyard in Kiel.
Thirty years ago, I led a joint Department of Defense/Israeli Navy (IN) team that evaluated Israel's naval modernization program. Our agreed conclusion was that its two components, surface corvettes and submarines, both deserved American support. We recommended to both Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger and Minister of Defense Yitzhak Rabin that the corvettes be built in the United States, while Israel be permitted to use offshore procurement funds to acquire German-built submarines. Both ship types were to be built to Israeli specifications and equipped with Israeli systems. Secretary Weinberger agreed with our conclusions, as did Minister Rabin.

Within seven years Israel had launched its first Saar 5 corvette, and, bolstered by German financing, had begun the program that resulted in Israel's acquisition of three submarines, named the Dolphin class. In 2006, Israel acquired three more upgraded versions of the Dolphin sub from Germany. The first of the three was commissioned in 2014, another earlier this year, and a third will be commissioned in 2018. The Israeli press has reported that these submarines carry nuclear-tipped missiles; as such, they would constitute a powerful deterrent to Iran or any other nation threatening the security, indeed the existence, of the Jewish State.

Israel's procurement of these submarines has partially been funded by Germany. The remaining costs borne by Israel have in effect been subsidized by the U.S. taxpayer by virtue of the Offshore Procurement (OSP) program. This program, virtually unique to Israel, allows it to apply American foreign military assistance funding to projects of its own. Since money is fungible, the OSP funds offer Israel considerable flexibility in budget management, and enable its programmers and budgeteers to reallocate funds in order to free up resources for foreign purchases.

Comment: As long as Israel has the backing of US and other duped nations, it will continue its reign of terror in Palestine and bully threats to other regional nations. It is well past time for the US to re-evaluate its military and financial commitments to Israel. Congress, literally bought by Israeli interests, is responsible for the blatant hostaging of the American taxpayers, tied forever to Israeli subsidy under the bogus fear of 'anti-Semitism' and the Jewish global agenda. There is a way out: Refuse.

See also:

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Target

Russian Senator Klintsevich: Nuclear response to target NATO expansion


RT
Fri, 25 Nov 2016 11:20 UTC
Encroach NATO
© Wikimedia Commons
In response to NATO's efforts to enlist new member-countries, a member of the defense and security committee for Russia's Upper House has said that Russia will target any sites it considers to be a threat with nuclear weapons.

"In reply to NATO's aggressive actions, to the alliance's attempts to draw more and more nations into their orbit, there will be a harsh and unambiguous response from Russia's side. We will aim our weapons, including the nuclear ones, at any of the alliance's site that would threaten us, wherever these sites are placed," RIA Novosti quoted Senator Franz Klintsevich as saying. The senator also explained that by nuclear weapons he meant both stationary land-based systems, and mobile weapons, including sea- and air-based systems.

Vladimir Putin's press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters on Friday that Klintsevich's position was understandable, but also warned against jumping to hasty conclusions.

"Russian lawmakers have the right for own opinion, they are vividly reacting to international events, to NATO's expansion towards Russian borders, and to the expansion of NATO's military infrastructure. This makes their position understandable," Peskov said. At the same time, he noted that, according to the Russian Constitution, lawmakers cannot determine the country's foreign policy, as that is solely the president's prerogative.

In late October of this year, Senator Klintsevich told Norwegian television TV2 that Russia was concerned about US plans to deploy marines at a Norwegian base which he sees as part of its Prompt Global Strike doctrine. The implementation of this plan would force Russia to target sites in Norway with strategic weapons, which it has never had to do before.

Comment: Zero-sum game. Rein in the Klintsevichs and McCains.

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