The Russian Air Force tracked and targeted a long column of terrorists crossing Turkish border to join their comrades in Northern and Northwestern battlefields in Syria.

The terrorists, that were mainly Turkmen, were caught by the Russian Air Force's reconnaissance planes attempting to enter the Lattakia province from one of the Turkish border-crossings near Yayladagi.

Upon the entry of Jeish al-Turkmen and al-Nusra Front into Syria, the Russian air fleet struck their convoy of vehicles in the Furniluk Forests, ending in the rebel fighters scattering around the border in order to evade the powerful aerial assault.

When the Russian warplanes backed off, the Syrian Air Force launched their own airstrikes over the Furniluk Forests, keeping up the pressure on the trapped rebel fighters.

The Syrian civil war began as protesters toppled governments across North Africa in the so-called "Arab Spring." Washington has insisted on regime change in Damascus ever since, yet their rhetoric adapted over the years.

President Ben Ali of Tunisia was ousted in January, followed by protests demanding the resignation of Egypt's Hosni Mubarak and an armed rebellion against Muammar Gaddafi in Libya. A "Day of Rage" protest in Damascus and Aleppo on March 15, 2011 is commonly considered the start of the Syrian civil war. Protests escalated into an armed rebellion by July, after NATO warplanes intervened in Libya on behalf of the rebels.

Kiev has announced a massive discount on the sale of state assets which have failed to find foreign buyers. Ukraine's State Property Fund says all of the assets have been put up for sale more than 10 times and have found no takers.

As a result, 22 of 34 state assets are now being put up for sale at a 60 percent discount, nine with a discount of 50 percent, and three are up for auction at a reduced asking price.

Among the companies offered for sale is a 9.6 percent stake in the Black Sea Shipyard, 37.6 percent in Lviv Coal Company and the Chernigov radio plant.

"Last week, the assets were offered for sale with discounts of 50 percent and 30 percent respectively, but the auctions were not held due to lack of buyers," said the State Property Fund.

"Vladimir Putin's announcement on Monday that Russia will begin pulling out of Syria appeared to take the White House by surprise, and revived concerns that the Russian leader is outmaneuvering Barack Obama," states an article in Politico magazine.

The outlet notes that the White House officials have been caught off guard by the announcement, "with press secretary Josh Earnest punting on questions during the briefing and others trying to quickly gather information."

Witnessing his Ottoman Empire remake dream crumbling on the ground in northern Syria, sultan Turkish President Recep Erdogan launched his highly touted (mini-)invasion into Syria this weekend. After a near month and a half of constant daily artillery shelling into Syria from the Turkish side of the border, Ankara has just stepped up its desperate aggression in the five year war to rid Syrian president Assad. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov meeting in Geneva for peace talks resuming on Monday stated that Turkey is advancing its "creeping expansion" into Syrian territory which of course violates both the recent US-Russian ceasefire as well as all international law.

In a Sunday interview with Russia's REN TV, Lavrov disclosed that Turkish troops have ensconced themselves several hundred meters (yards) into Syria to prevent its declared enemy the Syrian Kurds (YPG) from fortifying their positions and connecting the Kurds' east-west corridor to take control over nearly the entire Syrian-Turkish border. The Russian minister stated:

According to our information, they [Turkish forces] are digging in a few hundred meters from the border inside Syria.

Though Erdogan's own generals have strongly advised against an all-out invasion of Syria, knowing the grave consequences for Turkey and its military would be catastrophic against the Russian coalition's superior air and firepower, in the face of recent decisive victories achieved against Turkey's proxy allies the ISIS and al Nusra terrorists, debate over whether Erdogan will actually bully his armed forces into launching a ground war invasion into Syria has been heavily speculated by both Turkish and Middle East press. In February Turkey and Saudi Arabia's most powerful leaders were publicly announcing to the world their intention to invade Syria in a protracted ground war risking World War III. Saudi jets were even deployed to Turkey's Incirlik Air Base.

Vladimir Putin has just ordered the withdrawal of the Russian forces in Syria:

"I consider the objectives that have been set for the Defense Ministry to be generally accomplished. That is why I order to start withdrawal of the main part of our military group from the territory of the Syrian Arab Republic starting from tomorrow," Putin said on Monday during a meeting with Shoigu and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

"In a short period of time Russia has created a small but very effective military group in Syria. The effective work of our military forces allowed the peace process to begin," Putin said, adding that "Russian government troops and [Syria's] patriotic forces have changed the situation in the fight with international terrorism and have ceased the initiative."

The first question which needs to be asked is whether this is correct: have the Russians achieved their objective or not? To answer this question, we need to look at what the initial Russian objectives were. I did that in my article "Week Thirteen of the Russian Intervention in Syria: debunking the lies" where I wrote: (emphasis added)

The key issue here is what criteria to use to measure "success". And that, in turns, begs the question of what the Russians had hoped to achieve with their intervention in the first place. It turns out that Putin clearly and officially spelled out what the purpose of the Russian intervention was. On October 11th, he declared the following in an interview with Vladimir Soloviev on the TV channel Russia 1:

Our objective is to stabilize the legitimate authority and create conditions for a political compromise

Longtime Clinton aligned organization MoveOn.org is raising funds to continue to disrupt Donald Trump rallies, according to emails sent out to members. While seemingly innocuous at first, the emails are potentially indicative of something much more calculating and sinister.

"Last night, without consulting local police, Donald Trump abruptly cancelled a rally in Chicago in the face of massive and overwhelmingly peaceful student-led protests," an email to MoveOn.org members stated. "We're being flooded with aggressive emails and social media posts from Trump supporters. Some of them are threatening. We refuse to be intimidated by Donald Trump, Fox News, or anyone else..."

"So here's the plan: We'll support MoveOn.org members to call out and nonviolently protest Trump's racist, bigoted, misogynistic, xenophobic, and violent behavior — and show the world that America rejects Trump's hate. And to keep it going, we're counting on you to donate whatever you can to cover the costs of everything involved — the organizers, signs, online recruitment ads, training, and more."

The email asks for a donation of $3 to continue the campaign against Trump.

We're not sure what the deal is with The Jerusalem Post but recently it has published more than one elaborate tale that nobody else wants to touch with a six foot pole. In its latest such offering it picked up a story from the Kuwaiti daily called Al Jarida that Vladimir Putin has decided to "punish" Iran by suspending deliveries of S-300 air defense systems because Tehran violated its earlier agreement not to transfer sophisticated Russian weaponry to Hezbollah. Supposedly this evidence was delivered to Putin by Israeli intelligence.

Now the weirdest part of this story is why would of all publications in the world an Arabic language Kuwaiti daily be the one with such a great inside track on a story involving Russians, Iranians and Israelis. It turns out there is an explanation for that - Al Jarida is in fact a known Israeli front:

Al-Jarida is seen as tightly linked with Netanyahu's close associates. Since Netanyahu's return to the Israeli government in the spring of 2009, his colleagues allegedly have, on occasion, used the Kuwaiti paper to leak information without leaving footprints.

Many in Israel and the West view leaks in Al-Jarida as originating Israeli sources, which tends to increase their credibility.

So the timeline is: Israelis tell a story to Al Jarida they want published. Then Jerusalem Post picks up the story as having originated in Kuwait rather than Israel.

Over the past week the situation in the Donetsk People Republic sharply deteriorated.

© EFE

Over the past day the Ukrainian military violated the ceasefire sixty-seven times and shelled the territory of the Republic two hundred ninety-four times. The Ukrainian Nazi ten times used tanks in the direction of Yasinovataya, launched forty120mm mortar shells to the territory of Lozovoye, thirty-four 120mm mortar shells to the territory of Nikolaevka and twenty-eight mortar shells of the same caliber to the territory of Staromikhailovka. Altogether in the shellings the enemy used tanksfifteen times, 120mm mortars a hundred and twenty times, 82mm mortars a hundred and five times. The enemy also used infantry fighting vehicles, grenade launchers of different types, anti-aircraft systems and small arms.

Over the week the Ukrainian side shelled the territory of the Republic two thousand and nine times, including nine hundred eighty-two times from heavy weapons.

Russia is keeping the option of re-engaging open but the withdrawal does encompass its fighting element. Russians now plan to monitor the ceasefire rather than fight outright

The Kremlin has just published a shock announcement that Putin has ordered the withdrawal of most of the Russian strike force from Syria.

The withdrawal is apparently slated to begin on Tuesday 15th March 2016.

The reason Putin has given for the decision is that with the announcement of the truce and with the Syrian army reorganised and able to conduct offensive operations on its own, the presence of the Russian strike force is no longer needed.

It is clear that there will not be a total withdrawal. Khmeimim air base will not be entirely abandoned and the Russians will keep a presence in Syria sufficient to monitor the truce. However that will most be done using aerial drones.

It is also clear that the Russians stand ready to return to Syria if the need arises.