After the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko urged Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk to resign, and almost all the committees of the Verkhovna Rada issued a failing grade for the government, the Western media started saying that the crisis in the country has escalated again. According to American political analyst, Adrian Karatnycky, in his article for Politico, Kiev is doing what it does best, behaving irresponsibly, and the resignation of the Cabinet was averted only because of pressure from the West.

Western media on the situation in Kiev: Ukraine heading into a political abyss

Yesterday, the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko urged the Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk to resign, but Parliament failed to muster enough votes to pass the resolution, which would entail the resignation of the government. The world press saw serious risks for Ukraine and its supporters in the West, RIA Novosti reported.

"If the internal crisis continues, the patrons of the Ukraine will be given a new headache. The IMF has already warned that a loan of $40 billion can be called into question", — wrote The Guardian.

"As if problems in the country are not enough: now Ukraine faces a war between reformers and oligarchs," writes Süddeutsche Zeitung.

One of my often-cited sayings is around 2,500 years old. It's from the respected Chinese philosopher Sun Tzu in his small masterpiece, The Art of War. For centuries it's been one of the most influential strategy writings not only in Asia, but also the Western world. It goes as follows:

"If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle."

― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

In geopolitical analysis, when I examine a major political or economic development, it's very important that I first look into myself, to feel if I'm blurring my analysis because of deep-felt personal wishes for a peaceful, more harmonious world, blurring the reality of a given nation or groups of nations. Similarly, if I take those malevolent patriarchs who dominate American and NATO policies today, I must be certain I know, not merely the surface of what an American President or Secretary of State might say on a given day. It can be a lie, a slick maneuver or it can be even honest. The work of any serious analyst is to sort out which it is, to go deeper, to "mine" the lode in order to see the real strategic implications.

Such is the case with finding out what is the real Washington policy—the economic and foreign policy today. For example, what is the real meaning and purpose behind the journey of the 92-year-old Henry Kissinger to Moscow to meet Vladimir Putin and others recently? What's the real purpose of John Kerry when he appears to follow a policy more friendly towards Russia than, say, his Assistant Secretary Victoria Nuland or Secretary of Defense Ash Carter? Is it the voice of a significant faction within the foreign policy establishment that genuinely seeks a shift in Washington policy with Moscow from confrontation and war towards detente, diplomacy and a policy of peace and economic cooperation? What's the real intent of the Roman Pope in wanting to come together with the Orthodox Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, the first such meeting between those two churches - east and west - since the Great Schism of 1054? Is that a positive step towards world peace or is it something ominous?

The U.S. based Blackwater Group has reportedly abandoned the Ta'iz front in western Yemen after suffering heavy casualties over the last two months while fighting alongside the Saudi-led Coalition forces and the Hadi loyalists. Local activists have reported this news after they intercepted a communication between Blackwater officers and members of the Saudi-led Coalition in the coastal province of Ta'iz. In a matter of two months, the Blackwater Group has lost well over 100 casualties at the volatile Ta'iz front, including operatives from a dozen countries around the world.

Most of the Blackwater operatives killed in Yemen were believed to be from Colombia and Argentina; however, there were also casualties from the United States (U.S.), Australia, and France. Blackwater Group's withdrawal from the Ta'iz Governorate comes just four days after the Houthis and the Yemeni Army's 48th Brigade of the Republican Guard seized Jabal Al-Shabakah.

Sir Robert Owen appears to have lacked the legal qualifications to chair the recently-concluded Inquiry in the Alexander Litvinenko death case.
Sir Robert Owen appears to have lacked the legal qualifications to chair the recently-concluded Inquiry in the Alexander Litvinenko death case. His report released on January 21 sparked international controversy when he concluded the murder was likely ordered by Vladimir Putin himself. Now Britain is faced with deciding what to do with Owen's hopelessly flawed final Inquiry report. (See "Six reasons you can't take the Litvinenko report seriously.")

The consequences of this botched report are grave. Tensions have seriously risen between Russia and the UK. Some even plead that more sanctions be imposed upon Russia.

That hands Prime Minister David Cameron a hot potato. Will he continue to bluff his way through, contending that Owen's report is legitimate? Or will he do the right thing and recall the bogus document?

Despite the ceasefire reached during the Munich talks last week, the Turkish government is doing everything it can to escalate tensions in Syria. Speaking to Radio Sputnik's Brian Becker, journalist Hafsa Kara Mustafa explains Ankara's true motives and Washington's focus on removing Assad.

"For the past 18 months we've been told and sold the idea that ISIS is the greatest threat to humanity," political analyst Hafsa Kara Mustafa tells Loud & Clear, using an alternate term for Daesh. "And yet, when a country such as Russia joins the Syrian Army to help defeat this very dangerous organization, they receive only fierce criticism.

"Russia will never ask for the sanctions to be lifted against her," stated the Prime Minister of our country in an interview. According to Medvedev, Russia will wait until the West will understand that they only make themselves worse off.

"We have never asked for anything and will never ask, especially to the West. Knowing our literature, it is possible to remember, for example Mikhail Bulgakov. There is a very exact phrase in the book that was widely reviewed — "Master and Margarita". Woland says in it that he doesn't need to ask for anything — they'll make the offer, and then they will give everything. So we'll do the same — will never ask them to cancel these sanctions. They will soon come to to an intelligent opinion and then say: "Come on, hurry up, let's end this as soon as possible, because nobody is better, everybody only gets worse" — these exact words were picked by the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation to summarise the situation.

Medvedev also explained his words by the fact that the West itself suffers more from the pronounced sanctions. Russia began to develop even more so after their adoption. According to him, "Russian Federation develops, lives, and of course, will survive". And anyone in any case will change the policy of Russia, and it's not for nothing, because the people of Russia support it."

Turkey favors Syrian jihadist groups that emerged from Al-Qaeda, a top Kurdish commander has told Russian media. He claims that Ankara, along with Saudi Arabia and Qatar, have been furnishing extremists with weapons and munitions.

The support the terrorist groups have been given by Turkey is confirmed by documentary evidence, Murat Karayılan, co-founder of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), told RIA Novosti.

Neocon-dominated Official Washington is in freak-out mode about the success of the Russian-backed Syrian army around Aleppo, reviving long-discredited claims about "moderate" rebels and ignoring Al Qaeda's key presence. This neocon frenzy also demands a new Cold War, as ex-CIA analyst Paul R. Pillar notes.

There is no shortage of certitude in American commentary about what Russia is trying to do in Syria. For example, the Washington Post editorial page, unrelentingly hawkish on everything involving Syria, declares that "it has long been obvious to almost everyone that the regime of Vladimir Putin is seeking a military victory over Western-backed rebels, not a truce." Right after that editorial appeared, Moscow made a fresh proposal, currently the subject of international talks, for a cease-fire to begin in less than three weeks.

Western countries have no chance of stopping the influx of refugees from Syria, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said. He also pledged to continue shelling Syrian Kurds and criticized the West for supporting Kurdish organizations.

"No matter that the West acts in a rough, inhuman and unscrupulous way, they cannot control the refugee influx," Erdogan said on Wednesday as cited by Anadolu News.

"There has to be a consensus immediately on finding a resolution to the Syrian issue," he added.

The US federal government spent $1 million for the creation of an online database to collect "suspicious" memes and track "misinformation." But who decides what lacks or projects "truthiness?"

The project, known as the "Truthy Database," is funded by the National Science Foundation and the assembly, promotion and usability of the database appears to have significant political motivations and, and such, users are advised to be wary.

Ostensibly, the database is designed to further understanding on how misinformation spreads on the web, particularly through memes and jokes shared on social media.

A team of government-funded researchers will accordingly attempt to decide what forms of political and social expression are thought to be true, versus what are said to be false.