In my last article for Fort Russ, I suggested that the IOC's decision to allow the Russian team to participate in the Olympics would be followed by nasty surprises. And this is exactly what has happened.

Such unpleasantries have struck a number of federations and individual athletes who have been barred from competing. The most egregious example is the rejection of the two-time Olympic champion and record holder for pole vaulting, Elena Isinbayeva. She was not convicted of doping, but is not going to the Olympics. Such troubles are also touching even those athletes who have already arrived in Rio de Janeiro. All of the members of the Russian national team are being required to take a doping test, a humiliating rule applied only to the Russian team. And still, no guarantees have been made that the victories of "clean" athletes will not be annulled over false accusations of doping.

Serious troubles have even arisen for the head of the IOC, Thomas Bach. By making the objective decision to admit the Russian team to the Olympics, he apparently broke someone else's rule (which we'll touch on a bit later). Bach has become the main target of tabloid, yellow-journalist-style attacks. Offensive and baseless accusations against this honored and respected organizer have captivated the pages of even quite respectable publications in Germany, the UK, and the US. Sometimes, it's hard to believe that all these tabloid headlines, which I don't even want to repeat, saw first light in European or American media before Ukrainian media. Thomas Bach has paid dearly for his desire to be objective and professional. He has become the victim of a planned psychological attack. I would like to express my moral support for him. I think that not only Russians, but also all admirers of sports and sportsmanship will join me in this.

Donald Trump is erratic. We all know that. It is insulting to assert, in the words of Britain's new Foreign Secretary, the erratic Boris Johnson, that he is "frankly unfit to hold the office of President of the United States", but he's certainly unpredictable and says some things that are, to put it mildly, intriguing. The fact remains that he could be next president of the United States, which makes it important to look at what he might do if that comes about, especially in the light of America's military catastrophes so far this century.

Obama followed his predecessors in expanding America's iron fist as self-appointed global policeman. He vastly increased the US military presence around the world and intensified the Pentagon's aggressive confrontations with China and Russia.

In China's case this was effected by sending US Naval E-P3 electronic surveillance aircraft on missions close to the mainland, deploying EA-18G Growler electronic attack aircraft to Clark Air Base in the Philippines, ordering B-52 nuclear bombers to overfly the South China Sea where the US Navy also carried out extended manoeuvres by massive strike groups of nuclear-armed aircraft carriers and guided missile cruisers. All this in a region where the US has not the slightest territorial interest or claim. China's Sea is 12,000 kilometres, 7,000 miles, from the American mainland, yet Washington considers it the sacred right and duty of the United States to act as a global gendarme and give orders to China about its posture in its own back yard, where there has not been one instance of interference with commercial shipping passing through that region.

As to confrontation with Russia, the US has ensured that its Brussels sub-office, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, will go on playing its toy-soldier games right up to Russia's borders. The official statement after NATO's war drum-thumping conclave in Warsaw on July 8-9 is indicative of its determination to continue its attempts to menace Russia, which has not made the slightest move to threaten a single NATO member. It is absurd to claim that 'the security situation has deteriorated' in the Black Sea and the Baltic because of Russian action.

The militants were sent to intelligence services departments to undergo required procedures before returning to civilian life.

Dozens of militants in the eastern part of the Syrian city of Aleppo have laid down their arms and gave up in the last two days, a source in the Aleppo militia told RIA Novosti on Saturday.

"We cannot yet say that the militants are giving up en masse. But several dozens from Salaheddin and Sheikh Maqsood [neighborhoods] have given up in the last two days," the source said.

A five-year strategic cooperation plan was agreed on Friday between Moscow and Tehran during the visit by co-chair of the Russia-Iran Joint Economic Commission Mahmoud Vaezi's to the Russian capital. The sides signed a contract for the construction of a power station in Iran's Hormozgan province. The power plant's four generators will have a 1,400 megawatt capacity. Moscow has already approved a €2.2 billion loan for infrastructure projects in the Iran, including the construction of the power station.

During the meeting with Russian Energy Minister Aleksandr Novak, Vaezi said Tehran plans new energy contracts with Russia in the near future. According to him, in two or three months Iran will reach its pre-sanctions oil output level of four million barrels a day. Vaezi added that the country has already regained 80 percent of the market share it held before the US and EU imposed sanctions on its oil industry in 2012. Novak told the minister that almost all Russian oil and gas companies have shown an interest in energy exploration and production projects in Iran.

On Friday, a Dublin court sentenced three senior bankers to up to 3.5 years in prison for conspiring to defraud investors during the 2008 banking crisis. The convictions were seemingly applauded by Irish taxpayers concerned over a lack of accountability.

Former Irish Life and Permanent Chief Executive Denis Casey received two years and nine months after being found guilty in the country's longest trial, which lasted 74 days.

The ex-finance director at the failed Anglo Irish Bank, Willie McAteer, got 42 months, while John Bowe, the bank's former-head of Capital Markets, was sentenced to 24 months.

The three were found guilty of conspiring to mislead investors, lenders, and depositors into believing the infamous bank was still afloat. The bankers set up a 7.2-billion-euro circular transaction scheme from March to September of 2008 to increase Anglo's balance sheet.

"By means that could be termed dishonest, deceitful and corrupt they manufactured 7.2 billion euros in deposits by obvious sham transactions," Judge Martin Nolan said, adding that this was a "very serious crime."

The world appears on the verge of a total meltdown as conflict and corruption erupts on a global scale. Wherever we look we see the US' hand in stoking flames of division and hatred.

Thanks to the 'US-Saudi coalition' genocide in Yemen rates of malnutrition and starvation have more than doubled into the millions. It is not uncommon for the Yemeni people to see marketplaces turned into an open-casket funeral, with 'blood and body parts everywhere.' The US has been drone bombing Yemen and murdering massive amounts of civilians for the past 14 years. Saudi Arabia has been furiously attempting to prevent an independent Yemen from choosing its own path, and thus cutting the Saudis out of critical shipping lanes. Britain, Israel, and the US have been pumping billions of dollars worth of weapons into the country, turning it into a nightmare. And it's all to prevent a popular uprising:

The House of Saud previously attacked the Houthis in 2009, at the behest of its long-time ally, Yemen's president Abdullah Saleh, who generally placated Riyadh since coming to power in 1994. Saleh and Saudi Arabia's joint attempt to suppress Yemenis' democratic demands by eradicating the Houthis was dubbed 'Operation Scorched Earth', a move that even US diplomats described at the time as "dangerous and delusional."

Never shy of behaving in a ruthless and delusional manner, the US nevertheless, under newly-elected president Barack Obama, participated in 'Scorched Earth' by carrying out 80 targeted operations - from drones, bombers and warships - in northern Yemen, and killing at least 473 people, according to Human Rights Watch. The justification for doing so was that a new terror organization named 'Al-Qaeda-in-the-Arabian-Peninsula' had suddenly sprung up in Yemen, from where it was somehow inducing the teenage sons of rich Nigerians to pack explosives into their underwear and board airplanes bound for the Land of the Free. Yes indeed, the 'underwear bomber' farce was actually about suppressing democracy in Yemen.

In this context, in April the Saudis agreed to a 'peace process'. Initiated between the Saudis' puppet leader in the country, President Abd Rabboh Mansour Hadi, and the Houthi revolutionaries who oppose his proxy rule, it has since fallen apart. It should come as no surprise.

Jaish al-Fatah is withdrawing much of its fighting force from the Latakia governorate in a last-ditch effort to turn the tables on the Syrian Arab Army in Aleppo, the Al-Masdar Al-'Arabi information website reported on Friday. Al-Masdar Al-'Arabi claim that these reports are 'very credible'.

Islamist reinforcements were observed arriving in both western and southern Aleppo. Jaish al-Fatah is going to launch at least one major offensive on government positions in the province in the very near future, and hopes not only to relieve distressed and besieged rebels in Aleppo, but also to cut off the Syrian Arab Army's supply lines to the governorate's provincial capital.

On the other hand, the redeployment of the rebels significantly weakens their Latakia frontline, endangering Idlib from its western flank.

On July 18th, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on the resignation of Russia's extraordinary and plenipotentiary ambassador to Ukraine, Mikhail Zubarov. Coincidentally or not, this decree was signed on the same day that a number of personnel changes were decreed at the highest echelons of power in Russia.

For 7 years, Zubarov was Russia's appointed ambassador to Ukraine. Many viewed his appointment as a sinecure for Zubarov and another one of Russia's larger mistakes in policy towards Ukraine. Ukraine has always occupied a central place in Moscow's foreign policy in the post-Soviet space. It is thus essential that Russia's diplomatic mission is headed by a respected politician or highly professional diplomat. But Zubarov did not meet any of these criteria. Not only was he one of the most unpopular ministers in Russia (during his time as Minister of Health), but he has also been accused of using his official position in the interests of his own business.

Critics turned out to be right: Zubarov had never shown himself worthy of the post of ambassador. The Russian Embassy passively watched as power in Ukraine came into the hands of Russophobes prepared by the West and supported by US and EU state structures and NGO's. I've had the opportunity to closely interact with the representatives of Russian organizations in these years, and all of them have noted Ambassador Zurabov's idleness in contrast to the high activity of Western diplomatic missions and public organizations.

Donald Trump has decided to take off the gloves and come out swinging.

One day after the Democratic National Convention wrapped up in Philadelphia, Trump has vowed to blast Hillary Clinton in his quest to become the President of the United States.

Earlier, we posted about Trump already working the campaign trail in Colorado and announcing he is ok with Colorado's Marijuana laws and will allow states to decide how they handle the controversial plant.

After speaking about Marijuana, Trump was asked about Bernie Sanders. The reporter for NBC Affiliate Denver 9 News, Brandon Rittiman, asked:

RITTIMAN: Sanders has said his people aren't going to go for you. What do you say back to him?

TRUMP: Well, Bernie made a big mistake because Bernie made a deal and I think he's got buyers remorse... I think he's lost control of his people, He made a terrible mistake. He sold out to the devil and his people are very upset about it. And you saw that last night, and you even saw it with him, he's sitting there when they are talking about him and he looks like hes in a state of major depression.

Berlin and Paris have long been seen as the main political drivers for the European Union project. When Britain voted last month to quit the 28-member bloc, it was German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande to whom the leadership role beckoned for rallying a 'united Europe' and defending the core concept of the EU.

However, this circling of wagons by the EU's top two nations is prone to debilitating competing nationalist interests. And those diverging interests will tend to undermine the much-heralded unity of purpose between Berlin and Paris. What we can expect, in the aftermath of the Brexit, is increasing tensions between Germany and France that could, in turn, lead to further fracturing of the EU.

Already a notable divergence of positions has emerged. When Britain's new Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May embarked on her first foreign visit last week she was scheduled to meet Chancellor Merkel in Berlin, followed the next day by a reception with President Hollande at the Élysée Palace, Paris. May had to wait until the evening on the second day to be received by Hollande who had earlier that same day gone on an official visit to the Republic of Ireland. His strange absence looked like Hollande was sending the British leader a sly snub.

More substantively was the contrasting German and French positions on the Brexit process. The British premier had announced that there would be no formal commencement of Britain's departure from the EU until early next year. Britain, said May, needed to formulate suitable economic terms with the EU before it would sign Article 50 of the 2007 Lisbon Treaty, thus triggering the exit process.