Puppet MastersS


Megaphone

Another German speaks up: Schroeder says Russia won't be invading NATO countries, Germany shouldn't help start a new arms race


RT
Sun, 19 Jun 2016 17:14 UTC
Former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder
© Stringer / Reuters
Germany should work to mend relations with Russia rather than taunt it by placing troops in Eastern Europe near its borders, especially in light of Germany's history as Russia's invader, former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said in a recent news interview.

Speaking to Süddeutschen Zeitung, Schroder, who served as Germany's head from 1998 to 2005, warned NATO that its policies could lead to a new arms race with Russia, saying that they "will help neither to mitigate conflicts with Russia nor restore good relations."

The former chancellor ridiculed the idea that Russia "may be nurturing a plan to invade NATO-countries," stressing that the notion is completely out of touch with the real state of affairs.

Comment: Good to hear important voices stating what needs to be said: German FM blasts NATO military drills in Eastern Europe as 'saber-rattling and warmongering'

Read More...
Yoda

Flashback Syria's Bashar al-Assad: Why the Anglo-American Axis cannot overthrow his government


State of the Nation
Sun, 06 Sep 2015 00:00 UTC
Image
© UnknownSyria’s President Bashar Hafez al-Assad with Russia's President Vladimir Putin

Why is the Syrian President relentlessly demonized by the Anglo-American Axis?

Just like President Vladimir Putin of Russia, Syria's President Bashar Hafez al-Assad has been the victim of unrelenting character assassination and false reporting by the Western Mainstream Media (MSM). Many of the MSM outlets throughout the Anglo-American Axis (AAA) have published one false story after another in a concerted effort to turn the entire world against him. And for what?

Why are they so determined to overthrow one of the very few righteous leaders in the Middle East?

The true answers to this question are as profound as they are far-reaching. On a quite superficial level, Assad represents the proverbial skunk at the garden party. The Anglo-American Axis has a set agenda and predetermined schedule; and, they will not let any nation or political leader get in its way. A trained physician like Assad was thought to be the least of their (AAA) troubles during the choreographed Arab Spring events. After all, doctors everywhere take the sacred vow known as the Hippocratic Oath — "First, do no harm."

Comment: Imagine: You are the democratically elected leader of a country that is rich in human, cultural and natural resources. And for the past four years the hordes of hell have literally been unleashed on your country's lands and your country's people. Over 11 million of which have been either displaced within, or outside of, your country. With murders in the thousands. These same hordes of hell, you know, are actually the hidden arm of some of the most deceptive, powerful and ruthless forces on the planet - and they are all aimed at destroying you and your life's work of creating a better place for your citizens. The hordes threaten to turn the clock back on the country - towards a feudal psycho-state and puppet regime of the West. And most of the world is clueless about the reality of the situation.

To make matters worse, vicious lies have been spread about you that despite the evidence, or lack thereof, all too many seem all too willing to believe.

Your only help and hope is coming from the two most Western-vilified nations in the world (besides your own) and any precipitous actions or responses to the madness that is set upon you and your nation could not only damage it beyond all hope, but threaten to start WWIII.

What do you do?

Read More...
Bad Guys

Why does Russia's bridge to Crimea bother the West?

Translated by Mona Lite
South Front
Sun, 19 Jun 2016 12:46 UTC
Originally appeared at Svpressa, translated by Mona Lita exclusively for SouthFront

Kerch Bridge to Crimea
The Kerch bridge between Russian and Crimea
There are no problems with financing the Kerch Bridge construction, and for 2016 all necessary means are allocated from the federal budget, but it will be spent only after the treasury supports the state contract. Russia's Ministry of Construction has circulated the information on June 8th of this year.

It is important to know why the country's main construction department is being forced to come up with excuses and find an explanation for the bridge's construction across the Kerch Strait.

"Forbes" magazine recently published an article, "The Bureaucratic Pit. Kerch Bridge is Left Without Funding", according to which, the last time the company's "Stroygazmontazh" general contractor Arkadiy Rotenberg received money from the state was in December of 2015, and a new portion in the amount of 65.4 billion rubles, although has been allocated, is "suspended in midair".

Forbes insists that the bridge's construction is undergoing insurmountable difficulties due to the obvious lack of money. The publication is referring to a letter from the general director of the company "Stroygazmontazh" Andrei Kirilenko, Russia's assistant Minister of Transport Eugene Dietrich and the head of the Federal Road Agency, Roman Starovoit.
Read More...
Eye 1

'Moderate' terrorists bomb ambulance in Aleppo, kill eight people


Sputnik
Sun, 19 Jun 2016 12:55 UTC
Teroristi Al-Nusra Fronta dobili pojačanje iz Turske
© Khalil Ashawi / Reuters
A member of the Syrian Democratic Council said that eight people were killed during militant shelling of the Sheikh Maqsood district in the Syrian city of Aleppo.

Eight people were killed during militant shelling of the Sheikh Maqsood district in the Syrian city of Aleppo, a member of the Syrian Democratic Council said.

"A Red Crescent ambulance was hit while trying to transport those injured, with eight injured people killed as a result," Rezan Heddo told Sputnik on Saturday.

Sheikh Maqsood a Kurdish district of Aleppo, which is held by the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) militia, has come under increasing attack from Islamist militants present in and around the city. The Nusra Front, Ahrar ash-Sham and Jaish al-Islam have been shelling the district with conventional armaments as well as chemical weapons.

Comment: Further reading:

Read More...
Bizarro Earth

Eastern Europe will be US-NATO's "sacrificial victim" in its war on Russia

RIA Novosti
Fort Russ
Fri, 17 Jun 2016 00:00 UTC
Europe
Translated by J. Arnoldski

NATO structures are increasingly engulfing Europe. The director of the Center for Geopolitical Expertise and member of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation, Valery Korovin, expressed the opinion live on Sputnik radio that Europe is nothing more than expendable material for American military interests.

On Tuesday, the ministers of defense of the 28 member countries of NATO approved the deployment of one of the alliance's battalions on a rotational basis in Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, and Poland. As a diplomatic source close to the North Atlantic Alliance told RIA Novosti, the deployment of advanced units in the composition of combined NATO battalions in Poland and the Baltic counties will begin, as expected, in January 2017.

Earlier, NATO General Secretary Jens Stoltenberg stated that the battalions in Poland and the Baltic states would be under NATO command while the greatest part of each of the units would be made up of the soldiers of the so-called "leading countries." Three of the four battalions will be composed of US, German, and UK troops. The details are to be worked out before the alliance's summit which will be held in Warsaw from July 8th-9th.
Read More...
Jet5

Russian surprise attack near Tanf, Syria blows up Kerry's delaying tactic


Moon of Alabama
Sat, 18 Jun 2016 00:00 UTC
Kerry delays
The U.S. is unwilling to stop the war on Syria and to settle the case at the negotiation table. It wants 100% of its demands fulfilled, the dissolution of the Syrian government and state and the inauguration of a U.S. proxy administration in Syria.

After the ceasefire in Syria started in late February Obama broke his pledge to separate the U.S.-supported "moderate rebels" from al-Qaeda. In April U.S.-supported rebels, the Taliban-like Ahrar al Sham and al-Qaeda joined to attack the Syrian government in south Aleppo. The U.S. proxies broke the ceasefire.

Two UN resolutions demand that al-Qaeda in Syria be fought no matter what. But the U.S. has at least twice asked Russia not to bomb al-Qaeda. It insists, falsely, that it cannot separate its "moderates" from al-Qaeda and that al-Qaeda cannot be attacked because that would also hit its "moderate" friends.

The Russian foreign minster Lavrov has talked with Kerry many times about the issue. But the only response he received were requests to further withhold bombing. Meanwhile al-Qaeda and the "moderates" continued to break the ceasefire and to attack the Syrian government forces.

After nearly four months Kerry still insists that the U.S. needs even more time for the requested separation of its proxy forces from al-Qaeda. Foreign Minister Lavrov recently expressed the Russian consternation:

Comment: For the past few weeks all we've been hearing is Kerry try to lay blame on Russia for a stalled political process in Syria. Does Kerry really believe this late in the game that Russia is so stupid as to trust what he says - since it is so seldom backed up with acts of good faith? Once again Russia is responding with action for which the U.S. has no response. Except perhaps to ratchet up NATO's belligerent saber rattling, intimidation and bullying via eastern European military deployments.

Read More...
Info

Putin: 'We know when US will get new missiles threatening Russia's nuclear capability'


RT
Sat, 18 Jun 2016 23:54 UTC
President Vladimir Putin
© Sergey Guneev / Sputnik
The US anti-missile defense systems being installed near Russia's borders can be "inconspicuously" transformed into offensive weapons, Vladimir Putin has said, adding that he knows "year by year" how Washington will develop its missile program.

Talking about NATO's ballistic missile defense systems in Eastern Europe, Russia's president said that the Americans are now deploying their missiles at these military complexes.

"The missiles are put into a capsule used for launches of sea-based Tomahawk missiles. Now they are placing their antimissiles there, which are capable of engaging a target at a distance of up to 500 kilometers [310 miles]. But technologies are developing, and we know around what year the Americans will get a new missile, which will have a range not of 500 kilometers, but 1,000, and then even more - and from that moment they will start threatening our nuclear capability," Putin said at a meeting with the heads of international news agencies at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) on Friday.

"We know year by year what will happen, and they know that we know," he said, adding that Western officials "pull the wool over [their news outlets] eyes," who in turn misinform their audiences.
Read More...
Bad Guys

Best of the Web: How the neocons took over America, and why 51 U.S. 'diplomats' are now calling for war against the Syrian government

Robert Parry
Consortium News
Fri, 17 Jun 2016 22:00 UTC
assad
More than 50 U.S. State Department "diplomats" sent a "dissent" memo urging President Obama to launch military strikes against the Syrian army, another sign that Foggy Bottom has collectively gone nuts, writes Robert Parry.

Over the past several decades, the U.S. State Department has deteriorated from a reasonably professional home for diplomacy and realism into a den of armchair warriors possessed of imperial delusions, a dangerous phenomenon underscored by the recent mass "dissent" in favor of blowing up more people in Syria.

Some 51 State Department "diplomats" signed a memo distributed through the official "dissent channel," seeking military strikes against the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad whose forces have been leading the pushback against Islamist extremists who are seeking control of this important Mideast nation.

The fact that such a large contingent of State Department officials would openly advocate for an expanded aggressive war in line with the neoconservative agenda, which put Syria on a hit list some two decades ago, reveals how crazy the State Department has become.

Comment: See also Moon of Alabama's take on the dissent memo and the NYT's coverage of it: Know-Nothing "Diplomats" Prepare For Hillary's War On Syria
These State Department loons have their ass covered by Secretary of State Kerry. Otherwise they would (and should) be fired for obvious ignorance. What "judicious" military threat against Russian S-400 air defense in Syria is credible? Nukes on Moscow (and New York)? ...
  • "Diplomats" urging military action do nothing but confirm that they do not know their job which is diplomacy, not bombing. They failed.
  • These "diplomats" do not know or do not want to follow international law. On what legal basis would the U.S. bomb the Syrian government and its people? They do not name any. There is none.
  • To what purpose would the Syrian government and the millions of its followers be bombed? Who but al-Qaeda would follow if the Assad-led government falls? The "diplomats" ignore that obvious question.
... The U.S. military continues to reject an escalation against the Syrian government. Its reasonable question "what follows after Assad" has never been seriously answered by the war supporters in the CIA and the State Department. ...

Unexpected support of the U.S. military's position now seems to come from the Turkish side. The Erdogan regime finally acknowledges that a Syria under Assad is more convenient to it than a Kurdish state in north-Syria which the U.S. is currently helping to establish [because Assad rejects a Kurdish state] ... The Turks have suddenly removed their support for their "Turkmen" proxies fighting the Syrian government in Latakia in north west Syria. Over the last few days the "Turkmen" retreated and the Syrian army advanced. It may soon reach the Turkish border. Should the Latakia front calm down the Syrian army will be able to move several thousand troops from Latakia towards other critical sectors. The Turkish government, under the new Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, is now also sending peace signals towards Russia.

The situation in Syria could rapidly change in favor of the Syrian government should Turkey change its bifurcating policies and continue these moves. Without their Turkish bases and support the "moderate rebels" would soon be out of supplies and would lack the ability to continue their fighting. The Russians and their allies should further emphasize the "Kurdish threat" to advance this Turkish change of mind.

The race to preempt a Hillary administration war on Syria, which the "diplomats" memo prepares for, is now on. May the not-warmongering side win.


Read More...
Info

Nervous US Army plans to cut 40,000 troops

Tom Vanden Brook
USA Today
Wed, 08 Jun 2016 22:15 UTC
US soldiers
© David Furst, AFP/Getty Images
The Army plans to cut 40,000 soldiers from its ranks over the next two years, a reduction that will affect virtually all of its domestic and foreign posts, the service asserts in a document obtained by USA TODAY.

The potential troop cut comes as the Obama administration is pondering its next moves against the Islamic State militant group in Iraq and Syria. President Obama said Monday he and military leaders had not discussed sending additional troops to Iraq to fight the Islamic State. There are about 3,500 troops in Iraq.

"This will not be quick — this is a long-term campaign," Obama said at the Pentagon after meeting top military brass in the wake of setbacks that have prompted critics to call for a more robust U.S. response against the Islamic State.
Read More...
Treasure Chest

Russia strikes over $15 billion worth of deals despite sanctions at SPIEF 2016


RT
Sat, 18 Jun 2016 21:59 UTC
20th St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF)
© Sergei Savostyanov / TASS Italy's Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and Russia's President Vladimir Putin (L-R background) look on as Pizzarotti President Paolo Pizzarotti, Gazprombank Management Board Chairman Andrei Akimov, and Russian Direct Investment Fund CEO Kirill Dmitriyev.
From multibillion-dollar deals and new projects, including the use of Hyperloop tech in Russia's Far East, to hints that economic sanctions could be lifted - RT looks at the main highlights from the 20th St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF).

SPIEF is an annual international conference and a platform for discussing economic and business trends. This year it took place from June 16 to 18 and attracted more than 12,000 participants from all over the world, including top foreign officials, academics, and business leaders.
Read More...