Puppet MastersS


Dollars

Russia will provide Greece with financial assistance if it's needed


RT
Mon, 22 Jun 2015 19:37 UTC
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© Reuters / Grigory DukorRussian President Vladimir Putin (L) shakes hands with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras during a session of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum 2015 (SPIEF 2015) in St. Petersburg, Russia, June 19, 2015.
With the Greek government locked in negotiations with international creditors - the IMF, the ECB and the European Commission - over its €240 billion debt, fears are mounting that the country could default on its massive loan and exit the Eurozone.

On Friday, Russia and Greece signed a deal to create a joint company for the construction of the Turkish Stream pipeline across Greek territory, which will supply 47 billion cubic meters of gas a year. Russian President Vladimir Putin said the EU should "applaud" the deal since it will help create desperately needed new jobs in Greece.

On the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum on Friday, Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich spoke to RT about cooperation between Russia and Greece, as well as other topics.
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Eye 1

Snowden docs: NSA and GHCQ worked to subvert security software companies that helped protect against government surveillance


RT
Mon, 22 Jun 2015 20:03 UTC
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© Reuters / Sergei Karpukhin
US and British spy agencies worked to reverse-engineer antivirus software in order to "exploit such software and to prevent detection of our activities." Russian security firm Kaspersky Lab was particularly targeted.

Citing documents leaked by former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden more than two years ago, The Intercept reported Monday that the US National Security Agency (NSA) and the British Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) teamed up to subvert antivirus and security software made by the likes of Kaspersky Lab.

In addition, 23 total security firms -- including the antivirus company F-Secure of Finland, Avast from the Czech Republic, and DrWeb of Russia -- were targets of the NSA's "Project CAMBERDADA."

The spy agencies sought to remain ahead of the software companies -- which often flag state-sponsored malware -- in order to give the US and UK governments an advantage during official hacking operations.

Kaspersky Lab was a particularly crucial target, according to the Snowden documents.
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Light Saber

Top Russian security official: U.S. would like Russia to cease to exist as a country


RT
Mon, 22 Jun 2015 19:41 UTC
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© Reuters/Said TsarnaevRussian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev
Russia's extreme wealth doesn't allow the US to rest, prompting Washington to invent a putative "Russian threat" and scheming against Moscow through the Ukrainian crisis, the head of Russia's Security Council, Nikolay Patrushev, told Kommersant daily.

The US is not a universal evil, yet Washington takes the decision whom to appoint as such, says Patrushev, who has been Security Council chief since 2008. Today Washington names Russia as one of the greatest threats to the world, along with the terrorists of Islamic State and the deadly Ebola virus.

There are a great deal of examples of Russia fruitfully cooperating with the US in many aspects, including such burning issues as countering terrorism and reaching a deal on the Iranian nuclear program, Patrushev said. But under the far-fetched pretext of the "Russian aggression in Ukraine"Washington has suspended such contacts, he said.

The US is forcing EU member states to impose anti-Russian sanctions and policies, Patrushev said.
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Yoda

Putin speech at SPIEF: We are expanding freedom and making Russia more open


President of Russia
Fri, 19 Jun 2015 19:15 UTC
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© TASS
Vladimir Putin took part in the plenary session of the 19th St Petersburg International Economic Forum. The session's motto wasTime to Act: Joint Efforts for Stability and Growth.
Let me repeat the point that we are responding to the restrictions imposed from outside not by closing off our economy, but by expanding freedom and making Russia more open. This is not a slogan; this is the substance of our actual policies and of the work that we are doing today to improve the business environment, find new partners, open up new markets, and take part in big integration projects.
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Newspaper

India, China and the rest of the BRICS will no longer wait for a seat at the table

Shashi Tharoor
Huffington Post
Mon, 22 Jun 2015 19:16 UTC
BRICS_2015
© Unknown
Sailing down the Moscow River on a cool evening earlier this month, I found myself in intense conversation with the chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Chinese National People's Congress. Meanwhile, South African and Brazilian parliamentarians were swaying to Russian music and a guide pointed out the sights. The first parliamentary forum of the BRICS countries -- Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa -- had come to a convivial conclusion.

Before the meeting opened, many wondered whether the five parliaments could possibly find common ground. What on earth could India's fractious and rumbustious Lok Sabha, with its impassioned debates and disruptions, have in common with China's decorous NPC, a rigorously controlled echo chamber for Communist Party decisions? Membership in the new BRICS grouping, many believed, did not provide a strong enough basis for cooperation.

Such skepticism has been leveled at the BRICS grouping itself from its inception, with some dismissing it as the only international organization invented by an investment bank. Specifically, the term BRIC was coined more than a decade ago by then-Goldman Sachs analyst Jim O'Neill, who did not initially count South Africa among the ranks of the major emerging economies.
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Dominoes

We didn't see last two world wars coming either

David Swanson
Information Clearing House
Sun, 21 Jun 2015 00:00 UTC
war aftermath
© www.hitselfdestruct.comAs in the past, the future. Do we never awaken from this bad dream?
Books about how World War I started, and to a lesser degree how World War II started, have tended in recent years to explain that these wars didn't actually come as a surprise, because top government officials saw them coming for years. But these revised histories admit that the general public was pretty much clueless and shocked.

The fact is that anyone in the know or diligently seeking out the facts could see, in rough outline, the danger of World War I or World War II coming years ahead, just as one can see the threats of environmental collapse and World War III approaching now. But the general public lacked a decent understanding prior to the first two world wars and lacks it now on the looming dangers created by environmental destruction and aggressive flirtation with World War III.

Comment: When will countries learn to just say "NO!" As long as the PTB, coupled with unyielding military-industrial complexes are in charge, we are all expendable, and the cost to nations, generations, ideals, morals, way of life...pay the supreme price cycle after cycle. We are once again asleep at the wheel and not in charge of our destiny.

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Eye 1

Analyzing NATO's perpetual war with Russia


Russia Insider
Mon, 22 Jun 2015 17:06 UTC
Kaliningrad NATO
© UnknownNATO landing exercise just 100 miles from Kaliningrad
The latest scoop from Reuters begs for a few words:
The United States and its NATO allies are preparing militarily for the prospect that their rift with Russia could outlast President Vladimir Putin, U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said on Sunday.

Carter, speaking at the start of a week-long trip to Europe, said the United States hoped Russia would return to a forward- looking course and noted areas of diplomatic cooperation with Moscow, including talks over Iran's nuclear program.

But ongoing changes to NATO's military posture, which are meant in part to deter a Russian intervention, illustrate preparations for longer lasting tensions, he said.

"The adaptations I was talking are specifically in anticipation that Russia might not change under Vladimir Putin, or even thereafter," Carter said before landing in Berlin.
A common line of argument in respectable western policy circles is "if only Putin were gone," followed by a deep sigh of regret. Apparently they have no appreciation for just how moderate Putin is when it comes to foreign policy — and how drastically different the geopolitical scene could be with someone else in Kremlin.


Comment: Putin tackled the challenges of post-Soviet Russia, took her back from rapacious oligarchs, and has defended her autonomy ever since. In a system where striving for autonomy leads to death (remember civil rights and MLK Jr., or African autonomy and Gaddafi) Putin is Western 'leadership's' natural enemy. He represents a freedom they cannot control, and therefore he, and the country he governs, are, through no fault of their own, in their cross-hairs.


Comment: Also see:

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Quenelle

Knesset member, former ambassador to the US Michael Oren: Obama abandoned Israel


Times of Israel
Tue, 16 Jun 2015 04:23 UTC
Net and OB
© www.smh.com.auBreaking up is hard to do.
Knesset member and former ambassador to the US Michael Oren on Monday penned a scathing attack on US President Barack Obama's policies toward Israel, claiming that while both he and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made mistakes, "only one leader made them deliberately."

In an article in The Wall Street Journal headlined "How Obama Abandoned Israel," Oren, who served as Israel's ambassador in Washington during Obama's first term in office, recounted various gaffes committed by the Israeli government. Currently a lawmaker with the Kulanu party, Oren cited the announcement of settlement expansion on the eve of visits by top US officials, the now infamous "lecture" Netanyahu gave Obama during a photo op in the Oval Office in 2011, and the prime minister's speech to Congress earlier this year.

Oren absolved Netanyahu of some of the incidents, claiming that some missteps were taken by mid-level staffers without the prime minister's knowledge (e.g., two instances where settlement expansion was announced just as Vice President Joe Biden was scheduled to arrive in Israel). Netanyahu even apologized to Biden personally for the timing, Oren noted.

Obama, on the other hand, deliberately deviated from several long-held traditions in the US-Israel relationship, aired disagreements in the media, and pointedly skipped over Israel on his first Middle East tour after being elected, he said.With these very public displays of dissatisfaction with Israel, Obama violated the "no sunlight," as Oren referred to it, principle of not airing discord between the two governments.

Comment: Where there is "no sunlight" there may be a ray of hope.

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Chess

Russian politicians react: Extension of sanctions freezes Russia-EU political conflict


ITAR-TASS
Mon, 22 Jun 2015 15:01 UTC
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© ITAR-TASS/Maxim Nikitin
Extension of the European Union's anti-Russian sanctions only freezes the current political conflict between Moscow and Brussels, Alexei Pushkov, the chairman of the international committee of the Russian State Duma lower parliament house, said on Monday.

Earlier in the day, the European Union's Foreign Affairs Council extended economic sanctions against Russia for another six months - till January 31, 2016.

"Actually, it means freezing of the current confrontation, the current political conflict," Pushkov told TASS. In conditions of no serious pressure from the European Union, Kiev seems to think it can "freely interpret the Minsk agreements and, as a matter of fact, simply ignore them," he said. "Hence, we have a dead end in the settlement of the situation [in southeastern Ukraine], a dead end in armed confrontation, because Kiev continues to shell living quarters, killing civilian population."

Comment: The EU is shooting itself in the foot. One can only imagine what pressure the US has on the EU.

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Shoe

Former adviser to Ukraine's Defense Minister defects to Donbass


Sputnik
Mon, 22 Jun 2015 14:11 UTC
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© Sputnik/ Igor Maslov
A onetime aide to the Ukrainian defense minister has defected to the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, taking along his entire family and a wealth of classified information, Russian media reported Monday.

"I am Alexander Kolomiyets, a Major-General of the Ukrainian armed forces... My latest position was that of an adviser to the Ukrainian Defense Minister and a senior defense analyst," the General said during a news conference at the Donetsk News Agency headquarters on Monday.

Alexander Kolomiyets said that he had spent 19 years serving as the military commandant of Donetsk Region.

Comment: If the General is correct that many more want to defect, that would really put pressure on Poroshenko to perform for the West.

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