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Panama Papers: Putin smear backfires on Britain

Finian Cunningham
Sputnik
Thu, 07 Apr 2016 12:35 UTC
Putin
© Sputnik/Michael Kilmentyev
The deluge of leaked files on tax dodging by the global elite appeared to be aimed at smearing Russian President Vladimir Putin. But it is the British authorities who have ended up being "dangerously exposed".

When news headlines on the s0-called Panama Papers were circulated in Western mainstream media earlier this week, the main focus was on speculation that Putin was somehow implicated in scamming millions from tax avoidance.

For more discerning viewers, the sensationalist speculations had the hallmark features of another wild-eyed smear-job. All hype and no substance, just as in many other previous attempts by the Western media to blacken the Russian leader's reputation — based on nothing else but prejudice and innuendo. Recall the downing of Malaysian airliner MH17 and Putin's "gunslinger walk" as but two such tawdry episodes.
Despite the convoluted hype, the Russian leader was not even named in the latest files leaked from the Panama-based law firm, Mossack-Fonseca. The firm specializes in setting up shell companies for rich clients in overseas jurisdictions, thus helping these clients evade tax in their home countries.
Western media outlets predictably leapt to racy implications about Putin because, among the thousands of clients named, some apparently had a personal friendship with the Russian president. The Kremlin dismissed the speculation of financial impropriety as "more fibs" that the Western media periodically indulges in in order to smear Putin.

Turns out, however, that the seeming attempt at smear has gone awry, and instead has backfired badly, with gooey egg running off the face of British Prime Minister David Cameron.

Comment: Britain, along with the U.S., would certainly love to have Russia a powerless state, unable to challenge their efforts at global hegemony. It appears the smear campaign has backfired.

See also:

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Chess

Putin the Middle East dealmaker: How his ambition reshaped the world order


RT
Thu, 07 Apr 2016 11:09 UTC
Putin
© Mikhail Klimentyev / Reuters Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Despite lacking the economic and military resources available to the US, Vladimir Putin has become a Middle East dealmaker and has returned Russia to the top geopolitical table through the Syrian campaign, according to an article published in the Financial Times. In his article published in FT on Wednesday, Eugene Rumer, the director of Carnegie's Russia and Eurasia Program, claims that the notion that Russia is "withdrawn from the international arena" is proving to be wrong.

Russia's ruling elite is no longer pursuing economic stability as the sole means of political survival, Rumer acknowledged. "Syria shows that Russia, written off in the 1990s as a mere regional power, has a capable military and, given the opportunity, the will to use it," Rumer said, recalling others' statements about Russia being "a hollow superpower" with "no real strategy behind its overseas adventures."

Comment: Putin: 'Not important how I'm called, only what I do for my country'.See also:

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Eye 1

Poroshenko: Dutch Referendum results 'not a hindrance to Ukraine joining EU'


Sputnik
Thu, 07 Apr 2016 08:42 UTC
Poroshenko and Juncker
© REUTERS/ Yves Herman
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said Thursday that a referendum on Ukraine's association agreement with the European Union held in Netherlands is an "attack on the European unity."

On Wednesday, Dutch citizens participated in the referendum on ratification of the EU-Ukraine association deal. According to the Dutch RTL Nieuws broadcaster, 61.1 percent of the Dutch voted against the ratification, while the turnout was 32.2 percent.

"I would like to remind everyone that the true target of the people, who have organized the referendum — is not the association agreement between Ukraine and the European Union. It is an attack on the European unity, an attack on the European values' spreading. The discussion that has been launched shortly before the referendum highlights it," Poroshenko said following the referendum.

Comment: In the same breath Poroshenko can claim the Dutch have 'violated European values' (of 'freedom and democracy') and then claim that it doesn't matter what they vote for. Sounds like he's already met the EU's political standards.

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Bad Guys

How will EU move refugees to Turkey without the use of force?


Sputnik
Thu, 07 Apr 2016 08:39 UTC
palestinian syrian refugees
© UNRWA/Associated PressThis picture taken on Jan. 31, 2014, and released by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), shows residents of the besieged Palestinian camp of Yarmouk, queuing to receive food supplies, in Damascus, Syria.
It is still unclear whether Greek authorities will be able to deport migrants without using force, according to Thanos Dokos, Director General of the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy.

In an interview with Sputnik, Thanos Dokos, Director General of the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy, said that Greece could get physical in its attempts to deport the so-called "irregular migrants"- those who did not meet the requisite criteria for asylum status.

The interview came after the controversial deal brokered between the EU and Turkey to return "irregular migrants" from Greece to Turkey came into force on April 4.

Comment: How will local authorities move the refugees to Turkey without the use of force? It's a good question - will this become an escalation of the 'crisis' that fascist locals can use to further their agenda?

Further reading:
It's the 1930s all over again ... whether we look right or left, whether we point east or west, hate, ethno-centrism and sectarianism seem to be the order of the day - this new rationale we ought to abide to if not to stand being called an apologist and a hypocrite.

Europe's refugee crisis is a means to furthering the elite's fascist agenda


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No Entry

Netherlands voters reject EU-Ukraine Association Agreement


RT
Wed, 06 Apr 2016 19:27 UTC
Dutch Ruffe
© Michael Kooren / ReutersDutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte casts his vote for the consultative referendum on the association between Ukraine and the European Union.
The majority of Dutch people who went to the polls in the Netherlands on Wednesday to express their opinion on the proposed association agreement between the EU and Kiev have rejected it, preliminary results and exit polls have shown.

Sixty-one percent voted against the Netherlands ratifying the treaty, which would strengthen economic and political ties between the 28-nation bloc and Kiev, an exit poll conducted by the Ipsos center shows. Some 38 percent of the voters supported the move, the exit poll has shown. If the turnout surpasses the 30 percent threshold, making the "no" vote valid, the government will reconsider ratifying the treaty, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte has said.

"It's clear that 'No' have won by an overwhelming margin, the question is only if turnout is sufficient," Rutte stated. "If the turnout is above 30 percent with such a large margin of victory for the 'No' camp then my sense is that ratification simply can't go ahead."

Comment: See also:

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Colosseum

Collapse of Roman Republic: Will the EU repeat history?


Sputnik
Thu, 07 Apr 2016 01:29 UTC
Angela Merkel
© Virginia Mayo/Agence France PressGerman Chancellor Angela Merkel looks out of her car window as she arrives for an EU summit at the EU Council building in Brussels on Monday, March 7, 2016
According to historian and professor at the Free University of Brussels David Engels, the EU is currently facing a system change comparable with that in the late Roman Republic. In his book On the Way to Empire, he draws historical parallels between the current changes in the EU and the fall of the Roman Republic.

In an interview with Sputnik, Engels argued that problems like populism, high unemployment, growing influx of migrants, asymmetric and economic wars as well as the decline of traditional values had already existed in the 1st century BC. Exactly these things have become major challenges for Europe in recent decades.

"Over the past few decades, corruption, social naivety and general political apathy of European citizens have sharply increased. Here you can also see clear analogies to the late Roman Republic, where citizens were even ready to accept an authoritarian government — due to poverty, unemployment, loss of values and the civil war — if this was the only way their belongings could be protected," the expert argued.

Comment: The similarities go even further than that. What's remarkable is that the environment itself also became less stable as Rome became more totalitarian. Scarcity and greed brought on famine, crop failures, then 'fire in the sky', unusually powerful earthquakes and devastating plague.

The seat of empire today is not in Europe but in the US, but Europe is undoubtedly feeling the effects of collapse just as strongly.

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Sheeple

Delusional Ukraine official boasts 'Russia won't last four days in a war with Ukraine


Fort Russ
Wed, 06 Apr 2016 01:19 UTC
Turchinov Ukraine
Alexander Turchinov, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine
Alexander Turchinov, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, has responded to the statement by the Speaker of the State Duma of Russia Sergei Naryshkin, who said that if Russia were to enter into a military conflict with Ukraine, it wouldn't last four days.

On his social network page Turchynov wrote that fighting with a country like Ukraine, Russia would not last four days.

Recall that in July last year, the chairman of the State Duma Naryshkin noted that Russia is not involved in the conflict in Ukraine. According to him, there are no Russian troops on the territory of Donbass, regardless of what the Kiev authorities are trying hard to convince the world community.

In March 2016, Petro Poroshenko said that during the armed conflict ten thousand Ukrainians died in the Donbass. The press secretary of the Russian president, Dmitry Peskov, said that there is no reason to trust information on victims from Kiev.

According to official figures from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, in the south-eastern Ukraine, 9 thousand 167 people have been killed in two years. Almost 22 thousand were injured. These figures include "civilians, Ukrainian soldiers, and members of armed groups."

Translated from Russian TV Zvezda by Tom Winter

Comment: The translator notes, "The interesting thing about this item is not the Turchinov boast, but the plain implication of it: In taking the bait from Naryshkin with this countering boast, Turchinov admits that Russia is not, and has not been, at war with Ukraine. Not what Poroshenko has been telling the West!"

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Yoda

Russia the peacemaker: Azerbaijan confirms Moscow mediated ceasefire agreement in Nagorno-Karabakh conflict


TASS
Wed, 06 Apr 2016 01:11 UTC
nagorno karabakh war
© Vahan Stepanyan/PAN Photo via AP
Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry confirmed on Wednesday that the agreement on ceasefire on the contact line in the zone of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict was reached through Russia's mediation at the meeting of senior military officials of Azerbaijan and Armenia in Moscow.

The meeting on Tuesday was attended by the chiefs of General Staff of the Armed Forces of Azerbaijan and Armenia, Najmaddin Sadigov and Yuri Khatchaturov. "At the meeting an agreement was reached on ending military operations on the contact line of forces of Azerbaijan and Armenia," the ministry said in a statement.

The situation along the line of contact in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone deteriorated dramatically overnight to April 2 when fierce clashes began. The parties to the conflict accused each other of violating the truce. The Armenian and Azerbaijani defense ministries announced cessation of combat operations in Nagorno-Karabakh from 11:00 a.m. (0800GMT) Moscow time on April 5.

Comment: For background on this conflict, see:

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Recycle

Inside man: Brussels bomber worked as janitor at EU Parliament


RT
Wed, 06 Apr 2016 00:00 UTC
brussels
© Yorick Jansens / ReutersBroken windows of the terminal at Brussels airport are seen during a ceremony following bomb attacks in Brussels in Zaventem, Belgium, March 23, 2016.
One of the Islamic State suicide bombers that carried out a deadly terror attack in Brussels on March 22 had previously worked as a janitor in the European Parliament, a spokesman for the EU assembly said, according to Reuters.

The attacker, whose name was not mentioned, had the job from 2009 to 2010.

He "worked for a period of one month for a cleaning company which was contracted by the European Parliament at the time," spokesman Jaume Duch Guillot said in a statement.

According to an EU official, the terrorist is Najim Laachraoui, 25, who, according to prosecutors, blew himself up in Belgian airport.

Comment: The man identified as Laachraoui was wearing a glove, most likely to avoid leaving fingerprints in the airport. (Incidentally, the Bakraoui brothers reportedly worked as janitors at the airport.) If so, he didn't intend to die that way. The third man, who was identified as Faisal Cheffou, was later arrested, but then let go. Was he or someone else responsible for remotely detonating explosive devices (in which case, Laachraoui and Bakraoui were dupes and victims of the attack)? Why was he released? Where is he now, and what did he have to say about Laachraoui and Bakraoui, with whom he was walking in the airport?

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Laptop

Panama papers: Forget the reporters - who built the database?

Ronald Zonca
Fort Russ
Wed, 06 Apr 2016 23:54 UTC
Supercomputer_1
© European Southern Observatory
The case involves a selection of public persons whose social status requires us to look at the causes and the source of the revelations, to say nothing of journalistic ethics. 11.5 million documents, even supposing each is just one page, would stack more than a kilometer high. It is impossible to deal with such a volume with simple humans, even for super journalists. The work had to be done by other people fully equipped. Faced with such a mass of data, very powerful computers are needed and one asks first, who was able to provide them. For each offshore company name, you must first determine all the actual people. This presupposes a well-populated database and means way beyond the simple request for information from the authorities.

Once spotted, an individual name must be found with whom there were linkages in the past or today. This requires a huge, well fed, and extremely well managed database.

Comment: Further reading: The Panama deception: America is the biggest tax haven in the world

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