Russia's Dmitry Rogozin believes western sanctions are forever. Henceforth Russia and the west will always be at odds. Russia will continue to insist on its own path in internal development and external affairs and the west will never stop penalizing it for it.

Speaking at a conference on development of the arctic he explained:

"All the time we have to read reports that the EU and the U.S. are considering to lift sanctions and then they suddenly automatically extend them. I think we should lose interest in it."

"We should stop taking care of what they say about the sanctions in Brussels or Washington. It should be kept in mind that sanctions now will always be against us."

"Russia needs to be strong and not to bend under the pressure." In this context, Deputy Prime Minister recalled the previous statements of the President of Russia.

"While President Putin set the task solely to create the material basis of national identity, freedom, and independence of the country in its foreign affairs, it will always be accompanied by a resistance of the leading global powers against Russia."

Every so often, the bourgeois political system runs into crisis. The machinery of the state jams; the veils of consent are torn asunder and the tools of power appear disturbingly naked. Brazil is living through one of those moments: it is dreamland for social scientists; a nightmare for everyone else.

Dilma Rousseff was elected President in 2010, with a 56-44 per cent majority against the right-wing neoliberal PSDB (Brazilian Social Democratic Party) opposition candidate. She was reelected four years later with a diminished yet convincing majority of 52-48 per cent, or a majority of 3.5 million votes.

Dilma's second victory sparked a heated panic among the neoliberal and U.S.-aligned opposition. The fourth consecutive election of a President affiliated to the centre-left PT (Workers' Party) was bad news for the opposition, because it suggested that PT founder Luís Inácio Lula da Silva could return in 2018. Lula had been President between 2003 and 2010, and when he left office his approval ratings hit 90 per cent, making him the most popular leader in Brazil's history. This likely sequence suggested that the opposition could be out of federal office for a generation. The opposition immediately rejected the outcome of the vote. No credible complaints could be made, but no matter; it was resolved that Dilma Rousseff would be overthrown by any means necessary. To understand what happened next, we must return to 2011.

The simmering war between Turkish academics and their increasingly repressive government came to a boil last week with arrests and an escape. It began in January with the firing of dozens of academics, many of them scientists, from Turkey's universities. All had signed an online petition by a group calling itself Academics for Peace that is critical of the government's treatment of the Kurdish minority group. The firings sparked protests and statements from scientific organizations, including the U.S. National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine, calling on the government to respect freedom of speech.

The standoff held until 13 March, when Kurdish separatists set off a car bomb in the capital, killing 37 people. The next day Turkey's president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, announced that the definition of "terrorism" should be expanded to include all who provide support in the form of "propaganda" and specifically called out academics.

Within hours of the president's speech, police arrived at the homes of four Turkish researchers. Three are now imprisoned; Turkish academics fear that many more arrests will follow. But Meral Camcı, a literary scholar who had been dismissed from her faculty position at Yeni Yüzyıl University in Istanbul, had gone to France on vacation just days before.

An RT Documentary crew filming in northern Syria has seen Islamic State (IS, ISIS/ISIL) documents abandoned by retreating terrorists and found by the Kurds that, along with captured IS recruits, provide a stunning insight into the alleged Turkey-IS oil trade links.

Shortly after the outbreak of the Syrian war, IS became a game-changer in Iraq and, in particular, Syria. Beheadings on camera, mass killings, and enslavement, as well as apparent connections to the Paris and Brussels attacks had become synonymous with the terror group, giving it wide publicity.


Running a viable militant organization with such remarkable capabilities would be impossible without some logistical and financial support from the outside.

Turkey, which has been actively engaged in the Syrian war since the outset, has repeatedly denied claims that it is aiding IS. However, while Ankara insists that it is the jihadist group's sworn enemy, facts on the ground often tell a different story.

RT has spoken to several witnesses who were involved in Islamic State's trade activities and accessed the terror group's documents, which provide insight into how and where foreign militants enter Syria to join the terrorist "state."
Detailed oil invoices

The RT Documentary team did most of its filming in the town of Shaddadi, located in the Syrian province Hasakah, which has been partly overrun by IS jihadists. Following the liberation of Shaddadi, which is home to some 10,000 people, RT filmed Kurdish soldiers walking around what used to be the homes of IS fighters and examining piles documents that had been left behind.

Some of the files seized at the scene turned out to be detailed invoices used by IS to calculate daily revenues from their oil fields and refineries, as well as the amount of oil extracted there. All the documents had Islamic State's symbol at the top.

Brussels suicide bombers Khalid and Ibrahim El Bakraoui were planning attacks on Belgian nuclear power stations, Dernier Heure newspaper has reported.

The newspaper exclusively reported that the arrest of Paris attacker Salah Abdeslam accelerated the plans of the terrorists.

The brothers planted a hidden camera in front of the home of the director of the Belgian nuclear research program, the paper said.

Evidence obtained by the authorities shows that the same terrorist cell was behind the Paris attacks in November that killed more than 130 people and this week's Brussels bombings, which claimed the lives of 31 people and injured over 270, the paper wrote.

Belgian security and intelligence services, along with other Western intelligence agencies, had advance warnings about the March 22 attack in Brussels, according to Haaretz.

According to the Israeli news website, security services in Belgium had precise warnings about the attack on the airport and, likely, the subway as well.

The attack was reportedly planned in Raqqa, Syria, the de-facto capital of the Daesh terrorist group. Even the name of the primary organizer of the attacks, Salah Abdelslam, was known. Abdelslam was behind the Paris attacks, after which he fled to Belgium, where he hid until a week before the Tuesday attacks.

Emergency patrols, beefed up security at transport hubs and a heavier armed police presence have become the new reality in Europe, following the deadly Brussels attacks.

The Netherlands' National Coordinator for Security and Counter-Terrorism (NCTV) agency said on Wednesday that Dutch military police would carry heavier arms to ensure the security of 'high-risk sites' such as government buildings, parliament, Jewish institutions and major transit hubs and border crossings. The agency, however, has not specified the exact type of weapons officers would carry.

While railing against domestic gun violence, the US president is placing high-tech weapons in the hands of dictators, scoring record profits for corporations that make killing machines.

In an editorial published on Wednesday, Truthout's Owen McCormack took President Obama to task, blasting him as the "Arms Dealer in Chief." In the piece, McCormack points out that, while Obama calls for stricter domestic gun control, the US president has also spearheaded a proliferation of arms sales to foreign governments.

"At BarackObama.com, for example, President Obama is described as a purveyor of peace who is at odds with an unenlightened Congress," writes McCormack.

US police arrested an Iranian-Turkish gold dealer who belongs to Erdogan's inner circle. He is said to have violated the now repealed Iran sanctions. It is unclear whether the US Attorney's Office will extend its accusations to members of the Turkish government.

The Iranian-Turkish Gold trader Reza Zarrab was arrested in Miami on Saturday, reports Bloomberg. The US authorities accuse him to have circumvented the sanctions against Iran over the years, and in this context washed money. Zarrab, owner of Royal Holding, and two others - Camelia Jamshidy and Hossein Najafzadeh - are accused of having, through a Web company, led US banks unwittingly to carry out illegal financial transactions. This shows the bill of indictment of the prosecution of New York.

Turkish cargo ship "LIRA" rammed the support of a constructed bridge over the Kerch Strait at its top speed. The incident occurred on March 19, but only now the detailed information was reported by FlashCrimea with reference to the management of Russia federal highways "Taman".

Name: Lira
IMO: 8516744; Flag: Belize; MMSI: 312373000; Callsign: V3OP9
Former name(s): Munster (Until 2005 Sep); Jade (Until 1999 Mar); Sea Jade (Until 1988 Jan)

Vessel type: General Cargo
Gross tonnage: 1,948 tons. Summer DWT: 3,078 tons
Length: 89 m. Beam: 12 m. Draught: 3 m