Puppet MastersS


Putin

Putin seizes multi-billion-dollar OMV and Wintershall Stakes in Russian ventures

Tsvetana Paraskova
Oil Price
Wed, 20 Dec 2023 05:50 UTC
R flags
© unknown
Germany's Wintershall Dea and Austria's OMV are being stripped of their multi-billion-dollar stakes in joint ventures developing natural gas projects in Russia under a decree by Vladimir Putin.

The Russian president has signed a decree ordering that the shares of the two Western energy companies in the Yuzhno-Russkoye field and in the Achimov projects in Russia's Arctic be transferred to newly set up Russian firms.

OMV and Germany's BASF and its joint venture with LetterOne, Wintershall Dea, held minority stakes in the development of the Yuzhno-Russkoye field. According to Putin's decree, all corporate agreements that have been in force so far are no longer valid.

The move is part of Russia's efforts to protect its national interests "amid the illegal and unfriendly actions of the West in relation to Russian assets," according to the decree cited by Reuters.

Wintershall Dea is in the process of exiting Russian operations while OMV announced an exit last year.

Comment: The author of the article from Oil Price makes is sound as if the exit is due to Putin's decree yet they have long talked about leaving Russia. OMV for example already in early March 2022 talked about exiting Russia. Now this decree which gives them the final boot really only helps them to make the move they allegedly wanted and yet they complain about how unpredictable Russia is.

Wintershall and OMV were both partners in Nordstream 2 and both started to pull out when the operation in Ukraine started and the US told them too. So, they are the ones being unreliable partners and unpredictable.

See also:
'Very serious threats': US ramps up pressure on Nord Stream 2 contractors
Wintershall Dea writes off Nord Stream 2 financing, halts new Russia projects
Austria's OMV joins energy rivals in pulling back from Russia (from March 5h 2022)
Sanctions? What sanctions? A Russian pipeline fable for our times
Escobar: Pipeline Terror is the 9/11 of the Raging Twenties

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Target

Biden is overseeing the silent death of the First Amendment

Yanis Varoufakis, Lina Attalah, John Kiriakou
The Nation
Fri, 08 Dec 2023 00:00 UTC
Mural
© Marco Cantile/LightRocket/GettyImagesMural depicting Julian Assange by street artist Trisha Palma
Scampia neighborhood of Naples
By continuing the persecution of Julian Assange, the US government is signaling how little it cares about press freedom.

In early 2024, a new, grim chapter may be written in the annals of journalistic history. Julian Assange, the publisher of Wikileaks, could board a plane for extradition to the United States, where he faces up to 175 years in prison on espionage charges for the crime of publishing newsworthy information.

The persecution of Assange is clear evidence that the Biden administration is overseeing the silent death of the First Amendment — with global consequences.

Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein's exposé during the Watergate scandal is seen as a triumph of truth over power. Their investigative reporting led to the downfall of President Nixon, cementing their status as champions of press freedom. However, what if this tale had taken a dark turn, with the journalists prosecuted for espionage and silenced under the guise of national security? While this is mere fiction, Assange's plight is all too real.

Assange, the standard-bearer of our era's investigative journalism, awaits extradition in a British cell in Belmarsh Prison, a fate that could stifle the beacon of transparency he represents. At a time when the world grapples with the erosion of press freedom, with journalists imprisoned and killed, Assange's case raises profound questions about the consequences of challenging power and unveiling uncomfortable realities.

Comment: The meaning and means of the struggle are as important as the outcome. Via challenge, we determine what is essential. Without the global fight for Assange, this crucial freedom might already be just another ghost of the past.

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X

Best of the Web: Israel lied about 'Hamas Command center' under al-Shifa Hospital

Nikki McCann Ramirez
Rolling Stone
Thu, 21 Dec 2023 00:00 UTC
al-shifa
© AFP/Getty ImagesDisplaced Palestinians gather in the yard of Gaza's al-Shifa Hospital • December 10, 2023
An investigation by The Washington Post found that Israeli evidence attempting to justify its attack on al-Shifa Hospital holds little water.

Last month, the world watched as a spectacle rarely seen in modern warfare unfolded in Gaza. The Israeli military tore through al-Shifa Hospital, the Gaza Strip's main hospital, forcing the evacuation of patients and refugees as part of a siege on the medical complex that resulted in dozens of patient deaths and an untold number of additional casualties.

Israel's months-long assault on Gaza has already resulted in more than 20,000 Palestinian deaths since Oct. 7, many of them civilians and children. Even in a conflict as brutal as the one currently unfolding in Gaza, an organized military operation against a hospital is virtually unheard of. Israel for weeks had made public its preemptive justification for an incursion into a medical establishment that is typically protected under humanitarian law — asserting that al-Shifa contained a Hamas command center within a network of tunnels and secret rooms that used patients and doctors as human shields against Israeli military action.

The Biden administration continues to back Israel's position on the matter, and earlier this week reasserted their own claims of possessing "evidence that Hamas was operating underneath al-Shifa Hospital before Israel attacked." On Monday, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters in a press briefing:
"The U.S. remains 'confident' that "Hamas was using al-Shifa as a command and control post, as it uses other civilian sites to hide terrorist infrastructure, to hide weapons, to hide fighters and ultimately to use civilians as human shields."
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Putin

Scott Ritter: On speaking plain 'Putin', part two

Scott Ritter
Consortium News
Wed, 20 Dec 2023 00:00 UTC
Putin
© Artem Geodakyan/TASSRussian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday at a meeting of the Defence Ministry Board
Because of their grossly inaccurate assessments of the Russian president and his country, "Putin Whisperers" in the West have Ukrainian blood on their hands.

Russians who lived through the 1990s remember the decade quite differently from Michael McFaul, the former U.S. ambassador/Stanford University professor. One such person is Marat Khairullin, a Russian journalist who has reported on Russia since the end of the Soviet Union.

In a remarkable essay published on his Substack account (I urge anyone interested in the reality of modern Russia and the war between Russia and Ukraine to subscribe), Khairullin lays out the connection between the war that McFaul and his fellow critics call Putin's own, and the Russian people.

Entitled "Russia I am trying to forget," Khairullin describes a time — the 1990s — where [sic when] humanity was put on hold because of the corruption and depravations of the Yeltsin government, and reminds his readers that this is the Russia to which McFaul and the other erstwhile Western Russian "experts" want to return, something which Vladimir Putin has sworn to never allow happen.

The goal of the collective West in promoting and sustaining the Russian-Ukraine conflict is to remove Putin from power and install a Yeltsin-like clone in his stead. Arat's article serves as a stark warning about the consequences of such an outcome for the Russian people.

Comment: See also part 1: Scott Ritter: On speaking plain 'Putin'

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Christmas Tree

SOTT Focus: Signs of the Times Christmas Fundraiser: Donate Today to Keep the Lighthouse Shining, Receive 2024 SOTT Merch!

Sott Editors
Sott.net
Mon, 04 Dec 2023 12:33 UTC
palestine flag protest gaza new york christmas tree
© Fatih Aktas/Anadolu via Getty ImagesAnti-war protest, Rockefeller Center, New York City, November 29, 2023
As we approach the end of 2023, the SOTT.net team would like to wish all our readers and followers a peaceful and happy Christmas, and a prosperous and adventurous new year. We remain ever grateful for the continuing support we receive from this far-flung network of like-minded truth-seekers. Without your support, there would be no Signs of the Times, so thank you. If it's within your means to do so, please consider donating below so that we may keep bringing you the news and views that matter!

Israel's ongoing, shocking obliteration of Gaza is truly of 'biblical' proportions. The Israeli regime has already killed more Palestinians in the past six weeks than it killed during the Nakba ('catastrophe') that initially 'shaped' Israel in 1948-9. We say 'biblical' not just because, like the war in Ukraine, it looks set to generate another wave of refugees, and not just because it could potentially ignite a wider Middle East war. This war is 'biblical' because it's not really a war, but rather a shockingly inhuman, AI-powered, hi-tech orgy of atavistic terrorism - a viciously cruel military bombardment of a defenseless civilian population.

gaza women children hospital
Gaza, November 2023
In a grotesque perversion of scripture, Israeli PM Netanyahu claims that, "We [Israelis] are sons of light, they [Palestinians] are sons of darkness," whereas, in fact, he is a modern-day mad 'king' leading a real-world 'massacre of the innocents', of children, all of whom are being sacrificed for his career and 'legacy'.

We cannot speak for the unfathomable suffering of Gazans, but the contrived events of October 7th and Israel's subsequent 'revenge' have been something of a 'test' of all people: who has a conscience, and who does not? Who Sees the crux of the matter, beyond ideological superficiality and what the Israeli regime claims happened outside Gaza on October 7th?

'Left vs Right' tribalism, as we've observed recently, isn't much of a guide in matters of Truth, and of the heart. Many on the erstwhile 'conservative-christian' Right, in cheering this, certainly appear to have 'gone over to the Dark Side'. But as appalling as it is that this is happening, with nothing being done to stop it, the 'cost' for the perpetrators is the exposure of their nature for all the world to see. The burst of 'truth-telling' this has spurred on social media and in public discourse generally (with the possible exception of the vaccine mandates) is unprecedented.
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Bad Guys

'Pacifist' Japan to supply patriot missiles to US after change in export rules, indirectly facilitating supplies to Kiev-junta

Sakura Murakami
Reuters
Fri, 22 Dec 2023 15:44 UTC
Kadena air base Japan
© Isssei Kato / ReutersKadena U.S. Air Force Base in Okinawa, southwestern Japan
Japan said on Friday it would prepare to ship Patriot air defence missiles to the United States after revising its arms export guidelines earlier that day, in the pacifist nation's first major overhaul of such export curbs in nine years.

The announcement comes as Japan, which had long adopted a stance of not allowing exports of deadly weapons, seeks to boost its defence industry amid an increasingly tense security environment in the Indo-Pacific.

"This holds significant meaning in terms of further strengthening the Japan-U.S. alliance. It will contribute not only to Japan's security but also the peace and stability of the wider Indo-Pacific region," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said following the announcement.


Comment: Actually this now implicates Japan in the US' destablisation campaign in the Indo-Pacific, makes it complicit in its war on Russia, and, since Israel uses patriot missiles, possibly the genocide in Gaza.

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Newspaper

Best of the Web: Netanyahu wanted to 'collapse' Hamas. This war could collapse Israel

David Hearst
Middle East Eye
Fri, 22 Dec 2023 14:42 UTC
The Gaza war has been a huge miscalculation for Israel. As well as being a moral and military disaster, it is fuelling resistance and reigniting the embers of anger across the Arab world
Netanyahu
© ReutersIsraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holds a press conference in Tel Aviv on 28 October 2023
After a particularly heavy Israeli barrage during the siege of Beirut in July 1982, US President Ronald Reagan called Menachem Begin, the Israeli prime minister, to demand the shelling be stopped.

"Here on our television night after night our people are being shown the symbols of this war and it is a holocaust," Reagan said.

Unlike the Democrat in the White House today, a Republican US president was able and prepared to back his words with action. The US halted cluster munitions and the sale of F16s to Israel.

Reported casualty figures of the war in Lebanon vary wildly. According to Lebanese estimates, 18,085 Lebanese and Palestinians were killed in the four months after the invasion was launched. The PLO's figures were: 49,600 civilians killed or wounded.

In just two months, Israel has killed as many people but inflicted a far higher level of destruction in Gaza.

According to military analysts interviewed by the Financial Times, Israel's devastation of northern Gaza, where 68 percent of the buildings had been destroyed by 4 December, is up there with the allied bombing of Hamburg (75 percent), Cologne (61 percent), and Dresden (59 percent). This is what happened to these cities after two years of bombing.

Comment: Read also,

96% of Saudis now want to cut ties with Israel
Fighting terrorism did not mean Israel had to 'flatten Gaza', says Emmanuel Macron
'Lethal combination' ravaging Gaza - WHO

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Newspaper

Best of the Web: Iran warns it could cut off Mediterranean Sea as France, Spain and Italy pull out of Red Sea Op - Israeli vessel hit off India's coast


Asharq Al Awsat
Sat, 23 Dec 2023 14:45 UTC
Galaxy Leader Israel ship
© ReutersThe cargo ship "Galaxy Leader" after being hijacked by Houthi boats in the Red Sea
An Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander said the Mediterranean Sea could be closed if the United States and its allies continued to commit "crimes" in Gaza, Iranian media reported on Saturday, without explaining how that would happen.

Iran backs Hamas against Israel and it accuses the United States of backing what it calls Israeli crimes in Gaza, where weeks of bombardment have killed thousands of people and driven most of the population from their homes.

"They shall soon await the closure of the Mediterranean Sea, (the Strait of) Gibraltar and other waterways," Tasnim quoted Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Naqdi, coordinating commander of the Guards, as saying.

Comment: gCaptain reports:
Spain, Italy, France Decline US Command Of Red Sea Operation Prosperity Guardian

The United States is assembling a multinational naval coalition to help safeguard commercial traffic from attacks by Yemen's Houthi movement. On Thursday, the Pentagon said more than 20 countries had now agreed to participate in the group, known as Operation Prosperity Guardian.

Some countries have not confirmed their participation, however, while others have said their efforts to help protect Red Sea commercial traffic will be as part of existing naval agreements rather than the new U.S.-led operation.

The lack of details and clarity over what countries are doing has added to confusion for shipping companies, some of which have been re-routing vessels away from the area after the attacks, which the Houthis say are a response to Israel's assault on the Gaza Strip.

WHAT HAS THE UNITED STATES ANNOUNCED?

U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin announced on Tuesday plans to set up a multinational coalition to safeguard Red Sea shipping called Operation Prosperity Guardian.

During a trip to the Middle East, he said the operations would be joined by Britain, Bahrain, Canada, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Seychelles and Spain.

On Thursday, Austin said Greece and Australia had also joined the grouping, taking it to a total of 20, but added that at least eight countries taking part have declined to be publicly named.

WHAT ARE OTHER NATIONS SAYING? - FRANCE

France's Defence Ministry said it supported efforts to secure freedom of navigation in the Red Sea and surrounding area and said it already operated in the region but it said its ships would stay under French command and did not say if it would deploy more naval forces.

France has a naval base in the United Arab Emirates and 1,500 troops in Djibouti. Its frigate Languedoc is now in the Red Sea.

- ITALY

Italy's Defence Ministry said it would send naval frigate Virginio Fasan to the Red Sea to protect its national interests in response to specific requests made by Italian shipowners.

It said this was part of its existing operations and was not part of Operation Prosperity Guardian.

- SPAIN

Spain's Defence Ministry said it would only participate in NATO-led missions or EU-coordinated operations. "We will not participate unilaterally in the Red Sea operation," it said.

- BRITAIN

Britain said destroyer HMS Diamond would join Operation Prosperity Guardian. Britain's defense ministry said the coalition would operate as part of the U.S.-led CMF.

- GREECE

Greece said on Thursday it would send a naval frigate to the Red Sea and that it would participate in Operation Prosperity Guardian.

- OTHER COUNTRIES

The Netherlands said it would send two staff officers and Norway said it would send 10 naval officers to Bahrain, the headquarters of CMF. Denmark said on Wednesday that it would take part in the operation, sending one officer.

WHAT EXISTING NAVAL COALITIONS OPERATE IN THE AREA?

Several navies are already part of international operations to protect shipping lanes in the region, including protecting vessels from pirates who for several years disrupted shipping off the coast of Somalia.

The missions include:

- Operation Atalanta, set up by European Union Naval Force Somalia (EUNAVFOR), operates off the Horn of Africa and in the Western Indian Ocean to support U.N. resolutions to protect the seas from piracy. Its headquarters is in Spain.

- Operation Agenor is a European-led operation which aims to guarantee freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz, a major shipping lane for oil exports from Gulf states.

- Combined Maritime Forces (CMF) is a multinational maritime partnership led by the U.S. from Bahrain, the based for the U.S. Navy Fifth Fleet. CMF has 39 members, including NATO and European states, regional countries and other nations. One of its missions is the Combined Task Force 153 (CTF 153), which operates in the Red Sea.
Meanwhile, Al Manar reports:
Israeli-linked Merchant Vessel Hit by Drone Strike off India's Coast

An Israeli-affiliated merchant vessel in the Arabian Sea off India's west coast was struck by an unmanned aerial vehicle, causing a fire, British maritime security firm Ambrey said on Saturday.

The fire on the Liberian-flagged chemical products tanker was extinguished without crew casualties in the incident 200 km (120 miles) southwest of Veraval, India, it said.

"Some structural damage was also reported and some water was taken onboard. The vessel was Israel-affiliated. She had last called Saudi Arabia and was destined for India at the time," the firm said on its website.

It said the Indian navy was responding. The navy did not immediately respond to Reuters request for comment.

The incident follows drone and missile attacks in the Red Sea by Iran revolutionary forces in support of the Palestinian people and resistance who have been subjected to brutal Israeli aggression since October 7th.
In US 'builds trap for itself' in Red Sea, Scott Ritter writes:
[...]

the Houthis have made it clear that if attacked, they will expand the conflict to include Saudi and UAE oil production, threatening global energy supplies

[...]

The United States has long maintained that it could guarantee that if Iran ever sought to close the strategic Straight of Hormuz, the US Navy would be able to reopen it in a very short period. Operation Prosperity Guardian puts a lie to that claim. The fact is, the world balance of power has changed dramatically, and legacy systems like the carrier battlegroup are no longer the dominant means of power projection they once were. The US has, in effect, put all its eggs in one basket through its over-reliance upon the carrier battlegroup when it comes to force projection.
The US is 'hamstrung', for now. Besides the political optics of its vassal states pulling out of 'Operation Guardians of Prosperity', the Pentagon has probably gamed this out and realized the Houthis would survive a 'blitzkrieg', and likely sink a US warship or two in the process. Also, Iran may not be bluffing when it claims that its allies in Western Sahara could take aim at Israeli and Israel-destined cargo ships entering the Med at the Strait of Gibraltar. This could easily grind up global shipping and indirectly affect the US economy, which is teetering as things stand.

The elephant in the room, however, is Israel. Is its leadership capable enough, and mad enough to say 'to hell with the global balance of power', then force Uncle Sam's hand somehow?...

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Bad Guys

The neocon Beast shows itself: Breaking Down Thinktank-land's Latest: Estonian MoD & ISW Analysis

Simplicius
Simplicius76 substack
Sat, 23 Dec 2023 11:55 UTC
Neocons
Two interesting thinktank policy papers were released over the past two weeks, which somewhat flew under the radar. I wanted to examine them in light of not only Ukraine's now-announced major battlefield reorientation, but the general pivotal inflection point on which the conflict stands at the cusp of 2024, to see what projections for the future can be gleaned.

I read both of the papers so you don't have to, so I'll highlight the most important points and see how they can tie together into some semblance of a Western/NATO 'strategic' redirection.

The first of the two is from the Estonian Ministry of Defense, which has been active in various prognostications and reports from their supposed confidential 'sources' within the Russian MOD:

Estonian ministry of Defense

Comment: A thorough dissection of 2 reports by the cabal and their henchmen, behind the attack on Russia with the use of Ukraine as the willful puppet. It is clear in reading this that there is palpable fear behind the scenes of not only a Russian victory but also the destruction of the Beast and the lies which goes with it.

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Mr. Potato

Kamala Harris serves up another word salad about the 'most election of our lifetime'

Yaron Steinbuch
New York Post
Wed, 20 Dec 2023 07:56 UTC
kamala harris
© MSNBCHarris stumbled when talking about the upcoming presidential election.
Vice President Kamala Harris has been mocked for serving up her latest word salad — this time saying during a TV interview that "this is the most election of our lifetime."

During an appearance on MSNBC's "The Last Word" with Lawrence O'Donnell, Harris slammed former President Donald Trump's remarks that migrants were "poisoning the blood of our country."

But the veep then stumbled over her words while turning her comments to the 2024 presidential election.

Comment: See also:



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