Puppet MastersS


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Ukraine, Russia and 'Westernia'

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Western Ukrainians, not right in the head
There are Ukrainians and Western Ukrainians. These are two different social, national, ethnic, and cultural groups. Ukrainians are a West Russian ethnos which recognizes its historic unity with Eastern Slavs and Velikorossy (a historic term meaning "Great Russes," often translated as "Greater Russians") as the core of the Eastern Slavs and the creators of an autonomous and powerful Eastern Slavic Orthodox State. Thus, Ukrainians are not simply "our people," they are a part of us and, ultimately, they are we ourselves. They are not different, they are the same.

Western Ukrainians are a sub-ethnos, which historically separated itself from the Western Russian population, formed in Volhynia and Galicia, having experienced significant Polonization and the influence of Catholicism (in the form of the Uniate - Eastern Catholic - Church). Western Ukrainians consider themselves an autonomous group, opposing themselves to other Eastern Slavs (first and foremost, these are Velikorossy, "moskali" (a derogatory term that means "Russians")), Orthodox peoples, but also Poles and Austrians. Therefore, they have never had (and will never have) statehood, since it is impossible to build a State on the basis of hatred toward all surrounding peoples.

Dollar

Flashback £4.7 billion corporation tax lost through evasion and avoidance as UK Royal Mail sold for £650 million less than true worth

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The Government is losing more than £1 in every £10 it tries to collect from companies to tax evasion and avoidance, official figures have revealed. A report from HM Revenue and Customs shows that the "tax gap" for businesses operating in Britain is around 13 per cent of total liabilities and costs the public purse £4.7bn a year.

The real loss is likely to be significantly higher, as HMRC does not count controversial "profit shifting" schemes - run by companies such as Google, Amazon and Starbucks - as tax avoidance. One expert tonight estimated the true figure could be as much as £12bn a year. The figures were published as ministers were accused of handing private investors a £700m "taxpayer subsidy" in the form of Royal Mail. Shares in the newly privatised company, which started trading today, closed 38 per cent higher than the Government's offer price of 330p, valuing the firm at £3.3bn.

Margaret Hodge, chairman of Parliament's powerful Public Accounts Committee, said she would be recalling the head of HMRC to give evidence about its failure to collect the tax it was due, describing the situation as "ridiculous". "I don't think they are assertive or aggressive enough," she said.

"I am really disappointed that, despite all the public concern expressed by hardworking people who do pay their taxes, there has not been greater success. What is so ridiculous is that these figures don't even include the tax avoidance that companies that Google and Amazon are responsible for, because HMRC don't even accept that it is money that they owe.

No Entry

Russia bans swear-words from literature, art, mass media

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Moscow
The federal agency for mass media control has started to test software to automatically monitor online media for the use of obscene language, both in articles and in user comments.

A spokesman for the Roskomnadzor agency, Vadim Ampelonskiy, told the mass circulation daily Izvestia that the system was expected to be launched before the end of the year. The cost of the project is estimated at 25 million rubles or about $694,000. Technicians are making lists of keywords for the searches as they manually monitor the Russian language sector of the internet.

The current version of the software only scans text, but in the future it will be also work with audio and video files, Ampelonskiy said.

The monitoring of the internet for obscene language has become necessary as in April 2013 President Vladimir Putin signed into force a federal law banning the use of obscene language in mass media under threat of fines up to 200,000 rubles ($5,500). Breaking the law will result in an official warning to the media outlet and two such warning within 12 months could mean the outlet's government license is revoked.The law applies both to text prepared by editorial teams and to user comments if they are publicly accessible.

Rocket

Presidents of Belarus, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan observe Russian military drills to repel nuclear strike

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© kremlin.ru Meeting with President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan, President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon and President of Kyrgyzstan Almazbek Atambayev.
President Vladimir Putin has overseen military drills on countering nuclear strike. The planned drills come ahead of the May 9 celebrations dedicated to victory in World War II.

"We are carrying out tests of the readiness of the Russian armed forces. It was announced last November. The exercises will involve all branches of the armed forces across the country," Putin told reporters at the Defense Ministry.

Modern challenges and threats to the country's national security demand that the army and the fleet are maintained in readiness for quick and effective retaliation in any conditions, the Russian Defense Minister and army general Sergey Shoigu told Putin in a report.

During the drills, it was demonstrated how the missile corps, artillery, aviation and anti-aircraft defenses can be used - for instance, to destroy troops on the ground or to counter massive missile, aviation or nuclear strikes by an enemy.

Plus, it was shown how to inflict a launch-through-attack strike with nuclear missiles.


Black Magic

Headless EU president rushes to Kiev to give junta moral support, while German Ex-chancellor advises restraint

German flag
© Voice of Russia
A "round table" of Ukrainian politicians and civil groups will meet on Wednesday, May 14, Germany's government spokesman said, welcoming the move as a potential step towards easing the crisis. "We need national dialogue in Ukraine with the participation of the OSCE to discuss crucial themes like decentralization, constitutional questions, constitutional reforms," spokesman Steffen Seibert told reporters at a regular government press conference on Monday.

"We welcome the fact that preparations for a round table have progressed and that on Wednesday a first round table meeting will be held," he added, as quoted by Reuters. A spokesman for the foreign ministry declined to say which groups would be involved.

The foreign ministers of the 28 member-countries of the European Union (EU) will hold a routine meeting in the Belgian capital on Monday to consider possible consequences of the referendums held on Sunday in Donetsk and Lugansk regions of Ukraine. It is also planned to discuss advisability of application of additional sanctions with regard to Russia. An EU Council official said sanctions might be applied against about 15 more Russian citizens and five Crimea-based companies.


Comment: Words have it that the communist party in Ukraine would not be allowed to take part. So much for democracy.


Stop

Russia bans Holocaust denial

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law making Holocaust denial illegal.

The law signed Monday makes denial of Nazi crimes or misrepresentation of the Soviet Union's role in World War II punishable by up to five years in jail or a $14,000 fine.

Both houses of Russia's parliament approved the legislation last month.

Russia already bans public display of Nazi symbols.

Comparisons with Nazi Germany have arisen in recent months amid Russia's conflict with Ukrainian nationalists.

War Whore

Kiev's response to referendum results is punishment: Shelling of village near Slavyansk with artillery fire, casualties reported

Ukrainian soldiers at a checkpoint slaviansk
© Reuters/Baz RatnerUkrainian soldiers stand guard at a Ukrainian checkpoint near the eastern town of Slaviansk
The village of Andreevka near the Ukrainian city of Slavyansk has come under artillery fire, self-defense forces say. Casualties have been reported in the attack.

The village of Andreevka, over 100km from Slavyansk, has come under artillery fire from Kiev forces, according to the representative of the self-defense forces, as quoted by RIA Novosti.

"There was an artillery attack. Houses have been destroyed. Cars are on fire. There are casualties, but the numbers aren't known yet," the representative said.

The assault of Slavyansk itself began around 5am local time (02:00 GMT) by the Kiev forces, ITAR-TASS reported.

"The enemy started the artillery attack on Andreevka using heavy mortars and howitzers. Also we have data on the opposing side using helicopters for covering operations," a representative of the self-defense HQ told Interfax.

The explosions are at a frequency of once a minute.

The attack is being conducted from the TV tower on Karachun Mountain.

The National Guard is firing at security checkpoints, but reports emerged of mortar shells landing in local residents' homes.
Map of Slaviansk
© Unknown

Comment: One wonders how the junta in Kiev thinks that shelling the population in the south-east of Ukraine is going to make them more friends. Fear and intimidation is not going to work, but will only push the population into even greater revolt. Those who hesitated before will now be keen to separate from the junta in Kiev, who attacks its own population.

Can you imagine the response from the Western leaders and media if Yanukovych had done this?


Stormtrooper

Burning Ukraine's protesters alive: Neo-Nazi 'shock troops' supported by U.S.

For the second time in a week, Ukrainian anti-regime protesters holed up in a building were killed by fires set by pro-regime attackers with ties to newly formed neo-Nazi security forces, reports Robert Parry.

In Ukraine, a grisly new strategy - bringing in neo-Nazi paramilitary forces to set fire to occupied buildings in the country's rebellious southeast - appears to be emerging as a favored tactic as the coup-installed regime in Kiev seeks to put down resistance from ethnic Russians and other opponents.

Andriy Parubiy
© UnknownUkraine's national security chief Andriy Parubiy, founder of the Social-National Party of Ukraine in 1991, blending radical Ukrainian nationalism with neo-Nazi symbols. Last year, he became commandant of the Maidan’s “self-defense forces.”
The technique first emerged on May 2 in the port city of Odessa when pro-regime militants chased dissidents into the Trade Unions Building and then set it on fire. As some 40 or more ethnic Russians were burned alive or died of smoke inhalation, the crowd outside mocked them as red-and-black Colorado potato beetles, with the chant of "Burn, Colorado, burn." Afterwards, reporters spotted graffiti on the building's walls containing Swastika-like symbols and honoring the "Galician SS," the Ukrainian adjunct to the German SS in World War II.

This tactic of torching an occupied building occurred again on May 9 in Mariupol, another port city, as neo-Nazi paramilitaries - organized now as the regime's "National Guard" - were dispatched to a police station that had been seized by dissidents, possibly including police officers who rejected a new Kiev-appointed chief. Again, the deployment of the "National Guard" was followed by burning the building and killing a significant but still-undetermined number of people inside. (Early estimates of the dead range from seven to 20.)

Bad Guys

CIA godfather Brennan admits he visited Kiev, refuses to call Russia enemy

CIA director John Brennan
© Reuters / Yury Gripas
John Brennan, the head of the CIA, said in an interview he did go to Kiev "a few weeks ago" to talk to Ukrainian "partners and friends." He also declined to call Russia an enemy dubbing it instead "a major power".

While talking to Fusion's Jorge Ramos, Brennan admitted to the host's question his visit to Ukraine's capital in mid-April.

"I was out there to interact with our Ukrainian partners and friends. I had the opportunity to walk through the streets of Kiev and also go to Maidan Square and see the memorials to those Ukrainians trying to find liberty and freedom for their people," he said.

Following the visit, deposed Ukrainian president Victor Yanukovich accused Brennan of de facto sanctioning a crackdown on pro-Russian activists in the country's south-east.

Until now the CIA had not disclosed if and why Brennan had been to Kiev but White House spokesman Jay Carney confirmed that the CIA director went in Kiev as part of his trip to Europe and met with high-ranked Ukrainian officials.

In the interview with Fusion, the Brennan said that the situation in Ukraine is "something that needs to be addressed" and insisted that the US wants "the Ukrainian people to have their ability to define their future."

Comment: The US and the CIA have been very much involved in the coup in Ukraine and the violent aftermath:
Ukraine is crawling with FBI and CIA agents - Germany's Bild newspaper
Big surprise: CIA Director Brennan's trip to Ukraine initiates use of force
Was CIA director in Kiev to locate missing Greystone mercenaries?
Secret team: CIA behind Ukraine crisis, ousted Yanukovych says
Meet the Americans who put together the coup in Kiev


Coffee

The Donbass referendum and the will of the people - yet another abject failure of US foreign policy

Mariupol referendum
© UnknownCitizens of Mariupol vote on Sunday the 11th of May, 2014 at the referendum.
The exact results of the referendum in the Donbass are still unknown, but the following three facts are undeniable:

1) Participation was extremely high.
2) The yes vote won by a landslide.
3) The neo-Nazi junta tried hard, but failed to disrupt the vote.

We also know that the validity of this referendum will be rejected by a crushing majority of UN members. Ditto for the regime in power who has already denounced it as a "farce". As for the Ukie terror squads in the Donbass, they are unlikely to simply pack up and leave. So this begs a simply question:

Is this referendum a non-event or does it matter?

I would argue that far from being a non-event, the outcome of this referendum is a huge development, a watershed really. Why? Because the importance of this referendum is not in its legal acceptance by any party, but in the fact that it now makes undeniable a fact which previously could not be established with certainty: the Donbass does not want to be part of Banderastan.