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A display of mercy: Putin calls on Ukraine militia to let out surrounded Kiev troops via a humanitarian corridor


RT
Fri, 29 Aug 2014 06:51 UTC
Ukrainian army soldiers
© Reuters / Maks LevinFile photo. Ukrainian army soldiers from battalion "Aydar"
President Putin has called on self-defense militias in Ukraine to provide Kiev's military units blocked in the east of the country with a safe humanitarian corridor to leave the combat area and "reunite with their families."

"It is clear the militia has achieved a major success in intercepting Kiev's military operation, which represents a grave danger to the population of Donbass and which has already led to the loss of many lives among peaceful residents," the Russian leader said in a statement.

As a result of militias' counter-offense, large numbers of Ukrainian troops - many of whom were taking part in Kiev's so-called anti-terrorist operation "against their will" and "just following orders" - have been surrounded, the President added.

"I call on the militia groups to open a humanitarian corridor for Ukrainian service members who have been surrounded, so as to avoid any needless loss of life, giving them the opportunity to leave the combat area unimpeded and reunite with their families, to return them to their mothers, wives and children, and to quickly provide medical assistance to those who were injured in the course of the military operation," Putin said.

Comment: Putin is doing what he can to stop the senseless killing that the US has goaded the Ukrainian regime into. Despite what the West is saying this is an internal conflict and Putin can only give advice to the militia, but has no authority over them. Putin's call is an encouragement to the militia to show mercy, something that is rare in today's world and something that the US and the West have not shown in their many war adventures over the last 50 years.

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Arrow Down

Churkin: Facts prove that Russian UN helicopter was shot down in South Soudan


ITAR-TASS
Wed, 27 Aug 2014 06:28 UTC
un helicopter
© EPA/Jalil Rezayee
On Tuesday, August 26, Russia urged the UN Security Council to adopt a statement that would condemn the incident and demand guilty persons be brought to justice

The facts prove that Russia's Mi-8 helicopter crashed in South Sudan was shot down, Russia's Permanent Representative to the UN Vitaly Churkin said on Wednesday.

"All data says the helicopter was shot down," he said.

On Tuesday, August 26, Russia urged the UN Security Council to adopt a statement that would condemn the incident and demand guilty persons be brought to justice, Churkin said.

Earlier in the day, the Russian Foreign Ministry demanded an immediate investigation into the crash of Russia's Mi-8 cargo helicopter in South Sudan.

Comment: Churkin is right to ask for an investigation, given the current climate and the interesting coincidence that the U.S. has had a few troops in that area since 2013:

New dawn for "America's Africa": Obama deploys first contingent of US ground troops to South Sudan

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Newspaper

U.S. is the world's indispenable nation? Germany's Merkel seems less and less sure

Tyler Durden
zerohedge.com
Wed, 27 Aug 2014 05:21 UTC
Image
© Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty ImagesUS President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel
First Russia and China, then UAE, Egypt, and Turkey... and now it appears Germany (following a phone call with Putin) is pulling the rug out from under US hegemony - just as Obama's warmongery ramps up...
  • MERKEL SAYS U.S. CAN'T SOLVE ALL THE WORLD'S PROBLEMS ANYMORE
Which is odd because just yesterday, President Obama (who never lies) stated "The United States is and will remain the one indispensable nation in the world..." adding that "no other nation can do what we do."Perhaps he is wrong?
"Even a superpower can't solve all of the problems alone anymore," German Chancellor Angela Merkel says.
Merkel did not stop there...
  • PUTIN, MERKEL URGE DE-ESCALATION IN UKRAINE, KREMLIN SAYS
  • PUTIN, MERKEL DISCUSSED GAS TRANSIT VIA UKRAINE, KREMLIN SAYS
  • PUTIN INFORMED MERKEL OF NEW EAST UKRAINE AID PLAN: KREMLIN
  • MERKEL URGES HOLLANDE TO CONTINUE REFORMS IN FRANCE
  • MERKEL SAYS HOLLANDE HAS CHANCE TO REVIVE FRENCH ECONOMIC POWER
Seems like she is returning to the offensive from the defensive...

Comment: It's about time Merkel admitted the fact that following the dictates of the U.S. will ultimately damage the European Union and its member states. But is it of any use? In other words, Germany is totally controlled by the U.S. So it's unlikely she'll actually be able to DO anything about it.

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Airplane Paper

Best of the Web: There's ZERO proof of a Russian invasion in Ukraine


Moon of Alabama
Thu, 28 Aug 2014 05:12 UTC
russians are coming

Comment: We are not the only ones that see that all this media hype about a "Russian invasion" is nothing but propaganda reminiscent of Iraq's WMDs fabrications. And we know the fate of Iraq and the Iraqis ever since!


The authors of this NYT piece, Ukraine Reports Russian Invasion on a New Front, are not really convincing when presenting these reports by the Ukrainian government as truthful:
The latest incursion, which Ukraine's military said included five armored personnel carriers, was at least the third movement of troops and weapons from Russia across the southeast part of the border this week, further blunting the momentum Ukrainian forces have made in weakening the insurgents in their redoubts of Donetsk and Luhansk farther north. Evidence of a possible turn was seen in the panicky retreat of Ukrainian soldiers on Tuesday from a force they said had come over the Russian border.
...
Andriy Lysenko, a spokesman for the Ukrainian military in Kiev, said the Russian armored column entered the town of Amvrosiyivka, south of Donetsk, expanding what Western and Ukrainian officials have described as one of the main fronts in a multipronged counteroffensive directed by Russia.
The "momentum" the Ukrainian troops had was never as big as the Ukrainian government had claimed. A few motorized brigades ran through open territory held by few insurgents and when coming to a halt at their primary target were immediately cut off and surrounded. Their morale is bad, their equipment old, ammunition is low and the entire aim of their campaign is dubious. Now even a few weak counterattacks, the "counteroffensive", have them on the run.

Comment: Think back, if you can, to the headlines when you woke up just two days ago.

In case you're having trouble recalling anything from two days ago - thanks in large part to the disorienting effects of having the entire Western media screaming the same Big Fat Lie in unison - here's what you were being told:
"10,000 RUSSIAN TROOPS INVADE UKRAINE!"
Not only was this in no way true, the real story they were trying to drown out were the complete routing of Kiev's forces in the breakaway republics of Novorossiya...

Ukraine on verge of collapse as Kiev forces capitulate: U.S. 'catapults the propaganda' with another desperate 'Russian invasion' ploy

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Quenelle - Golden

Scotland poised to secede from UK, despite London efforts to intimidate voters with currency scare


RT
Fri, 29 Aug 2014 03:58 UTC
Image
© Reuters / David CheskinBetter Together leader Alistair Darling (L) and First Minister of Scotland Alex Salmond debate over Scottish independence at Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow August 25, 2014.
Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz said the anti-Scottish independence campaign is "bluffing" in its scaremongering over the nation's currency. His comments underscore a resounding pre-referendum debate victory for Scotland's pro-independence leader.

Ahead of the televised debate between First Minister Alex Salmond and the pro-UK campaign leader Alistair Darling on Monday night, Stiglitz told an audience at the Edinburgh International Book Festival that the three main UK parties were "bluffing" when they ruled out Scottish National Party (SNP) calls for a post-independence currency union.

All three main parties in Westminster reject the notion of a shared currency union with an independent Scotland. Carwyn Jones, the Labour First Minister of Wales, said he would "strongly oppose" a currency pact.

"For the most part, I think these are bluffs," Stiglitz said. "Whatever the outcome, there's going to be a negotiation and people are going to be looking at what's in the best interests of both parties, and there will be negotiations."

"I have been a little bit shocked at how much of it is based on fear, trying to get anxiety levels up and how little of it has been based on vision," the US economist added, suggesting Scotland could still prosper even if it had to use the pound without a pact or if it established its own currency.

"There are many currency arrangements that can work," he said. "I think this is a lot of to do about nothing."

Stiglitz, a former World Bank chief economist and chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers to then-US president Bill Clinton, offered Salmond some useful ammunition during the final televised debate of the referendum campaign.

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Bad Guys

IMF chief Christine Lagarde under investigation in France


The Washington Post
Wed, 27 Aug 2014 00:00 UTC

Christine Lagarde, the chief of the International Monetary Fund, was placed Wednesday under official investigation for negligence in a French corruption probe that dates back to her days as France's finance minister.

In a statement after a fourth round of questioning before magistrates, Lagarde said she would return to her work in Washington later in the day and said the decision was "without basis."

She and her former chief of staff face questions about their role in a 400 million-euro ($531 million) payment to a businessman.

"After three years of proceedings, dozens of hours of questioning, the court found from the evidence that I committed no offense, and the only allegation is that I was not sufficiently vigilant," she said in her statement.
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Newspaper

Minsk Summit: Russia, Ukraine agree to kick-start stalled gas talks


RT
Wed, 27 Aug 2014 00:00 UTC
Putin - Poroshenko
© AFP Photo / Sergey BondarenkoRussia's President Vladimir Putin (L) and Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko (R) shake hands during a summit in Belarus' capital of Minsk on August 26, 2014
Leaders of Russia and Ukraine have decided to resume talks on energy issues between the two countries in September, as fears of gas delivery disruptions and Kiev's unwillingness to settle disputes and pay bills threaten Europe's energy security.

Following an intense round of direct talks between President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Petro Poroshenko, the head of the Russian state said that both leaders were able to reach an agreement on the resumption of consultations on energy and gas.

Yet Putin said, there are "a lot of concrete questions," stressing that while Russia fully complies with all the conditions of the gas contracts with Ukraine, the actions of Naftogaz create risks for gas transit to Europe.

In June, Russia's national gas company Gazprom stopped gas deliveries to Ukraine over chronic late payment and an unpaid bill of over $5 billion.

Comment: While Obama accuses Russia of supplying its forces to the East Ukrainian crisis, Putin has started negotiations with Ukraine to resolve the economic issues.

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Newspaper

Secret US-Russia talks on Ukraine held in Finland in June


The Washington Post
Tue, 26 Aug 2014 00:00 UTC
US Russia Talks
© Unknown
The Finnish Foreign Ministry says that the United States and Russia held secret talks over Ukraine in Finland in June.

Ministry spokesman Vesa Hakkinen told the AP that the ministry helped organize the meeting on the island of Boisto off the southern Finnish coast but declined to give more information.

Earlier this month, Finnish President Sauli Niinisto met President Vladimir Putin and traveled to Ukraine for talks with President Petro Poroshenko, leading to speculation that he was acting on behalf of the European Union.

Niinisto's office said Tuesday that he was not involved in the secret June talks between the U.S. and Russia.
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Bizarro Earth

Obama the warmonger and Putin the peacemaker

Stephen Lendman
RINF
Tue, 26 Aug 2014 17:52 UTC
putin obama
© unknown
Russia supports peace and stability. It wants conflicts resolved diplomatically.

America is polar opposite. It wages one war after another. Countries are ravaged and destroyed.

Russian humanitarian intervention is real. More on this below. America's is pretext to bomb, invade, mass murder, destroy, and plunder.

Permanent war is official US policy. One country after another is targeted. All independent ones are vulnerable.

Washington wants pro-Western subservient ones replacing them. Syria is in the eye of the storm. So are Iraq again and Ukraine.

Iran's turn is next. China and Russia represent the final frontier. They're major powers. Unity enhances their strength.

Comment: See also:

Putin is trying to save the world from war: Can his diplomacy prevail over Washington's coercion?

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Bulb

'White Widow' - The Samantha Lewthwaite Conspiracy

jon ryman
Youtube
Thu, 28 Aug 2014 17:09 UTC
Image
Remember the so-called "white widow" who grabbed the headlines over a protracted period last year for her alleged leadership of the attack on Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya? Samantha Lewthwaite first rose to 'fame' as the alleged 'wife' of alleged London '7/7' tube bomber, Germaine Lindsay, and since has been a veritable rising star in the phony world of Islamic terrorism, particularly in Africa. As with so many other supposed 'Muslim terror leaders', the story of Lewthwaite appears to be one large fantasy that reveals disturbing insights into how British, Israeli and US intelligence agencies run the bogus 'war on terror' from behind the scenes.

This excellent documentary by Jon Ryman brings together the most important details surrounding this most unlikely of 'Muslim terror chiefs'.

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