Puppet MastersS


Propaganda

War Propaganda: Russian troops on Ukraine's Eastern Border "very sizeable and very ready... very worrisome"

Luke Harding
The Guardian
Sun, 23 Mar 2014 05:11 UTC
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© Krasilnikov Stanislav/Itar-Tass Photo/Corbis
Philip Breedlove says large force on eastern border of Ukraine could easily move into Trans-Dniester if the decision was made

Nato's most senior military commander said on Sunday that Russia had amassed a large military force on Ukraine's eastern border, and warned that Moldova's separatist Trans-Dniester region could be the Kremlin's next target.

General Philip Breedlove, Nato's supreme allied commander, described the Russian force that began exercises 10 days ago as very, very sizeable and very, very ready.

"There is absolutely sufficient force postured on the eastern border of Ukraine to run to Trans-Dniester if the decision was made to do that. That is very worrisome," Breedlove said.

The White House also intimated that Russia may be readying for further action. Tony Blinken, Barack Obama's deputy national security adviser, described the troop build-up as deeply concerning. He told CNN the Moscow's evident goal was to intimidate the Ukrainians, and added: "It's possible that they're preparing to move in."

"I'm very worried the unlawful attempt to alter the recognised borders of our European neighbourhood, 25 years after the end of the Cold War, will open Pandora's box," The German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier told Welt am Sonntag. Steinmeier visited Donetsk on Saturday. He described the situation there as anything but stable.
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Gold Bar

South Korea opens spot market for physical gold


AAP
Tue, 25 Mar 2014 00:15 UTC
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South Korea has launched a gold trading exchange for the first time in a bid to help counter the country's burgeoning black market in the precious metal.

Smuggled gold is traded secretly through underground markets in South Korea and is used as an effective way to hide income and avoid tax.

"The gold spot market will help normalise the unregulated circulation of gold," Shin Je-Yoon, chairman of the Financial Services Commission, said on Tuesday, vowing to step up a crackdown on black-market transactions.

Of the country's total gold trading volume -- estimated at more than 100 tonnes annually -- about 70 per cent is traded illegally, according to Shin's office.
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Stock Down

Top JPMorgan China exec leaves amid probes


AAP
Tue, 25 Mar 2014 10:29 UTC
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One of JPMorgan Chase's top Chinese executives will resign, according to a bank memo, as regulators investigate whether the financial giant violated anti-bribery laws in Asia.

Fang Fang, who served as chief executive of JPMorgan's China investment banking unit before being appointed to vice chairman of investment banking for all Asia in 2009, "has informed us of his desire to retire," said a memo from Therese Esperdy, co-head of Asia-Pacific banking at JPMorgan.

The memo did not elaborate on his reason for stepping down. Esperdy said Fang, who joined JPMorgan in 2001, should be credited with helping the bank achieve a leadership role in the region.
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Stock Up

Rouble becomes Crimea's official currency


AAP
Tue, 25 Mar 2014 00:00 UTC
Roubles
© GettyA Crimean resident holds Ukrainian Hryvnia money next to a money exchange office as she prepares to buy western currency and Russian roubles, in Sevastopol, Crimea.
The rouble has become Crimea's official currency as Russia seizes complete control of the peninsula, but businesses are still dealing mainly in the Ukrainian hryvnia.

"From this day, we can officially make payments in roubles. The hryvnia remains in use until the first of January, 2016," Crimea's pro-Moscow prime minister Sergiy Aksyonov said on Twitter on Monday.

His deputy Rustam Temirgaliev, cited by Russia's RIA Novosti news agency, said pensions would be paid in roubles from Monday, and that 300 million roubles ($A9.1million) had been set aside for this.
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Clipboard

Formation of legitimate authorities should have taken place before signing of Ukraine-EU agreement


The Voice of Russia
Tue, 25 Mar 2014 00:58 UTC
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© Voice of RussiaRussian Foreign Minister Sergei LAvrov
Before signing the political part of the Association Agreement with the EU, Kiev should have waited for the creation of a legitimate government, said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

According to the minister, the signing of a document between Kiev and Brussels took place at a time when the new government in Ukraine has not yet been formed."
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Take 2

Iran's fake US ship for movie set sparks media hype


RT
Mon, 24 Mar 2014 20:18 UTC
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Iran's movie set 'aircraft carrier' that twisted the knickers of the warmongering US mainstream media
A mock US aircraft carrier built in Iran for a movie about an Iranian passenger plane downing sparked media frenzy in the US and Israel. Media outlets claimed the ship was meant to be blown up for "black propaganda" and labelled it a "symbol of mistrust."

Satellite images of what looked like a US Navy ship docked at a dockyard near the coast of Iran were obtained by The New York Times and CNN last week, puzzling media and military experts.

The latter concluded that the ship was not an actual aircraft carrier, but was "made to look like one," US Navy Fifth Fleet spokesman Jason Salata said, as quoted by Reuters.

The New York Times stated that the Nimitz-class carrier-shaped ship looked "more like a barge" with no nuclear propulsion system and was "only about two-thirds the length of a typical 1,100-foot-long Navy carrier."
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Bad Guys

15-year anniversary of illegal NATO bombing and destruction of Yugoslavia


The Voice of Russia
Mon, 24 Feb 2014 04:44 UTC
NATO bombing yugoslavia
© EPA
In March 1999, at the direction of the United States of America, NATO engaged in its first act of illegal aggressive war, beginning what can only be called the "dark age of intervention" in which we are living today. The fact that NATO was allowed to get away with the aggression on Serbia and Montenegro emboldened US/NATO and the US military industrial intelligence banking complex and since that day, under a doctrine of Responsibility to Protect, Humanitarian Interventionism, Preventive War and then the all encompassing "War on Terror", US/NATO have proceeded to destroy country after country and do away with leaders that they have not found to be submissive enough to their will.

The events of 9-11-2001 were a watershed moment for the geopolitical architects and served as a catalyst to allow them to expand their military machine to every corner of the world and invade countries at will and conduct operations with complete disregard for international law and accepted international norms.

In light of the 15th Anniversary of the NATO aggression the Belgrade Forum for a World of Equals and other independent Civic associations in Serbia will hold an international conference from the 21st to the 24th of March 2014. The conference will gather 100 prominent intellectuals from all over the world, in addition to those from Serbia, Montenegro, the Republica Srpska and 10 to 15 guests from Russia, including Academician and retired Russian Army General Leonid Ivashov. The conference will also include the participation of the Veterans Alliance of Serbia and the Club of Generals and Admirals of Serbia.
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Pirates

Regime Change in Ukraine and the IMF's Bitter "Economic Medicine"

Prof Michel Chossudovsky
Global Research
Mon, 24 Mar 2014 19:46 UTC
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© White House PhotoInterim Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk meets President Obama at White House, March 2014
In the days following the Ukraine coup d'Etat of February 23, leading to the ousting of a duly elected president, Wall Street and the IMF - in liaison with the US Treasury and the European Commission in Brussels - had already set the stage for the outright takeover of Ukraine's monetary system. The EuroMaidan protests leading up to "regime change" and the formation of an interim government were followed by purges within key ministries and government bodies.

The Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) Ihor Sorkin was fired on February 25th and replaced by a new governor: Stepan Kubiv.

Stepan Kubiv is a member of Parliament of the Rightist Batkivshchyna "Fatherland" faction in the Rada led by the acting Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk (founded by Yulia Tymoshenko in March 1999). He previously headed Kredbank, a Ukrainian financial institution largely owned by EU capital, with some 130 branches throughout Ukraine. (Ukraine Central Bank Promises Liquidity To Local Banks, With One Condition, Zero Hedge, February 27, 2014).
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Shoe

Ukraine orders its military out of Crimea

Daryna Krasnolutska and Daria Marchak
Bloomberg News
Wed, 19 Mar 2014 14:42 UTC
Bye bye
© Reuters/Baz RatnerCrew members of the Ukrainian naval landing vessel Konstantin Olshansky come ashore after leaving the ship in Donuzlav bay in Crimea, March 23, 2014.
Ukraine said it would pull its military out of Crimea and fortify its eastern border with Russia as European leaders struggled to come up with a unified response to punish Vladimir Putin for annexing the breakaway Black Sea region.

Demilitarization "is the best way to de-escalate the situation," Andriy Parubiy, head of Ukraine's National Security Council, told reporters in Kiev, while declining to say when the evacuation would take place. "Troops from both Ukraine and Russia" should be removed from Crimea, he said.

The withdrawal announcement comes as pro-Russian civilians in Crimea continued to detain Ukrainian military personnel, including its navy chief, after overrunning installations in the region, that's home to Russia's Black Sea Fleet. Ukraine's acting President Oleksandr Turchynov set a deadline of 9 p.m. local time for their release.

Putin's move to annex Crimea following the ouster of the Moscow-backed Ukrainian president last month has plunged Russia and the West into their worst crisis since the end of the Cold War. The decision to reinforce troops patrolling its eastern regions highlights Ukraine's concerns that Russia may attempt to further destabilize the country by creating turmoil in areas with large pro-Russia populations.
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Newspaper

Russia uses 1999 NATO bombing in media war over Crimea

Steve Gutterman
Reuters
Mon, 24 Mar 2014 09:25 UTC
Russian television blasted viewers with 15-year-old footage of NATO bombing raids, burning buildings and wounded people in Yugoslavia on Monday to step up a media campaign against the West over the Crimea crisis.

State television and newspapers used the anniversary of the start of the bombing campaign to depict the West as hypocritical for saying Crimea has no right to secede from Ukraine when NATO used force to help Kosovo escape Slobodan Milosevic's clutches.

A special program on state TV called "The Serbian Tragedy: 15 Years" hammered home Russia's message that the United States and NATO are to blame for redrawing global borders, encouraging separatism and flouting international law.
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