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As US empire is in decline, Putin advocates for WTO reform at G-20 summit

Putin G-20
© AP/ABC News
President Putin at G-20
Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke at the G-20 summit in Argentina about the need to reform the World Trade Organization (WTO). For a number of years, several world leaders have spoken on the same subject, citing similar concerns. Chief among these are the the inability of the by-laws and governing rules of the WTO to keep up with the new global economic reality, a reality which sees the U.S empire in stark decline.

As the head of the Russian Ministry of Economy Maxim Oreshkin told reporters, the Russian leader made this statement at the opening of the second working meeting of the G-20 summit, which was devoted to the subject of risks and the current state of the global economy.

He stressed that at present the work of the WTO does not reflect current realities. In particular, it is not quite effective in regulating such new trade areas as electronic commerce, trade in services or investments.

According to the minister, those present at the meeting supported Putin's position. "This position was fully supported by the Europeans, as well as other speakers," RIA Novosti quotes Oreshkin as saying.

There is nothing strange about such support. Earlier, the countries of the "group of seven" called for reform of the WTO - the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Canada, the USA, France and Japan. Following the June summit, the leaders of these countries also opposed protectionism in international trade.

Comment: The only constant is change - no better exemplified than in the current expansion of traditional trade parameters and revisions in fulfillment protocols.


Arrow Down

Failed deal: Putin was to receive $50M penthouse in Trump Tower Moscow according to Cohen and FBI informant

Cohen/Sater
© Unknown
Former Trump attorney Michael Cohen • FBI/CIA undercover agent Felix Sater
President Trump's ex-longtime personal attorney Michael Cohen worked with an FBI informant known as "The Quarterback" to negotiate a deal for Trump Tower Moscow during the 2016 US election, according to BuzzFeed News.

"The Quarterback," Felix Sater - a longtime FBI and CIA undercover intelligence asset who was busted running a $40 million stock scheme, leveraged his Russia connections to pitch the deal, while Cohen discussed it with Putin's press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, according to BuzzFeed, citing two unnamed US law enforcement officials.

Sater told BuzzFeed News today that he and Cohen thought giving the Trump Tower's most luxurious apartment, a $50 million penthouse, to Putin would entice other wealthy buyers to purchase their own. "In Russia, the oligarchs would bend over backwards to live in the same building as Vladimir Putin," Sater told BuzzFeed News. "My idea was to give a $50 million penthouse to Putin and charge $250 million more for the rest of the units. All the oligarchs would line up to live in the same building as Putin." A second source confirmed the plan. -BuzzFeed

The Trump Tower Moscow plan is at the center of Cohen's new plea agreement with Special Counsel Robert Mueller after he admitted to lying to congressional committees investigating Trump-Russia collusion.

Comment: The deal never went through. The building wasn't built. And, it doesn't constitute Russian election meddling. See also:


Folder

Protecting the swamp: Clinton Foundation whistleblower's home raided by the FBI

FBI raid
© Reuters/Alvin Baez
FBI agents raided the home of a recognized Department of Justice whistleblower who privately delivered documents pertaining to the Clinton Foundation and Uranium One to a government watchdog, according to the whistleblower's attorney.

The Justice Department's inspector general was informed that the documents show that federal officials failed to investigate potential criminal activity regarding former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the Clinton Foundation and Rosatom, the Russian company that purchased Uranium One, a document reviewed by The Daily Caller News Foundation alleges.

The delivered documents also show that then-FBI Director Robert Mueller failed to investigate allegations of criminal misconduct pertaining to Rosatom and to other Russian government entities attached to Uranium One, the document reviewed by TheDCNF alleges. Mueller is now the special counsel investigating whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia during the 2016 election.

"The bureau raided my client to seize what he legally gave Congress about the Clinton Foundation and Uranium One," the whistleblower's lawyer, Michael Socarras, told TheDCNF, noting that he considered the FBI's raid to be an "outrageous disregard" of whistleblower protections.

Comment: So how high and how low does the Clinton influence command? And is this a warning to all whistleblowers that 'protection' is one hell of a farce? Assange, Snowden and Manning might adamantly agree. Begs the question how Mueller could legitimately be in charge of the Russiagate investigation when as FBI director, he let slide an investigation into Uranium One and the Clinton Foundation - given its connections in the current case and his past negligent involvement.

Additional from RT:
What were the agents looking for? According to the Daily Caller, they were after the document suggesting that Robert Mueller - now special counsel in charge of the "Russiagate" probe targeting President Donald Trump, but FBI director back in 2001-2013 - failed to investigate allegations of criminal misconduct in the case of Uranium One.

The Canadian-based mining company controls over 20 percent of the US uranium supply, and was sold to the Russian conglomerate Rosatom in 2010. The sale needed to be approved by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CIFUS), which was chaired by then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Since then, multiple whistleblowers have revealed claims of misconduct, bribery and fraud on part of the people involved in the sale, even suggesting a "pay for play" scheme in which the Clinton Foundation received millions of dollars in donations in exchange for greenlighting the deal. Republicans have also pointed to Bill Clinton's $500,000 fee for a speech in Moscow in 2010 as evidence the Clintons were peddling influence for Russian money.
Democrats have dismissed the apparent scandal as a right-wing conspiracy theory, and Clinton herself called the accusations of wrongdoing "baloney."

In April this year, then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions asked the Utah-based US Attorney John Huber to investigate both the Uranium One probe and the FBI investigation into Clinton's use of a private email server. That second probe was the subject of a scathing report in June by the DOJ IG Michael Horowitz, the same official to whom Cain gave the documents as a whistleblower. The status of that investigation is currently unknown.



Attention

Cohen's guilty plea: What comes next for Trump?

TrumpCohen
© Reuters/Jonathan Ernst
Donald Trump's long-time attorney Michael Cohen's guilty plea is bad news for the US President. However, it's not the hammer blow that his adversaries think it is.

In a federal court in Manhattan on Thursday, Cohen pleaded guilty to making false statements to Congress in 2017. In statements given to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Cohen said that Trump's efforts to build a Trump Tower in Moscow ended in January 2016 and were not discussed with other members of the Trump company. He also said that he never planned to travel to Moscow to pursue the project, and had received no word from the Russian government regarding approvals for it.

Now, Cohen admitted that the project actually lasted until June 2016 and was discussed extensively with members of the Trump company. Cohen said he discussed traveling to Moscow with Trump, and that he had been contacted by a press secretary to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who Cohen had asked for assistance in moving the construction project forward.

Cohen's admission appears to contradict Trump's repeated assertions that he had no business dealings in Russia during his campaign. Trump has denied the Russia connection multiple times, including during a televised debate with Hillary Clinton that October.

Comment: See also:


Attention

'Pulling a CNN stunt': Critics blast NPR for fake bombshell of Trump Jr. lying to Senate

DTrumpJr
© Reuters/Jonathan Ernst
Donald Trump Jr. departs interview by Senate Intelligence Committee
A much-quoted National Public Radio story about Donald Trump Jr, Michael Cohen and talks to build a Trump Tower in Moscow during the 2016 election campaign was shown to be factually wrong, but NPR has not retracted it yet.

Amid the wave of "end for Trump" media euphoria that followed Thursday's guilty plea by Cohen, who had been President Donald Trump's former personal attorney, NPR ran a story about how Trump Jr's testimony in September 2017 did not square with Cohen's admissions to a federal court - namely, that discussions on the Trump Tower project with developer Felix Sater went on as late as June 2016.

Trump Jr. testified that those talks concluded without result "at the end" of 2014, and "certainly not '16," according to the article authored by Phil Ewing and Tim Mak. It did not take long for champions of the "Russiagate" conspiracy theory to invoke the story as proof of President Trump's "Kremlin ties."



There was just one tiny little problem with the NPR story: It wasn't true. Worse, the transcript of Trump Jr.'s testimony proves it wasn't true.

As Mollie Hemingway pointed out in a scathing piece in The Federalist, the quote Ewing used as proof of discrepancy was not referring to Cohen's talks with Sater, but entirely different talks with Emin and Aras Agalarov - as one of the attorneys for Trump Jr. even explains in the very next lines of the transcript.

Arrow Up

Mueller mulls new charges and another trial for Manafort

Manafort
© Kevin Dietsch/UPI
Paul Manafort
Special counsel Robert Mueller is considering bringing new charges against President Trump's one-time campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, for allegedly breaching a plea agreement with federal prosecutors.

Government attorney Andrew Weissmann told a federal district court judge on Friday that prosecutors have not yet decided whether to bring new charges against Manafort for breaching the deal. Those new charges could include obstruction of justice.

The government is also considering seeking a new trial on charges in Washington, D.C., that were initially dropped as part of the plea deal. Prosecutors said there were a number of obligations in the plea agreement that the government is now relieved of.

Comment: Hard to tell if Mueller is doing damage control or causing more damage. His authority to prosecute 'other than Russiagate charges' has led to the Manafort investigation and trial, tainting public opinion into thinking there is some connection between the two while finding none.


Star of David

See Hezbollah's warning to Israel: 'If you dare attack, you will regret it'

Nasrallah
© Reuters/Khalil Hassan
Lebanon's Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah
The video comes after Syrian air defence forces took out several incoming missiles launched at Al Kiswah, a city located to the south of the capital Damascus. Israel denied its involvement in the missile attack.

Hezbollah, a Shia militant group, has posted a YouTube video warning Israel against launching missile strikes on Lebanon in the wake of an unsuccessful missile attack on Syria allegedly launched by Tel Aviv.

The video, which has subtitles in Hebrew, includes what look like satellite images and precise map locations of strategic sites in the Jewish state.

The clip, which specifically shows Hezbollah fighters preparing for a missile attack and the group's leader Hassan Nasrallah pledging to retaliate against a possible Israeli strike on Lebanon, wraps up with the warning "if you dare attack, you will regret it."


Comment: Hezbollah sent a very strong warning of dire consequences. It doesn't appear to be bluffing. Israel 'denies' the attack on Al Kiswah. Who else would do this? See more on the Al Kiswah attack:


Arrow Down

Former FBI Dir. Comey seeks to quash subpoena to testify in Russia investigation

James Comey
© AP/Andrew Harnik
Former FBI Director James Comey
Former FBI Director James Comey has asked a U.S. judge to quash a subpoena from congressional Republicans compelling him to testify behind closed doors about his decisions on the Russia investigation ahead of the 2016 presidential election.

The unusual filing in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on November 30 came after Comey previously told Republican lawmakers he would only agree to testify if the hearing were open to the public.

"Comey asks this court's intervention not to avoid giving testimony but to prevent the joint committee from using the pretext of a closed interview to peddle a distorted, partisan political narrative," the filing said.


Comment: And Comey's book is unbiased?


The subpoena ordering Comey's testimony was issued as part of a joint investigation by the House Judiciary Committee and House Oversight Committee into decisions made by the FBI in connection with its investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's use of a private e-mail server and its investigation into whether President Donald Trump's campaign colluded with Russia.

Comment: Comey's complaint is bogus. Whether the committee discloses the content of the interview or not, there will be documentation of exactly what was asked and said. He is throwing out innuendo to fuel public pushback - an offensive strategy prior to the meeting.


Boat

Merkel's potential CDU successor suggests blockade of Russian ships over Ukraine crisis

Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer
© dpa
Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer
The European Union and the United States should consider banning from their ports Russian ships originating from the Sea of Azov after Russia captured three Ukrainian vessels there, German Chancellor Angela Merkel's protege said on Friday.

Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, who is leading the race to succeed Merkel as leader of her ruling conservatives, also said Germany must be ready to take more responsibility in foreign policy and to spend more on defense.

Russia seized the Ukrainian vessels and their crews on Sunday near Crimea, the Ukrainian region which Moscow annexed in 2014, over what it said was their illegal entry into Russian waters, which Ukraine denies.

"If it's confirmed that the aggression came from Russia ... then I think there must be a clear answer," Kramp-Karrenbauer told Reuters in a television interview. "One answer might be, for example, to stop Russian ships coming from the region - from the Sea of ​​Azov - from entering European or U.S. ports until this situation with Ukraine is resolved," she said.

The comments from Kramp-Karrenbauer, 56, mark a tougher tone than the posture adopted by Merkel, who has called for de-escalation and dialogue.

Comment: Is this the best Merkel can come up with? For more information on AKK and other candidates, see also: Merkel's potential successors: How they stand on foreign policy


Eye 2

Ukraine violates Minsk ceasefire 3 times in 24 hours: Shells Lugansk villages over 80 times

ukraine kiev bombs lugansk
Over the past 24 hours, Kiev military forces fired over 80 heavy shells upon the Republic, as tensions rise in the aftermath of the Kerch Strait battle incident. This was announced today at a briefing at the LuganskInformCentre by the head of the press service of the People's Police Department of the LPR, Yakov Osadchy.

He noted that the areas under the Republic's authority have not changed their stance, remaining vigilant as the situation remains tense; over the past 24 hours, Kiev military forces violated the ceasefire three times, with a total of 80 heavy shells raining upon the LPR.

"By order of the war criminals, the commanders of the 10th brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine 'Zubanich' and 72nd 'Tatus' were attacked in the Zolotoe 5 and Logvinovo settlements. 120 and 82 mm mortars, infantry weapons, various grenade launchers and systems prohibited by the Minsk agreements were subjected to shelling. small arms ", - said the head of the press service.

"In total, over 80 different ammunition were released across the territory of the Republic," said Osadchy.

Comment: In the meantime ordinary Ukrainian conscripts are voting on Kiev's latest aggression with their feet:
As tensions rise and the likelihood of a Ukrainian offensive grows, the already low morale of the UAF forces has worsened, resulting in a streak of desertions. Desertions are now at an all time high, corroborated by Ukrainian media.

In the most recent instance of desertion in recent days since the incident, a segment of a whole platoon of servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine arbitrarily left the location of the unit, taking with them their regular weapons. This mush was revealed at a briefing in Lugansk, according to the head of the press service of the People's Police LPR Yakov Osadchy.

"In the village of Popasna, the security agencies of Ukraine are conducting operational measures to find four soldiers from the 14th brigade, who, on November 25, voluntarily left the location of the unit with standard weapons," the agency LITs quoted him.

Osadchy added that Ukrainian commanders are hiding this fact from their superiors. Indeed, these incoming reports are clearly incomplete, due to the general success that Ukrainian commanders have in hiding these desertions which analysts claim have become common-place.

In the People's Militia, they have repeatedly noted that the moral and mental state of the Kiev security officials is worsening, they continue to maraud and organize "drunken clashes" which are not embraced by the local population, and cases of non-statutory relationships that lead to desertion and suicide among the Armed Forces of Ukraine have become frequent.

With Poroshenko's martial law provisions in place, journalists may find it illegal to report now on such desertions and suicides. This will create a longer-term problem for the Kiev Junta, as Ukrainians will increasingly look to foreign press for reports on the situation in the east of the country. Once citizens become accustomed to visiting websites not in anyway under the influence of the Kiev regime, the Junta will lose its ability to manufacture consent all together.