Puppet Masters

Pepe Escobar: The un-submersible US-Iran stalemate

Pepe Escobar
Asia Times
Fri, 05 Jul 2019 10:55 UTC

© Alexei Danichev / Sputnik/ AFP
Orthodox priests and Russian sailors pay their respects at a service to remember 14 submariners who died on July 1, after a fire on a research sub from the Northern Fleet, in the Naval Cathedral in Kronshtadt.

Lost in the submarine uproar, the deadline set by Tehran for the EU-3 to support Iranian crude sales expires Sunday.

A thick veil of mystery surrounds the fire that broke out in a state of the art Russian submersible in the Barents Sea, leading to the death of 14 crew members poisoned by toxic fumes.

According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the submersible was conducting bathymetric measurements, as in examining and mapping deep sea conditions. The crew on board was composed of "unique naval specialists, high-class professionals, who conducted important research of the Earth's hydrosphere." Now the - so far unnamed - nuclear-powered vessel is at the Arctic port of Severomorsk, the main base of Russia's Northern Fleet.

A serious, comprehensive military investigation is in progress. According to the Kremlin, "the Supreme Commander-in-Chief has all the information, but this data cannot be made public, because this refers to the category of absolutely classified data."

Comment: See also:

'Colonies against empires': Brexit Party MEP slams EU's idea of democracy

RT
Thu, 04 Jul 2019 13:43 UTC

Ann Widdecombe, one of the Brexit Party's most prominent figures, has delivered a fiery maiden speech in the EU Parliament, comparing the EU to "oppressors" such as slave owners or colonizers, provoking both praise and ridicule.

The MEP for the South West of England let rip into EU cheerleaders during her address in the Strasbourg parliament on Thursday. Widdecombe derided the suggestion that the European parliament was a beacon for democracy, highlighting the recent appointments of high ranking EU officials.

Widdecombe insisted the selection process showed a "serious betrayal" of every member of the bloc. She then delivered a volley of analogies that compared the power relationship between the EU - as the oppressor - to the British public, the oppressed, using the slave trade as an example. Widdecombe also singled out Guy Verhofstadt, the European Parliament's Brexit coordinator.

Comment: She has a point: the EU's democratic process is warped as is its bureaucracy, and many throughout Europe at least share her sentiment:

Also check out SOTT radio's:

Peru invites China, Russia, US to Lima Group meeting to be 'part of solution' in Venezuela

RT
Thu, 04 Jul 2019 02:02 UTC

With Caracas and the Venezuelan opposition still locked in a stalemate after the botched coup attempt in April, Guaido supporter Peru has invited Russia, China, Turkey, Cuba and the US to the next Lima Group meet-up.

Peru's foreign minister Nestor Popolizio told a Wednesday press conference that his government has sent out invitations to some 100 countries to join the August 6 meeting of the 14-member Lima Group.

Among the invitees are Russia, China, Cuba, Bolivia and Turkey, the countries that have rejected the attempt by Western-backed Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido to overthrow the government and stood by elected Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

The US, which was the first nation to recognize Guaido and has since been aggressively promoting his cause, including encouraging the Venezuelan military to defect to Guaido's side, has also been invited to the August gathering.

Popolizio said that by seeking to gather both Guaido allies and those backing the Maduro government, Lima is "looking for a point of convergence that allows us to establish a credible dialogue" that might eventually pave the way for snap elections in the crisis-hit country. However, taking into account the sides' opposing takes on the Venezuelan issue, there is no talk about drawing up any binding document in the wake of the meeting.

Comment: Part of the solution? The whole solution should be to honor the Venezuelans' legitimately elected president, to support an economic return to solvency and to unequivocally respect Venezuela's right to self determination.

See also:

Exploring the paradox of American russophobia

Sean Guillory
The Moscow Times
Wed, 03 Jul 2019 00:00 UTC

Given that Russophobia suggests an irrational fear of Russia's "Otherness," how much of this is really about Russia?

Tackling something as conceptually vague as Russophobia requires a measure of intellectual dexterity. Its use and meaning has become totally subsumed into today's information war.

A glaring example is the recent report from the Russian Foreign Ministry. It's a sloppily compiled laundry list of slights in American reporting on Russiagate, and frankly, doesn't deserve serious engagement. But thanks to Moscow's reflexive cry of Russophobia, some critics merely reduce it to a "weapon" that is "whitewashing destructive Kremlin behavior."

Russophobia as deflection has been countered with a blanket denial of its existence.

The term, however, deserves engagement when scraped of its infowar muck. Its efficacy is in the ways it speaks to national identity, the construction of civilizational borders, how the "West" imagines Russia and how, vis-à-vis Russia, the "West" imagines itself.

Comment: The author has a much better article here:

A Genealogy of American Russophobia

Putin: Russia has 'political will' for arms reduction deal, the ball is in US' court

RT
Thu, 04 Jul 2019 04:10 UTC

Russia does not seek an arms race, only protection, Vladimir Putin said shortly after suspending the INF treaty in a mirror response to the US. Moscow is open to a new arms reduction deal, but the US must reciprocate, he added.

In an extended interview with Italy's Corriere della Sera daily on Thursday, Putin pointed to the gargantuan difference between the US and Russian defense budgets, to dismiss the notion that Moscow could want to enter an arms race.

"Compare how much Russia spends on defense - some $48 billion, and how much the US spends - over $700 billion. Where is the arms race? We will not let ourselves be dragged into such a race, but we must ensure our security," Putin said.

Reaching a comprehensive arms reduction agreement is what Moscow is striving for, but Washington doesn't seem as willing, he said. "Russia has the political will to work on this. Now it's the US' turn," Putin said.

He pointed out that Moscow never heard back from the Trump administration after offering to sign a joint declaration on the inadmissibility of nuclear war in October, the same month Trump announced his intention to unilaterally withdraw from the cold-war era Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF).

Comment: See also: Putin signs law suspending INF treaty with US

Professor Richard Wolff: UK is ripping off the Libyan people by spending Gaddafi's billions

RT
Thu, 04 Jul 2019 10:35 UTC

The British government wants to start spending the money earned in taxes from frozen assets of late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. Professor Richard Wolff insists it's the Libyan people who should get their money back.

British lawmakers proposed handing over £17 million earned in taxes from the frozen assets to the victims of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) attacks. This follows a parliamentary report disclosure last month that the UK Treasury took millions of pounds in tax over the past three years from £12 billion of Libyan assets linked to Gaddafi.

While lawmakers are trying to clarify if it's legal to receive money in taxes from the frozen funds of another state, Professor Richard Wolff says the money belongs to the Libyan people and must be returned.

"They deserve every bit of the wealth they created and they ought to have that wealth available to them as soon as it possibly can be turned over... because that's how we run this world. We don't give over to other countries the wealth produced in our country," the economist and co-founder of 'Democracy at Work' told RT.

Comment: See also:

Kushner: Trump willing to engage with Abbas to discuss peace plan, Abbas not so much

Steve Holland, Ali Sawafta
Reuters
Wed, 03 Jul 2019 10:02 UTC

White House senior adviser Jared Kushner said on Wednesday that U.S. President Donald Trump is fond of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and willing to engage with him, but Abbas was cool to the gesture.

In a conference call with reporters, Kushner said, "Our door is always open" to the Palestinians.

The Palestinians have refused to talk to Kushner and other architects of a U.S. peace initiative unveiled at a Bahrain workshop last week. Kushner at the Manama conference outlined a $50 billion economic revival plan for the Palestinian territories, Jordan, Egypt and Lebanon that is dependent on Israel and the Palestinians reaching a political settlement to their decades-old conflict.

Trump's proposals to settling the thorny political issues remain secret and are to be released later this year. There are doubts among Palestinians as to whether his plan will include the long-standing goal of a "two-state solution" - Israel and Palestine existing side-by-side in peace.

Comment: See also:

Libyan confrontations reveal war crimes on both sides

Richard Galustian
Ron Paul Institute
Wed, 03 Jul 2019 00:00 UTC

A major escalation of the Libyan war has commenced. On Monday 1st July, Libyan National Army (LNA) Commander Mohamed Manfour announced the beginning of a new aerial bombardment campaign after "traditional means" to "liberate Tripoli" had been exhausted.

Rumours abounded two weeks ago that the militias of Tripoli were beginning to show signs of buckling under the pressure from Field Marshall Khalifa Haftar's LNA. The LNA Airforce's looked like it had achieved air superiority over Tripoli, then an unexpected turn occurred: Turkey upped their ante and embarked on a resupply of defence equipment to the Tripoli and Misrata militias.

The consequences on the ground in Libya of Turkey's interference were immediate. A major setback resulted for Haftar on the 27th of June when the pro-Tripoli GNA Forces "liberated" Gharayan and forced Haftar's LNA army to retreat from the town.

Haftar's Libyan National Army (LNA), said on Sunday (30th June) its air force destroyed a Turkish drone parked at Mitiga International Airport. "Our air force targeted and destroyed a Turkish 'Bayraktar' aircraft as it was taking off," Haftar's LNA said in a statement on Facebook. "The aircraft had been prepared to target our armed forces' positions," it said.

Comment: See also:

Galloway: Does anyone seriously expect Von der Leyen and Lagarde to change the neo-liberal status quo?

George Galloway
RT
Wed, 03 Jul 2019 10:24 UTC

No hustings, no debate, no votes, no elections. In fact, there was no democracy at all. Not even puffs of white smoke from the Brussels chimney to tell hundreds of millions of EU citizens who their new governors were going to be. Just simple horse-trading, and what a donkey derby it was.

A German minister of defense, a fanatic for a European army - what could possibly go wrong?!

Lagarde, who was found guilty of negligence linked to misuse of public funds when she was France's finance minister, gets the keys to the biggest bank of all.

For the identity-politics liberals, this was a matter for rejoicing because of the chromosomes involved. Both Ursula von der Leyen, the hawk replacing the merry Jean-Claude Juncker, and Christine Lagarde are women. That neither woman has a shred of democratic legitimacy but a shed-load of power matters not a jot. Personally, I stopped believing in that kind of thing when Margaret Thatcher handbagged her way through the 1980s, laying industrial Britain to waste.

The horse-trading took a whole three days and was a wrangle essentially between Germany and France, the two countries for whom the EU was designed and who have benefited from it most.

Italy announces opening a trade bureau with Russia

Joaquin Flores
FRN
Thu, 04 Jul 2019 00:00 UTC

A specialized bureau to support Russian exports is scheduled to open in Italy. According to the VEB.RF press service, the office will work in Milan, and the export support group with the participation of the Russian trade mission in Rome.

Earlier, VEB, the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Russia and the REC signed a trilateral memorandum on the organization of cooperation in the field of foreign trade, on the issues of building a unified system of export promotion. The parties agreed to share the experience, capabilities, resources and infrastructure of the VEB, REC and trade missions abroad. The message said:

The project is being implemented within the framework of creating a unified system of export promotion in the constituent entities of the Russian Federation and abroad. The opening of integrated support structures is provided for by the national project 'International Cooperation and Export'.

It should be noted that Italy is traditionally one of the largest trading partners of Russia and ranks fifth in terms of turnover. At the end of 2018, it amounted to $ 27 billion, an increase of 13%.

Comment: More from FRN: Sanctions against Russia counter-productive; opportunities for cooperation

Italy believes that unilateral decisions on anti-Russian sanctions are counter-productive, and is working on universal dialogue about the total abolition of the restrictions regime.

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Puppet Masters

Pepe Escobar: The un-submersible US-Iran stalemate

'Colonies against empires': Brexit Party MEP slams EU's idea of democracy

Peru invites China, Russia, US to Lima Group meeting to be 'part of solution' in Venezuela

Exploring the paradox of American russophobia

Putin: Russia has 'political will' for arms reduction deal, the ball is in US' court

Professor Richard Wolff: UK is ripping off the Libyan people by spending Gaddafi's billions

Kushner: Trump willing to engage with Abbas to discuss peace plan, Abbas not so much

Libyan confrontations reveal war crimes on both sides

Galloway: Does anyone seriously expect Von der Leyen and Lagarde to change the neo-liberal status quo?

Italy announces opening a trade bureau with Russia

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