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Euroskeptics befuddled as Russians arrive in Scotland to inspect NATO exercise


RT
Tue, 14 Apr 2015 13:39 UTC
Image
© Reuters/Toby Melville
British Royal Navy frigate HMS Westminster.
To the befuddlement of Euro critics, Russian inspectors have arrived in the UK to oversee a mass NATO training exercise taking place in Scotland.

Despite current tensions between the West and Russia, the team from the Russian National Nuclear Threat Reduction Center is permitted to visit the country to observe military activities as part of a reciprocal agreement contained in the 2011 version of the Vienna Document.

The center is part of the Russian defense ministry. Its head, Sergey Ryzhkov, told the Daily Mail newspaper: "During the event, the inspectors will visit ranges and plan to hold command briefings on the conducted military activities."

The inspectors started their four-day visit on Monday after arriving at RAF Lossiemouth in Scotland.

Comment: Situation normal but some will get themselves all worked up about it for nothing.

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Radar

Drone wars: France develops anti-drone drone to find mystery UAV operators


Sputnik
Mon, 13 Apr 2015 21:37 UTC
Image
© AFP 2015/ ERIC PIERMONT
A system designed by a French robotics company promises to detect "malicious drone operators" in under a minute, in a country plagued by mysterious UAVs which have been sighted hovering over landmarks and military installations.

France's ECA Group has created new on-board technology for one of its small drones, the IT180, which promises to locate drone operators in under a minute.

France recently experienced a series of incidents where illegal drones flew over Paris landmarks as well as military installations. The new technology promises to help locate the source of drones if similar incidents occur in the future.

"Unlike the solutions available until now, which focus mainly on the neutralization of drones in flight, ECA Group has developed a solution that makes it impossible for malicious operators to disappear," the Group's press release said.

Comment: The drone wars.

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Nuke

Iran & Israel cooperate over nuclear testing


RT
Mon, 13 Apr 2015 21:27 UTC
Image
© Reuters / Majid Asgaripour
Iranian workers stand in front of the Bushehr nuclear power plant.
They may be bitter enemies, but Iran and Israel appear to have been cooperating within the boundaries of an international body that has been set up to monitor a ban on nuclear bomb tests.

"During the exercise, when we had our round-table discussions or dinner or lunches, you had Iranian experts and Israeli experts sitting at the same table," Lassina Zerbo, a leading commission member of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), told Reuters.

"It's not unusual that we see that in the technological field we have people who don't necessarily get together politically but who find things to agree on in the scientific framework," he added.

Comment: Well, well, well, leave it to the non-politicians to actually make sense of the nuclear situation.

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Take 2

'Normandy Four' ministers begin Ukrainian crisis talks in Berlin


Sputnik
Mon, 13 Apr 2015 21:19 UTC
Image
© REUTERS/ Clemens Bilan/POOL
Foreign ministers of Russia, Germany, France and Ukraine on Monday began a fresh round of talks on ways to resolve the ongoing conflict in eastern Ukraine.

Sergei Lavrov, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Laurent Fabius, and Pavlo Klimkin are expected to focus on the implementation of the Minsk peace accords, including setting up working groups within the so-called Contact Group on Ukraine.

Steinmeier said, prior to the talks, that it was "too early to celebrate victory in Ukrainian crisis settlement despite notable progress," as infrequent violations of the ceasefire regime persist in some contested areas of eastern Ukraine.

Comment: We will see if these talks will help Europe decide to ease the sanctions against Russia. These talks probably won't do much for the Ukrainian crises.

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Bulb

UN peace envoy urges West to listen to Russia regarding Syria crisis


Sputnik
Mon, 13 Apr 2015 20:03 UTC
Image
© Sputnik/ Mikhail Klementiev
The world should put aside current political tensions and listen more to Russia when negotiating ways to try and stop the four-year long conflict in Syria, the United Nations' special peace envoy to the country says.

The UN's Syria peace envoy Staffan de Mistura, who has recently been directed to re-launch the failed Syrian peace process, says that Moscow could play a key part in helping find some solutions to the brutal conflict that has resulted in the deaths of more than 210,000 people and led to a devastating humanitarian crisis since fighting began in 2011.
Staffan de Mistura: Moscow's influence on Damascus should be used http://t.co/OpMDVdy2aJ

— Syria News (@SyriaTNews) April 13, 2015
"Russia has influence on Damascus, and it's very important that they get involved," he told UK newspaper, The Independent.

"The two countries' relationship goes back to the time when Bashar al-Assad's father was in power. Therefore the Russians do have a knowledge of the system and the way they [Syrians] think."

Comment: While this makes sense, the West does not wish to portray Russia as being anything other than the world's boogeyman. The reality is that the U.S. is who the world should be scared of and Russia is the one holding their psychopathic actions at bay as best they can.

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Magnify

Why the Russia-China alliance makes sense


Sputnik
Mon, 13 Apr 2015 19:51 UTC
Image
© Flickr/ Mark Turner
Speaking to China National Radio on Sunday, Renmin University Professor Jin Canrong explained why Russia and China have a shared sense of historical memory regarding the Second World War, and why the partnership between the two countries is likely to be a lasting one.

In an interview with China National Radio published Sunday, Professor Jin Canrong of the Institute of International Relations at Renmin University explained Russia and China's common positions regarding the Second World War, noting that the Chinese leadership's participation in May's victory celebrations in Moscow signifies the high level of Russian-Chinese relations.

"Russia and China have similar positions on questions related to the Second World War," Professor Jin told the broadcaster. "Both countries made an enormous contribution to the war, and for both the price of victory was very high."

The professor noted that moreover, "both China and Russia are faced with the threat of historical revisionism; for example, at present, Japan is attempting to escape from its historical responsibility [for crimes committed in China and elsewhere]. There is a similar situation in Eastern Europe: in Lithuania and Estonia, for example, there have been cases of the destruction of monuments to soldiers of the Red Army. Moreover, in the Baltic countries, in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, Soviet soldiers are occasionally placed on a par with the Nazis. And this is very offensive."
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Take 2

Putin lifts ban on delivery of S-300 missile systems to Iran


RT
Mon, 13 Apr 2015 15:19 UTC
Image
© RIA Novosti/Andrei Aleksandrov
The Russian president has repealed the ban prohibiting the delivery of S-300 missile air defense systems to Iran, according to the Kremlin's press service. The ban was introduced by former President Dmitry Medvedev in 2010.

"[The presidential] decree lifts the ban on transit through Russian territory, including airlift, and the export from the Russian Federation to the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also the transfer to the Islamic Republic of Iran outside the territory of the Russian Federation, both by sea and by air, of air defense missile systems S-300," says the information note accompanying the document, RIA Novosti reported.

The decree enters into force upon the president's signature.

Comment: Did the US see that coming?

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Vader

U.S. propaganda 101 - You're either with US or you're a troll

Julie Lévesque
Global Research
Wed, 08 Apr 2015 14:57 UTC
Image
Foreign Policy Magazine recently had a column called Cranks, Trolls, and Useful Idiots, in which the author, Dalibor Rohac, hunts down "Russia's information warriors" who, he claims, have infested the web with their lies and propaganda on websites potentially paid for by the Russian government.

Rohac writes:
"Throughout the conflict in eastern Ukraine, these sites have systematically regurgitated Russian propaganda, spreading lies, half-truths, and conspiracy theories, often directly translated from Russian sources...

The Czech weekly Respekt published a feature article about the mysterious "news" site Aeronet (also known as AENews). Started in 2001 by aviation fans, the domain has changed ownership several times. Since the summer of 2014 it has regularly published articles accusing the new Ukrainian government of fascism and claiming that American and British mercenaries were fighting in eastern Ukraine. (Dalibor Rohac, Cranks, Trolls, and Useful Idiots, Foreign Policy, March 12, 2015)
First let's look at the weakness of the claims in the article.

The author accuses news outlets of doing exactly what he himself and the U.S. mainstream media in general does when reporting about foreign policy issues such as Ukraine: they "systematically [regurgitate U.S. propaganda, spread] lies, half-truths, and conspiracy theories." The advantage they have is that they don't need to translate anything. Apparently for Rohac an article written in Russian has to be Russian propaganda. It's that simple: Russians are just not producing any honest journalistic content. This argument about texts being "directly translated from Russian sources" is not only weak, it is xenophobic.
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Vader

Bill 2451: Poroshenko speaks in favor of internment camps for 'Anti-Ukrainians'

Marc Hopf
Russia Insider
Sun, 12 Apr 2015 13:40 UTC
ukraine internment camp

Return to the good old days?
The article originally appeared at RT Deutsch. Translated for RI by Kristina Aleshnikova

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has spoken in parliament (Verkhovna Rada) in favor of Bill 2451 "On the Legal Regime of Martial Law." This paves the way for comprehensive curfews as well as the construction of internment camps for "citizens whose native country threatens or is already actively participating in aggression against Ukraine."

The Ukrainian head of state submitted the document regarding an update to the legal regulation of martial law to parliament on April 3.

The draft, faithful to the Western orientation of its responsible legislative body, stipulates, among other things, the establishment of internment camps for those "citizens" living in Ukraine whose country of origin threatens or is already actively participating in "aggression against Ukraine."

Comment: Bearing witness to Ukraine's rapid descent into barbaric Nazism is absolutely frightening. Another Holocaust is pending.

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Heart

Russia prepares new humanitarian convoy for Donbas region


Sputnik
Mon, 13 Apr 2015 13:48 UTC
Image
© Sputnik/ Sergey Pivovarov
The Russian emergencies ministry is preparing a new humanitarian aid convoy for the east Ukrainian Donbas region, the ministry said in a statement Monday.

"Russia's Emergencies Ministry has started forming the 24th humanitarian aid convoy for residents of Donbas. This morning, 23 vehicles left Noginsky rescue center of Russia's Emergencies Ministry for Kovalevka village in the Rostov region carrying humanitarian aid to the residents of Donetsk and Luhansk regions," the statement said.

According to the ministry, more vehicles will join the convoy in the Rostov region before heading to Donbas.

Since August 2014, Russia has sent over 25,000 tons of humanitarian aid — mainly food products, medicine and construction materials — to the people in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, who have been suffering from a humanitarian crisis resulting from a military operation launched by Kiev authorities in Donbas in April, 2014.
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