Western attacks on Russian media vary from the abusive to the merely sarcastic, but what all of them have in common is the attempt to define the English language Russian media as a "propaganda instrument" of the Russian government.

The Ukrainian crisis has triggered an extraordinary series of attacks on the English language Russian media by the Western media. Here in Britain, where I write, hardly a day has passed in the past few weeks without the Russian media coming in for some sort of attack.

These attacks vary from the abusive to the merely sarcastic, but what all of them have in common is the attempt to define the English language Russian media as a "propaganda instrument" of the Russian government (always portentously called "the Kremlin").

The primary target is the Russian media's coverage of the Ukrainian crisis. US Secretary of State John Kerry has even called RT a "propaganda bullhorn" because of it.

There are many ways to define "propaganda", but most people would agree that it involves disseminating information in a way that is misleading and biased so as to influence opinion in a particular way. Doing so can involve an element of outright lying, but in my experience the most common and effective way is to omit or minimise important facts so as to make a correct understanding of an issue or situation impossible.

Russia is unable to continue the South Stream gas pipeline project implementation in current conditions, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday.

"Taking into account the European Commission's position, which is not contributing to the realization of this project, taking into account the fact that we have only recently received permission from the respective organizations in the Netherlands... Taking into account the fact that we still have not received Bulgaria's permission, we think that Russia is unable to continue realization of this project in such conditions," Putin said at a press conference following talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

"We cannot start the construction in the sea until we have Bulgaria's permission to begin construction in the sea. It would be absurd to reach the Bulgarian coast and to stop then," Russian leader added.

Due to the European Commission's non-constructive approach, Russia will redirect gas deliveries to other regions, Putin said.

Two reports out today from the US and UK are ramping up 'the terror threat from ISIS'.

First from the UK, as reported by the billionaire-owned Daily Express:

Terrorists are plotting to blow up five European passenger jets in a Christmas "spectacular", security experts say.

The threat has been taken so seriously it came close to leading to an outright ban on all hand luggage, a senior insider has revealed.

Mobile phones and electronic devices could still be banned from plane cabins, with the threat of a 9/11-style coordinated attack on London and other major cities feared imminent.

The warning comes as Whitehall officials admit that a terror strike on the UK is now "almost inevitable" particularly with British jihadis returning from fighting alongside the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

An airport security source told the Sunday Express: "We've been told that five planes are being targeted in a high profile hit before Christmas. They've been waiting for the big one.

"We have many scares but this one nearly got hand baggage pulled from all airlines. The threat is still alive and real."

The plot, which has been known about for the past two months, is thought to involve Islamists smuggling bombs on to planes bound for major European destinations before Christmas.

The well-placed security insider said talks had been held about how to deal with it, with suggestions made to ban hand luggage.

The source said: "High level negotiations are continuing at Governmental level but at the moment there has been little done to respond.

"There is paralysis because of the difficulty of banning hand luggage which is one of the strongest weapons we have against the new threats.

"All electronics may be banned from hand luggage and placed in the hold, that has been considered, and there has been behaviour analysis training at airports but while it's effective, it's difficult to roll out quickly and is not a sufficient safety net.

"The threat is aimed at Europe. The U.S has improved their security over the summer but we have not.

"Everyone is expecting something catastrophic very soon."

The Orwellian response to this alleged threat is to further clamp down on airport security to the extent of making travel extremely stressful for ordinary people... right in time for holiday season.

Russia is forced to withdraw from the South Stream project due to the EU's unwillingness to support the pipeline, and gas flows will be redirected to other customers, Vladimir Putin said after talks with his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

"We believe that the stance of the European Commission was counterproductive. In fact, the European Commission not only provided no help in implementation of [the South Stream pipeline], but, as we see, obstacles were created to its implementation. Well, if Europe doesn't want it implemented, it won't be implemented," the Russian president said.

The South Stream project is at the stage when "the construction of the pipeline system in the Black Sea must begin," but Russia still hasn't received an approval for the project from Bulgaria, the Russian president said.

Investing hundreds of millions of dollars into the pipeline, which would have to stop when it reaches Bulgarian waters, is "just absurd, I hope everybody understands that," he said.

Police have yet to make any arrests after a justice centre in Malmö was bombed late on Sunday night. The explosion resulted in substantial damage in what was the second attack on the building this year.

The bomb exploded just before midnight and damaged the main entrance and front of the building. Such was the force of the blast that several nearby properties had its windows blown apart.

No one was seriously hurt but there was one person who had some minor injuries after being cut by shards of glass.

Police have been speaking to people in the area in the wake of the incident to try and determine what happened.

"There are some witnesses who said that someone was at the building and then ran away shortly before the detonation," said Stephan Söderholm, information officer with the Skåne police.

The Foreign Minister and Minister for Expatriates of the Syrian Arab Republic, Mr. Waleed Al-Mu'allim, is in Sochi to meet with Russian President, Vladimir Putin, and Russian F.M., Sergei Lavrov. The meeting is face-to-face which required the Syrian top diplomat to fly to Russia. You can assume that the reasons for the trip have to do with secrecy, confidential exchanges of information and the need to prevent Western eavesdropping. This meeting could be the most important of the entire war in Syria.

Pay no attention to press conferences or summaries offered up by both sides to the talks at the end. This meeting is not about publicity or orotund denunciations of terrorism. Both countries have staked out clear positions on ISIS, American meddling and the incessant violations of international law by the West, its troglodyte Arabian allies, and the Zionist Apartheid State.

Amazon.com Inc has installed more than 15,000 robots across 10 U.S. warehouses, a move that promises to cut operating costs by one-fifth and get packages out the door more quickly in the run-up to Christmas.

The orange 320-pound (145 kg) robots, which scoot around the floor on wheels, show how Amazon has adopted technology developed by Kiva Systems, a robotics company it bought for $775 million in 2012. Amazon showcased to media on Sunday ahead of Cyber Monday, the biggest online shopping day of the year.

The robots are designed to help the leading U.S. online retailer speed the time it takes to deliver items to customers and better compete with brick-and-mortar stores, where the bulk of Americans still do their shopping.

The Canadian government said on Sunday it was investigating reports that a Canadian-Israeli woman who joined Kurdish militias fighting in northern Syria has been captured by Islamic State (Isis) fighters.

According to a blog linked to Isis, several female fighters who fought alongside the Kurds have been taken prisoner, including Gill Rosenberg, a Canadian-born resident of Tel Aviv. Israel Radio reported Kurdish sources denying the claims, saying Rosenberg was not in the area when it was attacked.

A Canadian government spokesman said in a statement his country was "pursuing all appropriate channels" as it sought further information and was in touch with local authorities.

Asked by an Israeli television station about the reports, the Israeli defense minister, Moshe Ya'alon, said: "I cannot confirm that and I hope that it isn't true." The Shin Bet, Israel's general security service, told the Jerusalem Post: "There are no further details at this stage".

Rosenberg, 31, joined Kurdish troops fighting Isis earlier this month. A former pilot who served in the Israeli Defence Force (IDF), she reportedly contacted Kurdish fighters over the internet before travelling through Iraq to train at one of their camps on the Syrian border.

When President Obama nominated Chuck Hagel to lead the Pentagon in 2012, the decorated Vietnam War veteran became the first enlisted man to serve as the Secretary of Defence.

Unlike his predecessors, Robert Gates, Leon Panetta, and Donald Rumsfeld, Hagel, as an infantry squad leader, has seen firsthand the carnage of combat. And, like all who are confronted with the reality of war, he hated it.

"Every Vietnam veteran understands that," Hagel said during a 2012 interview. "Any veteran who has ever served in a war understands that, and I think we should never forget the consequences of war."

To understand Hagel is to understand why he opposed the 2007 surge. He called the Iraq war, "the most dangerous foreign policy blunder in this country since Vietnam". It was his opposition to the Iraq surge that led some Senate Republicans, particularly John McCain (R-AZ), to vehemently oppose his nomination.

The series of "colour" revolutions that have occurred in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) since 2010 have not happened by chance, especially since these were not a spontaneous protest by those "dreaming of democracy" but a result of the implementation of specific projects by certain Western powers to restructure the world order.

These processes of regime change occurred under the pressure of massive street protests and with the support of non-governmental organizations financed from abroad. The purpose of the colour revolutions was a coup using mainly non-violent methods of political struggle, in the interests of, and with the dominant and direct participation in planning, organization and financing by, Western nations and, above all, the United States.

Or rather, the aim was not simply an overthrow of the existing legal governments but a personified replacement of the countries' leaders, so that the "heat wave" of popular anger against the authorities would bring new faces which are in no way better than the previous ones but merely more satisfactory to the puppeteers in Washington.

The preparatory stage for unwinding the colour revolutions in the MENA region was certainly the military invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the subsequent overthrow of Saddam Hussein. In this way the strategists in Washington, in order to solve the White House's problem of achieving full submission of the Middle East to the United States, chose Iraq as the primary objective.