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Western shortsightedness: Russia will seek partners for oil and gas projects in countries not imposing sanctions

Polina Devitt
Reuters
Sat, 22 Nov 2014 15:01 UTC
Image
© Reuters/Tatyana Makeyeva
Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak: Russia will engage in O&G projects with countries not imposing sanctions.
Moscow will seek new partners in countries that have not imposed sanctions on it if Western oil and gas companies pull out of projects with Russia, RIA news agency quoted Energy Minister Alexander Novak as saying on Saturday.

The sanctions over Russia's role in the Ukraine crisis have targeted the delivery of oil technology, goods and services, aiming to make it harder for Moscow to access new oil sources.

"If (Western) companies decide for themselves not to take part in organizing investment projects in the long term, we will invite investors from countries which have not imposed sanctions against us and our oil and gas companies," Novak was quoted as saying in response to a question at a meeting with students.

Comment: The Western elites have been so keen to undermine Russia, that they have lost all sense of reason. Russia is by no means isolated, and countries imposing sanctions have seen their economies take hits that are directly related to these sanctions. Nonetheless, the West continues to march to this same drum beat, wishfully thinking it can eventually create the reality it desires. Not so bright, eh?

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Cookie

One million tons of Iraqi grain stolen by ISIL


Press TV
Tue, 18 Nov 2014 18:44 UTC
ISIS/ISIL fighters
© AFP Photo/Al-Furqan Media
ISIS/ISIL fighters
Baghdad says ISIL militants have stolen more than one million tons of grain from northern Iraq before transferring the loot to neighboring Syria.

Iraqi Agriculture Minister Falah Hassan al-Zeidan said in a statement on Tuesday that ISIL terrorists had taken wheat and barley to areas of Syria they currently control.
ISIL "in the past four months has stolen more than one million tons of wheat and grain from Iraq and transported it to Syria through Mosul," al-Zeidan said.
The statement added that the grain had been taken "from Nineveh Province to the Syrian cities of Raqqa and Deir al-Zor."

Back in August, the former director general of Iraq's Grain Board, Hassan Ibrahim, said the militants had seized 40,000 to 50,000 tons of wheat in Nineveh and the western province of Anbar, before moving it to Syria.

Iraqi officials say the militants consider eastern Syria to be "safe for them" and for this reason they are transferring the stolen crop "to preserve it."

After entering northern Iraq from Syria back in June, ISIL militants took over government grain silos in Nineveh and Salahuddin provinces, where nearly half of the country's wheat and barley is grown.

ISIL terrorists operating in the region have currently gained control over large areas of territory across Syria and Iraq. They have carried out atrocities in both countries, including mass executions and beheadings of local residents as well as foreign nationals.
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Light Sabers

China against declaration of independence at referendums but Crimea is different due to its history


TASS
Sat, 22 Nov 2014 17:51 UTC
Presidents Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping
© Unknown
These two leaders have joined forces on more than just economic levels. There is a war going on against them and they are well aware of it.
China is against the declaration of independence by any ethnic groups through referendums, but this does not apply to Crimea, the acting director of the Chinese Foreign Ministry's European-Central Asian Affairs department, Gui Congyou, told Russian media on Friday.
"We should take a very careful and well-considered attitude to tackling nationalities' issues. We are against any nationality gaining independence through referendums. As far as Crimea is concerned, it has very special features. We know well the history of Crimea's affiliation," the diplomat said.
"On the whole, the nationalities' problems in some countries stem from double standard policies by certain states, which, proceeding from their own selfish interests, support one ethnic group and push it towards holding an independence referendum. This is a manifestation of double standards serving the interests of the United States. In a bid to achieve its aims, the US resorts to intervention in the internal affairs of other states by using force without UN Security Council authorization. China is firmly against this approach," Gui said.

In his opinion, "such actions trigger aggravations of inter-ethnic contradictions and result in armed conflicts."
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Green Light

Russia not isolated: China recognises Crimean referendum!

Alexander Mercouris
Vineyard of the Saker
Sat, 22 Nov 2014 17:33 UTC
Crimean referendum
© Unknown
China recognises Crimean referendum.
This is the clear meaning of the statement TASS reports that a senior official of the Chinese Foreign Ministry has made.
The fact that China recognises the Crimean referendum means that de facto (and surely before long de jure) China has recognised Crimea's unification with Russia. Note also that the official has expressed support for Russia's Ukrainian policy. [Here is the link from TASS]

This is the clearest statement from an official source (as opposed to the news media) of China's position viz the Ukrainian crisis that China has made to date. Because it is made by an official rather than a minister it has gone almost unnoticed. However that is how China works: statements of this sort are first floated in the media, then made formally but at a relatively low level, following which they become uncontested policy. Suffice to say that it is inconceivable that the official in question would have spoken out in this way without clearance from the very highest levels of the Chinese government and the fact that in his conversation to TASS he actually quotes comments made by Xi Jinping in telephone conversations with Putin puts that question beyond doubt.
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War Whore

Delusional Western groupthink on Syria and Ukraine extends to lapdog mainstream media

Robert Parry
constortiumnews.com
Thu, 20 Nov 2014 16:32 UTC
Image
Official Washington's "group think" on Syria and Ukraine is so delusional that it is putting the whole world in danger, but - as with the Iraq War - the mainstream U.S. news media is part of the problem, not part of any solution, writes Robert Parry.

Neocon ideology appears to have seized near total control over the editorial pages of America's premier news organizations, including the New York Times and the Washington Post, contributing to an information crisis inside "the world's superpower," a development that should unnerve both Americans and the world community.

A Washington Post editorial, for instance, took President Barack Obama to task on Wednesday for one of the few moments when he was making sense, when he answered "no" to whether he was "actively discussing ways to remove" Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Obama added, "we are looking for a political solution eventually within Syria. ... But we're not even close to being at that stage yet."

The question itself - from Kristen Welker of NBC News - would have been remarkable enough if you weren't steeped in the arrogance of Official Washington where it's common to engage in casual speculation about overthrowing another country's government. In Neocon Land, it goes without saying that once the United States judges some world leader guilty for having violated international law or human rights or whatever, it is fine for the U.S. government to "take out" that leader, even if the supposed "facts" are a jumble of reality and propaganda that no one has bothered to seriously sort out.

In Assad's case, there is the conventional wisdom that his government carried out the Aug. 21, 2013 sarin gas attack outside Damascus, although much evidence now points to a provocation by anti-Assad rebels. There is also the fact that Assad's military has been battling the ruthless Islamic State and Al-Qaeda's Nusra Front, two terroristic organizations.
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Heart - Black

Heartbreaking video of man finding his home and family bombed by U.S.-backed Kiev army

Charles Bausman
Russia Insider
Sat, 22 Nov 2014 16:07 UTC
Image

US and EU backed armies are brutalizing civilians...
One of the hardest things about producing this site is watching these gut-wrenching videos coming out of East Ukraine.

There are literally hundreds of them.

We think of ourselves as pretty hard-boiled, but sifting through them looking for news, or even worse, having to watch sections of them over and over again as one edits and captions is sometimes too much ...

Sometimes without warning, the tears well up as your soul rebels ...

Watch this video, even if it hurts. After seeing this, no sane person could still believe Kiev is right in attacking East Ukraine.

Western politicians are guilty of this. Obama and Merkel are guilty of this.

They are funding, encouraging, and justifying a cynical, homicidal military attack against civilians, whose only sin was to exercise their right to secede from a country they no longer wanted to belong to, a basic right recognized in all democracies.
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Vader

Revealing their fascist allegiance: US, Canada & Ukraine vote against Russia's anti-Nazism resolution at UN


Russia Today
Sat, 22 Nov 2014 11:13 UTC
Ukrainian Nazis
© RIA Novosti / Alexandr Maksimenko
Azov battalion soldiers take an oath of allegiance to Ukraine in Kiev's Sophia Square before being sent to the Donbass region.
UN General Assembly's Third Committee passed a Russia-proposed resolution condemning attempts to glorify Nazism ideology and denial of German Nazi war crimes. The US, Canada and Ukraine were the only countries to vote against it.

The resolution was passed on Friday by the committee, which is tasked with tackling social and humanitarian issues and human rights abuses, by 115 votes against three, with 55 nations abstaining, Tass news agency reported.

The document voiced concern over the rise of racism-driven crimes around the world and the influence that parties with extremist agendas are gaining.

It called for a universal adoption of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. Many nations including the US, the UK, China and India, signed the convention but did not recognize a mechanism resolving individual complaints it establishes, which makes the convention unenforceable in their jurisdictions.

The convention also decries attempts to whitewash Nazi collaborators by depicting them as fighters of nationalist resistance movements and honoring them as such.

Comment: Note also that Germany 'abstained', which means, 'we don't particularly care one way or another'.

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Vader

Obama signs secret order that expands US combat operation in Afghanistan


RT
Sat, 22 Nov 2014 04:34 UTC
Image
© AFP Photo / Ethan Miller
It's alright, I have everything under control.
President Barack Obama has secretly signed an order that expands the United States' direct combat role in Afghanistan throughout 2015, the New York Times reported.

Signed over the last few weeks, the secret order permits American forces to continue to battle the Taliban and other militants that pose a threat to either the Afghan government or US personnel.


Comment: Gotta keep that opium poppy yield up.


According to the Times, US jets, bombers, and drones will be able to aid ground troops - be they Afghan or US forces - in whatever mission they undertake.


Comment: That leaves it pretty wide open then. Warmonger John Campbell couldn't be prouder.


Under the order, ground troops could join Afghan troops on missions, and airstrikes could be carried out in their support.

If true, this marks a significant expansion of America's role in Afghanistan in 2015. Previously, President Obama said US forces would not be involved in combat operations once the new year begins. He did say troops would continue training Afghan forces and track down remaining Al-Qaeda members.


Comment: Not so unusual for Obama to go back on his word.


Obama signed the secret order after tense debates within the administration. The military reportedly argued that it would allow the US to keep the pressure on the Taliban and other groups should details emerge that they are planning to attack American troops. Civilian aides, meanwhile, said the role of combat troops should be limited to counter-terror missions against Al-Qaeda.

Comment: Operation Enduring Freedom will not go quietly in the dark.

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Bulb

Europe backpedaling on U.S. aggressive agenda towards Russia?

Finian Cunningham
Strategic Culture Foundation
Thu, 20 Nov 2014 02:38 UTC
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It's long overdue but better late than never that Europe might just be back-pedalling on America's aggressive agenda towards Russia. The business-like visit to Moscow this week by Germany's Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier suggests that Europe can come to its senses to seek a diplomatic resolution of the escalating tensions over the Ukraine crisis - tensions that could spark a wider continental war, or worse.

Steinmeier met with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in which the pair stressed the need to find a political end to the violence in Ukraine. The German diplomat - the first high-level European envoy to Moscow in several months - also talked about normalising relations between his country and Russia and of finding a way to rescind the economic sanctions that Brussels has imposed on Moscow over recent months.

EU ministers in Brussels balked at imposing a fourth round of sanctions earlier this week, showing a growing division over the policy among European governments.

Interestingly, Steinmeier said his visit to the Russian capital was following up on positive discussions held last weekend with President Vladimir Putin at the G20 summit in Australia. The German foreign minister said the task now was to prevent a new spiral of violence in Ukraine.

Given that Germany is the European Union's largest economy, we can fairly say that Berlin's political attitude is going to hold sway for the rest of the bloc.

Meanwhile, the contrast with the European attitude, as seen this week through Steinmeier, could not be sharper in Washington.
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Folder

Russia at a glance: Sitrep on latest developments

Patrick Armstrong
Russia Insider
Thu, 20 Nov 2014 01:58 UTC
RUSSIA ISOLATED?

sad obama
Not at APEC - here's the thousand word photo. And not at G20 either - BRICS had a happy meeting. The West and its tame media is seriously deluding itself with this Russia is isolated stuff.

NEW NWO

Russia bought 55 tonnes of gold in the last quarter. What's that mean? here's a theory. (Ukraine's gold, on the other hand, is almost all gone.) Meanwhile, an arms sale to China. Sberbank offers Yuans. Another huge gas deal. Increasing military cooperation. India-China. New financial instruments. Petrodollar. Russia-Pakistan. It marches. Who thought Ukraine would be so important?

Comment: A handy collection of links! Be sure to check out Armstrong's blog here.

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