Welcome to Sott.net
Fri, 05 Nov 2021
The World for People who Think

Puppet Masters
Map

Piggy Bank

Gazprom sends Ukraine $1.66bn bill


RT
Tue, 13 May 2014 14:48 UTC
Image
© RIA Novosti / Alexey Kudenko
Gazprom has sent Ukraine's Naftogaz a $1.66 billion bill for June, which Kiev must pay by June 2, or risk a halt in natural gas supplies on June 3.

Russia's largest state-owned natural gas producer sent the bill on Tuesday, Gazprom spokesman Sergey Kupriyanov said, as reported by ITAR-TASS. Kupriyanov said the switch to prepayment was in line with a 2009 contract.

President Dmitry Medvedev will hold a press conference on June 3.

Naftogaz, Ukraine's state oil and gas company "must pay this bill by June 2, and starting June 3, the company will only receive gas supplies that have been paid for," Kupriyanov said.

A supply rupture will not only hurt Ukraine, but also the rest of Europe, which receives up to 50 percent of its gas via Ukraine. Much of Europe is dependent on Russian gas, which supplies about 30 percent of energy needs. Bulgaria and the Czech Republic both import 100 percent of their natural gas from Russia, which passes through Ukraine.
      Read More...
Stock Down

Ukraine goes deeper in debt - gets €1.6bn in loans from European Commission


RT
Tue, 13 May 2014 15:18 UTC
Image
© AFP Photo / Georges Gobet
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso (R) and interim Ukraine premier Arseniy Yatsenyuk arrive on May 13 2014 at the EU Headquarters in Brussels
Ukrainian government officials signed a memorandum in Brussels today, which will make €1.6 billion in macroeconomic loans available in Ukraine. The loans will be provided to Ukraine's National Bank over the next 15 years.

"Our meeting was a very successful one. It was unprecedented. I think we can say there was a great convergence," Jose Barroso, the European Commission President said.

The EU will soon disburse the first tranche of a combined €1.61 billion ($ 2.2 billion) Macro Financial Assistance (MFA) loan program, but specific dates were not given.

Ukraine and the European Commission also signed a Financing Agreement for a State Building Contract that is worth €355 million and is intended to help the country's economic transition. Another €10 million will be available for civil society, according to the European Comissions's statement on its website.
      Read More...
Radar

US starts countrywide nuclear drill


RT
Mon, 12 May 2014 09:53 UTC
Boeing B-52
© (Reuters/Tim Chong)
A Boeing B-52 Stratofortress strategic bomber
The US Strategic Command, the agency responsible for country's nuclear arsenal, will hold large-scale war games this week that will include 10 B-52 Stratofortresses and up to six B-2 Spirit bombers, along with other military and government agencies.

The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress is a long-range, subsonic, jet-powered strategic bomber built to carry nuclear weapons.

The Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit, also known as the Stealth Bomber, is an American strategic bomber, designed for penetrating dense anti-aircraft defenses that can drop up to sixteen 1,100 kg B83 nuclear bombs.

Comment: Interestingly synchronous timing for these provocative "flexings of muscle," reminders that there are deadly serious consequences to pushing the tipping point. One bomber, 16 nuclear warheads...could be that simple.

      Read More...
Pistol

Killing democracy: People's governor of Ukraine's Luhansk region attacked


ITAR-TASS
Tue, 13 May 2014 08:04 UTC
Bolotov
© ITAR-TAS/Valery Matytsin
People's governor of Ukraine's Luhansk region Valery Bolotov (center)
People's governor of Ukraine's Luhansk region Valery Bolotov has been attacked. Bolotov has a gunshot wound, representative of the press center of Luhansk People's Republic Vasily Nikitin told ITAR-TASS on Tuesday.

Valery Bolotov has survived an assassination attempt, Vasily Nikitin added. "He has a gunshot wound," Nikitin said, "Bolotov is in hospital now; his life is not in danger."

The governor was attacked around 11:00, local time (4 pm GMT). It was a light injury, the press center representative added.

Gennady Kernes, 54, was badly wounded in the back in an assassination attempt on April 28. The attempt occurred when he was jogging along a highway in Kharkov. Overnight to April 29, he was taken to a private hospital in Israel's Haifa. Later, he was taken to the Haifa-based Rambam medical centre, where he was operated. Ukrainian presidency candidate Mikhail Dobkin said the person who made an attempt on the life of Kharkiv Mayor Gennady Kernes, shot to kill him. The attacker was shooting in the heart, said Dobkin, who is a close friend of Kernes, the mayor of a large Russian-speaking eastern Ukrainian city.
      Read More...
Evil Rays

Western news blackout: The U.S. media ignores Putin's peace plan

Mike Whitney
Global Research
Tue, 13 May 2014 07:29 UTC
War media
© Unknown

"Let me repeat again, that in Russia's view, the blame for the crisis in Ukraine lies with those who organized the coup d'etat in Kiev on February 22-23... But whatever the case, we must look for a way to solve the situation as it is today....And, as I said, what is needed is direct, full-fledged and equal dialogue between the Kiev authorities and the representatives of people in southeast Ukraine....I don't know whether a Geneva-2 round of talks.. is realistic. (But) I believe that if we want to find a long-term solution to the crisis, there must be an open, honest and equal dialogue . That is our only option."

-Russian President Vladimir Putin, press statement, OCSE meeting, Moscow, May 7, 2014

So many lie beneath the eternal granite
But of those honored by this stone
Let no one be forgotten
Let nothing be forgotten.

-Olga Berggolts, "Leningrad"
On Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin made a proposal for ending the violence in Ukraine at an OCSE (Organization for the Cooperation and Security in Europe) in Moscow. Unfortunately, most Americans never heard what he had to say because the media failed to publish his statement. The reason for the omission is fairly obvious, the media doesn't want people to know that Putin is not the ghoulish, authoritarian caricature he's portrayed to be, but a levelheaded pragmatist who wants a swift and peaceful resolution to the crisis. Here is what he said:
"We think the most important thing now is to launch direct dialogue, genuine, full-fledged dialogue between the Kiev authorities and representatives of southeast Ukraine. This dialogue could give people from southeast Ukraine the chance to see that their lawful rights in Ukraine really will be guaranteed."
      Read More...
Flashlight

Kerry 'the Fool', warns of "hot confrontation" with Russia

Barry Grey
World Socialist Web Site
Wed, 30 Apr 2014 07:28 UTC
Image
© Unknown
In an extraordinary interview with the Wall Street Journal given Monday and published Tuesday, US Secretary of State John Kerry made clear that the Obama administration and the US military/intelligence establishment are fully aware that they are risking the outbreak of nuclear war by pursuing a reckless and provocative policy towards Russia.

Summarizing the interview, Journal columnist Gerald F. Seib wrote: "His greatest fear now? 'I think it could deteriorate into hot confrontation,' even without Russian troops crossing into Ukraine, Mr. Kerry said. 'And there are provocateurs who are perfectly capable, who are trying to instigate that kind of flare-up.'

"The fact that it hasn't happened so far, he said, is a tribute to the discipline and restraint of the fledgling Ukrainian government. 'But obviously,' he added, 'you could have a flash point here.'"
      Read More...
Hiliter

Rob Ford admits drug problem and takes leave as Toronto mayor - Just another manipulation


The Guardian
Wed, 30 Apr 2014 22:10 UTC
Image
© Canadian Free Press/Mark Blinch
Lawyer announces Ford has abused substances and will seek help as newspaper describes new video of crack cocaine use

Rob Ford, the Toronto mayor, has announced he is taking a leave of absence to get help for substance abuse, while a newspaper says it has viewed another video of him smoking crack cocaine.

Ford's lawyer, Dennis Morris, said he spoke to Ford on Wednesday. "He acknowledges he has a substance abuse problem and he wants to do something about it," Morris said.

The Globe and Mail newspaper reported on Wednesday that it had viewed a new video of Ford smoking what was described as crack cocaine by a self-professed drug dealer. The video was secretly filmed in Ford's sister's basement early on Saturday morning, the newspaper said.
      Read More...
Pistol

Isabel Carrasco, prominent Spanish politician, shot dead

Ashifa Kassam
The Guardian
Mon, 12 May 2014 05:46 UTC
Isabel Carrasco
© EPA/J. Casares
Isabel Carrasco, 59, who headed the provincial government in León, died after being shot three times on Monday afternoon
A prominent politician from Spain's governing People's party was shot and killed on Monday afternoon as she was crossing a footbridge over the Bernesga river in the northern Spanish city of León.

Isabel Carrasco, 59, who led the provincial government in León, was shot several times in broad daylight as she walked the short distance from her home to the local party headquarters, said Ramiro Ruiz Medrano, the central government's representative in the region.

Witnesses heard several shots just after 5pm. "We thought they were firecrackers," one man told El País. "At that time the area is full of people, kids playing and lots of people walking their dogs."
      Read More...
Coffee

Ukraine: The waiting game is happening

Pepe Escobar
Asia Times Online
Tue, 13 May 2014 02:46 UTC
Referendum in Ukraine
© Reuters
Votes are placed in clear boxes during open ballots.
Everything one needs to know about mediocre political elites allegedly representing the "values" of Western civilization has been laid bare by their reaction to the referendums in Donetsk and Lugansk.

The referendums may have been a last-minute affair; organized in a rush; in the middle of a de facto civil war; and on top of it at gunpoint - supplied by the Kiev NATO neo-liberal neo-fascist junta, which even managed to kill some voters in Mariupol. An imperfect process? Yes. But absolutely perfect in terms of graphically depicting a mass movement in favor of self-rule and political independence from Kiev.

This was direct democracy in action; no wonder the US State Department hated it with a vengeance. [1]

Turnout was huge. The landslide victory for independence was out of the question. Same for transparency; a public vote, in glass ballot boxes, with monitoring provided by Western journalists - mostly from major German media but also from the Kyodo News Agency or the Washington Post.

What should come after the Donetsk People's Republic proclaimed itself a sovereign state, and asked Moscow to consider its accession into Russia, is not secession, nor outright civil war, but a negotiation.
      Read More...
Lemon

Pundit: Obama is bully at home, feeble abroad?

Michael Goodwin
New York Post
Sun, 11 May 2014 05:46 UTC
Barack Obama
© Reuters
The shrinking of a president.
As Barack Obama enters the twilight of his tenure, the ­debate over his legacy is ­beginning, but one conclusion already seems certain. It can best be described as "Honey, I shrunk the presidency."

Not since Jimmy Carter was held hostage by Iran has the Oval Office seemed so inconsequential against the forces of international darkness. The mismatch is particularly striking because smallness has been Obama's choice.

Although he is guilty of executive overreach at home, that bully behavior only sharpens the contrast with a foreign policy that is feeble when it is not comatose. The president's estrangement from the demands of global leadership is giving a green light to tyrants and malevolent opportunists everywhere.

His preference for navel gazing over action was on full display last week. As Russia
Spielberg and Obama, award
© news.usc.edu
Steven Spielberg presents President Barack Obama with the USC Shoah Foundation's Ambassador for Humanity Award
and China menaced their neighbors and Islamist terrorists set off bombs in a half-dozen countries, Obama accepted an award from Hollywood pal Steven Spielberg for fighting genocide. Passing up a chance to give a full-throated defense of freedom and Western civilization, the president lapsed into what The New York Times called a "meditation" on the limits of his power.

That's far too kind. It was a white flag of surrender and more proof that Obama lacks the capacity to shoulder the responsibilities that have belonged to the Oval Office for 100 years.

Comment: This article is SO wrong, we don't even know where to begin! The author misses the obvious fact that the U.S. is currently the biggest threat to peace and stability around the world, and that Obama is nothing but the spokesman puppet (at best!) of the PTB who want to bring the whole globe and its people/resources under their control and domination.

      Read More...
Amazon Smile
Revolt! T-shirts