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Putin to Duma: Ratify Russia-Armenia agreement on joint air defense


RT
Fri, 07 Oct 2016 13:43 UTC
Russian radar station
© Sputnik
Voronezh-M early warning radar station.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has submitted to the State Duma an agreement with Armenia on a united regional air security system in the Caucasus region that, once launched, would boost the protection of southern borders of Russia and its allies.

"The main objectives behind the united regional system of anti-aircraft defense are the organization and carrying out of combat stand-by duty of anti-aircraft units in the Caucasus collective security region, and the maintenance of the combat command system and the weapons and equipment of the system in constant readiness," reads an explanatory note attached to the treaty. The note also reads that the execution of the agreement would not cause any additional budget expenditure.

The treaty on joint air defense system between Russia and Armenia was signed in December 2015 and the Armenian parliament ratified it on June 30 this year.

The document allows Armenia to use Russian anti-aircraft systems and air and space forces, including military satellites, for defense of its airspace. Russian anti-aircraft and anti-missile defense currently relies on several long-range warning stations located within the country's borders.

In May this year, Russian mass media reported the Defense Ministry's plans to restore and modernize the Soviet-era Dnepr missile attack warning station near Sevastopol, Crimea, in order to counter increasing NATO activity in the Black Sea. The new facility will be able to register launches of ballistic and cruise missiles, including the latest hypersonic models from the Black and Mediterranean Seas, effectively protecting Russian territory from the south and southeast.

Comment: See also:

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Jet3

Symbolic? German jets used in anti-ISIS mission grounded over 'loose screws'


RT
Fri, 07 Oct 2016 16:38 UTC
German air force Tornado jet
© Umit Bektas / Reuters
The German army has reportedly banned its most advanced Tornado jets from flying due to yet another technical mishap. The reconnaissance planes have been carrying out missions against Islamic State in Syria since the beginning of the year.

The Tornado ASST A3 aircraft has been grounded from October 6 "in order to avoid any risk to personnel or machinery," the Bundeswehr (German army) said in a statement on its website on Thursday.

"The ban applies to the German anti-Daesh operation contingent in Incirlik, Turkey. Experts are currently working on fixing the defect," the statement reads.

The problem is attributed to loose screws on the monitor in the cockpit of the Tornado jets, German DPA news agency reported, citing a Bundeswehr spokesman, who did not say whether the ban would be lifted or if the planes would be allowed to fly again anytime soon.


Comment: These "loose screws" are symbolic of the minds of the German government for supporting these needless wars of illegal aggression.


Comment: This highlights the poor shape the NATO allies' military is in. Germany isn't the only country facing military equipment problems. The US is struggling with multiple issues with the F-35 fighter jets, Littoral combat ships and losing the Tank Battle games.

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Attention

Syrian, Russian actions beg for war crimes investigation, says Kerry


RT
Fri, 07 Oct 2016 16:18 UTC
John Liar Kerry
© Kevin Lamarque / Reuters
Washington has intensified saber-rattling rhetoric towards Russia, with US Secretary of State John Kerry calling for a war crimes probe of Moscow's anti-terrorist operation in Syria.

"Russia and the regime owe the world more than an explanation about why they keep hitting hospitals, medical facilities, children, women," Kerry said after meeting with the French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault on Friday. "These are acts that beg for an appropriate investigation of war crimes." Kerry called the actions of the Syrian military and the Russian air force "beyond accidental" and "a targeted strategy to terrorize civilians."

Comment: For insight into what is really going on read the following articles and news summaries.

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Eye 1

Inhuman German judge, Ulrich Herrmann, rules 2009 airstrike killing 91 Afghan civilians and children was legally valid


RT
Fri, 07 Oct 2016 15:25 UTC
Afghan hospital
© Omar Sobhani / Reuters
Afghan hospital workers carry an injured Afghan villager in hospital after Friday's NATO air strike on a Taliban target in northern Kunduz September 4, 2009.
Germany's highest federal appeal court has decided that compensation claims submitted by relatives of Afghans killed in a NATO airstrike, carried out by US jets and called in by a German commander seven years ago, will not be accepted.

The Federal Court of Justice rejected a payout claim filed by a father of two children killed in a 2009 NATO airstrike near the Afghan city of Kunduz and by a widowed mother-of-six, AFP reported on Thursday. The man was seeking €40,000 (almost $45,000) while the woman asked for €50,000 (more than $55,000).

"The military decision that was taken was valid under international law," judge Ulrich Herrmann said in the ruling, according to The Local.

The court found that there is no evidence that German commander, then-Colonel Georg Klein, holds responsibility for the September 2009 bombing that claimed the lives of 91 civilians. The strike carried out by US planes hit two fuel tankers stolen by Taliban militants.

Comment: An attack that slaughters 91 civilians, to include children, is heinous enough. That the West refuses to take any kind of responsibility for their war crimes adds insult to their barbarism. Such a kind of 'civilization' is destined to fall and deservedly so.

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Info

Analysing Putin's brief speech to the State Duma


Katehon
Fri, 07 Oct 2016 15:51 UTC
Russian President Vladimir Putin
Russian President Vladimir Putin made a speech at the State Duma on October 5th during the opening session of the seventh convocation.

His statement was brief, but at the same time it contained a succinct messages which immediately attract attention.

The President said that these elections to the new Duma proceeded under special conditions, and they were conducted transparently and honestly. The Duma, according to Putin, should be a permanent platform for political and social dialogue. He called for the development of ерi-parliamentary diplomacy, which will aim to work with foreign partners. The protection of national interests, including the adoption of crucial decisions must be the main purposes in the activities of the Parliament.

Obviously, the challenge for a more expansionist approach (in the legal sense) in the international arena is laid out in these words. Not only the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but the members of Parliament should understand better, deeper, and more clearly the realities of the modern challenges and respond to them.
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Arrow Down

Lame duck Obama throws in the towel - has given up on Russian foreign policy

Bryan MacDonald
RT
Fri, 07 Oct 2016 13:22 UTC
putin Obama
© Kevin Lamarque / Reuters
U.S. President Barack Obama (L), Russian President Vladimir Putin (R)
The last time relations between Washington and Moscow were this lousy, Madonna and Wham! were top of the charts and Soviet leaders were dying at an alarming rate. Foreign policy has emulated 1985's most famous movie and gone Back To The Future.

Barack Obama doesn't understand Russia. This became completely obvious when he delivered probably the most poorly judged insult any American President has ever uttered toward Moscow, dismissing the country as a "regional power."

Now, you might think Ronald Reagan was pretty rude when he called the USSR an "evil empire." And it's doubtlessly true that many Russians - and Ukrainians, Latvians and Georgians etc. at the time - were upset by the "evil" segment, but at least he balanced his insult by referring to Moscow's realm as an "empire." You see empires, no matter how nefarious, are strong, but "regional powers" are weak.

Thus, Obama using these two words was a colossal error of judgement. Especially when you consider how he was taunting the only country on earth which is capable of inflicting real military damage on America. For the record, he added how he perceived Russia to be acting "not out of strength, but out of weakness." Presumably, just to double down on the affront.

Comment: Obama has never been more than the messenger boy for the real US government. With the days of his "administration" waning it appears he's just counting the days till he can hit the lecture circuit and make some real money like Bill.

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Propaganda

Analysis: Why we shouldn't trust Saudi Arabia's advocates

Alexander Azadgan
Katehon
Fri, 07 Oct 2016 14:49 UTC
Zalmay Khalilzad
This analysis refers to Zalmay Khalilzad's article on Politico.com

Zalmay Khalizad is an old hand of the State Department, who was dealing with the Saudis in 1980s. He is also a former ambassador to Afghanistan, Iraq, and the United Nations.

In this article, which Mr. Zalmay Khalilzad was trying to paint a different picture of the new cadres of Saudi Leaders, especially Crown Prince Nayef, who is the second man in charge after King Salman and the blood-thirsty deputy Crown Mohammad Bin Salman - a man with a very peaceful-looking face, but with a legacy of blood and terror on his hands, who is definitely a key figure in Saudi Arabia in international relation activities.
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Chess

Pepe Escobar: Why the New Silk Roads terrify Washington

Pepe Escobar
RT
Fri, 07 Oct 2016 14:25 UTC
Russian President Vladimir Putin (C) looks back at U.S. President Barack Obama (L)
© Pablo Martinez Monsivais / Reuters
Almost six years ago, President Putin proposed to Germany 'the creation of a harmonious economic community stretching from Lisbon to Vladivostok.'

This idea represented an immense trade emporium uniting Russia and the EU, or, in Putin's words, "a unified continental market with a capacity worth trillions of dollars."

In a nutshell: Eurasia integration.

Washington panicked. The record shows how Putin's vision - although extremely seductive to German industrialists - was eventually derailed by Washington's controlled demolition of Ukraine.

Three years ago, in Kazakhstan and then Indonesia, President Xi Jinping expanded on Putin's vision, proposing One Belt, One Road (OBOR), a.k.a. the New Silk Roads, enhancing the geoeconomic integration of Asia-Pacific via a vast network of highways, high-speed rail, pipelines, ports and fiber-optic cables.
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Info

Forget Grexit: Greece should quit NATO

Adam Garrie
The Duran
Thu, 06 Oct 2016 14:10 UTC
Greek sailors with flag
Western silence in the face of Turkish claims to Greek islands, shows that for Greece, NATO membership has outlived its usefulness.

With Russia, Turkey and Greece all making the headlines, one could be forgiven for thinking the year was 1830.

Some conflicts it seems are perennial. Long before Brexit was a household name, people were talking of the possibility of Greece leaving the EU.

This seems rather unlikely unless there is a wholesale reform of the EU, transforming it from a strangulating federation into a loose confederation.

But when John Kerry appears in the EU Parliament calling for a United States of Europe, the only thing that will be reformed is the wine list at a nearby Brussels restaurant as Jean Claude Junker will have drunk it all in celebration.

Comment: Greece is also having problems with EU austerity measures and the refugee crises:

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Wall Street

World Bank admits globalization leads to wage inequality


RT
Fri, 07 Oct 2016 14:06 UTC
TTIP protesters
© Eric Vidal / Reuters
Thousands of people demonstrate against the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), Brussels, Belgium.
The growth of free trade has not had a positive effect for all in the developed economies, according to a World Bank document quoted by the BBC.

According to an internal memo from the Washington-based organization seen by the British broadcaster, the side effects "may have led to rising wage inequality."

The document, written by World Bank economists, says "trade has played a powerful role in creating jobs and contributing to rising incomes in advanced economies," but also highlights its cons.

"Recent evidence from the US suggests that adjustment costs for those employed in sectors exposed to import competition from China are much higher than previously thought. While trade may have contributed to rising inequality in high income economies, so has technological change and the weakening of institutions that used to represent the interests of labor," the report said.

"Given overall efficiency gains, the dislocation effects of trade in advanced economies must be addressed through stronger safety nets and enhanced skills and flexible labor markets," it added.

World Bank president Jim Yong Kim explained why people in the developed economies are angry with the free trade.

"I hear them and they are saying that my life is not better than my parents and my children's life does not look like it's going to be better than mine," he said in a BBC interview.
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