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Poll: Most Russians see sanctions as tool to weaken nation, but feel no effect


RT
Fri, 15 Aug 2014 12:26 UTC
Image
© RIA Novosti/Alexandr Kryazhev
Almost all Russian citizens claim that they feel no effect from the sanctions against their country and most maintain that the campaign seeks to weaken Russia and its position in global politics.

According to the results of the latest poll released by the VTIOM agency on Friday, 92 percent of Russians said that the Western sanctions had not touched their interests in any way, 4 percent replied that they had noticed an increase in retail prices and only 4 percent declined to answer or reported actual problems, such as frozen bank accounts or the loss of a job in a foreign-based company.

Further, 62 percent of respondents said the sanctions would not have any effect on Russia. Fifteen percent said that after the start of the sanctions campaign the life in the country had only become better and the same number claimed life in Russia had deteriorated.

The poll was conducted among about 1,600 people in 42 different Russian regions on August 9 and 10.

The research also shows that of all Russians who knew about the sanctions, 45 percent could not say what the particular steps taken by Western nations and their allies against Russia were. Nineteen percent were aware of visa bans on certain Russian officials, 15 percent said they knew about restrictions in the banking sector and 10 percent knew about the sanctions in the export-import sphere.
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Dollar Gold

Russia steps away from dollar and euro, seeks safe haven in gold


RT
Fri, 15 Aug 2014 17:15 UTC
Image
© RIA Novosti/Mihail Kutusov
Russia is taking steps to ensure that it protects itself from any future dollar or euro sanctions. Moscow boasts the world's 5th biggest foreign exchange reserves and the 6th largest gold reserves. In total, the assets amount to over $1.5 trillion.

While the West is continuing to try and punish Russia via economic sanctions, the response of the Russian Central Bank has been to diversify away from the euro and dollar - and to buy up more gold.

As the geopolitical situation in Ukraine deteriorates, Russia is moving to protect itself from currency risks associated with the euro and the greenback.

In the first half of 2014, Russia's Central Bank reduced its foreign currency reserves by 2.5 percent.

"Due to the worsening geopolitical situation, the Central Bank actively redistributed foreign exchange reserves, replacing US Treasury bonds with gold," Alfa Bank's chief economist, Natalya Orlova, told Kommersant.

Instead of buying euros and dollars, Russia's Central Bank is eyeing the Chinese yuan and the Japanese yen.
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Windsock

EU's "Anti-Putin" alliance fraying: Germany, Slovakia, Greece, Czech Republic urge end to Russian sanctions

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Sat, 16 Aug 2014 11:19 UTC
Putin
© AFP/Ria Novosti/Alexey Druzhinin
Last week Germany reported that in the second quarter, its GDP declined by 0.2%, worse than Wall Street consensus. This happened a few shorts days after Italy reported a second consecutive decline in its own GDP, becoming the first European country to enter a triple-dip recession. What's worse, Europe's slowdown took place before the brunt of Russian sanctions hit. Surely in the third quarter the GDP of Germany, a nation whose exports accounts for 41% of GDP, will be even worse, with whisper numbers of -1% being thrown casually around, but one thing is certain: Europe is about to enter its third recession since the Lehman collapse just as we forecast at the end of 2013, a "triple-dip" which may become an outright depression unless Draghi injects a few trillion in credit money (which will do nothing but delay the inevitable and make it that much worse once the can can no longer be kicked), and unless normal trade ties with Russia are restored.

Which means one thing: for Europe to resume the status quo, it needs to break away from the "western" alliance and the sanctions imposed upon the Kremlin which solely benefit the populist agenda of Washington, and certainly not Europe proper, which it is now quite clear, is far more reliant on Russia than vice versa. It is also something Putin apparently was aware of from the very beginning.

And now, that realization is starting to spread to Europe's own countries, which - while the new cold war was only one of rhetoric were perfectly happy to go for the ride - but now that trade war has finally broken out, suddenly increasingly more want out.

Comment: Once again Putin has shown his mastery of the situation. Despite the agitation of his own countrymen, patience and carefully calibrated responses to the hysterical West's actions are paying off.

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No Entry

Demonstrations banned in The Hague Schilderswijk district


DutchNews
Fri, 15 Aug 2014 05:58 UTC
Image
© Omroep West
District Schilderswijk in the Hague, the Netherlands
The ban on marches through The Hague Schilderswijk district is to be challenged in the courts by the extreme right-wing group NVU, Dutch media report.

The Hague mayor Jozias van Aartsen announced the ban during an emergency meeting of the city council on Thursday evening, called after riots in the district last weekend.

'I am more sorry than I can say that I have had to take this decision,' said Van Aartsen, who broke off his holiday to attend the meeting.

Comment: This was to be expected. As a SOTT editor wrote roughly two weeks ago:

SOTT EXCLUSIVE - The Bigger Picture: Pro-ISIS demonstrators in the Netherlands
Compared to other districts in the Hague, Schilderswijk is where most of the problematic behavior by Moroccan youth has occurred. Given that the aforementioned ISIS-flag waving Moroccan protesters were situated in that same district, we cannot help but wonder if these young Moroccans are the most susceptible to being baited with these 'radical Muslim' ideas, and whether certain people behind the ISIS group deliberately chose them for that task. If the goal was, or is, to portray otherwise peaceful protesters denouncing the Israeli attack on Gaza (and other Western crimes in the Middle East) as 'violent Muslim extremists' and thereby justify a ban on protests in Holland, the Moroccan community would be the most convenient to be exploited to this end. [...]

We can't help but wonder whether this [pro-ISIS demonstration] was all a set-up, obviously unknown by those who attended, to increase police surveillance of and interference with pro-Gaza protests in the same way the French, German and Italian authorities have done.
Even though only a protest ban was issued for the district Schilderswijk, there is the possibility that other districts will follow.

Also see: Wilders calls for anti-Islam march in The Hague; city council to discuss problem district

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Dollars

Captured mercenaries in Tripoli sport one million Euros in cash

Joanne Moriarty
LibyanWartheTruth.com
Fri, 15 Aug 2014 00:00 UTC
Image
The Libyan tribes army has captured a group of criminal terrorists hold up in a communications building. One of the captured men had with him over 1 million Euros. He told the Libyan tribes that he was given this money by Khaled Al-Sharif and Abdulhakem Belhaj to pay Islamic terrorist fighters to fight against the tribes of Libya. Khaled Al Sharif is a known terrorist as is Belhaj. Both of these men have made themselves part of the puppet government but there is no legitimacy in their positions. They are using power and fear to control Libya and have stolen billions from the Libyan people. The captured man stated that he worked with Khaled Al Sharif at the Finance Ministry. Khaled Al Sharif has nothing to do with the Finance Ministry with the exception of stealing money. Without the money, they cannot pay mercenaries and without mercenaries they lose. No Libyans support these terrorists with the exception of a few radicals from Misurata and Benghazi (they are paid too).

Comment: The cash required to fund these "Islamic" mercenaries is massive. It makes one wonder about the large currency swaps between the Federal Reserve and ECB (European Central Bank) and whether this is the source for laundered Euros and mercenary payments.

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Pirates

Western proxy army: UK MP says 700 Brits among ISIS terrorists


ITV
Sat, 16 Aug 2014 05:44 UTC
Image
© David Jones/PA Wire
MP for Stratford on Avon Nadhim Zahawi is on a visit to Kurdistan in northern Iraq
Iraq-born Tory MP Nadhim Zahawi has said that local leaders in northern Iraq estimate that between 500 and 700 Britons are fighting with the Islamist militants.

He told Channel 4 News that he was seeking further information after a high-ranking official told him one had been found "with a Liverpool Football Club membership card" and another carrying a different UK-related membership card.
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Pirates

G'day mate! Aussie terrorists pouring into Syria and Iraq


RT
Sat, 16 Aug 2014 05:30 UTC
Image
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has said he's "not happy" that a suspected 19-year old jihadist managed to slip through airport security on his brother's passport and fly to the Middle East, before he was picked up in the UAE.

The teenager, 19-year old Ahmad Saiyer Naizmand from Sydney, managed to board a flight for the United Arab Emirates, where he was picked up on arrival and deported.

Abbot said the 19-year old "did arouse concerns" when he went through immigration, which is why Australian officials alerted people in the UAE.

"While this person did get out of Australia, he wasn't able to make his way to the ISIL battle front, so that's a little bit better than the previous occasion," Abbott told reporters.

He was referring to a case last December when a convicted terrorist, Khaled Sharrouf, 33, used his brother Mostafa's passport to leave Australia to fight with the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, which used to be known as ISIL, despite the fact that the Australian government had banned him from leaving the country because of the threat he posed.

Comment: In this age of total surveillance, they're obviously not "slipping past authorities".

They're being groomed, financed, trained and flown to the Middle East BY said authorities, which puts a different slant on Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott recently decrying a photo of a boy holding a decapitated Syrian soldier's head as "barbaric".

If that's what you really think, THEN STOP SENDING PSYCHOPATHS THERE!

See also:

UK, Aussie jihadists call to join ISIS militants in Iraq, Syria

Australian police issue arrest warrants for citizens fighting in Syria

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Star of David

USrael's EU handmaiden backs Iraq partition plan by arming Kurds


RT
Sat, 16 Aug 2014 05:25 UTC
Image
© Reuters / Azad Lashkari
Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) fighters
The EU's foreign affairs council has said after a meeting in Brussels that some of the bloc's members will respond to the Iraqi Kurds' call for military aid, given they have Baghdad's consent. The EU also reiterated its commitment to Iraqi unity.

Prior to the EU statement France said it will send weapons to the Kurds. France's Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said he had called for the meeting in Brussels Friday to push for more European help for the Kurds and the Iraqis in their fight against Islamic State militants.

"I asked for this meeting so that all of Europe mobilizes and helps the Iraqis and the Kurds," he said on arriving in Brussels.

Italy and the Czech Republic have also backed the idea. While Germany and Holland have said they can't rule out the idea as long as the Islamic State (IS) threat continues.

"The Kurds need our support. It is important for us for there to be a European agreement," said Federica Mogherini, Italy's foreign minister.

Defense issues are normally the territory of individual EU states but the persecution and massacre of Iraqi minorities, including the Christians and the Yazidis, has led to promises of action rather than words in European capitals.

Comment: "Greater Israel": the plan is on track

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Card - MC

Goodbye Visa, so long Mastercard! Russia launches China UnionPay credit card


RT
Fri, 15 Aug 2014 21:34 UTC
russian credit card
© Reuters / Barry Huang
Forget Visa and MasterCard. After the two American credit system payment companies froze accounts without notice in March, Russia has been looking for an alternative in China UnionPay.

China UnionPay plans to have 2 million cards in Russia in the next three years.

Instead of seeing the small Visa and MasterCard logo on credits cards, ATMs, and retail outlets, Russians will start to see the three words "China. Union. Pay."

China UnionPay first emerged in 2002 on the domestic Chinese market as an alternative to Visa and MasterCard, but quickly expanded internationally, and now is already number one in terms of quantity of cards in the world.

Russia's biggest banks - VTB- Gazprombank, Promsvyazbank, Alfa Bank, MTS, and Rosbank- are already making technical preparations, running tests on Union Bank cards.

"VTB24 already serves China UnionPay cards in its ATM network and now the bank is in negotiations with this payment system to start acquiring retail merchants," VTB24's press office said in a statement.
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Evil Rays

Brainwashed against their own best interest: Germany puts curbing Russia ahead of commerce

Alison Smaleaug
New York Times
Wed, 13 Aug 2014 18:31 UTC
merkel meeting
© Markus Schreiber/Associated Press
Photo Chancellor Angela Merkel has kept German businesses, which have strong interests in Russia, apprised of shifts in her thinking on relations with Moscow.
Over recent months, something significant has happened in Europe: In the crisis over Ukraine, Germany has assumed leadership not just in its familiar fashion of trying to coax Russia away from belligerence and bluster, but also in standing firm and imposing sanctions on Moscow even if they hurt German business.

Perhaps even more remarkable is that Germans, long anxious to preserve commercial, energy and cultural ties with their vast eastern neighbor, have gone along. Seventy percent of 1,003 adults polled last week by Infratest dimap for the public broadcaster ARD approved of stricter sanctions; just 15 percent viewed Russia as a reliable partner in a poll with a three-percentage-point margin of sampling error.

In marked contrast to France's leadership, Chancellor Angela Merkel and her government - a united "grand coalition" of center-right and center-left - have kept German businesses apprised of any shift in thinking and made it clear throughout that tougher sanctions would be imposed if Russia fell further out of line.

The political upheaval over Ukraine has already affected Germany's economy, slowing down growth and throwing into question the country's ability to sustain its long record of robust performance even amid anemic recovery elsewhere in the European Union, economists said. The sanctions that would restrict trade between the countries are likely to cause further damage.
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