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Soviet Union's only President Mikhail Gorbachev turns 90: 'I'm bashed for Glasnost, but without it, nothing would have changed.'

Jonny Tickle
RT
Tue, 02 Mar 2021 10:52 UTC
Gorbachev
© Sputnik
Soviet ex-President Mikhail Gorbachev at the presentation of his book "I remain an optimist" in the Moscow House of Books
On his 90th birthday, the Soviet Union's first and last president, Mikhail Gorbachev, has revealed his belief that perestroika is his biggest life achievement and led to the "end to the totalitarian system."

Speaking to Russian news agency TASS, in an interview published on Tuesday, the former Soviet leader also argued that his policy of glasnost was essential for making changes within the country.

Gorbachev headed the USSR from 1985 until it fell apart in 1991 and is considered one of the most significant figures of 20th-century history, having helped to end the Cold War. However, while he has a good reputation outside of the country, inside Russia he is viewed rather differently. Many hold him responsible for the post-Soviet economic crisis which led to a steep decline in living standards, as well as a diminution of Moscow's status on the world stage.

Comment: See also:

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Health

Romney released from hospital after fall over the weekend

John Bowden
The Hill
Wed, 03 Mar 2021 19:16 UTC
mitt romney
© Greg Nash
Sen. Mitt Romney said Monday that he was briefly hospitalized over the weekend after a fall in Boston, receiving a number of stitches as a result.

Speaking to reporters Monday evening, the Utah Republican said that he "had a tough weekend" before briefly joking that he received the injuries because he "went to CPAC," referring to the Conservative Political Action Conference, where former President Trump and a number of his supporters gathered over the weekend.

"I took a fall," Romney clarified, laughing. "I took a fall, knocked me unconscious, but I'm doing better," he added.

Comment: ... hmm... A fall, eh? Romney is not a particularly popular guy in conservative circles at the moment. Just sayin'.

See also:

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Megaphone

Biden and his top officials slammed Trump's lack of action against Saudi Arabia, MBS in years before taking office

Andrew Kaczynski and Em Steck
CNN
Tue, 02 Mar 2021 21:00 UTC
Bash to Psaki
In the years prior to taking office, President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and many of their administration's top officials harshly criticized President Donald Trump's lack of action against Saudi Arabia and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for the 2018 murder of Saudi journalist and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.

Biden is now facing criticism for not following through on campaign promises to hold Saudi Arabia accountable for the killing. The administration last Friday released a declassified intelligence report on Khashoggi's murder that said the crown prince, commonly known as MBS, directly approved the operation that ended with the murder of Khashoggi. He was killed and allegedly dismembered after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2, 2018, having gone into the building to collect documents for his upcoming wedding.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday announced visa restrictions that affected 76 Saudis believed to be involved in harassing activists and journalists, but he did not announce any measures against the crown prince. And while the Biden administration has taken more steps than the Trump administration to punish Saudi actors for their role in Khashoggi's death, the actions of key members of the Biden administration differ from the sharp criticism they offered before they took office.

Comment: Let's see if the Biden administration puts their money where their mouth is and actually takes some sort of concrete punative action against MBS or, more likely, sweeps the whole thing under the rug the same way the Trump administration did.

See also:

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Red Pill

Fool me once: How Tehran views the Iran nuclear deal

Ali Reza Eshraghi
European Council on Foreign Relations
Thu, 25 Feb 2021 00:00 UTC
Rouhani
© Moritz Hager/swiss-image.ch/CC BY-NC-SA
President of the Islamic State of Iran Hassan Rouhani • 2014 Annual meeting of WEF in Davos
In Tehran, the initial hopes for what the Biden administration could offer Iran - particularly in terms of a revived economy - are fading. Iranian leaders recognise that, although the new president in the White House says he wants to rejoin the 2015 nuclear deal, there has been little tangible shift away from the Trump-era maximum pressure campaign against Iran. While there is still a possibility that the agreement will be revived, it increasingly appears to Tehran that the process will be a marathon and not a sprint.

It is often difficult to find a consensus between Iranian leaders on the benefits of diplomacy with the West, but there is one point on which they agree: Tehran must end its "strategic patience" in the implementation of the nuclear deal. The rhetoric for public consumption varies between different camps in Iran, who differ on the extent and method of the response. However, political elites now generally agree that Iran should not allow itself to be 'duped' by the United States again - and that Tehran should not reverse any steps to accelerate its nuclear programme until Washington is certain to ease sanctions in return.

Comment: As we now know, the Biden Administration is pulling a bait and switch, reverting to Trump tactics. How this is handled is complicated by the upcoming Iranian elections.

See also:
Biden backslides on Iran

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Cardboard Box

New dynamic ME: Gulf Arab states want to be more independent of US say observers

Ekaterina Blinova
Sputnik
Tue, 02 Mar 2021 09:51 UTC
Middle east prominent leaders
© Andar al-Jaloud
41st Gulf Cooperation Council Summit Meeting in al-Ula, Saudi Arabia
L to R:
Kuwaiti Emir Sheik Nawaf al-Ahmad al-Sabah
Emir of Qatar Tamin bin Hamad Al-Thani
Omani Deputy PM Fahad Bin Mahmad
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman
Bahrain Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al-Khalifa
Dubai ruler & BAE V.P. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum
Nayef al Hajraf, Secretary-General of GCC
The Biden administration has begun reshuffling Washington's foreign policy priorities in the Middle East, but the power dynamic in the region has dramatically changed over the past few years, with Gulf Arab states diversifying their strategic partnerships, seeking more equal relations with the US, according to Middle Eastern observers.

Riyadh has completely rejected the "negative, false, and unacceptable assessment" of the American intelligence report released by the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) on 26 February 2021. The document alleged that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman "approved" the assassination of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in October 2018, something the Saudi royal family has resolutely denied.

"The Kingdom rejects any measure that infringes upon its leadership, sovereignty, and the independence of the judicial system", the Saudi Foreign Ministry said in an official statement, stressing that the monarchy had conducted a thorough investigation into the heinous crime, and tried and convicted the culprits.

Biden's Two-Fold Goal in Pressuring Saudi Crown Prince

In the wake of the Khashoggi report's publication, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated that the America would change its approach to the Saudi kingdom, specifying that Washington does not seek to "rupture the relationship", but rather to "recalibrate" it.

Comment: Recalibrate it? While it may be Washington's fantasy mission, it is not Washington's job. 'Hands off' says the ME.

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Handcuffs

Biden to sanction Russia over Navalny poisoning, jailing

Morgan Chalfant, Maggie Miller
The Hill
Tue, 02 Mar 2021 09:02 UTC
Navalny, Red SQ
© Instagram/KJN
Alexey Navalny • Red Square, Moscow
The Biden administration on Tuesday announced new sanctions on Russia in response to Moscow's poisoning and jailing of Alexei Navalny, accusing Russia's main intelligence agency of attempting to assassinate the opposition leader last year.

The administration is imposing sanctions on seven members of the Russian government and export controls on several business entities involved in biological agent production. The sanctions include Russian officials and a Russian research center that were previously sanctioned by the European Union and United Kingdom in October in connection with Navalny's poisoning.

The sanctions, which are being coordinated with EU partners, come after an intelligence community assessment concluded with "high confidence" that officers of Russia's Federal Security Service used the Novichok nerve agent to poison Navalny in August, Biden administration officials said.

"We're sending a clear signal to Russia that there are consequences for the use of chemical weapons," a senior administration official said. The sanctions are the first to be imposed by the U.S. on Russia over Navalny's poisoning.

Comment: Et tu Brussels?
Brussels has unveiled a list of officials it claims are responsible for the detention of opposition figure Alexey Navalny and "human rights violations" during the policing of subsequent protests, in sanctions announced on Tuesday.

The individuals will now face economic and diplomatic measures from the European Union. The group includes Alexander Kalashnikov, the director of Russia's Federal Penitentiary Service, which was responsible for enforcing Navalny's arrest after he lost contact with probation officers while serving a suspended sentence for fraud.

Also on the list is Alexander Bastrykin, the chairman of the national Investigative Committee, which is charged with probing serious crimes. According to Eurocrats, "he is responsible for serious human rights violations in Russia, including arbitrary arrests and detentions."

Igor Krasnov, the country's prosecutor general, will similarly face sanctions for having "supported the request by the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service to convert the suspended sentence imposed on Alexey Navalny in a case of alleged fraud to a prison sentence."

The fourth name included on the list is Viktor Zolotov, the director of the National Guard, which was deployed to police pro-Navalny demonstrations that took place in cities across Russia over the course of two consecutive weekends in January. The EU decision cites alleged aggression by authorities against journalists, "including Meduza's correspondent Kristina Safronova, who was hit by [a riot police] officer, and Novaya Gazeta's journalist Yelizaveta Kirpanova, who was hit on the head with a truncheon leaving her bleeding."

Earlier on Tuesday, in response to reports that Brussels and Washington would soon unveil sanctions, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned that Moscow would respond in kind. According to him, the Western measures are:
"illegitimate and unilateral, of the kind our American colleagues, and the EU members who follow their example, almost always resort to without any reason. We will react unequivocally. Nobody has cancelled one of the main rules of diplomacy - reciprocity."
The escalation, Lavrov argued, was because
"there is nothing to show in order to substantiate their claims about Navalny's poisoning, when all those who treated him are carefully hiding facts that would help us to understand what happened to him.

"In parallel, instead of honestly co-operating and working transparently, they begin to punish us... then, in my opinion, this doesn't honor anyone making these decisions."
On Monday, Lavrov's deputy, Alexander Grushko, told journalists that "there will, of course, be a reaction from our side." However, he cautioned that until the content of Western sanctions was made public, there was no point "trying to read the tea leaves."

It is expected that Washington will also release details of its own sanctions package later on Tuesday.


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Passport

US activists condemn Boris Johnson's voter ID plan, accuse him of copying Trump


RT
Sun, 28 Feb 2021 20:57 UTC
Johnson/Trump
© irannewsdaily.com
British PM Boris Johnson • Former US President Donald Trump
As Boris Johnson prepares to introduce voter ID laws in the UK, US activist groups such as the ACLU have spoken out against the proposal, comparing its proponents to Donald Trump and warning it would "suppress the vote."

Johnson is expected to introduce a bill this spring mandating photo ID at polling stations across the UK - a Conservative Party campaign promise during the 2019 General Election. While Northern Ireland, like the Irish Republic, already requires voters to prove their identity, the rest of the UK has thus far only asked them to confirm their name and address.

The proposal is opposed by the Labour Party, the Scottish National Party, the Social Democrats, Plaid Cymru and the Greens. Now, three US activist groups have thrown their weight against the proposal too, the Guardian reported on Sunday.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), and Common Cause all told the Guardian that voter ID laws would exclude vulnerable voters.
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X

SPLC urges Biden, Big Tech to block 'online funding' for 'hate groups' to fight domestic terrorism

Tyler O'Neil
PJ Media
Mon, 01 Mar 2021 02:38 UTC
SPLC map usa
© SPLC website/screenshot
The Southern Poverty Law Center's 2020 "hate map."
In the wake of the Capitol riot, the House Committee on Financial Services — chaired by none other than Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) — held a hearing entitled "Dollars Against Democracy: Domestic Terrorist Financing in the Aftermath of Insurrection." Who should testify at such a hearing? Democrats invited none other than the scandal-plagued far-left smear factory the Southern Poverty Law Center, which routinely brands mainstream conservative and Christian nonprofits "hate groups," listing them along with the Ku Klux Klan.

In her testimony, SPLC Chief of Staff Lecia Brooks suggested concrete ways that government and Big Tech can separate "hate groups" from their "online funding sources." She praised some tech companies for taking action while demanding far more throttling in the future. She wrote in her testimony:
"Separating hate groups from their online funding sources will prevent their ideas from reaching a wider audience, and it will disrupt their networks. Some technology companies have taken steps in the right direction, but both government and internet companies must do far more to combat extremism and hate,"
While government and Big Tech should combat organizations that pose a concrete terrorism threat, the SPLC's recommendations are riddled with far-left bias and blindness to any violent threat from leftist radicals associated with antifa or Black Lives Matter. The SPLC paints the Right with a broad terrorism brush while consciously ignoring any threats from the Left.

Comment: SPLC has consistently assumed the moral authority to smear and lambaste conservatives. The above is a prime example of 'creating guilt' by the trick of 'same sentence' association. SPLC is very, very good at feeding the Democratic hate machine - which may be why it is still around.

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Arrow Down

Biden backslides on Iran

Finian Cunningham
Sputnik
Fri, 26 Feb 2021 13:15 UTC
Biden and flags
© epa/KJN
US President Joe Biden • Deal or no deal?
It looks like President Joe Biden is backsliding on earlier promises to return the United States to the nuclear deal with Iran and other world powers. Which raises the question: who is pulling Biden's strings?

Air strikes ordered by Biden this week on Iranian-backed militia in Syria are certainly not going to help repair relations between Washington and Tehran which would be necessary to salvage what's left of the nuclear deal.

During his election campaign, the Democrat candidate was saying he would reverse Trump's "maximum pressure" policy of hostility toward Iran and if he were elected would bring the US back into compliance with the nuclear accord signed in 2015. Trump had ditched the nuclear pact signed by the US and other international powers, and he reimposed crippling sanctions on Iran.

However, the newly inaugurated Biden administration is shifting the goalposts with Iran. The president and his aides are saying that the US will return to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action - but only after the Iranians make the first move by reversing incremental steps Tehran has taken to reduce commitments to the JCPOA.

Comment: Biden will bow to the war machine and the many arm-twisters that drive and maintain it.

See also:
Holding Humanity Hostage: Dangerous prospects for Biden's nuclear weapons policy

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Alarm Clock

Biden senior adviser says White House will start acting on reparations 'now'

Emily Jacobs
New York Post
Mon, 01 Mar 2021 19:57 UTC
Cedric Richmond
© Getty Images
White House senior adviser Cedric Richmond discussed efforts targeted to helping minority communities in an “Axios on HBO” interview.
The White House is "going to start acting now" to address reparations to African Americans, a White House senior adviser said in a new interview, as Congress debates forming a commission to study how the policy could be implemented.

Speaking to "Axios on HBO" in an interview set to air Monday, White House senior adviser Cedric Richmond discussed efforts targeted to helping minority communities.

While the administration may back the study, Richmond added that they were not waiting on Congress.

"We don't want to wait on a study. We're going to start acting now," he told the outlet.

"We have to start breaking down systemic racism and barriers that have held people of color back and especially African Americans," Richmond told the outlet. "[W]e have to do stuff now."


Comment: Since, according to critical race theory, every aspect of western civilization is systemically racist, this means the destruction of western civilization. "Racism" doesn't mean to the Woke what it means to everyone else.


"If you start talking about free college tuition to [historically black colleges and universities] and you start talking about free community college in Title I and all of those things, I think that you are well on your way," he continued, noting that a timeline for Congress' commission was not known.
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