Puppet MastersS


Quenelle - Golden

Russia's Gazprom to shut Europe's Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline for 3 days

Nord Stream 1
© Michael Probst/AP PhotoPipes of the gas storage plant Reckrod are pictured near Eiterfeld, central Germany
Russian state gas company says the pipeline requires maintenance, deepening energy standoff with Europe.

Russia's state-owned energy company Gazprom has said a key pipeline conveying natural gas to Europe will shut down for three days at the end of this month to undergo "routine maintenance."

The unscheduled maintenance order on the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, which runs under the Baltic Sea to Germany, deepens an energy standoff between Moscow and Brussels which has already helped send inflation surging in the region and raised the risk of rationing and recession.

In a statement posted online on Friday, Gazprom said that the only operational turbine at a key compressor station along the pipeline, which links Western Russia and Germany, will shut down for routine maintenance from August 31 to September 2.

Comment: See also: Whilst Canada withholds turbine, Gazprom cannot guarantee functioning of Nord Stream pipeline


Better Earth

US war on China/Russia targets new multipolar world, sabotages global economy: Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega

Ortega
© vozdeladiasporanewsNicaraguan President Daniel Ortega
In a fiery speech denouncing US imperialism, Nicaragua's President Daniel Ortega analyzed the shifting balance of power in the world today. He explained:
"A new order is being born in the world that buries imperialism, buries the colonialists, and opens the way to a democracy of nations, a multipolarism that is manifesting itself in various ways. North American imperialism is trying to maintain its hegemony at all costs, even at the risk of sinking its own economy."
But in an attempt to halt this transition to a multipolar world, the United States is waging war on China and Russia, he said.

The Nicaraguan revolutionary leader argued that "fascism left its roots and is embedded" in parts of the United States and Europe, and they "have the objective of trying to destroy the People's Republic of China" and the Russian Federation.

The Western "ideologues of imperialism" are "worried," Ortega added.
"They see the People's Republic of China providing benefits to the peoples" of Latin America, Africa, and Asia, "and they feel that they are losing the power to keep these peoples enslaved."

Comment: Frankly spoken, Ortega's perspective rings true.


X

CDC admits to botched COVID response, announces overhaul — critics say plan doesn't address 'unholy alliance' with Pharma

CDC failure
© Unknown
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Wednesday announced a "drastic" overhaul of the agency aimed at modernizing it and rescuing its reputation after widespread criticism of its COVID-19 response and, more recently, the monkeypox outbreak.

"For 75 years, CDC and public health have been preparing for COVID-19, and in our big moment, our performance did not reliably meet expectations," CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said in an email to the agency's 11,000-person staff. Walensky said the overhaul will focus on making the agency more nimble and responsive to needs that arise in health emergencies.

The CDC in a statement said it has never in its 75-year history "had to make decisions so quickly, based on limited and evolving science," and that the agency's traditional scientific and communication processes were "not adequate to effectively respond to a crisis the size and scope of the COVID-19 pandemic."

According to CBS News, Walensky's proposed internal changes include:
  • Expand the CDC staff focused on public health emergencies.
  • Require officials to stay in those jobs for at least six months.
  • Establish an office of intergovernmental affairs to facilitate partnerships with other agencies.
  • Create a health equity office.
  • Increase use of preprint scientific reports for issuing public health guidance, rather than waiting for research to be reviewed by peers and published by the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Comment: CDC is a reactionary agency. Reforms demand more than impression management and reputation considerations.


Attention

Fly like an eagle, Darya Dugina

Darya Dugina will be flying like an eagle in an otherworldly sky.
Darya Dugina
© Social Media
Darya Dugina, 30, daughter of Alexander Dugin, a smart, strong, ebullient, enterprising young woman, whom I met in Moscow and had the honor to cherish as a friend, has been brutally murdered.

As a young journalist and analyst, one could see she would carve for herself a glowing path towards wide recognition and respect (here she is on feminism).

Not so long ago, the FSB was directly engaged in smashing assassination attempts, organized by the SBU, against Russian journalists, as in the case of Olga Skabaeyeva and Vladimir Soloviev. It's mind-boggling that Dugin and his family were not protected by the Russian intelligence/security apparatus.

The key facts of the tragedy have already been established. A Land Cruiser Prado SUV, owned by Dugin and with Darya at the wheel, exploded in a highway near the village of Bolchie Vyazemy, a little over 20km away from Moscow.

They were both coming from a family festival, where Dugin had delivered a talk. At the last minute, Darya took the SUV and Dugin followed her in another car. According to eyewitnesses, there was an explosion under the SUV, which was immediately engulfed in flames and hit a roadside building. Darya's body was burned beyond recognition.

The Russian Investigative Committee soon established that the IED - approximately 400g of TNT, unencapsulated - was planted under the bottom of the SUV, on the driver's side.

The investigators consider that was a premeditated car bombing.

What is not already known is whether the IED was on a timer or if some goon nearby pressed the button.

What is already known is that Alexander Dugin was a target on the Myrotvorets list. Myrotvorets stands for a Center for Research of Signs of Crimes against the National Security of Ukraine. It works side by side with NATO collecting info on "pro-Russian terrorists and separatists".

Denis Pushilin, the head of the DPR, took no time to accuse "the terrorists of the Ukrainian regime" for Darya's assassination. The inestimable Maria Zakharova was more, well, diplomatic: she said that if the Ukrainian lead is confirmed, that will configure a policy of state terrorism deployed by Kiev.

Arrow Down

US taunts Russia to escalate in Ukraine

Blast at HQ
© Indian PunchlineAn UAV hit the roof of the headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, Sevastopol, Crimea, August 20, 2022 .
In military terms, the crude, locally assembled drone dropping a country-made bomb or two on unguarded sites in Crimea are at best pin pricks in the big picture of Russia's special military operation in Ukraine. But it can be profoundly consequential in certain other ways.

For a start, this escalation has Washington's approval. A senior Biden administration official told NatSec Daily the US supports strikes on Crimea if Kiev deems them necessary. "We don't select targets, of course, and everything we've provided is for self-defence purposes. Any target they choose to pursue on sovereign Ukrainian soil is by definition self defense," this person said.

But Washington knows — and Moscow knows — that like any sophistry, this one too is a clever argument but inherently fallacious and deceptive. The New York Times has interpreted the drone attack on Crimea as a challenge to the leadership of President Vladimir Putin. The Times wrote that the Crimea attacks "put domestic political pressure on the Kremlin, with criticism and debate about the war increasingly being unleashed on social media and underscoring that even what the Russian government considers to be Russian territory is not safe."

Times claimed that "as images of antiaircraft fire streaking through the blue Crimean sky ricocheted through social media, the visceral reality of war was becoming more and more apparent to Russians — many of whom have rallied behind the Kremlin's line, hammered home in state media, that the "special military operation" to save Ukraine from Nazi domination is going smoothly and according to plan."

The paper quoted a prominent establishment think tanker in Moscow acknowledging that the Crimean attack is a "serious" development insofar as "People are beginning to feel that the war is coming to them." The Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky claimed in a nationwide address on Saturday, "One can literally feel in the air of Crimea that the occupation there is temporary, and Ukraine is returning."

Star of David

Israeli army raids, shuts down offices of 7 Palestinian civil society organizations

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh  NGO palestine shut down
© Shadi Hatem/APA ImagesPalestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh meets with leaders of the Palestinian NGOs raided by Israeli forces in the West Bank city of Ramallah on August 18, 2022.
The Israeli army raided the offices of seven Palestinian civil society organizations in the occupied West Bank overnight on Thursday, confiscating and damaging items belonging to the organizations, and sealing off their offices.

Six of the seven organizations were designated as "terrorist institutions" by the Israeli government in October 2021, and were subsequently outlawed by the Israeli military commander in the occupied West Bank.

The original six organizations are human rights group Al-Haq, prisoners rights group Addameer, Defense for Children International - Palestine, the Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC), The Bisan Center for Research and Development, and the Union of Palestinian Women's Committees.

Briefcase

Trump to file unlawful search and seizure motion over 'illegal' FBI raid

fbi raid mar a lago trump
© Giorgio Viera/AFP via Getty ImagesAn FBI agent stands outside Trump's Mar-a-lago as it conducted a raid August 8, 2022
Former President Donald Trump announced he will file a Fourth Amendment unlawful search and seizure motion over the FBI's "illegal" raid on Mar-a-Lago in a post made on TRUTH Social on Friday.

"A major motion pertaining to the Fourth Amendment will soon be filed concerning the illegal Break-In of my home, Mar-a-Lago, right before the ever important Mid-Term Elections," Trump posted.

The former President said the FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago violated his rights, "together with the rights of all Americans," and added that it is part of a continued witch hunt against him. Trump added:
My rights, together with the rights of all Americans, have been violated at a level rarely seen before in our Country. Remember, they even spied on my campaign. The greatest Witch Hunt in USA history has been going on for six years, with no consequences to the scammers. It should not be allowed to continue!

Comment:


Bad Guys

Putin's claim that US is deliberately dragging out Ukraine conflict has merit - American military analyst

putin
FILE PHOTO:
Claims made by Russian President Vladimir Putin that the United States is intentionally prolonging the Russia-Ukraine conflict may not be as implausible as described, says one U.S. military veteran and journalist.

In a speech this week, Putin called out "Western globalist elites" who he said are "provoking chaos, inciting old and new conflicts," and attempting "to preserve the hegemony and power that is slipping out of their hands." He added that the situation in Ukraine shows the U.S. is "trying to prolong the conflict."

Sean Spoonts, a U.S. Navy veteran and editor-in-chief of Special Operations Forces Report (SOFREP), told Newsweek that President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky seem to have separate policy goals in mind.

"It seems like while Ukraine would like to end the war quickly and decisively defeat Russian forces and drive them out of their country, U.S. policy almost seems designed to prolong the conflict hoping to bring about the collapse of Russia itself, both militarily and economically," Spoonts said.


Comment: Except that Russia is nowhere near to being overextended and has only needed to deploy a fraction of its forces, it's even able to prioritise civilian life over it's mission to deNazify Ukraine. Moreover, there is no way that Ukraine, nor the US for that matter, could 'quickly defeat Russia', even if they wanted to.


Comment: Despite even American media admitting that the US is directly involved in the war on Russia, it seems that the US, knowing it can't take Russia on directly, is willing to concede, at least officially, to Russia's red lines, which is at least one reason for why it hasn't sent more advanced weaponry to Ukraine: Putin says West trying to contain formation of multipolar world by activating old conflicts


Eye 2

Saudi-led coalition violates UN-brokered truce with Yemen over 200 times in 24 hours

yemen saudi bombing
© AFPFILE PHOTO: Yemenis inspect the damage following overnight air strikes by the Saudi-led coalition in the capital Sana'a, on January 18, 2022.
The Saudi-led coalition forces and their allied militant groups have over the past 24 hours breached more than 200 times a UN-brokered nationwide truce that took effect in war-ravaged Yemen in April.

Yemen's Arabic-language al-Masirah television network cited an unnamed Yemeni military official as making the announcement on Sunday, saying the violations included reconnaissance missions over the provinces of Ma'rib, Ta'izz, Jawf, Sa'ada, al-Hadidah, Sana'a, Ad Dali', al-Bayda, Hajjah and border areas.

The source said the Saudi-led coalition forces committed truce violations initially with air strikes on citizens' homes, the positions of the Yemeni army and Popular Committees in the district of Maris in Ad Dali' and in the northwest and northeast of Hais in al-Hadidah.

Sherlock

Daughter of Russian philosopher Alexander Dugin killed in car bomb attack in Moscow

Darya Dugina
© Social MediaDarya Dugina was killed in a car bombing on the outskirts of Moscow.
A car belonging to the daughter of famous Russian political scientist and philosopher Alexander Dugin exploded late Saturday in Moscow, according to media reports.

Darya Dugina's car exploded on Mozhayskoye highway around 9.45 p.m. local time, with witnesses claiming the blast rocked the vehicle in the middle of the road and scattered debris.

Preliminary reports said she died instantly. The elder Dugin has arrived at the scene, according to a video on social media.

Comment: The Guardian reports:
Witnesses said debris was thrown all over the road as the car was engulfed in flames before crashing into a fence.

"An explosive device allegedly installed in a Toyota Land Cruiser car went off at full speed on a public highway, and then the car caught fire," investigators wrote in their report of the incident. "The female driver died on the spot. The identity of the deceased has been established: it is the journalist and political scientist Darya Dugina."

Andrey Krasnov, a friend of Dugina and the head of the Russian Horizon social movement, confirmed the reports, according to the news agency Tass.

He said the bomb could have been intended for her father.

"This was the father's vehicle. Darya was driving another car but she took his car today, while Alexander went in a different way. He returned, he was at the site of the tragedy. As far as I understand, Alexander or probably they together were the target," Krasnov said.

The media outlet 112 reported that Dugin and his daughter had been at an event outside Moscow and had been due to travel back together until he decided to go separately at the last minute.

Footage on social media appeared to show him at the scene in a state of distress.






Alexander Dugin
© Francesca Ebel/APAlexander Dugin.
A number of pro-Kremlin officials immediately blamed Kyiv for the blast. Margarita Simonyan, the head of the state-funded RT television station, wrote that "they blew up Dugin's daughter" and called for attacks against the "decision-making centres" in Kyiv.

The head of the self-proclaimed, Russian-controlled Donetsk People's Republic, Denis Pushilin, wrote on his Telegram channel that Dugina had been killed and blamed the Ukrainian government.

"Vile villains! The terrorists of the Ukrainian regime, trying to eliminate Alexander Dugin, blew up his daughter ... In a car. Blessed memory of Daria, she is a real Russian girl!"

Investigators said they had opened a murder case and would be carrying out forensic examinations to try to determine exactly what had happened. They said they were considering "all versions" when it came to working out who was responsible.

The influence of Dugin over Putin has been a subject for speculation, with some Russia watchers asserting that his sway is significant and others calling it minimal.

Dugin and his daughter have been sanctioned by the UK and US for acting to destabilise Ukraine. In its filing, the UK Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation called Dugina a "frequent and high-profile contributor of disinformation in relation to Ukraine and the Russian invasion of Ukraine on various online platforms".


Ukraine had Alexander on what amounts to their 'most wanted' list:



The US Treasury sanctioned her as the chief editor for the website United World International, which it claimed was owned by the Putin ally Yevgeny Prigozhin.
TASS reports:
Investigators have opened a criminal case

The press service added that at the moment, forensic experts, investigators and experts in explosive engineering continue to inspect the incident site. "Based on the results of the inspection, a number of examinations will be appointed, including forensic, explosive engineering and molecular-genetic. All possible versions of the crime are being probed into," the press service noted.

Darya Dugina was born in 1992. She graduated from the Philosophy Department of Lomonosov Moscow State University. She was a PhD.
RT reports:
A journalist and political commentator, Platonova was the daughter of philosopher Aleksandr Dugin, who is often painted in the West as the ideologist of President Vladimir Putin's foreign policy over the past decade.

However, in Russia, Dugin is viewed as a relatively marginal figure due to his often extreme anti-Western and 'neo-Eurasian' views. The 60-year-old has never been officially endorsed by the Kremlin.

Russian writer and political activist Zakhar Prilepin, who also attended the festival, hinted that Ukraine could be behind the bombing.

"They do things like this. They've crossed the line long ago," he wrote on Telegram, noting the assassination of the head of the Donetsk People's Republic, Aleksandr Zakharchenko, in 2018, which was blamed on Kiev, and other high-profile bomb attacks in Donbass in recent years.

"This comedy idol, this sleepy man in a T-shirt - he greenlights such actions," Prilepin said in an apparent reference to Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, who was a comedian before turning to politics.

Judging from his post, the writer believes that Dugin, not his daughter, was the real target of the attackers. No evidence of Kiev's role in the bombing has been made public so far.
Political analysis Andrew Korybko provides his analysis on the incident:
The Assassination Of Alexander Dugin's Daughter Darya Was A Dastardly Terrorist Attack

Darya's assassination represents a crossing of the Rubicon in the Ukrainian Conflict whereby Kiev has escalated its terrorist attacks to the point of targeting the family members of civilians who they were duped by fake news into falsely thinking are unofficially very influential policymakers like they seem to have believed that her father is. This targeted assassination that was indisputably influenced by half a decade's worth of fake news about that philosopher shows the deadly consequences of America's information warfare campaign.

Darya Dugina, the daughter of Russian philosopher and professor Alexander Dugin, was assassinated Saturday evening when the jeep she was driving exploded on a Moscow highway due to what investigators believe was a bomb that had earlier been placed within it. Suspicion is also swirling that her father was the intended target after sources revealed that he was supposed to have also been in the vehicle but decided to return home from the Tradition and History family festival through alternative means at the very last minute. Although no related evidence has yet to be made public, many are beginning to believe that Kiev was behind this dastardly terrorist attack.

Professor Dugin is perhaps the second most "infamous" Russian behind President Putin in the Western imagination after falsely being accused of being akin to a modern-day version of "Rasputin". According to this artificially manufactured information warfare narrative that's been spun for over the past half-decade already, that philosopher's prior works supposedly convinced the Russian leader to restore his former superpower's influence over the countries that used to comprise the Soviet Union. The reality, however, is that this geostrategic trend was the natural result of his Great Power gradually recovering from its post-Soviet collapse and more confidently defending its national security red lines in Eurasia.

Nevertheless, it serves Western perception managers' narrative interests to concoct a dramatic conspiracy theory in order to more easily manipulate their targeted audience. Instead of purely remaining in the media realm, however, this false interpretation of geostrategic events ultimately had deadly consequences insofar as successfully convincing the Neo-Nazi regime in Kiev that Professor Dugin supposedly constituted a so-called "threat" that they were therefore felt had to be eliminated no matter what, ergo the assassination attempt against him that ended up killing his daughter instead. This sequence of events leads to several very important conclusions.

First, unsubstantiated allegations like those against Professor Dugin can spread like wildfire if they creatively appeal to their targeted audience's imagination. Second, this fake news can have very real consequences if it influences folks to carry out acts of violence against the subject being smeared. Third, civilians like he and his daughter who go about their everyday lives are so-called "soft targets" that can be harmed more easily than government figures because they don't have full-time security services to protect them. Fourth, the Ukrainian intelligence services were obviously monitoring their movements, attempting to penetrate their circles, and thus preparing to strike at a future time.

And fifth, Professor Dugin and his daughter are public figures who accordingly share their event schedules on social media, which in hindsight contributed to this so-called "crime of opportunity" that was planned to be committed through indirect means via the car bomb that was ultimately employed as part of this assassination plot. From this, it can be speculated that the culprit either planted the device while those two were at Saturday's festival or sometime prior, with it being unclear whether it was detonated via a timer that couldn't be stopped (hence why it blew up despite the philosopher changing his plans at the last minute) or if it was manually done to deliberately kill his daughter.

The fact that she was still killed despite their presumably intended target unexpectedly deciding to go home in a different vehicle suggests that the perpetrators still decided to go through with their plot in order to at the very least send a message to him and Moscow more broadly that they've decided to escalate their US-backed Hybrid War on Russia.

It also confirms that the declining unipolar hegemon's proxies in Kiev are truly state sponsors of terrorism who must accordingly be treated as such by the international community. This dastardly terrorist attack threatens the legitimate rules-based order enshrined in the UN Charter and thus confirms that the US is deliberately sowing the seeds of chaos in a desperate last-ditch attempt to erode Russian morale after the slow but steady advance of its forces over the past half-year of its special military operation.

Tens of billions of dollars' worth of US-led Western military equipment to Kiev haven't succeeded in shaping the course of the conflict, which continues to trend in the direction of an inevitable Russian victory despite uncertainty about the exact moment when that outcome will be officially recognized by its opponents. Only the side that's losing would resort to such acts of terrorism since they clearly lack the conventional capabilities to alter on-the-ground events in their favor. Objective observers can therefore conclude that the US-led NATO proxy war on Russia through Ukraine has failed to achieve its grand strategic objective of crippling that Great Power and might thus be in its final conventional stage.
More footage of the incident from Twitter: