Puppet MastersS


Dollar

Deutsche Bank to cut U.S. unit's assets by quarter to meet Fed rules

Alice Ross
Financial Times
Sun, 23 Feb 2014 04:48 UTC
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© Thomas Lohnes | Getty Images
Deutsche Bank has for the first time laid out plans to slash its US balance sheet as it seeks to allay concerns over how it would deal with tough new rules imposed by the Federal Reserve on foreign banks.

The lender aims to reduce assets held in its US arm by up to a quarter largely through reassigning some operations to Europe or in Asia. This comes after the Fed confirmed last week that overseas lenders operating in the US would have to ringfence capital in the country to safeguard against future financial crises.

Stefan Krause, Deutsche's chief financial officer, told the Financial Times that the lender was confident it would be able to meet the new capital and leverage requirements imposed on its US arm. He said the balance sheet adjustment should not be seen as a pullback from the bank's US franchise, where the lender is focused on growing its asset and wealth management business as well as battling to regain ground lost to US rivals in its flagship fixed income arm.

"The US continues to be an important market for us. We are very comfortable we will be able to meet the leverage requirements in the US," he said.
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Network

Brazil, Europe plan direct undersea cable to bypass U.S. spying

Robin Emmott
Reuters
Mon, 24 Feb 2014 22:40 UTC
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© Reuters/Francois LenoirBrazil's President Rousseff
Brazil and the European Union agreed on Monday to lay an undersea communications cable from Lisbon to Fortaleza to reduce Brazil's reliance on the United States after Washington spied on Brasilia.

At a summit in Brussels, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff said the $185 million cable project was central to "guarantee the neutrality" of the Internet, signaling her desire to shield Brazil's Internet traffic from U.S. surveillance.

"We have to respect privacy, human rights and the sovereignty of nations. We don't want businesses to be spied upon," Rousseff told a joint news conference with the presidents of the European Commission and the European Council.

"The Internet is one of the best things man has ever invented. So we agreed for the need to guarantee ... the neutrality of the network, a democratic area where we can protect freedom of expression," Rousseff said.
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Vader

Obama official warns on Russia sending troops to Ukraine

Peter Nicholas
The Wall Street Journal
Sun, 23 Feb 2014 22:28 UTC
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A senior Obama administration official warned Russian leaders Sunday not to send armed forces into Ukraine to restore what they see as a compliant government, urging them to reject a Cold War view of the tumult in Ukraine as a struggle between East and West.

"That would be a grave mistake," President Barack Obama's National Security Adviser, Susan Rice, said on NBC's "Meet the Press." "It's not in the interests of the Ukraine or of Russia or of Europe or of the United States to see the country split. It's in nobody's interest to see violence return and the situation escalate."

Ms. Rice's remarks came after bloody street protests in Ukraine culminated this weekend in pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych's decision to leave the capital of Kiev.

Ms. Rice said that Mr. Yanukovych's whereabouts are "not known at the present." She made clear that the Obama administration isn't mourning his departure from the scene, saying he had lost "enormous legitimacy ... by turning on his people, by using violence in the streets against peaceful protesters and by flouting the will of the Ukrainian people."
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Black Cat

Yulia Tymoshenko is no angel

Christopher Dickey
The Daily Beast
Sun, 23 Feb 2014 00:00 UTC
Yulia Tymoshenko
© SERGEI SUPINSKYYulia Tymoshenko
Yulia Tymoshenko has a record allegedly as shady as any politician's in Ukraine, and that's saying something. But, still, she brings her people hope.

Don't let her looks fool you. The woman of the moment in Ukraine, whose crown of braided golden hair is calculated to evoke mythical memories of rural strength, has always been a better icon than a politician.

When former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, 53, addressed tens of thousands of people in Kiev's Independence Square on Saturday night, many in the crowd were moved to tears. Only hours before she'd been serving a seven-year prison sentence under guard in a hospital far from the capital. Now, afflicted with crippling back problems, she spoke from a wheelchair, telling the crowd she drew strength from their bravery, their martyrdom. "You are heroes!" she cried. Her most bitter political enemy, President Viktor Yanukovych had meanwhile fled the capital.

A new chapter seemed to be opening in the political life of the country last night, and indeed it was. But as Ukraine moves toward new elections in the near future (most likely at the end of May), Tymoshenko's not-so-pretty past may yet prevent her from winning the presidency she's sought for so long.

Comment: For more background on Yulia Tymoshenko read:
Free-dumb and Democrazi: Ukraine MPs vote for release of ex-PM and gas billionaire Tymoshenko, along with a return to 2004 CIA-imposed constitution
The Country Run by a Mafia: Ukrainian ex-PM Tymoshenko may face life in prison for 'ordering murder'
Ukraine: Tymoshenko accused of murder link

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Eye 1

US eavesdropping on hundreds of key German figures


AFP
Sun, 23 Feb 2014 12:53 UTC
spying protest
© AFP Photo/Britta PedersonDemonstrators protests against data preservation in front of the US embassy in Berlin on February 1, 2014
US intelligence has stepped up eavesdropping on hundreds of key figures in Germany, including a government minister, after Chancellor Angela Merkel was dropped as a direct target, a German report said Sunday.

Bild am Sonntag newspaper said that 320 political and business leaders in Germany were being monitored by the US National Security Agency (NSA), including Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere.

"We have the order not to allow any loss of information whatsoever after the communication of the chancellor no longer being able to be directly monitored," Bild quoted an unnamed high-ranking US intelligence employee in Germany as saying.

US-German ties soured amid revelations leaked by former CIA contractor Edward Snowden that US intelligence agencies had allegedly eavesdropped on Merkel and collected vast amounts of online data and telephone records from average citizens.
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Eye 1

Russia denounces Ukraine terrorists and west over Yanukovich ousting

Ian Traynor
The Guardian
Mon, 24 Feb 2014 13:07 UTC
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© Astakhov Dmitry/Itar-Tass/CorbisDmitry Medvedev, the Russian prime minister.
Moscow claims new government violating ethnic Russian rights and accuses west of one-sided geopolitical calculations

Moscow delivered a damning indictment of post-revolutionary Ukraine on Monday, denouncing alleged discrimination of the ethnic Russian minority, accusing the west of sponsoring a takeover of the country by "terrorists" and "extremists", and clashing with Washington over plans for early elections in May.

"Russia is extremely concerned about the situation in Ukraine," said a foreign ministry statement, which followed the highest-level reaction from Moscow so far to the collapse of Viktor Yanukovych's presidency. Dmitry Medvedev, the prime minister and former president, accused the post-Yanukovych authorities and parliament of lacking legitimacy.

"If you consider Kalashnikov-toting people in black masks who are roaming Kiev to be the government, then it will be hard for us to work with that government," Medvedev said. "Some of our foreign, western partners think otherwise, considering them to be legitimate authorities. I do not know which constitution, which laws they were reading, but it seems to me it is an aberration ... Something that is essentially the result of a mutiny is called legitimate."
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Bad Guys

'I am sure Ukraine will join the EU': Former PM Yulia Tymoshenko

Lizzie Dearden, Heather Saul
independent.co.uk
Sat, 22 Feb 2014 00:00 UTC
Protests continue in Kiev Ukraine
© Jeff J Mitchell/Getty ImagesProtests continued in Independence Square on February 22 despite deal
The former Prime Minister of Ukraine, Yulia Tymoshenko, has been freed from prison and said that she is certain that the country will now join the EU, just hours after MPs voted to oust President Viktor Yanukovych.

"Our homeland will from today on be able to see the sun and sky as a dictatorship has ended," Tymoshenko told reporters after her release from the hospital where she had been held under prison guard for most of the time since she was jailed in 2011.

Comment: The corrupt Yulia Tymoshenko, aka "the gas princess", is freed from prison and claims a dictatorship has ended? Whatever the conditions in Ukraine have been to date, she fails to mention that a new dictatorship is beginning thanks to the manipulations of the US and EU.

More on Tymoshenko:

The Country Run by a Mafia: Ukrainian ex-PM Tymoshenko may face life in prison for 'ordering murder'

Free-dumb and Democrazi: Ukraine MPs vote for release of ex-PM and gas billionaire Tymoshenko, along with a return to 2004 CIA-imposed constitution

Whatever government was in place, it was indeed an elected one, with the next elections only around one year away, and what has actually happened, is as Yanukovych said, a coup d'etat. There is plenty of evidence that this coup was largely engineered by US and EU, taking advantage of the unhappy and gullible people of Ukraine, so they can pillage the country economically as they've done before in other countries.

In addition, as Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov said, we have extremist groups in control at the moment.

So, how are things any better in Ukraine than they were before?

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USA

Venezuelan Interior Minister explains U.S. 'regime change' happening in his country


NSNBC International
Mon, 24 Feb 2014 12:02 UTC
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Two Army Battalions are being deployed to Combat "Grave" Opposition Disorder in Tachira State near the Colombian Border

Ewan Robertson (VA) : The Venezuelan government is to send two army battalions to Táchira state, which borders Colombia, to combat a "grave" case of opposition-promoted disorder in the area.

According to press reports and an eyewitness testimony provided to Venezuelanalysis.com, the capital city of Táchira state, San Cristóbal, has been almost brought to a standstill in recent days by street barricades set up by hard-line opposition activists.

According to such reports, in recent days, almost no transport has been able to circulate, while the great majority of shops and businesses have been closed. Authorities warn that the street blockades are impeding the delivery of food and gasoline, and claim that transport workers have been threatened.

The government also suspects that "paramilitaries and criminal gangs" are involved in the actions, with the complicity of the local opposition mayor, Daniel Ceballos.
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Bad Guys

US losing game to Russia in Ukraine: Paul Craig Roberts


Press TV
Sun, 23 Feb 2014 12:38 UTC
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© UnknownUkraine has been gripped by unrest since late November 2013.
The United States is losing the game to Russia in Ukraine due to its miscalculated attempts at ousting the government in Kiev, an analyst writes in a column for the Press TV website.

"The problem with Washington's plot to overthrow the elected government of Ukraine and install its minions is twofold," Paul Craig Roberts wrote in a column on Sunday.

That "the chosen US puppets" have lost control of the protests to Nazism-linked armed radical elements is one of the problems, he said, adding that the other is the fact that "Russia regards an EU/NATO takeover of Ukraine as a strategic threat to Russian independence."
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Bomb

Ukraine beaten and fragmented: uprising political groups once on the fringes are in the ascendancy

Kim Sengupta
The Independent
Sun, 23 Feb 2014 01:16 UTC
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© UnknownAnti-government protesters stand on a barricade at the entrance of Kiev's Independence square
Independence Square was a victorious arena; the hated enemy had been overthrown, his security forces driven from the streets; the capital and half the country belonged to the revolution.

The other half, however, remains loyal to Viktor Yanukovych and the reckoning which will unfold in the coming days is likely to show the alarming rise in the power of paramilitaries.

On Saturday night the prime attraction on the stage in the Maidan, as the square is known, was Yulia Tymoshenko, freed from prison and flown to Kiev to address the crowd of more than 50,000. There was heckling: it had not been forgotten that her seven-year sentence was for abusing her position as Prime Minister. There were also reminders that there had been a shift in the balance of power.

Comment: It seems that Ukraine is now a free battleground for competing extreme ideologies, all as ignorant as each other. The US/EU goal of destabilizing Ukraine is coming along nicely.

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