Puppet MastersS


Crusader

Russia calls UN Security Council session to pause Yemen crisis

Image
© Reuters / Mike Segar
As fighting in Yemen intensifies Russia has called up an emergency UN Security Council session to put on pause Saudi-led coalition airstrikes for humanitarian purposes in an effort to quell the violence that is impacting civilians.

Russia insists it is necessary for the international community to discuss the establishment of regular and mandatory "humanitarian pauses" in the ongoing coalition air strikes on Yemen, Russian UN mission's spokesman Aleksey Zaytsev told Sputnik.

An extraordinary meeting is scheduled for Saturday, at 3pm GMT at the UN headquarters in NYC.

Comment: Glad to see a country speak up and do something about the humanitarian crises in Yemen. Can the UN do anything about it?


Gear

Russia preparing to lift food embargo for Greece

Image
© EPA/ALKIS KONSTANTINIDIS
Russia's veterinary and phytosanitary watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor is launching an inspection of Greece's agro-industrial enterprises on April 20, a spokesperson for the agency said on Thursday.

The list currently consists of 20 enterprises and could include more, Yulia Trofimova said.

Russia's Economic Development Minister Alexey Ulyukayev said in early March that Russia would look into ways of easing the food embargo for Greece and Hungary which do not contradict the rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Later Rosselkhoznadzor said it planned to start checks at the live-stock enterprises of Greece, Cyprus and Hungary to speed up the beginning of supplies from these countries if the food embargo is lifted.

Bizarro Earth

SOTT Focus: Our world is descending into chaos, have you noticed?

Image
The Germanwings crash "trial by media" continues unabated. The most recent evidence produced to back up the official story is the alleged discovery of a cell phone video of the last moments of the plane and its passengers. Reporters from both French magazine Paris Match and German daily Bild claim to have viewed the video that portrayed a scene "so chaotic that it was hard to identify people" where "the sounds of the screaming passengers made it perfectly clear that they were aware of what was about to happen to them."

"It is a video that several of us saw together", said Frédéric Helbert of Paris Match, "that we watched dozens of times. You must understand that this video does not allow us to identify any people, it is not a sensationalist video. It is from a passenger who filmed from the back of the plane. The sound is atrocious. It shows the human dimension of panic, distress, screaming people on board. That is what is terrible. It is a very powerful human element, but it doesn't provide any information that might be useful for the investigation."

Indeed, such a video doesn't provide any information useful to the investigation, unless the investigation is being carried on by the mainstream media, with 'evidence', such as this video, being provided by persons unknown.

According to Helbert the video was obtained from "a source close to the investigation" that "required several levels of intermediaries connected to people working on the terrain." Whoever provided the alleged video to Paris Match and Bild did not, however, give them a copy. It seems the reporters were only shown the video, presumably on some media device like a laptop which was then taken away. Helbert said: "I don't have the video. We had the opportunity to see the video."

Smiley

OSCE: No Russian military troops, equipment observed in Donbas

osce
© AFP 2015/ DIMITAR DIL
OSCE's observers are unable to perform full-fledged work because of "constant provocations from Ukrainian forces," Kelin added.

"I would like to emphasize an important aspect that the mission has not once recorded the presence of Russian military equipment or the presence of Russian military units [in southeast Ukraine]," Andrei Kelin said.

On February 13, OSCE Secretary General Lamberto Zannier said he saw Russian individuals, but not Russian army units, fighting in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region.

In January, the chief of Ukraine's General Military Staff Viktor Muzhenko has also acknowledged that Russian regular army units were not involved in combat action in the troubled Donetsk and Lugansk regions.

Since the start of the government forces' military assault on eastern Ukraine's independence supporters in April 2014, Kiev and the West have repeatedly accused Russia of interfering in the Ukrainian internal crisis. The accusations went as far as to claim that Moscow sent troops and weapons to help the independence forces.

Nevertheless, the Kremlin has dismissed the claims as not corroborated by any evidence.

Yoda

5 ways Putin is driving the U.S. Empire crazy

Image
© Reuters/RIA Novosti
Although Russian President Putin has worked to form a strong and lasting partnership with Washington - in fields as diverse as fighting terrorism and exploring outer space - the spirit of goodwill and bilateral relations has not been reciprocated.

US-led NATO forces continue to push inexorably towards the Russian border, while plans are in progress to build a missile defense shield in Eastern Europe, which threatens the strategic balance in the region, thereby paving the way for another arms race.

At the same time, the United States and its allies have launched a number of disastrous and illegitimate wars against sovereign states, while portraying Putin as the greatest threat to global peace. The question that must be asked is: What has the Russian leader done to attract this sort of vilification on the part of the US? The answers reveal much more about the current state of affairs in Washington than anything that could be described as threatening on Putin's part.

5. Putin gave US a 'Get out of War Free' card

One would think that the United States would be grateful to the Russian leader for his last-minute mediating efforts that allowed Washington to avoid what would have been a costly and certainly disastrous military confrontation in Syria. One would have thought wrong.

August 29, 2013 marks the day when the wheels of America's global juggernaut began to go wobbly. It was the moment when UK Prime Minister David Cameron lost a historic vote in the House of Commons to join a US-led attack on Syria following on dubious claims that President Bashar Assad had used chemical weapons against a Syrian village.

Magnify

Alleged ISIS-inspired NYC duo provided bomb-making manual by informant

Image

Comment: Just another case of the FBI creating terrorists out of thin air through its well known entrapment efforts? The U.S. never does get tired of using fear to control its populace, and it sure looks like this story falls into that familiar pattern.


In what has been widely described in the media as the breakup of an "ISIS-inspired" plot, on April 2 the Department of Justice announced that Noelle Velentzas, 28, and Asia Siddiqui, 31, both of New York, had been arrested and charged with conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction. The defendants "plotted to wreak terror by creating explosive devices" for use in New York City and sought "bomb-making instructions and materials" for an attack, the Justice Department statement said.

Like other recent sensational "terror plots," however, the criminal complaint unsealed yesterday demonstrates the key role of an undercover law enforcement informant in both formulating and facilitating the alleged plot. It doesn't appear that Velentzas or Siddiqui actually planned or attempted to bomb any target, nor is there any evidence of discussions about how to create a bomb before the introduction of the informant into their lives.

It was only after the informant provided the pair with a copy of The Anarchist Cookbook - a manual with instructions on how to create an explosive device — that their amateurish efforts gained any traction.

According to the complaint, both Velentzas and Siddiqui are alleged to have "espoused jihadist beliefs" for a prolonged period leading up to these allegations. Siddiqui, in particular, is believed to have written letters and poems in support of extremist violence, and may have been under government surveillance as far back as 2006, when she is said to have made contact with the now-deceased former editor of Al Qaeda's Inspire magazine, Samir Khan. While the exact nature of this contact is not specified, it is alleged that in 2009, Siddiqui had submitted poems online to the predecessor magazine of Inspire, entitled Jihad Recollections.

Comment: Two women allegedly inspired by ISIS arrested in NYC for planning to set bomb off


Snakes in Suits

Merkel comes out as basically a U.S. proxy

Image
On Wednesday, April 1st, German Chancellor Angela Merkel's cabinet approved a measure to bring fracking (the patents for which are owned mainly by "large American companies, including Halliburton, Baker Hughes and Schlumberger") into Germany. This is a prelude not only to U.S. President Obama's secret Trans-Atlantic Trade & Investment Partnership (TTIP) pact with Europe to subordinate national laws and regulations to trans-national mega-corporate panels that will be dominated by U.S. firms and that will override the participating nations' environmental and labor regulations and consumer protections (and harm European economies generally), but it is also a major step toward removing Europe from Russia's energy-market, and bringing U.S. and European oil companies to dominate there instead.

German Economic News headlined on April 1st, "Precursor to TTIP: Federal Government brings Fracking to Germany," and reported that:
The controversial shale gas extraction (fracking) process is coming to Germany: In order not to provoke excessively large protests at home, the federal government highlighted that fracking is initially allowed only for testing purposes. But in fact, the draft law of the Federal Environment and the Federal Ministry of Economics, approved today by the the Cabinet, also allows subsequent large-scale extraction of shale gas....

The American interest in a continuing conflict simmering in Ukraine also causes Europeans to fear that Russian gas could stop and thus drive Europe to give up our still considerable resistance against fracking. Some US politicians have personal interests, such as the US Vice President Biden, whose son works for a Ukrainian fracking company.

Last year [U.S. agent, friend of Angela Merkel, and EU Council President, Donald] Tusk wrote in a commentary in the Financial Times that 'excessive dependence on Russian energy' is an EU weakness. Currently, the EU countries derive 44 percent of our natural gas from Russia and 33 percent from Norway. ... Objectively, there is no reason to be afraid of the Russians: Even Angela Merkel acknowledged a few months ago that Russians have always accurately fulfilled their gas contracts and therefore are a reliable partner.
Halliburton and Baker-Hughes have merged, and are the two major owners of fracking patents. Schlumberger is third. ExxonMobil is a distant fourth. So, this could produce a huge boost to those stocks.

Info

South Ossetian parliament ratifies Treaty of Alliance and integration with Russia

Image
© Sputnik/ Grigoriy Sysoyev
The South Ossetian parliament on Friday ratified the Treaty of Alliance and Integration between the republic and Russia, by a unanimous vote in favor of the move.

The ratification ceremony was conducted in a festive atmosphere, in the presence of the republic's president, government officials, veterans and youth activists.

Speaking at the ceremony, President of South Ossetia Leonid Tibilov called the parliamentary session "historic", adding that the treaty was a document of strategic scale that will significantly strengthen security in South Ossetia and give a new impetus to social and economic development of the republic.

Comment: No screams from US/NATO/EU yet.


Card - VISA

Russia's Central Bank announces 'anti-sanctions' National Payment Card System

Visa and MasterCard transactions within Russia will be done via a new National System of Payment Cards bypassing all non-Russian banking infrastructure
Image
© Russia Insider
The Central Bank announced 1 April 2015 as the launch date for the National System of Payment Cards (NCPS) of the Russian Federation. This new system will operate inside Russia and control the issuing of bank cards connected with the international payment systems of Visa and MasterCard. This now means that the West will not be able to block the cards of Russians through the introduction of financial sanctions.

However, not all international payment systems have been connected to the national system, according to Kommersant. "Beginning on 1 April, the National System of Payment Cards will carry out processing operations on domestic MasterCard cards of all banks included in the plan," a statement published the same evening by the Central Bank said.

The document also states that the transfer of Mastercard transactions for processing by the NSPC would be completed only towards the middle of April. Until then, operations will continue in the Mastercard processing center abroad.

As for Visa cards, some commentators believe this process (of by-passing the sanctions) will take even longer. The process of joining the NSPC will take one to two months, writes Izvestia. In addition, it is reported that the representatives of Visa do not intend to pay a security deposit. If they do not, they face a fine amounting to that of the security deposit.

Comment: See also:


Piggy Bank

Greece may be preparing for Grexit and return to drachma

Image
© Reuters/Dado Ruvic
Athens is currently trying to negotiate a new bailout deal with its Troika of creditors, but if that falls 'Plan B' could reportedly involve getting rid of the euro and cutting off its banking system from the European Central Bank.


Comment: 'Plan B' probably should have been 'Plan A'.


Greece's government is getting ready to nationalize the country's banks and return to the the drachma, the Telegraph reported citing sources.

"We are a left-wing government. If we have to choose between a default to the IMF or a default to our own people, it is a no-brainer," a senior official told The Daily Telegraph.

"We will shut down the banks and nationalise them, and then issue IOUs if we have to, and we all know what this means. What we will not do is become a protectorate of the EU," according to another source.

Comment: For more analysis: Russia and Greece vs. the West: A geo-strategic 'game, set and match'?