I'm going to make it as quick as I can because I'm no longer liking the Cold War-style propaganda, obfuscation, and lies passing itself off as some sort of accurate portrayal of events in the world:
"Russia tightens its rein over Black Sea province; NATO, US say move violates Georgian sovereignty" by Vladimir Isachenkov, Associated Press November 25, 2014
MOSCOW — Russia tightened its control Monday over Georgia’s breakaway province of Abkhazia with a new treaty envisaging closer military and economic ties with the lush sliver of land along the Black Sea.
The move drew outrage and cries of annexation in Georgia and sent a chill through those in Abkhazia who fear that wealthy Russians will snap up their precious coastline. It also raised further suspicions in the West about President Vladimir Putin’s territorial aspirations after his annexation of Ukraine’s Black Sea peninsula of Crimea in March.
Except he didn't annex it, and if the propaganda pre$$ continues and continues to repeat a distortion if not outright lie, what are we to think of all the rest?
Under the treaty signed by Putin and Abkhazia’s leader in the nearby Black Sea resort of Sochi, Russian and Abkhazian forces in the territory will turn into a joint force led by a Russian commander.
Putin said Moscow will also double its subsidies to Abkhazia to about $200 million next year.
‘‘I’m sure that cooperation, unity, and strategic partnership between Russia and Abkhazia will continue to strengthen,’’ he said.
‘‘Ties with Russia offer us full security guarantees and broad opportunities for socio-economic development,’’ said President Raul Khadzhimba of Abkhazian.
Russian troops have been deployed in Abkhazia for more than two decades since the region of 240,000 people broke away from Georgia in a separatist war in the early 1990s. Still, Monday’s agreement reflected a clear attempt by Moscow to further expand its presence and came only after a change of leadership in the territory.
Coming amid a chill in Russia-West ties over the Ukrainian crisis, the deal raised concern about Moscow’s plans. The Black Sea region has always been important for Putin, who justified the annexation of Crimea by saying it would guarantee that NATO warships would never be welcome on the peninsula, the home base of the Russian Black Sea Fleet.
NATO’s secretary general condemned the treaty, stressing that the alliance supports Georgia’s sovereignty. He also called on Russia to reverse its recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, another breakaway province, as independent states.
‘‘This so-called treaty does not contribute to a peaceful and lasting settlement of the situation in Georgia,’’ Jens Stoltenberg said. ‘‘On the contrary, it violates Georgia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and blatantly contradicts the principles of international law, OSCE principles, and Russia’s international commitments.’’
Like NATO has any standing to criticize anyone over international law, even if the complaint were legit.
The United States also said it wouldn’t recognize Russia’s move and expressed continued support for Georgia’s sovereignty.
‘‘The United States will not recognize the legitimacy of any so-called ‘treaty’ between Georgia’s Abkhazia region and the Russian Federation,’’ the US State Department said in a statement.
They want a war anywhere they can get it, and as for nonrecognition how about that junta government in Kiev?
Abkhazia’s former leader, Alexander Ankvab, was forced to step down this year under pressure from protesters who reportedly were encouraged by the Kremlin. Khadzhimba, a former Soviet KGB officer, was elected president in an early vote in August that Georgia rejected as illegal.
OMG! Yeah, only other people push controlled opposition protest at us (which reminds me, Ferguson protests have disappeared).
Unlike Ankvab, who had resisted Moscow’s push to let Russians buy assets in Abkhazia, Khadzhimba has appeared more eager to listen to Russia’s demands.
The Georgian Foreign Ministry denounced the new agreement as a ‘‘step toward the de facto annexation’’ of Abkhazia and called on the international community to condemn the move.
Russian-Georgian relations were ruptured by war in 2008 after former Georgian president Mikhail Saakashvili attempted to restore control over South Ossetia. The Russian military routed the Georgian forces in five days and Moscow recognized both rebel provinces as independent states.
That put the globalist plans back a ways.
The Georgian Dream bloc led by Russia-friendly billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, which unseated Saakashvili’s party in the 2012 vote, has sought to repair ties with Moscow. But while economic relations have improved, political ties have remained frozen because of Moscow’s refusal to compromise on the status of Georgia’s separatist regions.
Why do I feel like I've read this script so many times before?
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"Russia raises defense posture on NATO" by Vladimir Isachenkov, Associated Press December 27, 2014
MOSCOW — Russia identified NATO as the nation’s No. 1 military threat and raised the possibility of a broader use of precision conventional weapons to deter foreign aggression under a new military doctrine signed by President Vladimir Putin on Friday.
NATO flatly denied it is a threat to Russia and accused Russia of undermining European security.
The new doctrine, which comes amid tensions over Ukraine, reflected the Kremlin’s readiness to take a stronger posture in response to what it sees as the US-led efforts to isolate and weaken Russia.
The paper maintains the provisions of the previous, 2010 edition of the military doctrine regarding the use of nuclear weapons.
It says Russia could use nuclear weapons in retaliation to the use of nuclear or other weapons of mass destruction against the country or its allies and also in the case of aggression involving conventional weapons that ‘‘threatens the very existence’’ of the Russian state.
Related: Russia May Give Nuclear Bomb to Terrorists
But for the first time, the new doctrine says Russia could use precision weapons ‘‘as part of strategic deterrent measures,’’ without spelling out when and how Moscow could resort to them.
Examples of precision conventional weapons include ground-to-ground missiles, air- and submarine-launched cruise missiles, and guided bombs and artillery shells.
Among other provisions, the paper mentions the need to protect Russia’s interests in the Arctic, where the global competition for vast oil and rich resources has been heating up as the Arctic ice melts.
The pun-like BS never stops, too.
Russia has relied heavily on its nuclear deterrent and lagged far behind the United States and its NATO allies in the development of precision conventional weapons. However, it has recently sped up its military modernization, buying large numbers of weapons and boosting military drills.
Related: The Boston Globe Missed This Nuclear Explo$ion
But, you know....
Earlier this month, Russia flexed its muscle by airlifting the state-of-the art Iskander missiles to its westernmost Kaliningrad exclave bordering NATO members Poland and Lithuania. The missiles were pulled back to their home base after the drills, but the deployment clearly served as a demonstration of the military’s readiness to quickly raise the ante in case of crisis.
God, the stinking hypocrisy of the mouthpiece media is astonishing.
Russia had threatened earlier that it could permanently station the Iskander missiles, which can hit targets up to about 300 miles away with high precision, in retaliation to US-led NATO missile defense plans. Iskander missiles can be fitted with a nuclear or conventional warhead.
The 29-page doctrine is a stand-alone document outlining top threats to Russia’s security and possible responses. The current edition is the third since Putin was first elected in 2000.
NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu responded by saying in a statement that the alliance ‘‘poses no threat to Russia or to any nation.’’
‘‘Any steps taken by NATO to ensure the security of its members are clearly defensive in nature, proportionate and in compliance with international law,’’ she said. ‘‘In fact, it is Russia’s actions, including currently in Ukraine, which are breaking international law and undermining European security.’’
What a contemptible organization is that military arm of the EUSraeli Empire.
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"Moldovans split between EU, Russia in election" Associated Press December 01, 2014
CHISINAU, Moldova — Partial results from Sunday’s parliamentary election show Moldovan voters divided between parties wanting to move closer to Europe and those wanting to move back into Moscow’s sphere of influence.
The election has taken on wider significance with the unrest in Ukraine. Moldova, like Ukraine, has a pro-Russia separatist region in its east.
With 52 percent of the vote counted, parties that want closer ties to Moscow were slightly ahead, with about 42.5 percent of the vote, while pro-European parties had about 41 percent. The surprise leader was the strongly pro-Russia Socialists’ Party, which was polling 22 percent, according to partial results.
The impoverished former Soviet republic is currently governed by a pro-European coalition. Russia placed an embargo on Moldovan fruit after the country signed a trade pact with the European Union.
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Time to set sail for France:
"Russian sailors leaving France without warship" by Sylvie Corbet, Associated Press December 19, 2014
PARIS — Hundreds of Russian sailors pulled out of a French port Thursday, bearing perfumes for their loved ones but lacking the controversial bounty they came for: a $1 billion, French-built warship that has become a hostage to the biggest East-West conflict since the Cold War.
The Vladivostok helicopter carrier is part of a strange and divisive arms deal now on hold — and perhaps on the verge of collapse — because of the conflict in Ukraine. France built it for Russia’s navy but is now having second thoughts, notably amid heavy US criticism of the deal.
Yeah, $crew your economy and workers.
After months training on the ship, the Russian sailors left the port town of Saint-Nazaire empty-handed. The ship, painted with Cyrillic letters reading ‘‘Vladivostok,” is in a dock, unused. A second ship meant to be part of the deal is there, too, an expensive diplomatic embarrassment.
A top French official involved in negotiating the sale in 2009, former defense minister Herve Morin, is now opposed to it. His change of heart reflects Europe’s evolving relationship with Russia, a powerful neighbor, trading partner, and energy supplier. It also reflects divisions inside France.
And beyond that, it means DEALS SIGNED WITH WESTERN GOVERNMENTS are WORTHLESS so TAKE TOUR BUSINESS ELSEWHERE!
Then-president Nicolas Sarkozy crafted the sale as much for domestic economic reasons as for geopolitical ones.
The contract saved a shipbuilder at risk of bankruptcy at a time when Sarkozy was trying to shore up the economy. ‘‘The Mistral-class deal was viewed as an unexpected lifeline’’ for STX France, 33 percent owned by the French state, Morin said.
It also fit with Sarkozy’s policy of outreach to authoritarian leaders shunned by the West.
Russia’s president at the time, Dmitry Medvedev, called it ‘‘a symbol of trust between our countries’’ as Russia sought to modernize its overstretched and outdated military machine.
The trust has been broken.
But the sale of the ships — which could allow Russia to land hundreds of troops quickly on foreign soil — worried Russia’s neighbors, including the three Baltic countries in NATO.
The deal has become a liability for Sarkozy’s Socialist successor Francois Hollande. In August he put it on hold, saying ‘‘conditions haven’t been met’’ to deliver the ship.
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Better stay out of the U.K., too.
"US to aid Bulgaria’s energy needs" New York Times January 16, 2015
SOFIA, Bulgaria — Secretary of State John F. Kerry said Thursday that the United States would help Bulgaria reduce its dependence on Russia for its energy supplies.
Bulgaria, a member of NATO, relies on Russia for 85 percent of the gas it uses and for 100 percent of its nuclear fuel, according to US officials.
“No country in the world should be totally dependent for its energy supply on one other country,” Kerry, who is making his first trip here as secretary of state, said in a joint news conference with Boiko Borisov, Bulgaria’s prime minister.
While in Sofia, Kerry met with Bulgaria’s president, prime minister, and foreign minister. He left midafternoon to fly to Paris, where met with President François Hollande.
A senior State Department official said that one major challenge was to develop an alternative for the South Stream pipeline project, which was to funnel gas to Bulgaria from a pipeline under the Black Sea but which Russia canceled as tensions between the Kremlin and the West grew over the crisis in Ukraine.
The United States, the official said, was working with officials in Sofia and Athens on possibly creating a pipeline from a liquefied natural gas terminal in Greece.
Related: Russia and Turkey agree on new gas route
It will end in Greece.
‘‘Our first duty is to help those on the verge of despair — who do not have the basics like food, heating, and medical care,’’ Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras of the new radical left government said at his inaugural Cabinet meeting. The hard line prompted a quick warning from the European Union."
What a bunch of EU a$$holes!!
Could this be the end of the Euro?
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And the dollar?
"Russia dismisses new US sanctions as useless" by Nataliya Vasilyeva, Associated Press December 21, 2014
MOSCOW — Russia on Saturday dismissed new US sanctions as useless and said it was poised to wait as long as it takes for the United States to recognize its historic right to the Crimean peninsula.
After several rounds of sanctions earlier this year, President Obama on Friday approved new restrictions on Crimea, which Russia annexed in March after a hastily called referendum.
The Russian foreign ministry on Saturday expressed regret that ‘‘the United States and Canada still cannot get over the results of a free vote in Crimea in March,’’ the referendum that was condemned by the international community as illegal and held under the guns of Russian troops.
Whose narrative is that?
Canada on Friday announced travel bans for dozens of individuals as well as restrictions on the export of technology used in Russia’s oil industry.
In a pithy statement, Moscow insisted that the new sanctions won’t push Russia to give up Crimea since it is a ‘‘historic and integral part of Russia’’ and said it was working on unspecified measures to retaliate.
The ministry referred to Cuba, where it took the United States decades to restore diplomatic relations. ‘‘The White House took half a century to admit that blockading Cuba with sanctions was useless: well, we can wait, too,’’ the statement said.
Nice turn of the screw.
Obama’s order prohibited US companies and individuals from exporting or importing any goods, services, or technology to or from Crimea. Likewise, US individuals or companies cannot buy real estate or businesses in Crimea or finance Crimean companies.
It also freezes any assets in the United States of individuals determined by the US Treasury Department to be operating in Crimea.
Obama’s order follows a European Union ban on investment in Crimea and other economic restrictions, including measures aimed at keeping tourists away. The new measures on investment, services, and trade, revealed Thursday, beef up the EU’s previous response to Russia’s annexation of the peninsula.
They are telling that lie so much it's spinning like a globe. Probably have used it more in this post than the 70 years Israel has been annexing territory.
Europeans and EU-based companies are barred from buying real estate or businesses in Crimea, financing Crimean companies or supplying services as of Saturday.
In addition, EU operators will no longer be allowed to offer tourism services to Crimea’s Black Sea beaches or other destinations. Cruise ships owned by an EU-based company or flying an EU member state’s flag will also no longer be allowed to call at Sevastopol or other Crimean ports, except in an emergency.
Moscow’s harsh anti-American rhetoric comes as the Kremlin appears to be departing from its defiant stance on a settlement in eastern Ukraine. It has, for instance, given up its persistent suggestion the only solution to the bloody conflict in the east is the federalization of Ukraine.
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It's all a long game with Russia, as Henry Kissinger once wrote.
Ready for some anti-Russian rhetoric?
"Russia’s response to SOTU: ‘U.S. intends to dominate the world’" by Karoun Demirjian January 21
MOSCOW — President Obama briefly, but pointedly, addressed a year of tense relations with Russia over Ukraine during his State of the Union address Tuesday night, saying the United States was “upholding the principle that bigger nations can't bully the small.”
You know what? He IS insane!
Today Russia replied: Who are you calling a bully?
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov railed against Obama’s address during his annual year-in-review news conference Wednesday, charging that Obama’s speech “showed that the United States intends to dominate the world.”
He knows about the Project for the New American century.
“The Americans have chosen a path toward confrontation, and do not evaluate their own steps critically at all,” Lavrov said. “Yesterday’s address by President Obama showed that the central principle of the United States’ philosophy is based on only one thing: The we're No. 1 and everybody else has to recognize that.”
Obama’s comments on Russia weren’t quite as gauche as that: He did voice the common refrain of declaring America’s exceptionalism in State of the Union speeches toward the end of the speech, but quite a while after talking about Russia – and defended the U.S. push to impose sanctions on Russia by pointing out that “it is America that stands strong and united with our allies, while Russia is isolated, with its economy in tatters.”
I'm so glad I didn't watch a word.
But it’s not the first time in recent months that a Russian leader has accused the United States of bullying the world into submission.
In October, Russian President Vladimir Putin told a meeting of international experts at the Valdai Club that the United States was destabilizing the entire global order in its attempt to “reshape the world,” based on what Putin diagnosed as an undeserved sense of post-Cold War victor’s justice.
It really is no secret.
On Wednesday, Lavrov noted that Russia “does not want and do not support any new Cold War.”
But he scoffed at the idea that the United States had built up a team of allies to counter Russia through anything but coercion and force, pointing to past comments of Obama and Vice President Biden to support the argument that the U.S. “forced Europe to do what they wanted with regard to our country.”
Over the past year, the United States and Europe have enacted several rounds of sanctions against Russia over its annexation of Crimea and involvement in the war in eastern Ukraine. While the United States often took the lead in pushing for many of those sanctions, European leaders have held the line against Russia, deciding just Monday that the situation on the ground in Ukraine didn’t merit any discussion of rolling back sanctions.
So when is Israel going to be sanctioned?
There has been a spike in hostilities in the past week between pro-Russian separatists and the Ukrainian army in eastern Ukraine, marked with fierce battles reminiscent of the worst days of the conflict last summer. Ukrainian leaders have charged that Russia is once again sending troops over the border to support the rebels – a charge Russia denies, but that U.S. Ambassador Geoffrey R. Pyatt appeared to support Tuesday, according to Russian news wire Interfax.
Pyatt is one of the pukes that was in the putsch.
The Kremlin maintains that it is Kiev that is intent on furthering hostilities – and that the United States is using the Ukraine conflict to stick it to Russia and Putin.
“The matter here isn’t Crimea and it’s not Ukraine. If it weren’t Crimea, they would come up with another excuse,” Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian magazine Argumenty i Fakty in an interview posted online Tuesday.
Yup.
Lavrov also opined that he considered the United States’ approach to international relations “outdated” and “not a proper thing for a great power.”
“I should like that all countries choose the path of cooperation, not the path of diktat disguised in some diplomatic form,” he said, adding the charge that the U.S. was actually too weak to go it alone – which is why it tries to form coalitions, as in Iraq.
Lavrov also expressed more doubts than hope that the United States' approach would change anytime soon.
“It’s in their blood and flesh, they believe they are first, and this philosophy, this genetic code, is very hard to change,” Lavrov said, before expressing faint confidence that “the logic of partnership” between the United States and Russia would ultimately prevail.
That's what the future of the planet rests upon; otherwise, it's nuclear war.
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Oh, yeah, and ABOUT BULLYING:
"Russia denounces US over CIA torture report" by David M. Herszenhorn, New York Times December 12, 2014
MOSCOW — Often castigated by the United States over its record on human rights, democracy, and civil liberties, Russia on Thursday seized on the Senate Intelligence Committee report on the use of torture by the CIA to turn the tables on Washington and demand that those responsible be brought to justice.
Oh, yeah, "'we' tortured some folks."
Related:
China Inspired Interrogations at Guantánamo
Soviet-Style ‘Torture’ Becomes ‘Interrogation’
So that is where "we" learned it.
The Russian government, in a statement posted on the Foreign Ministry’s website, said the report provided “confirmation of gross, systemic human rights violations by the American authorities.”
Yeah, that kind of destroys any credibility regarding criticism coming from them.
The statement, issued by Konstantin Dolgov, the ministry’s commissioner for human rights, democracy, and the rule of law, called the disclosures in the report shocking and complained that only the executive summary had been released, while the bulk “remains classified, and the American authorities still do not wish to disclose it.”
Imagine what really horrible things they did!
“We are urging the human rights community and responsible international organizations and structures to seek from Washington the disclosure of the full spectrum of information about human rights abuses committed in the framework of this ‘global war on terror’ and to bring those guilty to justice,” Dolgov said in the statement.
Good luck waiting.
Russia also called for an investigation into the role of other governments that allowed the CIA to operate secret prisons on their soil, saying they appeared to be complicit in the actions detailed in the report.
The Kremlin has no small motivation to try to capitalize on the situation, given the incessant criticism that it has faced over the years regarding limitations on democracy and the rule of law in Russia.
That criticism has come not only from the United States, but also from the United Nations, which in 2012 issued a scathing report accusing Russia of violating an international treaty prohibiting torture.
The Senate Intelligence Committee’s report cited the case of Abu Zubaydah, a top Al Qaeda figure under Osama bin Laden who was captured in 2002, as an example of how some detainees provided more — and better — intelligence before they were tortured.
In 2010, the United States adopted a law known as the Magnitsky Act, aimed at punishing Russian officials and citizens who had allegedly violated human rights. Although they may not have been convicted of any crime, Russians on the so-called Magnitsky list are barred from traveling to the United States and from maintaining any financial assets, real estate, or other property there.
The statute is named for Sergei L. Magnitsky, a Russian lawyer who died in prison after trying to expose a huge tax fraud said to have been carried out by government officials. In retaliation for the US statute, the Russian government banned the adoption of Russian orphans by US citizens.
Russia has repeatedly been accused by numerous international organizations of trampling on human rights, including charges of mistreating migrant workers and state-approved discrimination against gay men and lesbians.
In the Foreign Ministry statement Thursday, Dolgov said it was the United States that was guilty of hypocrisy by holding itself up as the global standard-bearer of democracy and human rights, and he noted that the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, remained in operation.
The whole world sees it, yeah.
“This gloomy picture of history hasn’t been closed yet,” Dolgov said. “This situation does not fit with the claims of the United States for the title of ‘model of democracy.’ This is far from reality.”
Even its own citizens are coming to that conclusion.
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"Kerry says he backs Russia’s plan for Syrian peace talks; Some moderates opposing Assad vow to not attend" by Michael R. Gordon, New York Times January 15, 2015
GENEVA — Secretary of State John F. Kerry voiced support for Russia’s decision to convene a meeting in Moscow between representatives of the Syrian government and opposition, even though some leading moderate figures have said they do not plan to attend.
“We hope that the Russian efforts could be helpful,” Kerry said Wednesday at the start of a meeting in Geneva with Staffan de Mistura, the UN envoy for the crisis in Syria.
Kerry also said that he hoped de Mistura’s attempts to negotiate local cease-fires in Syria, starting with the contested city of Aleppo, “can have effect.”
Kerry’s support for the Russian and UN initiatives comes at a time when the US-led push to negotiate a solution to the bloody Syria conflict has lost momentum. De Mistura’s step-by-step strategy to de-escalate the civil war has been attracting growing interest among some Obama administration officials.
Talk about being far from reality.
Kerry said before the failed peace talks in Geneva last year that the US goal was a transitional government in Syria that did not include President Bashar Assad. But Kerry refrained from making such an explicit demand in his remarks Wednesday; instead he urged the Syrian leadership to reconsider what it is doing.
“It is time for President Assad, the Assad regime, to put their people first, and to think about the consequences of their actions, which are attracting more and more terrorists to Syria, basically because of their efforts to remove Assad,” Kerry said.
Terrorists trained and funded by the U.S. and its allies, but you know. It's the big game!
Russia, which has backed the Assad government politically and by sending arms, is planning to convene talks among the warring Syrian factions on Jan. 26 in Moscow.
De Mistura is planning to send a representative to the Moscow meeting, a US official said. And there has been speculation that de Mistura’s efforts and the Russian initiative could be combined in some way to start a new peace process, or at least to diminish some of the fighting in a conflict that has already killed tens of thousands of people and displaced much of Syria’s population.
But several leading figures among the more moderate opponents of Assad have said that they do not believe Russia can be an impartial arbiter, and that they will not take part in the talks in Moscow. And some critics say that when it comes to the Russian initiative, the Americans appear to be grasping at straws.
So am I by doing this.
**************
Following his meeting with de Mistura, Kerry met with the foreign minister of Iran, Mohammad Javad Zarif, at a luxury hotel. Kerry’s objective was to encourage progress in the next round of negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program, which are scheduled to resume in Geneva on Thursday.
“I think it’s important,” Zarif told reporters before Kerry arrived for their meeting. “I think it will show the readiness of the two parties to move forward.”
Related: Obama Looking For a Fight on Iran
"A senior administration official told reporters traveling with President Obama that the administration welcomed the move, adding that it sent ‘‘a very constructive signal’’ that lawmakers understand Obama’s arguments for waiting. Menendez made it clear, however, that he and his Democratic colleagues are not willing to hold off support for the bill forever."
Neither is the war-promoting pre$$.
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"Putin and Modi reaffirm bond between Russia and India" by Ellen Barry, New York Times December 12, 2014
Pretty much kills the pile of propaganda we got a few days ago.
NEW DELHI — As expected, longtime allies Russia and India signed a raft of agreements at their leaders’ annual summit meeting Thursday, expanding their usual set of projects to an ambitious agenda that includes joint manufacture of military helicopters and production of nuclear reactors.
But the most intriguing event of the day occurred in a private dining room at a luxury hotel, where Sergei Aksyonov, the prime minister of Crimea, the Ukrainian territory annexed this year by Russia, signed a memorandum of understanding with a group of Indian businessmen who have named themselves the “Indo-Crimean Partnership.”
Did Obummer mention that on his way through before the servile salute to extreme Saudi Wahhabism?
Aksyonov, 42, organized a paramilitary force on the Crimean Peninsula this year as pro-Western protests rose in Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, and he was one of the first people to be singled out by the United States for sanctions. He traveled to India on a plane that carried Russian officials attending the summit meeting, and was flanked by senior Russian diplomats, whom he credited with arranging the event. Interfax, the Russian news agency, said it was Aksyonov’s “first international visit.”
But both Indian and Russian officials said Aksyonov had not come as part of the official Russian delegation, and a spokesman for India’s foreign minister said he had not been consulted about the planned event.
As for Aksyonov, he said he had come to India so he could follow up on an overture from Gul Kripalani, a Mumbai seafood merchant.
“Business is looking for the best place — a place that is calm, where you can protect your capital, where it is possible to increase your economic indicators,” Aksyonov said. “So Crimea is a priority place.”
For President Vladimir Putin of Russia, the brief visit to India served a crucial function this year, reassuring his domestic audience that Russia has not been too damaged by its growing isolation from the West. The Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, is enjoying a period of global celebrity after sweeping the general election six months ago.
He's very well-mannered.
In comments Thursday, Modi lingered on the subject of historic loyalty, which has bound India and Russia even as their joint agenda stagnated.
Modi publicly reassured Putin that “even if India’s options have increased,” Russia would remain India’s top defense supplier, ensuring a predictable flow of income as Russia weathers falling oil prices and a weak economy. In response, Putin pledged to supply India with 20 nuclear reactors, and Russia’s state oil company agreed to supply Essar, a private company, with a 10-year, fixed-price contract for oil that one official said was worth $5 billion.
The visit of Crimea’s leader, however, remained the most surprising part of the day.
Yeah, don't worry about those very important economic deals!
Kripalani, the Mumbai businessman who invited Aksyonov to New Delhi, said that five Indian businessmen were present at the meeting of the Indo-Crimean Partnership but that the group had 204 members.
Kripalani runs a Mumbai business called the Pijikay Group of Companies, with what he said was an annual trade of $174 million in frozen shrimp. Crimea’s trade isolation, he said, had created a significant opportunity.
“We look at Crimea as an open door, welcoming Indian business,” Kripalani said. “I thought I would go and pick the low-hanging fruit.”
I'm surprised!
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"North Korean leader mulls Russia for his world debut" by Eric Talmadge, Associated Press January 15, 2015
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un could visit Russia in May for his first trip abroad since taking power three years ago, giving the world an unprecedented chance to see him at work on the international stage.
Moscow has invited many world leaders — including Kim and the presidents of China and South Korea — to celebrations marking the 70th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany, which will include a massive parade on Red Square.
Time for a new look at the Good War.
Also see:
Poland failed to invite Putin to Auschwitz event, Kremlin says
Russia accuses Poles of 'mockery of history' over Auschwitz
They are saying it was the Nazis who liberated it!
Dwindling group of survivors to mark Auschwitz 70 years on
Holocaust survivors gather at Auschwitz-Birkenau to remember
Remembering Auschwitz
I don't need any more reminders regarding the alleged crematoriums.
President Vladimir Putin’s foreign affairs adviser, Yuri Ushakov, said last month the Kremlin had received the ‘‘first signals from Pyongyang’’ that the North Korean plans to attend the May 9 festivities. South Korean media quoted anonymous sources in Beijing this week as saying that Kim is likely to accept. President Obama has reportedly decided not to attend.
North Korea has not officially commented on the invitation and has ample time to decline.
But choosing Moscow for his first overseas trip would be a strong indication of the direction Kim wants to take his country. It would also provide the world with a look at a man who is one of the biggest mysteries in international politics.
In the last three years, Kim has shown a style of leadership devotedly in line with the policies of his father, Kim Jong Il.
But unlike his reclusive father, Kim has revived the custom started by his grandfather, North Korea’s ‘‘eternal president’’ Kim Il Sung, of delivering speeches on New Year’s Day. He often makes public appearances with his photogenic wife and does not seem to share his predecessors’ reported fear of flying.
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Related: North Korea leader will travel to Russia
Tiger released by Putin kills 15 goats in northeast China
Hardly enough to make them drop the gas deal.
"Islamic militants wage fierce attack on Chechnya’s capital" by Andrew E. Kramer and Neil MacFarquhar, New York Times December 05, 2014
GROZNY, Chechnya — A fierce gun battle between Islamist militants and government security forces paralyzed the center of the Chechen capital, Grozny, overnight Thursday, leaving some 20 people dead and embarrassing President Vladimir Putin just hours before he delivered his state-of-the-nation speech in Moscow.
Smells like CIA to me!
It was the most violent, brazen attack linked to militant activity in the region in months. As dawn broke, smoke was rising from several locations, residents said in telephone interviews. Kheda Saratova, a human rights activist, said that gunfire continued through the morning.
There was some speculation among analysts and on social media that the assault was carried out by fighters linked to the Islamic State or other radical groups fighting in Syria. If so, it would be the first such attack inside Russia.
ISIS is CIA-DUH!
Chechen fighters in Syria have threatened to carry out attacks in response to Moscow’s unalloyed support for the Syrian president, Bashar Assad.
Ramzan A. Kadyrov, the Kremlin ally who runs Chechnya, sought to play down the violence, attending Putin’s speech in Moscow and claiming that the reconstruction of the damaged buildings had already begun.
“When this all started,” Kadyrov told reporters at the Kremlin, “I flew home, organized a special operation, killed the devils, held a meeting, gathered the staff needed to restore the damaged building, and made it back in time to listen to the address of our national leader.” He was seen during the speech checking his telephone intently.
Putin also made a passing reference to the attack, first suggesting that the West was behind the long history of terrorist insurgency in the restive Caucasus Mountains because it wanted to break up Russia, just as it had Yugoslavia.
Related: Chechen Terrorists and the Neocons
“Now these ‘rebels’ showed themselves again in Chechnya,” Putin said. “I am sure the local guys, local law enforcement bodies, will cope with it properly. They are working now to liquidate a new terrorist raid.”
Put it all in context of France.
In a further attempt to reassure the public, state television showed Putin in his office meeting with Kadyrov. The Chechen leader assured the president that Grozny was under control, describing the operations there, while Putin instructed that the families of the dead government troops should be comforted.
Putin cemented his popularity after first assuming power in 2000 by ending a protracted war in Chechnya. Kadyrov, while often accused of human rights violations, pushed the militants out of Chechnya into neighboring republics, where the level of attacks rose. Chechnya has remained relatively calm.
Both the attack and the brewing economic crisis seemed to raise simultaneous questions about the signature achievements of Putin’s presidency: ending the Chechen war and obtaining unprecedented prosperity for many Russians.
Most of the violence in the Caucasus goes unnoticed because it takes place outside major urban centers. But Caucasian Knot, an authoritative website that tracks events in the region, said that 290 people had been killed and 144 wounded in fighting scattered through the Caucasus this year through the end of November.
Thursday’s attack was the third major assault this year, it said, following a suicide bombing in Grozny on Oct. 5 that killed five people and the destruction of a government armored personnel carrier by a land mine in April in which four soldiers were killed and seven wounded.
On Thursday, militants traveling in three cars infiltrated the capital around 1 a.m., killing three traffic police officers at a checkpoint and then occupying the 10-story House of Publishing at the center of the city, according to a statement by the National Antiterrorist Committee. Six of the gunmen were killed by security officers inside the building, which was gutted by fire that spread to a nearby market, it said.
The hallmarks of a CIA-organized hit.
The rest of the attackers were found near a House of Publishing school, where fighting continued into Thursday, the statement said.
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NDUs:
Syria talks in Moscow end without visible results
Looked high and low for this, and I suppose you can see from above why the Globe wiped it:
"Narendra Modi Replaces India’s Foreign Secretary With Envoy to U.S." by ELLEN BARRY, JAN. 29, 2015
NEW DELHI — After a visit from President Obama that was widely seen as a success, India has abruptly removed its highest-ranking diplomat and replaced her with its ambassador to the United States.
The appointment of the ambassador, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, as foreign secretary, which took effect on Thursday, comes as Prime Minister Narendra Modi steers India toward a closer partnership with the United States.
After what was written above regarding Putin's visit to India?
Seriously, NYT? That's the spin?
Enjoy the rest, folks.
Mr. Jaishankar was a crucial negotiator on the groundbreaking 2008 civilian nuclear agreement between India and the United States, and he was an important interlocutor in coordinating Mr. Obama’s visit.
He replaces Sujatha Singh, who was appointed by the previous government led by the Indian National Congress party, the main rival to Mr. Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party. Ms. Singh articulated India’s angry reaction to the 2013 arrest of India’s deputy consul general in New York, Devyani Khobragade, on visa fraud charges, an episode that brought relations between the two countries to their lowest point in years.
No explanation was given on Thursday for the reshuffle, which was unusual. The last unceremonious removal of a foreign secretary, Indian news outlets reported, occurred in 1987 under Rajiv Gandhi, then the prime minister.
The timing seemed to have been partly dictated by Mr. Obama’s visit; it would have been disruptive to make the change before the visit was over. An administrative deadline also loomed: Mr. Jaishankar would have become ineligible for the appointment after Jan. 31, when he was scheduled to retire from the foreign service.
Still, some commentators saw the announcement as a signal of Mr. Modi’s intention to deepen cooperation with the United States.
“I don’t know of any foreign secretary who had his experience of dealing with America before becoming foreign secretary,” said K. Shankar Bajpai, a former Indian ambassador to the United States and China.
That's where my print ended.
He added that Mr. Jaishankar’s primary task in his two-year term would be “to consolidate the understandings that are growing between Washington and Delhi, and obviate tensions, as far as possible, between Delhi and Beijing.”
One of the most notable developments during Mr. Obama’s visit was a joint India-United States statement that chided China for provoking conflict with neighbors over territorial claims in the South China Sea. Mr. Modi has also expressed interest in concrete steps aimed at balancing China’s regional influence, such as reviving a loose security network involving Australia, India, Japan and the United States.
Mr. Jaishankar has voiced support for such measures. A 2010 cable written by American diplomats and released by WikiLeaks described a meeting at which he “said India would like to ‘coordinate more closely’ with the United States in the face of China’s ‘more aggressive approach to international relations.’”
That was four years ago. China has chilled, and it's the United States government and its mouthpiece media that are the war mongers!!!
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I think I will "leave it at that."
