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Moscow Anti-Corruption Protest Escalates, Riot Police Arrive – Live Feed | Zero Hedge
Moscow Anti-Corruption Protest Escalates, Riot Police Arrive – Live Feed | Zero Hedge.
As the crowd in Moscow grows to an estimated 10-15,000 protesters chanting “No Putin, No War”, Russia has unleashed police in riot gear, apparently fearful of the consequences of this ‘unlawful’ assembly. The massive crowd of protesters gathered in Moscow’s Manezhka Square on Tuesday, following the guilty verdict of anti-corruption crusader Alexei Navalny, remain peaceful for now; but scuffles are breaking out and tensions are rising.
Navalny, a leading foe of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was found guilty of fraud and given a suspended sentence of three and a half years on Tuesday, while his brother was sent straight to prison.
“The government isn’t just trying to jail its political opponents — we’re used to it; we’re aware that they’re doing it — but this time they’re destroying and torturing the families of the people who oppose them,” he said, calling for people to attend the protest on Tuesday evening.
Hours after the ruling, Navalny himself appeared alongside protesters at Moscow’s Manezhka Square in defiance of a house arrest order — and was quickly detained by Russian authorities for breaking the terms. He was taken away in a bus and reportedly escorted back to his home.
Protesters chanted “Free Navalny! Free Russia!” and “Russia without Putin!” as he was carted away in a police bus.
China pledges to help Russia overcome economic hardships — RT News
China pledges to help Russia overcome economic hardships — RT News.
China’s foreign minister has pledged support to Russia as it faces an economic downturn due to sanctions and a drop in oil prices. Boosting trade in yuan is a solution proposed by Beijing’s commerce minister.
“Russia has the capability and the wisdom to overcome the existing hardship in the economic situation,” Foreign Minister Wang Yi told journalists, China Daily reported Monday. “If the Russian side needs it, we will provide necessary assistance within our capacity.”
The offer of help comes as Russians are still recovering from the shock of the ruble’s worst crash in years last Tuesday, when it lost over 20 percent against the US dollar and the euro. The Russian currency bounced back the next day, but it still has lost almost half of its value since March.
At his annual end-of-year press conference on Thursday, Vladimir Putin acknowledged the ruble has been tumbling along with the price of oil, and estimated that Western sanctions account for 25-30 percent of the Russian economic crisis. However, the president’s economic forecast is that the slump will not be a lasting one.
China Offers Enhanced Cooperation as Russia Struggles – Bloomberg
China Offers Enhanced Cooperation as Russia Struggles – Bloomberg.
China offered enhanced economic ties with Russia at a regional summit this week as its northern neighbor struggled to contain a currency crisis.
“To help counteract an economic slowdown, China is ready to provide financial aid to develop cooperation,” Premier Li Keqiangsaid at a Dec. 15 gathering in Astana, Kazakhstan. While the remark applied to any of the five other nations represented at the meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization group, it was directed at Russia, according to a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be named as the plans weren’t public.
Any rescue package for Russia would give China the opportunity of exercising the kind of great-power leadership the U.S. has demonstrated for a century — sustaining other economies with its superior financial resources. President Xi Jinping last month called for China to adopt “big-country diplomacy” as he laid out goals for elevating his nation’s status.
“If the Kremlin decides to seek assistance from Beijing, it’s very unlikely for the Xi leadership to turn it down,” said Cheng Yijun, senior researcher with the Institute of Russian, Eastern European, Central Asian Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing. “This would be a perfect opportunity to demonstrate China is a friend indeed, and also its big power status.”
The Russian Empire – Is Kazakhstan Next?
The Russian Empire – Is Kazakhstan Next?.
Astana’s language and nationality policies have put Kazakhstan at risk of becoming a second Ukraine in 2015, according to Ilya Namovir, a Russian linguist who edits the “Russians in Kazakhstan” portal. The next twelve months are likely to be critical because, as a result of changes in laws and treaties, ethnic Russians in Kazakhstan will find it easier to move back to the Russian Federation and ethnic Kazakhs to move back to Kazakhstan. Moreover, the opening of a presidential election campaign in Kazakhstan will provoke the kinds of political declarations that will trigger concerns about the future among those ethnic Russians and Russian speakers who remain (Stoletie.ru, December 11).
In a commentary for Stoletie.ru, a Russian nationalist site based in Moscow, Namovir argues that “the Russian question” has never disappeared from political discussions in Kazakhstan but that in the wake of the situation in Ukraine, it has “again become more important.” This trend, he notes, shows no sign of changing given both the absence of any positive answer to it from Astana and the lack of either an organized Russian opposition or clear backing from Moscow. Either factor, according to the Russian linguist, might force Kazakhstani officials to change course.
Pentagon confirms military buildup along Russian borders for ‘peace and stability’ — RT News
Pentagon confirms military buildup along Russian borders for ‘peace and stability’ — RT News.
The Pentagon has confirmed the military buildup along Russia’s borders to ensure long-term “peace and stability” in the region. Earlier Moscow accused NATO of a sharp increase in air activity and intelligence flights in the border zone.
Replying to RIA Novosti’s query on the increased number of NATO flights around Russia’s borders, a Pentagon representative told the news agency that the military presence of the alliance has increased, but all operations are carried out under utmost “transparency.”
The current efforts of the US European Command, the Pentagon official said, are in line with Operation Atlantic Resolve and demonstrate American “commitment to the collective security of NATO, the long-term peace and stability in the region”, particularly in the light of Russian “interference” in Ukraine.
The official added that this includes among other measures, an increase in “air, and land, sea presence,”as well as holding military drills.
US Operation Atlantic Resolve comprises all US efforts to support their NATO allies and partners in Europe, which translates to persistent presence of land forces in Poland and the Baltic region as well as holding naval drills in the Black Sea.
‘Don’t get Russia wrong’: NATO intel warns against misjudging Moscow on Ukraine — RT News
‘Don’t get Russia wrong’: NATO intel warns against misjudging Moscow on Ukraine — RT News.
Russia doesn’t want Ukraine to be split up, NATO intelligence officials say, warning their colleagues against wrongly assessing Moscow’s policy on the crisis in eastern Ukraine.
That’s according to a report in German magazine Der Spiegel written by intelligence officers from several NATO countries. They argue that Moscow is not interested in escalating the situation in Ukraine, and is not going to repeat the scenario of what happened in Crimea.
The officers believe that the Kremlin is merely interested in seeing the reorganization of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics into functioning administrative units within a federalized Ukraine, if those regions can reach an agreement with Kiev.
Snowden receives Swedish ‘alternative Nobel Prize’ via video from Moscow — RT News
Snowden receives Swedish ‘alternative Nobel Prize’ via video from Moscow — RT News.
Edward Snowden has received the Right Livelihood Award, a Swedish-based alternative to the Nobel Prize, for revealing state surveillance which violated basic democratic and constitutional rights. He accepted the award via video from Moscow.
In his acceptance speech broadcast from Moscow, Snowden said he hoped this was only beginning. The audience in the building of the Swedish parliament received the whistleblower with a long applause.
“I hope despite all we have accomplished in the last year, we all recognize that this is only the beginning,”Snowden said, prompting a standing ovation.
“These are things that are unlikely to change soon,” he said. “But they have been worth it, all the prices we paid, all the sacrifices we made, I believe we’d do it again. I know I would do again.”
“This is about us, this is about our rights. This is about the kind of societies we want to live in, the kind of government we want to have, the kind of world that we want to make for the next generation. And when we talk about government, we need to think not only about the quality of the government, but also the relationship that we have with it. Are we going to be a subject of government, or will we be partner to it?”
The problems of environmental activism in Russia | openDemocracy
The problems of environmental activism in Russia | openDemocracy.
This autumn, in cities worldwide there were climate-themed marches to tie in with the Ban Ki-Moon UN summit, the most of important of which was a 400-thousand-strong demonstration in New York; and Russia too passed a series of measures.
On 23 September, environmental activists from Moscow and Moscow Region pressure groups, together with Russian campaigners from the international 350.org movement, held a meeting in Moscow to publiсise their demands made to the official Russian delegation at the summit. These included:
- – Cancelling tax perks for mining companies, and subsidies for Arctic offshore development
- – Stimulating the development of renewable energy
- – Halting the felling of protected forests for infrastructure construction; prohibiting the mining of minerals in fertile soil, the cancellation of development plans for nickel deposits in the Voronezh region.
- …click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Ukraine rebel leaders sworn in, Kiev says peace plan violated | Reuters
Ukraine rebel leaders sworn in, Kiev says peace plan violated | Reuters.
(Reuters) – Pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine staged swearing in ceremonies for their leaders on Tuesday after votes dismissed as a farce by Kiev, which says they violated terms of a peace plan to end a war that has killed more than 4,000 people.
Warning of the threat of new offensive by Moscow-backed rebels, Ukraine’s leader said newly-formed army units would be sent to defend a string of eastern cities.
NATO’s highest ranking officer, a U.S. general, said conditions were now in place to create a “frozen conflict”, a term the West uses to describe rebel regions carved out of other ex-Soviet states that Moscow protects with its troops.
The inauguration ceremonies in east Ukraine took place even as tens of thousands of people marched in Moscow for “Unity Day”, a nationalist holiday celebrating a 17th century battle, revived under President Vladimir Putin to replace the Soviet-era celebration of the Bolshevik revolution. Ukraine featured heavily in speeches for the occasion.
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Ukraine gas supplies in doubt as Russia seeks EU payment deal | Reuters
Ukraine gas supplies in doubt as Russia seeks EU payment deal | Reuters.
(Reuters) – Ukraine’s efforts to unblock deliveries of Russian gas as winter sets in were deadlocked on Thursday as Moscow’s negotiators were quoted demanding firmer commitments from the European Union to cover Kiev’s pre-payments for energy.
EU-hosted talks were adjourned after running late into the night, Energy Minister Alexander Novak and the head of Russian gas firm Gazprom (GAZP.MM) told Russian news agencies. They would resume later in the day if Ukraine and the EU had a firm financing deal in place, Gazprom head Alexei Miller said.
Ukrainian and EU officials were not available. A spokeswoman for Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger issued a statement cancelling a news briefing that had been tentatively set for 8:30 a.m. (0730 GMT) in the event of an agreement.
There has already been agreement on the price Kiev will pay for gas over the winter, the amount to be supplied and the repayment of some $3.1 billion in unpaid Ukrainian bills but Moscow, which cut off vital pipelines in June as the conflict with Ukraine and the West deepened, wants more legal assurances that Kiev can pay some $1.6 billion for new gas up front.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
