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EU, UK, Russia and China Join Together to Dodge US Sanctions on Iran

September 29, 2018

EU, UK, Russia and China Join Together to Dodge US Sanctions on Iran

The UN General Assembly (UNGA) in New York is a place where world leaders are able to hold important meetings behind closed doors. Russia, China, the UK, Germany, France, and the EU seized that opportunity on Sept. 24 to achieve a real milestone.

The EU, Russia, China, and Iran will create a special purpose vehicle (SPV), a “financially independent sovereign channel,” to bypass US sanctions against Tehran and breathe life into the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which is in jeopardy. “Mindful of the urgency and the need for tangible results, the participants welcomed practical proposals to maintain and develop payment channels, notably the initiative to establish a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) to facilitate payments related to Iran’s exports, including oil,” they announced in a joint statement. The countries are still working out the technical details. If their plan succeeds, this will deliver a blow to the dollar and a boost to the euro.

The move is being made in order to save the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. According to Federica Mogherini, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, the SPV will facilitate payments for Iran’s exports, such as oil, and imports so that companies can do business with Tehran as usual. The vehicle will be available not just to EU firms but to others as well. A round of US sanctions aimed at ending Iranian oil exports is to take effect on November 5. Iran is the world’s seventh-largest oil producer. Its oil sector accounts for 70% of the country’s exports. Tehran has warned the EU that it should find new ways of trading with Iran prior to that date, in order to preserve the JCPOA.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Interview Raúl Ilargi Meijer about Julian Assange

September 8, 2018

Interview Raúl Ilargi Meijer about Julian Assange

Charles Burchfield Bluebird and Cottonwoods (The Birches) 1917

My Australian friend Wayne Hall, who‘s lived in Athens for many many years, is doing a video project on fellow Aussie Julian Assange. This is an interview with me, recorded 3 weeks or so ago, that’s part of the project. I would have done 1000 things differently, but it’s not my baby, it’s Wayne’s world. At least some snippets of information come through.

Note: it was 100º, and it shows. Very sweaty, very uncomfortable. Still, while I’m not wild about doing videos -we had Nicole for that, right?!- maybe I should be doing more of this. Not that I watched this one, mind you. But you can.

Wayne Hall: Good afternoon Raúl Ilargi Meijer. You have a blog called “Automatic Earth” and you are very active with it. Can you say something about “Automatic Earth”? When was it founded? What is its aim?

Ilargi: It was founded almost eleven years ago. Nicole Foss and I founded it because we wanted to write about finance whereas the people we were writing for before that, “The Oil Drum”, didn’t want us to do that and we thought it was too important not to.

WH: And what are you doing here in Athens?

Ilargi: I’m supporting a group of people who feed the homeless and refugees. I’ve written a bunch of articles at “Automatic Earth” about that.

WH: Now even though you have written articles that show clearly how important you think it is to try to defend Julian Assange (I read one that you published today [17/8/2018] that was very much on that subject and it was a powerful article), you really don’t agree with Julian Assange on the importance of defending the European integration project or citizens’ Europe.

Ilargi: I have no idea what either of these things are.

The War Machine Springs To Life Over Syria

April 15, 2018

katehon.com

The War Machine Springs To Life Over Syria

NATO has drawn 1st blood. Will Russia respond?

Update: Three hours after the initial posting of this report, the US, the UK and France conducted a missile air strike against Syria

The events of the past few days involving Syria, the US and Russia are highly concerning.

Currently, the US is busy readying to drop just dropped ~120 missiles on Syria to punish it for an alleged poison gas attack on its civilians. I say “alleged” because no on-the-ground investigation has been conducted.

At this point, we don’t really know with confidence what was done by whom. But America’s war machine is straining hard against it’s chain, eager to strike. And this poison gas atrocity may just be the excuse the West needs to unleash it.

Whodunit?

We do know that Syria at one time indeed had stockpiles of chemical weapons. But they handed them over to international inspectors some years back. Could they have kept some stocks hidden? Sure.

But we also know that the rebel jihadists in Syria have been caught making and using chemical weapons many times in the recent past. Russia has repeatedly brought forth evidence of chemical manufacturing sites (very crude basement laboratories, really), located in areas recently recaptured from Syrian jihadists and mercenaries. So it easily could have been the jihadists that conducted the gas attack.

Are these so-called “moderate rebels” morally capable of using poison gas on civilians, children especially? You bet they are. These are proven head-choppers, supported by the US, who have publicly posted numerous videos of themselves beheading children. Morals are not part of their framework or this war.

Plus, the gas war crime certainly serves their interest more than it does Assad’s at this time.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

China Slams Syrian Airstrikes As Germany And Italy Refuse To Participate

April 14, 2018

China Slams Syrian Airstrikes As Germany And Italy Refuse To Participate

While the western community has been broadly supportive of the overnight strikes launched against Syria by the US, UK and France, two prominent members have either refused to participate or outright oppose them.

As we first reported last week, Germany (along with Italy) refused to be an active member of the strikes. On Saturday morning, Germany’s Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said the country won’t participate in military actions against Syria, according to an interview in news magazine Spiegel.

“This is not the role that we – in coordination with our partners – want to play in this conflict.” Although, he added that he understands the view of French President Emmanuel Macron, who said use of chemical weapons “crosses a line” and added that “The use of chemical weapons must stop and can’t be without consequences.”

Angela Merkel was similarly supportive: “We support that our American, British and French allies, as permanent members of the UN Security Council, have taken responsibility in this way,” the Chancellor said in statement… just not enough to take part in the strikes that she knew would prompt a response from Putin.

Italy also rushed to made it clear to the Kremlin it was not an active participant: Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni said in a televised address that the reaction to alleged chemical weapons attacks in Syria was measured, and should not mark the beginning of escalation in the region. He then added that while Italy is an ally of the participants, the country didn’t participate; and while Italy usually gives logistical help, in this case Italy did not provide.

Perhaps the reason for this reticence is that the two nations most reliant on Russian nat gas imports, realized that they don’t want to be especially cold this coming winter.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Russia Has “Irrefutable Evidence” UK Staged Syrian Chemical Attack

April 13, 2018

Russia Has “Irrefutable Evidence” UK Staged Syrian Chemical Attack

As the blame game over the alleged chemical attack in Syria escalates ahead of what is expected to be an imminent, if contained, air strike campaign by the US, UK and/or France against Syria, on Friday morning, Russia’s foreign minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow had “irrefutable evidence” that the attack – which allegedly killed more than 40 people in an April 7 chemical weapons strike on the former rebel outpost of Douma -was staged with the help of a foreign secret service.

“We have irrefutable evidence that this was another staged event, and that the secret services of a certain state that is now at the forefront of a Russophobic campaign was involved in this staged event,” he said during a press conference according to AFP.

Speculation that said “certain state” was the UK was confirmed shortly after, when Russia’s defense ministry alleged that Britain was involved in the suspected chemical attack. According to defense ministry spokesman, Major General Igor Konashenkov, the Kremlin has evidence that Britain was behind the attack.

Quoted by Reuters, he said: “We have… evidence that proves Britain was directly involved in organising this provocation.”

As RT further adds, the Russian Defense Ministry presented what it says is “proof that the reported chemical weapons attack in Syria was staged.” It also accused the British government of pressuring the perpetrators to speed up the “provocation.” During a briefing on Friday, the ministry showed interviews with two people, who, it said, are medical professionals working in the only hospital operating in Douma, a town near the Syrian capital, Damascus.

In the interviews released to the media, the two men reported how footage was shot of people dousing each other with water and treating children, which was claimed to show the aftermath of the April 7 chemical weapons attack.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

“Events Today Could Lead To The Last War In The History Of Mankind”, Veteran Putin General Warns

April 8, 2018

“Events Today Could Lead To The Last War In The History Of Mankind”, Veteran Putin General Warns

The fallout from the Salisbury nerve agent attack reminds us of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, which was the most immediate catalyst – of many parallel narrative and sequences of events – that ultimately resulted in World War I. We are not alone in this reasoning, as one high-level retired Russian general warns the Salisbury poisoning could lead to the “last war in the history of mankind.”

Ret. Lieutenant-General Evgeny Buzhinsky — who served in the Russian Armed Forces for more than forty years — said relations between Russia and Washington could become “worse” than the climax of the Cold War and “end up in a very, very bad outcome” following the nerve gas attack in the United Kingdom.

More than 150 Russian diplomats have been expelled from 25 countries — including 23 from the United Kingdom since western nations accused Russia of being the sole actor responsible for using deadly chemical weapons on Sergei Skripal and his daughter in their Salisbury home.

Buzhinsky, who is now the senior vice president of the Russian Center for Policy Studies (PIR Center), told BBC Radio Today program:

“Please, when you say the world, you mean EU and United States and some other countries … you see it’s a cold war, it’s worse than the Cold War because if the situation will develop in the way this (is) now, I’m afraid that it will end up in a very, very bad outcome.”

Nicholas Robinson, a British presenter on the BBC’s Today program pressed Buzhinsky on what he meant by “worse than a cold war,” to which the Ret. Russian Lieutenant-General responded with this bombshell: today’s current situation is spiraling out of control and could develop into a “real war.”

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

The hidden cost of UK food: Is malnutrition a national scandal?

March 30, 2018

The hidden cost of UK food: Is malnutrition a national scandal?

According to the WHO, world hunger is on the rise again due to conflict and climate change, after falling for the previous decade. In a report published September 2017, it estimated that 815 million people were suffering from hunger, more than one in every ten people globally, 98% of whom are found in developing countries.

However, while hunger is a prevalent form of malnutrition in developing countries, malnourishment can also be found far closer to home, here in the UK, where its impact is significant and increasing. NHS England calls malnutrition a “common problem”, affecting millions of people in the UK. It is largely a concern for those with long-term health issues that affect appetite, people who are socially isolated and with limited mobility, and most commonly, the elderly. Following a study undertaken by the Office of National Statistics, which showed that 391 people died in the UK from malnutrition in 2015, former Lib Dem leader Tim Farron called it a, “national scandal that anyone is being admitted to hospital from malnutrition.” So, what is really is to blame for such high rates of the condition, in one of the world’s richest nations?

‘Malnutrition’ means, literally, ‘poor nutrition’ and technically it can refer to over-nutrition – getting more nutrients than you need, as well as under-nutrition – not getting enough nutrients or an inadequate balance of nutrients. In the UK the available statistics for malnutrition relate only to under-nutrition, hence our focus on this issue in the Sustainable Food Trust’s recently published report, The Hidden Cost of UK Food.

Drawing on published research, the report calculated that malnutrition costs the country approximately £17 billion annually. This includes the cost of treating malnourished people in hospitals and long-term care facilities, GP visits and outpatient appointments. In general, rates of malnutrition are not due to a shortage of food per se, but to a range of complex issues which include increased consumption of processed foods and reduced preparation of meals from fresh primary ingredients, part of which relates to low incomes and part of which relates to poor nutritional education and/or the lack of adequate food preparation facilities.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Theresa May Reportedly Considering Ban On Russian Sovereign Debt Sales

March 30, 2018

Theresa May Reportedly Considering Ban On Russian Sovereign Debt Sales

Echoing the Treasury Department’s decision to prohibit trading in Venezuelan “hunger bonds” in US markets, UK Prime Minister Theresa May is mulling whether to throw her support behind a measure that would ban the sale of Russian sovereign debt in City of London financial markets.

And just like with Venezuela, such a short-sighted prohibition wouldn’t make it any more difficult for Russia to sell its sovereign debt. Rather, Russia would be forced to turn to China to compensate for the shortfall, according to the Guardian.

May’s decision to look into the ban comes at the behest of Foreign Affairs Select Committee Chairman Tom Tugendhat, who has repeatedly urged May to do more to punish Russia for allegedly masterminding the poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia with novichok – a Soviet-era nerve agent. Most recently, the tensions between the UK and Russia have precipitated a round of diplomatic expulsions, with more than two dozen countries expelling at least some Russia diplomats.

EU and US sanctions against Russia didn’t prohibit the bond sales because of a loophole that effectively set up Russian bank VTB as the main liaison between the Russian state and western financial markets. Now, Tugendhat and several of his allies in Parliament are calling for the loophole to be closed – on both sides of the Atlantic. Tugendhat has spoken about the loophole at least three times in the past week.

The denunciations come as Tugendhat’s committee is beginning an investigation into how the UK enables allies of Russian President Vladimir Putin to store and spend their money in the UK.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Turkey Breaks with NATO, Refuses to Expel Russians

March 30, 2018

Turkey Breaks with NATO, Refuses to Expel Russians

Ankara (GPA) – Turkey has broken with their NATO allies and decided not to expel Russian diplomats at the behest of the UK.

Following the alleged March 4th alleged Russian poisoning of Sergei Skripal, an ex-double agent in the UK, several European countries and the US have begun ejecting Russian diplomats from their countries. With both the UK and US each ejecting dozens of diplomats, it stands to reason that every other NATO country would follow suit.

However, several European Union members have yet to follow London’s lead. One important NATO country isn’t bowing to western Russophobia: Turkey.

Despite calls from the UK for all of their allies to stand with them in “punishing Russia” they have failed to convince many of their fellow EU members, Israel, and Turkey to follow their suggestions. While there isn’t much London can do to their fellow European states, and obviously, they can’t criticize Israel; tension between Turkey and the EU has reached a point where it’s fashionable to demonize Ankara.

Both the US and UK often pander to Turkey due to the country’s strategic location and their control of the second largest military in NATO. This, however, has become much more difficult in recent months due to the increasingly authoritarian governance of the country leading to arrests of western employees, global kidnappings, and blatant defiance of international law.

This tense relationship between Turkey and the EU was on full display yesterday as Turkish President Recep Erdogan met with EU leaders about his nation’s prospects of joining the bloc. Predictably, no new results were achieved between Brussels and Ankara. This allows Erdogan to go back to turkey and play the victim, likely in anticipation of this announcement on Russia, which he will probably frame as ‘retaliation.’

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

There’s Only One Word to Describe Julian Assange’s Internet Being Cut Off – Pathetic

March 29, 2018

There’s Only One Word to Describe Julian Assange’s Internet Being Cut Off – Pathetic

Let’s get right to it. Earlier today, Julian Assange had his internet access severed.

Here’s a translation of the statement from the government of Ecuador, in whose embassy he’s been trapped since 2012:

The Government of Ecuador suspended the systems that allow Julian Assange to communicate with the outside world from the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where the citizen remains in an international protection situation for six years due to the risk to his life and integrity.

The measure was adopted in the face of Assange’s failure to comply with the written commitment it assumed with the Government at the end of 2017, for which it was obliged not to issue messages that implied interference with other States.

The Government of Ecuador warns that the behavior of Assange, with its messages through social networks, puts at risk the good relations that the country maintains with the United Kingdom, with the rest of the States of the European Union and other nations. Therefore, to prevent potential damage, the embassy in London interrupted this March 27 communications abroad to which Assange has access.

The Executive also keeps open the way to the adoption of new measures in the face of breach of commitment by Assange.

The excuse for this egregious act against Assange is his social media activity “puts at risk the good relations that the country maintains with the United Kingdom, with the rest of the States of the European Union and other nations.” Naturally, we must ask what Assange has been tweeting about lately that prompted some bigger country, or countries, to force Ecuador’s hand. The answer is Catalonia.

I’ve been following Assange’s tweets closely following the revelation that German police seized Catalonia’s elected President Carles Puigdemont on behalf of Spain. Assange provided some much needed context and commentary about the disturbing incident over Twitter in recent days. Here are a few examples that likely ruffled the feathers of various EU governments.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

The Skripal Poisonings and the Ongoing Vilification of Putin

March 28, 2018

The Skripal Poisonings and the Ongoing Vilification of Putin

Photo by @markheybo | CC BY 2.0

Sergei Skripal and his daughter were poisoned by a nerve agent on March 4 on a park bench in Salisbury, England.

Skripal had been a Russian double agent, a spy who turned over 300 names of Russian spies to British intelligence from 1995 to 2004. He was (not so surprisingly) arrested in Russia in 2004 and sentenced to thirteen years in prison. He was released in a spy-swap in 2010, settled in the UK and became a British citizen.

I see no reason to judge his moral character, although some might reflect that in Kantian general terms what he did was rather bad. (In precisely the same sense that it would be bad for a British citizen to become a double agent for Russia.) Double agents are often punished harshly; this is the way of the world.

Skripal posed no further threat to the Russian state. There is at least one report that he sought to return to Russia recently. It’s hard to comprehend why at this time Moscow would poison him and his young daughter visiting from Russia with a nerve agent (Novichok) created in the USSR from the 1970s but subsequently banned and destroyed under international supervision. Cui bono? Who profits from these poisonings?

In all the outrage, expressed in Britain and elsewhere, about this attack, there is precious little analysis. The Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov has said, “This is nonsense. This has nothing to do with us.” The group of military-grade nerve agents called Novichok have been described in academic literature such that many different actors could produce Novichok. The Russians say they have long since destroyed their stocks and suggest the Czech Republic could be the source of the substance used.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Russia Warns West Risks “Hot War” After Mass Expulsion Of Diplomats

March 28, 2018

Russia Warns West Risks “Hot War” After Mass Expulsion Of Diplomats

After a legion of western nations announced this week that they would expel Russian diplomats in solidarity with the UK, one Russian ambassador warned during an impromptu unscripted speech that, by hastily blaming Moscow for the poisoning of a former Russian spy at a shopping center in Salisbury, the West was risking a return to the Cold War. A second Russian ambassador took the warning a step further, and claimed the West has inadvertently risked a “hot war” with Russia.

So far, 23 countries have expelled over 130 Russian diplomats since the UK pointed the finger at Russia, accusing it of organizing an assassination plot that involved poisoning former Russian spy Sergei Skripal with a Soviet-era nerve agent called Novichok.

The UK demanded that Russia explain how the nerve agent came to be used in the attack, if it wasn’t ordered by senior officials in the Russian government, per Newsweek.

Grigory Logvinov

Russia responded by demanding a sample of the chemical used, and offered to assist the UK in its investigation, but has been rebuffed. Meanwhile, the UK media reports say Skripal and his daughter Yulia Skripal may never fully recover from the attack.

Amid the escalating noise, Russia’s ambassador to Australia said on Wednesday that the world will enter into a “Cold War situation” should the West continue its “biased” attacks on Russia, according to Reuters.

“The West must understand that the anti-Russian campaign has no future,” Russian Ambassador Grigory Logvinov told reporters in Canberra.

“If it continues, we will be deeply in a Cold War situation.”

Australia said Tuesday it would expel two Russian diplomats, inspiring Logvinov to make his address warning of the dangers of deteriorating relations between Russia and its partners. So far, countries have at least stopped short of adding to the sanctions against Russia that were imposed following the annexation of Crimea.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Former OPCW official: no conclusive proof of Russian complicity in Salisbury attack

March 28, 2018

Former OPCW official: no conclusive proof of Russian complicity in Salisbury attack

But Russia’s denial of past ‘Novichok’ programmes is misleading

Nerve agent found in Salisbury does not conclusively prove Russian complicity
Russia’s denial of a Novichok programme is true but misleading — a secret nerve agent programme to create Novichok-type agents was run under a different name
Western states have extensively researched and synthesized the Novichok class of agents
Novichok was most recently synthesized by Iran, details of which were provided to the OPCW
Russian Novichok stockpiles were destroyed in the 1990s, but it is theoretically possible that some capability still exists, though no evidence for this is available

The US and its European allies have coordinated the largest collective expulsion of Russian diplomats in history. Russia has promised to retaliate in kind. Yet despite the sense of certainty around Russian culpability in the Salisbury incident, questions remain around the state of the available evidence.

As contradictory narratives proliferate amidst conflicting Western and Russian government statements and media reports, a clearer picture of the secret history of the nerve agent used in the Salisbury poisonings is emerging.

In an exclusive interview with INSURGE, a former senior official at the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) from 1993 to 2006, Dr Ralf Trapp, said that at this stage there is no conclusive evidence that Russia was the source of the nerve agent used in Salisbury. He pointed to compelling evidence that Russia did run a secret research programme to create Novichok-type nerve agents — and strongly criticised Russia’s denials of that programme. While justifying grounds for suspicion, there is as yet no decisive proof that Russia retained such a Novichok programme or capability today, he said.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

What happened to the West I was born in?!

March 28, 2018

What happened to the West I was born in?!

Frankly, I am awed, amazed and even embarrassed. I was born in Switzerland, lived most of my life there, I also visited most of Europe, and I lived in the USA for over 20 years. Yet in my worst nightmares I could not have imagined the West sinking as low as it does now. I mean, yes, I know about the false flags, the corruption, the colonial wars, the NATO lies, the abject subservience of East Europeans, etc. I wrote about all that many times. But imperfect as they were, and that is putting it mildly, I remember Helmut Schmidt, Maggie Thatcher, Reagan, Mitterrand, even Chirac! And I remember what the Canard Enchaîné used to be, or even the BBC. During the Cold War the West was hardly a knight in white shining armor, but still – rule of law did matter, as did at least some degree of critical thinking.

I am now deeply embarrassed for the West. And very, very afraid.

All I see today is a submissive herd lead by true, bona fide, psychopaths (in a clinical sense of the word)

And that is not the worst thing.

The worst thing is the deafening silence, the way everybody just looks away, pretends like “ain’t my business” or, worse, actually takes all this grotesque spectacle seriously. What the fuck is wrong with you people?! Have you all been turned into zombies?! WAKE UP!!!!!!!

Let me carefully measure my words here and tell you the blunt truth.

Since the Neocon coup against Trump the West is now on exactly the same course as Nazi Germany was in, roughly, the mid 1930s.

Oh sure, the ideology is different, the designated scapegoat also. But the mindset is *exactly* the same.

Same causes produce the same effects. But this time around, there are weapons on both sides which make the Dresden Holocaust looks like a minor spark.

So now we have this touching display of “western solidarity” not with UK or the British people, but with the City of London. Now ain’t that touching?!

Let me ask you this: what has been the central feature of Britain’s policies towards Europe, oh, let’s say since the Middle-Ages?

That’s right: starting wars in Europe.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Russia Stockpiles Gold, But Why?

March 27, 2018

Russia Stockpiles Gold, But Why?

The US’s overhang of debt and looming trade war is worrisome on many levels as the value of the dollar keeps decreasing and the national debt spiraling. So, what should we make of the fact that the Central Bank of Russia has been steadily amassing vast gold reserves since 2015? By the end of 2017, its total gold reserves rose to 1,828.56 tons, usurping China’s place as the country with the fifth largest gold reserves.

Russia has been aggressively increasing its gold reserves for a reason. It has seen the US dollar dominate as a global currency and is working with China to end the US/Western currency supremacy. Their strategy appears to be working. Russia and China are in the midst of rumors of introducing gold-backed futures to circumvent the U.S dollar.

The US dollar has had no gold-backing since 1933, nor has the US increased its gold reserves for a decade. See chart below.

With speculation of Russia and China working on a gold-backed currency, a shift in monetary power from the West to the East seems to be their ambitions. The situation between East and West is exacerbated by recent tensions between Russia and the UK, since the alleged Kremlin poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter. British Prime Minister Theresa May has ousted 23 Russian diplomats from Great Britain. Geopolitical tension is once again, high.

It seems Russian may have tossed aside Das Kapital as its economic guidebook. Not only is creating a gold-backed currency appearing more likely month over month, but Russia has also brought inflation way downover the past decade. More importantly, Russia continues to lower their national debt, while the US has been increasing its debt to a record $21 trillion.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

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