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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.’

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3 Recent Events That Could Send the US Hurtling Toward World War III

March 29, 2018

3 Recent Events That Could Send the US Hurtling Toward World War III

Recently, the news has been all abuzz with teen activists who want to take away our guns but refuse to use clear backpacks, the Facebook privacy scandal, and how someone bit Beyonce in the face. But there are three recent events that aren’t getting much press which tell us it is entirely possible that we could be headed toward World War III at worst and toward an economic collapse at best.

During the election, it really seemed as though Hillary Clinton as president would be a much more likely path to World War III. She even gloated of the actions she planned to take that would have led directly and immediately to war. Donald Trump as president seemed less likely to get us into a war with Russia, but it appears the tides may have turned back in that direction.

#1) The Trade Tariffs

We’re already at financial war with China due to punitive trade tariffs that our governments are instituting on one another. President Trump wants to rebalance global trade in America’s favor, and China isn’t going to go down without a fight. Here’s more information on the list of tariffs the US wants to charge for Chinese merchandise and the retaliatory list from China.

The last time we were involved in a major trade war, the Great Depression happened, according to an economics expert for CNN.

America’s last trade war exacerbated the Great Depression in the 1930s, when unemployment rose to 25%. Claiming it was protecting American jobs, Congress passed the Smoot-Hawley Act in 1930. The original bill was meant to protect farmers. But to build political support, many lawmakers asked for tariffs — or taxes — on all sorts of goods in exchange for their vote.
Several nations, such as Canada, slapped steep tariffs — or taxes — on US goods shipped and sold abroad. For example, US exports of eggs to Canada fell to 7,900 in 1932 from 919,000 in 1929, according to Doug Irwin, a Dartmouth professor and former trade adviser to President Reagan.
The result: US imports fell 40% in the two years after Smoot-Hawley. Banks shuttered. Unemployment shot up. Surely, there were a litany of factors at play. But economists widely agree Smoot-Hawley made the Great Depression much worse than otherwise. (source)
And what happened at the end of the Great Depression? World War II happened, and this ended the unemployment and resulted in a spending frenzy that pumped up the economy. There’s always an increase in the GDP during wartime due to defense spending. But that is one hell of a bad way to fix the economy, don’t you think?

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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.

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Global anti-Russia campaign is taking us dangerously close to disaster

March 28, 2018

Global anti-Russia campaign is taking us dangerously close to disaster

Global anti-Russia campaign is taking us dangerously close to disaster
A no entry sign hangs at the entrance to a private road in front of the Russian embassy in central London © Justin Tallis / AFP
The expulsion of 60 Russian diplomats from the US, along with dozens of others from various other countries, should be a sobering moment for all of mankind. It’s a sign of how close to the brink of a major war the world is coming.

To start with, this current episode is not comparable to the 55 Soviets expelled by Ronald Reagan in 1986 or the 50 or so thrown out by George W. Bush in 2001. Those actions were directly related to spying activities – which all governments engage in, directed against their friends as well as enemies. The Russians do it, the Americans do it, everybody does it. There’s nothing remarkable about cutting the numbers down now and then, particularly after a major embarrassment like the 2001 Robert Hanssen scandal.

But these latest expulsions have nothing to do with how many of the Russians might be actual spies. Nor with the nonsensical accusations of Russian election interference to “sow discord” and “discredit democracy.”

In fact, they have almost nothing to do with the US State Department’s unsupported claim that “Russia used a military-grade nerve agent to attempt to murder a British citizen and his daughter in Salisbury.”  The absence of evidence that the Russians were behind the attack is no more relevant than repeated, equally evidence-free accusations of chemical weapons use by the Syrian government. Whatever happened to the Skripals and whoever is behind it, Salisbury is a mere pretext.

No, the real purpose is much simpler. Decrying the American action, Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov stated that he had told his US interlocutors that “the United States took a very bad step by cutting what very little still remains in terms of Russian-American relations.”

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Russia Expels 23 British Diplomats In Retaliation

March 17, 2018

Russia Expels 23 British Diplomats In Retaliation

Having warned it would retaliate proportionately, this morning Russia did just that when it expelled 23 British diplomats – the same number as the UK kicked out a few days earlier as punishment for Moscow’s alleged poisoning of a former double agent. It also ordered the closure of the UK consulate in St Petersburg and the Moscow British Council, a cultural and educational organization.

Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned the British ambassador to Moscow and told him that the measures are “in response to the provocative actions of the British side and the unsubstantiated accusations” against Russia, the ministry said. Russia gave the British diplomats one week to leave. “If further actions of an unfriendly nature are taken against Russia, the Russian side reserves the right to take other retaliatory measures,” the ministry said.

British ambassador to Russia, Laurie Bristow, attends a meeting at the Russian foreign ministry 

A spokeswoman for the U.K. Foreign Office said that Britain had anticipated Moscow’s response.

“Russia’s response doesn’t change the facts of the matter—the attempted assassination of two people on British soil, for which there is no alternative conclusion other than that the Russian State was culpable,” the spokeswoman said but added that  “we continue to believe it is not in our national interest to break off all dialogue between our countries but the onus remains on the Russian state to account for their actions.”

She said that the UK Foreign Office said the National Security Council would meet early next week to consider the next steps.

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“Shocking And Unforgivable”: Russia To Expel UK Diplomats, Expand US “Blacklist” As Crisis Deepens

March 16, 2018

“Shocking And Unforgivable”: Russia To Expel UK Diplomats, Expand US “Blacklist” As Crisis Deepens

As relations between Russia and the west crash to a new post-Cold War low in the aftermath of the nerve agent attack on a former Russian double agent in the UK, Russia was set to expel British diplomats in retaliation for Prime Minister Theresa May’s decision to kick out 23 Russians, while expanding its “blacklist” of US citizens in response to yesterday’s Treasury sanctions, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told Sputnik.

After Theresa May cast blame on Moscow – and singled out Putin as the mastermind behind the attack – giving 23 Russians who she said were spies working under diplomatic cover at the London embassy a week to leave, Russia has denied any involvement, cast Britain as a post-colonial power unsettled by Brexit, and suggested London fabricated the attack in an attempt to whip up anti-Russian hysteria.

When asked by a Reuters  reporter if Russia planned to expel British diplomats from Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov smiled and said: “We will, of course.”

Separately, discussing the response to Russian sactions, Ryabkov said that “For our part, we have ensured parity in the number of individuals included in the sanctions lists from the very beginning. So we will replenish our ‘blacklist’ with another group of US individuals,” Ryabkov said.

According to the deputy minister, Russia does not want to suspend dialogue with the United States, noting that the future retaliatory measures were not Moscow’s choice.

“We’re only doing this because of US political stubbornness and unwillingness to perceive reality. We may take additional steps, which we will calibrate in accordance with our own interests and, of course, the need to not suspend dialogue completely in order to at least begin stabilizing bilateral relations with Washington … We reaffirm that our resolve will not be weakened by any opponents’ intrigues, many of whom are beyond the Atlantic Ocean,” Ryabkov said.

On Thursday, the US Treasury Department announced sanctions against 19 Russian individuals and five entities, including Russia’s Federal Security Service and the Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) for their alleged roles related to the interference in the 2016 presidential campaign in the United States.

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