Russia 2

Govt Decides To Ban GMO Food Production in Russia

http://www.rt.com/politics/315844-government-decides-to-ban-gmo/

"As far as genetically-modified organisms are concerned, we have made the decision not to use any GMO in food production,' Deputy PM Arkady Dvorkovich said."

Kremlin Promises 'Counter-Steps' in Reply to US Deploying Nuclear Weapons to Germany

http://www.rt.com/politics/316291-kremlin-promises-counter-steps-in/

"It may lead to the destruction of the strategic balance in Europe. Therefore it would definitely cause Russia to take corresponding counter-steps and counter-measures in order to restore the strategic balance and parity,' Dimitry Peskov told reporters. 'This is another step and unfortunately, it is a very serious step towards an increase of tension on the European continent.'

The Russian Foreign Ministry's spokesperson Maria Zakharova earlier told ZDF that Russia was deeply concerned about America's plan to bring new nuclear weapons to Germany. She noted that Russia has reduced the number of tactical nukes it keeps by four times since the 1960s.

Moscow has called for an international treaty which would allow nuclear powers to only keep atomic weapons on their own territory."

Moscow Inaugurates The Biggest Mosque in Europe (and vid)

http://thesaker.is/moscow-inaugurates-the-biggest-mosque-in-europe/

"Honoured guests: The Presidents of Turkey and Palestine."

Live From New York, It's Putin the Great  - by Pepe Escobar

http://www.rt.com/op-edge/316379-putin-syria-un-obama/

"It's the ultimate geopolitical cliffhanger of the season: will US President Barack Obama finally decide to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin, either this Friday or during the UN General Assembly next week in New York?

Russia's game changer in Syria - not only weapons delivery, but also the prospect of actual intervention by the Russian Air Force - has left the beltway reeling..."

US 'Preparing For Hybrid Warfare With Russia in Baltics - Report

http://www.rt.com/news/316557-us-hybrid-war-russia-baltics/

"...According to the German newspaper, a 'Russian threat' has been used as an excuse to justify increased military spending in eastern European NATO countries and provide a reason for US troops to be stationed in Europe.

Last week there were media reports that the Pentagon was reviewing and updating its contingency plans for a war with Russia for the first time since the collapse of the Soviet Union."

Glazyev is just brilliant and worth reading carefully.

Russia has commenced Syrian operations against Islamic State. Damascenes are reportedly over-joyed after five-years of fighting alone against a vicious Western-supported campaign of Takfiri attacks as part of a well-documented regime change operation.

Russian Parliament Unanimously Approves Use of Military in Syria to Fight ISIS

http://www.rt.com/news/317013-parliament-authorization-troops-abroad/

"The upper chamber of the Russian parliament has unanimously given formal conset to President Putin to use the nation's military in Syria to fight terrorism at a request from Syrian President Bashar Assad. Consent was necessary for use of the country's military for foreign combat missions under the Russian constitution.

No ground operations are planned in Syria. Russia would use its war planners to hit terrorist targets when requested by the Syrian government. 'The operation is aerial only. Certainly in coordination with the ground operation of the Syrian army.'

Financial stress - Russia at last frontier with oil tax as Kudrin warns on budget:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-09-30/russia-at-last-frontie...

Russia In the Global Crisis: Geopolitical Dilemmas, Strategic Responses (and vid)

http://newcoldwar.org/video-of-oct-1-public-forum-in-toronto-russia-in-t...

"Video of Oct 1 public forum in Toronto, featuring Boris Kagarlitsky and Sergei Plekhanov.

'Geopolitical conflict produced by NATO expansion is taking place in Europe. It is the neoloberal model that stimulates NATO expansionism..'

New law permits increased use of force by Russian prisons:

http://eng.yabloko.ru/?p=9034

and

http://eng.yabloko.ru/?p=10261#more-10261

Russian President Vladimir Putin on War and Peace wrote:

... I’m sure you recalled our great writer Leo Tolstoy here. In his great novel War and Peace, he wrote that war contradicted human reason and human nature, while peace in his opinion was good for people.... The end of the Cold War put an end to ideological opposition, but the basis for arguments and geopolitical conflicts remained. All states have always had and will continue to have their own diverse interests, while the course of world history has always been accompanied by competition between nations and their alliances. In my view, this is absolutely natural.

The main thing is to ensure that this competition develops within the framework of fixed political, legal and moral norms and rules. Otherwise, competition and conflicts of interest may lead to acute crises and dramatic outbursts.

The Russian President goes into the facts of the US anti-missile defence system, justified by "reasons" which no longer apply (not that they did, ever) and notes that the (barbaric) US regime continues with this system.

V.V. Putin wrote:

Recently the United States conducted the first test of the anti-missile defence system in Europe. What does this mean? It means we were right when we argued with our American partners. They were simply trying yet again to mislead us and the whole world. To put it plainly, they were lying. It was not about the hypothetical Iranian threat, which never existed. It was about an attempt to destroy the strategic balance, to change the balance of forces in their favour not only to dominate, but to have the opportunity to dictate their will to all: to their geopolitical competition and, I believe, to their allies as well. This is a very dangerous scenario, harmful to all, including, in my opinion, to the United States.

You Americans are a bunch of stinking liars, trying to start WW3. Vlad says so, and there's nothing you can do about it.

How does it feel, Emperors with no clothes?

And the role of the mass media?

V.V. Putin wrote:

In the past 25 years, the threshold for the use of force has gone down noticeably. The anti-war immunity we have acquired after two world wars, which we had on a subconscious, psychological level, has become weaker. The very perception of war has changed: for TV viewers it was becoming and has now become an entertaining media picture, as if nobody dies in combat, as if people do not suffer and cities and entire states are not destroyed.

America, you are a bomb waiting to go off. You are the United States of Atrocity.

Putin then went on about the use of trade, sanctions, as means to carry out domination in non-military ways. And how Russia has worked with BRICS, SCO, etc. to create solid institutions that are not subject to the haughty and arrogant dictat of the Yanqui Empire and its overlords of death.

V.V. Putin wrote:

The global information space is also shaken by wars today, in a manner of speaking. The ‘only correct’ viewpoint and interpretation of events is aggressively imposed on people, certain facts are either concealed or manipulated. We are all used to labelling and the creation of an enemy image.

The authorities in countries that seemed to have always appealed to such values as freedom of speech and the free dissemination of information – something we have heard about so often in the past – are now trying to prevent the spreading of objective information and any opinion that differs from their own; they declare it hostile propaganda that needs to be combatted, clearly using undemocratic means.

Of course, here to be noted is the frothing, rabid, barking dog of pathological Russophobia, which poisons all media in the West, including enlightened and progressive ones.

This is a completely different speech from the sort that Western leaders give. Read it if you dare.

text of Putin at Valdai

Stallin' History? Stephen Cohen, Prof Russian Studies, NYU (and vid)

https://www.rt.com/shows/worlds-apart-oksana-boyko/320364-stalin-dramati...

"It's hard to find a more controversial figure in Russian history then Joseph Stalin. Can Russia come to terms with its dramatic past and is it possible to achieve closure?"

World Anti-Doping Agency Calls For Russia To Be Suspended From Athletics Over Alleged Doping Fraud

https://www.rt.com/news/321302-wada-athletics-doping/

"Russia's track and field athletes could miss the 2016 Olympics in Rio after a World Anti-Doping Agency report accused officials including the country's sports minister of systematic doping cover-ups, and said its teams should be suspended.

Former WADA chief Dick Pound led the 11-month investigation, which has produced a 325 page report.

Russia's Federal Biomedical Agency, which oversees lab testing in the country, said 'WADA's accusations must be proven in court, otherwise these are just baseless claims voiced months before the next Games.

'The case is political and has nothing to do with sport and the list of names of people who have been singled out is arbitrary and unfair,' Olga Bogoslovskaya, a 1992 Olympic silver medalist, told RT..."

Dick Pound's [Liberal] lawfirm Stikeman Elliott

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stikeman_Elliott

Putin Speaks at G20

https://youtu.be/96k_8ywt22g

"ISIS financed by 40 countries including G20 members.."

Germany Declares Ukraine's Blackout/Blockade of Crimea as Criminal

http://sptnkne.ws/aguN

"Germany's foreign ministry said that it considers the blackout of Crimea by extremist groups a criminal act."

Putin, Hollande Press Conference After Moscow Talks (and vid)

http://thesaker.is/putin-hollande-speak-after-moscow-talks-live/?inmoder...

Putin Delivers State of the Nation Address To the Federal Assembly of Russia in Moscow on Dec 3, 2015 (and vid)

http://thesaker.is/putin-delivers-state-of-the-nation-address-december-3...

The Address is annual and is traditionally delivered at the Kremlin's St George Hall where the president gives his speech to members of both houses of parliament, filling them in on his own views with regards to guidelines for the development of the nation.

The invited audience usually includes members of the Federation Council, State Duma deputies, members of the Government, the heads of the Constitutional and Supreme Courts, regional governors, heads of regional legislative assemblies, heads of Russia's traditional religious faiths, and public figures, including heads of regional public chambers and the heads of the country's biggest media outlets."

English transcript

http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/50864

Rabble has posted an article by Christopher Majka about Russian politician Ilya Ponomarev (nephew of the late Boris Ponomarev who was a leading figure in the CPSU for many years, leading ideologue, etc.)  which I link to here.

Ilya Ponomarev: Opposing Putin's empire of swindlers and thieves

It's a long article so comments will follow. OK, maybe some preliminary remarks:

- Ponomarev belonged to the CP of the Russian Federation (2002-2007) and A Just Russia (2007-2014)

- he seems more legit, from a left perspective, than the late Navalny, or frothing neo-cons like Kasparov

- he did, however, shoot himself in the foot - while he was a legislator - by opposing the Russian "annexation" of Crimea and taking the side of the brutal Ukrainian regime generally

- his connection to/employment by Yukos links him to  Russian oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky

- political figures like Ponomarev maybe show how our own left/right perspective doesn't fit in domestic Russian politics

1. "Ponomarev, a [former?] member of A Just Russia ... has been the foremost parliamentary opponent of Vladimir Putin's increasingly authoritarian rule."

What are the Communist MP's who are, and have been for quite some time, the largest Parliamentary opposition group to Putin then? Swiss Cheese? How does one MP get this billing? Because Communists are still anaethema to Western "liberals"?

2. What is Majka interviewing Ponomarev at the Halifax International Security Forum anyway? The forum is a transmission belt for NATO and its US hegemon. See http://halifaxtheforum.org/agenda/2015-agenda for NATO, DND, Munck School, Global TV, Israeli Zionist Union Party, US DoD, frothing neo-cons like G. Kasparov, etc., etc.

Oh, I get it. Majka thinks babblers just fell off a turnip truck, right?

Christ. Do we really need to read more of this before we form an opinion? Who wants to work through all this shite to get the peanuts anyway?

If one of our MPs was off attending a security forum in Russia, they'd likely have CSIS and the CSE burning the midnight oil keeping tabs on the individual.  The corporate media would likely be all over a story like that.  Such an MP would be suspected as a dupe, or possibly a mole on the inside of Parliament.  The person's constituents might want to know what is going on.

NDPP - I'm not entirely convinced that Ponomarev's political capital is zero. You're always going to have some Russians still longing for western "approval", perhaps especially those who send their kids to western schools and own property in the west, in addition to others, such as those paid by US-funded civil society organizations, some social liberals as well, etc..

slumberjack wrote:

If one of our MPs was off attending a security forum in Russia, they'd likely have CSIS and the CSE burning the midnight oil keeping tabs on the individual.  The corporate media would likely be all over a story like that.  Such an MP would be suspected as a dupe, or possibly a mole on the inside of Parliament.  The person's constituents might want to know what is going on.

Yes, thanks for that. I overlooked the obvious.

The IMF Forgives Ukraine's Debt To Russia  -  by Michael Hudson (MUST READ)

http://thesaker.is/the-imf-forgives-ukraines-loan-to-russia/

"On Tuesday, the IMF joined the New Cold War..."

Perhaps this edited interview with Hudson on the same topic for RT may assist to appreciate what the IMF has done..

Financial World Split: Dollar Group vs BRICS Group

https://www.rt.com/op-edge/325227-ukraine-imf-loan-russia/

"Through the last 50 years the IMF has had a bailout program saying: 'We will lend a little bit of money and other governments will come in and they'll join us in bail-out programs.

And the enforcement lever we have to make sure these governments will be repaid [is that] if a country doesn't repay the IMF, then we won't make any further loans to it. That means none of the other governments will either.

Well, now the IMF is saying: If the US has a political or military fight with a country, or if there is a country that is not part of the US dollar area, all that is now changed.

And it will no longer act as a collection agent for governments that countries owe, except for the US, Europe and Japan. That is a declaration of financial war.

RT: Ukraine isn't likely to repay its $3 B debt to Russia this year. It's international (IMF)  bailout is more than ten times bigger. Is it going to pay any of it?

MH: They're already said they don't intend to repay a single penny. They say, 'we don't have to repay Russia, because America is backing us, and America is going to support us.'

Last May when the IMF made the last loan to Ukraine, Lagarde said: 'I hope Ukraine uses that to build up its industry and doesn't go to war.' The next day President Poroshenko said: 'Now that we have the loan...we're going to spend all the money we have militarily supporting the oligarchs in the East that are fighting against the Russian speakers.'

So basically the IMF loan is to finance the civil war...the ethnic war of Ukrainian speakers against the Russian speakers and the war against the East."

You Want War? Russia is Ready For War  -  by Pepe Escobar

http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/12/18/you-want-war-russia-is-ready-for-...

'Tense' does not even begin to describe the current Russia-Turkey geopolitical tension, which shows no sign of abating. The Empire of Chaos lavishly profits from it as a privileged spectator; as long as the tension lasts, prospects of Eurasia integration are hampered.

We can draw a parallel of Syria today as the equivalent of Sarajevo 1914.

All right, Erdogan and NATO, do you still wanna go to war?"

Russia To Establish Anti-Terror HQ in Key Coastal Areas

https://www.rt.com/news/327149-terrorism-russia-putin-simferopol/

"Russia will create counter-terrorism operational headquarters in several key coastal areas including the Crimean peninsula, the Far East and the Arctic. The HQs will also be planning counter-terrorism operations in other maritime areas in which Russia exercises its sovereignty, as well as vessels flying under the Russian flag."

Putin Blues -  by Israel Shamir

http://www.unz.com/ishamir/putin-blues/

Perhaps Putin is right. Russia does not need such a strong enemy as Israel..."

Russia's National Security Strategy For 2016 in 9 Key Points

https://www.rt.com/news/327608-russia-national-security-strategy/

"President Vladimir Putin has signed the country's national security strategy for 2016 that names color revolutions and biological weapons as current threats to Russia, among other hazards. Here are 9 key points..."

2015: Over and Out (S3E10 and vid)

https://www.rt.com/shows/in-the-now-summary/327198-russia-pushkov-foreig...

"A look back at the outgoing year with Alexey Pushkov, head of the Russian State Duma foreign affairs committee and Nigel Parsons, head of TVC and former head of Al Jazeera English."

Farewell 2015 (and vid)

https://www.rt.com/shows/crosstalk/327414-2015-farewell-rt-hosts

"The year 2015 - what a race it has been. On this edition of CrossTalk, some of my colleagues at RT and I talk about the year that was. CrossTalking with Anissa Naouai, Rory Suchet and Oksana Boyko."