Roberto Abraham Scaruffi

Sunday 23 February 2014

The European Union Times



Posted: 22 Feb 2014 02:57 PM PST

A new report by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) relating to the ongoing crisis in Ukraine says that United States President Barack Obama was “stunned” yesterday after President Putin warned him in a telephone dialogue between these two leaders that Russia was prepared to send over 250,000 heavily armed troops into Crimea to protect the sovereignty of its citizens against further US-EU aggression.
Crimea is an autonomous parliamentary republic within Ukraine with a population over 2 million whose ethnic makeup is over 70% Russian and Crimean Tartars as opposed to 24% Ukrainian and is the home base of the Russian Black Sea Fleet located in Sevastopol.
Putin first became involved in this latest Ukraine crisis this week, this report says, after receiving a call from Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych who called for direct intervention by Moscow due to his nation being under “direct attack” from Neo-Nazi and right-wing nationalist mobs supported by the EU and US in conflicts that have left, at least, 67 dead.
Important to note, this report continues, is that the Obama regime has instigated a number of “silent coups” against democratically elected governments it wishes to destabilize, fragment and then reabsorb into its Western alliance.
Unfortunately for the people of Ukraine, this report says, the Obama regime and their EU counterparts have aligned themselves with the much feared Right Sector opposition group that consists mostly of young men with right-wing, ultra right-wing, borderline fascists, and the even more feared far-right nationalist Svoboda Party.
The International Business Times (IBC) in warning about the Svoboda Party said it cannot be called a “fringe” party as it currently occupies 36 seats in the 450-member Ukrainian parliament, granting it status as the fourth-largest party in the country.

Further, IBC says, Svoboda is linked to other far-right groups across Europe through its membership in the Alliance of European National Movements, which includes the British National Party (BNP) of the United Kingdom and Jobbik, the nationalist party of Hungary.
In heeding Yanukovych’s call for direct intervention against these Western supported fascists, this report says, Putin ordered Human Rights CommissionerVladimir Lukin to broker an immediate halt to the crisis by warning that Russia “was ready to go to war over Crimea”.
After meeting with Lukin, this report continues, Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski was taped by ITV News bluntly stating to the Ukrainian opposition leaders, “If you don’t support this [deal] you’ll have martial law, you’ll have the army. You will all be dead.”
Should the most extreme measures be used in this crisis by the Russian military, this report further states, the legal authority to do so rests with the appeal of the Supreme Council of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea to Yanukovych that was presented by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of Crimea to the President urging him to take extraordinary measures to preserve the constitutional order and unity in Ukraine, and which Putin is bound to support by treaty.

Though an agreement was reached yesterday to end this crisis, this report continues (which Russia refused to sign and Yanukovych stated on Ukrainian television that he would sign not documents with the “bandits” who terrorize the Ukraine) Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov nevertheless expressed his deepest concern to the foreign ministers of Germany, France and Poland about the Ukrainian opposition’s inability to negotiate on the agreement.
Even worse, this report continues, the fascist led Ukrainian parliament declared President Yanukovych constitutionally unable to carry out his duties earlier today and set an early election for 25 May, a move Yanukovych refused to recognize by declaring that a coup d’état was underway and that he is not going to resign.
One of the first “unintended blowbacks” for the West following their “silent coup” attempts in Ukraine, this report states, was Iceland’s decision earlier today to cancel their referendum on joining the EU as they are no longer interested in joining this trade bloc, a move made by Ukraine this past November that started this latest crisis in the first place.
With Foreign Minister Lavrov noting Western hypocrisy relating to Ukraine violence by stating, “When something like this happens within a European country, no one questions the need to curb the disorder and violence with firm measures”, this report concludes, it remains up to Obama to heed Putin’s warning to avert an all-out war.
Source
        
Posted: 22 Feb 2014 02:51 PM PST

Beijing raised its four-tiered smog alert system to ‘orange’ for the first time on Friday as heavy smog was forecast to roll into the city for the next three days. Officials have urged people to stay indoors and use public transport.
When Beijing’s Air Quality Index (AQI) readings went above 300 micrograms per cubic meter on Friday – more than ten times the level considered safe by the World Health Organization (WHO) – the orange warning level was brought into effect.
The category, which is the second-highest after ‘red,’ advises schools to cancel outside sports classes and states that children and elderly should stay indoors. Residents are also advised to leave their cars at home. The ‘orange’ alert falls short of ordering schools to close and prohibiting government vehicles from using the roads – those provisions come into force under the red alert.
The government also ordered more than 100 factories in Beijing to halt or limit their activities as soon as the orange alert came into force on Friday, Xinhua news agency reported. Thirty-six companies were ordered to stop production, while another 75 were told to reduce it.
AQI measures six airborne pollutants – including PM2.5 particles which have a diameter smaller than 2.5 microns. PM2.5 particles have been a major contributor to the smog that has periodically shrouded much of north and eastern China in recent years.
The tiered system has four levels – using blue, yellow, orange, and red to indicate the air pollution in order of increasing severity – and was introduced last October. An orange alert indicates heavy to serious pollution for three consecutive days, while a red alert indicates the most serious air pollution, also known as level 6, for three days in a row.
The US Environmental Protection Agency considers AQI levels above 300 to be hazardous. Data from the US embassy in Beijing put the levels of PM 2.5 particles at 378 on Friday.
While some residents have welcomed the announcement, others are angry that more is not being done.
“Do the PM2.5 measurements have to explode off the charts before we see a red alert?” said one user of weibo, a Chinese website similar to Twitter.
Public discontent with the official reaction could be clearly seen on Friday, when a Chinese military expert became the object of scorn and ridicule after saying that the smog might be useful in fending off a laser attack by the US military.
Smog has been sitting over Beijing since the middle of last week, though authorities only issued a blue alert last Saturday. China Central Television (CCTV) questioned late last Saturday why the government failed to initiate an appropriate response under such smoggy conditions.
“Their [authorities'] inaction in the face of the heaviest air pollution in a month flies in the face of their own promises and their own credibility,” China Daily said in an editorial.
Wang Yuesi, a researcher at the Institute of Atmospheric Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, told Xinhua that orange and red alerts require action by the public and authorities are reluctant to issue them.
“Environmental authorities lacked preparation in responding to smog for both technical reasons and management reasons. All they hope is that continuous smoggy days like this never come,” said Wang.
He also cautioned that the issue was not only a problem for Beijing, but also for a much larger region of northern and eastern China – including the surrounding provinces of Hebei, Shandong and Henan.
Many of the guidelines are not as new as the four-tiered system and were introduced after a period of appalling air quality last January when AQI at one point was more than 900; 40 to 45 times above the recommended safety levels.
The Chinese government is keen to be seen as being tough on pollution, after tremendous amounts of growth over the past few decades left much of China’s water, air, and soil extremely polluted.
Authorities have in recent years put into action numerous policies to try to clean up the environment, including investing in new non-polluting projects and giving courts the power to enforce stiff penalties – including the death penalty – in the most serious cases.
Since 2008, Beijing has had some success in reducing air pollution. Particulate matter 10 readings have steadily fallen but PM2.5 – which is far more dangerous and originates from car exhaust fumes – has shot up as car ownership increases in the capital.
But enforcement is patchy; particularly at the local level, where authorities rely on taxes from polluting industries.
Source
        
Posted: 22 Feb 2014 02:24 PM PST



The Polish Foreign Minister, Radoslaw Sikorski, told a Ukrainian protest leader if EuroMaidan activists do not enter into an agreement to end the occupation of Independence Square in Kiev, martial law will be declared and they will be killed.
“If you don’t support this [deal] you’ll have martial law, you’ll have the army. You will all be dead,” Sikorski said upon leaving a meeting. The exchange was filmed by ITN, a television network based in London, England.
In a Twitter post, Sikorski characterized a deal reached between the demonstrators and the Ukrainian government as a “good compromise for Ukraine. Gives peace a chance. Opens the way for reform and to Europe. Poland and EU support it,” according to Fox News. Sikorski is a mediator on the crisis for the European Union.
The deal includes a pledge by Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych to hold elections and a promise to include the opposition in a new government. No time frame was set for implementation of the agreement.
According to the German government, leaders of the Maidan movement have agreed to sign the agreement. “We are prepared to do everything to obtain a peaceful solution. I told the German foreign minister I would personally appeal to protesters before signing,” said opposition leader Vitaly Klitschko, a former boxer.
Interfax reported opposition leader and ultra-nationalist Oleh Yaroslavovych Tyahnybok as stating one condition of the agreement is that the present interior minister and prosecutor-general must be excluded from any interim government.
Source
        
Posted: 22 Feb 2014 02:04 PM PST
Ukrainian opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko greets supporters from a car as she leaves her prison hospital in Kharkiv on February 22, 2014.
Ukraine’s opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko says she is sure the country will join the European Union (EU) in the near future.
Tymoshenko made the comment on Saturday minutes after she was released from the hospital where she had been held under prison guard in the northeastern city of Kharkiv.
The opposition icon also said she would stand for president in May.
Tymoshenko then went to Kiev to join her supporters who were mourning their dead at Independence Square, known as the Maidan.
Meanwhile, Oleksandr Turchynov, the newly elected parliament speaker, said ousted President Viktor Yanukovych tried to board a plane to Russia, but was prevented from doing so and is now in the eastern city of Donetsk.
According to reports, Kharkiv’s regional governor along with the city’s mayor, both of them top allies of Yanukovych, left Ukraine across the nearby Russian border.
Also on Saturday, the Russian foreign minister condemned the recent events in Ukraine, saying the opposition has failed to meet its commitments based on a deal with Yanukovych signed in Kiev on Friday.
Sergey Lavrov said “armed extremists and pogromists” whose actions threaten “Ukraine’s sovereignty and constitutional order” lead the Ukrainian opposition.
“The opposition has not only failed to fulfill any of its obligations, but is presenting new demands all the time, following the lead of armed extremists and pogromists who pose a direct threat to Ukraine’s sovereignty and constitutional order,” he said, adding, “It’s time to stop misleading international public opinion and pretending the Maidan represents the interests of the Ukrainian nation.”
He urged Germany, Poland and France to exert pressure on the opposition to respect the recently signed peace agreement with the government.
The German foreign minister, however, called for the formation of a new government before Yanukovych returns to Kiev.
Meanwhile, the British Foreign Secretary welcomed the release of opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko.
William Hague said London would work with EU partners to back a new government in Ukraine.
Source
        
Posted: 22 Feb 2014 01:52 PM PST

Tough austerity measures imposed by the Greek government have inflicted major damage to the health of the Greek population, leaving nearly one million of the country’s most vulnerable people without access to healthcare.
As a result of a six percent cap on health spending imposed by the so-called Troika as part of austerity measures forced on the country, the Greek public hospital budget was cut by 25 percent between 2009 and 2011, according to a report by academics and doctors from Oxford, Cambridge, and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) which was published in The Lancet medical journal.
The Troika, which consists of the European Commission, the European Central Bank, and the International Monetary Fund, forced Greece to make huge cuts to government expenditure in return for two bailout packages totaling 240 billion euros (US$329 billion).
Unemployment in Greece has more than tripled from 7.7 percent in 2008 to 24.3 percent in 2012, while long-term unemployment has reached 14.4 percent. In a country where health insurance is linked to employment, an estimated 800,000 have been left without access to health services.
This has prompted international humanitarian organizations, such as Medecins du Mond, and community clinics run by volunteers to step in to fill the gap. Before the crisis, such services were mostly for immigrant populations.
One such clinic is the Metropolitan Community Clinic at Helliniko in Athens, which was set up in December 2011. It is run by volunteer doctors and is completely funded by donations, including all medicines. It provides free healthcare for people without health insurance.
“The healthcare situation in Greece is, unfortunately, dramatic. We have helped more than 4,400 patients in 26 months. We look after more than 300 children below the age of three,” Co-founder Christos Sideris told The Independent.
The problem of reduced state healthcare is worse in rural areas, where shortages of medicines and medical equipment are more pronounced.
Some areas have been harder hit than others. Prevention and treatment programs for intravenous drug users have taken a hammering, with one-third of street programs closed between 2009-10.
This has led to a dramatic drop in the number of syringes and condoms given to known drug users and therefore has directly led to a spike in HIV infections from 15 in 2009 to 484 in 2012, the report said.
Infectious disease prevention programs have been rolled back, leading to a resurgence of once rare diseases, including Malaria, which has returned to Greece for the first time in 40 years as the government can no longer afford mosquito-spraying programs.
The Greek National School of Public Health reported a 21 percent rise in still births between 2008 and 2011. Infant mortality rose by 43 percent between 2008 and 2010 as a direct consequence of reduced access to prenatal services.
Mental health services have also taken a battering. Public and non-profit metal health service providers have scaled back operations and the development of child psychiatric services has been completely abandoned. State funding for mental health decreased by 20 percent between 2010 and 2011 and by another 55 percent between 2007 and 2011.
The suicide rate subsequently increased by 45 percent between 2007 and 2011, and the prevalence of major depression increased by 2.5 times over the same period. Increased economic hardship is an indirect factor in deteriorating mental health, according to the report’s authors.
There are also a number of hidden healthcare barriers and unmet healthcare needs which lead to an overall decline of the population’s health. For example, fees for prescriptions were introduced and charges for outpatient visits to the hospital were raised from 3 euros to 5 euros.
As a result of the general economic and social deterioration, the proportion of children at risk of poverty has increased from 28.2 percent in 2007 to 30.4 percent in 2011. A growing number of children are receiving inadequate nutrition.
Living in denial
The study’s authors say that Greek government officials, as well as sympathetic commentators, have argued that deep spending cuts and wide-ranging changes have not damaged the health of the Greek population. However, they noted that such parties are guilty of denial.
“However, the scientific literature presents a different picture. In view of this detailed body of evidence of the harmful effects of austerity on health, the failure of public recognition of the issue by successive Greek governments and international agencies is remarkable,” the authors wrote.
They concluded by giving the examples of Finland and Iceland. Both countries were hit hard by the financial crisis and had to implement tough austerity measures. However, they chose to steer away from their health and social budgets, instead concentrating on cuts elsewhere.
Alexander Kentikelenis, a researcher in sociology at the University of Cambridge and the report’s lead author, warned of long-term damage to the health of the Greek population.
“What’s happening to vulnerable groups in Greece is quite shocking. Its quite straightforward to measure what has happened, it’s much harder to quantify the long term health implications for the long term unemployed and uninsured, leaving health problems to get out of hand ends up costing much more in the long run,” he told The Independent.
Source
        
Posted: 21 Feb 2014 02:44 PM PST

Over the last decade, America has quietly expanded its military presence throughout Africa in an attempt to counter Chinese and other emerging nations’ influence, while consolidating control over critical strategic resources and trade routes.
The United States, like its allies Britain and France, has long maintained influence and indirect control in Africa through financial institutions such as the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and African Development Bank. It has exerted political influence using aid organizations such as USAID and NGOs like the National Endowment for Democracy, Freedom House and others.
However, recent years have seen an unprecedented military expansion which has gone almost entirely unnoticed by the US public.
After 9/11, the United States began to grow its military footprint on the African continent under the guise of a ‘War on Terror’, selling this notion to a United States gripped with fear of terrorism. With programs such as the Pan-Sahel Initiative, later broadened into the Trans-Saharan Counterterrorism Initiative, Washington managed to provide military and financial assistance to compliant countries in North Africa – a policy whose practical application meant that the US military became the dominant force in the Sahel region, supplying the human and material resources for which the governments of the region were starved. Naturally, this meant an implicit subservience to US military command.
However, all the initiatives in the post 9/11 period were still under the authority of a variety of military commands. To remedy this, in 2007 the Bush administration created US Africa Command (AFRICOM) to act as the umbrella organization under which all US military activity in Africa would fall. AFRICOM became an officially independent command a year later, and in the seven years its scope of activity has broadened tremendously, with its direct or indirect presence extending into nearly every country on the continent.
Far from initial AFRICOM agenda
AFRICOM’s mission statement reads like a campaign slogan, stating that “[AFRICOM] advances US national interests and promote[s] regional security, stability, and prosperity.” However, a more critical analysis would question exactly how Washington defines “security, stability, and prosperity,” and perhaps most importantly, whose prosperity they’re principally interested in.
Ostensibly, the US military acts to defend ‘democracies’ in Africa for the collective betterment of the people of the continent. As Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Theresa Whelan stated in 2007, “AFRICOM is about helping Africans build greater capacity to assure their own security.”
However, even the words of AFRICOM’s leadership quickly dispel that mythology. Vice-Admiral Robert Moeller, military deputy to former commander of AFRICOM General William ‘Kip’ Ward, told an AFRICOM conference in 2008 that AFRICOM’s goal was “protecting the free flow of natural resources from Africa to the global market.” Furthermore, Moeller wrote in 2010, “Let there be no mistake. AFRICOM’s job is to protect American lives and promote American interests.”
The military leadership made their agenda quite clear from the very outset of AFRICOM: provide a military presence to ensure the continued exploitation of Africa for the enrichment of finance capital, and the maintenance and expansion of US hegemony on the continent.
Perhaps the most obvious example of AFRICOM’s mission on the continent was its coordination of the US role in the NATO war on Libya. Directing the war from its secretive base, known as Camp Lemonnier, in Djibouti, AFRICOM played a key role in identifying targets, organizing forces, and providing tactical intelligence.
Far from ‘providing stability’, the US military eliminated a peaceful government that refused to submit to the dictates of Washington, London and Paris. Gaddafi’s government committed the grave sin of nationalizing oil resources and sharing the profits with its people, providing clean drinking water and adequate housing, engaging in large-scale infrastructure projects such as the Great Man-Made River, providing jobs and legal protections to migrant workers from neighboring countries, and serving as a model of economic development outside the hegemony of the Western powers.
For these and many other reasons, the US and its allies mobilized their militaries and destroyed Libya, leaving it to become the chaotic and failed state that it is today.
A direct consequence of the neocolonial war on Libya was the further destabilization of the Sahel region, and the nation of Mali specifically. Although Western media has attempted to downplay the US role in the Mali conflict, facts have emerged demonstrating a very clear US role in the destabilization of the country. As the Tuareg fighters who bravely fought to defend Gaddafi and the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya returned to Mali, they rekindled their decades-long struggle for self-determination and the establishment of their own independent state of Azawad.
In the midst of this conflict however, the Malian government of President Toure was overthrown by a midlevel military commander named Amadou Sanogo. Far from acting alone, reports emerged confirming that he was, in fact, trained by US military. Moreover, the Washington Post also reported that US military personnel were inside of Mali long before the coup took place, suggesting at the very least support for, if not direct control of, Sanogo and his fellow plotters. Of course, under the auspices of fighting Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, a North African terror organization, the French and their NATO allies engaged in a yet another neo-colonial war, occupying Mali and, again, ‘promoting stability’.
AFRICOM also took command of US military involvement in Somalia and the Horn of Africa more broadly in 2008. The United States backed the invasion of Somalia by Ethiopia in late 2006, with the CIA funneling money and weapons to Washington’s favorite warlords in a successful attempt to prevent the Council of Islamic Courts from constituting a government in the war-ravaged country. In so doing, the US prolonged the war and helped promote the growth of the Al-Shabaab terror organization.
More recently, AFRICOM has transformed its mission on the continent. Rather than ‘supporting national governments’, it has become a leader and initiator of military activity. In 2013 alone, AFRICOM conducted joint exercises with fourteen African nations, leading land, sea, and air-based operations.
Additionally, Mother Jones magazine developed an important graphic illustrating the pervasive military footprint throughout the continent, one that is only growing. It would seem then that AFRICOM’s initial ‘mission statement’ is but a distant memory.
‘Proxy war theater’
It is no secret that the last decade has seen an unprecedented expansion of Chinese investment throughout Africa. As renowned Professor and China scholar Deborah Brautigam noted in her 2013 report ‘Chinese Investment in Africa’,“Chinese imports and exports, outbound investment aid, and export finance are all sharply on the rise. For example, trade between China and Africa rose from $10 billion in 2000 to $166.3 billion in 2011… [In 2012] Chinese leaders announced a goal of $20 billion in finance to African countries by 2015. If carried out, an average of between $6 and $7 billion would flow to Africa per year.”
Brautigam’s numbers illustrate the fact that, while still slightly below yearly US total investment in the continent ($9 billion), China is rapidly challenging US economic hegemony in Africa. Having invested in a variety of sectors from mining and oil, to telecommunications and banking, China has made itself into a viable alternative to US, World Bank, and IMF investment and aid. Naturally, this has upset the political and corporate establishment in the US who see in China a threat to their power.
Washington’s Africa policy in recent years must be understood within the context of checking China’s growing power and influence. One prime example is the US-sponsored break up of Sudan and the creation of South Sudan.
In order to power its massive industrial sector and population, China has become the world’s leading energy importer, with lucrative contracts all over the world. However, Beijing’s primary oil source in Africa was Sudan, which accounted for 8 percent of China’s total oil imports (China being the recipient of a whopping 78% of total Sudanese exports).
With the oilfields being located primarily in the south of the country, the US led the charge to dismantle Sudan and create a South Sudan that would be dependent on US finance and military muscle (provided by AFRICOM and US clients such as Uganda and Rwanda) for its very survival. The continuing violence and bloodshed in South Sudan – a result of internal power struggles between competing US aligned factions – is merely collateral damage in Washington’s growing proxy war with China.
China is also a major trading partner of its longtime ally Zimbabwe. Having invested in a variety of industries including mining, tobacco, and infrastructure, Beijing has a great interest in maintaining stability in Zimbabwe. Conversely, the United States has attempted to destabilize the country throughout the last decade, going so far as to impose crippling sanctions and attempt regime change using proxies inside Zimbabwe.
All over Africa, the United States has tried to check the growing influence of China. From Nigeria to South Africa, Angola to Sudan, the US is engaging in a widespread proxy war with the expressed intention of maintaining its dominant position in Africa. Using its vast military resources, Washington seeks to cement its African hegemony using the same colonial tactics as every other empire that came before it.
Source
        
Posted: 21 Feb 2014 02:20 PM PST

Scientists warns that a dry and hot weather phenomenon known as ‘El Nino’ is likely to hit most parts of the earth in the second half of this year.
Researchers in Germany announced that the phenomenon could spew out huge amounts of heat this year, on summer 2014.
While the menacing El Nino weather pattern appears to be ready to blow massive amounts of heat into the atmosphere, there is a 75 per cent chance that 2014 will be the hottest on record, they explains.
They claim that their method grants them to forecast disruptive El Nino events a year in advance as it correctly predicted the absence of El Nino events over the past two years, according to a study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
The new method was followed by a team of Justus Liebig University in Giessen, Germany including Armin Bunde and his colleagues.
The team observed the atmospheric temperatures in all areas of the Pacific Ocean instead of analysing the water temperature in a specific area of the ocean.
“We hope the forecast could allow countries to make develop better strategies that can counter the devastating effects such as wild fires,” researchers stated.
While many experts do not agree with the German researchers’ methods, they say the methods the researchers employed are outdated.
This approach does not look at the physics of the seas or atmosphere, but only looked for statistical patterns in temperature, they say.
“The risk of an El Nino event in the second half of 2014 has increased, but it’s certainly not guaranteed at this point in time,” said Andrew Watkins, Supervisor, Climate Prediction at Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology.
An El Nino occurs when equatorial Pacific waters are unusually warm. It can change ocean and wind currents across the globe.
Source
        
Posted: 21 Feb 2014 02:07 PM PST

The multi-faceted attempts by Zionist controlled international media to politicize and sabotage the winter Olympic games in Sochi, Russia has infiltrated televisions around the world, taking attention off the actual games. Reading from the same script, both global and Greek media rage in unison, presenting Putin as the 21st century’s most vicious and evil dictator. CNN’s around the clock coverage of Russia describes Putin as anti-democratic, while journalists focus on mocking and nit-picking alleged construction defects at the Olympic site, writing long scathing articles about a few square centimeters of frayed masonry in the partition of the Olympic Village.
The Winter Olympics began on February 10th amidst an orchestrated campaign of negative propaganda by the global Zionist media, the media is desperate for this to be a public relations disaster for Russia. The United States and European Union worked tediously to sabotage the events and transform what is supposed to be a celebration of sport and peace into a propaganda defeat for the government of Putin. Moscow’s goal with hosting these Olympics was to demonstrate to the world Russia’s economic and geopolitical resurgence. After recent tensions and head-butting between the Kremlin and Washington regarding issues in the Ukraine, Central Asia, and the Middle East, the White House is trying to turn the Sochi games into a publicity debacle for Moscow.
Virtually no Western leader attended the opening ceremony in Sochi, while their national delegations were objectively second or third tier. Examples of this can be seen by the United States being represented via Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano and the U.S. Ambassador in Moscow… who has already resigned. After announcing that the British are natural supporters of the gay movement, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg banned ministers from attending the opening ceremony in protest of Russia’s law banning homosexual propaganda aimed at children. Even the German athletes were forced to participate in this New World Order charade, with their Olympic team being forced to parade wearing rainbow colored uniforms in system-mandated support for the “oppressed” gay lobby in Russia.
The orchestrated propaganda against Russia regarding “gay rights” and human rights was on the cover of almost all newspapers and television stations in the West before the first race even began. The initial focus of the Jewish Zionist media was on instilling fear surrounding the threat of terrorism in Sochi, which if verified would come from Chechen Islamic extremists who are financed and trained by the United States and its willing allies. Later, they took up the angle of criticizing the cost of the Olympic facilities and the environmental damage suffered in the area around Sochi, as well as some construction defects in the Olympic Village- these stories were played on loop on Zionist CNN and other television stations. No exception was the Greek media, who jumped on the bandwagon, what else could they do knowing they are financed and regulated by the same international Zionist centers of power.
The fact that the media coverage of the Olympic Games in Sochi all stuck to the same agenda reflects the complete subjugation of mainstream media everywhere in the interests of global Zionism. The United States considers Russia to be a serious geopolitical obstacle to its expansionist plans. Washington is aggressively trying to undermine Russia on all fronts, including in Eastern Europe, outrageously claiming that Russia is to blame for the American-orchestrated demonstrations in Ukraine that may lead to civil war and a partition of the country, with the added “benefit” of Uncle Sam installing a so-called “missile shield” targeting Russian territory. The Kremlins stand against America in the Middle East, which has infuriated both Wall Street and Tel Aviv, has thrown a wrench in Zionist-controlled America’s plan for Syria and Iran, who are now playing a crucial role in Russia geopolitical interests. The behavior of the U.S. and Europe in Sochi is guided by nothing except this geopolitical doctrine: Get Russia off the global stage.
The Jewish controlled world media, with the encouragement of Washington, are trying to stain the international prestige of Russia. The goal is to lay the foundations, in conjunction with other pre-planned events, for a possible future military conflict between the two main rivals.
Source
        
Posted: 21 Feb 2014 01:51 PM PST

Chinese authorities have been angered over the US President Barack Obama’s recent meeting with the Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry summoned the US charge d’affaires to deliver a formal complaint over the move.
“China expresses strong indignation and firm opposition,” media outlets quoted Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Yesui as saying.
President Obama met with the Dalai Lama at the White House on Friday, despite Beijing’s strong objections.
China had earlier warned that the meeting would inflict grave damages on the bilateral ties.
“We urge the US side to treat China’s concern in a serious way and immediately cancel the planned meeting,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said in a statement ahead of the talks.
“The US leader’s meeting with the Dalai is a gross interference in China’s internal affairs, a severe violation of codes of international relations and will seriously impair China-US relations,” Hua added.
After the meeting, the White House issued a statement, saying that Washington offers strong support for the preservation of Tibet’s religious and cultural traditions.
China says Obama is letting the Tibetan leader use the White House to promote anti-Chinese activities.
China accuses the Tibetan leader of being a separatist, who supports the use of violence to set up an independent state.
The Dalai Lama, however, denies this and says he wants a peaceful transition to autonomy for the remote Himalayan region.
China also accuses the Dalai Lama of fueling unrest in the Himalayan region, saying the unrest in Tibet, which is incited by the West, is a plan by Beijing’s opponents to tarnish the image of the country.
Source
        
Posted: 21 Feb 2014 01:33 PM PST

Ukraine’s President Viktor Yanukovich and opposition leaders have signed an EU brokered agreement on ending the political crisis in the country.
The Ukrainian opposition representatives included the leader of the UDAR political party, Vitaly Klitschko, the head of the Batkivshchyna opposition party, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, and the leader of the nationalist Svoboda opposition party, Oleg Tyagnibok.
The breakthrough agreement was witnessed by EU foreign ministers who brokered the deal, including Poland’s Radoslaw Sikorski and Germany’s Frank-Walter Steinmeier, as well as Director at the Continental Europe Department of the French Foreign Ministry, Eric Fournier.
Russia’s Human Rights Commissioner Vladimir Lukin, who was present at the negotiations, noted the positive dynamic of the talks.
“We got acquainted with our partners’ position, and now we understand it,” he said. However, he added that “the biggest difficulty is that the situation is constantly changing” and there is no clarity as to who will fulfill the agreements and how.
On Friday, Yanukovich announced early presidential elections and the return to the constitution of 2004, which limits presidential powers and widens the parliament’s authority. Ukraine’s Parliament has already adopted a law restoring the constitution of 2004 with 386 MP’s voting in favor.
Yanukovich also said a national unity government will be created.
Steinmeier has confirmed that the signed deal includes these points. The EU foreign ministers have welcomed Ukraine’s agreement and called for an immediate end to violence.
According to the conditions of the agreement, within 48 hours a law restoring the 2004 constitution is to be adopted and signed, after which in 10 days a national unity government is to be formed.
The agreement also states that as soon as the new constitution is adopted, no later than September, the presidential election must be held until December.
Yatsenyuk has confirmed the snap presidential election will be held between September and December.
In addition, there will be an investigation into the “recent acts of violence” committed during the anti-government riots. Under the deal, no state of emergency will be imposed in the country, while the government will adopt an amnesty “covering the same range of illegal actions as the February-17 2014 law.”
“Both parties will undertake serious efforts to normalize life in the cities and villages by withdrawing from administrative and public buildings and unblocking streets, city parks and squares” the text of the agreement reads.
Leader of far-right group Right Sector, Dmitri Yarosh, told the protesters at Maidan Square Friday that the deal reached between the president and the opposition is not acceptable. Yarosh said that his group will not be putting down their arms until President Viktor Yanukovich resigns. “The Right Sector will not lay down its arms. The Right Sector will not remove the blockade of one of the government buildings until our most important requirement is fulfilled – the resignation of Yanukovich,” Unian quoted him as saying.
Later on Friday, presidential impeachment bill was introduced in the Ukrainian parliament. The new initiative was authored by Nikolay Rudkovskiy, the head of the Socialist Party in Ukraine, which is part of the ruling Party of Regions coalition. The bill was published on parliament’s website, though no details were provided.
Also, the Ukrainian parliament voted on Friday in favor of an unconditional amnesty for all people detained, or who might face possible prosecution in the current unrest.
Under the agreement all illegal weapons should be handed over to the Ministry of Interior within 24 hours. After this, all cases of illegal carrying and storage of weapons will be prosecuted under Ukraine law.
The last article of the deal urges forces on both sides of the conflict to refrain from confrontation, adding that law enforcement should be used “exclusively for the physical protection of public buildings.”
Ukraine has been gripped by protests since November, with the opposition calling for Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich to resign. Initially the protests were triggered by Yanukovich backing down from the EU integration deal. However, these have turned into violent riots against the government. The situation escalated from January to February and saw its peak this week, after rioters reignited street clashes with police in the capital Kiev.
Source