Ukraine crisis: Kiev hopes talks will go ahead despite renewed violence

Новости мира: США разрешили своим банкам открывать счета жителям Крыма - Аналитическое издание "Наши дни"

1 Share

Новости мира: США разрешили своим банкам открывать счета жителям Крыма
Аналитическое издание "Наши дни"
Вы смотрите новость "Новости мира: США разрешили своим банкам открывать счета жителям Крыма". Самые последние новости мира на сегодня читайте на нашем сайте. Ежедневно в мире происходит сотни значимых и не очень событий. Актуальные новости в мире расскажут о ...

и другие »

The Saturday Profile: U.N. Rights Chief Says He’ll Shine a Light on Countries Big and Small 

1 Share
Four months into his new job, Prince Zeid Ra’ad Zeid al-Hussein of Jordan is resisting the efforts of some nations to hold his office to a narrow interpretation of its mandate. 






Венецианская комиссия посетит 3-4 февраля Украину для обсуждения реформ с властями страны - Коммерсантъ

1 Share

РИА Новости

Венецианская комиссия посетит 3-4 февраля Украину для обсуждения реформ с властями страны
Коммерсантъ
Представители Венецианской комиссии Совета Европы (СЕ) 3-4 февраля посетят с рабочим визитом Украину, чтобы обсудить с первыми лицами страны вопросы реализации конституционной и судебной реформ. Об этом 31 января передает «РИА Новости». «Председатель ...
Венецианская комиссия Совета Европы посетит Украину 3-4 февраляРБК
Венецианская комиссия посетит Украину для обсуждения реформ страныРИА Новости
Украину посетит Венецианская комиссияСЕГОДНЯ
Information Agency 'Independent News Bureau' (rus.:Независимое -Сводка Украинских и Мировых Новостей
Все похожие статьи: 28 »

Больше не в ПАСЕ: что ждать России и Европе? - Аргументы и факты

1 Share

Аргументы и факты

Больше не в ПАСЕ: что ждать России и Европе?
Аргументы и факты
Парламентская ассамблея Совета Европы лишила Россию права голоса в этой организации до апреля 2015 года. В ответ глава российской делегации заявил о выходе России из ПАСЕ. Чем это обернётся для нашей страны — в материале АиФ.ru. Теги: ПАСЕсанкции против РФ в ПАСЕ ...
Сенатор Морозов: ПАСЕ примет решение о полномочиях России в средуРЫБИНСКonLine
Нарышкин: лишение России права голоса в ПАСЕ – это абсурдРИА ФедералПресс
Комиссия ПАСЕ поддержала поправку о лишении делегации России права голосаGlobalural.com
Великая Эпоха -Mangazia
Все похожие статьи: 707 »

Ukraine crisis: Kiev hopes talks will go ahead despite renewed violence 

1 Share
  • Ukraine hopeful rebels will attend Saturday’s talks in Minsk
  • Separatists say they will continue offensive if talks fail
  • Twelve people killed in rebel stronghold of Donetsk on Friday
Kiev’s pro-Western leaders hope to hold truce talks on Saturday with pro-Russian separatists despite the rebels’ vow to push their latest offensive in eastern Ukraine if the negotiations should fail.
The urgent new round of negotiations in Minsk that had been agreed for Friday under pressure from European envoys was postponed due to disagreements over who should represent the rebel camp.
Continue reading...

​Russia increases gold purchases by 123% - RT

1 Share

RT

Russia increases gold purchases by 123%
RT
The Central Bank of Russia bought a record amount of gold in the first 11 months of 2014 spending an estimated $6.1 billion. Increasing gold reserves attempts to reduce dependence on the dollar amid geopolitical tension, Mark O'Byrne of GoldCore, told RT.
Russia buys record amounts of goldFinancial Times

all 24 news articles »
Next Page of Stories
Loading...
Page 7

Россия передумала выходить из Совета Европы - СЕГОДНЯ

1 Share

СЕГОДНЯ

Россия передумала выходить из Совета Европы
СЕГОДНЯ
Россия намерена продолжить участие в работе комитета министров и других органах Совета Европы (СЕ), а также в реализации необходимых программ сотрудничества Россия-СЕ, в которых принимают участие различные федеральные органы исполнительной и судебной власти.
Больше не в ПАСЕ: что ждать России и Европе?Аргументы и факты

Все похожие статьи: 733 »

«Что Украина для нас сделала, чтобы мы за нее воевали?»: Как Западная Украина отвечает на обвинения из Киева - ИА REGNUM

1 Share

«Что Украина для нас сделала, чтобы мы за нее воевали?»: Как Западная Украина отвечает на обвинения из Киева
ИА REGNUM
Мобилизация на Украине идет по плану, заявляют в министерстве обороны страны. «Срыва нет. Все идет в плановом порядке», — об этом журналистам 29 января заявил и.о.начальника Главного управления по работе с особым составом Вооруженных сил Украины Александр ...

и другие »

Басурин: силовики пытаются прорвать окружение под Дебальцево - Вести.Ru

1 Share

Вести.Ru

Басурин: силовики пытаются прорвать окружение под Дебальцево
Вести.Ru
Заместитель командира ополчения ДНР Эдуард Басурин заявил, что силовики хотят вырваться из окружения в районе города Дебальцево. "Противник пытается или выйти из окружения, или развить свой успех в сторону наших городов" — пояснил Басурин. Ранее глава ДНР Александр ... 
Из Донбасса приходят сообщения о новых жертвах обстрелов со стороны силовиковПервый канал

ДНР: потери украинских силовиков за сутки составили более 70 человекРИА Новости
Захарченко сообщил о попытках украинских военных выбраться из ДебальцевоПолит.ру
Mail.Ru-Московский комсомолец-Взгляд
Все похожие статьи: 1 005 »

Putin Adopting Gorbachev’s Last Line of Defense -- and It’s Working, Ogryzko Says 

1 Share

Paul Goble

 

            Staunton, January 31 – In 1991, when the Soviet Union was living out its last days, a cartoon appeared in an American newspaper which perfectly captured the spirit of what was happening in Moscow and in the West. It showed Mikhail Gorbachev holding a gun to his head and saying “If you try to stop me, I’ll shoot myself.”

 

            Fears in some Western capitals that any “pressure” on Gorbachev, even after he ordered the killings in Lithuania and Latvia, might lead to the collapse of his regime and even the disintegration of the Soviet Union certainly acted as a constraint on those governments, although they did not prevent Gorbachev from being ousted and the USSR from falling apart.

 

            Now, according to former Ukrainian foreign minister Vladimir Ogryzko, some in the West are infected with similar fears that any imposition of serious sanctions on Vladimir Putin for his aggression in Ukraine could lead to the collapse of his regime and his country (nv.ua/opinion/ogryzko/slabye-sankcii-zapada-shag-k-ocherednomu-mariupolyu-32042.html).

 

            Commenting on the decision of the EU to keep existing sanctions in place and its promise to toughen them “if the situation deteriorates,” Ogryzko says that this position has both positive and negative aspects. On the positive side, it shows that Moscow’s hopes for a Greek veto on the extension of sanctions were misplaced.

 

            But on the negative side, he points out that “unfortunately, the EU sanctions have turned out to be quite weak and are not hitting Russia as they should after all that has happened. What is especially disturbing are the comments of some that the EU may do more if Moscow launches a frontal attack on Mariupol or other Ukrainian cities.”

 

            “It seems to me,” the Ukrainian diplomat says, “that this goes beyond all possible and impossible limits. After the terrorist acts in Vonovakha, Donetsk and especially in Mariupol to speak about the introduction of sanctions ‘in the event that the situation deteriorates’ is simply to help the aggressor” because it gives Moscow no reason to stop.

 

            “The reason behind such weak decisions,” he continues, “is that people in the West fear an instantaneous collapse of Russia which would be completely possible if serious economic sanctions were introduced,” sanctions like the exclusion of Russia from the SWIFT banking settlement system.

 

            Various Russian commentators have suggested that more serious sanctions could lead to a Russian collapse. And “apparently,” Ogryzko says, “the economic interests of the West do not allow it to take this step. Now, [its member governments] will wait until the latest ‘if,’ the next Mariupol, the next attack of Russian forces.”
Read the whole story
 
· · ·

Hagel: U.S. Ground Troops Could Be Needed In Iraq

1 Share
Outgoing U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel says the United States might eventually need to send noncombat ground troops to Iraq to help defeat Islamic State militants.

Басурин: силовики пытаются прорвать окружение под Дебальцево - Вести.Ru

1 Share

Вести.Ru

Басурин: силовики пытаются прорвать окружение под Дебальцево
Вести.Ru
Заместитель командира ополчения ДНР Эдуард Басурин заявил, что силовики хотят вырваться из окружения в районе города Дебальцево. "Противник пытается или выйти из окружения, или развить свой успех в сторону наших городов" — пояснил Басурин. Ранее глава ДНР Александр ...
Из Донбасса приходят сообщения о новых жертвах обстрелов со стороны силовиковПервый канал
ДНР: потери украинских силовиков за сутки составили более 70 человекРИА Новости
ДНР: за сутки в Донецке зафиксировано 37 разрушений после обстреловMail.Ru
Московский комсомолец -Газета.Ru -Новости Украины | Новостное агентство ХАРЬКОВ
Все похожие статьи: 1 001 »
Next Page of Stories
Loading...
Page 8

Half of All Russians under Arrest Tortured Before Trial, Petersburg Criminologist Says

1 Share

Paul Goble

 

            Staunton, January 31 – Between 40 and 60 percent of Russians under arrest are tortured by their jailors before they are convicted, according to St. Petersburg criminologist Yakov Gilinsky. And that means, he says, that approximately four percent of the entire population of the country is subject to torture every year.

 

            Speaking in Moscow last week, Gilinsky said that he and his colleagues had studied the situation regarding torture in five regions of the Russian Federation – St. Petersburg, Komi, Pskov, Nizhny Novgorod and Chita – in 2005-2006 when they came up with these disturbing statistics (openrussia.org/post/view/2365/).

 

            The St. Petersburg criminologist said that he understood perfectly well that he couldn’t ask people “where and how were you tortured?” To do so would have meant that he and his colleagues would have been forever denied access to jails and prisons and thus would not have been able to monitor the situation.

 

            Instead, Gilinsky said, his researchers asked “what is torture?” and “”how should it be defined?”  We told respondents what torture was and then asked “if you in the course of the previous year … had been subjected to this as formulated and written down on the questionnaire, then tell us about it.”

 

            He said his survey was as representative as others conducted in Russia because it involved more than the usual number of respondents: In St. Petersburg alone, Gilinsky said, he and his colleagues talked to more than 2,000 people and in the other four regions a similar number, far more than the 1500 most polling agencies use.

 

            “More than that,” the criminologist continued, he said he had “been involved in practical work for many years” in this area. Today, he works in the Academy of the Office of the Procurator General, and thus it comes as no surprise to him that torture is going on “throughout the entire territory of the Russian Federation.”

 

            “That is how it was in 2005-2006,” Gilinsky said. “Today the situation has not improved.”

 

            What should be done?  According to the criminologist, a major first step would to decriminalize half of the actions listed in the Criminal Code. Some of them should be classified as administrative violations and others should simply be eliminated altogether.  That would reduce the flow of people through the criminal justice system.

 

            Other actions that should be taken, Gilinsky said, are the elimination of the death penalty, the creation of an independent judiciary not controlled by the administration and capable of supervising the jails and prisons, the establishment of a separate juvenile justice system, and “of course, the formation of a liberal democratic sense of justice in the population.”

 

            Moreover, he said, “it is necessary to conduct many [other] reforms: the reform of the police, the reform of the penal system from top to bottom,” and the effective introduction of minimal standards of the treatment of prisoners as proclaimed in Russian and European legislation.

 

            “It would be naïve to hope for the achievement of all these proposals in contemporary Russia,” Gilinsky said. “But let us hope that all this will be achieved in a future one.”

 

 
Read the whole story
 
· · · ·

Russian Occupiers Making Crimean Tatars Feel as Jews Did in Nazi Germany, Activist Says 

1 Share

Paul Goble

 

            Staunton, January 31 – The Russian occupation authorities are treating the Crimean Tatars in a manner which fully corresponds to “the Nazi spirit” because the authorities define them as “’a lesser race’” that “’the country doesn’t need,’” according to Ayder Muzhdabayev, a member of the Union of Crimean Tatars and a Russian journalist.

 

            In a Facebook page that has been widely reposted, Muzhdabayev says that he “wants to say that the attitude which the authorities in Crimea are displaying toward the Crimean Tatars is Nazi in spirit” (obozrevatel.com/politics/39728-tataryi-oschuschayut-sebya-v-kryimu-kak-evrei-v-dovoennoj-germanii-rossijskij-zhurnalist.htm).

 

            What is on display in occupied Crimea, he says, is “the attitude of ‘a higher race’ to a lesser’ one. In unofficial conversations, this is no longer being concealed,” he continues, and Russian officials openly say: “’You are a small people the country doesn’t need. It would be better if you didn’t exist. You must subordinate yourselves to our orders and keep quiet.”

 

            Muzhdabayev says that he wants the world to know that “the Crimean Tatars feel themselves in Crimea [today] just the way Jews in Germany felt during the period of the establishment of the Nazi system: as people without rights who have been clearly given to understand that anything can be done to them depending on what the authorities want.”

 

            The limits on that, he says, “are constantly broadening and apparently will broaden still further.” The appeals of Crimean Tatars to the international community concerning the arbitrary actions of the occupation authorities and “the armed nationalists connected with them” have remained “without a response.”

 

            “I never thought,” Muzhdabayev says, “that the Crimean Tatars both those [he] knows and those [he] doesn’t, would write and phone him to say: ‘This is becoming impossible to bear,’ ‘they don’t consider us to be people,’ and even ‘it is better to die than to suffer such indignities.’”

 

            It may seem “horrific,” he continues, but he feels compelled to say that he is “happy that [his] grandmother, grandfather, and many other older relatives who were repressed by Stalin in 1944 did not live to this present time.”

 

            Everyone around the world must recognize that “what is going on with the Crimean Tatars and their representatives and social structures in Crimea is systematic mass intimidation and persecution on the basis of nationality, a moral genocide, accompanied with threats to personal security, health and life, baseless judicial and extra-judicial repressions.”

 

            Refat Chubarov, the head of the Crimean Tatar Mejlis, echoed Muzhdabayev’s words. Speaking in Kyiv yesterday, he said that the great horrors of the 20th century – the Holocaust, the Terror Famine and the deportation of peoples – all begin with lesser horrors “to which the world did not react” (nr2.com.ua/hots/Okkupacija_Kryma/Glava-Medzhlisa-My-stoim-pered-dvermi-za-kotorymi-39-y-god-ili-Gaagskiy-tribunal-89459.html).

 

            Insisting that he is not “dramatizing” the situation, Chubarov said that in Russia, there is now “no good sense. Putin is the Hitler of today, and if his own society does not stop him, then the next step will be the construction of camps in the vastness of Siberia and the dispatch there of all those who on the territories he controls who are inclined against him.”

 

            That the Crimean Tatars are being subjected to an intensified campaign of persecution has been documented by the SOVA human rights organization in a new report (sova-center.ru/misuse/news/persecution/2015/01/d31163/). And that no one has yet come to their aid is becoming the occasion for ever more anger.

 

            In remarks in Kyiv yesterday, Valeriya Lutkovskaya, the Verkhovna Rada’s plenipotentiary for human rights, said that “without the participation of international organizations, Ukraine will not be able to defend its citizens on the territory of Ukraine” and that so far, they have been anything but active (qha.com.ua/lutkovskaya-mi-ne-smojem-zaschitit-krimchan-bez-mejdunarodnih-missii-142744.html).

 

            She said that she had called on the OSCE to organize a mission to Crimea but had not yet received an answer. And when she asked the Council of Europe to do so, officials there said that “if the Russian side in Crimea would be ready to accept such a mission, then [the Council of Europe] would be ready to send one. However, there is still no answer from the Russian side.”
Read the whole story
 
· · · ·

Spend more on defence to combat Russia, Nato tells UK - Daily Mail

1 Share

Daily Mail

Spend more on defence to combat Russia, Nato tells UK
Daily Mail
Britain and its Nato allies have been warned to beef up their defence spending after a 'black year' of aggression from Russia and Islamic terrorism. Nato Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said that the security environment for the Western allies had ...
Russia to get more missiles, NATO urges increase in spendingDeutsche Welle
Latest from IranPress TV
Heading for War with Russia? Ukraine is the Epicenter of a Possible European ...Center for Research on Globalization
The Daily Star
all 315 news articles »

Call for immediate ceasefire in eastern Ukraine as fighting intensifies 

1 Share
Ceasefire call comes after more than 20 civilians and 15 Ukrainian soldiers are killed in clashes with Russian-backed separatists
The head of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe has called for an immediate ceasefire in eastern Ukraine following a rapid deterioration of the situation in the past 24 hours.
Ivica Dačić, who is also Serbia’s foreign minister, said on Saturday that many civilians had been killed and more had been injured.
A rocket from a BM-30 Smerch luckily didn't explode when it hit this apartment in eastern #Ukraine.pic.twitter.com/ZjA020838z
Continue reading...

Sergio Mattarella: enemy of the Mafia

1 Share
Academic’s life radically changed direction when the Mafia assassinated his brother

Report: CIA, Israel's Mossad Killed Senior Hezbollah Commander 

1 Share
A leading U.S. newspaper says the spy agencies of the United States and Israel worked together in February, 2008 to kill a senior Hezbollah commander in Damascus. A report in The Washington Post, citing unidentified former intelligence officials, said the Central Intelligence Agency and Mossad collaborated their efforts in tracking down and killing Imad Mughniyah, Hezbollah's international operations chief. The story, posted on the newspaper's website late Friday, said Mughniyah was killed instantly by a bomb blast as he approached his car.  The report said the bomb was planted on the car's back tire.    The report said the blast was "triggered remotely" from Tel Aviv by Mossad agents who were in communication with CIA spotters tracking Mughniyah's movements. A former U.S. intelligence official said "the way it was set up, the U.S. could object and call it off, but it could not execute."   The Washington Post said "the extraordinarily close cooperation" between the U.S. and Israeli intelligence services was indicative of "the importance of the target" who was suspected of being the mastermind behind the abduction of Western hostages in Lebanon in the 1980s and the 1992 bombing of the Israeli embassy in Argentina that killed 20 people. The newspaper said, at the time of Mughniyah's death, he had been implicated in a string of killings of hundreds of Americans, including eight CIA officers.   A former intelligence official said getting permission to kill Mughniyah was a"rigorous and tedious" process that required showing that the commander was "a continuing threat to Americans."   The authority to kill Mughniyah, The Post said, in a country where the U.S. was not at war, required the signatures of then-President George W. Bush, the attorney general, the director of national intelligence, the national security adviser and the Office of Legal Counsel at the Justice Department. The newspaper said the U.S. has never acknowledged its participation in the killing of Mughniyah, which Hezbollah blamed on Israel. The Washington Post said the operation in Damascus indicated a "philosophical evolution" in the American intelligence services following the September 11, 2001 terrorists attacks in the United States.  The newspaper said before the attacks, the U.S. held a "dim view" of Israeli assassination operations.

Read the whole story
 
· ·
Next Page of Stories
Loading...
Page 9

Huge library containing historic texts and 14 million books goes up in flames Moscow

1 Share
A library containing over 14 million books, historic texts and other important documents has gone up in flames in the Russian capital of Moscow.

Two Dead In Afghan Charlie Hebdo Protest

1 Share
Two people were reportedly killed and three injured in Kabul on January 31 during a protest against the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo for publishing a caricature of the Prophet Muhammad.

Putin’s War in Ukraine Opening the Way to Fascism, Shlosberg Says 

1 Share

Paul Goble

 

            Staunton, January 31 – The war Vladimir Putin is conducting in Ukraine is leading not just to the economic destruction of Russia but to its moral destruction as well, and that in turn is opening the way for the rise of fascism, Lev Slosberg says. In fact, he argues, Russia today is becoming “ideally ready” for that horrific system.

 

            In an article in the current issue of “Pskovskaya Guberniya,” Slosberg, who represents the Yabloko Party in the regional legislature, argues that the course of war “chosen in essence by one man” is costing everyone enormously and that “many have already paid with their lives” (gubernia.pskovregion.org/number_725/01.php).

 

            Despite these costs, the deputy continues, “Putin has chosen for himself and his country ‘precisely this path of ‘consolidation of Russian society,” one based on the notion that “’the besieged fortress of Russia’ is ready to fight with the entire rest of the world. War for it is life; peace for it is death.”

 

          The longer this war goes on, the more serious its consequences will be, he continues. “One year of war has been sufficient for the destruction of the economic successes of the past ten years,” has already “thrown Russia back two decades,” and is continuing to do so.

 

          “Russia has neither the forces nor the means to continue this war for another year,” Slosberg says, but “everything is being thrown into this pyre of war.”  And Putin is not stopping because he believes he can gain strength by using military force to suppress Ukraine.

 

          But what the Kremlin leader is doing has nothing to do with seizing land. It is all about taking revenge against Ukraine for everything its people have decided on – “for the European choice of the majority of society” and for the ouster of the Kremlin’s man on the scene, Viktor Yanukovich.

 

          And for Putin, taking that revenge on Ukraine is absolutely necessary now before a generation arises in Russia which will make the same choices and thus put an end to his own rule, Slosberg says. To prevent that from happening, he continues, Putin will pay “any price” in Ukraine.

 

          He will do so, the Pskov deputy says, because he is “certain that Russian society supports him in his desire to take revenge on Ukraine. He is certain that his people are ready to pay any price, including with their lives, for his policy,” a conviction that arises from his having raised in Russia “a people of war.”

 

          Putin believes as well that if he wins militarily, no one will judge him. Only losers are judged in his understanding. And tragically, he has managed to convince many Russians who today are the people of war to share that view. “The people of war greets the president of war.”

 

          As horrific as the economic consequences of Putin’s war have been, the moral consequences of this kind are still worse: “since the end of the USSR, Russian society was never in such a horrific moral state as it is now. Russia today is a country ideally ready for fascism.”

 

          Fascism, Slosberg continues, “is when millions of people are happy as a result of hatred, when antagonism shapes the attitudes of the people and when those who think differently become state criminals.”

 

          “Fascism is when the state raises a people of war,” when there is a ministry of propaganda which is what “in essence the entire Russian state power” has become, and when people become convinced that they must never question the leader’s policies or his wars, when as now “the people of war” predominate “over the people of peace.”

 

          Most Russians think that the Nuremberg trials were only about the military crimes of the Nazi regime, “but in the framework of [that process] was studied how the fascist state was created and how an entire people” at the center of Europe fell under its spell.

 

          At Nuremberg, it was shown that “even a great people of science and culture does not have immunity against fascism. Fascism burned up public morality in Germany with the speed of fire,” and the result was horrific. Its “centuries’ old culture did not save it from fascism.”

 

          “The people of war do not need culture” because “the fuel in this conflagration became the lie, the all-embracing state lie,” with the burning of books symbolizing that reality.

 

          Putin has raised up a people of war because in reality “it is very easy to become a people of war. One need only hate more than love, wish one’s neighbor not good things but destruction, think that the greatness of the Motherland requires the denigration of other peoples, and be gladded by participation in their denigration.”

 

          “A people of war is capable of destroying its own Motherland because hatred and lies destroy any state and any society,” Slosberg says, and “the Russian state is rapidly moving toward its own Nuremberg process, through war,” a movement that is “taking place each day and each hour.”

 

          “It is very difficult to stop,” he continues, as difficult as stopping a train coming out of the mountains out of control. And at present “there are very few people in Russia who are trying to stop this insanity.”  Is there any chance that they will be able to do so?

 

          “This is the question for the people of peace,” who in Russia today are far less numerous than “the people of war.”  But they should take courage from the following fact: “a soldier at war always listens to the voice of peace because he wants to live.” Because that is so, “it is wrong to be silent.”

 
Read the whole story
 
· · · · · ·

Will Cuba Follow the Southeast Asia Model?

1 Share
The recent U.S. decision to restore diplomatic ties between the United States and Cuba after more than 50 years has interested parties debating whether it will lead to an enhancement or regression of democracy on the Communist island nation. A mix of politicians and analysts in the U.S., some South Florida exiles and key members of Cuba’s dissident community have all pointed to China and Southeast Asia as an area where democracy has retracted in the face of détente with America. “We’ve seen what happens in these transitions, [looking at] China, Vietnam and Burma, these are corrupt Communist dictatorships that are highly repressive. In fact they’ve gone backwards,” Mike Gonzalez of the Heritage Foundation told VOA's Encounter. “China initiated a reform process 30 years ago,” he said. “It has perfected the model for economic opening while keeping the Communist party in power.” That skepticism is shared by Republican Party leaders and a number of lawmakers of Cuban descent, including Senator Marco Rubio, who earlier this month downplayed the idea that increased trade would lead to political openness in Cuba. But those who support the diplomatic embrace reject this argument. “Cuba rests in a very different part of the world than China or Vietnam. We’re in a democratic hemisphere, and Cuba is next door to one of the largest, most successful, powerful democracies in the world – the United States,” said the Brookings Institution’s Ted Piccone. “This policy change will allow other regional neighbors to join us in supporting democratic change in Cuba,” he said. “That’s the hemispheric standard.” A national Pew Research poll, conducted January 7-11, showed that while 63 percent of Americans approved of U.S. President Barack Obama’s decision last month to re-establish ties, only about one-third thought a thaw in relations would lead to greater democracy in Cuba. In fact, detractors worry that while the U.S. is prepared to compromise in the name of diplomacy, the Cuban government is cynically seeking a new benefactor it will not hesitate to eventually discard. “The Castros want U.S. money to maintain power. I believe the minute [traditional allies] Russia and Venezuela can help Cuba again, they will turn their backs on the United States,” said Jorge Lima of the Libre Initiative, a conservative group based in Washington. “President Obama has said many things regarding new relations with Cuba, and many changes have been made, [but] the Castros have made no changes, the people still have no liberty,” Lima told VOA's Foro Interamericano. Still, given the reality of U.S. politics, some developments will come faster than others, experts say. A bipartisan group of U.S. senators introduced a bill Thursday to permanently lift all restrictions on American travel to Cuba. But ending Washington’s 54-year-old trade embargo against Cuba is not likely to happen in a Republican-controlled U.S. Congress. “It will be a gradual process,” said Carl Meacham of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “Isolation is exactly what dictators want. In the long run, this change will create a desire among the Cuban people for commerce, technology and liberty.” In fact, the embargo not only isolated the U.S. from the Cuban people, but from other Latin American neighbors as well, according to Piccone. “What we’ve tried over the last 50 years is very punitive [and] the Castro regime has it used against us. The whole world has condemned this embargo,” he said. But the few dissidents in Cuba brave enough to speak out are unified in saying they feel betrayed by President Obama, according to Gonzalez. “It’s not just Cuban-Americans and members of Congress who are against this quite shameful decision,” he said.

Read the whole story
 
· · ·

The real-life spy gadgets that rival the movies

1 Share
As Matthew Vaughn's Kingsman hits cinemas, we take a look at the intriguing world of real-life spy gadgets








Read the whole story
 
· ·

Италию возглавил судья из Палермо - Вести.Ru

1 Share

Италию возглавил судья из Палермо
Вести.Ru
Двенадцатым президентом Италии стал 73-летний судья Конституционного суда из Палермо Серджио Маттарелла. Его избрали на семилетний срок на заседании парламента. Серджио Маттарелла начал активную политическую карьеру в 1980-х годах в рядах партии Христианских ...

и другие »
Next Page of Stories
Loading...
Page 10

Глава РАН: пожар уничтожил 15% фондов библиотеки ИНИОН - BBC Russian

1 Share

РИА Новости

Глава РАН: пожар уничтожил 15% фондов библиотеки ИНИОН
BBC Russian
Ущерб от пожара в московской библиотеке Института научной информации по общественным наукам (ИНИОН) составил 15% от всего фонда, сообщил президент РАН Владимир Фортов. "Предварительно мы можем оценивать ущерб от пожара в 15% от всего фонда. Всего хранилось ...
Фортов: РАН оценивает ущерб от пожара в ИНИОН в 15% от всего фондаРИА Новости
Пожар в здании Фундаментальной библиотеки РАН будут тушить до утраРадиостанция ЭХО МОСКВЫ
Причиной пожара в библиотеке ИНИОН могло стать короткое замыканиеРБК
Московский комсомолец -Lenta.ru -Аргументы и факты
Все похожие статьи: 428 »

Officials From Ukraine, Russia, OSCE, And Rebels Arrive In Minsk

1 Share
Representatives from Ukraine, Russia, the OSCE, and pro-Russian separatists gathered in Minsk on January 31 in a fresh attempt to reopen talks on the Ukraine conflict.

Kim Philby ‘tipped off USSR’ as FBI closed in on nuclear physicist 

1 Share
New book reveals role of British double agent in Bruno Pontecorvo’s defection to Moscow
More than 60 years ago, a prominent nuclear physicist in Britain, Canada and America shocked the world by defecting to the USSR. Disappearing without trace, Bruno Pontecorvo cited ideological reasons when he eventually resurfaced five years later in Moscow, but precisely what precipitated his abrupt defection – during a family holiday in Italy – has always been unexplained.
Now a new book claims to have the answer: Kim Philby, the infamous double agent, discovered that the FBI was on Pontecorvo’s trail, suspecting him of involvement in communist activities. Philby tipped off the Russians, who in turn warned the scientist.
Continue reading...

Von Weizsaecker, German President Who Challenged Holocaust Attitudes, Dies at 94

1 Share
Richard von Weizsaecker, the German president who challenged German attitudes about the Holocaust by arguing that the country had been liberated by the 1945 Nazi defeat, died Saturday, the current president's office said. He was 94. A member of one of Germany's most distinguished aristocratic families, von Weizsaecker also presided over the reunification of East and West Germany in 1990, 11 months after the fall of the Berlin Wall. He was most remembered for a landmark speech in May 1985 marking the 40th anniversary of the end of World War Two in which he urged Germans to come to terms with responsibility for the Holocaust. He stirred some controversy at home by saying Germany had been liberated by the Third Reich's downfall. "All of us -- whether guilty or not, whether young or old -- must accept the past. We are all affected by its consequences and liable for it. Anyone who closes his eyes to the past is blind to the present. The 8th of May was a day of liberation. It freed us all from the system of National Socialist tyranny," he said. Von Weizsaecker, a conservative Christian Democrat who had served as a Wehrmacht officer during the war, became West Germany's president in 1984 and left office a decade later. More than any predecessor, he used the largely ceremonial post to serve as the "conscience of Germany" and spoke out often about the country's special responsibility after the war. A tall, lean man, von Weizsaecker had a patrician air that contrasted with the burly and more earthy Helmut Kohl, the then-Christian Democratic leader who was chancellor, or head of government, throughout his presidency. After a career in law and business, he entered politics in 1969 and in 1981 became mayor of West Berlin. His statesmanlike speeches helped raise West Germany's standing in the eyes of the wartime allied powers, easing concerns about unification later. He drew criticism for having served in Hitler's army, where he was promoted several times and in 1944 awarded the Iron Cross. The young lawyer also defended his father Ernst, who served in the Nazi foreign ministry from 1938 to 1943 and was a member of the SS, at the Nuremberg trials in 1948-49. Defending himself, von Weizsaecker said: "Guilt, like innocence, is always a matter for the individual." As an officer, he said, he had acted according to his principles, and refused to instruct his troops to carry out orders which came from top Nazis if he found them "inhumane". No cause of death was given. No information on survivors was immediately available.

Read the whole story
 
· ·

Проект договора РФ и Южной Осетии включает вопросы внешней политики - РИА Новости

1 Share

РИА Новости

Проект договора РФ и Южной Осетии включает вопросы внешней политики
РИА Новости
Проект договора о союзничестве и интеграции между РФ и Южной Осетией, который должен пройти официальное согласование в органах исполнительной власти обеих стран, предполагает проведение внешней политики с учетом взаимных интересов в различных сферах ...
Россия и Южная Осетия создадут единое пространство обороныГазета.Ru
РФ и Южная Осетия могут создать единое пространство обороныМосковский комсомолец
Тибилов надеется на подписание нового договора с Россией в февралеMail.Ru
Радиостанция ЭХО МОСКВЫ -Panorama.am -Независимое интернет-издание "ДНИ"
Все похожие статьи: 59 »

Angela Merkel rules out Greece debt cuts as Syriza refuses to cooperate with troika

1 Share
The German chancellor Angela Merkel has ruled out debt cuts for Greece, saying Athens had a

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

New questions arise about House Democratic caucus’s loyalty to Obama | » Democrats Stymie Obama on Trade 12/06/15 22:13 from WSJ.com: World News - World News Review

Немецкий историк: Запад был наивен, надеясь, что Россия станет партнёром - Военное обозрение

8:45 AM 11/9/2017 - Putin Is Hoping He And Trump Can Patch Things Up At Meeting In Vietnam

Review: ‘The Great War of Our Time’ by Michael Morell with Bill Harlow | FBI File Shows Whitney Houston Blackmailed Over Lesbian Affair | Schiff, King call on Obama to be aggressive in cyberwar, after purported China hacking | The Iraqi Army No Longer Exists | Hacking Linked to China Exposes Millions of U.S. Workers | Was China Behind the Latest Hack Attack? I Don’t Think So - U.S. National Security and Military News Review - Cyberwarfare, Cybercrimes and Cybersecurity - News Review

10:37 AM 11/2/2017 - RECENT POSTS: Russian propagandists sought to influence LGBT voters with a "Buff Bernie" ad

3:49 AM 11/7/2017 - Recent Posts

» Suddenly, Russia Is Confident No Longer - NPR 20/12/14 11:55 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks | Russia invites North Korean leader to Moscow for May visit - Reuters | Belarus Refuses to Trade With Russia in Roubles - Newsweek | F.B.I. Evidence Is Often Mishandled, an Internal Inquiry Finds - NYT | Ukraine crisis: Russia defies fresh Western sanctions - BBC News | Website Critical Of Uzbek Government Ceases Operation | North Korea calls for joint inquiry into Sony Pictures hacking case | Turkey's Erdogan 'closely following' legal case against rival cleric | Dozens arrested in Milwaukee police violence protest