Economist: Greek minister resignation 'extremely strong signal'by AFP Monday July 6th, 2015 at 2:23 PM
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The resignation of the Greek finance minister after Sunday's referendum is an 'extremely strong signal' sent by Athens to its European partners, according a French economist.
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Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias arrived in Israel for a three-day visit on Sunday, as his country voted in a referendum that could decide the country's financial future.
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Gay couple gets marriage license hours after suing Texas clerk who cited religious opposition
LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - About 800 million people still live in dire poverty and suffer from hunger despite the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) being the most successful anti-poverty push in history, the U.N. said on Monday.
Ten years ago, the 7/7 bombings in London were a wakeup call for the security services about Islamic militancy in the UK. By the death of Bin Laden in 2011, the threat seemed to have subsided. But with the rise of Isis, and the hundreds of Britons now fighting in Iraq and Syria, we are in uncharted territory.
Back in the mid-90s, it was not very difficult to find Islamic militants in London. You would make a few calls, there would be a pause while a given group’s leaders were consulted in Algeria or Egypt or Pakistan or wherever. Then, over tea or coffee, or dates and lemonade, in a two-up two-down in Barking, a council flat in Croydon or a hotel coffee shop in the West End, you would sit down to hear a long list of grievances against the authorities in a particular Middle Eastern country, some against the US and none against the UK.
This absence of animosity towards Britain was partly due to these militants’ desire not to jeopardise the tolerance of the authorities for their presence and activism, but also, simply, because the UK was not a target.
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Montenegro is pressing ahead with its push for membership in NATO, confronting the Western alliance with its first decision on expansion since the eruption of the Ukraine crisis worsened relations with Russia.
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Professional wrestler El Hijo del Fantasma (Spanish for Son of the Ghost) chose the wrestling ring over the political arena but that doesn't mean he hasn't got scores to settle
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US Coast Guard chief: We are 'not even in the same league as Russia' in the Arctic
Business Insider putin arctic REUTERS/ITAR-TASSRussian President Putin and Defence Minister Ivanov share a joke while visiting military exercises in the Russia's Arctic North on board nuclear missile cruiser Pyotr Veliky. Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) listens to ... and more » |
Putin's Fortress Mentality Infects Russian Law (Op-Ed)by By Alexander Golts
Whatever the Kremlin finds most advantageous at any given moment is what the authorities declare as law, writes columnist Alexander Golts.
«Эхо Москвы» в Вашингтоне by golosamerikius
Алексей Венедиктов о том, сколько зенитно-ракетных комплексов «Бук» стоит одна телепередача
Originally published at - http://www.golos-ameriki.ru/media/video/venediktov-interview-voa-russian/2850731.html
Staunton, July 2 – Moscow in March 2015 confirmed the statute for military police in the Russian armed forces as part of an effort to fight dedovshchina and modernize the military, but three months later, the creation of this critical network has been blocked, the victim of infighting among various agencies, according to an article in the latest issue of Sovershenno Sekretno.
A few MPs in special uniforms appeared at an international conference this spring, at the Victory Day parade, and in Crimea protecting the defense minister, Aleksandr Kruglov says. But as of now, “this is practically an exhaustive list of the achievements of the military police” in Russia today.
MPs exist in more than 40 armies of the world and play an important role in many of them, but Russia has been unable to launch such a system even though proposals to do so have appeared more or less regularly since 1989. In the last decade, the defense ministry has even announced that the MP system has been created only to have to backtrack when it became obvious that this had not happened.
Until 2011, there wasn’t a legal basis for such a structure in the Russian armed forces, and after one was put in place, the general staff wanted to name as the commander of the new unit a general, Sergey Surovikin, with a checkered past in which he was frequently accused of crimes only to be let off after the intervention of those higher-up, including in at least one instance, Boris Yeltsin.
He and others wanted the job because initially the MP system was to be a high-prestige operation, with additional salaries and benefits and with commanders stationed not at some distant base but in the major cities where the military districts and fleets have their headquarters. And its commander would oversee a force of 20,000 men.
“Initially,” Kruglov writes, “the military police was planned as a powerful law enforcement and control structure which would not be limited to the maintenance of order in military facilities” but would provide guards for the minister and have enormous authority to investigate criminal activities. In war time, the MPs would even have the right to conduct independent military activities.
But precisely because the new structure would be so large, cost so much, and take powers from others, it was immediately opposed both by the FSB and by the military procuracy who considered the MP system as a threat to them. Their leaders also feared that the MPs would survive any military cutbacks to which they, on the other hand, would be subject.
Those two agencies succeeded in getting the MP statute rewritten, the powers of the MPs reduced to the point of almost meaninglessness, and the number of MPs planned cut back to 6500, less than a third of what had been proposed, written in Kruglov documents in extraordinary and telling detail.
Three other factors played a role as well, the Sovershenno sekretno journalist says. First, rights activists pointed out that the MP plan not only duplicated existing functions but might allow some officers involved in criminal activities to escape punishment by controlling the investigation.
Second, because no one had yet been appointed to command the MP system, there was no powerful voice even within the defense ministry which could speak out on its behalf. And third, the replacement of Serdyukov with Sergey Shoygu meant that the new minister was pleased to dispense with the problems the earlier MP plans had created.
The only place where the MPs seemed to be on track to have real authority was that everyone appeared to agree that they should run punishment cells and disciplinary battalions. That could reduce the amount of dedovshchina within those facilities, but it could also lead to even worse treatment of soldiers if the MPs concluded they could act with impunity.
Even for that function, the MPs will be spread thin once the system takes off. “In many armies of the world, from two to five percent of the total number of military personnel serve as MPs,” Kruglov says. In Russia, that would mean between 20,000 and 50,000 men, vastly more than anyone plans for now. Consequently, their role is largely going to be “a fiction.”
What is especially disturbing, the Sovershenno Sekretno journalist says, is that the MP forces are not attracting the most ambitious who will seek to do a good job and be promoted, but by officers close to retirement who see this force as “a safe haven” where they can spend their days until leaving service.
According to experts with whom Kruglov talked, Russia’s effort to form a modern MP force has so far failed, something that was predictable because it followed “a bureaucratic and thus in essence imitative path of development” rather than being genuinely concerned about improving the country’s defense capabilities.
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In Berlin, the belief is hardening that no deal can be reached with a government led by Tsipras
Yesterday’s live coverage of the Ukraine conflict can be found here. An archive of our liveblogs can be found here. For an overview and analysis of this developing story see our latest podcast.
Please help The Interpreter to continue providing this valuable information service by making a donation towards our costs.
For links to individual updates click on the timestamps.
For the latest summary of evidence surrounding the shooting down of flight MH17 see our separate article: Evidence Review: Who Shot Down MH17?
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Russia Update: July 6, 2015 by Liveblog Team
Opposition journalist Vladimir Kara-Murza, Jr. was discharged from the hospital yesterday, July 5 and flew abroad with his wife for further rehabilitation
Welcome to our column, Russia Update, where we will be closely following day-to-day developments in Russia, including the Russian government’s foreign and domestic policies.
The previous issue is here.
Special features:
- ‘I Was on Active Duty’: Interview with Captured GRU Officer Aleksandrov
- Meet The Russian Fighters Building A Base Between Mariupol And Donetsk
- ‘There Was No Buk in Our Field’
- With Cash and Conspiracy Theories, Russian Orthodox Philanthropist Malofeyev is Useful to the Kremlin
- Meet The Russian Fighters Building A Base Between Mariupol And Donetsk
- ‘There Was No Buk in Our Field’
- With Cash and Conspiracy Theories, Russian Orthodox Philanthropist Malofeyev is Useful to the Kremlin
Russia This Week:
- Is ‘Novorossiya’ Really Dead?
- From Medal of Valor to Ubiquitous Propaganda Symbol: the History of the St. George Ribbon
- What Happened to the Slow-Moving Coup?
- Can We Be Satisfied with the Theory That Kadyrov Killed Nemtsov?
- All the Strange Things Going On in Moscow
- From Medal of Valor to Ubiquitous Propaganda Symbol: the History of the St. George Ribbon
- What Happened to the Slow-Moving Coup?
- Can We Be Satisfied with the Theory That Kadyrov Killed Nemtsov?
- All the Strange Things Going On in Moscow
Please help The Interpreter to continue providing this valuable information service by making a donation toward our costs.
UPDATES BELOW
Yesterday’s live coverage of the Ukraine conflict can be found here. An archive of our liveblogs can be found here. For an overview and analysis of this developing story see our latest podcast.
Please help The Interpreter to continue providing this valuable information service by making a donation towards our costs.
For links to individual updates click on the timestamps.
For the latest summary of evidence surrounding the shooting down of flight MH17 see our separate article: Evidence Review: Who Shot Down MH17?
Read the whole story
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As the readers of this blog know perfectly well, the Kremlin is actively cooperating — sometimes financially — with European far right parties. However, Moscow may also be engaged in even more sinister activities, namely whipping up racial hatred in the West in order to discredit democratic societies that have taken a strong position on sanctions against Russia for its war on Ukraine.
While it cannot be conclusively proven yet, the “anti-Jewification” demonstration that took place in London on July 4th might be an example of such activities. At least, there are sound reasons to suspect exactly this.
The demonstration was organized by the neo-Nazi Eddy Stampton who is notorious for drunken violence towards women, and was attended, among others, by his neo-Nazi mate Piers Mellor; the head of the far right IONA London Forum Jeremy “Jez” Bedford-Turner; and Britain-based activists of the Polish fascist National Revival of Poland (Narodowe Odrodzenie Polski).
The anti-semitic demo in London was not the first time that Stampton, Mellor, Bedford-Turner and the Polish fascists came together. On November 29, 2014, they organized a demo in support of the Greek neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party by the Embassy of Greece in London.
Most prominent participants of the London anti-Semitic demo last Saturday are not simply fascists: all of them are in one way or another connected to the Russians.
Bedford-Turner leads the self-styled “New Right” IONA London Forum that hosted, on 12 October 2013, a conference titled “The End of the Present World: the Post-American Century and Beyond”. The main speaker at this conference was infamous Russian fascist Aleksandr Dugin, who is building links between Western far right/far left organizations and Moscow, and who was also involved, in 2006, in training of the activists from the pro-Russian extremist organization “Donetsk People’s Republic.” Bedford-Turner also invited Russian neo-Nazi activist Denis Nikitin to speak at one of theForum’s meetings in August 2014.
This was not the only connection between Nikitin and the British extreme right: Nikitin, who also directs the Russian White Rex company engaged in organizing mixed martial arts tournaments in Russia and Europe, was a key person who provided fitness sessions to British neo-Nazis at a training camp in Wales. Are the Russians involved in training of would-be right-wing British terrorists?
Another participant of the anti-Semitic demo, Australian London-based neo-Nazi Piers Mellor, also participated in the Moscow-inspired anti-Ukrainian protest in March 2015.
Together with Mellor, protesting against non-existing UK arms supplies to Ukraine, was Graham Phillips, a British RT propagandist employed by the Russian Defense Ministry’s TV Zvezda and strong supporter of pro-Russian extremists in Eastern Ukraine, including the Donetsk People’s Republic, where he spent most of 2014.
Upon his return to London, Phillips immediately joined the UK Independence Party (UKIP) whose leaders, including Nigel Farage and Diane James, have openly expressed admiration of Russia’s president Vladimir Putin. UKIP MEPs are also active opponents of the sanctions against Russia.
RT, Russia’s major tool of its information warfare against the West, has immediately reported on the neo-Nazi gathering in London, but of course without mentioning any connections between the participants of the demo and the Russians.
Why would the Kremlin be interested in whipping up racial hatred in Britain? The fact is that when the Russians find it difficult to buy political influence in a particular Western country, they try to discredit it as a hotbed of fascism. The classic example is the KGB’s psy-op in Western countries at the end of the 1950s.
The KGB and its counterparts in the countries of the Warsaw Pact infiltrated neo-Nazi organizations in West Germany and some other Western countries, in order to goad them into extremist activities and then accuse Western societies of the alleged resurgence of Nazism. The most prominent case is the “swastika operation” devised by Soviet KGB General Ivan Agayants and carried out in 1959-1960 in Western cities and towns. During that period, KGB agents painted swastikas and anti-Semitic slogans on synagogues, tombstones and Jewish-owned shops in West Germany. Jewish families received anonymous hate mail and threatening phone calls. The initial KGB operation would stir up residual anti-Semitic sentiments in Western societies and, consequently, produce a snowball effect where troublemakers would carry out anti-Semitic activities on their own. The “swastika operation” in West Germany caused considerable damage to the reputation of the country in the West: its diplomats were ostracized, West German products boycotted, Bonn assailed for the alleged inability to deal with Nazism, and questions were raised about the credibility of the country as a member of NATO.
The established connections between the organizers/participants of the anti-semitic demonstration in London and the Russian actors (as well as other evidence) provide a good reason to suspect that Moscow is now involved in similar psy-ops in Britain.
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NATO is preparing for a long standoff with Russia, reluctantly accepting that the Ukraine conflict has fundamentally transformed Europe’s security landscape and that it may have to abandon hope of a constructive relationship with Moscow.
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Russian investigators have rejected a request by jailed Ukrainian pilot Nadia Savchenko to be tried by a jury and for the proceedings to be moved to Moscow instead of Voronezh, the city where she is being held.
DAR ES SALAAM (Reuters) - A Tanzanian court sentenced two former ministers to three years in jail on Monday over corruption charges related to the award of a gold audit tender, according to court documents.
It's been stressed that "Batman v Superman" is a sequel to "Man of Steel," but all the hype has certainly been around the return of Batman to the big screen.
President Barack Obama will get a rare briefing at the Pentagon Monday about the military’s efforts against Islamic State as the administration faces persistent criticism that his strategy is too cautious.
RIYADH (Reuters) - The man visible on the block's control room monitor, pacing his small cell in uniform grey robe, is one of a rising number of security prisoners in Saudi Arabia, where the wars in Syria and Iraq have led to a surge in domestic jihadist activity.
ATHENS — When voters in Greece did the previously unthinkable and defied Europe’s political titans by spurning their bailout proposal, some of the loudest rejoicing came from well beyond the country’s borders.Read full article >>
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British army appoints first female generalby Richard Norton-Taylor
Susan Ridge to be promoted to rank of major general in September when she becomes director general army legal services
The British army has appointed its first female general. Susan Ridge will be promoted to the rank of major general in September when she will become the army’s top legal adviser.
Ridge, 52, will be the new director general army legal services (DGALS), responsible for advising commanding officers on discipline and complaints. The role has taken on added significance in light of court rulings enforcing human rights legislation in the armed forces, and a growing number of complaints about the conduct of service personnel, including sexism.
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VIENNA (Reuters) - Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards have done very well out of international sanctions -- and if a nuclear deal is done in Vienna this week under which those sanctions are lifted, they are likely to do better still.
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Umm Sayyaf was detained by American special forces during a raid in the ISIS-held city of Deir Ezzor in May during which her husband Abu Sayaff was killed and his laptops and phones seized.
Foreign exchange manager Jenus Fiouzi, 43, claims key decisions at Commerzbank AG's London office were made during all male drinking sessions to which she wasn't invited.
The lid has been temporarily lifted on the preserved TWA Terminal at JFK, with fascinating images flying guests back to the golden age of travel in 1962.
Jordan Begley, 23, died partly as result of being shot with Taser and restrained by police officers, inquest concludes
A factory worker as died partly as a result of being shot with a Taser and restrained by police officers, an inquest jury has concluded.
Jordan Begley, 23, was shot with the 50,000-volt stun gun and hit with “distraction strikes” while being restrained and handcuffed by three armed officers from Greater Manchester police (GMP). He died in hospital around two hours later, at 10pm on 10 July 2013.
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The Walter Reed National Military Medical Center is sheltered in place.
Officers check on report of shot fired at Walter Reed military hospital; campus on lockdown
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