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The European parliament has named the return of the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014, to Ukraine as one of the necessary conditions for lifting sanctions against the country, according to a resolution published on the parliament's website.
“The restoration of Ukrainian control over the peninsula is one of the prerequisites for re-establishing cooperative relations with the Russian Federation, including the suspension of related sanctions,” the resolution passed by the EU parliament on Thursday said.
Previously, EU leaders said that the lifting of sanctions depended only on the complete fulfillment of the Minsk agreements, aimed at eliminating conflict in eastern Ukraine, the RBC news website reported.
EU deputies condemn the illegal annexation of Crimea by Russia and will continue the policy of non-recognition of Russia's occupation [of Crimea], the resolution stated.
The document also said that an “unprecedented level” of human rights violations had been perpetrated against Crimean residents, especially against Crimean Tatars.
The resolution was supported by 472 EU deputies, while 79 deputies voted against it, according to RBC.

The world is a far more dangerous place today than when Obama took office. Global terrorism is rising dramatically. The Middle East is a cauldron of war and instability. Instead of “ending,” the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan persist—and in the case of Iraq, under far worse conditions than Obama inherited in 2009. We face a terrorist threat arguably as bad, if not worse, than Al Qaeda was at its height: ISIS is more vicious, controls territory and even has a government, which, as far as safe havens for terrorists go, poses a more dangerous threat than in 2008. Russia and China are more powerful and threatening than they were in 2008. Our friends and allies are confused and afraid. And our enemies are significantly emboldened.
Назначение начальника ГРУ (как, впрочем, и СВР) всегда событие знаковое... 
В современном ГРУ стратегическая разведка структурно разбита между территориальными управлениями и специальным Управлением стратегических доктрин и вооружений. Учитывая специфику ГРУ, при обработке стратегических данных больше внимания там уделяется именно военным аспектам, а не политике. Но в современном мире значительно выросла роль теоретических построений, в первую очередь, при стратегическом военном планировании. Армии теперь развиваются не линейно, просто увеличиваясь количественно и совершенствуя свое вооружение, а согласно теоретически выстроенным стратегиям. В результате неожиданное развитие могут получить такие виды вооружений, которым ранее не придавалось особого значения. Другой пример – возникновение военно-политического кризиса в ранее стабильном регионе. Для оценки такого рода угроз и требуется новый подход к сбору, а главное – к обработке и оценке оперативных данных, претендующих на «стратегичность». Отсутствием такого рода системы стратегического анализа страдал КГБ позднесоветского периода, и даже специально созданное там управление с генералом Леоновым ситуации не изменило, а только усугубило проблему, поскольку Леонов и компания чересчур увлеклись конспирологией.
Сейчас потребность в стратегической оценке информации велика как никогда в истории РФ. Выбор генерала Коробова на должность начальника ГРУ мог быть предопределен именно таким раскладом и сопутствующими расчетами в руководстве страны и армии. А это, в свою очередь, формирует новый вектор развития военной разведки, в том числе в плане внутренних реформ и подбора кадров. 
The current UN sponsored peace talks have been delayed until February 25 th largely because Russia has been lying about why it is really in Syria and that lie is both obvious and a major factor in preventing the peace talks from starting. The problem is that Russia is concentrating most of its considerable firepower on rebel groups that are hurting the Syrian Assad government forces the most. By American count only about ten percent of Russian air strikes have been against ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) and those targets were usually hit to protect Assad forces.

Bassma Kodmani (a member of the Syrian opposition's negotiating team): 

"In the last two months, Moscow was saying that they were looking for a ceasefire and a political process. We don't agree with Russia on the nature of the political process, but we were clear that there must be a political process coupled with a ceasefire, then we would come to the negotiating table. So, it would have been possible to start negotiating, but instead, we saw the air raids. So now, we see that the words we heard from Russia are in total contradiction to its behavior on the ground!"

It is not hard to see why Putin endorsed Trump before the voting started. Although Putin's sense of U.S. politics is somewhat uninformed, this time around he knew exactly what he was doing — trolling the U.S. political establishment. Trump's campaign message has been that American elites are morons and losers and that a strong leader like him is needed to clinch advantageous deals for the United States — particularly when negotiating with strong leaders like Vladimir Putin. A Trump presidency would shatter the U.S. political system and leave the country distracted and weak — hence Trump's appeal to the Kremlin.
Trump's boast that he had met Putin once in New York and felt that he could build a strong and close relationship with Russia — cited by Putin as sufficient reason for endorsing him — was not based on anything in particular. Trump has neither a foreign policy platform nor foreign policy advisors, and his understanding of Russia is primitive. But his unmistakably Berlusconi style of leadership, his age and his aura of unrestrained masculinity is something that Putin finds appealing in other foreign leaders — George W. Bush, for example. Putin is known for his highly personalized foreign policy style, which sometimes hurts state relations, as U.S. President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have learned. 


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