The EU suggests it will only lift sanctions on Russia when the Minsk peace agreement is fully implemented | Suicide Bombers Kill Dozens at Yemen Mosques
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The EU suggests it will only lift sanctions on Russia when the Minsk peace agreement is fully implemented
Russian Cutoff From Banking Backbone Said to Be Ruled Out
Bloomberg Dmitry Medvedev, Russia's prime minister, said in January that his country's response to any Swift restrictions would be “without limits” in economic and other ways, without elaborating. Photographer: Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg ... and more » |
Kurdish residents of the northern Syrian city of Kobani are marking the New Year festival Nawroz. Celebrations were held along the border with Turkey, where many of Kobani's citizens fled when the city came under attack by Islamic State militants. Video by VOA Kurdish service reporter Mahmoud Bali.
 RT |
Ukraine sending new $15mn gas prepayment to Russia - Naftogaz
RT Naftogaz, Ukraine's state gas company, says it has sent another $15 million installment to Gazprom for March supplies, which follows the same prepayment made on March 17. Gazprom hasn't yet confirmed receipt of the payment, which Naftogaz says was ... Exclusive: Russia could postpone gas pipe to China touted by Putin -sourcesReuters all 91 news articles » |
 РБК |
Дэвид Кэмерон создал фонд борьбы с российским влиянием
РБК Премьер-министр Великобритании Дэвид Кэмерон возродил программу времен холодной войны по поддержке стран в борьбе с «угрозой российского доминирования». Объем фонда пока составляет £5 млн. Премьер-министр Великобритании Дэвид Кэмерон. Фото: Fotobank/Getty ... Кэмерон вернулся к холодной войнеДни.Ру Британия вкладывает миллионы фунтов в борьбу с растущим российским влиянием в Восточной ЕвропеNEWSru.com Кэмерон возродил фонд по защите Европы от "российского доминирования"Нефть России РБК Украина -Meduza -Утро.Ru Все похожие статьи: 89 » |
Mobius: Russia will get worse before it gets better
CNBC The current weakness in Russia is the big question hanging over emerging markets, fund manager Mark Mobius said on Friday. The executive chairman of Franklin Templeton Investments' emerging markets group said he expects further aggression in ... and more » |
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 РИА Новости |
В Верховной раде требуют уволить посла Украины в Белоруссии
РИА Новости Посол Украины в Белоруссии Михаил Ежель был назначен послом Украины в Белоруссии в апреле 2013 года, при украинском экс-президенте Викторе Януковиче он занимал пост министра обороны. Экс-министр обороны Украины Михаил Ежель. Архивное фото. © РИА Новости. В Раде требуют уволить посла Украины в БелоруссииМосковский комсомолец МИД Украины предложил Порошенко отправить в отставку посла в Беларуси ЕжеляСЕГОДНЯ МИД требует отзывать посла, который работал на АзароваУкраинское национальное информагентство Интерфах-Запад -ТВ Центр - Официальный сайт телеканала Все похожие статьи: 28 » |
Europeans (Carefully) Gaze Upward for Glimpse of Solar Eclipse by DAN BILEFSKY and MELISSA EDDY
Friday’s eclipse was also expected to provide a supermoon, the moment the moon orbits at its closest proximity to the earth.
 Reuters |
Russia's Putin calls for regional currency union
Reuters Kazakhstan, the second-largest post-Soviet oil producer and economy after Russia, has said the three nations should synchronize their monetary policies before considering adopting a single currency. Grigory Marchenko, a former head of Kazakhstan's ... Kazakh leader says Russia-led bloc tested by oil priceChannel News Asia all 98 news articles » |
Another Construction Boss Sacked at Russia's Mega Cosmodrome Over Corruption Scandalby The Moscow Times <moscowtimes@themoscowtimes.com>
The head of construction at Russia's 150 billion ruble ($2.5 billion) Vostochny Cosmodrome project been removed from his post amid corruption scandals and missed deadlines.
Kazakh Security Official: 150 Kazakh Citizens Fight Abroadby noreply@rferl.org (RFE/RL's Kazakh Service)
A Kazakh National Security Committee official says some 150 Kazakhs are fighting alongside militant groups abroad.
Many in the UK missed out on the eclipse, as a cold front brought a blanket of cloud that covered up the view. But for those who managed to sneak a picture through the holes in the clouds, the view was beautiful.
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The Daily Vertical is a video primer for Russia-watchers that appears Monday through Friday. Viewers can suggest topics via Twitter@PowerVertical or on the Power Vertical Facebook page.
US House Speaker Boehner to Visit Israelby webdesk@voanews.com (Reuters)
Republican John Boehner, speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and an ardent backer of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, will visit Israel at the end of this month, diplomatic sources said on Friday. The visit will follow Netanyahu's surprise election victory this week and his speech to Congress earlier this month at Boehner's invitation, an event that aggravated the White House and drew sharp criticism. The date of Boehner's visit with a congressional delegation has not been set but it will occur this month, diplomats said. Officials in the prime minister's office and at the U.S. embassy in Israel had no immediate comment. Boehner angered President Barack Obama and other Democrats by inviting Netanyahu to address Congress just two weeks before the Israeli election. Arrangements were made without informing the White House, and Netanyahu used the speech to criticize the Obama administration's efforts to strike a deal with Iran on its nuclear program. In his election campaign, Netanyahu further upset the White House by disavowing an earlier commitment to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He also said Israel's Arab minority was being mobilized by left-wing groups to vote against him, an accusation that drew charges of racism from opponents and which White House spokesman Josh Earnest called "divisive." Since his win, Netanyahu has backtracked on the rhetoric, saying on U.S. television on Thursday that he supported a two-state solution when the conditions were right. Obama made a congratulatory phone call to the prime minister on Thursday. But the White House has said it will "reassess" its options on U.S.-Israeli ties given Netanyahu's remarks on Palestinian statehood, indicating the heightened tensions between the leaders.
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Greek PM Assures EU Creditors Reforms Comingby webdesk@voanews.com (Reuters)
Greece said on Friday it was moving swiftly to meet creditors' demands for a detailed economic reform plan after Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras assured eurozone leaders his leftist-led coalition would speed up work to avert bankruptcy. After two months of mounting frustration on both sides since Tsipras was elected with a mandate to end years of austerity, he held three hours of late night talks to try to break an impasse that risks sending Athens stumbling of the eurozone. But while a joint statement by the EU institutions spoke of a "spirit of mutual trust" and Tsipras said he left feeling more optimistic, German Chancellor Angela Merkel stressed no money would be released before Athens implements budget measures and other reforms that it has so far been reluctant to accept. The risk of a continued standoff, exactly a month after Greece secured a last-gasp four-month extension of an EU/IMF bailout, was highlighted by different descriptions by Tsipras and Merkel about what reforms Athens would need to launch. "It is clear that Greece is not obliged to implement recessionary measures," the 40-year-old leftist premier told reporters, referring to previously agreed reforms. "Greece will submit its own structural reforms, which it will implement." But Merkel, facing mounting resistance in Europe's richest state to continued lending to keep an erratic partner in the common currency area, insisted that only the full completion of already approved measures would satisfy the creditors. "The reference point is the agreement of Feb. 20," she said. "We have not changed one iota. You may have heard some of this before. But then not much has happened in the last few weeks." Tsipras will make a much anticipated visit to Merkel in Berlin on Monday. EU officials said that if Greece did come up with a convincing plan to get its debts under control, eurozone finance ministers could meet soon to release at least some funds to help it meet pressing commitments in the coming weeks. In Athens on Friday, government spokesman Gabriel Sakellaridis said: "Once the reforms are submitted, and in a detailed manner, to the Euro Group when that happens ... then the funding will be unlocked towards the Greek economy." The Finance Ministry said it would respond in a "constructive spirit" to a list of requirements on reforms being drawn up by a team of technical experts from the creditors - a contrast to an atmosphere of mutual mistrust which marked encounters with EU officials in Athens this week. Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, who has offended many of Greece's partners, especially in Germany, with incendiary comments and undiplomatic behavior, joined the call for immediate implementation of the Feb. 20 agreement. "First, we should work towards ending the toxic 'blame game' and the moralizing finger-pointing which benefit only the enemies of Europe," he said in a blog post on Friday. Joint statement The meeting involved Tsipras, Merkel, summit chairman Donald Tusk, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the chair of the Eurogroup of finance ministers, European Central Bank (ECB) President Mario Draghi and French President Francois Hollande. Juncker, Tusk and Dijsselbloem issued a brief joint statement on the outcome, intended partly to reassure eurozone minnows upset at being left out of the talks. "We fully adhere to the agreement of the Eurogroup of Feb. 20. In the spirit of mutual trust, we are all committed to speed up the work and conclude it as fast as possible," they said. "The Greek authorities will have the ownership of the reforms and will present a full list of specific reforms in the next days." Juncker said on arrival for a second day of summit talks on Friday that he was rather more optimistic about resolving the crisis because "I hadn't observed any convergence of views over the past weeks but noticed it yesterday." Merkel's centre-left coalition partner Sigmar Gabriel, the German economy minister, said he too was "a bit more hopeful." Those were hardly euphoric sentiments and were reflected in only cautious gains for Greek financial assets on the markets. Greece's main stocks index rose 3.2 percent. Two-year government bond yields fell 89 basis points to 23.85 percent, while 10-year yields were down 18 bps at 12.10 percent. But two-year yields were still much higher than before, having doubled in a month and risen over 3 percentage points on Thursday. EU officials said the talks were conducted in a business-like manner - a contrast with some of the ructions over recent weeks that have seen increasingly bitter confrontation between Greek and German ministers. That has fuelled speculation that some creditor states might prefer to see Greece quit the euro. Athens has been kept from bankruptcy by two bailouts since the global financial crisis, but now risks running out of money within weeks. On Thursday, Greek banks reported the largest deposit withdrawals in a month, a sign savers are worried about the outlook for the country's finances and institutions. ECB wary A person familiar with ECB thinking said Draghi would make clear the bank would not lift its limit on Greek short-term debt issuance, which Greece's Marxist finance minister has said is "asphyxiating" his country. "It's up to Greece to meet its commitments in order to get money from its creditors," said the person. "The ECB doesn't do bridge finance." Two EU/IMF bailouts totalling 240 billion euros have kept Greece from bankruptcy since 2010 but its economy has shrunk by 25 percent, partly due to austerity measures imposed by the lenders. It risks running out of cash without more aid or permission to issue more short-term debt. A Greek official said Athens had enough cash to pay a final 350 million euro installment of a loan repayment to the International Monetary Fund on Friday. EU officials said Greece had enough money to last until at least mid-April.
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European Power Grids Keep Lights on During Solar Eclipseby webdesk@voanews.com (Reuters)
Electrical grids in Europe claimed success on Friday in managing the unprecedented disruption to solar power from a 2 1/2-hour eclipse that brought sudden, massive drops in supply. Germany, Europe's biggest economy, at the heart of the event, boasts the world's biggest solar-powered installations, which last year supplied 6 percent of national power requirements. The initial 13 gigawatts (GW) drop in Germany was less than operators had feared and they were able to draw on alternative power sources including coal, gas, biogas and hydroelectric energy pumped from storage. Grid spokespeople said control rooms were tense. “The mood is concentrated but confident that it will go smoothly,” said Andreas Preuss, spokesman for TenneT peer Amprion, which operates the longest network inside Germany. “Network frequency is stable, reserve load is being called on,” one of the four high-voltage grid firms, TenneT, said in a live webfeed. Solar power output has expanded sharply to 38.2 gigawatts (GW) since the region's last notable eclipse in 2003, so the country - which borders nine nations - has to prove its power market and network handling centers can function under extraordinary conditions. Forecasts for the day's solar output had earlier risen to 22 GW - the equivalent of 20 nuclear power stations - indicating greater potential for disruptions as the eclipse cuts out the sun's rays. The daily peak in 2014 was 23.4 GW. People across the country were watching the event with homemade pinhole cameras, or using the picture function on phones to view the sun. At Germany's national meteorological office in Offenbach near Frankfurt, some 50 people were gathered on the roof of a six-story building equipped with home-made viewing devices. Operators across Europe - which outside Germany are less affected - have been making preparations for several months. In Britain, the National Grid said solar output would be reduced by 850 megawatts and there would be a small drop in demand as people were expected to go outside to see the phenomenon. In Spain, grid firm Red Electrica said reserve levels had been raised and big consumers would be disconnected, if necessary, while Italy's Terna said 4.4 GW of solar power would be cut off and made up for from other sources.
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Independent owner says decision is due to expense and ‘the strain’
Alexander Lebedev, the Independent’s owner, has given a candid interview to the Times in which he reveals that he is no longer bankrolling his Russian investigative newspaper, Novaya Gazeta.
Although the former Russian billionaire and ex-KGB operative remains a shareholder, he said he had stopped funding it because of the expense and also the strain.
“I woke up one morning in May; it coincided with what happened in Crimea and I suddenly started reflecting and I kept reflecting for six months. You have a feeling you’re a complete failure.
“Everything you’ve been standing for, fighting for. Nobody cares. It’s kind of an illness but it comes not from purely chemical or biological things”.
Continue reading...Russian News Site Forced to Delete Material on Spate of Cancer Suicidesby By Peter Spinella <moscowtimes@themoscowtimes.com>
Russia's media watchdog is pressuring a religion-focused news site not to report on why nearly a dozen people suffering from cancer committed suicide last month in Moscow, the site said in a statement Thursday.
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Fire Extinguished At Kazakh National Arts Academyby noreply@rferl.org (RFE/RL's Kazakh Service)
Firefighters have extinguished a massive fire at the Kazakh National Arts Academy in Almaty.
Crisis-gripped country contracts as runaway inflation and collapsing currency forces it into bail-out programme
In the USSR, There Was No Sex; In Putin’s Russia, No Suicides from Medical Despair by paul goble (noreply@blogger.com)
Paul Goble
Staunton, March 20 – In the USSR, it was sometimes said, there was no sex because that subject could not be addressed directly in the media. However that might have been, a new truth is emerging, in Vladimir Putin’s Russia, there will be no suicides by those who cannot get the medicines they need to treat their incurable diseases.
The Russian government has been embarrassed by the rising number of suicides among terminally ill people who could not get the medicines they needed either to reduce their suffering or possibly to produce a cure. But instead of spending the money needed to ensure that those who need such medicines get them, Moscow has taken two other steps.
On the one hand, it has banned journalistic reporting about the causes of suicides so that no one will find out about why this or that individual in fact killed himself. And on the other, it has created a new class of those who are “more equal” than others who will be guaranteed access to needed medicines and thus who will be unlikely to kill themselves for this reasons.
“Novyye izvestiya” reports today that Roskomnadzor has demanded that the Othodoxy and the World site remove mentions about the cause of suicide by two people who were suffering from cancer. This is the second time that the Russian agency took that step: the first came three weeks ago and involved references to the means those killing themselves used (newizv.ru/society/2015-03-20/216792-smert-bez-prichiny.html).
Anna Danilova, the editor of the Orthodoxy and the World portal, told the paper that “according to the logic of the administration, now it is necessary to write that death came unexpectedly, that the individual decided while he was full of happiness and health for some reason to kill himself by suicide.”
It is not unreasonable to suggest that the media should not talk about the means people use to commit suicide: such reports can lead others to do the same. But it is absurd not to talk about why they may choose to do so, especially if they tell others or leave notes behind as to their reasons.
Queried by the newspaper as to why it had issued the ban, Roskomnadzor said that the orders had come from “another agency,” undoubtedly one above it and concerned about the image of Russia in the eyes of its own population and in the opinion of the people of the rest of the world.
But another Russian agency, Rostrebnadzor, which is responsible for consumer protection, told “Novyye izvestiya” that it had issued “about 6,000” such orders since 2012 in order to comply with a Russian law banning information about the means people may use to kill themselves.
Meanwhile, in a related development that also appears intended to hide the consequences of what the Kremlin is doing, Vladimir Putin on March 16 issued a decree specifying that the most senior officials in Russia and their families will get whatever medicines they need to fight cancer free or with a 50 percent discount (ej.ru/?a=note&id=27327).
As Aleksandr Ryklin of “Yezhednevny zhurnal” puts it, “we all have an undoubted occasion for pride.” Those who work directly for the Russian president or his representatives can count on free or half-price medicines; those who don’t, however, can’t count on getting such vitally necessary drugs at any price.
But given the crackdown on reporting about those who are driven to despair and suicide, ever fewer Russians or anyone else will have the chance to find out just what the consequences of the Kremlin’s murderous policies really are – and perhaps some of them will even conclude that in Putin’s Russia there are no suicides, just as in Brezhnev’s Soviet Union, there was no sex.
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Tunisian Official: Gunmen Trained in Libya Before Attackby webdesk@voanews.com (Associated Press)
The two extremist gunmen who killed 21 people at a museum in Tunis trained in neighboring Libya before carrying out the deadly attack, a top Tunisian security official said. Wednesday's attack at the National Bardo Museum killed 21 people - 17 of them cruise ship tourists - before the two gunmen were killed in a firefight with security forces. The attack of such magnitude in Tunisia - the only country to emerge from the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings with a functioning democracy - raised concerns about the spread of extremism to the rest of North Africa. Rafik Chelli, the Interior Ministry's top security official, said the attackers had slipped out of Tunisia in December and received weapons training in Libya before returning home. He told the El Hiwar El Tounsi TV channel that authorities did not have further details about where or with which group they had trained. The Islamic State group based in Iraq and Syria has claimed responsibility for the Bardo attack. Several well-armed groups in Libya, which borders Tunisia, have pledged their allegiance to Islamic State. Police in Tunisia have arrested five people described as directly tied to the two gunmen as well as four others in central Tunisia said to be supporters of their cell. Tunisians on Thursday stepped around trails of blood and broken glass outside the museum to rally in solidarity with the 21 victims and with the country's fledgling democracy. Marchers carried signs saying, "No to terrorism,'' and "Tunisia is bloodied but still standing.'' At Tunis' Charles Nicolle hospital, victims' families continued to arrive Friday to help identify the dead and recover their bodies. Tunisian Health Minister Samar Samoud told The Associated Press on Friday the latest tally of victims included four Italians, three Japanese and three French, two Spanish and two Colombians and one citizen each from Britain, Poland and Belgium. The nationalities of three victims remain unconfirmed. Two of the cruise ships that had passengers killed or wounded in the Tunis attack sailed into Spanish ports on Friday, with disembarking passengers telling reporters chilling tales of how they just missed being victims. In Palma, Spanish cruise ship passenger Catalina Llinas told reporters she and her husband luckily chose a day trip Wednesday to the Roman ruins of Carthage near Tunis instead of the museum excursion. The couple's tour bus, she said, passed by the Bardo museum just 10 minutes before the attacks. "It could have been us," she said. Prime Minister Habib Essid announced new security measures Thursday, including a crackdown on websites seen as promoting terrorism. French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve was travelling to Tunis on a pre-scheduled visit Friday coinciding with the country's Independence Day holiday. In claiming responsibility for the attack, the Islamic State group issued a statement and audio on jihadi websites applauding the dead gunmen as "knights" for their "blessed invasion of one of the dens of infidels and vice in Muslim Tunisia." Analysts cautioned against seeing every such attack as evidence of a well-organized, centrally controlled entity spanning the Middle East, saying instead that small groups could merely be taking inspiration from the high-profile militant group. "I think [the Islamic State] is probably taking credit for something it may not have played a role in,'' said Geoff Porter, a security analyst for North Africa. Confronted with a poor economy, young Tunisians have disproportionately gone abroad to fight with extremist groups in Libya, Syria and Iraq, including some affiliated with the Islamic State. Tunisian authorities have estimated that of the 3,000 young people who left the country to fight with radical groups, about 500 have returned. President Barack Obama spoke with Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi by phone to offer his condolences, sympathy and support. The White House says Obama offered to keep providing assistance to Tunisia as the investigation proceeds. The deaths of so many foreigners will damage Tunisia's tourism industry, which draws thousands of foreigners to its Mediterranean beaches, desert oases and ancient Roman ruins. The industry had just started to recover after years of decline. The two cruise ship lines who had passengers killed in Tunis on Wednesday announced they were dropping Tunis from their itineraries for now. Culture Minister Latifa Lakhdar gave a defiant news conference Thursday at the museum, where blood still stained the floor amid the Roman-era mosaics. "They are targeting knowledge. They are targeting science. They are targeting reason. They are targeting history. They are targeting memory, because all these things mean nothing in their eyes," she told reporters.
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While the patchy weather as the eclipse moved across the UK today meant that some people were unable to see it at all, there were others with the best possible view — satellites floating outside Earth’s atmosphere.
Boko Haram Blamed for 11 Deaths in Gomboruby webdesk@voanews.com (VOA News)
At least 11 people have died in the Nigerian border town of Gomboru in an apparent attack by the Boko Haram militant group, which had ceded the territory to Cameroonian forces a few weeks ago. Witnesses say the deadly attack began Wednesday, just days after Cameroonian forces withdrew from the town, leaving the town exposed to attack. The attack near the border with Cameroon underscores the tension in northern Nigeria as the country prepares for a what appears will be a closely contested election March 28. Boko Haram, which operates in northern Nigeria, held the town of Gomboru from late last year until it was driven out by Cameroon forces last month. Cameroon is one of three neighboring countries to Nigeria that have organized military forces to defeat Boko Haram. Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon and Niger launched a joint offensive against the group in January after the militants seized a multi-national base on the shores of Lake Chad. Nigerian soldiers told VOA last week that soldiers from South Africa, Britain and Ukraine are fighting alongside the army. Nigerian officials say the soldiers are training Nigerian troops on how to use newly-purchased equipment. The Islamic militant group has carried on an insurgency in northern Nigeria for the past six years, resulting in thousands of deaths and more than a million people driven from their homes.
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Perm's Big Chill by noreply@rferl.org (Tom Balmforth)
The Perm-36 gulag memorial's downplaying of the abuses of Josef Stalin's terror are just one example of the changes in the Urals region since Vladimir Putin returned to the Kremlin. Perm, once a liberal bastion, is now in the throes of a deep chill.
Russian president says currency union with Belarus and Kazakhstan could help overcome falling oil prices and decline of rouble
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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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Suicide Bombers Kill Dozens at Yemen Mosquesby webdesk@voanews.com (VOA News)
Medical officials say dozens of worshippers were killed and more than 100 injured when three suicide bombers blew themselves up at a pair of mosques in Yemen's capital, Sana'a. The attacks took place around the time of midday prayers Friday at the Badr and al-Hashoosh mosques, which are associated with the Houthi Shi'ite rebel group that controls Sana'a. Another suicide bomber attacked amid the panicked crowds. The Houthi rebels engaged Thursday in fierce gun battles in the southern city of Aden with a militia loyal to current President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. Hadi last month escaped house arrest by the Houthi rebels; they're allied with former Yemeni leader Ali Abdullah Saleh, who was ousted in a 2011 popular uprising. Hadi fled to Aden in a bid to re-establish his authority in the politically fractured nation. The United Nations, Arab Gulf nations and several western countries, including the United States, all have issued statements in Hadi’s support.
Some of the Kazakh nationals who have gone to fight alongside the Islamic State (IS) group in Syria and Iraq are "victims of radical propaganda," the deputy chairman of Kazakhstan's National Security Committee (KNB), Nurgali Bilisbekov, has said.
IS Video Allegedly Shows 3 Kurdish Fighters Beheadedby webdesk@voanews.com (VOA News)
The Islamic State group has released a new online video purporting to show the beheadings of three Kurdish peshmerga fighters, with a warning that it will execute "dozens more" prisoners unless the Kurds halt their bombing attacks against the extremists. The Kurds, supported by a U.S.-led coalition and by Iran, are fighting the extremists in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish northern region and Syria. They have driven back the extremists in Ninevah and Kirkuk provinces. The opening scenes of the six-minute video, released at the start of the Persian new year, show people allegedly injured by peshmerga rocket fire. Then, the focus shifts to three men clad in orange jumpsuits with their hands bound. Later, they appear individually, kneeling before being beheaded by Kurdish-speaking militants dressed in black. "To the Muslim Kurdish people: Know that our war is not with you, rather it is with those who ventured into an alliance with the Safavids and crusaders to wage war on the Muslims," one militant says, using derogatory terms to refer to Iran and the coalition, according to the Reuters news agency. Then, in a direct address to Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani, another adds: "We warned you before that for every rocket you fire on those under the care of the Islamic State, you will kill one of your own prisoners with your own hands." Earlier this week, Kurdish forces had struck at Islamic State inside Mosul, shelling there in retaliation for a militant attack on an Irbil market. The video, which has not yet been authenticated, reportedly was shot in Ninevah province at the sites of bombing attacks against the Islamic State. Last month, the Islamic State group had released a video it said showed at least a dozen peshmerga held in cages, Agence France-Presse reported. More than 1,000 peshmerga have been killed while battling the Islamic State, Reuters said, noting that “several hundred Kurds” have joined forces with the extremists. Material for this report came from AFP and Reuters.
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Political Backlash Mounts Against Philippine Presidentby webdesk@voanews.com (Simone Orendain)
Philippine President Benigno Aquino is facing the biggest challenge of his political career as more people come to believe he is responsible for a bungled January police operation that left 44 police commandos and at least 23 others dead. The president’s ratings have dipped below 50 percent for the first time since he took office in 2010. At a Manila area neighborhood traffic command post, traffic manager Romeo Maglaya shakes his head and wrinkles his face in disgust at the fact that he voted for President Aquino five years ago. It is nearly two months since the bloody January 25th clash in Mamasapano town on Mindanao Island. And Maglaya says Aquino is ultimately responsible for the botched effort by police commandos to capture two internationally wanted suspected terrorists. The police ended up in a fight with several Muslim rebel factions that lasted more than half a day. “He should apologize to the family of the ‘Fallen 44.’ He should take the courage to explain everything and anything about what happened.” Fresh on Maglaya’s mind is video footage of the 44 Philippine-flag-draped caskets of the dead commandos being laid out on the tarmac of Villamor Airbase in Manila, while high-ranking officials looked on, minus the president who was at a Mitsubishi plant opening. Explanatory speeches Aquino has since given at least three speeches related to the incident, explaining what he knew of the operation and saying the commanding officer of the elite commando force lied to him about it. But his words have fueled demands for an apology and given momentum to calls for his resignation. Friday saw an "Aquino Out Now!" rally in Manila that was one of a series of recent rallies against the president. “Slowly, people are waking up to the sad reality that this president has betrayed them and that it’s time for him to go," says Renato Reyes, secretary-general of the New Patriotic Alliance party, one of the organizers of several rallies calling for Aquino’s ouster. "Whether we have that critical mass we will see in the coming months where this goes. But I think right now we’re really concerned about putting pressure on the president to speak out and to be accountable about the incident so far.” In the past week a police inquiry board report and a Senate report were released on the clash. Each found Aquino was responsible for approving an operation the reports said was doomed from the start. The reports say the president, suspended Police Director General Alan Purisima and the then- head of the Police Special Action Force, Getulio Napenas, were the only people who knew about the plan to arrest suspected terrorists Zulkifli bin Hir, also known as Marwan of Malaysia, and Basit Usman, a Philippine national. President Aquino reportedly told the police officials to coordinate with the Armed Forces as the commandos would be passing through an area controlled by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which signed a peace agreement with the government a year ago. But the reports reveal military personnel near Mamasapano only learned about the operation after shots were fired and were limited to retrieval support hours later. The cease-fire between the government and the MILF was broken. And the operation put the peace process in peril, casting doubt on the plan to end 45 years of conflict that have left more than 120,000 dead. US involvement To further stoke public anger, the Senate committee report shows at least six Americans at the police action force command post provided intelligence, maps, equipment and cooperation. But they never joined in the fighting. As part of a Visiting Forces Agreement the U.S. does counterterrorism training in the Philippines and does not take part in any combat operations. A U.S. State Department spokeswoman says this operation was led by the Philippines. With the release of the reports, Aquino’s communications staff has been trying to do some damage control. Communications Secretary Sonny Coloma this week quoted text from one of the president’s earlier speeches. “I am the father of this country and 44 of my children were killed. They can no longer be brought back. This tragedy happened during my term and I will carry this to the end of my days. They were my responsibility together with the forces of the SAF involved in this operation,” he said. Political analyst Richard Heydarian of DeLaSalle University in Manila says the political backlash is getting worse because Aquino is not apologizing. He says the president’s people do not appear to have any real strategy to fix the situation. “A tragedy that should not have been necessarily a downfall or… a huge blow to the popularity of Aquino has now become perhaps his biggest political crisis,” he said. But when questions are raised about whether the president plans to give some sort of apology, officials say they have no word on any such arrangement.
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The descendants of Pablo Picasso became £50m richer today, but the mystery of the 271 “lost” works by the Cubist master stored in a garage remained intact.
Kyrgyz Mercenary Details Alleged Russian Military Role In Ukraineby noreply@rferl.org (Sabyr Abdymomunov, Venera Djumataeva)
A Kyrgyz military reserve officer has spoken in detail about his seven months of service as a mercenary in the ranks of the Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine. Manas Mambetov alleges Russian troops are increasingly replacing local and mercenary fighters in the region -- and that Moscow has stepped up the provision of heavy weaponry.
Ukraine's state statistics service has reported that the country's economy shrank by 6.8 percent in 2014, citing financial strains caused by fighting in the eastern part of the country.
EU Criticizes Belarus Over Death Sentenceby noreply@rferl.org (RFE/RL)
The European Union has sharply criticized Belarus, the only European country that applies capital punishment, for sentencing a man to death.
 Forbes |
Russia Targets NATO With Military Exercises
Forbes Russian military exercises, the latest in a series across the country, have taken on a threatening posture. While the most recent installment is not the largest exercise Russia has conducted, the areas involved and the forces included seem to have been ... NATO Intercepts 11 Russian Jets as War Games ContinueNewsweek NATO intercepts Russian military aircraftCNN What's behind Russia's massive muscle-flexing? (+video)Christian Science Monitor BBC News -Reuters Blogs (blog) all 35 news articles » |
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Ukrainians Fear Russia But Don’t Trust EU, New Poll Results Show by paul goble (noreply@blogger.com)
Paul Goble
Staunton, March 20 – Since the Maidan, a new Kyiv poll shows, the share of Ukrainians favoring EU integration has risen from 41 percent to 47.2 percent since the Maidan, while that backing integration with Moscow has fallen from 35 percent to 12.3 percent. At the same time, the portion favoring neutrality has increased from 9 to 27 percent.
These figures are a response to Russia’s military actions against Ukraine and to the European Union’s failure to do as much as many Ukrainians had hoped, analysts at the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology which conducted the survey, told Tatyana Ivzhenko of “Nezavisimaya gazeta” (ng.ru/cis/2015-03-20/1_ukraina.html).
In fact, the Kyiv experts said, “Ukrainians are afraid of the actions of Russia and at the same time do not trust European Union.”
The only part of the country in which more people favored integration with the Eurasian Union (30 percent) than the EU (20 percent) was in the Donbas, but even there, the former were far from a majority. In the southern regions, support for joining the EU stood at 33 percent, while backing for the Eurasian Union was 12 percent. In western and central Ukraine, majorities of 57 to 75 percent favored the EU while only very few backed the Moscow-led organization.
These figures mean, the newspapers Tatyana Ivzhenko says, that “even after the complete end of military activities, the Donbas could be reintegrated in Ukraine only on its own conditions,” which Kyiv has not yet accepted, and that there would be serious debates elsewhere as well because of distrust in the European Union.
Distrust in Europe, the Ukrainian experts say, has been growing over the past year because of the EU’s constant statements about the need for Ukraine to do nothing that would anger the Russians and its failure to do more than issue political declarations which showed that the EU was “for peace at any price,” even if Ukrainian interests had to be sacrificed.
The attitudes in the Donbas are “dictated by completely different things than in the remainder of Ukraine,” the Kyiv experts say. There, people put regional values ahead of state ones, a pattern that is true they suggest even in those parts of the region still under the control of the Ukrainian government.
According to one of the volunteers speaking on conditions of anonymity, “pro-Russian attitudes” are not strong there, “but people nonetheless feel a desire “to separate themselves from Ukraine which has not defended them or saved them from shelling, has not paid them their wages and pensions, and doesn’t offer them help.” They make the same demands of Russia.
Konstantin Bondarenko, the head of the Institute of Ukrainian Policy, says that “we have lost the Donbas, in the sense that Ukraine has lost the struggle for its people.” Even if Kyiv wins militarily, it will create more problems for itself because “the Donbas cannot be subordinated by force alone.”
But Sergey Taran, the head of the International Institute of Democracy, disagrees. At the very least, he suggests, it is too early to draw such conclusions. And he points out the obvious: the Donbas cannot afford to go its own way and needs help from Kyiv or from Moscow. Over time, the Ukrainian government is more likely to provide it, and that could prove decisive.
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A 26-year-old Malaysian woman who has joined the Islamic State (IS) group in Raqqa has called on Western Muslims to "terrorize" non-Muslims in their home countries.
Top Mexican Journalist Says President's Office Backed Her Firing by webdesk@voanews.com (Reuters)
A Mexican journalist fired from her popular radio show after helping uncover a conflict of interest scandal that embarrassed President Enrique Pena Nieto said on Thursday that she believes his office backed her dismissal. Speaking to a packed room of reporters, Carmen Aristegui urged her former employer, MVS Radio, to reinstate her and colleagues dismissed last week after a row over their support for a platform aimed at uncovering public sector corruption. This week, the Interior Ministry urged MVS and Aristegui, a prominent government critic, to resolve their differences. But when asked if she believed her dismissal had been orchestrated by Pena Nieto's office, the 51-year-old said: "It looks that way because I can't imagine something of this magnitude without at least some kind of consent from the highest presidential power." Last year, Aristegui's investigative team at MVS revealed Pena Nieto and his wife had bought or used homes owned by a major government contractor, sparking a series of other revelations that have embarrassed his government. The president has said he acted properly and broke no laws. MVS Radio last week fired two members of her team on the grounds they had backed new online news platform Mexicoleaks in the name of the company without prior authorization. Aristegui demanded the two journalists be reinstated, sparking a stand-off with MVS which culminated with her dismissal from the radio station on Sunday. Critics of Pena Nieto leapt on her removal as evidence that he was cracking down on a dissenting voice in a country where politicians enjoy considerable impunity and are rarely subject to serious scrutiny from much of the mainstream media. "We want to return to broadcasting so that we can continue producing journalism and continue providing a service to Mexican society," Aristegui said.
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Чиновники старые, привилегии новые? by Радио Свобода
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Имело ли смысл понижение зарплат чиновников на 10%, если они имеют реально дорожающие номенклатурные привел...
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From: Радио Свобода
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Hatred of Americans and ‘Fifth Column’ has Deep Roots among Russians, Sociologists Say by paul goble (noreply@blogger.com)
Paul Goble
Staunton, March 20 – It has become a commonplace to blame Kremlin-controlled media for the upsurge in anti-Americanism and hatred of a supposed “fifth column,” but two Russian sociologists say that hatred has been on the rise among Russians for a long time and at most this generalized hatred is now being channeled by the Kremlin toward these “new enemies.”
Lyubov Borusyak of the Higher School of Economics and Aleksey Levinson of the Levada Center say that focus groups among Russians show that anger against immigrants, against China and now against Americans has a common root despite the diversity of its objects (daily.rbc.ru/opinions/society/18/03/2015/550973de9a7947327e5f3a1c).
Namely, in each case, the two say, Russians express a fear and then an anger that the target of their hatred is trying to subordinate them to some outside force, be it migrants in their cities, the Chinese taking over Siberia, or the Americans using Ukraine in order to weaken and ultimately dominate the Russians.
Thus, Borusyak and Levinson argue, the object of Russian hatred changes, often rapidly and sometimes as a result of messages delivered by government-controlled media, but the basis for their hatred does not and, barring a some unexpected tectonic shift, is not very likely to do so anytime soon.
Russians are accustomed to thinking of themselves as a kind people, “and if it suddently is discovered that Russians hate someone in a massive way, then to save their self-image as good people, they begin to say that propaganda is guilty in all this and that namely it sparks hatred.” But the two point out, propagandists know that they can’t be successful unless they deliver messages which fit into pre-existing mindsets.
“Propaganda can raise the temperature and provide arguments (if they are needed), but it is not capable of becoming the cause of the anger of its audience toward one or another object,” Borusyak and Levinson say. But many find blaming propagandists more comforting than facing up to deeper problems.
Focus groups they organized, the two say, caused them to suspect that “negativism toward Tajiks, Uzbeks and other migrants was not simple and ordinary xenophobia, a simple mixture of fear and hatred to any aliens” but instead was a reflection of real fears about “those who really have been conducting themselves as masters” in places the Russians felt were theirs.
When Russians were able to protest against people within their own society, they did so; when they were able to protest against immigrants, they did that; and now that it has become acceptable to protest against Americans and their supposed conspiracies in Ukraine, they are doing that as well, the sociologists continue.
And judging from the past, Borusyak and Levinson say, they are ready, willing and able to shift to another target extremely rapidly as long as that target too is viewed as someone or some force that is trying to dominate Russians. And that new target is now on public view: the “fifth column.”
According to the sociologists, “Anti-Americanism has also passed its peak, and mass consciousness [among Russians] is seeking whom it can accuse for the fact that [they] live not according to their own will and are not allowed to live as [they] want.”
In recent months, Russians have applied the term fifth column to ever more groups, a pattern that reflects the coming together of “three important factors.” First, there is the transfer of hatred from one group to another; second are commands from above; and third is “the technical readiness of our propaganda system” to link the fifth column with the United States.
Linking the Russian opposition to the US has not been hard, they point out. Russian propagandists point out that the US funds many opposition groups and that the opposition groups support US positions on things like the return of Crimea to Ukraine. But the real reason linking the two together works is elsewhere.
At present, at a time of an upswing in patriotism and a concern about national unity, anyone who challenges that is an enemy because he or she does so, and in that way becomes “exactly like the Americans only worse,” Borusyak and Levinson say.
That is why one of the first versions about the murder of Boris Nemtsov was that he was killed by the opposition as part of a “ritual” death designed to provoke a revolution and why one of the next was that he was killed on order of the Ukrainians or Americans to achieve exactly the same thing.
Such people, the two say, were “only partially” the victims of TV propaganda. Instead, they advanced such views because they are stupefied by “a feeling of unity and the need to come together against a foreign and domestic enemy.” And when they have a chance to combine the two, they do so, regardless of what they see on television.
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За последние четыре недели нефть подешевела на 12%. При этом курс рубля к доллару, наоборот, вырос - на 4%, хотя еще в январе нефть и рубль почти синхронно падали, а феврале вместе росли. Как девальвация рубля нарушила привычную сезонность цен.
Download audio: http://flashvideo.rferl.org/clips/RU/2015/03/20/5d051873-d6a4-4c6c-86df-e56d5905111c.mp3
Download audio: http://flashvideo.rferl.org/clips/RU/2015/03/20/5d051873-d6a4-4c6c-86df-e56d5905111c.mp3
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Page 8
Председатель Совета безопасности РФ Николай Патрушев заявил об активизации финских националистов в Карелии. Активисты карельских организаций удивлены - они никакого "подполья" не наблюдают. Возможно, власти ожидают роста протестов из-за кризиса и заранее пытаются противодействовать им испытанными способами.
"На фоне роста антироссийской риторики со стороны стран Запада отмечается активизация националистических и реваншистских общественно-политических организаций Финляндии. Возрастает их воздействие через ряд отечественных НПО на население Карелии", - заявил Николай Патрушевв Петрозаводске на совещании, посвященном обустройству границы. Это довольно громкое заявление - как правило, российские власти говорят об иностранном воздействии имея в виду либо "цветные революции", либо, на худой конец, исламистских радикалов. Финляндия - одна из стран Европы, с которой у России хорошие отношения, и слова Николая Патрушева можно расценить как недружественное заявление.
Следы "финского национализма" обнаружить по обе стороны границы можно, но носили они всегда довольно маргинальный характер. Раз в пару лет воинственные заявления делает какой-нибудь финский депутат. Портал <a href="http://ProKarelia.net" rel="nofollow">ProKarelia.net</a>, когда-то считавшийся рупором финских реваншистов, обновлялся в последний раз в 2006 году. Правда, делает иногда заявления организация Aluepalautus - например, против строительства Nord Stream, а в прошлом году раскритиковала финские власти за то, что они слишком много, по мнению активистов, тратят на поддержку российских приграничных территорий. Впрочем, их мнение Хельсинки всегда игнорировал.
В Карелии на днях прокуратура республики признала экстремистским - впервые в республике - сайт "Стоп оккупации Карелии". Еще в прошлом году депутаты ЗС Карелии просили проверить этот сайт. Были признаны экстремистскими и несколько групп "Вконтакте".
В декабре у парламентариев появился еще один повод поднять шум: в соцсетях началась кампания за придание карельскому языку статуса второго государственного. Активисты одноименной группы "Вконтакте" начали сбор подписей, обратились к депутатам, а также к карельским предприятиям с просьбой использовать на этикетках карельский язык. "Враги Родины идут ва-банк. Карельские националисты, представляющие ничтожную долю из более чем 600-тысячного населения нашей республики, пропагандируют отделение Карелии от России и поднимают никому не нужные сегодня и вредные вопросы о дополнительных государственных языках Карелии", - гремел вице-спикер ЗС Карелии, представитель ЛДПР Сергей Пирожников (в петербургской прессе он упоминался как совладелец компаний, специализирущихся на sms-рассылках и продаже мобильного контента, и обладатель квартиры в комплексе "Парадный квартал"). Несмотря на это, в официальном ответе ЗС в конце января активистам сообщили, что "дискуссионный" вопрос обсудили в республиканском министерстве по вопросам национальной политики и решили создать рабочую группу "по обсуждению вопроса о статусе карельского языка".
Однако все это - сетевая активность. В онлайне действует великое множество самых разнообразных групп, но Николай Патрушев определенно сказал, что речь идет о неправительственных организациях."Как на нас может кто-то воздействовать из-за рубежа, когда у нас есть устав, согласно которому мы работаем, правление, которое сообща решает определенные задачи. На нас никто не воздействует", - говорит лидер Союза карельского народа Наталья Воробей. "Не знаю, о каких общественных организациях Карелии мог говорить Патрушев, - удивлена и руководитель "Молодой Карелии" Алина Чубурова. - В Карелии не так много организаций, отстаивающих права на развитие языка и культуры прибалтийско-финских народов. Их не наберется и двадцати, и мало кто из нынешних руководителей национальных организаций карелов, вепсов и финнов решается заниматься открытой национальной политикой в отличие от 1990-х". Практически все активисты-общественники, по ее словам, друг друга знают, а вот создатели запрещенных сайтов никому не знакомы, живут, по косвенной информации, в Финляндии и Швеции и "говорить, что они представляют угрозу обществу, тем более карельскому, смешно". Действия же организации Aluepalautus в Карелии вообще незаметны, говорит Алина Чубурова.
Провокатором создателя запрещенного сайта называет и координатор группы "Вконтакте" "Карельскому языку - официальный статус в Карелии" Андрей. Его инициатива НПО также не является: "Она занимается вопросами соответствия местного законодательства Конституции РФ", - говорит он, указывая на то, что Карелия - единственная из всех республик РФ, где титульный народ лишен своего государственного языка, а карелам, финнам и вепсам почти невозможно получить на родном языке образование. "Скорее всего, заявление Патрушева - утверждение человека, которому нужно показать, что его служба работает и постоянно на страже, - рассуждает активист. - Оно никак не послужит основанием для расправы с какой-то известной карельской национальной организацией, а сделано было для того, чтобы просто попугать тех активистов, которые ведут свою работу вне организаций, поддерживаемых властями, и регистрируют новые, реально неправительственные движения".
Активисты предполагают, что речь могла идти о Карельском конгрессе, существующем с 1992 года и возглавляемом Анатолием Григорьевым, - единственной, по словам Алены Чубуровой, организации, которая пытается заниматься политикой. Григорьев известен активной борьбой за карельский язык, он регулярно возмущается тем, что в правительстве республики почти никто по-карельски не говорит, и постоянно критикует российские власти за нарушения прав коренного населения - в том числе пишет письма финским властям. Но говорить о том, что Карельский конгресс "активизировался в последнее время", нельзя - он уже много лет говорит с одной и той же позиции и является скорее артефактом политики 1990-х. А влияние его минимальное: практически конгресс проявляет себя только в виде пресс-релизов, и не исключено, что кроме Григорьева в организации никого и нет, говорит активист Андрей, и, есть ли какая-то связь между Григорьевым и финскими националистами, неизвестно, но, по его мнению, вряд ли. Кстати, в борьбе, например, за сохранение журнала Carelia на финском языке Григорьева поддержала большая группа депутатов из "Справедливой России", КПРФ и даже один единоросс.
На заседании Николай Патрушев упомянул и программу приграничного сотрудничества "Карелия". Программа действовала и раньше, в 2010-2014 годах ее объем составил €46,4 млн (по €11,6 млн выделяли Россия и Финляндия, €23,2 млн - Евросоюз), на эти деньги реконструировались дороги, пограничные пункты, финансировались различные проекты. Сейчас речь идет о новом этапе с финансированием около €50 млн и примерно такой же пропорцией разделения - несмотря ни на какие санкции, сотрудничество развивается.
Заподозрить в словах главы Совбеза можно скорее опасение того, что на фоне кризиса, который Карелию как относительно бедный и проблемный регион может затронуть сильнее прочих, и на фоне поступления европейских траншей протестные настроения усилятся, начнутся митинги и их поддержат различные карельские организации. Ведь специфика расположенной на границе Карелии в том, что на митингах неизбежно возникнут сравнения с более благополучным соседом. Тут-то и можно будет все объяснить "влиянием финских националистов", даже если они будут ни при чем. "Господин Патрушев с тем же успехом мог рассуждать об угрозе рептилоидов с планеты Нибиру. Ни одна финская партия не заявляет о необходимости возвращения своих бывших территорий. И тут дело не только в политике, но больше в экономике. Это гипотетическое "возвращение" потребовало бы колоссальных затрат, к которым нынешнее финское общество не готово. С моей точки зрения, проблему надо решать созданием на этих территориях свободной экономической зоны под эгидой Совета Европы, куда входят Россия и Финляндия. Но российские власти почему-то не выдвигают таких идей. Они по имперской привычке продолжают захватывать новые территории, а на Карельском перешейке и в северном Приладожье царит мерзость запустения", - говорит известный карельский философ и публицист Вадим Штепа.
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Patrushev Says Helsinki Stirring Up Nationalists in Kareliaby paul goble (noreply@blogger.com)
Paul Goble
Staunton, March 20 – Nikolahy Patrushev, head of the Russian Security Council, says Finnish nationalists are becoming increasingly active in Karelia and by recruiting local people destabilizing that republic. But activists respond that there is no such Finnish activity and that they are asking for no more than other republics in Russia already have.
Speaking in Petrazovodsk today, Patrushev says that along with growing “anti-Russian rhetoric” in other countries, Finland has intensified its support for “Finnish nationalists in Karelia,” a charge that local activists dispute and suggest Patrushev has made only to make himself look vigilant in the Kremlin’s eyes (dp.ru/a/2015/03/19/Nikolaj_Patrushev_obnaruzhi/).
It is “possible to find traces of ‘Finnish nationalism’ on both sides of the border,” local people concede, but they suggest that these “always bear a quite marginal character,” involve few people, and are less numerous and active than they were two decades ago. What is more active is the Russian government’s campaign against them.
Several days ago, the procuracy succeeded in having the “End the Occupation of Karelia” portal suspended, and last December a media firestorm broke out when several online activists called for Karelian to become a state language in the republic – Karelia is the only non-Russian republic where the language of the titular nationality doesn’t have that status.
That prompted complaints by the Vice Speaker of the Karelian legislative assembly, Sergey Pirozhkin, that pro-Finnish and pro-Karelian groups were “going for broke” in their drive to destabilize Russia. But those faded once people found out that Pirozhkin’s company makes some of the devices used to block Internet traffic.
What makes Patrushev’s comments worrisome is that he did not speak about the online world where there are many and varied sites but about NGOs of whom there are in Karelia very few and whose leaders know each other well. The heads of the Union of the Karelian People and Young Karelia said they knew of nothing that supports Patrushev’s claims.
One of them speculated that the Russian leader’s comments were intended either to show his vigilance or to “frighten those activists [in Karelia] who work outside of organizations which are supported by the authorities and [those who seek to] register new and genuinely non-governmental organizations.”
But others expressed the fear that Patrushev was laying the groundwork for abrogating the agreement Russia now has with the EU for border cooperation, an accord that has brought a great deal of money to that hard-pressed northern border region but that has also led many Karelians to see how badly off they are compared to Finns on the other side of the border.
Vadim Shtepa, another prominent Karelian activist, was dismissive of Patrushev’s suggestion that Finland was sending agents of influence into Karelia. “Mr.Patrushev,” he said, “could with equal success talk about the threat of reptiloids from the planet Nibir. No Finnish party is talking about the need for a return of its former territories.”
Such “a return,”he said would require enormous sums of money, and “present-day Finnish society isn’t prepared for that.” What should happen is the creation of a free economic zone in Karelia, jointly administered by the Council of Europe and Russia. But unfortunately Moscow isn’t prepared for that alternative.
Instead, Russia’s rulers “by imperial custom are continuing to seize new territories and allow the abomination of desolation to continue in the Karelian isthmus and the northern Ladoga region.
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U.S. Welcomes Azerbaijan's Release Of Activists, Urges Moreby noreply@rferl.org (RFE/RL)
The United States has welcomed a decision by Azerbaijani authorities to release several activists from prison but urged Baku to release others.
In rare remarks about a sensitive issue, the director of the CIA confirmed today that the U.S. government works with foreign intelligence agencies to capture and jointly interrogate suspected terrorists.
“There are places throughout the world where CIA has worked with other intelligence services and has been able to bring people into custody and engage in the debriefings of these individuals … through our liaison partners, and sometimes there are joint debriefings that take place as well,” said John Brennan, the CIA director, speaking at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.
Brennan’s remarks confirm what journalists have long reported: that the Obama administration sometimes helps other countries do the dirty work of snatching and interrogating terror suspects — keeping the U.S. at arm’s length from operations that are ethically and legally dubious.
During a question-and-answer session, it was Fox News’ Megyn Kelley who questioned Brennan about “capturing terrorists.”
“Are we still doing that?” she asked. “And where are we keeping them and how are we interrogating them?”
Brennan responded that the U.S. is able to work with “partners” to “identify individuals and to have them captured … although there are not a lot of public pieces on Fox News about somebody that might be picked up in different parts of the world.”
In one of his first moves after taking office in 2009, President Obama famously shut down the CIA’s Black Site program, which was begun under President George W. Bush. After 9/11, more than 100 alleged terrorists were captured and sent to secret CIA-run detention centers where they were tortured and interrogated by agency operatives.
Although the Black Sites have been shut down and no new prisoners sent to Guantánamo Bay, detentions of terrorists — and attacks against them — remain a murky issue. The administration has brought several alleged terrorists to face trial in the United States, and it has killed thousands more in drone strikes, along with hundreds of civilians. Obama has also maintained the authority (as President Bill Clinton did in the 1990s) to render people to third countries, where laws are looser.
The Intercept’s Jeremy Scahill and others have detailed cases during the Obama administration in which terror suspects were held in foreign custody at the behest of the U.S. In 2011, Scahill reportedfor The Nation on a secret prison in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu. Though officially run by the Somali government, Scahill wrote, “US intelligence personnel pay the salaries of intelligence agents and also directly interrogate prisoners” at the facility.
Brennan’s comments today are a rare confirmation that the CIA remains actively involved in the arrest and interrogation of terrorist suspects overseas. He also discussed a restructuring of the CIA that was announced this week, which will blur the traditional distinction between intelligence analysts and on-the-ground operatives. The overhaul brings them together along the model of the CIA’s Counterterrorism Center, which has spearheaded the agency’s hunting and killing of terror suspects since 9/11. Brennan said it had become common in the “war zone” to have “analysts and operators who are working cheek to jowl,” and that the agency needed “to migrate those efforts to other areas.”
While there have been periodic reports that the Obama administration wants to shift the primary responsibility for drone strikes from the CIA to the military, where there would ostensibly be more transparency, Brennan said the CIA will still maintain “paramilitary skills and capabilities.”
In his wide-ranging remarks, Brennan also discussed cyberthreats, saying government networks are under “constant assault” and “private companies are spending enormous sums of money to defend against hacking attempts, denial of service attacks, and other efforts to disrupt their networks.” He was silent, naturally, on the CIA’s own attempts to get inside private tech companies’ operations, like its multi-year effort to crack the security of Apple’s iPhones and iPads, revealed by The Intercept this week.
Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty
The post CIA Director Describes How the U.S. Outsources Terror Interrogations appeared first onThe Intercept.
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