The U.S. and Global Security Review - Blog by Michael Novakhov

An unauthorized aircraft landed on the west lawn of the U.S. Capitol Wednesday, with a single unidentified occupant aboard. The person was detained, U.S. Capitol Police said. Nearby streets were temporarily closed as police investigated. Emergency vehicles were dispatched to the area and a robot bomb detector was sent over to the craft. The small manmade "gyrocopter" resembles a small open-air helicopter with a single rotor on top. A Florida man told the Tampa Bay Times Wednesday that he planned for months to deliver 535 letters to each member of Congress using a "gyrocopter." He said the letters contained a campaign reform message. Capitol Police didn't immediately identify the pilot or comment on his motive, but AP reports a Florida postal carrier named Doug Hughes took responsibility for the stunt on a website. "As I have informed the authorities, I have no violent inclinations or intent,'' Hughes wrote on his website, thedemocracyclub.org. "An ultralight aircraft poses no major physical threat - it may present a political threat to graft. I hope so. There's no need to worry - I'm just delivering the mail.'' An eyewitness saw a U.S. Postal Service logo on the side of the aircraft. AP reports House Homeland Security panel Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, said the pilot landed on his own, but that had he made it much closer to the Capitol authorities were prepared to shoot him down. The security scare comes after a man shot himself dead in front of the Capitol on Saturday and sparked a temporary lockdown. In January, a small "quadcopter'' drone crashed onto the White House lawn. The man who was operating it did not face criminal charges. Some information for this report provided by Reuters, AP. WATCH: Eyewitness tells VOA what he saw

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U.S.-Led Coalition Air Strikes Hit Islamic State In Syria, Iraq
Wednesday April 15th, 2015 at 4:26 PM

Air strikes by a U.S.-led coalition targeted Islamic State (IS) militants in Syria and Iraq with some 23 air strikes in the past 24 hours.

Роджер Холлис и тайны британской контрразведкиby Голос Америки
Wednesday April 15th, 2015 at 4:26 PM

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	Роджер Холлис и тайны британской контрразведки Был ли директор МI-5 советским агентом? Originally published at - http://www.golos-ameriki.ru/media/video/roger-hollis-mi/2720197.html.	From: Голос Америки Views: 0 0 ratings
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Romanian, U.S., British Troops Stage NATO-Planned Exercises
Wednesday April 15th, 2015 at 4:25 PM

Some 2,200 Romanian, U.S., British, and Moldovan troops will take part in military exercises in Romania, close to the Ukrainian border, beginning this week.

Экс-депутат Верховной рады от партии Януковича застрелен на окраине Киева - РБК
Wednesday April 15th, 2015 at 4:25 PM

Подробности

Экс-депутат Верховной рады от партии Януковича застрелен на окраине Киева
РБК
Неизвестный застрелил Калашникова в подъезде своего дома, рассказала украинской газете «Вести» пресс-секретарь ГУ МВД Украины в Киеве Юлия Мусташ. Бывший депутат, предположительно, вышел из лифта на восьмом этаже, где его и встретил убийца. Когда к зданию приехала ...
В Киеве застрелили выступавшего против Евромайдана бывшего депутатаLenta.ru
Экс— депутат Рады Калашников убит в КиевеBFM.Ru
В Киеве убит бывший депутат от Партии регионов Олег КалашниковКоммерсантъ
Дни.Ру -РИА Новости -Интерфакс
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Генпрокуратура Украины приступила к поискам «золотого батона» Януковича - Газета.Ru
Wednesday April 15th, 2015 at 4:24 PM

РБК Украина

Генпрокуратура Украины приступила к поискам «золотого батона» Януковича
Газета.Ru
Главное следственное управление Генпрокуратуры начало расследование кражи «золотого батона» из резиденции бывшего президента Виктора Януковича. Об этом сообщает в своем фейсбуке от фракции «Блок Петра Порошенко» Дмитрий Добродомов. «Наконец правоохранители ...
На Украине начали поиск золотого батона и других ценностей ЯнуковичаВести.Ru
На Украине начали поиск "золотого батона" ЯнуковичаИнтерфакс
Наследие Януковича. На Украине начались поиски золотого батонаМагнитогорское информационное агентство
Дни.Ру -СЕГОДНЯ -Архангельск-ИНФО
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Harry Reid on Republican Field: "They're All Losers" - RealClearPolitics
Wednesday April 15th, 2015 at 4:23 PM

RealClearPolitics

Harry Reid on Republican Field: "They're All Losers"
RealClearPolitics
Sen. Harry Reid speaks candidly to CNBC's Chief Washington Correspondent John Harwood about everyone from Rush Limbaugh and John Boehner to Bill and Hillary Clinton. JOHN HARWOOD: Are you entirely comfortable with Hillary Clinton as the ...

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Blades of glory: Capitol gyrocopter stunt is Florida mailman's special delivery by Alan Yuhas
Wednesday April 15th, 2015 at 4:23 PM

Doug Hughes lands the flying craft on the west lawn carrying 535 stamped letters – one for each member of Congress – to protest campaign finance laws

A Florida mailman landed a small gyrocopter on the lawn of the US Capitol on Wednesday, in an act of protest against the influence of money in politics.

Pilot Doug Hughes, 61, landed on the lawn without incident and was immediately taken into custody by police.

RN: there's a 75 yr old man in a gyrocopter flying to the capitol mall in DC http://t.co/ZgcUJXK8yQ pic.twitter.com/xZeo8aD8fr

The point of the flight is to spotlight corruption in DC and more importantly, to present the solution(s) to the institutional graft. There will be apprehension about the threat posed by any aircraft that defies the no-fly zone. I’m as curious as anyone what the response will be. Maybe more.

Let me assure you, as I have informed the authorities, I have no violent inclinations or intent. An ultralight aircraft poses no major physical threat – it may present a political threat to graft. I hope so.

it's a small "gyrocopter" - he's been arrested by Capitol Police pic.twitter.com/XlqinJcMy7

Foreign Delegation on US Tour to Fight Extremismby VOA News
Wednesday April 15th, 2015 at 4:23 PM

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	Foreign Delegation on US Tour to Fight Extremism President Barack Obama and Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi have discussed efforts to fight Islamic State militants. However, another effort to combat the group's violent extremism is...	From: VOA News Views: 0 0 ratings
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Global trade faces poor growth, says WTO
Wednesday April 15th, 2015 at 4:22 PM

World News

Forecast from economists will add to fears that globalisation is stalling

Anger Over Reports of DEA Agents' Parties, and Bewilderment at Mild Penalties - New York Times
Wednesday April 15th, 2015 at 4:20 PM

Anger Over Reports of DEA Agents' Parties, and Bewilderment at Mild Penalties
New York Times
WASHINGTON — Lawmakers expressed outrage at a House Oversight Committee hearing on Tuesday over allegations that Drug Enforcement Administration agents repeatedly participated in sex parties with prostitutes on government-rented property.

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Anger Over Reports of DEA Agents' Parties, and Bewilderment at Mild Penalties - New York Times
Wednesday April 15th, 2015 at 4:20 PM

AP Top Headlines At 4 P.M. EDT

CNN International

Guam attorney general orders territory to allow gay marriage
Wednesday April 15th, 2015 at 4:19 PM

HAGATNA, Guam (AP) -- Guam on Wednesday became the first U.S. territory to allow gay marriage after its attorney general directed officials to immediately begin processing same-sex-marriage applications....

'Gay conversion therapy' conference: speakers claim religious freedom is under attack by Haroon Siddique
Wednesday April 15th, 2015 at 4:18 PM

Attendees at Emmanuel Centre, London, say ‘sexual orientation change efforts’ are necessary as Barack Obama and the NHS say practice is harmful and unethical

There was something of a siege mentality at the Emmanuel Centre in central London, the venue for a conference to promote “sexual orientation change efforts” – more commonly known, and derided, as gay conversion therapy.

Many of the sessions were closed to the press (to facilitate, we were told, open discussion in private). A day earlier, a Ukip parliamentary candidate pulled out of the conference after the media started asking questions about his presence. Barack Obama last week lent his support to a campaign calling for a federal ban on the practice. And in the UK, 14 health organisations, including NHS England and the Royal Colleges of GPs and Psychiatrists, have signed a memorandum of understanding stating that “efforts to try to change or alter sexual orientation through psychological therapies are unethical and potentially harmful”.

Ukraine looks to foreign-born reformists
Wednesday April 15th, 2015 at 4:17 PM

World News

Kiev is pinning hopes on overseas talent to fight economic slump and corruption in war-torn nation

Tombstone of Hillary Clinton's father toppled - Politico
Wednesday April 15th, 2015 at 4:13 PM

World News - Breaking International News And Headlines | Sky News

Tombstone of Hillary Clinton's father toppled
Politico
Most Read; Videos. Feds: Judge 'misconstrued' Obama on immigration · Al Qaeda Is beating the Islamic State · The hidden battle to build the Air Force's new stealth bomber · Clinton names top 3 wonks for campaign · Hillary's folksy, populist reentry · The man ...

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Gravestone Of Hillary Clinton's Dad Toppled
Wednesday April 15th, 2015 at 4:13 PM

Police suspect an act of vandalism as the gravestone is found toppled over two days after Clinton launched her White House bid.

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Page 4

Extra virgin '100% real' olive oil goes on sale in UKby Rebecca Smithers
Wednesday April 15th, 2015 at 4:08 PM

French Querubi oil, claiming to be produced without insecticides or fertilisers, aims to stand out in an industry plagued by fraud

An extra virgin olive oil produced in France and which the grower claims to be produced entirely without insecticides and fertilisers goes on sale in the UK this week.

The product differs from most commercially-produced olive oils, which largely rely on fertilisers and treatments to feed the soil, kill pests and keep weeds at bay.

Reid Denies He Got Beat Up By The Mob [VIDEO] - Daily Caller
Wednesday April 15th, 2015 at 4:07 PM

NBCNews.com

Reid Denies He Got Beat Up By The Mob [VIDEO]
Daily Caller
“In the last few days, a bunch of people are saying, 'Reid, he didn't have an exercise accident. He got beaten up by the mob,'” Harwood said. “It shows the credibility of Rush Limbaugh. He's the guy who got that started,” Reid responded. “Why in the world ...
Harry Reid: The 2016 Republicans are 'all losers'Washington Post (blog)
Reid Reviews 2016 Republicans: 'I Don't Really Care. I Think They're All Losers'Bloomberg
Harry Reid didn't hold back when talking about the GOP field for 2016TheBlaze.com (blog)
Talk Radio News Service -PoliticusUSA -Salon
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'No end to sanctions, no agreement': Iran sticks to nuclear deal demands - RT
Wednesday April 15th, 2015 at 4:06 PM

'No end to sanctions, no agreement': Iran sticks to nuclear deal demands
RT
There'll be no deal on Tehran's nuclear program without the simultaneous lifting of all sanctions against Iran, President Hassan Rouhani stressed, echoing an earlier statement by Iranian supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. "If there is no end to sanctions, ...

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Cuba has shown us that sanctions don’t work – so why keep using them? by Simon Jenkins
Wednesday April 15th, 2015 at 4:04 PM

With all the subtlety of Game of Thrones, this kind of warfare has become the default mode of western diplomacy. Yet the only people they hurt are the poor

The days are long gone when Labour was torn apart by ban the bomb. For the party leader, Ed Miliband, the Trident missile is what HS2 is for David Cameron. It is political tokenism, machismo, image candy. Am I big on defence, Miliband said to an interviewer. “Hell, yes.” Look at my weapons.

For Britain (and France), nuclear bombs are to foreign policy what Olympics are to proper sport: chauvinism bereft of intellectual justification or value for money. But what of weapons that actually hurt people? This week the United States was still refusing to lift economic sanctions on Cuba, even while admitting their failure for half a century to bring down the Castro regime. Indeed, the effect of sanctions is Cuba’s chief tourism appeal.

The one coercion that dictatorships understand is an army firing guns. It worked against Serbia, the Taliban and Saddam

Iraq fails to halt Isis advance in Anbar
Wednesday April 15th, 2015 at 4:04 PM

World News

Attempts to reduce reliance on Shia militias results in gains by jihadists

Obviously Terrified Harry Reid Refuses to Finger Mafia Assailants - New York Magazine
Wednesday April 15th, 2015 at 4:03 PM

New York Magazine

Obviously Terrified Harry Reid Refuses to Finger Mafia Assailants
New York Magazine
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) maintains implausible story. Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images. In January, Harry Reid, sporting a bandaged eye, told reporters he had suffered an exercise mishap in his home. The cover story was obvious bunk.

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US Congressional Hearing Looks at Countering Russian Propaganda by webdesk@voanews.com (VOA News)
Wednesday April 15th, 2015 at 4:03 PM

Participants in a Congressional hearing Wednesday argued that Russia is waging sophisticated propaganda campaign that threatens American allies and interests - and that U.S. government-funded news media haven’t adequately countered that disinformation. “Russia’s propaganda machine is in overdrive, working to subvert democratic stability and foment violence,” the chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs Committee, Ed Royce of California, said in opening the...

Greece in talks with Russia to buy missiles for S-300 systems: RIA
Wednesday April 15th, 2015 at 4:02 PM

Reuters: World News

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Greece is negotiating with Russia for the purchase of missiles for its S-300 anti-missile systems and for their maintenance, Russia's RIA news agency quoted Greek Defense Minister Panos Kammenos as saying on Wednesday.

Diplomat's teen son indicted for murder of brother, drug dealer - Toronto Sun
Wednesday April 15th, 2015 at 4:02 PM

The InterpreterThe Interpreter

Toronto Sun

Diplomat's teen son indicted for murder of brother, drug dealer
Toronto Sun
The 15-year-old son of a Canadian diplomat has been indicted on a first-degree felony murder charge in Florida in the shooting deaths of his brother and another teenager during a drug deal gone wrong. Marc Wabafiyebazu, 15, was indicted for the shooting ...
Canadian diplomat's teenage son charged with murder as adultSTLtoday.com
Grand jury indicts Canadian diplomat's son in fatal shootingLocal 10

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Planned Motorcycle Rally by the Night Wolves, a Putin Ally, Has Poland on Edge by RICK LYMAN
Wednesday April 15th, 2015 at 4:01 PM

NYT > World

Amid tensions over Ukraine, hundreds of motorcyclists plan to roar from Moscow to Berlin to mark the 70th anniversary of the victory over the Nazis.

Attacks Against Jews Spiked in 2014, Israeli Researchers Sayby tylerborchers2014
Wednesday April 15th, 2015 at 4:01 PM

TIME

(TEL AVIV, Israel) — Jewish communities around the world faced an “explosion of hatred” last year, with the number of violent anti-Semitic attacks rising by 38 percent, according to a report released Wednesday by Israeli researchers.

With most of the violence concentrated in Western Europe, Jewish leaders warned that many in their communities are questioning whether they have any future in the region.

The report by researchers at Tel Aviv University recorded 766 incidents — ranging from armed assaults to vandalism against synagogues, schools and cemeteries — compared to 554 in 2013.

Many Jews feel like “they are facing an explosion of hatred toward them as individuals, their communities, and Israel, as a Jewish state,” wrote the researchers from the university’s Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry.

The center releases the report every year on the eve of Israel’s Holocaust memorial day, which begins Wednesday at sundown.

The researchers said the increase in attacks on Jews was partly linked to last summer’s conflict between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip as well as to what they called a “general climate of hatred and violence” fostered by the rise of the Islamic State group in the Middle East.

The report said 2014 was the second most violent year for Jews in a decade after 2009, which also saw a surge in anti-Semitism following an Israeli military operation in Gaza.

The violence in 2014 spiked during the July-August war in Gaza, particularly in demonstrations organized in France, Germany and other countries, during which protesters chanted anti-Semitic slogans, looted Jewish shops and attacked synagogues as well as people identifiable as Jews.

However, researchers stressed that attacks had been on the rise also before the summer and said the controversy over Israel’s operation was used as a pretext to attack Jews.

“Synagogues were targeted, not Israeli embassies,” said Dina Porat, a historian who edited the report.

The reported incidents do not include the killing of four shoppers at a kosher supermarket in Paris following the deadly shooting at French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, since those events occurred in January.

However, the researchers noted that the wave of attacks has continued this year, and that the gruesome acts and propaganda videos of the Islamic State are also encouraging the radicalization of Muslims in the West.

Moshe Kantor, president of the European Jewish Congress, an umbrella group representing communities across the continent, said Jewish life has reached a “tipping point” in Europe.

“Some are choosing to leave the continent, many are afraid to walk the streets and even more are retreating behind high walls and barbed wire,” Kantor told The Associated Press in an e-mail. “This has become the new reality of Jewish life in Europe.”

Kantor said that while governments have pledged to boost security for their Jewish communities, they must do more at a pan-European level to share intelligence, toughen legislation and combat pervasive anti-Semitic attitudes in the general population.

“European Jews should not leave out of fear and should push their leaders to defeat anti-Semitism and radical Islamist terrorism,” he said.

As in past years, the highest number of attacks was reported in France, which saw 164 incidents compared to 141 in 2013. In Britain there were 141 attacks, up from 95, and in the United States there were 80 incidents versus 55, including a shooting at Jewish sites in Overland Park, Kansas, that killed three people.

Some western European countries saw even greater increases, with the number of incidents more than doubling in Germany, Belgium, Austria and Sweden. The attacks also target individuals more frequently, with 306 cases involving people as victims, a 66 percent increase.

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Putin Mistakenly Believes His Nuclear Threats Will Keep NATO from Defending Baltics, Piontkovsky Says by Paul Goble
Wednesday April 15th, 2015 at 4:00 PM

Staunton, April 14 – Vladimir Putin believes that he can dominate the Baltic countries and destroy NATO not by a direct invasion which the Western alliance is prepared to counter but rather by threatening to use nuclear weapons against them and the Europeans, something that would lead the West not to come to their aid, according to Andrey Piontkovsky.

“But the West has not fallen victim to this blackmail,” the Russian analyst argues, “because the Baltic countries are NATO members and if they are not provided with assistance, this would mean the defeat not only of the NATO alliance but of the West as a whole.”

That difference in perception between the Kremlin and the West is so large that Moscow’s ongoing “hybrid war” against the West in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania that the stakes there are even higher than they have been in Ukraine and that a full-scale war between Russia and the West is now possible, Piontkovsky suggests.

The arrival of American tanks in Poland and the Baltic countries has a direct relation to “what is happening today on the Ukrainian-Russian border,” he says, but “there is here a braoder aspect of the hybrid war which Moscow has declared against the West. The most important element of that conflict is nuclear blackmail” which Moscow has tried to use over the last year.

Putin and his entourage have repeatedly spoken about reducing the Baltic countries, Germany and France to nuclear rubble and say that “they will use nuclear arms” if the West offers Ukraine arms. But such threats are about far more than just Ukraine and its ability to get lethal arms from the West.

“The key problem is the issue of the Baltics,” Piontkovsky says. “Putin’s conception of ‘the Russian world,’ which gives him the holy right to defend not only Russian citizens but all who speak Russia is uncontrollably pushing him toward the scenario of the defense of the Russians of the Baltic countries.”

“A hybrid war against Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia is being carried out quite intensively already,” he points out, and includes “provocations with planes, the kidnapping of an Estonian officer, and propaganda about [Moscow’s] concern for the complex situation of Russian speaking citizens” of those three countries.

But Putin has no interest in the territory of the Baltic states, just as he has no interest in the territory of Ukraine as such. Instead, what he has done in the case of Ukraine is to implant “a cancerous tumor within Ukraine” and what he wants to do in the case of the Baltics is “to destroy NATO.”

What after all is NATO? A defense alliance whose Article 5 requires that all members come to the defense of any one of them which is attacked. “And when ‘the little green men’ appear in Estonia and Latvia,” Piontkovsky says, “the NATO countries and the US as its main core will be obligated to provide military assistance.”

Putin assumes that nuclear blackmail will be enough to keep that from happening. He does not intend to fight, Piontkovsky says; he intends to win by intimidation. And “he understands that the value of human life in Western society is much higher than in Russia and that the West could be frightened and not come to the aide of the Baltic countries.”

So far, NATO hasn’t been, and the decision to put some 100 American troops in Estonia matters, not because they constitute a defense force in and of themselves but because of their “enormous psychological and political meaning.” Now, when Putin’s “’little green men’ appear in Narva, American will automatically go to war with Russia.”

In short and at least for now, Putin’s nuclear blackmail has not worked, but the thinking behind it means that the next round of his hybrid war against the West may be far more dangerous than earlier ones in Georgia and Ukraine.

According to Piontkovsky, the Kremlin “has still not taken a decision about further attacks in Ukraine, but if that happens,” he says, “then the reaction of the West will be unambiguous: new sanctions will be imposed and Ukraine will receive arms.” That is restraining Moscow now, but it is unclear for how long.

That is because, the Russian analyst says, “we cannot look into the head of someone of whom [German Chancellor Angela] Merkel said that he lives in another reality. Nevertheless, if such a decision will be taken, it will only accelerate the final days of the Putin regime.”

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Are Russia And Europe Parting Ways?
Wednesday April 15th, 2015 at 3:59 PM

If Europe wants to diversify away from Russian natural gas, ‘go ahead and make my day’ seems to be the words to read between the lines in the state run media in Moscow. The country’s biggest natural gas company said that natural gas resources that used to be bound for Europe will see much greater competition now from China. Gazprom and Chinese state entities signed deals last year to get Russian natural gas to fire up the Red Dragon.

“The resource base of Western Siberia is a resource that is used for delivering gas for exports to Europe. In other words, at this point we are on the cutting edge when actual competitiveness will begin for our energy resources between two mega-markets: Asian and European,” Gazprom’s chief executive Alexei Miller told Rossiya-24, Russia’s 24-hour news station.

Last May, Gazprom and China National Petroleum Corporation signed a 30-year gas supply dealestimated to be worth $400 billion. Under the deal, Russia will to export 38 billion cubic meters of gas to China each year.

Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller departs after attending press conferences following talks between Ukrainian Energy Minister Yuriy Prodan, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak and European Union Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger over the future of Russian natural gas deliveries to Ukraine on September 26, 2014 in Berlin, Germany. Ukraine has driven a wedge between Gazprom and its main client, the European Union. As the E.U. sanctions Russia, Gazprom continues to tout its new BFF: China. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

Russia and Europe are going through a parting of ways of late. All of it has to do with Ukraine and not conflicts over energy security. When pro-Russia leader Viktor Yanukovych was removed from powerin Kyiv by extra-legal means, the new decisively pro-Western government, then led by Arseniy “Yats” Yatsenyuk, quickly moved to ink deals with Europe. The Kremlin, with its innate fear of Western expansion via NATO, quickly moved to annex Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula. It is home to Russia’s Black Sea fleet, and its only warm water port. Sanctions began after the annexation in March 2014 and have escalated. So has the bloodshed. Not in Crimea, where most people support annexation, but in four eastern states now looking to follow in Crimea’s footsteps. Russia has been providing covert and overt military support for those breakaway provinces. Washington sanctioned Gazpromlate last year.

Russia’s government, which loves a good conspiracy theory as much as the next guy, believes the U.S. is looking to use Ukraine as a means to drive a wedge between the European Union and Russia. Russia is an integral part of E.U. energy security. Gazprom alone accounts for nearly a third of all E.U. imports of natural gas.

But with the U.S. awash in fracked gas from across the country, expectations are for American energy companies to become liquefied natural gas exporters to the E.U. Lithuania is building a floating LNG terminal to welcome U.S. gas. So is Poland, supposedly.

Russia, always the victim, sees this as a slight of hand by Europe. And so if Europe wants to diss Gazprom, then Gazprom will court the Chinese. Until now, China has been non-existent in Gazprom’s balance sheet. It is going to take years before China is a factor in Gazprom’s bottom line.

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· · ·

Another Sign Russia’s Matryoshka Autonomies are at Risk of Being Further Downgraded by Paul Goble
Wednesday April 15th, 2015 at 3:58 PM

The InterpreterThe Interpreter

Staunton, April 14 – Vladimir Putin’s press secretary says that no one from the Nenets Autonomous District in Arkhangelsk Region or the Khanty-Mansiisk and Yamalo-Nenets ADs in Tyumen Region has submitted any questions for the president’s upcoming direct line program, a remark some say means the Kremlin doesn’t “view these autonomies as independent subjects.”

Dmitry Peskov said that “in all probability,” the residents of these three matryoshka autonomies “have no questions for Putin and that there everything is fine.” But analysts with whom Znak.com spoke say that his apparently off-the-cuff words send a clear message.

On the one hand, they intensify nervousness about the appointment of governors in all three places, suggesting that the powers of those heading the autonomies may be cut relative to those of the oblast head. And on the other, his words may mean that the issue of regional amalgamation may be about to be reopened.

The two predominantly Russian regions have administrative control over the three ADs, but the large oil and gas reserves of the matryoshka autonomies and the power of Russia’s gas and oil industries have allowed them to resist the Russian regions’ intervention. Consequently, any signal from Moscow that they are of less importance is a matter of extreme concern.

Peskov’s words, Znak.com points out, were immediately featured in “all federal and regional information agencies,” a pattern that suggests they were intended to be taken seriously. In the capitals of the matryoshka autonomies, that is certainly the case, given that Putin must propose new heads to the AD parliaments in the coming months.

Normally, Russian political analysts say, Moscow is concerned about questions coming from the people of this or that region because it suggests there may be problems between the authorities and the population. But here, they argue, the situation is just the reverse: “the Kremlin has become concerned about the absence of [such] questions.

Aleksandr Belousov, a Urals political scientist, suggests that the residents of these three matryoshka autonomies are not that concerned about domestic policies – they are used to taking care of themselves – and don’t need to ask Moscow about foreign policies and especially Ukraine because there are large numbers of ethnic Ukrainians living among them.

Other analysts, including Tyumen political scientist Aleksandr Bezdelov, said that Peshkov’s words may not be accurate or reflect reality. He may have been given incorrect information intentionally. Or, as Moscow analyst Konstantin Kalachev suggested, it may be that the people counting the questions for the Kremlin group them by region and not by AD.

In that event, someone calling in from one of the three matryoshka autonomies would be listed as having called from one of the two Russian regions. That could mean either nothing or, Kalachev said, a great deal if in fact “in the Kremlin, they have ceased to consider the autonomies as independent subjects.”

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· ·

Ukrainian Troops Killed Despite Renewed Commitment to Cease-fire Deal
Wednesday April 15th, 2015 at 3:58 PM

The InterpreterThe Interpreter

Ukraine's military says more of its soldiers have been killed in the past two days by mortar and rocket fire from Russian-backed separatists. The fighting has intensified in eastern Ukraine despite the Minsk cease-fire deal signed in February. Both sides agreed Monday to pull more heavy weapons back from the front line, but as Henry Ridgwell reports from London, there are fears that the peace deal is becoming increasingly fragile.

Young North Caucasians Ever More Often Using Fire Arms to Settle Disputes, Expert Says by Paul Goble
Wednesday April 15th, 2015 at 3:56 PM

Staunton, April 14 – While Russians have been focusing on Ukraine, the situation in the North Caucasus has deteriorated in two important ways, according to Maya Astvatsaturova. On the one hand, disputes of any kind are increasingly invested with ethnic meaning. And on the other, young people are better armed and ready to use guns in these disputes than before.

In commentary for Nazaccent.ru, Astvatsaturova, director of the Center for Ethno-Political Research at the Pyatigorsk State Language University, says that although the situation in the region is “under control,” there is “a hidden conflict generating potential” which no one should ignore.

While there has been “a strengthening of all-Russian civic patriotism which has overcome ethno- and religious-centric views” in portions of the region, the regional expert argues, challenges and risks which “violate both the social-political and social-economic stability in the region.”

The main source of such destabilizing activity, Astvatsaturova says, “remains the activity of illegal terrorist structures, extremist national-religious cells and illegal armed formations.” Moreover, ISIS has “strengthened its influence on Muslim communities including local North Caucasian ones.” And it is increasingly cooperating with the Caucasus Emirate.’

She suggested that this trend is most in evidence in Chechnya and Dagestan.

Astvatsaturova’s comments came in what has been a wave of critical reaction among experts to the assertion of Sergeu Melikov, the new presidential plenipotentiary for the North Caucasus, that “there are no inter-ethnic conflicts in the North Caucasus” and that “all problems have social-economic causes.”

She says that the experts and the plenipotentiary have now reached “a compromise” definition of the situation, according to which, “the inter-ethnic conflicts which took place in the 1990s do not now exist and that in reality, there are none today and the situation on the whole is under control.”

But like her colleagues, she argues that there is the potential for new conflicts, that all of them will be invested with ethnic meaning, and that given the availability of fire arms and the willingness of young people to use them, they are likely to be more rather than less violent than in the past.

Nationalism in the North Cacuasus, the scholar continues, takes the form of negative ethnic stereotypes and dissatisfaction between Russians and non-Russians, between Russians and Caucasians, and between North Caucasians and other North Caucasians. Especially sharp in recent times have been ethnic issues involving the Circassians, the Russians, the Chechens-Akintsy, the peoples of Dagestan and also the Kabardinians and Balkars.

Read the whole story

· ·

President tightens grip on state
Wednesday April 15th, 2015 at 3:56 PM

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A flood of legislation has centralised power in the run-up to elections

US Senate Panel Approves Legislation on Nuclear Deal With Iran
Wednesday April 15th, 2015 at 3:55 PM

A U.S. Senate panel has approved legislation that would give Congress a right to vote on a possible deal with Iran aimed at preventing Tehran from developing a nuclear weapon in exchange for sanctions relief. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted on the bill Tuesday after Democrats and Republicans reached a compromise on the measure. Zlatica Hoke reports.

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Page 7

To absent friends: Moscow defiant as Europe boycotts Victory Day parade by Shaun Walker in Moscow
Wednesday April 15th, 2015 at 3:55 PM

Russia | The Guardian

Putin to rub shoulders with autocrats like Kim Jong-un on 9 May, as EU leaders decide to avoid 70th anniversary spectacle because of Russia’s actions in Ukraine

About 16,000 soldiers, 200 armoured vehicles and 150 planes and helicopters will take part in a Moscow parade for Victory Day on 9 May, dubbed Russia’s “biggest holiday” by Vladimir Putin. This year marks 70 years since the allied victory in the second world war, and will be the last major anniversary of the conflict when significant numbers of veterans are still alive.

Conspicuous by their absence, however, will be western politicians, who are staying away from the celebrations on Red Square in protest against Russia’s actions in Ukraine. Instead, a number of the world’s most notorious autocrats will attend, including Kim Jong-un, who will be making his first foreign visit as leader of North Korea.

No one asked the veterans whether it is right to boycott those who lost hundreds of thousands saving Europe from fascism

After all the anti-Russian propaganda, nobody in Europe remembers that 140,000 Soviets died liberating Czechoslovakia

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Wednesday April 15th, 2015 at 3:54 PM

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The Daily Vertical: Keep An Eye On Karelia
Wednesday April 15th, 2015 at 3:52 PM

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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.

6 Celebrities You Didn't Know Had Russian Rootsby By Jennifer Monaghan
Wednesday April 15th, 2015 at 3:51 PM

Dig a little deeper under the surface and it's surprising how many well-known celebrities and politicians have their ancestral roots in Russia.

IS Militants Launch Counteroffensive, Capture Villages Near Ramadi
Wednesday April 15th, 2015 at 3:51 PM

Residents in Iraq’s western province of Anbar say Islamic State (IS) militants launched a fierce counteroffensive near the city of Ramadi on April 15, capturing three villages from government forces.

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Сотрудник ЦРУ признался в казни Мэрилин Монро и убийствах "неугодных Белому дому" - Правда.Ру
Wednesday April 15th, 2015 at 3:51 PM

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Глава СБУ вновь высказал обвинения в адрес Владислава Суркова - ИА REGNUM
Wednesday April 15th, 2015 at 3:50 PM

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Russian Professor Convicted Of Treason Dies In Prison
Wednesday April 15th, 2015 at 3:49 PM

A Russian engineering professor convicted of passing military secrets to China has died in prison.

Сотрудник ЦРУ признался в убийстве Мэрилин Монро - Российская Газета
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Iran To Use Influence As 'Major Power' To Bring Peace To Yemen
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Iran says it will use its influence as a "major force" in the region to broker a peace deal to end fighting in Yemen.

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Wednesday April 15th, 2015 at 3:47 PM