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Search of Sputnik Estonia Office Was Illegal, Local Court Rules

Samizdat – 13.07.2022

Sputnik International’s Estonia-based sister portal Sputnik Meedia was forced to shut down in March amid unprecedented pressure from Estonian authorities and banks, and a wave of personal threats against employees. But the outlet’s persecution by local authorities goes all the way back to 2019.

An Estonian court has ruled authorities’ April search of the former editorial office of Sputnik Meedia and former Sputnik Meedia editor-in-chief Elena Cherysheva’s home illegal, Cherysheva has informed Sputnik.

Cherysheva, who was detained on April 6 for alleged “crimes against peace” and purported “violations of international sanctions,” had her house searched. Her husband was taken to the former office of Sputnik Meedia, and it too was searched. After 16 hours of rummaging, authorities sent Cherysheva to a detention center, but was later released on bail. The ex-Sputnik Meedia employee said the searches were authorized by Estonian State Prosecutor’s Office lead prosecutor Taavi Pern.

“On April 8, the Prosecutor’s Office sent a search warrant and additional documents to the preliminary investigation judge in Harju County Court requesting that the search warrant be recognized as admissible and justified. The judge did not do so. As the court clarified, a person whose activities are related to the processing of information for journalistic purposes can be searched only on the basis of a ruling by a preliminary investigation judge or a court decision,” Cherysheva explained.

She added that the Prosecutor’s Office filed a complaint with the Tallinn District Court challenging the Harju County Court’s decision, but the higher court upheld the ruling.
Cherysheva further revealed the Harju County Court had also ruled in her favor to return her part of the personal property which authorities seized in April, after the State Prosecutor’s Office refused to do so.

“In its decision, the Harju County Court emphasized that given the decision of the Tallinn District Court of May 10 on the groundlessness and illegality of the search, it is not clear to the court on what basis the investigator continues to withhold funds found and seized during the search,” she said.

Sputnik’s Estonian sister agency has been hounded by the Baltic country’s authorities for years. Sputnik Meedia itself was created in early 2020 by former employees of Sputnik Estonia, which was forced to shutter its doors amid threats of criminal charges against its journalists by police, and after Estonian banks suspended Sputnik-related accounts in late 2019.

Sputnik Meedia was forced to terminate its operations in early March of this year, with banks freezing salaries and closing the media outlet’s accounts amid alleged suspicions of “money laundering, terrorist financing and the illegal sale of alcohol.” On top of that, the agency’s editor-in-chief and staff received regular threats against their life and safety.

July 13, 2022 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Full Spectrum Dominance, Russophobia | | Leave a comment

Moscow and Kiev agree to create a “coordination center” on grain exports in Istanbul

Samizdat | July 13, 2022

Russia and Ukraine have agreed to establish a joint coordination center on grain exports in Istanbul that will include representatives from all parties, Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar told local media following the four-way talks that also involved Turkey and the UN.

On Wednesday, negotiators from Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the UN met in the Turkish city to discuss the situation regarding the held-up Ukrainian exports.

Ahead of the meeting, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba said that Kiev and Moscow had been close to breaking the impasse on the issue.

“An agreement has been reached on technical issues such as joint controls at the destination points and … the safety of navigation on the transfer routes,” Akar told journalists. Russian and Ukrainian delegations “should meet again in Turkey next week,” he said, adding that the parties would “review all the details once again” during that meeting.

Ukraine is one of the world’s leading grain exporters. Yet, it has been unable to export its grain by sea due to the ongoing conflict with Russia. Kiev and Western nations have accused Moscow of preventing Ukrainian grain shipments from leaving the nation’s Black Sea ports. Russia has denied such accusations and, in turn, blamed Kiev for the crisis, arguing that its forces mined the Black Sea waters, thus creating a threat to the cargo ships.

The West has also accused Moscow of attempting to cause a global food crisis by supposedly blocking shipments of Ukrainian grain and “using hunger as a weapon.”

Last month, President Vladimir Putin said that Russia was not impeding exports and criticized the West for its “cynical attitude” towards the food supply of developing nations, which have been the most affected by the soaring prices. Moscow is ready to provide free passage to international waters for ships carrying grain, he added.

July 13, 2022 Posted by | Economics | , , | Leave a comment

Petro Government in Colombia Poised to Return Key ‘Stolen’ Asset to Venezuela

By José Luis Granados Ceja | Venezuelanalysis | July 11, 2022

Troubled agrochemical company Monómeros, a subsidiary of Venezuela’s state-owned Pequiven, could return to Venezuelan control, Colombian President-elect Gustavo Petro told local radio Tuesday.

The Colombia-based agrochemical producer is considered Venezuela’s second most important foreign-held asset. It came under the control of Venezuela’s hardline opposition in May 2019 alongside a number of other foreign assets following the recognition of Juan Guaidó as “interim president” by Washington and its allies as part of efforts to oust the Nicolás Maduro government.

Since being handed over to the opposition, Monómeros has been plagued by scandals and corruption allegations, which has severely impacted its productivity and has generated serious problems for Colombia’s rural producers.

Colombian Senator Luis Fernando Velasco Chaves, a member of Petro’s transition team managing the Presidential Administrative Office file, reiterated concerns about the management of the firm following a meeting Tuesday with officials from the government of outgoing president President Ivan Duque.

“I am very concerned that Monómeros is still in the hands of Guaidó, Monómeros in the hands of Guaidó was a disaster, it disappeared,” said Velasco.

The senator also ridiculed Guaidó’s management of Monómeros, saying the incoming government could not negotiate with “ghosts that do not exist”.

The agrochemical enterprise, which has two main plants, played a major role in Colombia’s food chain, previously supplying nearly half of the fertilizers and 70 percent of the agrochemicals used by coffee, potato and palm oil production, according to local sources.

“Please look at what is happening to us, ask our peasants, ask our farmers, we are not producing and we are paying three times the [previous] cost of supplies,” said Velasco.

Mismanagement and infighting by the Venezuelan opposition eventually led Colombia’s Corporation Superintendency to assume control of Monómeros. Colombian law allows the corporate watchdog to employ such a process when an enterprise is in a critical “judicial, accounting, economic or administrative” situation.

The Maduro government called the superintendency’s takeover a “flagrant theft” of Venezuela’s assets and demanded they be returned to its rightful owner, the state-owned petrochemical company Pequiven. Maduro has said that Venezuela was engaged in “permanent diplomatic, political and legal activity” to recover the country’s foreign assets and the government has made the return of seized foreign assets a condition of a return to talks with the opposition.

The agrochemical producer did not fare much better under control by Colombian officials, with Petro claiming the company was driven into the ground, leading to a sharp increase in costs for Colombia’s agricultural sector.

“The company ended up practically closing its operations and lost the market it had in Colombia,” said the president-elect in a recent interview.

Monómeros faced yet another scandal after officials from the US Embassy to Venezuela revealed to Guaidó insider Enrique Sánchez Falcón that the company’s board had hired a lobbyist with ties to former US Ambassador to Venezuela Otto Reich without the knowledge or authorization of Guaidó’s team.

Sánchez Falcón told the outlet Efecto Cocuyo that the lobbyist was allegedly working to renew Monómeros’ sanctions waiver with the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) but that the effort was “unnecessary” since the license was likely forthcoming anyway. Guaidó subsequently announced an investigation into the irregular hire of the lobbyist. The OFAC license was eventually renewed in late June.

The current leadership of the firm has apparently failed to even update officials from Guaidó’s team about the status of the Monómeros. Guaidó ally Yon Goicoechea said he believes the secrecy is tied to a hostile takeover effort. The US-backed “interim president” has pledged to overhaul the management of the corporation but the efforts have led to corruption accusations and further infighting amidst the opposition camp.

A press spokesperson from Guaidó’s office did not respond to a request for comment on the possible return of Monómeros to Venezuelan state management.

Outgoing Colombian President Iván Duque has steadfastly refused to return control of Monómeros to Venezuela, given that he does not recognize Maduro as president.

Duque recently said that he would also decline to extend an invitation to Maduro for Petro’s inauguration. The president-elect has said invitations are the purview of the outgoing government but said Maduro’s attendance would be “prudent”.

Petro, who has committed to reestablishing diplomatic and economic ties between Colombia and Venezuela, takes office on August 9.

Edited by Ricardo Vaz in Mérida.

July 13, 2022 Posted by | Corruption, Malthusian Ideology, Phony Scarcity | , , | Leave a comment

Ukraine wants $9 billion in monthly aid

Samizdat | July 13, 2022

Kiev has nearly doubled its request for monthly aid from its Western allies, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday, citing an economic adviser to the Ukrainian president.

“For the next months, we have to receive $9 billion per month instead of $5 billion,” the publication quotes Oleg Ustenko as saying, who added that “it will be next to impossible” for Ukraine to survive without the funds. The figure of $5 billion was announced by President Volodymyr Zelensky last month, an amount still way above what Kiev’s supporters have provided so far.

The US has given Ukraine $3 billion in aid over the past two weeks to help Kiev pay public sector-employees.

The EU has also pledged to support the country financially, although the bloc has struggled to structure the aid. On Tuesday, the European Council approved a €1 billion loan to Ukraine, as part of a €9 billion long-term loan package proposed by the European Commission in May. However, media reports suggest that Germany has been blocking the wider aid package, with some EU members questioning whether the overall amount of €9 billion is too much. Concern has also been voiced that Kiev may default on its debt.

Since February, the EU has provided €2.2 billion in aid to Ukraine.

July 13, 2022 Posted by | Corruption | , , | Leave a comment

Hunter Biden involved in ‘sexual offences’ with Ukrainians

By Lucas Leiroz | July 13, 2022

More and more, Hunter Biden, son of US President Joe Biden, is publicly involved in illegal schemes and moral scandals. Hunter is currently the subject of a federal investigation that points to several tax crimes, such as corruption, money laundering and lobbying abroad, but a possible sexual scandal now threatens even more the image of the Biden family.

According to allegations made by witnesses during the federal investigation Hunter was involved in at least three cases of prostitution in the US, having allegedly participated in the transporting of prostitutes from Boston to New York, where they worked for him. Transporting people between states for sex services is a crime in the US, according to the Mann Act, Title 18, Section 2421:

“Whoever knowingly transports any individual in interstate or foreign commerce, or in any Territory or Possession of the United States, with intent that such individual engages in prostitution, or in any sexual activity for which any person can be charged with a criminal offense, or attempts to do so, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 10 years, or both”.

Sources cited by the Daily Mail claim that he would have spent more than 30,000 dollars with the services of such prostitutes in about five months – between November 2018 and March 2019. The evidence of such expenses would be in documents and texts that are now being analyzed by the US police.

What is most impressive in the reports currently published on the case is that Hunter Biden would be in contact with alleged sexual exploiters in Ukraine in order to obtain the “supply” of Ukrainian sex workers in the US. A US-based Ukrainian citizen named Ekaterina Moreva would be reportedly receiving thousands of dollars from Hunter to provide prostitutes who would serve him and his friends in New York. Moreva reportedly put Hunter in touch with a Kiev’s sex services agency under the pseudonym “UberGFE”, whose services with Ukrainian women are available in several US states.

For example, Anna Dekhtiar, from Sunny Isles Beach, Florida, known as “the student” in the virtual prostitution networks, allegedly received hundreds of dollars from Hunter Biden between November 2018 and March 2019 due to activities that, according to her bank, were “without any clear and legitimate economic objective” – a bureaucratic justification common among people who try to hide the prostitution activity. The most curious thing, however, is that Dekhtiar subsequently donated much of her money to Moreva, showing that in fact there was a structured network of exploitation.

Although the case has not been ended, it is expected that Hunter will indeed be formally charged in court and convicted of a crime of sexual offence, considering that the evidence collected by the police seems strong and concrete. There are videos and photos on Hunter’s laptop and iPad where he is shown having sex with the hired prostitutes. There are even copies of his text messages with the prostitutes and with Moreva. All this leads to the expectation that in fact the US President’s son may soon have illegal sexual exploitation as one more item in his long list of crimes.

The scandals with Hunter Biden began over his controversial involvement with the Ukrainian company Burisma Holdings. Police and journalistic investigations pointed to his participation in various corruption schemes that were the target of criticism around the world and even threatened the stability of diplomatic ties between Washington and Kiev. Lately, Russian intelligence collected data that pointed to Biden’s participation in funding illegal activities of American military biolaboratories in Ukraine – to this day the US government remains silent about the case.

In his personal life Hunter has always been considered an “extravagant” person, accumulating problems such as drug addiction, exaggerated consumerism, sexual depravity, among others. His ex-wife, Kathleen Biden, accuses him of periodically spending large amounts of money on prostitutes, alcohol and drugs, as well as frequenting strip clubs and giving “gifts” to prostitutes he has hired in the past.

Obviously, all this is terrible for the image of the family of the president of the greatest world power. To make matters worse, the more scrutiny of Hunter’s personal life progresses, the more controversial secrets are uncovered and further tarnish the family name. Now, with the accusations of sexual crimes, the situation is especially serious, even more considering that it is related to the international exploitation of women, as he hired Ukrainian prostitutes in the US.

The result of this in the US domestic political scenario is obvious: more social pressure on Biden, the increase of his unpopularity and the growth of the Republicans for the upcoming elections.

Lucas Leiroz is a researcher in Social Sciences at the Rural Federal University of Rio de Janeiro; geopolitical consultant.

July 13, 2022 Posted by | Corruption | , | Leave a comment

Iran responds to US claims of drone shipments to Russia

Samizdat | July 13, 2022

Tehran will not help either side in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian has said in response to White House claims the Islamic Republic was planning to deliver “hundreds of drones” to Russia.

“We have different kinds of cooperation with Russia, including in the defense sector. But we are not going to help either side in this conflict because we believe that it has to be stopped,” Amir-Abdollahian told Italian newspaper la Repubblica on Wednesday.

“The current problem with the conflict is that some Western countries, including the United States, have arms manufacturers who are trying to sell their products,” he said, adding that Tehran “will avoid any action that could lead to escalation” but we will work to stop the conflict.

On Monday, US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters that Iran was “preparing to provide Russia with up to several hundred UAVs,” including combat drones.

Many Western countries, including the US, are supplying Kiev with heavy weaponry, such as missile launchers, armored vehicles and combat drones. Moscow insists that “flooding” Ukraine with weapons will only exacerbate the conflict.

Meanwhile Russian President Vladimir Putin will travel to Tehran on July 19 and meet with his counterparts Ebrahim Raisi of Iran and Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, according to the Kremlin.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday that Putin will not discuss possible drone supply during his trip to Tehran.

July 13, 2022 Posted by | Militarism | , , , | Leave a comment

Russia’s oil earnings continue to soar – IEA

Samizdat | July 13, 2022

Russia’s oil export revenue surged above $20 billion in June thanks to rising energy prices and despite lower shipments abroad, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in its monthly oil market report on Wednesday.

The agency’s statistics showed an increase of $700 million in June from the previous month, even as Russia’s daily exports of crude oil and products fell by 250,000 barrels to 7.4 million barrels, the lowest since August.

The country’s drop in exports last month was led by crude oil, which fell to just above 5 million barrels per day, according to the IEA. Daily flows to the EU fell below 3 million barrels, which is the lowest since November.

Meanwhile, global oil prices have been surging on strong demand and tight supply. The Brent benchmark averaged more than $117 a barrel last month, while Russia’s Urals rose 10.7% from May to average $87.25 a barrel.

Oil and gas revenue accounted for nearly half of Russia’s federal budget in 2021, according to IEA estimates.

Moscow said earlier it expects up to 1 trillion rubles (over $17 billion) in additional oil and gas revenues this year.

July 13, 2022 Posted by | Economics | | Leave a comment

Catastrophic Massacre – Outcomes of Injecting Babies – Dr. Jessica Rose

CHD.TV | July 8, 2022

References

Jessica’s Substack

Jessica’s Universe

Jessica’s Twitter

SARS-CoV-2 Infection of Human Ovarian Cells: A Potential Negative Impact on Female Fertility

Intracellular Reverse Transcription of Pfizer BioNTech COVID-19 mRNA Vaccine BNT162b2 In Vitro in Human Liver Cell Line

July 13, 2022 Posted by | Science and Pseudo-Science, Video, War Crimes | | Leave a comment

After extending the vaccine passport program, Canada threatens fines for those that don’t use it

By Ken Macon | Reclaim The Net | July 12, 2022

After extending the use of the controversial vaccine passport program, the Canadian government has threatened those who do not have a vaccine passport, which reveals someone’s vaccination status for travel, with fines.

Though the government suspended a Covid travel vaccine mandate last month, it has insisted on keeping the more controversial ArriveCAN in use.

International travelers and returning Canadians have to use the ArriveCAN app to submit their contact and travel information and their COVID vaccination status.

The ArriveCAN website states that all travelers will still be “required to submit their mandatory information in ArriveCAN (free mobile app or website) before their arrival in Canada.”

“If you don’t submit your travel information and proof of vaccination using ArriveCAN you could be fined $5,000.”

“All travelers still need a valid #ArriveCAN receipt within 72 hours before their arrival to Canada and/or before boarding a plane or cruise ship destined for Canada, regardless of vaccination status,” tweeted the Public Health Agency of Canada in the last week.

“Failure to complete your ArriveCAN submission can impact your eligibility exemptions, may result in fines, and creates longer wait times for all arriving at the border.”

The Conservative Party has called for the removal of the app, which has been blamed for delays at Canadian airports and airlines.

“Canadians have dealt with enough chaos at the airports. The Liberals need to listen to the science and end the ArriveCan app,” CPC’s interim leader Candice Bergen wrote on Twitter on Monday.

Despite the complaints from users and the delays, the Canadian government extended the use of ArriveCAN until at least September 30.

July 12, 2022 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Science and Pseudo-Science | , , | Leave a comment

CBC whistleblower quit over COVID propaganda

By Mike Campbell | The Counter Signal | July 12, 2022

On the Trish Wood podcast, former CBC reporter Marianne Klowak said the network lost its journalistic integrity in June 2021, when COVID vaccines became widely available and mandates were on the horizon.

“I tried to push through a number of stories that were censored and cancelled. We were no longer committed to truth and honesty,” Klowak told Wood.

Klowak described how she wanted to show both sides of the vaccine debate and let viewers decide for themselves. Moreover, at the time, she was finding concerning data coming out of Israel — a country where vaccines were available months before most others like Canada — and thought it was newsworthy. CBC disagreed.

“This was at the time when Israel was reporting links between the Pfizer vaccine and heart inflammation,” Klowak continued. “And, we were talking about this in the newsroom, about this link, and what could it mean… and how the trials were on for this vaccine until 2023, and I called a meeting with the managing editor and the exec, and I said we have to be really careful on this bandwagon we’re getting on promoting this vaccine because we don’t know what the outcome is going to be in a few years down the road.”

“What if this becomes another Thalidomide?” she asked, referencing the 1950’s drug that was given to pregnant women for nausea before being recalled after birth defects were discovered to be a prevalent side effect.

But her concerns fell on deaf ears.

According to Klowak, all nuance and skepticism were thrown out the door. The CBC was on team vaccine, and that was that.

“At breakneck speed, we were cancelling one whole side of the debate. And it just happened so quickly,” she explains. “You know, I was looking around the newsroom, thinking, ‘am I the only one who’s thinking this way? Am I the only one who’s seeing this?’”

She continues, saying that she had always enjoyed her time at the CBC and thought they gave “a voice to both sides of an issue” and would let the listener “decide what the truth was in that.” But now, she said, the CBC had decided to become “intentionally misleading.”

“All of a sudden, we were eliminating one entire side, and we were saying ‘Here’s the truth,’ and to me that was misleading — and it wasn’t honest.”

Klowak said that this was the turning point for the CBC. They were repressing information the public needed to “make a decision based on informed consent,” and things “started to spiral” into outright censorship at the network.

“It was quickly becoming not safe for people to tell their stories and to have their voices heard because they would be dismissed; they’d be cancelled; they’d be belittled,” Klowak explained.

“There was this huge disconnect between I saw what we were publishing and the stories I was hearing.“

Presenting only one side

Klowak gives an example of a story that didn’t get published because CBC wanted to spin it as pro-vaccine.

She says a group of parents contacted her with vaccine concerns. For example, they thought it was unethical to encourage children to get the vaccine behind their parents’ backs. Moreover, they had vaccine liability questions.

The group referenced expert virologist Byram Bridle from the University of Guelph to show that their concerns were based on science, not mere speculation.

Shocked by the division the vaccine was causing upon families and communities, Klowak pitched the story and was given the go-ahead by her editors.

She proceeded to seek out both sides of the scientific debate regarding COVID vaccines.

In the course of her research, Klowak came across the Candian COVID Care Alliance — a group of medical experts who presented an alternative vaccine perspective supported by scientific insights and data. The group had a petition calling to suspend vaccines in youth until long-term safety trials were completed.

Thinking this was a hard-hitting story that would “punch a hole in the narrative,” her copy-editor instructed her to show a draft to the Toronto Health Unit for feedback.

While none of the data in her draft was questioned by the authorities at the Toronto Health Unit, they attacked the reputation of the COVID Care Alliance.

Klowak was subsequently asked by CBC higher-ups to take the COVID Care Alliance out of the story and to include the two voices from Toronto Health Unit who supported vaccinating young people instead.

“So at that point, I went back to management. I said you know what, ‘I can’t do this. What you’re asking me to do is journalistically unethical. It’s manipulating information. This doesn’t sit well with me,’” Klowak said.

“It was dishonest. It was a dishonest thing for me to do. It was immoral for me as well. Because not only were we cancelling credible voices, we were violating our own principles of balance and fairness.“

“I couldn’t do what they were asking me to do by censoring an entire group of credible professionals just because they had a different viewpoint on this.”

“I’m thinking, this is not right. And it was moving the story towards the narrative, and not allowing dissenting voices to be heard.”

Smearing the unvaccinated 

Klowak further noted that the CBC moved from merely disregarding one side to outright smearing them with labels such as “anti-vaxxer.”

In 2021, she notes, the federal government conducted a survey to find the proportion of vaccine-hesitant Canadians, finding that 50% of the Canadian population was hesitant at the time because the vaccine was experimental and unproven.

But instead of focusing on that group of 50%, CBC framed vaccine-hesitant as borderline religious nuts who denied COVID as even being real.

“… I step in and say, what are we doing? Is that the stereotype we are creating that this is the person who is vaccine-hesitant? Why aren’t we doing one on the 50% who are concerned about [the] long-term and short-term side effects… Why aren’t we doing data dives? Why aren’t we holding Pfizer to account?” Klowak recalled.

“We were feeding fear, and anger, and division, and I thought, I just can’t be part of this anymore.“

Here is a brief sample of some of the propaganda articles that the CBC released in the latter half of 2021:

Klowak and Trish Wood further commented on CBC’s dishonest coverage of the Freedom Convoy.

“The way that group was painted and portrayed was just, you know, I was just left speechless thinking, really? Really? Do you really think these people are criminals and white supremacists? Really? It was just so disturbing to watch,” Klowak told Wood.

Klowak also says she saw videos of the Freedom Convoy that showed the protestors in an entirely better light than what the CBC was reporting.

It didn’t matter, though. The CBC had their agenda, and nothing would get in the way of it.

Ignoring the vaccine injured

More disturbing, however, Klowak says that while at the CBC, stories about vaccine injuries were rejected.

“This was the most profound form of gaslighting. You had a [person with a] vaccine injury, and yet we were hesitant to believe what they were saying was true — that they could have possibly had this experience,” Klowak said.

She then recounted interviewing a woman in her 30s who’d suffered pericarditis within two days of getting vaccinated and is still struggling with daily activities due to her condition.

She pitched the story, but, again, CBC editors wanted to spin the story towards vaccines being a good idea for women her age.

And, again, Klowak refused to run it, eventually quitting.

Klowak isn’t alone in blowing the whistle on the CBC

Klowak isn’t the only CBC whistleblower to come out this past year. In January, Tara Henley also quit and explained in her substack why she left.

“Those of us on the inside know just how swiftly — and how dramatically — the politics of the public broadcaster have shifted,” Henley said. “To work at the CBC in the current climate is to embrace cognitive dissonance and to abandon journalistic integrity.”

“It is to allow sweeping societal changes like lockdowns, vaccine mandates, and school closures to roll out — with little debate. To see billionaires amass extraordinary wealth and bureaucrats amass enormous power — with little scrutiny.”

Indeed, while CBC hosts feign ignorance on the network’s vaccine censorship, editors print corrections nearly every week, and reporters use mannequins in place of patients to make COVID look worse, it’s no surprise to see politicians these days leading “Defund the CBC” chants at their rallies.

The abysmal lack of journalistic integrity described by Klowak and Henley would tank most news organizations, but because the CBC is federally-funded and might as well have a license to mislead, it can’t fail as a company.

July 12, 2022 Posted by | Deception, Fake News, Mainstream Media, Warmongering | , , | Leave a comment

Putin vs. Big Pharma: The ultimate smackdown

Is Putin plotting to purge the pill peddlers? If so, we have some suggestions.

By Riley Waggaman | OffGuardian | July 12, 2022

Is Vladimir Putin preparing to cleanse Russia of Big Pharma shills (his entire cabinet)? Some seem to think so and there is certainly evidence that some kind of anti-shill crackdown is coming.

Let’s explore this intriguing news item together.

Take the wheel, TASS :

Russian President Vladimir Putin has criticized foreign drug companies for pushing their products through local medical institutions and via doctors in Russia using their deep-pocketed resources.

“Unfortunately, foreign pharmaceutical companies attracted some heads of our medical institutions, and medical workers in 30 regions. And they pushed their medicines [on to the Russian market], paying quite a lot of money for it. We saw that under just one scheme they doled out 500 million [rubles],” he said at a meeting with Yury Chikhanchin, Head of the Federal Financial Monitoring Service.

Putin noted that such practice also exists in the EU and worldwide.

“They do it everywhere. They do it in Europe and overseas too. This is how they operate,” he said.

Chikhanchin responded by saying his agency was working with the FSB to root out gratuitous Big Pharma grifting.

First of all: At the very least Putin deserves a golf clap for saying rude things about Big Pharma. No one loses points for doing that. So we salute you, Vladimir Putin. Keep it up.

At the same time: talk is cheap. If you’re going to launch a Novichok rocket at Big Pharma for “pushing their products through local medical institutions” (as TASS summarized) in 30 regions… this doesn’t exactly sound like the cleansing enema that Russia so desperately needs.

If Putin is sincere about expelling degenerate pill pushers from Russia, how far is he willing to go? Because in order to have a meaningful impact he’ll have to go pretty far. All the way, actually.

You need to cut the head off the snake. And the snake lives in Moscow. The snake has wrapped its slimly reptile-bod around various federal ministries. The snake is suffocating Russia at the highest levels of government.

That’s just a fact.

Maybe it’s time for a “performance review” at the Ministry of Health? (source)

If tomorrow the FSB announces it bagged the deputy director of a village clinic in Potato-Patch, Yakutia, this will not qualify as a successful crackdown on Big Pharma’s nefarious influence in Russia. It will qualify as a massive fail.

So which Big Pharma Strumpets should be Gitmo’d by the FSB? We’re so glad you asked.

All of the Important Russians who partied with Tedros and Big Pharma at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum — straight to the gulag for some desperately needed rehabilitation.

And of course, no Big Pharma smackdown would be complete without frog-marching Madame Arbidol to the most remote Siberian penal colony. Sorry, we don’t make the rules.

Russia’s largest pharmaceutical firms also need to be put in the crosshairs. As we saw with Sputnik V, Russian drug companies enthusiastically collaborate with western pharmaceuticals to create horrific poisons for the masses. And the Russian government is invested in this gross cooperation — which is slightly discouraging?

Furthermore, the worst medicine-related grifting involves government contracts. And also: a lot of the pill peddling and unethical contracting is done legally.

As Tsargrad explained in an article unpacking Putin’s comments:

Putin demanded action against Western pharmaceutical companies that bribe our doctors. Tsargrad examined the problem and found out that this bribery is most often completely legal. To change the situation, you need to change the laws. […]

The peculiarity of Russia lies in the active participation of the state in the market of medical services. It is more profitable to get a big contract and relax than to work painstakingly with doctors, although this is not neglected either. Therefore, our “favorite” form of illegal cooperation of pharmaceutical companies with the heads of institutions and officials is to ensure victory in the auction.

So, for example, at the end of 2019, the head doctor of the republican oncological dispensary of the Ministry of Health of the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania was caught red-handed while receiving a bribe on an especially large scale. A few days before that, the head physician of the Penza Regional Oncology Center received a five-year sentence (as did the director of the pharmaceutical company who gave him the bribe). There are other precedents, many of them. […]

Of course, the problem raised by Chikhanchin and Putin concerns not only Western companies — the domestic pharmaceutical industry has adopted the worst habits of its “big brothers” and interacts with medical personnel no less successfully.

That sums up the situation pretty well, we think.

We welcome any and all efforts to make Russian healthcare less scammy and more healthy.

But let’s not forget that after two years of “public health measures” — two years of non-stop grifting and murderous lies — Russia now finds itself in a very, very deep hole — a hole dug by the Russian government. Go figure.

A population decline of more than 1 million people in 2021. The largest decline in decades. (source)

We should add that there are rumors on the Russian interwebz that several high ranking officials are under investigation as part of this alleged Big Pharma crackdown. We haven’t found anything substantial to support this claim but… fingers crossed?

Let’s see what the FSB cooks up. It’s 2022. Anything is possible.

Even atonement.

Riley Waggaman is your humble Moscow correspondent. He worked for RT, Press TV, Russia Insider, yadda yadda. In his youth, he attended a White House lawn party where he asked Barack Obama if imprisoned whistleblower Bradley Manning (Chelsea was still a boy back then) “had a good Easter.” Good times good times. You can subscribe to his Substack here, or follow him on twitter or Telegram.

For those who don’t follow Riley on Telegram, he has recently been purged from PayPal – no doubt because he’s wrong about everything, and no threat to the establishment at all.

July 12, 2022 Posted by | Corruption | | Leave a comment

Asia Won’t Reject Russia’s Hydrocarbons or China’s Rare Earths Despite US Pressure

By Ekaterina Blunova – Samizdat – July 12, 2022

The International Energy Agency (IEA) and the United State have called upon Asian countries to reduce reliance on Russia and China in terms of both fossil fuels, solar power technology, and critical minerals needed for electric vehicles and batteries.

“Given that energy is the lifeline of modern economies, modern economic growth patterns, there are not that many alternatives available and there are only a few countries that are players in the global energy market. Russia certainly cannot be counted out and Russia cannot be marginalized in the global energy landscape,” says Harsh V. Pant, professor of international relations at the King’s College London India Institute and director of the strategic studies program at the Observer Research Foundation.

International Energy Agency (IEA) Executive Director Fatih Birol and US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm on 12 July urged Indo-Pacific countries at the Sydney Energy Forum to diversify their supply chains for energy and critical minerals to reduce “dependency” on Russia over its special operation in Ukraine, as well as on China.

“At a time when the energy prices are going up and affecting some of the poorest and most vulnerable countries around the world very significantly, I think Asian countries will continue to cooperate with Russia in order to support their economies and their domestic requirements,” says Pant.

He explains that dealing with Russia has become an economic imperative at a time of energy crunch given that Moscow is offering discounted oil to a number of countries. Furthermore, maintaining economic relations with Russia is a question of survival and the people’s well-being for some Asian nations and countries of the Global South, according to the professor. Under these circumstances it’s highly unlikely that they will succumb to the pressure from Washington and sever ties with Russia, he says.

“For political leaders across the world, at a time when economies are just beginning to grow after the long COVID pandemic, they can [not] afford a lack of energy and higher energy prices,” Pant stresses.

Anti-Russia Sanctions: India and EU Approaches

To illustrate his point, the professor cites India’s approach to Russia’s affairs and the Ukraine crisis. New Delhi continues to import energy from Russia despite the US and Europe urging India to join sweeping anti-Russia sanctions.

“What we have seen in the last two months is a gradual, significant increase in what India is buying from Russia when it comes to oil,” the professor says. “This is particularly relevant again because Russia has offered India discounted oil and India’s economic requirements demand that India continues buying this oil. The challenges facing India’s population mean that the Indian leadership has an incentive in continuing to engage with Russia on this question.”

At the same time, the European Union’s decision to slap sanctions on Russia and slash energy supplies from the country have backfired on Europe’s economy, sending fuel prices up and accelerating inflation.

“We have seen how Europe is struggling to reduce its dependence and the kind of costs that it is imposing on Europeans,” says Pant. “Most Asian countries would be reluctant to go down that route.”

The disruptions in the supply of crude after the imposition of ban on imports from Russia have given a dramatic boost to energy prices and inflation, echoes Suranjali Tandon, assistant professor at the Delhi-based National Institute of Public Finance and Policy.

“The current inflationary trends are the most serious challenge for policy makers,” she says. “Central banks around the world have begun the process of unwinding loose monetary policy… The current inflation rates have led to internal economic strains and as seen in Sri Lanka, a political upheaval. The cooperation between Russia and Asian countries may be economically prudent.”

Moreover, major Asian economies – India and China – are ready to absorb crude supplies from Russia rejected by the West, according to her.

At the same time, Washington’s plan to force Asian states to join anti-Russia sanctions is fraught with severe risks for the global economy, Tandon warns.

“The ban, if carried out by other Asian economies, will further cut off supplies of refined petroleum and related products,” she says. “This could lead to an unmanageable inflationary spiral while depressing global growth.”

Are There Alternatives to Russia & China?

According to Tandon, India sets an important precedent for other Asian states by withstanding the US pressure when it comes to energy sanctions against Russia. By doing this, India is defending its internal interests in the first place, the professor underscores.

She hails the idea that single technology or fuel dependence should be avoided. This principle could be applied to Russia, China, or Western countries in a similar way. However, when the West is calling upon Asian nations to shift to wind, solar, and even nuclear power and abandon fossil fuels, it’s clear that this shift cannot be done immediately, the professor emphasizes.

July 12, 2022 Posted by | Economics, Nuclear Power, Russophobia | | Leave a comment

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