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Ukrainian Neo-Nazis Work Under Fake ‘Russian Partisan’ Flag in Belgorod

By Lucas Leiroz | Strategic Culture Foundation | March 31, 2024

Ukrainian attacks against Russia’s Belgorod region are becoming increasingly serious. Missiles and drones hit civilian targets on the Russian border every day, causing casualties and spreading terror. In Western media, the incursions against Belgorod are commonly linked to alleged “Russian partisan” groups, but insiders in the region seem to disagree with this narrative, pointing to Kiev’s agents and foreign mercenaries as the true perpetrators.

On March 14, I was in Belgorod on an expedition by the BRICS Journalists Association to cover the border attacks. On that occasion, as reported here, I had the opportunity to visit the places affected by the bombings and interview some of the victims. It was also possible to talk to some members of the Belgorod military forces, from whom I obtained very interesting information about those responsible for the terrorist incursions in the region.

The military says that groups of “Russian dissidents”, such as the “RDK” (“Russian Volunteer Corps”) and the “Legion of Freedom”, so praised by the Western media – despite their open ties to neo-Nazism –, in fact are just fake organizations, whose leaders are actually Russian expatriates, but their staff is made up of disguised Ukrainian agents.

Sources claim that the Kiev regime uses the narrative that there are “Russian partisans” fighting on their side to spread the lie that there is “strong opposition to the Putin government,” with Russian citizens willing to go to war to defend Ukraine. For Western media, this narrative is important as it allows public opinion in NATO countries to believe that the Russian government is unpopular, thus legitimizing the anti-Russian agenda that allows weapons to be sent to Ukraine.

More than that, the Belgorod military also believes that claiming responsibility for the attacks by these fake groups guaranteed the Kiev regime and its Western sponsors a certain “immunity” when it comes to terrorism. Attacks against Belgorod are absolutely illegal, as there are no military targets in the region. Kiev bombs residential buildings, common streets and civilian infrastructure in the city, making its acts illegal under international law.

To escape responsibility for their crimes, Ukrainians use these fake organizations as proxies. In practice, “Russian dissidents” – whose combat personnel are anonymous – function as scapegoats, claiming responsibility for attacks against civilians that could create problems for Kiev. In addition to the attacks on Belgorod, these same groups claimed to be behind several individual assassinations and attempted assassinations against Russian public figures, preventing the Kiev regime from being held accountable for the acts.

It is important to remember that Belgorod became a target of Kiev in May 2023, when troops commanded by Kiev invaded the Russian region and killed civilians during hostilities that were called the “Battle of Belgorod” by the media. Russian defense forces quickly neutralized the invaders, but since then attacks against the region have become frequent – even more so on dates relevant to the Russian Federation, such as patriotic and religious holidays, or presidential elections. At the time, “Russian partisans” claimed to be responsible for the incursion, which was immediately covered by all Western media.

In March 2024, the Ukrainian offensive on Belgorod reached its peak, with brutal shelling killing many civilians. The local military says that the so-called “Russian partisans”, who are just anonymous Ukrainian and foreign agents, are working in this operation together with members of the ultranationalist “Kraken” battalion, which is subordinate to Kiev’s military intelligence – commanded by Kirill Budanov.

As well known, Budanov has already admitted being behind the murder of Russian civilians and promised to “continue killing” Russian citizens until the end of the conflict. Budanov ‘s soldiers commonly disguise themselves as members of the RDK to try to deceive Russians and public opinion. They also say that, instead of “Russian expatriates”, the RDK has among its members not only members of Ukrainian intelligence, but also Western mercenaries trained in Poland – which shows the criminals’ deep ties to NATO.

It increasingly appears clear that the Kiev regime is directly responsible for every Russian civilian death in terrorist attacks. And, as we know, the neo-Nazi regime does not act alone, which means that its Western sponsors are co-responsible for these deaths. The Belgorod case is an example of how the enemies of the Russian Federation are trying to disguise their guilt for these crimes.

You can follow Lucas on X and Telegram.

April 1, 2024 Posted by | Deception, False Flag Terrorism, Timeless or most popular, War Crimes | , | Leave a comment

Russian investigators to probe US for terror

RT | April 1, 2024

The Russian Investigative Committee has launched a probe into allegations that Ukraine and its Western backers are involved in terrorist activities on Russian soil; these were supported by some MPs and public figures last week.

The law enforcement body announced on Monday that it was moving forward with the procedural investigation after reviewing the claims. The initial complaint, which the Committee confirmed receiving last Wednesday, identified the US and its allies as allegedly driving a string of attacks on Russian soil. The agency is looking into the purported “organization, financing and conduct of terrorist acts” by those nations.

Nikolay Kharitonov of the Communist Party, one of the MPs who filed the complaint, insisted that Western nations “benefited” from the terrorist attack on the Crocus City Hall outside Moscow earlier this month. He reasoned that the geopolitical opponents of Russia stood to gain from the tragedy on Russian soil, and counted “on their inaccessibility and impunity.”

A total of 12 people – including the four gunmen, believed to be radical Islamists – have so far been arrested in connection to one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in the country’s history.

Over 140 people were killed in the shooting spree and arson attack just outside of Moscow. The Afghanistan-based offshoot of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) has claimed credit for the strike. However, Russian officials claim to have uncovered evidence of possible Ukrainian involvement, contrary to US assurances that Kiev could not have been behind the attack.

“The US and its allies are today conducting terrorist acts on Russian territories with the hands of ISIS and Ukrainian special services,” Kharitonov claimed on Telegram last week. “We demand that the political leadership of the US and Ukraine, as well as the intelligence services of these countries, be held criminally liable for organizing, financing, and conducting terrorist operations directed against Russia and the entire modern world.”

The complaint was signed by three Russian lawmakers as well as some public figures, including the philosopher Aleksandr Dugin. His daughter Darya was killed by a car bomb in August 2022 in what is widely believed to have been a targeted assassination attempt aimed at her father, a prominent nationalist.

Russian investigators accused Kiev of organizing the bomb attack. Reports in the Western media said officials in the US likewise believe that Ukrainian covert operatives were behind the murder.

The Ukrainian government has publicly claimed credit for some of the attacks against Russian targets, such as the bombings of the Crimean Bridge. Last week, Head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) Vasily Malyuk all but bragged about a string of assassinations of people he described as enemies of his country.

When asked about several such killings during an interview, the official said the question was “directed to the right address, but we will not acknowledge that in any way.” Malyuk proceeded to give some details about the crimes.

Malyuk is among the senior Ukrainian officials wanted for terrorism by Moscow. The Russian Foreign Ministry said on Sunday it had sent a demand to Ukraine to hand such suspects over, under the UN-backed international treaties on fighting terrorism, to which Kiev is a signatory.

April 1, 2024 Posted by | Deception, False Flag Terrorism, Timeless or most popular, War Crimes | , , , | Leave a comment

Globalism and Disease X

By Meryl Nass | March 30, 2024

What is biowarfare? COVID was due to a biological warfare agent. It was designed in one or more laboratories to be more virulent than its natural precursors:

  • to prefer to infect humans;
  • to infect more organs than possible in naturally occurring strains;
  • to interfere with the body’s immune responses.

I say one or more laboratories becasue many of its features had been previously discovered or created in various laboratories, and then these features were essentially grafted onto a coronavirus, one by one; or some features were achieved by passaging the virus through humanized mice, other humanized animals, human cell tissue cultures or humans themselves.

Why were these features created? In which labs?

Why were they painstakingly added to a coronavirus backbone? Where was this done and how many labs were involved?

Why was a coverup by western scientists so critical? Because claiming that pandemics come from animals living in nature, and are spread to humans due to our incursions into their territory, was needed to justify the entire biosecurity agenda that the WHO is steamrolling over us.

By the way, the newest version of the treaty (released March 7, 2024) states that part of the WHO plan is to “identify” those areas where disease “spillover” occurs. You watch: the WHO will then empty those areas of humans. It really is a great cover story, “spillover.” Except it is a total lie.

_____________________

Historically most biowarfare agents were naturally occurring viruses or bacteria. Here is one example in which whistleblowers identified the hand of the CIA.

It is “gain-of-function” research that makes them more virulent and/or more transmissible. Gain of function research was considered illegal under international law until about 2001, and then the customary norms of national behavior simply changed, after the US was caught ignoring the usual norms—as revealed in the NYT on 9/4/2001 and in the book GERMS.

The WHO suggested it should be put in charge of gain-of-function research in the pandemic treaty draft that was released on February 14, 2024. It only took 3 weeks before a new draft was issued on March 7, 2024 in which all mention of “gain-of-function” was erased. I wonder if the rapidity of release of the next draft (it usually takes about 3 months to get a new draft) had to do with cutting out the Gain-of-Function section.

But the idea of requiring nations to supply the WHO with samples of potential pandemic pathogens, and to upload their genetic sequences to publicly accessible databases asap remained, was discussed with even more details in the newest March 7 draft. The WHO and nations would be free to share biological warfare agents aka potential pandemic pathogens (essentially) with anyone they liked.

This makes no sense any way you look at it. The goal seems to be a situation where “Pandemics R Us” and they appear frequently, with no ability to tell where they came from or whether they were deliberate or an accident. By sharing them all globally the WHO has paved the way for using the alibi of accidental release for future COVIDs.

The biowarfare segment starts at about 26 minutes into the episode.

As I said, we at DoortoFreedom.org are here to help you educate your lawmakers while you urge them to question this effort publicly, introduce resolutions, and in other ways throw some boulders in front of the steamroller, just like Louisiana’s Senate did this week.

merylnass@gmail.com

April 1, 2024 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Militarism, Science and Pseudo-Science, Timeless or most popular, Video, War Crimes | , , | Leave a comment

Western insurers admit Russian oil price cap not working

Al Mayadeen | April 30, 2024

A group of Western insurers has stated that a Russian oil price ceiling has become unenforceable, forcing more ships to join a shadow fleet, in one of the toughest rebukes to the move intended to reduce income to the Kremlin.

The G7 adopted a price ceiling for Russian oil after Washington campaigned to limit the Kremlin’s earnings during the war in Ukraine while keeping Russian oil flowing to avert an energy price surge.

The cap permits Western shippers and insurers to engage in Russian oil trade as long as oil is sold for less than $60 per barrel.

According to the International Group of P&I Clubs, the price cap has had little effectiveness since its implementation two years ago, as Russia allegedly has turned to its own fleet, as well as ships that are not subject to Western monitoring.

The declaration was presented as written evidence before a UK parliamentary committee on Tuesday.

The association claims to include 12 marine third-party liability insurers that cover 87% of the world’s ocean-going tonnage.

The statement reveals that “The oil price cap appears increasingly unenforceable as more ships and associated services move into this parallel trade. We estimate around 800 tankers have already left the International Group Clubs as a direct result of the introduction of the oil price cap.”

US and EU officials believe the price cap was successful in reducing Russia’s earnings while keeping oil flowing and averting a price shock.

The US Treasury’s enforcement of the price ceiling has restricted the number of ships prepared to carry Russian petroleum, hindering Russia’s efforts to sell it and profit from it.

Tom Keatinge, head of the Royal United Services Institute’s Centre for Finance and Security, told the panel that “within the reach of the UK and the G7, there are insurers who are providing insurance that is in breach of the oil price cap.”

“These are names that should be being added to the sanctions list and should be drawn to the attention of the international community that dealing with that particular insurance company is going to get you into hot water,” he said, without mentioning any specific companies.

EU pleads Russia not sanction them after sanctioning it for years

The European External Action Service (EEAS) called on Moscow on Saturday to overturn its decision regarding the transfer of subsidiaries belonging to German and Italian companies to Gazprom’s management despite the EU wanting to use Russia’s frozen funds as if they were their own.

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on Friday mandating the transfer of Russian subsidiaries of Italy’s Ariston and Germany’s BSH Hausgeraete to the temporary management of Gazprom Household Systems, a subsidiary of the Gazprom group.

Expressing the EU’s ironic disapproval, the EEAS emphasized the necessity for Russia to reconsider its actions and engage in dialogue with the affected European companies.

“The European Union calls on Russia to reverse these measures and seek acceptable solutions with European companies targeted by them,” the EEAS said in a statement.

This comes at a time when Russia’s assets have been frozen by the EU and its economy sanctioned relentlessly for years.

Although Russia has been taking drastic countermeasures since the sanctions started befalling it, the EU possibly only realized that its sanctions were backfiring mere months ago.

April 1, 2024 Posted by | Economics | , , | Leave a comment

Hillary Clinton Takes Aim at “Disinformation,” “Negative, Virulent Content,” and Memes Ahead of the 2024 Elections

By Didi Rankovic | Reclaim The Net | March 31, 2024

The last time the extent of Hillary Clinton’s tech “savviness” or lack thereof, became public knowledge was way back in 2016, when she lost the presidential election, amid, among other things, the (classified) emails scandal.

Now, Clinton has graduated from not knowing how email works, to feeling she is qualified to discuss the impact of immeasurably more complex technology, such as AI.

To give Clinton the benefit of the doubt, it has been a long time, and perhaps she has used that time to educate herself.

However, it also turns out that nearly a decade later she still blames her loss to Donald Trump on the since-debunked conspiracy theories about “election disinformation” that supposedly decided the outcome of that vote.

So, Clinton-the-victim’s comments now, half a year before the next US presidential election and amid mainstream media’s “disinformation/AI panic” might read as little, if anything, more than political campaigning.

She claims this is her focus now: still talking about the alleged wrongdoing done to her in 2016, still alleging this was all about “disinformation” – and that it was all “primitive” – compared to what she anticipates is happening now.

Clinton also plays her audience by at once “admitting” that she and hers are ignorant (“I don’t think any of us understood it. I did not understand it. I can tell you, my campaign did not understand it”), to then claim that, for some reason, she should now be taken as an authority.

Not about social media, memes, the “dark web” (or, God forbid, the concept of email…) but also, the regulation of online providers/content. Enter the CDA Section 230 debate – where it seems each side of the ideological aisle interprets its importance according to their political needs of the day.

“Their, you know, the so-called ‘Dark Web’ was filled with these kinds of memes and stories and videos of all sorts… portraying me in all kinds of… less than flattering ways,” Clinton said. “And we knew something’s going on, but we didn’t understand the full extent of the very clever way in which it was insinuated into social media.”

Clinton is now quoted in the press as saying that tech companies – enjoying, and, conservatives say, indulgently abusing their Section 230 protections over third-party content (to favor liberals) – suddenly should no longer have those privileges.

An experienced observer may see this turn of events – somebody like Clinton apparently advocating for Section 230 to be abolished – as simply a maneuver to pile on more pressure on major tech companies to be careful “not to slip” in their “censorship diligence” this election season – or else.

Either way, this is what Clinton said: “Section 230 has to go. We need a different system under which tech companies and we’re mostly talking obviously about the social media platforms – operate.”

March 31, 2024 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Full Spectrum Dominance | , , | Leave a comment

America Has Paid a Total of $38,893 to Avalanche of COVID Vaccine Injured Citizens

By Jefferey Jaxen | March 29, 2024

What Americans were sold during the COVID vaccine rollout hype was an injection to return to normal – medical blackmail. A two-dose series turned into multiple boosters, as high as nine now recommended by the CDC if you are counting. As many capitulated, no public spokesperson or mainstream media outlet marketing the shot uttered a word about its safety or what would happen if someone was harmed by the rushed, experimental product…a tactic called strategic silence.

A ‘black hole’ for COVID vaccine injury claims was the title of a June 29, 2021 Reuters article describing the Countermeasure Injury Compensation Program, or CICP, run by the Health Resources and Services Administration. A program few Americans ever knew existed and probably still don’t.

This is the program people who are injured by the COVID shot get tossed into if they are educated enough to recognize the harm from the shot and their doctor understands and is courageous enough to file a claim. And here are a few other stipulations that matter:

  • No attorney & medical expert fee reimbursement
  • 1-year statute of limitations (from the date of administration)
  • No reimbursement for future medical care
  • No pain & suffering damages
  • No appeal to a higher court in the CICP
  • No medical testimony or hearings. You vs Sec’y of HHS
  • Lack of transparency on reporting of decisions

It’s been three years since the COVID vaccine rollout and hundreds of millions of doses later, injury compensation is still lacking to the point it borders on criminal. The CICP has recently released their monthly updated injury compensation numbers – three weeks late for those keeping an eye on them.

11 claims compensated…

For a grand total of… $38,893.

Proponents of COVID vaccine safety will use this number, 11, as proof the vaccine is indeed safe ignoring how the CICP is monumentally unfit for its current purpose.

Speaking to Wayne Rohde, author of The Vaccine Court and host of Right on Point podcast about the the CICP program, he said, “The CICP was never designed for a long-term, nationwide pandemic public health crisis.”

Meanwhile, as the public tries to piece together the true human damage caused by the COVID shots, we take a look at another broken, unfit program in the CDC’s Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS). Can you spot an issue once the COVID shots began going into American arms on an industrial scale in 2021?

In addition to the deaths, there have been 214,906 hospitalizations, 154,245 urgent care visits, 242,537 doctors office visits, 10,767 cases of anaphylaxis, 17,688 cases of Bell’s palsy, 5,115 miscarriages, 21,524 heart attacks, 28,215 cases of myo/per-carditis, 69,936 cases of ‘permanently disabled,’ and 39,544 ‘life-threatening’ and so many more reports to VAERS after the COVID shot. In all, a total of 1,630,913 reports.

Let’s take a moment to do some math here. VAERS is a system that is notorious for underreporting. A study of the system found “fewer than 1% of vaccine adverse events are reported.” Assuming the current number of VAERS reports of 1,630,913 is only 1%, the true number may be closer to something like 163,091,300.

Last month FDA director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research Dr. Peter Marks appeared before the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic to discuss possible issues with the fast-tracking of the COVID shots.

When asked by Chairman Brad Wenstrup if the government was prepared for such an avalanche of reports to VAERS, Marks replied, “We tried to be prepared for that but the avalanche of reports was tremendous.”

So on one side with VAERS, we have a broken government intake program getting overwhelmed on the front end while the other (CICP) sees the outflow of compensation for damages and cases awarded administratively throttled. Caught in between are untold numbers of Americans left hanging in the wind shouldering unsettled medical harms and the bills to follow. America can do better.

The entire vaccine damage infrastructure needs a historic overhaul. From education for medical professionals to recognize and encourage reporting of harms from the shots to greater research on why some are more susceptible than others to vaccine injury while addressing decades of ignored scientific research.

Most importantly, a true compensation mechanism for the injured beyond CICP’s pittances and the long-broken National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. The beginning of a fair compromise should, at the very least, end the product liability shield for vaccine manufacturers.

“Drug companies should be liable in civil court for vaccine injuries and deaths and so should anyone giving vaccines to people being denied the human right to informed consent to medical risk-taking,” said NVIC co-founder and president Barbara Loe Fisher. “There is an urgent need to hold vaccine manufacturers and doctors accountable in civil court for the safety of vaccines and how they are being given.”

March 31, 2024 Posted by | Aletho News | , , | Leave a comment

New President of Senegal: It’s time for France to leave, we need to reconsider all agreements with Paris

TopWar | March 29, 2024

France’s fiasco on the African continent continues. Now Paris has received a blow from where it could hardly have expected it – from Senegal, the West African country most closely associated with France.

The recently elected President of Senegal, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, made a harsh statement regarding the former metropolis. Once a French colony, Senegal spent almost its entire sovereign history collaborated closely with Paris and was considered by the latter as the most important outpost in West Africa. But it is possible that this situation will remain a thing of the past.

“It’s time for France to leave the country, and we need to reconsider all agreements with Paris” – said the new head of the Senegalese state.

A 44-year-old left-wing politician who won the presidential election, Faye advocates distancing himself as decisively as possible from France and Western countries in general and weakening the country’s economic dependence on the former metropolis. In economics, he advocates the elimination of the CFA franc as a currency, and in politics he is guided by left-wing pan-Africanism.

According to Faye, Dakar needs to reconsider cooperation with France in the political, economic, cultural and military spheres. In fact, we are talking about the plans of the new leadership of Senegal to abandon close ties with the French state. Previously, Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, Guinea, and the Central African Republic broke off close relations with France.

Senegal remained one of France’s most reliable allies on the continent. Severing ties with this country will lead to very unpleasant consequences for Paris in terms of its African policy. Moreover, Dakar’s actions can become an example for the latest former African colonies collaborating with France.

March 31, 2024 Posted by | Aletho News | , , | Leave a comment

A potential UAE-Hezbollah thaw?

By Radwan Mortada | The Cradle | March 31, 2024

The veiled details behind the recent visit of Wafiq Safa, head of Hezbollah’s Liaison and Coordination Unit, to the UAE remain undisclosed. Rumors propagated by Saudi media have tried to insinuate that the Lebanese resistance party aims to placate its stance towards Israel, possibly even contemplating concessions.

This narrative seeks to undermine or distort any real achievements gained during the rare trip. Despite all the conjecture, one development is undeniable: there has been a nascent shift in thawing the longstanding hostilities between Hezbollah and the UAE — a prominent Arab ally of both the US and Israel.

Strained relations 

The sudden revelation of Safa’s visit to the Persian Gulf state on 19 March was indeed astonishing — a first by a senior Hezbollah official in many years — particularly given Abu Dhabi’s active role in clamping down on even pro-Hezbollah sentiments within the UAE.

The UAE’s track record includes arbitrary arrests and expulsions of Lebanese nationals under all sorts of dubious charges, often subjecting them to inhumane treatment, exemplified tragically in the case of Lebanese businessman Ghazi Ezzeldin, who was tortured to death while in Emirati custody last year.

News reports suggest that seven Lebanese citizens — four serving life sentences; two others facing 15 years in prison — remain incarcerated in the Emirates under charges of laundering funds for Hezbollah and Iran, and for the spurious claim of having made contact with Hezbollah. All of the detainees deny these charges.

In short, UAE authorities need little justification to accuse Lebanese individuals of ties to Hezbollah, which is designated a terrorist entity in the Emirates.

The UAE, it should be noted, is Tel Aviv’s closest Arab ally in West Asia, marked by Abu Dhabi’s decision in 2020 to normalize relations with the occupation state — with Bahrain, the first Arab state in the Persian Gulf to do so. Despite Israel’s genocidal war against Gaza, economic ties between the UAE and Israel continue to flourish, further entrenching their alliance against common adversaries.

Against this backdrop, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad emerges as an unexpected mediator, leveraging his amicable relations with the UAE leadership, united in their opposition to the Muslim Brotherhood.

Behind the scenes, the UAE has been quietly leveraging its international clout to lift US Caesar Act sanctions on Syria, with an eye on participating in the war-torn country’s reconstruction efforts. As the first Arab state to break Assad’s diplomatic isolation, the UAE has now seized the opportunity to engage with Hezbollah via its renewed Damascus channel.

Preliminary discussions, facilitated by Syrian General Intelligence Director Major General Hossam Louka, bridged the gap between the two parties. These exchanges, held on Syrian soil, involved representatives from both Hezbollah and UAE officials.

Louka also visited Lebanon and the UAE to meet with Emirati officials and the leadership of Hezbollah and convey a detailed message to Assad.

Contrary to the many sensationalized reports in regional media, informed sources tell The Cradle that Safa encountered no explicit demands from UAE officials during his visit. Instead, discussions centered on two pivotal objectives: first, securing the release of Lebanese detainees unjustly incarcerated in the UAE under charges of affiliation with Hezbollah, and second, improving the precarious conditions Lebanese expatriates face in the UAE, where their presence is securitized by the state.

The sources affirm the constructive nature of the meetings and indicate there may be imminent releases of the Lebanese detainees before the end of the holy month of Ramadan.

What do both parties want?

But the timing of Safa’s visit, as Israel escalates airstrikes on Lebanon, Syria, and Gaza, raises speculation about the implications of this renewed relationship. Safa himself is on a US sanctions list, while Hezbollah retains its designation as a terrorist organization by both Washington and the Persian Gulf states.

The UAE, having previously subjected Lebanese nationals to unjust treatment, now initiates efforts to mend ties with Hezbollah. Conversely, Hezbollah, having waged a war to free prisoners from Israeli detention, displays a willingness to engage in dialogue, even if the optics of its representative shaking hands with UAE officials may not be well-received back home.

Following the visit, Hezbollah issued a very brief statement:

“The head of the Liaison and Coordination Unit, Hajj Wafiq Safa, visited the United Arab Emirates as part of the ongoing follow-up to address the case of a number of Lebanese detainees there, where he met with a number of officials concerned with this case, and [a solution to this issue will be reached hopefully].”

Nevertheless, the underlying question remains: What does the UAE seek to achieve? Did it initiate this thaw in relations merely to reopen its embassy in Lebanon after years of closure and diplomatic strife? Does the UAE have hidden intentions concealing these superficial objectives — and what role could Hezbollah play in this equation?

Outreach to Iran via its allies 

Early this year, as the regional war expanded, CIA Director William Burns wrote in Foreign Affairs magazine: “The key to Israel’s — and the region’s — security is dealing with Iran.”

Abu Dhabi too, knows that the relationship with Tehran is pivotal to resolving crises in the region. Hence, the UAE has taken a significant stride towards Hezbollah, recognizing its critical regional role. While this unusual meeting could have taken place in Damascus, in secret, the UAE opted instead for a public airing and even arranged for Safa’s transportation via plane to the Emirates.

Moreover, Abu Dhabi’s interest in improving relations with Hezbollah and its leadership could have direct security benefits. The Lebanese party has influence with Yemen’s Ansarallah resistance movement, whose naval operations in the Red Sea and other waterways are impacting international navigation and, thus, Emirati interests from the Persian Gulf to the Horn of Africa.

While a Syrian source tells The Cradle that the meeting yielded positive outcomes and is likely to be followed by further engagements, the visit carries implications that extend well beyond the immediate parties involved.

Beyond improving Hezbollah-UAE or Iran-UAE understandings, it will be essential to monitor the subsequent actions of Saudi Arabia’s leadership after this event.

In essence, these developments could lead to improved future relations between Hezbollah and Arab states of the Persian Gulf, in turn reversing Washington and Tel Aviv’s strategic target of clinching further normalization deals for Israel in West Asia.

March 31, 2024 Posted by | Aletho News | , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s Black – Jewish Delusion

Nation Of Islam Research Group | March 2024

“I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Councilor or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate who is more devoted to ‘order’ than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice…”

—The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Letter from a Birmingham Jail

When confronted by journalist Vicki Dillard on his stance on several Black issues—including his support for Israel’s genocidal obliteration of Gaza, Israel’s targeting of Black youth, and Israel’s training of police in America—presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., ducked, dodged and resorted to the standard political pablum that every politician knows to pitch to the Black electorate. But when this Caucasian Irish Catholic lectured Blacks on how grateful they should be to white Jews for ALL they have done for them, he brought arrogance and ignorance to new levels. A verbatim transcript of his remarks follows:

“I would point out to you that during the civil rights movement that the Jews in this country and particularly the leadership of the Jews took a, um, were at the forefront of that movement and were embraced by Martin Luther King, were embraced by the other leaders of the movement. Three Jewish boys—Goodman, Schwerner, and Chaney—were killed in Mississippi. They died or that Black Americans could—first the civil rights movement. Many, many other Jews took, took great risk and suffered because of their sacrifices for this civil rights movement…”

And with this fairytale-filled paragraph Kennedy believes he can dismiss the immense record of Jewish slave trading and the slavery-derived profits that made America the “promised land” for Jews, who, as a direct result of the slave trade, slavery, and sharecropping, achieved unprecedented wealth and prosperity. It is impossible to tell exactly what Kennedy is referring to with his disjointed word salad, but what is clear is that Kennedy believes he can milk an alleged civil rights legacy left to him by his father and uncle, Robert F. Kennedy and John F. Kennedy respectively. His double-barreled gambit is that (1) he can “embrace” the Black vote with a nostalgic civil righteousness; and (2) he can keep Jewish money flowing into his current presidential campaign by repeating an imaginary “civil rights” history Jews love to hear over and over and over again.

Indeed, Kennedy referred to the civil rights “movement” five times in that single paragraph. But the hard truth is that as attorney general, RFK, Jr.’s father ordered the FBI’s 24-hour surveillance and wiretapping of the movement’s leader—the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King—as part of his Justice Department’s notorious COINTELPRO operation that terrorized and murdered Black leaders and organizations. The harassment suffered by Dr. King, his family, and his movement has been well-covered elsewhere (here and here), but it included sending a menacing letter to Rev. King (see graphic) calling him “an evil, abnormal beast” and advising him to kill himself. Ultimately his assassination in 1968 was most likely carried out by these same agents of the U.S. government. When confronted recently on the role his father played in this targeting of Rev. King, RFK, Jr. exonerates his elders: “There was good reason for them doing that at the time… They knew that Hoover was out to ruin King,” Kennedy acknowledges. Blacks would be hard pressed to find a “good reason” for anyone to unleash J. Edgar Hoover on Black America’s most revered religious leader.

The Kennedys’ Alleged Civil Rights Legacy

As attorney general, Robert F. Kennedy—RFK,Jr.’s father— developed a reputation as an advocate of civil rights in large part based on an incident that occurred in Georgia in 1960 involving the Rev. Martin Luther King, whom the FBI had been monitoring for five years. Dr. King was leading more than 200 activists in a campaign of sit-ins at 11 department stores in Atlanta when he was among the 51 Blacks arrested, but King was sentenced to four months of hard labor at a Georgia penitentiary.

When the incident hit the national news, the public outcry and pressure on “Bobby” to act was intense and so Kennedy called the sentencing judge and appealed to him to allow King to be released on bond and to appeal the conviction. Thus, Robert Kennedy became known as a “protector” of Black rights, if not a crusader. But the Atlanta episode exposed the underbelly of the Black–Jewish relationship and challenges the notion that the “Jewish leaders,” as Kennedy so smugly claimed, “um, were at the forefront of that movement.”

The arrest of Dr. King and the many demonstrators with him occurred at Rich’s Department Store, the largest department store in the South—at the demand of its Jewish owner Richard Rich (in photo). Rich was an honored member of his Atlanta synagogue and a president of the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, and he was even voted Georgia’s Citizen of the Year by the Association of County Commissioners. Certainly he would be considered a Jewish leader, and he certainly was at the “forefront” of the civil rights movement—but on the opposite side of Black justice.

Rich (who changed his name from Rosenheim) operated the largest segregated business in Atlanta. He paid Blacks less than whites, had separate cafeterias and restrooms, and even held separate Christmas parties. Despite having one of the largest Black customer bases, he denied Blacks the right to work in any capacity other than in the kitchen, and he put those Black women in “Aunt Jemima costumes” to serve the all-white diners. All of this is by anyone’s definition the very opposite of “civil rights.”

This is significant because Jews and their supporters—like RFK, Jr.—demand that Blacks only consider the works of the “helpful” Jews like Goodman and Schwerner, but ignore the much larger role of those powerful Jim Crow Jews like Richard Rich who created the very conditions that necessitated the civil rights movement.

According to the book We Are Not Afraid: The Story Of Goodman, Schwerner, and Chaney by Seth Cagin and Philip Dray, after the first anti-segregation protest at his store a defiant Richard Rich “warned them angrily that integration would not be tolerated at Rich’s and that if they attempted a sit-in in his store again he would have them all arrested.”

Rich said he based his racism on “local customs,” but the other Jim Crow stores indicated that their racist policies were based on Rich’s, because his store was by far the largest. It was on the orders of the racist Richard Rich that Martin Luther King was handcuffed and jailed. When the publicity threatened to affect Rich’s profits, he tried to escape responsibility and declined to prosecute—but not because King and fellow protestors were right, but because, according to Rich and his attorney Morris Abram, “we didn’t want to make martyrs out of them and King.”

Rich was the most important Jew in Atlanta, and he was following in the footsteps of another leading Jew of a previous generation. In 1906, Oscar Pappenheimer was the most influential Jewish businessman in Atlanta. He offered this “practical suggestion” for Black civil rights in the Atlanta Constitution:

“I propose the registration of negroes in the southern states 14 years of age and more….Each person so registered should possess… a certificate… in which should be entered description, date and place of birth and, at each registration, record of abode, employment, conduct and reference….Let others decide whether it be legal to pass laws bearing on this subject with reference to the colored race only…”

Pappenheimer’s Atlanta proposal was nearly identical to that which Adolf Hitler enforced against Jews in Nazi Germany 30 years later.

So far, where do these Jews fit in RFK, Jr.’s civil rights fairytale?

RFK’s “Three Jewish boys”

In a truly embarrassing gaffe Kennedy claimed that “Three Jewish boys—Goodman, Schwerner, and Chaney—were killed in Mississippi.” This, of course, would be news to James Chaney (left) and his family, who were not only Black but members of St. Joseph Catholic Church in Meridian, Mississippi. Nonetheless, the three martyrs cannot be forgotten for the ultimate sacrifice they made in Philadelphia, Mississippi, in 1964 for the cause of Black human rights. Nor can we allow falsehoods and propaganda to be cynically promoted in their names. Kennedy is the latest in a long line of mostly Jewish deceivers who use the names and tragic stories of the two “Jewish boys” to very subtly conceal the long and very uncivil history of Jews in the apartheid South.

By far Mississippi had more lynchings and racist violence than any other state. It is where at least 581 human beings met a horrifying, trial-free demise, and it is where three outright massacres of Blacks occurred in Vicksburg, Clinton, and Macon. After slavery Blacks made great strides in education and began building independent communities, so whites who saw no other role for Blacks but as plantation laborers increased their anti-Black violence and repression. In 1890, Mississippi legislators passed a state constitution specifically to “eliminate the nigger from politics.”

On the other hand, the two Jewish New Yorkers—Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman—were coming to a state that had loved and embraced Jews—and vice versa—for centuries. It is a secret reality that the most distinguished Jewish historians, Rabbi Dr. Jacob Marcus and Dr. Abraham Peck, proudly expressed in the book Jews in Early Mississippi:

“Where else would members of the Christian community donate monies to help build the local synagogue? Where else could Jews be members of the city council or even become mayor? Where else, as in the case of Leopold Marks, could a town be named after a Jew? And when it came time to answer the call to arms [serving the pro-slavery Confederate army] the Jews of Mississippi went with enthusiasm.”

Drs. Marcus and Peck write that these Jews “had love of and devotion to the state of Mississippi.” With the same evident pride the Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life lists 23 Jewish mayors who reigned in cities and towns all over Mississippi. And note that these Jews were considered by their overwhelmingly white gentile voters to be the very best people to lead their slavery-based, apartheid-practicing, drop-of-a-hat lynching, black voter-discriminating towns and cities. As the Institute says, “For the most part, Jews have enjoyed remarkable acceptance in Mississippi.”

Here is a screenshot of their listing:

Jewish leaders, like Natchez, Mississippi, merchant Jacob Soria, would not have “embraced” Martin Luther King, as RFK, Jr. surmises, but would have sold him and his fellow protesters at Rich’s along with the 32 Black men, women and children he advertised for sale at auction in 1839.

Jewish hate groups like the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and the Simon Wiesenthal Center exploit the triple murder tragedy to advance the fallacy that the fates of Blacks and Jews in America were somehow intertwined—that their histories are one and the same. And from this hypocritical trick these satanic shysters, claiming to be “friends and allies” of Blacks, have been able to maneuver themselves into organizational control over the Black “civil rights” leadership.

Typical of this Tricknology is the ADL’s Jonathan Greenblatt, who in 2023 stood in front of Dr. King’s children and other Black leaders and pompously “counseled” them on “the history of how Blacks and Jews struggled alongside one another…” He said, “They don’t remember the sacrifices of Schwerner, Chaney, and Goodman…” But it is Greenblatt who doesn’t remember the sacrifices Blacks made for Jewish wealth in Mississippi and elsewhere in America.

To wit, B’nai B’rith is the parent organization of Greenblatt’s ADL. In deep, dark, Ku Klux Klan-saturated Mississippi the B’nai B’rith of Vicksburg held a dance (left photo below) in 1917 at the dedication of their palatial new “BB club.”

Their new building—opulent even by today’s standards—was designed in Spanish Renaissance architecture and constructed with Georgian marble and fine mahogany with ivory inlay. The lower level had a swimming pool, massage tables, locker rooms, a servant’s entrance, a butler’s pantry; and the upper floors had meeting rooms with pivoted windows, a walnut-encased billiard room, high-relief plaster work accented with electric lighting, a fine dining room, a lounge area in the mezzanine leading to the balcony overlooking the chandeliered ballroom, a roof garden, a gallery with a tiled floor and stone balustrade, a kitchen with a gas range, and a library.

This is how Mississippi Jews were faring 47 years before Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner arrived to help Blacks achieve voting rights! At that same moment, Mississippi Blacks “were landless sharecroppers or laborers facing inescapable poverty,” trapped in oppressive “contracts” with wealthy landowners like H. Hiller, a Jewish merchant who owned 400 of these sharecropper farms.

The pictured “negro shack” on white-owned land was the lot of the vast majority of Mississippi Blacks, whilst Jews flaunted the wealth they acquired in the most obscene way, in the most violently racist state in America.

Today we must ask why on earth would these Jews want to jeopardize, let alone change, this golden reality by participating in any “civil rights” movement? Logically, they would not, and indeed they did not.

Nonetheless, by all accounts both Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman came to Mississippi as dedicated individuals committed to racial justice, and, tellingly, not representing any synagogue or Jewish organization. And though their memories are cynically exploited—as Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., just did—for political benefit, a very thoughtful Andrew Goodman offered his community some sage advice about a Black organization that “Jewish leaders” like Greenblatt and his predecessor Abraham Foxman were dedicated to destroying:

“… it is true that the white man (and by this I mean Christian civilization in general) has proved himself to be the most depraved devil imaginable in his attitudes towards the Negro race…. The historical contempt that the white race held for the Negroes has created a group of rootless degraded people. The current neglect of the problem can only irritate this deplorable state of affairs. The Black Muslims should constitute a warning to our society, a warning that must be heeded if we are to preserve the society. The road to freedom must be uphill, even if it is arduous and frustrating. A people must have dignity and identity. If they can’t do it peacefully, they will do it defensively.”

According to the aforementioned book We Are Not Afraid, Goodman’s 31-page thesis “The Black Muslims: A Phenomenon of Negro Reaction,” completed just days before he was murdered, “was a young man’s cri de coeur, a pronouncement of beliefs, and an explanation for the action he was about to take.” Robert Kennedy, Jr., and Jonathan Greenblatt must then come to grips with a very inconvenient racial reality—that Andrew Goodman, the man they hold up as a sacred symbol of the Black–Jewish relationship, made his fateful decision to aid the Black struggle in Mississippi as a consequence of the Teachings of the Nation of Islam.


For more on this topic see the Nation of Islam book series The Secret Relationship Between Blacks & Jews. Download the free guide by clicking here.

To purchase the series click here.

March 31, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Progressive Hypocrite, Timeless or most popular | , | Leave a comment

Europe is not serious about stopping the genocide in Gaza

By Hossam Shaker | MEMO | March 31, 2024

Has Europe really stopped supporting the genocide, ethnic cleansing and starvation war taking place in Gaza? It is clear that changes have occurred in European positions recently, compared to previous months.

European officials have begun to express increasing “concern” about the humanitarian conditions in the Gaza Strip and have recently mentioned the word “international law” in their statements regarding the brutal Israeli war after they had previously ignored it. Then, the European Union (EU) called for a ceasefire for the first time at the European Council summit on 21 March, finally after the Israeli army killed 32,000 Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip.

European positions have budged, but very slowly and with great caution and the result is that they have not yet left the trenches of supporting the ongoing genocide, with scattered exceptions issued by Belgium, Ireland, Spain, Malta and Norway.

It seems clear that the criticism directed at the Israeli side from most European platforms is still cautious, with great care being taken to choose expressions carefully. Most importantly, Europe ignores the fact that its influence gives it the ability to stop war and genocide immediately if it has the political will through a package of sanctions, for example, but it simply does not want to.

Instead, European politicians are currently trying to give the impression that they disagree with the horrors committed by the Israeli government and its forces against 2.3 million people in the Gaza Strip, but without doing anything to deter them. Because the invasion of Rafah will bring back the most horrific scenes of World War II to the world of colours, Europe clearly opposes the invasion of this narrow area crowded with displaced persons, as do the allies in Washington as well. However, most European platforms do not declare opposition to the ongoing war, despite all the atrocities that have accompanied it. Indeed, the Israeli war leadership still enjoys generous military supplies from European countries, in addition to the continuation of mutual partnership and cooperation agreements without prejudice or even the threat of being suspended.

Instead of taking serious action to curb the horrific massacre, Europe’s political leadership is deluding its people and the world that it is really acting by talking a lot about providing humanitarian aid and showing concern about the worsening famine in the Gaza Strip, without this changing anything in reality, which is, in fact, worsening. There are also renewed declarations of support for the political vision of the two-state solution, readiness to discuss recognition of a Palestinian state and denounce the attacks of extremist settlers in the West Bank and perhaps impose sanctions on them. Regrettably, none of these relate to the essence of the ongoing war on Gaza, which includes genocide, even though the EU and most European capitals have avoided pronouncing this forbidden word when it comes to Israeli behaviour.

Even if Europe imposes sanctions on a few settlers who attack Palestinian citizens, it ignores what is being done by the Israeli army and its soldiers, who do not stop killing, terrorising and abusing Palestinians in the West Bank, in addition to their atrocities in Gaza. Europe grants immunity to the Israeli army, its officers and its soldiers from any sanctions or even any explicit criticism. The focus of criticism on the behaviour of the settlers is always accompanied by a clear insistence on exempting the army from blame and accountability for war crimes.

History will forever recall that Europe’s political establishment supported genocide against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip from day one in multiple forms through military support, political encouragement, propaganda and financial aid. Moreover, they have remained indifferent to the ongoing public objections against this shameful involvement. The war leadership with clear fascist tendencies would not have been able to wage this terrible massacre without this unwavering European cover, in addition to US and Western support in general.

Political Europe supported the atrocities through a rhetorical plot that included prior justification for everything that any army could commit against civilians. They did this despite knowing that the matter is related to an occupying army whose record is replete with war crimes committed in the Gaza Strip and elsewhere. In fact, the Benjamin Netanyahu government, which is the most extreme and racist Israeli government since its creation, had from the very first days declared its intentions to commit genocide, ethnic cleansing, starvation, war and total destruction. The evidence in this regard is well-documented in the case file South Africa submitted to the International Court of Justice. Yet the EU and most European capitals stuck to a unified narrative, providing excuses for all the atrocities that this army committed in the Gaza Strip, the majority of whose residents are refugee children and women.

European positions did not budge partially until after months of horrific massacres that reached a record level of Palestinian civilian casualties. Their partial change only came months after the brutal Israeli bombing campaign destroyed most homes, hospitals and civilian facilities with ammunition supplied by US and European industries and after starvation in Gaza reached a terrifying and visible peak before the entire world.

Still, European politicians behave as if they are incapable of acting. They continue to make feeble statements and diplomatic appeals to the Israeli side without telling their people and the world that they can take immediate, deterrent and effective steps to stop the genocide, ethnic cleansing and brutal starvation. Alas, they simply do not want to.

The easiest test of the seriousness of European positions is to compare their stand toward the Israeli occupier with the punitive steps taken after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The EU and other European countries have imposed strict, extensive and unprecedented sanctions on Russia since 24 February, 2022, in addition to the sanctions that were previously imposed after the annexation of Crimea in 2014. The EU also imposed sanctions on Belarus and Iran due to their roles in supporting the Russian war effort.

On the other hand, the EU and other European countries did not take any clear punitive steps towards Israel, except for the imposition of sanctions against a few settlers. The strangest thing, however, is that Europe rushed to punish the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and the Palestinian citizens served by the UN agency by hastily cutting off its funding as soon as uncorroborated Israeli allegations were received regarding some of its employees.

In contrast, Europe’s politicians still exempt the Israeli occupation army from even verbal censure. They choose carefully worded phrases when commenting on the terrible atrocities that the world sees, such as the mass killings at aid distribution points, so that these atrocities are not explicitly linked to the Israeli army.

One of the taboos of political discourse in the EU and the capitals of the continent is the use of specific vocabulary to describe what is happening. During half a year of horrors, expressions such as “genocide”, “ethnic cleansing”, “atrocities” and “war crimes” did not appear in European official comments, except in rare exceptions from non-conformist politicians in blog posts. The logical question that has been repeated for months in the words of demonstrators in European squares is: How many more victims would make you consider what is happening to be genocide?

Political Europe is now trying to disavow the image of the party supporting Israel’s war on the Palestinian people with all its atrocities. It is covering up its involvement in justifying this war and encouraging the genocide campaign that has been ongoing for months, including providing multiple forms of military, political, financial and propaganda support from several European countries. Ending the policy of supporting genocide, starvation, war and brutal war crimes has a clear title: ending the partnership and cooperation agreements, imposing strict sanctions, banning the supply of weapons and ammunition and launching a serious humanitarian operation to end the programmed starvation policy. The question remains: How many victims are needed in order to do something like this?

March 31, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Timeless or most popular, War Crimes | , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Israel kills over 400 during Al-Shifa Hospital siege

The Cradle | March 31, 2024

Israeli forces have killed more than 400 people, including patients, the displaced, and medical workers during their 13-day siege of Al-Shifa Hospital, Gaza’s government media office reported on 31 March.

The ministry added that during the siege on Gaza’s largest medical facility, where thousands of patients and displaced people are sheltering, Israeli troops have detained and tortured hundreds while destroying and or setting fire to 1,050 nearby houses.

On 27 March, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor reported that Israeli forces had killed 13 children between the ages of 4 and 16 during operations in and around Al-Shifa in the previous week.

“Some of the fatal shootings occurred during an Israeli army siege while the victims’ families were inside their homes; others occurred when the victims attempted to escape via routes that the Israeli army had designated as ‘safe’ after forcibly evacuating them from their homes and places of residence,” the report stated.

Islam Ali Salouha, who lives close to Al-Shifa, told Euro-Med that Israeli forces killed his sons Ali, nine, and Saeed Muhammad Sheikha, six, while the family fled the area after being expelled from their home. Israeli forces specifically targeted the children with live bullets, he said.

Euro-Med reports that according to Salouha, on the afternoon of Sunday, 24 March, the Israeli army ordered everyone in the vicinity, through loudspeakers, to leave their homes or their homes would be bombed. He and his family fled on a corpse-strewn road that the Israeli army had designated for travel.

After walking only 10s of meters, Israeli forces opened fire on the family, killing the two children.

Salouha said that as they attempted to pull his two children off the ground, Israeli forces opened fire on them again, forcing them to leave Ali and Saeed on the ground and flee.

Safa Hassouna, a Palestinian woman living near Al-Shifa, told The National how she was forced to leave her home near the hospital when Israeli forces “broke in and forced them to leave.”

When Israeli forces began launching repeated raids on Al Shifa almost two weeks ago, Ms. Hassouna had decided to remain in her home to avoid shelling. However, Israeli forces later raided her home.

“They bombed the door and forced us out,” she said.

Hassouna said Israeli forces abducted her husband and two sons and told her to flee south with her daughter.

“They forced my husband and my sons to take off their clothes. They took them, and me and my daughter left,” she said.

Hassouna said her husband and one son have been released, but the fate of her other son is unknown. As he was escorted away, Israeli troops used him as a human shield for their tank.

“I don’t know anything about him, and I am worried,” she told The National from southern Gaza, where she is now staying.

“We are experiencing all the sorrow and sadness. Enough is enough.”

March 31, 2024 Posted by | Subjugation - Torture, War Crimes | , , , | Leave a comment

Russian athletes ‘not welcome’ at Olympics – Paris mayor

Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo, Kiev, Ukraine, March 28, 2024 © Getty Images / Aleksandr Gusev/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
RT | March 31, 2024

The mayor of Paris has reiterated her proposal that Russian and Belarusian contestants stay away from this summer’s Olympic Games in the French capital, despite them being officially allowed to compete as neutrals.

“I want to tell the Russian and Belarusian athletes that they are not welcome in Paris,” Anne Hidalgo told Ukrainian athletes at a training center in Kiev on Thursday, while on a visit to Ukraine.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) initially pushed for a complete ban on competitors from Russia and Belarus after the outbreak of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022. However, last December the IOC ruled that a limited number of people from the two countries could participate as AINs (individual neutral athletes).

Hidalgo told Reuters earlier this month that she would prefer for Russian and Belarusian contestants not to come at all. “We cannot act as if [the Russian military operation in Ukraine] did not exist,” she told Reuters.

When asked about Israel’s Olympic participation – in the context of the Gaza war, raging since the Hamas attack on October 7 – Hidalgo insisted there was no comparison to be made.

Sanctioning Israeli athletes is “out of the question because Israel is a democracy,” she stated.

Russia has slammed the IOC’s difference in approach to Israeli and Russian contestants. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has accused the Switzerland-based body of “political activism” and called its approach self-discrediting.

The maximum numbers of Russian and Belarusian athletes that can qualify for the upcoming games are 55 and 28, respectively. The IOC has noted that the teams are unlikely to actually meet the quota, with some 36 Russian and 22 Belarusian athletes expected to make it to the games, according to IOC director James Macleod.

Participants from the two nations can only compete in individual events, and not team sports, under a neutral flag, and are barred from the Olympic opening ceremony.

Commenting on the restrictions faced by Russian and Belarusian competitors, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the move “destroys Olympic ideals and discriminates against the interests of Olympians.” Such restrictions run “absolutely contrary to the entire ideology of the Olympic movement,” he insisted.

March 31, 2024 Posted by | Progressive Hypocrite, Russophobia | , | Leave a comment