Aletho News

ΑΛΗΘΩΣ

Why neutral Austria joined the EU sanctions policy against Russia

By Patrick Poppel | August 14, 2024

It is known that the then Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz campaigned very strongly for the establishment of sanctions against Russia in 2014, but a lot of time has passed since this situation and yet a neutral state like Austria is still in line with the sanctions policy against Russia.

You have to ask yourself why Austria plays such a role even though it doesn’t really fit the identity of a neutral state in full. Austria’s task would be to play a role as a mediator and not as a supporter of the EU’s aggressive policy against Russia. Inexperienced and young politician Sebastian Kurz brought Austria’s foreign policy in accordance with the EU requirements and transatlantic forces and then quickly became Chancellor of Austria.

Behavior against national interests is immediately rewarded by the structures in the background. Although Austria has always been the place for mediation between rivals in Europe, that has changed radically with the support of sanctions against Russia. Back in 2014, Austria was chosen as an example to show all European politicians that it is important to establish sanctions against Russia.

If a neutral state like Austria supports sanctions, then states that are members of NATO will no longer consider discussing them. The unified willingness of all EU states to impose sanctions against Russia can only be explained by the fact that an atmosphere of unanimity was created.

Since sanctions also damage one’s own economy, such a rigid measure must always be carefully analyzed and discussed beforehand. But that was not done because the established political atmosphere made it clear that sanctions must be imposed at all costs.

“If Austria is also for sanctions, then everyone is for it!” was the logic of the politicians. This course started in 2014 and continues to this day without letup.

The argument that if even a neutral state supports the sanctions it is legitimate is, of course, an ingenious manipulation. The question now naturally arises as to whether this situation arose by chance due to the incompetence of Austrian politics or whether it is a planned process. The second possibility becomes more and more likely when the facts are analyzed more closely.

It was immediately clear to everyone that the sanctions would be very dangerous for the Austrian economy and this political action does not fit with the Austrian political culture of neutrality. It is certainly possible that the behavior of politicians was prepared and influenced here from the outside.

The only question is who benefited from it. The large lobby of Austrian business and industry did not benefit from the sanctions. Although this lobby had massive influence on the government at the time, support for sanctions against Russia could not be prevented. Actually, this seems inexplicable for observers. Why weren’t there protests from business people immediately at the start of the sanctions?

There are events in world history that happen by chance and have a major impact on the future, but when it comes to Austria’s sanctions policy against Russia a plan and a structure are clearly visible. Since not a single business in Austria benefited from this development, this operation can only have been controlled from abroad. It will be very difficult to prove this, but this foreign influence is the only explanation for the behavior of Austrian politicians.

Of course, one can also think in detail about the role of the Austrian government which actually has the task of warding off foreign influence on the government. As a small country, Austria is exposed to strong influence from the big geopolitical players.

The fact that many important international organizations are located in Austria also makes Austria a target for foreign secret services, but also a place for general foreign interests. Austrian politicians are more exposed to these influences than politicians from other countries and the agents who work in Vienna easily get contact and access to important people in the state.

The Austrian government’s decision to support sanctions against Russia was not understood by many people because it was against common sense. But we are currently living in a time where a lot of developments are happening in the background. We live in a time in which it is very easy to quickly transmit information and coordinate actions that have been planned long in advance.

Just as the Maidan uprising was planned a long time ago, these forces have dealt with and prepared for the possible establishment of sanctions. If you follow the principle “Who benefits?”, it is clear that the Austrian government’s decision at the time is of no use to the government or the population in the long term. The sanctions only help those who cannot be affected by them.

The current fact that OMV (Austrian Mineral Oil Administration) will withdraw from the contract with its Russian partners can only be explained by external influence. Austrians will have to pay a lot more for gas in the future. The population will accept this because the media does not accurately report the reasons for it. All of these facts can be put together to form a picture and the result is that Austria plays a crucial negative role in imposing sanctions against Russia.

Patrick Poppel, expert at the Center for Geostrategic Studies, Belgrade.

August 14, 2024 Posted by | Economics, Russophobia | , | Leave a comment

Scott Ritter: FBI Raids Part & Parcel of US Government’ Intimidation

By Svetlana Ekimenko – Sputnik – August 12, 2024

Former USMC intelligence officer and Sputnik contributor Sсott Ritter’s New York home was raided earlier this month over allegations he had violated the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), which requires anyone who acts on behalf of a foreign nation to register as such to the US government.

The US government is “not happy” with the truthful message that he is conveying as a Sputnik contributor, former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter believes.

This explains the recent FBI raid on his home over claims he had violated the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).

It was “disconcerting and chilling” when around 40 FBI agents raided his house, revealed Ritter.

“I asked repeatedly, ‘Why are you doing this?’’ What are you concerned about? Tell me what specific actions you’re concerned about and I can help resolve this.’ Now, we had a lengthy conversation, the special agents and I, but never once were they able to say this is why we believe you’re in violation,” he said.

However, what the agents did talk a lot about was the pundit’s relationship with Sputnik.

“They were very concerned about the work that I do as a contributor to Sputnik […] The US government is clearly unhappy with my message, unhappy with the impact that I’m having, and nervous that they can’t control me. And so I think that this raid, this search warrant, this ongoing investigation is part and parcel of a larger project of intimidation that unfortunately will continue, I believe, for the near future,” Ritter said.

The FBI and US Department of Justice are bothered by the impact people like him are having “on informing an audience not only inside the United States, but around the world about the malfeasance of American foreign policy,” Scott Ritter said. However, the author and commentator refused to be intimidated, saying he looked forward to continuing to operate as a contributor to Sputnik.

“I’m very proud of this relationship and I think highly of the editors and producers that I work with, and I look forward to continuing to do this for the foreseeable future,” Ritter stated.

August 12, 2024 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Full Spectrum Dominance, Russophobia | , , | Leave a comment

US Missiles in Germany Would Place Target on Berlin’s Back – German Politician

By Svetlana Ekimenko – Sputnik – 11.08.2024

The United States formally announced plans to deploy Tomahawk cruise missiles, hypersonic missiles and SM-6 long-range SAM systems against the backdrop of the NATO Summit in Washington in July. This prompted Russia to warn that it would take measures it finds necessary to respond to the threat in due course.

Deployment of US missiles on German territory raises the risk of Berlin becoming a target for Russian nuclear missiles, German politician Sahra Wagenknecht warned.

“These weapons do not close a defense gap, but are offensive weapons that would make Germany a primary target for Russian nuclear missiles. There are reasons why no other European country stations such missiles on its territory,” Wagenknecht told RND.

She yet again linked this security policy issue with the state election campaigns in East Germany, saying that opposition to the missile deployment was a precondition for any coalition formed by the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) party.

Wagenknecht stressed that BSW supporters had taken note of the fact that Saxon Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer recently described the stationing of US medium-range missiles in Germany as ‘absolutely right’.

Several days earlier, Wagenknecht made coalition negotiations dependent on the position on the conflict in Ukraine, saying that a state government should adopt a “clear position in federal politics for diplomacy and against war preparations.”

In late July, the co-chairwoman of BSW, Amira Mohamed Ali, said that Berlin’s approval of stationing US missiles in Germany is a step towards military escalation, and urged the government to change its “dangerous” course. The politician added that the move significantly raises military risk for Germany, adding that “obviously, [Chancellor Olaf] Scholz should not have bypassed the parliament to take such a far-reaching decision.”

However, other German politicians appear intent on pursuing the dangerous course of green lighting such weapons’ stationing on their soil.

Christian Lindner, leader of the Free Democratic Party (FDP), claimed that long-range US weapons would serve to “strike a balance of deterrence against Russia.” Germany “has been within the scope of nuclear-covering rockets of Russia for years,” stated Lindner.

In a bout of fearmongering, Michael Giss, Commander of the Hamburg State Command, speculated in a recent interview that Germany must be ready for war in order to prevent Russia from attacking NATO territory.

He referred to his “internal clock as a soldier” which was ticking and telling him that “in five years’ time we must be resilient as a society to withstand an external military threat.”

However, in stark contrast to the warmongering German politicians, every second German citizen believes that a planned deployment of US long-range weapons may lead to a possible escalation with Russia, a recent survey conducted by the Civey polling institute showed.

In early July, the White House announced that the US Army’s Multi-Domain Task Force in Germany is planning to deploy long-range offensive Tomahawk, SM-6 and hypersonic missiles in Germany in 2026. The move would “demonstrate the United States’ commitment to NATO and its contributions to European integrated deterrence,” the release stated.

Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov warned that Russia would take measures it finds necessary to respond to the threat in due course. Russian President Vladimir Putin said that if the US arms were stationed in Germany, Russia would deem itself free from a moratorium on deployment of shorter- and medium-range strike weapons.

August 11, 2024 Posted by | Militarism, Russophobia | , , | Leave a comment

There Is Something Rotten in Washington

Scott Ritter is harassed by FBI for calling for peace while Israel’s Lobby overthrows elections

By Philip Giraldi • Unz Review • August 8, 2024

One thing you can say about the Administration of President Joe Biden is that nearly every week there is something new and exciting to discuss. Galloping dementia recently gifted us with Joe’s 11 minute abdication speech in which he announced that he would not be running for another term as president. He babbled about how he was taking the step in spite of his desire to continue. The president, who is 81 and recently best noted for his failing mental state causing him to fall down stairs, felt compelled to say that he believes that his record as president “merited a second term” but that “nothing can come in the way of saving our democracy.” He also claimed that “I’m the first president in this century to report to the American people that the United States is not at war anywhere in the world,” even though it is engaged in a military occupation and combat operations in Syria, bombing Yemen and conducting counterterrorism in Iraq as well as supporting logistically and with intelligence the large and growing conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza. He has pledged to Israel that he will “defend” it if attacked, presumably no matter what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu assassinates or bombs to provoke a war against Lebanon, Syria and Iran. Joe ended up by celebrating the nomination of Kamala Harris as heir-designate to the Oval Office after disposing of the troublesome and assertive Donald Trump, who presumably is the one who will tear up the US Constitution and “destroy democracy” if given the chance to do so.

But that was two weeks ago. More recently the fun fair on the Potomac turned its guns on a major critic of the federal government’s policies, most notably exercising its proclivity to float a lot of lies to turn anyone who exercises his or her first amendment right to free speech into some kind of traitor who has to be silenced. Many would argue that if the Biden Administration has one major failure beyond losing control over the country’s southern border, it is failure to manage US Foreign Policy in such a fashion as to avoid initiating or expanding existing international conflicts so as to turn them into major wars. If one considers Ukraine and Gaza, both conflicts that could have easily been stopped or de-escalated if the State Department had stopped acting as a shill for Volodymyr Zelensky and Benjamin Netanyahu and had instead created disincentives to continuing the fighting, the case for US involvement as an antagonist is non-existent. The American people benefit in no way from either war and opinion polls make clear that there is considerable popular opposition to the carnage taking place along both fronts.

On August 7th, it was reported that Scott Ritter, who I consider a friend, had his house in New York State searched by FBI and police and twenty five boxes containing documents and electronic communications devices were reportedly taken away for examination in an “ongoing investigation.” Scott, a former Marine corps intelligence officer, has anti-war credentials that go way back to before the Iraq War when he, as a United Nations Weapon inspector, declared that Saddam Hussein had no “weapons of mass destruction” (WMD). WMD fear was being promoted in Washington as the reason for attacking and disarming Iraq. Scott was pilloried both by the mainstream media and by the Pentagon’s and White House’s mostly Jewish neocons (Paul Wolfowitz, Doug Feith, Richard Perle and Scooter Libby) who were busy fabricating deliberately misleading information and disseminating it to encourage the George W. Bush administration to start the war, which it obligingly did. Scott nevertheless has continued to be an effective gadfly over war and peace issues ever since that time.

Ritter had earlier had a run-in with the Biden regime in June 2024 when he was at the airport in New York City preparing to fly to Istanbul on his way to St. Petersburg to attend the prestigious international Economic Forum that that city hosts annually. A team of three FBI agents accosted him as he was about to board his plane and they confiscated his passport under orders from the State Department. They would neither give him a receipt for the document nor did they produce a warrant. No reason was given for the action, and Scott has since that time been unable to get his passport back.

The passport confiscation and now the house search appear to be connected with what is referred to as a Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA) of 1938 investigation. FARA came into being just before the outbreak of the Second World War, when it was feared that “agents” of the Italian and German governments were all too freely spreading their propaganda in the US. In particular, FARA mandates that the finances and relationships of the foreign affiliated organization be open to Department of the Justice inspection. It states that “any person who acts as an agent, representative, employee, or servant, or otherwise acts at the order, request, or under the direction or control of a foreign principal.” Those who fail to disclose might be penalized by up to five years in prison and fines up to $250,000.

To be sure, the U.S. government has recently been aggressive in demanding FARA registration for other nations as well as for Americans working for foreign powers. There have been several prominent FARA cases in the news. Major Russian news agencies operating in the U.S. were compelled to register in 2017 because they were funded largely or in part by the Kremlin. Also, as part of their plea deals, the former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn both conceded that they had failed to comply with FARA when working as consultants with foreign governments.

While the Department of Justice is now going after Scott Ritter using FARA presumably because he is an effective critic of Joe Biden’s wars, there are some indications that other elements in the US government security apparatus are going after others who have dared to oppose what the White House and Congress have been up to. On August 6th, while Democratic nominee Kamala Harris pledged to defend “freedom, compassion, and the rule of law” to cheers in Philadelphia, Hawaii’s former Congresswoman and National Guard officer Tulsi Gabbard described how she was being tracked by teams of government agents in surveilling her and her husband whenever she travels by air. Whistleblowing Air Marshals leaked how Gabbard had been singled out as a “domestic terror threat” under the so-called “Quiet Skies” program. Her boarding passes bear the SSSS notation which makes her subject to additional security searches and questioning. Her probable crime is opposing the war in Ukraine or, possibly, having recently published a book entitled “For Love of Country: Leave the Democratic Party Behind.”

While Attorney General Merrick Garland is active in pursuing individual Americans for possible FARA and “domestic terrorism” violations, he is strangely but predictably reluctant to go after the most corrupt foreign government’s US-domestic lobby which dwarfs all others in terms of illicit cash flow and political impact. It is a foreign government that receives billions of dollars a year in “aid” and other benefits from the United States taxpayer. Consider beyond that, the possibility that that government might take part of the money it receives and secretly recycle it to groups of American citizens in the United States that exist to maintain and increase that money flow while also otherwise serving other interests of the recipient country. That would mean that the United States is itself subsidizing the lobbies and groups that are inevitably working against its own interests. And it also means that those lobbyists though US citizens are acting as foreign agents, covertly giving priority to their attachment to a foreign country instead of to the nation in which they live.

I am, of course, referring to Israel. It does not require a brilliant observer to note how Israel and its allies inside the U.S. have become very skilled at milking the government in the United States at all levels for every bit of financial aid, trade concessions, military hardware and political cover that is possible to obtain. The flow of dollars, goods, and protection is never actually debated in any serious way and is often, in fact, negotiated directly by Congress or state legislatures directly with the Israeli lobbyists. This corruption and manipulation of the US governmental system by people who are basically foreign agents is something like a criminal enterprise and one can only imagine the screams of outrage coming from the New York Times if there were a similar arrangement with any other country.

Recent revelations suggest that Israel’s cheating involves subsidies that are paid covertly by Israeli government agencies to groups in the United States which in turn took direction from the Jewish state, often inter alia damaging genuine American interests. The Israeli Lobby also has been long noted for its interference in American elections, including spending large sums of money to oust politicians who complain about the Jewish state and its behavior. Progressive Congresswoman Cori Bush, a critic of Israel, was recently ousted after her opponent received $8 million and earlier this year Jamaal Bowman lost after a record $15 million went to support another “friendly to Israel” candidate.

Many of the groups receiving Israeli money failed to disclose the payments, which is a felony. At the same time, even the casual observer of government in Washington would inevitably note how Israel’s various friends and proxies, uniquely, have been de facto exempt from any regulation by the US government. The last serious attempt to register a major lobbying entity was made by John F. Kennedy, who sought to have the predecessor organization to today’s American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) comply with FARA. Kennedy was killed before he could complete the process and some have linked his death to efforts to register the Israel lobby elements while also blocking Israeli attempts to illegally and secretly develop nuclear weapons.

If one is requiring all the Israeli proxies that together make up the Israel Lobby to register under FARA, you might start with AIPAC, the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) and the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP) but there will be many, many more before the work is done. And there is Christians United for Israel (CUFI), which also has received funding and material aid directly from Israel. The fundamentalist Christian head cases that place Israel’s interests ahead of those of their own country finally need to have their bell rung.

One might well suggest that the Biden Administration stop harassing ordinary Americans who are exercising their free speech right to critique unnecessary wars and instead go after the Israel Lobby, which is a major contributing factor to why those wars are taking place at all. It would also be nice to end the hypocrisy that surrounds anything having to do with Israel in Washington. The country is no democracy, no ally, and it is a major league war criminal with possibly hundreds of thousands of dead Palestinians as evidence of its genocidal inclinations. Several hundred Congressmen cheering war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu do not change that. Apart from anything else, that the United States is involved in sustaining and providing cover for the slaughter of thousands of innocents while also pursuing its own citizens who are saying “Thou shalt not!” is an abomination.

Philip M. Giraldi, Ph.D., is Executive Director of the Council for the National Interest, a 501(c)3 tax deductible educational foundation (Federal ID Number #52-1739023) that seeks a more interests-based U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. Website is councilforthenationalinterest.org, address is P.O. Box 2157, Purcellville VA 20134 and its email is inform@cnionline.org.

August 8, 2024 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Full Spectrum Dominance, Progressive Hypocrite, Russophobia | , , , , , | Leave a comment

US government ‘has declared war on me’ – Scott Ritter

RT | August 8, 2024

Former US Marine turned journalist Scott Ritter has accused the US government of committing an “act of intimidation” against him for his journalistic work after federal agents and state police executed a search warrant on his house in New York State on Wednesday.

In a video statement on his Telegram channel on Thursday, Ritter, who is also a former UN weapons inspector, said that the warrant was based upon suspicion that he had violated the Foreign Agents Registration Act.

The authorities appear to be “primarily concerned” about his “relationship” with RT and the news agency Sputnik, he added.

According to Ritter, the FBI agents accused him of working “on behalf of the Russian government” and receiving “directions” from the two Russian outlets while being compensated for his contributions.

Ritter stressed that he was not a foreign agent and pointed out that he gets compensation from “any journalistic entity” he provides content for.

Ritter also dismissed as “absurd in the extreme” the accusation that his articles and podcasts were “designed to manipulate the opinion of the American people on behalf of the Russian government.”

He called the raid “an act of intimidation by the US government designed to have a chilling effect” and to discourage him from further cooperation with the Russian-based media outlets, Ritter said.

”There isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell that I will back down because I’m doing nothing wrong,” he stated, adding that he is “an American citizen, holding my government accountable and exercising the rights given to me by the Constitution.”

Ritter went on to say that the US government has “declared war” on him, on his ability to write, to speak, and to interact with the American people and the broader international audience.

”It’s not a war I plan on losing,” Ritter concluded.

Ritter is a former US Marine Corps major who served as a UN weapons inspector in Iraq during the 1990s. He opposed the 2003 US invasion, insisting that Saddam Hussein’s government did not have weapons of mass destruction, as Washington claimed at the time.

According to the US Department of Justice, the US Foreign Agents Registration Act “requires certain agents” to disclose their relationship with “foreign principals,” thus “informing the public on the identity of persons engaging in political activities on behalf of foreign governments.”

Similar legislation adopted in Russia has been harshly criticized in the West, branded as “oppressive” and a “crackdown on opposition.”

August 8, 2024 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Full Spectrum Dominance, Progressive Hypocrite, Russophobia | , , | Leave a comment

Russia decries ‘routine repression’ of dissidents in EU states

RT | August 7, 2024

The West is turning into a “neoliberal dictatorship” that is intolerant of any form of dissent, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova claimed on Wednesday. She was commenting on the prosecution of journalist Svetlana Burtseva by EU member Estonia.

Burtseva, a 57-year-old naturalized Estonian citizen, was charged this week under an article of the Estonian penal code that prohibits relations with a foreign entity with the intention of committing treason.

Specifically, Burtseva was accused of writing under a pen name for a Baltic-focused Russian-language news outlet that belongs to the Russian media group Rossiya Segodnya, which is sanctioned by the EU.

Estonian officials have claimed Burtseva committed subversive activities such as writing a book that “belittles” the Baltic country, as claimed by public prosecutor Eneli Laurits.

Commenting on the case, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zakharova said that “similar to other ‘advanced democracies’ of the Baltics, Estonia continues to systematically use repression as a routine tool for quashing dissent.”

She described the allegations against Burtseva as “obviously fabricated” and claimed that they reflect Tallin’s “flawed and absolutely irreconcilable” attitude to opposition.

Moscow perceives the prosecution as an attempt to punish Burtseva for journalism and voicing opinions critical of the Estonian government. International bodies that should defend freedom of speech share the blame, since they have neglected their duties and have long turned a blind eye to the stifling of critical press by the Baltic states, the diplomat argued.

The entire situation “showcases the deep crisis and the deterioration of the Western-style democracy, how it is morphing into a neoliberal dictatorship,” Zakharova concluded.

August 7, 2024 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Full Spectrum Dominance, Russophobia | , , , | Leave a comment

Thousands join peace and freedom rally in Berlin

RT | August 4, 2024

Thousands took to the streets of Berlin on Saturday for a “peace and freedom” rally to protest against what was called Germany’s “belligerent” foreign policy and the country’s continued arms supplies to Ukraine.

The event was organized by so-called Querdenker (‘lateral thinking’) groups, a movement initially formed during the Covid-19 pandemic in order to protest against the German government’s lockdown policies and the overall pandemic response. It has since absorbed other government critics. Some German media outlets have referred to the movement as rife with conspiracy theorists or having links to far-right groups.

Some 5,000 people registered for the march, according to the city police. Several local media outlets put the number of participants at 9,000, citing law enforcement estimates. Many people carried blue flags with a white dove of peace, while others had banners and placards that read: “No US missiles on our soil!” “No missiles against Russia!” “No arms shipments to Ukraine and Israel!” or “Peace talks!”

Some demonstrators also carried banners bearing the slogan “Create peace without weapons!” This phrase comes from the 1982 Berlin Appeal, an outspoken petition crafted by two East German dissidents that called for disarmament.

Having started at Ernst Reuter Square in central Berlin, the demonstrators eventually made their way to Tiergarten Park for a rally attended by some 12,000 people, according to police estimates. Protesters called for “regionality, direct democracy and limiting the power” of the government, which, many claimed was filled with “absolute idiots.”

Some of the demonstrators still wanted the government to “bear responsibility” for what they believed were unjust lockdown policies during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Participants also demanded that Germany be “capable of peace instead of being ready for war” in an apparent reference to a statement in June by Defense Minister Boris Pistorius that the nation “must be ready for war by 2029” while advocating military reform and a “new form of military service.” The minister had previously made similar statements, citing the alleged threat posed by Russia in particular.

Some speakers at the rally urged Germany to leave NATO. “We want a government that represents our interests and not that of the USA and big business,” one said, according to local media reports. Thousands of protesters reportedly stayed at the rally site for many hours. Some 7,000 people were still demonstrating in the early evening, according to law enforcement estimates.

The event was largely peaceful, with just a handful of detentions, the police said, adding that most of those detained had violated the rules on banned symbols, such as the logo of the German Compact Magazine, which has been deemed extremist by the country’s domestic security service (BfV).

Some smaller counter protests organized by various left-wing groups were also held in the city on Saturday.

August 4, 2024 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Militarism, Russophobia, Solidarity and Activism | , , | Leave a comment

INF Treaty Stood in Way of Plans to Militarize Europe, Hold Russia Back – Ex-DoD Analyst

Sputnik – 02.08.2024

WASHINGTON – The United States scrapped the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty five years ago with the aim of expanding NATO further eastward, pressing Russia economically and militarily, and cementing America’s global hegemony, veteran Pentagon analyst and retired US Air Force Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski told Sputnik.

August 2 marks the fifth anniversary of the US’s formal withdrawal from the INF Treaty.

“This [the pullout from the treaty] was due to the US desire (led by neoconservatives in the State Department and elsewhere in the Obama, Trump and Biden administrations) to expand NATO eastward, as well to engage militarily on Russia’s European border with both conventional and nuclear arms, specifically via Ukraine,” Kwiatkowski said.

The military and economic rise of China, a neoconservative theme for the past 30 years, required in the eyes of hawkish US military planners a nuclear offensive line in Eastern Europe to hold Russia “captive,” Kwiatkowski explained.

“The INF Treaty always stood in the way of this,” she said.

Russia had formally complained of continual US violations of the INF Treaty since 2014, but this was information most Americans and Europeans never saw, and most were not even interested in, Kwiatkowski noted.

“The consequences have been straightforward and dangerous. First, both the United States and Russia are now actively engaged in an expensive competition in the INF field and other new missile technology arenas,” she said.

Unlike in 1987, Russian technological and economic capabilities in this space now exceed those of the United States, Kwiatkowski assessed.

“Instead of US-Russia treaties that could engage and limit war preparation, we have NATO expansion, including an attempt to NATO-ize former INF signatory Ukraine,” she said.

After two post-Cold War batch accessions to the NATO alliance in 1999 and 2004, the accessions of six new member countries since 2009 have created a larger “border” between Russia and NATO, Kwiatkowski cautioned.

“Peace and diplomacy were now not only verboten, or forbidden but for five years have been institutionally impossible in Europe, thanks in part to the elimination of the INF Treaty and abnormally weak and intellectually impoverished US and NATO leadership over the same time frame,” she concluded.

The INF treaty, signed between the Soviet Union and the US in 1987, banned the countries from developing and possessing ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges from 500-5,500 kilometers. In 2019, then-President Donald Trump withdrew the US from the treaty, accusing Russia of non-compliance. In response to the US decision, Russia suspended its participation in the Cold War-era accord.

August 2, 2024 Posted by | Militarism, Russophobia | , , | Leave a comment

Hungary Rejects Croatian Oil Route Over High Fees and EU Call to Stop Russian Oil

Sputnik – 02.08.2024

Croatia is not a reliable partner for oil transit, since it has raised the duty fivefold since 2022, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on Friday, commenting on Brussels’ proposal to replace the Russian oil supplies stopped by Kiev with transit through Croatia.

Earlier in the day, the Financial Times reported, citing a letter from EU Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis, that the European Commission had advised Hungary and Slovakia to abandon Russian oil and seek alternative sources in response to a complaint that Ukraine has blocked the transit of oil from Russia.

“Croatia is simply not a reliable transit country,” Szijjarto wrote on social media, adding that since the start of the conflict in Ukraine, Croatia has increased the price of oil transit fivefold compared to the average market price.

Last month, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said that Ukraine had stopped the transit of Lukoil’s oil. The Slovak Economy Ministry confirmed that the country was no longer receiving oil from the Russian oil giant, which was sanctioned by Ukraine. On July 22, Szijjarto said that Hungary and Slovakia had launched consultations of the European Commission with Ukraine due to a stop in the transit of oil from Russia through the Druzhba pipeline. On Thursday, EU Commission spokesman Balazs Ujvari said that Kiev’s decision shows no energy supply risks for Hungary or Slovakia, so the Commission will not hold urgent consultations on the issue.

Dombrovskis said in the letter to Budapest and Bratislava that “diversification away from Russian fossil fuels should be actively pursued,” the report read on Thursday.

He reportedly added that at a meeting of representatives of all EU member states last week, “a significant number … questioned why Hungary and Slovakia had apparently not yet explored alternatives so far”.

August 2, 2024 Posted by | Russophobia | , , , | Leave a comment

US about to impose sanctions on Georgia due to its refusal to engage in anti-Russian hostilities

By Lucas Leiroz | August 2, 2024

Since the beginning of the special military operation, the US has been encouraging other countries to participate directly or indirectly in hostilities against the Russian Federation. Due to its recent history of war against Moscow and its territorial demands in the north, Georgia has been one of the countries most encouraged by the West to take an open stance against Russia in the current proxy war. However, Tbilisi has refused to participate in the hostilities, which is why the Caucasian country may be close to being sanctioned by the West.

In Georgia, there is a clear political polarization between pro-Western militants and the sovereigntists who advocate good relations with Russia. Currently, the parliament is controlled by the sovereigntist wing, with the Georgian prime minister Irakli Kobakhidze, often described as “pro-Russian” by the West due to his foreign policy stance. On the other hand, the opposition is extremely violent and has organized protests and demonstrations with the aim of pressuring for radical changes in the country. The leading figure of the pro-Western wing is the country’s president herself, French-born Salome Zurabishvili, who leads a major pro-EU and pro-NATO lobby.

Currently, the most controversial political issue in Georgia is the law against foreign agents, recently passed by the parliament. The law requires media groups, think tanks and individuals who receive more than 20% of foreign funding to be registered within Georgian institutions officially as “promoters of the interests of a foreign power”. Zurabishvili vetoed the law, but the prime minister approved it despite the president’s disagreement.

Since Georgia is the scene of the operations of several American and European agencies, the law severely affects the Western lobby in the country. Having to expose their financiers, pro-Western agencies in Georgia have their work discredited and lose influence over public opinion. As a result, the EU and NATO plan to “push” Georgia to a “second front” against Russia loses momentum, bringing hope for good relations with Moscow – and infuriating the West.

Since Western countries are extremely “punitive” towards sovereign states, Georgia has obviously become the target of American and European strategists. After several hostile statements, threats and even attempts at a color revolution, now the Under Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs James O’Brien officially announced to the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee that Washington is planning to impose sanctions on Georgia.

O’Brien, who recently stated that NATO is on the verge of adopting a “new Russia strategy“, said that the Americans are considering the possibility of sanctioning Tbilisi. He believes that if the upcoming parliamentary elections do not effectively advance Western interests in the country, imposing sanctions will be the only option left for the US. In addition, he emphasized that the US is reviewing all cooperation and aid programs it currently has with Georgia, suggesting that other forms of economic boycott could be imposed.

“You asked about sanctions, we are actively considering our options there. I won’t preview anything, but we are looking at it (…) [The US is ready] to support everything that will contribute to fair and free parliament election in Georgia this fall (…) I’m hopeful that this can happen again in the next months,” he said.

Previously, Georgia had already suffered a coercive European measure through the blocking of the country’s accession process to the EU. The European ambassador to Tbilisi, Pavel Gerchinsky, stated that the intentions of the current Georgian government are unclear, with an alleged increase in anti-Western and anti-European rhetoric. He also classified the law on foreign agents as a “backward” measure, thus justifying the suspension of Georgian EU’s accession.

“The intentions of the current Georgian government are unclear to EU leaders. The Transparency of Foreign Influence Act is clearly a step backwards. […] Also, the anti-Western, anti-European rhetoric is completely incompatible with the declared goal of joining the European Union. Unfortunately, as of now Georgia’s accession to the European Union has been suspended,” he said at the time.

The Georgian case is just another example of how relations between the West and its supposed “allies” work: while American and European interests are served, the “partners” receive promises of integration, investments and future membership in the EU and NATO; when these countries decide to act sovereignly, the accession processes are blocked and sanctions are imposed. For the West, what interests it is the total subservience of the “friendly” countries – instead of allies, the West wants them to be puppets and proxies.

Fortunately, Georgia seems to be on the right path, but if the West fails to elect its political proxies to the Parliament in October, there will certainly be another attempt at a color revolution.

Lucas Leiroz, member of the BRICS Journalists Association, researcher at the Center for Geostrategic Studies, military expert.

You can follow Lucas on X (formerly Twitter) and Telegram.

August 2, 2024 Posted by | Economics, Russophobia | , | Leave a comment

China responds to US election interference claim

RT | July 30, 2024

Beijing has never interfered in US elections and has no intention of doing so, the Chinese Foreign Ministry has stressed in response to accusations recently levied by US intelligence officials.

The ministry’s statement comes in response to a late July Election Security Update by the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) in which Russia, China and Iran were accused of supposedly using their influence to impact US politics and threaten the upcoming US presidential election, scheduled for November.

In the report, ODNI stated that while China “probably does not plan to influence the outcome of the US presidential election,” actors linked to Beijing are expected to “seek to denigrate down-ballot candidates” who are seen as a threat to China’s core interests. The agency suggested that similar actions were carried out by Chinese agents “in a handful of midterm races in 2022.”

ODNI also stated that it is aware that Beijing is using social media to sow “divisions in the US and portray democracies as chaotic.”

Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian responded to the accusations by stating that “China has never interfered in and will not interfere in the US election.”

“We oppose the US spreading false information to smear China and oppose the US election using China as an excuse,” Lin stressed.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has also categorically rejected ODNI’s allegations of election meddling, describing them as “absurd” and accusing the US intelligence community of succumbing to “fashionable trends in domestic politics” and “looking for enemies.”

“The Americans cannot think of a better enemy than Russia,” Peskov told reporters on Tuesday, adding that more similar accusations are likely to come out in the future as the US election approaches. He explained that Russia and its President Vladimir Putin continue to be major factors for US Republicans and Democrats to exploit amid their ongoing political struggle.

The Kremlin spokesman expressed regret that Moscow has to deal with this fact, noting that the American politicians’ baseless accusations only serve to further harm Russian-American relations.

July 30, 2024 Posted by | Mainstream Media, Warmongering, Russophobia | , , , | Leave a comment

Russia reacts to Olympic ‘sabotage’ accusations

RT | July 29, 2024

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has dismissed reports of alleged Russian involvement in recent attacks on French infrastructure during the Olympic games as “unsubstantiated accusations” and “fakes”.

France’s high-speed train network was targeted early Friday by several “coordinated” arson attacks, according to the country’s transport minister. The sabotage paralyzed high-speed rail travel ahead of the Olympics opening ceremony.

“Low-quality media outlets, and even respected ones, have recently stopped at nothing to literally blame Russia for everything that is happening,” Peskov said, dismissing the accusations aimed at Moscow as “unsubstantiated fakes.”

He added that such reports without evidence do nothing for the reputation of the media outlets as supposedly “reliable sources of information.”

Last week, France’s minister of the interior said officials thwarted four credible planned attacks for the Olympics, including one that was allegedly tied to a Russian national.

According to the Paris prosecutor’s office, a 40-year-old Russian man was taken into custody three days before the opening of the Games. The incident raised fears of his alleged “intention to organize events likely to cause destabilization during the Olympic Games,” the office told NBC news.

Outgoing Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said on Monday that the profiles of those who may have been behind the Friday rail attack “resembled the ultra-left’s operating procedure,” but that “the question is if these people were manipulated by others or acted on their own behalf.”

On Monday, French authorities also reported that a number of fiber optic networks have been sabotaged across the country.

Meanwhile, Russian television channels and streaming services are not airing this year’s Olympic Games due to the IOC’s ruling on the participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes. While initially banning their participation, the international body later ruled that a limited number of individuals from the two countries could take part in the Olympics under a neutral flag. Just 36 Russian athletes are thought to have been approved, but 20 have since refused to take part, citing humiliating conditions. ​

The Paris Summer Olympics is the first event in 40 years to be boycotted by Russia. Previously the USSR snubbed the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles citing “security concerns and chauvinistic sentiments and an anti-Soviet hysteria being whipped up in the United States.”

July 29, 2024 Posted by | Russophobia | , , | Leave a comment

« Previous Entries     Next Entries »