Geopolitical mosaic: the end of the “opposition” is nearing in Syria, and the US continues to shoot weapons in schools
America spat on the Syrian democratizers. Approximately thinks so French intellectual Thierry Maysan. He expressed the opinion that the US administration decided to “abandon” armed terrorist groups calling themselves the “Free Syrian Army.” Washington is going to begin negotiations with Russia and continue to work on resolving the Syrian crisis in accordance with the “Geneva communique”, reports Mixednews.ru with reference to SANA.
Monsieur Maysan published an article on the Voltaire network, where he indicated that the US administration had clearly decided to turn the page in a relationship with the PAS. Recently, there was a sarcastic statement by the National Intelligence Council that "global jihad will soon disappear."
We will probably add from ourselves, to Obama, who has the reputation of a secret Islamist, finally realized that while calling Islamism-terrorism its enemy, America is doing everything to encourage and strengthen it in the world. Only Egypt and Libya are worth something. And if Islamists led by Al-Qaida in Syria won, they would have created a whole anti-American bridgehead there.
Thierry Maysan noted that at a strategic level the war in Syria is over. The SSA has no chance of achieving its goals. Flow of money and weapons the militants have dried up, and a substantial part of international support has ceased. The US administration will begin implementing the peace plan in Syria immediately after its approval by the Senate.
Here we must also add that the change in the aggressive rhetoric of the White House to Syria may also be connected with the departure of Hillary Clinton from the post of state secretary. According to rumors, before the concussion, it was she who ran the United States, and not the limp Mr. Barack Obama, who was tearing away tears before weakness in front of a small portrait of Putin in the Red Corner of the Oval Office. Now everything is changing, and at the same time in the US the financial crisis is getting stronger. Obama does not want to fight, but in his last term wants to create for himself a reputation of a true peacemaker worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize given to him in advance.
According to Maysan, some Obama aides at the height of the election campaign prevented him from putting the Geneva communique into action. Probably, in retaliation for this, after re-election, he cleaned the rows of subordinates - and first of all "swept away from the political landscape of the architect of the war against Syria - David Petraeus."
Meyssan expanded its findings to other "allies" of America. Now they all have to ask themselves questions, and whether Washington will leave them too.
This French analyst could not write. And without that it is clear: yes, quit. She has no friends, only “partners.” Like the genital.
And America turns "allies" as she wants. Profitable - ally, unprofitable - throws. The main thing for America is to understand when it is profitable and when it is not. In recent years, this is bad for her. That syphilis, the clap, you understand, from partners ... There is one preventive tool for these diseases: to change partners less often, and even better - to be faithful. But this is just what America does not know how. How, then, all sorts of freedom?
Marine Le Pen told about the western blind. She gave an interview to the Syrian TV channel SAMA TV, owned by Rami McLuf, brother of the Syrian president, reports "Russian peacemaker" with reference to Russia Today.
The Frenchwoman accused Western countries of "encouraging" the Syrian war and said that "Islamist fundamentalists" are fighting in Syria, and "Western countries are blindly helping them." Le Pen is convinced that "in Syria, they do exactly the same as in Libya, but not so clearly."
Le Pen added that she did not approve of the French invasion of Libya and would not approve of this with regard to Syria either. It "protects the freedom, sovereignty and identity of all countries." She also condemned France’s overly “close ties” with Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
She also condemned Turkey for trying to “get regional leadership” against the background of the Syrian crisis.
A statement by the president of the National Front, condemning the actions of the West and the French government, shows that not all French are ready to support the colonial policies of their home country, based on terrorist methods.
Blond bride. The largest Israeli party of religious Jews agreed to withdraw from the election campaign video about the "Russian" bride, reports RIA News" with reference to the Central Election Commission in Tel Aviv.
For two days Israeli TV channels broadcast an advertisement in which the blonde bride, under the crown, receives a certificate of conversion to Judaism in the newest way: by pressing a couple of buttons on the fax.
“Wait a minute, are you not Jewish?” Asks a native Israeli-fiancé who is half a head below the chosen one. “Now it's Jewish,” replies Marina Ivanova with a strong Russian accent. Then she leans down to kiss her future husband, and he recoils from her in horror.
The clip belongs to the Shas religious party, which opposes mixed marriages, secular marriage without the participation of rabbinates and simplifying the giyur procedures - the adoption of Judaism by non-Jews. With ten deputy mandates and four ministerial portfolios, ShAS has the fourth largest faction in the parliament.
Political advertising with the "bride" was outraged by Russian-speaking voters, and at the same time politicians counting on their votes, including candidates from the favorites - the combined list "Likud" and "Our Home - Israel", the parties "Jewish House", "Avoda , "Yesh Atid."
The CEC, in response to complaints, said that it had agreed with the owners of the video about the termination of its broadcast.
Punishable desire. An 49-year-old Saudi citizen was arrested by police officers near the Great Mosque in Mecca. In an interview with the newspaper Al-Hayat, the press service of the police stated that the suspect had with him documents containing information about his intention to marry a Jewish woman, reports MIGnews.com.
The citizen is now in custody. He will be brought to trial soon. The charges, however, were not disclosed. It is only known that the police believe that the detainee - "mental disorder."
"Great Jamahiriya" goes to history. Ilona Yarosh ("Voice of Russia") with reference to RIA "News»Reports that the Libyan National Congress approved the decision to abandon the name" Great Jamahiriya ". So Libya was called during the reign of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. Deputies approved the new name: State of Libya. It will be used before the adoption of the constitution.
“The purpose of making such a decision is to give the government the opportunity to make changes to all official documents, which still have the old name of the country,” writes Al-Sharq al-Ausat newspaper.
Much earlier, in 1977, the “Sebha Declaration” was promulgated, and Libya became known as the Great Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya (“Jamahiriya” means “the state of the people’s masses”). The document enshrines the Quran as a source of legislation and the principle of democracy. The country abolished: the government, political parties, parliament and presidency. The people had to realize power directly through the national congresses, committees and trade unions. The constitution in Libya was replaced by the “Green Book” of Colonel Gaddafi: it was she who determined the political structure of the country.
As a result of the victory of the “revolution” and the assassination of Gaddafi, Libya plunged into the chaos of democracy.
NATO against the Tuareg? The African Union called on NATO to participate in an operation in northern Mali, where the Tuaregs proclaimed their Islamic state. It is reported by the TV channel Press TV, reports Vladimir Azin (Utro.ru).
The head of the African Union, Yayi Boni, at a joint press conference with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper in Ottawa said: “NATO must play a certain role (in Mali), and the forces of the African Union must fulfill their mission as NATO did in Afghanistan.” . He added: “We must respond (to the challenge of the Islamists), so this problem is not only about Africa. We must recognize that terrorism is a problem for the entire international community. I think NATO should make its contribution to an international mission (in Mali). ”
However, the Prime Minister of Canada noted that Ottawa does not consider the issue of direct participation in the military operation in Mali. He only expressed concern about the situation.
The hunt for lions and leopards in Zambia is prohibited. Zambian authorities have announced a ban on hunting lions and leopards, reports "Lenta.ru" with reference to the Reuters agency.
According to Minister of Tourism Sylvia Masebo, the number of predators has become too small to maintain stable income from safaris. If earlier Zambia received about three million dollars a year from lovers of killing wild animals, now the authorities have calculated that the demonstration of living animals to tourists will be much more profitable for the state than a safari.
“Why do we lose our animals for three million a year?” The profit from tourists who come to watch them is much greater, ”Masebo said.
Earlier, Zambia, a similar decision was taken by neighboring Botswana. Kenya was the first African country that banned shooting animals (a few decades ago).
Death of a Pakistani soldier. Indian military 10 January shot dead Pakistani soldier in Kashmir, reports "Lenta.ru" with links to Reuters, BBC News and France-Presse. The murder, as the Pakistanis claim, was not provoked by anything.
The soldier was on duty in the Kashmir sector of Battal. The name of the deceased is Havildar Mohjudin.
This is the third fatal encounter between the Indian and Pakistani military in the past few days. January 6 Pakistan accused India of killing one soldier and injuring another, and on January 8 India accused Pakistan of killing two soldiers (according to some sources, one of them was decapitated).
The newspaper "The Hindu" writes that the escalation of the situation on the line of demarcation between the two parts of Kashmir began after the transition of an 70-year-old woman to Pakistani territory, to be with her grandchildren. It happened in September 2012. The Indian Army established new observation posts. This caused discontent with Pakistan: after all, any military construction is prohibited in the area.
10 January Pakistan acted as follows: protest through a loudspeaker in a narrow neutral zone, and then opened fire. Return fire and led to the death of the Pakistani soldier. This version is voiced by the Daily News and Analysis.
Officially, both Delhi and Islamabad refute the charges of provocations.
92 killed and more than 120 injured. As transmits RIA News" With reference to the Associated Press agency, the number of victims of the two explosions that rocked yesterday in Quetta in southwest Pakistan, reached 92 people. Even more 120 people were injured.
Two explosions with an interval of several minutes occurred near one of the billiard clubs. Both explosive devices were powered by suicide bombers. Among the dead are nine policemen.
Earlier on Thursday, reminds RIA Novosti, in Quetta, an explosion occurred on the market near the checkpoint of the military border corps. The victims of the attack were 12 people.
On the same day, in the mountainous area of Swat, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, in the vicinity of Mingora, where thousands of local residents gathered around 1,5 to listen to a sermon, an explosion thundered to the 22 people and injured around 80.
He killed, ate, sold. Yesterday, serial killer Zhang Yongming was executed in Yunnan Province of China. This Chinese has killed an 11 man in four years, reports "Lenta.ru" with reference to The China Daily.
It is known that in 1979-1997's. Yunmin was in prison, convicted of murder. About his life after his release is not reported. But in the period from March 2008 to April 2012, he killed 11 men. His victims were lonely passers-by.
The Xinhua News Agency writes that the killer dismembered the bodies of the victims in order to hide the traces of the crime.
France-Presse quotes a Chinese newspaper stating that Yunmin’s neighbors saw bags of bone-like objects hanging from his house. The agency quotes the publication of the Hong Kong newspaper The Standard, which claims that the killer was selling the remains of the victims in the market under the guise of ostrich meat. In addition, he himself ate fragments of bodies.
A series of explosions in the capital of Croatia. A series of explosions occurred in Zagreb on the night of Friday. The relevant information was distributed by the local police, "Voice of Russia" with reference to RIA "News".
In the western part of the city occurred from two to four explosions, some of them were heard in the center of the capital. Law enforcement authorities confirmed that there was “more than one” explosion. One person was injured.
Viva Chavez! Tens of thousands of supporters of the president of Venezuela, undergoing treatment in Cuba, yesterday took to the streets of Caracas to participate in a mass demonstration in support of it, reports correspondent RIA Novosti Oleg Vyazmitinovreferring to local media.
The Venezuelan authorities timed the demonstration on the day on which Chavez’s inauguration was scheduled. On Wednesday, the Supreme Court of Venezuela announced the postponement of the oath and explained that there was no need for a new inauguration ceremony for Chávez, because there was no interruption of presidential powers.
"The revolution and the Socialist United Party of Venezuela asks all parties and social groups to take to the streets and support the decision that the Supreme Court made," said the head of the National Assembly, Diosdado Cabello.
USA: School shooting again. While rich lobbyists from the National Rifle Association in the United States are on guard for the Second Amendment and are teaching school teachers how to shoot pistols through regional offices, they continue to "speak" firearms in American educational institutions. This time shots rang out in California.
How reports from Los Angeles ITAR-TASS correspondent Alexandra Urusova, shooting school in the city of Taft opened 16-year-old student.
PE occurred around 10 in the morning yesterday local time (22: 00 Moscow). Two injured; one schoolboy with serious injuries was taken to the clinic.
School staff managed to persuade the offender to surrender to the police. His name has not been disclosed.
Law enforcement agencies searched the building for an hour and a half in search of possible accomplices of the shooter. Children were evacuated from school.
After reports of shooting in the city began to panic. “We were all very scared when we heard about the shots,” says one schoolgirl. “After the state of emergency in Newtown, it seemed that a repetition of the terrible tragedy began.”
In addition, as reported RIA News"On Thursday, it became aware of an incident at a school in Alabama. According to the Fox News channel, the police detained an 13-year-old teenager, in whose bag during a physical training class a loaded pistol and knife were found. The boy explained to the police that at school he was constantly subjected to harassment and now he brought a weapon for self-defense.
To tighten, sanction, intensify. The Inter-Agency Commission to Counter Violence will recommend to the US President to tighten the system of checking weapons buyers, authorize the exchange of information on crimes with the use of weapons, and intensify scientific work on analyzing their circumstances. This was the result of meetings with experts, said US Vice President Joseph Biden, reports correspondent RIA "Novosti" Denis Voroshilov.
“These measures include strengthening the system of general verification of arms buyers, and not only the elimination of legislative“ loopholes ”used by buyers during arms fairs and shows ... The problem of high-capacity stores should be solved. And one more question is the opportunity for any federal agency to conduct research on the facts of violence with the use of weapons: it is necessary to collect information about which weapon is most often killed, which weapon they are most often bought, ”said Biden. He noted that it is necessary to remove any restrictions on the collection and exchange of information in this area.
Hackers are fighting for their rights. Anonymous called on the administration of the US president to legitimize DDoS attacks. According to hackers, the US government should recognize their legal form of protest. This is stated in the relevant petition posted on the White House website, reports "Voice of Russia".
The petition notes that DDoS attacks are not hacking, but a way by which people can protest in real time.
According to hackers, DDoS-attacks are similar to the actions of civil disobedience, carried out by the movement "Capture Wall Street." Hackers believe that DDoS-attacks are the equivalent of repeatedly pressing the button to update a web page, and only for a short time paralyze the work of web services.
"Anonymous" call themselves the "modern, freely organized group of hacktivists." This term is also understood as a subculture that ideals the idea of anonymity and freedom on the Internet. A typical representative of this subculture opposes censorship, persecution and supervision.
"Anonymous" has received worldwide fame for numerous attacks on the websites of governments and commercial organizations. Time magazine in 2012 included the most influential people in the world in the Top-100 group. Anonymous is the only organization listed on this list.
The petition submitted by 7 January can be read. here. Its author is someone Dylan K. She has now collected a 1671 signature. To consider it, the White House administration requires 25.000 signatures.
Old Man Panetta is afraid of cuts. The US Secretary of Defense ordered the development of emergency measures in case of a federal sequestration budget. "Cuts" is fraught with a reduction of as much as twenty percent of military spending in the current fiscal year.
“We are talking about precautionary measures, but we have no choice but to prepare for the worst,” the Pentagon chief said sadly at yesterday’s press conference, reports correspondent ITAR-TASS Ivan Lebedev.
The fact is that the Obama administration and the republican opposition in Congress in the first days of the coming year reached an agreement on budget and taxes. True, this only temporarily removed the threat of a “financial cliff”.
If by 1 in March 2013, the “parties” fail to work out a certain agreement, then, in accordance with the previously adopted law, the decision on the compulsory reduction of state budget expenditures will come into force.
For the US military, this, in particular, means sending several hundred civil servants to unpaid leave and reducing combat training programs of various military units, explained Leon Panetta. In fact, the sequestration is not able to affect only those parts that are on a mission in Afghanistan or are preparing to be sent there.
The minister said that cost cutting and the need to save money to support the troops in Afghanistan force him to order the preparation of a package of measures in case of failure of negotiations between the administration and Congress. Among them: reducing the cost of maintaining secondary military facilities, the temporary cessation of hiring civil servants, "freezing" the process of granting contracts to military contractors.
About Putin, crony capitalism and corruption. In the newspaper blog Financial Times (United Kingdom) Sergey Aleksashenko’s article “Hello, 2013 Year: Was Putin Really Serving?” Was published (translation source - "InoSMI"). The author of the material is the director of macroeconomic research at the Moscow Higher School of Economics and a former deputy minister of finance.
They write:
“President Vladimir Putin has been managing the Russian economy for over a decade using a combination of restored state power and crony capitalism.
Since Putin came to power in the 2000 year, GDP has continued to grow rapidly due to rising oil prices, but economic growth has to be expensive to pay. The state’s role in the economy has increased, but the institutional structure in the country has weakened: trust in the courts has fallen, bureaucratic corruption is rampant, and officials issue money even from small companies. ”
Since Putin came to power in the 2000 year, GDP has continued to grow rapidly due to rising oil prices, but economic growth has to be expensive to pay. The state’s role in the economy has increased, but the institutional structure in the country has weakened: trust in the courts has fallen, bureaucratic corruption is rampant, and officials issue money even from small companies. ”
On the other hand, the author acknowledges that Putin promises to improve the business climate.
“But can a leopard change its spots?”
Before the crisis, the author notes, Putin was very lucky in the economy. In his favor, the rise in world prices was not oil. The increase in oil export revenues and the inflow of foreign loans brought the growth rate of GDP to 2008% before the 2009-7 crisis. This allowed Putin to raise wages and pensions, finance military spending and technology projects and create budgetary reserves.
At the same time, Aleksashenko notes, Putin has created a special economic model. She made the state the largest economic player, and led many of the president’s friends to billionaires.
As a result, in all international ratings that characterize the quality of the investment climate, Russia is on the same level with dictatorial regimes.
However, the author assures that Putin is beginning to realize the scale of the problem he helped create.
Today, institutional weakness, limited competition, and a strong dependence of the economy on the state inhibit the post-crisis recovery. Vladimir Putin admitted that it was an unpleasant fact: Russian GDP dropped by 2008% in 2009-10 in total, barely recovered to the pre-crisis level, and now growth is slowing down. For the first three quarters of 2012, its growth rates were 2,5% on an annualized basis.
Capital flight is another problem. The Ministry of Economics believes that in 2012, it will be 75 billion dollars, and in 2011, it reached 80,5 billion (approximately 4,5% of annual GDP).
"When Putin announced that he was returning to the Kremlin for a new presidential term, Russian business realized that this would mean further development of state and crony capitalism, and decided that there was no hope for a more normal economic system in the country."
Also in Russia is bad deal with the independence of the courts. In recent years, the quality of Russian justice has improved, the author writes, but only in those cases when it came to disputes between businessmen. In a dispute between state and business, the law takes the side of the state. Moreover, in recent months there have been loud processes with “non-legal motivation,” the author notes. Aleksashenko relates the second case of fraud against Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev, the Pussy Riot case and the criminal charges against financial fraud brought against opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
Obviously, dependent courts are Putin’s first support.
The second support of the Putin system, the author calls large-scale corruption in combination with the embezzlement of budgetary funds and the extremely widespread business interests of officials at various levels. All this often leads to racket against private entrepreneurs, the author of the article believes. The scale of these problems Aleksashenko proves the corruption investigation in the Ministry of Defense and another corruption case, in which ten middle-level officials from the city administration of St. Petersburg were arrested.
The author does not believe that Putin is fighting corruption:
“... I prefer to wait and see what the outcome will be. Two years ago, an extensive network of illegal casinos was operating in the Moscow region, with the support of the prosecutor's office and the police. During the investigation, many people were arrested, but all of them were subsequently released, and the prosecutor's office declared the evidence collected in the case null and void. The last series of financial scandals could come to the same conclusion. ”
If world experience suggests, says the author, that independent courts and a state free from corruption are necessary conditions for creating a competitive economy and a basis for economic growth,
“Putin, apparently, wants to refute this statement. He wants the economy to become more efficient and start growing faster. But he believes not in private incentives, but in bureaucratic decisions. Moreover, he is well aware that the emergence of independent courts in Russia will immediately lead to the collapse of the political system created by him. ”
Aleksashenko believes that he is not ready to pay such a price.
“Having faced a choice - to preserve power or carry out institutional reforms, - he has already chosen power”.
New turn in the career of Siberian Depardieu: actor of the Tyumen theater with a salary in 16000 p. Gerard Depardieu, who recently received a Russian passport, invited the Tyumen Drama Theater to his troupe. This is reported on the page of the drama theater on the social network, the agency reports MIGnews.com with reference to Interfax-Ukraine.
The message, among other things, says that the actor is invited from March 2013 on an urgent employment contract with a salary of 16 thousand rubles + 22% + 10% + Ural coefficient 15%. Moreover, there is a surcharge for the execution of roles. With the support of the theater, Depardieu will be able to rent an apartment in the center of Tyumen.
In the center of Tyumen there is nothing to breathe, let us add on our own, and Depardieu does not like noisy cities, preferring a village to them. However, who knows, maybe Depardieu would prefer to settle in with. Pokrovsky ... Grapes do not grow here even wild, minus thirty-five with a breeze in the winter - a common thing. The motor scooter is unlikely to start, the locals prefer dry fuzz vodka to thin wines, and after the increase in prices for it from January - muddy moonshine. Well, why? .. Similar Russian romance will help the actor more quickly and more accurately enter into some images.
Sergey Osintsev, director of the drama theater, wrote on the social network that the Tyumen people have something to “show and surprise Depardieu”: “We have the homeland of Gregory Rasputin, whose role Gerard Depardieu recently played. Only in 100 km from us there is the only private museum in the world of Rasputin in the village of Pokrovskoye! 200 km is the spiritual capital of Siberia, Tobolsk, and a unique museum-reserve, the Tobolsk Kremlin, where the last days of Emperor Nicholas II and his family, whose fates are also linked to Rasputin, were spent. ”
We note, incidentally, that the last days (more precisely, the months) of Nicholas II were held in the Ipatiev house in Yekaterinburg.
Interstellar mosaic. It turns out that on the expanses of the Galaxy there are 17 billion planets, comparable in size to the Earth and having a generally similar location to it in stellar systems. This is stated in the report of scientists from the American Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, says correspondent ITAR-TASS Vitaly Makarchev.
“Our findings on the existence of 17 billions of planets similar to the Earth were the result of analyzing data from NASA’s Kepler astronomical satellite,” quotes Francois Fresin, who heads the group of scientists, at BBC.
It is noted that world science is stubbornly seeking a planet in space, which in the future may become the second home for humanity. Already found 2740 planets similar in size to Earth. But the latest studies have shown that their number may be much larger.
“Now we are fulfilling the first part of the task - to reveal planets that are the same as compared to the Earth from our Sun and are comparable in size to Earth,” said Comrade Fresin.
World science has already named the planet most similar to Earth in terms of cosmic parameters: KOI 172.02, or Earth-2.
Will live. The collision of the large asteroid Apophis with the Earth in 2036 was excluded. It will approach the planet at a distance of approximately 30 thousands of kilometers. This statement was made yesterday by NASA experts, reports correspondent ITAR-TASS Dmitry Zlodorev.
A day earlier, American experts watched the passage of a heavenly wanderer at 15 million kilometers from Earth. They concluded that the predictions of a possible collision through 23 were simply outdated.
“Certainly, this perspective can be eliminated in 2036,” said Donald Yeomans, director of NASA's program for studying near-Earth objects in space. According to him, the asteroid will really fly not so far, but it will not pose a danger to earthlings.
Thus, ladies and comrades, another end of the world canceled.
Observed and commented on Oleg Chuvakin
- especially for topwar.ru
- especially for topwar.ru
Information