Geopolitical mosaic: Obama is suspected of concluding a "secret agreement with the Russians", and Venezuelans are ready to vote for Maduro
Chemical application weapons Syrian "oppositionists": was it or was it not? According to Reuters, the US State Department stated that there is no reason to believe that the rebels used chemical weapons in Syria. This assumption in the State Department was called an attempt to discredit the opponents of Assad. At the same time, the White House said that it continues to consider the counter accusation against the Syrian government.
Information on the use of chemical weapons in Syria was not confirmed in the UN, as well as in the World Health Organization, which plans to organize an additional supply of medicines in Aleppo today, reports "Lenta.ru".
However, the use of weapons of mass destruction in Syria was confirmed by unnamed sources in the Israeli security services, according to The Jerusalem Post. True, the interlocutors of this publication said they did not know which of the parties to the Syrian conflict was responsible for the incident. It is also known that a few days ago Israeli intelligence reported on the preparation of chemical warheads for use by government forces.
"Tape" reminds that 19 in March, the Syrian Agency SANA reported that as a result of the use of chemical weapons by the rebels in the village of Khan al-Asal in the province of Aleppo, 25 people died, dozens were injured. The opposition confirmed the presence of victims and those killed by accusing government forces of the attack, allegedly using a Scud missile with poisonous substances.
Regarding the position of official Damascus, the Minister of Information Omran Az-Zoubi confirmed: the attack on terrorists by a rocket with a chemical warhead in the Khan al-Asal district is a dangerous escalation of the Syrian conflict and is a consequence of the decisions taken by the Arab League Council at the level of foreign ministers in Cairo. As transmits SANAHe demanded that the world community and the countries financing and arming terrorists be held accountable for their use of the type of weapon prohibited by international law. The Minister laid on the governments of Turkey and Qatar the full moral responsibility for the crime, which resulted in the death of 16 people, including civilians, and the injury of another 86.
As the SANA, condemning the use of chemical weapons by illegal armed formations in Syria was made by the Russian Foreign Ministry, calling "a new, extremely alarming and dangerous development of events in the Syrian crisis."
The commentary of the Information and Press Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry said: “They are extremely concerned about the fact that WMD fell into the hands of militants, which further aggravates the situation in the SAR and brings confrontation in this country to a new level. We once again call on all sensible forces in Syria to renounce violence and move on to real steps towards a political settlement at the negotiating table, as provided for in the Geneva communique. ”
"An unprecedented violation." As transmits SANAAlain Shue, a renowned expert on Middle Eastern affairs, a former employee of the French Foreign Ministry, said that the demand to lift the arms embargo against the Syrian opposition, put forward by President Hollande, is an unprecedented violation of all norms of international law.
In an interview with the magazine "Poen" ("Le Point"), he noted that the UN did not give the power to EU countries to intervene in the affairs of Syria. Despite this, over the past two years, French and British intelligence services provided logistic support to the armed opposition and trained militants in the countries neighboring Syria. But the official supply of weapons to the militants is a transition to a qualitatively new stage in French foreign policy.
The UN does not recognize the Syrian opposition for the simple reason, the expert writes, that it is a mixture of terrorist and religious extremist elements. Regarding the issue of so-called "non-lethal" or defensive weapons, Shue calls it a play on words: there is no fundamental difference between defensive and offensive weapons.
Some officials, he noted, assure that the special services know to whom they need to transfer weapons. According to Shue, he has known 40 for years with Syria, has worked there, and for 30 has been associated with the French secret services for years, therefore he claims that they know the customer only virtually.
Eighteen Iranian spies. In Saudi Arabia, it announced the disclosure of a spy network consisting of 18 people acting in the interests of Iran. On the joint operation of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the intelligence services of the kingdom was reported today by the TV channel Al-Arabiya, reports correspondent ITAR-TASS Dina Drunk.
According to the local Ministry of Internal Affairs, this network, which included sixteen subjects of the kingdom, one Lebanese and one Iranian, collected information about strategic infrastructure and livelihoods of the state.
The operation was carried out in four districts of the country: in Mecca, Medina, Riyadh and the Eastern Province.
Among those arrested were employees of the state-owned oil producing company Aramco.
Obama - pro-Arzyl or pro-Palestinian? The results of a survey conducted by the agency Smith Research, commissioned by the Jerusalem Post, show that Israelis do not consider Barack Obama to be pro-American as a customized US president, reports MIGnews.com.
A survey of five hundred Israelis, representing a sample from different segments of the adult population of the country, showed the following. 36% believe that the Obama administration is more pro-Palestinian than pro-Israeli. 26% of respondents believe the opposite: in their opinion, the White House prefers Israel rather than the Palestinians. Another 26% called the position of the US administration neutral. Others found it difficult to answer. The percentage of people who believe that the Obama government "generally" supports Israel has been the highest in the last four years.
However, the majority of Israelis who voted for right-wing parties consider the Obama administration pro-Palestinian. Another 22% of respondents from the same camp called the actions and policies of the United States more pro-Israel, the rest - neutral. Centrist and left-wing voters are more likely to call the White House administration pro-Israel.
Among the voters were “Yesh Atid”, “A-Tnua” and “Kadima” 36% said that the US administration is pro-Israel, 30% - more pro-Palestinian. 36% of Avoda voters, Meretz and Arab parties are convinced of the pro-Israel orientation of the Obama administration. This is twice the number (18%) of those who said that it is pro-Palestinian.
When asked whether respondents believe that Barack Obama will succeed in achieving a peace treaty between Israel and the Palestinians in the next four years, 80% answered “no”, only 11% answered affirmatively and 9% said they do not know.
Mass Turkish resignation. Alexander Vasilyev (Periscope.2) prepared a review of the Turkish press. The end of 2012 and the beginning of 2013 were marked by the resignation of the Turkish armed forces. On January 24 and 25, 2013, the admiral, the commander, resigned fleet N. Güner. Turkish agencies publish news on the reduction not only of the higher command staff of the Armed Forces, but also the dismissal of a significant number of technical specialists and non-commissioned officers, as well as a significant number of combat pilots aviation.
CNN-Türk in the article “Earthquake in the Command of the Navy” notes that the reason for the resignation of Admiral Güner was the mass arrests of Navy officers on cases of preparation for a coup d'etat. At the same time, the publication notes that on many subordinates of the fleet commander, defamatory materials were found about visiting brothels and participating in depraved acts. Allegedly, the officers of the Navy secretly visited prostitutes from the countries of the former USSR (Georgia, Ukraine and Moldova), who were given some secret information about the state and combat readiness of the Turkish Navy. Admiral Güner doubted that he was completely surrounded by immoral traitors to his homeland.
According to the newspaper, Admiral Güner was considered the contender No.1 for the post of commander-in-chief of the Turkish Navy, and his resignation was a complete surprise to the Turkish leadership.
After his statement in Ankara at the residence of Cankaya, President Gul, Turkish Prime Minister R. T. Erdogan and Chief of the General Staff of the Turkish Armed Forces Nejdet Ozel held an emergency meeting, the subject of which was personnel shortages in the Turkish Armed Forces. It is reported that a significant number of arrested officers, as well as the resignation of high-ranking military at their own request, in protest against the political persecution of the military, threatened the very existence of the Navy Command as an organizational and administrative structure.
It is noted that, in addition to the current commander in chief of the Navy, Admiral M. Bilgel, there is not a single officer in the Turkish Navy who has a rank lower than the admiral. But he also ends this year in the position of commander of the Navy.
The online publication “Bir Gyun” gives an interview with the President of the Association of Veteran Specialists of TVS Yesef Merdoglu. According to him, since January 2013, about 8 thousand non-commissioned officers have left the ranks of the Turkish Armed Forces. In 2008, 2418 people left 2009 in military service, 1417 in 2010, 1595 in 2011, 1955 in 2012, and at the beginning of 2013. The publication calls the cause of dismissal bad legal situation in the army.
The professional portal Askerhaber notes that resignation decisions are voluntary. The authors of the article directly associate an unprecedented wave of layoffs with the campaign to arrest TVS personnel in connection with the case of preparing a coup d'etat (“Sledgehammer” plan). The publication notes that mainly non-commissioned officers of special units, on whose shoulders fall the brunt of the fight against terrorism and counter-terrorist operations, are fired. According to the unnamed senior sergeants, who leads the publication, the command did not guarantee them protection against arrests. And in this regard, the staff considers it the safest to leave the ranks of the Armed Forces. The publication gives the average salary of a special non-commissioned officer of special forces: approximately about 3,5 thousand lire (US $ 1700-1800). The salary of a specialist in other divisions is about 2 thousand lire, or about $ 1000.
At the moment, the author notes a very comprehensive review, from which we have borrowed only a small part, a clear result of the resignations is a significant drop in the level of the army’s combat capability. Apparently, the ruling Justice and Development Party thus removes dissenters, clearing the way for command positions to loyal officers.
In Egypt, arrested cousin Muammar Gaddafi. The cousin of the late leader of Libya, Ahmad Gaddafi Al-Dame, was arrested in Egypt. The announcement of this came from the "Bi-bi-si" transmit "Vesti" with reference to Interfax.
Gaddafi’s bodyguards tried to prevent the arrest. There was a shootout with law enforcement officers who surrounded the house. No information about the affected skirmish.
The reasons for the arrest of the cousin of the former dictator have not yet been named, but it is known that the Libyan authorities accuse cousin Gaddafi of complicity in the crimes of the former regime and demand his extradition.
In Mali, executed Frenchman. Al-Qaida fighters executed a French citizen captured in Mali in 2011, reports RIA News" with reference to the Mauritanian agency ANI.
Philip Verdon was executed on March 10 in response to the entry of French troops into Mali. French Foreign Ministry has not yet commented on the message about the execution of its citizen.
Arctic Five is a closed club. The Arctic states are not going to let new members into their private club. Representatives of the "Arctic Five" at the international conference in Oslo stated: all the natural resources of the region are located in the exclusive economic zones of their countries. Nikita Sorokin ("Voice of Russia").
The essence of the statements of the representative of Russia in the Arctic Council Anton Vasilyev and his Norwegian colleague Turgeir Larsen at the Arctic Summit can be summarized as follows: the clash of interests of the Arctic and all other states, the race for the Arctic resources and the increase in tension in the Arctic Ocean is a myth that should be debunked .
Some expansion of the military presence in the region is caused by the rapid melting of the Arctic ice: the climate process exposes the sea borders and stimulates the growth of shipping, which requires increased security measures.
This does not mean militarization of the Arctic. The representatives of all the countries of the Arctic Five, Russia, the USA, Canada, Norway, Denmark, agreed in a single opinion.
Meanwhile, N. Sorokin writes, it is clear that these conclusions are nothing more than a diplomatic game. Indeed, after the U.S. Geological Survey estimated unexplored Arctic oil and gas deposits in 2009 and 13% of global hydrocarbon reserves, the number of countries claiming polar wealth increased by an order of magnitude.
At the same time, most of the estimated hydrocarbon reserves lie in the Russian exclusive zone.
“There is nothing to share in the Arctic. 95-97% of the resources found there are located in the exclusive zones of the Arctic countries, ”said Russian representative Anton Vasilyev, and none of Russia's neighbors in the Polar region objected to him.
True, China, South Korea and Japan insist on being included in the “club” as permanent members. Gave voice even India.
Vasily Gutsulyak, an expert on maritime law at the Institute of State and Law, says:
“Each of the five subarctic states actually has rights in a certain sector, the top of which is the North Pole, the basis being the respective coasts of the states. At the same time, it should be borne in mind that even in this sector the legal regime is governed exclusively by the norms of international maritime law.
Another thing is that if third countries show interest in the Arctic regions that are outside the jurisdiction of these five Subarctic states, it is clear that here, probably, we need to combine the efforts of these five Subarctic states. It is impossible to carry out any projects in the Arctic without taking into account the interests of these five Arctic states. ”
Another thing is that if third countries show interest in the Arctic regions that are outside the jurisdiction of these five Subarctic states, it is clear that here, probably, we need to combine the efforts of these five Subarctic states. It is impossible to carry out any projects in the Arctic without taking into account the interests of these five Arctic states. ”
Despite the existing internal contradictions between the countries of the Arctic Five, they have recently taken a number of measures to strengthen their priority right to be in the Arctic. In 2008, Russia, the USA, Canada, Norway and Denmark adopted the Ilulissat Declaration, the provisions of which hinder the revision of the international legal regime in order to allow free access to the region for third countries. In 2011, eight members of the Arctic Council signed an Agreement on cooperation in the field of rescue operations in the Arctic, which defined the preferred boundaries of the five sectors for each of the five countries. Also, the Arctic countries have resolved a number of bilateral issues. Thus, Russia and Norway ratified an agreement on the delimitation of water areas in the Barents Sea, while Canada and Denmark reached an agreement in principle on the delimitation of the border in the Lincoln Sea. In addition, Russia and Canada, for example, together consistently oppose the claims of the European Union to participate in the legal regulation of the status of the Arctic.
Eiro's career is questionable. Deputies of the National Assembly of France today will vote on the issue of confidence in the government of the socialists, which is headed by Jean-Marc Eyre. In recent months, the Prime Minister’s popularity rating among the French has reached its lowest level since his appointment to the Matignon Palace. As the polls show, only 34% of citizens with confidence belong to the “road map” of the government.
For the resignation of the government requires a majority (289) of votes of deputies. Currently, the preponderance of forces in parliament in favor of the ruling Socialist Party and their allies in the left camp - the "green" and the Communists. The head of the cabinet, which has been in power for almost a year, uses the parliamentary discussion to report on the work done. "For me, this is an opportunity for a thorough explanation," Eiro told reporters.
Nevertheless, for the Socialist Party the situation is not at all unclouded. In March, the unemployment rate in France reached 10,2 percent. This is the highest since 1999. The situation with unemployment hit the youth under the age of 25 years the most. It was she who pinned her hopes on the arrival of the socialists and massively voted for Hollande; "Vesti" with reference to ITAR-TASS.
Bloomberg Business Week on Putin and Rotenberg. Ilya Arkhipov and Henri Meyer (Bloomberg Business Week; abbreviated translation source - "Inopressa") told that Arkady Rotenberg, a childhood friend and former partner of Vladimir Putin in judo, is already making a profit from the next winter Olympic Games, journalists write. According to data compiled on the basis of corporate and government information, Rotenberg's companies received Olympic contracts worth at least 227 billion rubles (7,4 billion dollars). For comparison: this is more than the entire budget for the Vancouver 2010 Olympics of the year. In addition, this is only 15% of all expenses for the Russian Olympic Games.
“This is a huge waste of public money,” said Stefan Shimansky, a sports economist at the University of Michigan, who tracks Olympic costs. “A small group of people at the top controls resources, and there is no reporting.”
A spokesman for Vladimir Putin, Dmitry Peskov, argues that Rotenberg’s success has nothing to do with his relationship with Putin. “No friendship can give you access to Olympic projects that are very difficult to obtain, because they are not easy to implement, and they are not as profitable as other construction contracts,” said Peskov on the phone.
On the "secret agreement" Obama and Putin. John Hudson ("Foreign Policy"; source abbr. translation - "Inopressa") cites the opinion of Congressman Mike Turner that the cancellation on Friday of the administration of the final phase of the missile defense system in Europe confirms his concerns about the "secret agreement with the Russians."
“We saw, as the president told Medvedev, that he would have more flexibility after the elections,” said Turner. - Putin later announced the terms of the agreement. The conclusion is that this is a deal. ”
“The problem with the president’s secret agreement with the Russians is that we don’t understand what we will get from this,” Turner further stated. “The president clearly refused the shield that the Russians opposed, and now the United States has become more vulnerable to North Korea and Iran, without gaining any advantage.”
Meanwhile, we’ll add, Russia, after the US’s announcement about the rejection of the fourth stage of the deployment of the European missile defense system, sees no reason to correct its position. Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said it is quite clear: "This is not a concession to Russia, and it is not so perceived by us." He added: “We are not experiencing any euphoria over what has been announced by the US Secretary of Defense. And we don’t see any reason to correct our position, ”the Deputy Foreign Minister concluded. “We will continue the dialogue and work to conclude legally binding agreements on the nondirection of all elements of the US missile defense system against Russian strategic nuclear forces.”
165 thousand dollars to every Russian. Every citizen of the Russian Federation will receive an average of 165 thousand dollars (about 5 million rubles), if all the commercial reserves of oil and gas of the country are once sold, and the money is divided equally. The calculations were performed by experts of the RIA "Rating", reports MIGnews.com.
Agency analysts conducted a study of the countries of the world and made a rating of their supply of oil and gas. The most "secured" in this sense are Qatar and Kuwait. In these countries, each citizen accounts for 6,01 million dollars and 4,14 million dollars of oil and gas wealth, respectively.
Meanwhile, leading Qatar has oil and gas reserves estimated at 10 trillions of dollars, which is more than half that of Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Iran and Russia. To take the first line allowed him a small population - 1,76 million people.
For Qatar and Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Turkmenistan and Saudi Arabia are in the ranking - 1,6 million, 1,5 million and 1,1 million dollars per capita.
Russia, which has the largest gas reserves in the world and is among the top ten countries with the largest oil reserves, has taken 17 a place in the ranking, which is largely due to the relatively large population.
Russian commercial reserves of oil and gas can be estimated totally in 23,5 trillion dollars. At the same time, 35 is on average less than oil and gas reserves per Russian per capita than Qatar, but about the same 35 times more than the world average.
Belarusian “Day of Will”: to overcome laziness and fears. Belarusians should overcome their fears and laziness and take to the streets of Minsk on Freedom Day, March 24. With such a statement, as writes "Lenta.ru" With reference to “Charter-97”, a Belarusian opposition politician, representative of the civil campaign “European Belarus” Viktor Ivashkevich spoke yesterday.
Last year, according to various estimates, from seven hundred to several thousand people took part in the march on the occasion of Freedom Day. This time, the organizers of the action expect that it will be more numerous. According to Ivashkevich, at least 100 of thousands of people know about the plans of the opposition.
“They have to make a decision: to sit on the couch or, to overcome their fears and laziness, to take part in street actions. Here everyone has to decide for himself whether he is ready to be called a man or will continue to hide under the bench, ”the politician said.
Dear consulting from Tony Blair: an image for Nazarbayev. Mr Blair, the former British Prime Minister, for 16 million pounds agreed to help the Kazakh authorities to overcome the criticism of the world community for shooting in Zhanaozen, reports Nur.kz with reference to the newspaper "Telegraph".
The government of Kazakhstan is called the key client of the consulting company of the former prime minister of Great Britain, whose contract with the country cost 16 million pounds, or 3,65 billion tenge.
In the office of Blair confirmed information about his Kazakh activity. “Zhanaozen was a tragedy, but there are signs that the government is working to eliminate its causes. This includes police reform, local government and economic measures to help improve the lives of people living in cities that are a relic of the Soviet era, ”said spokesman T. Blair.
The fact is that criticism of international human rights organizations and the European Parliament threatens the plans of President Nazarbayev for Kazakhstan’s accession to the WTO.
Not a condition or a requirement. Tajikistan appealed to the Russian Federation with a request to increase the volume of promised assistance in the modernization of the country's armed forces. However, this is not a condition or a requirement for the ratification of the agreement on the 201-th military base. From this said a senior government official participating in the negotiation process, transmits correspondent RIA "News" Lydia Isamova.
“We really appealed to the leadership of the Russian Federation with a similar request, but did not make any demands, and by the end of March, the heads of the two states will be provided with schedules of military-technical assistance provided. Everything is going in the mode of previously reached agreements, ”the source explained.
Yesterday, the Kommersant newspaper reported that Dushanbe demanded that the oral bilateral agreements reached in October 2012 be formalized in the form of official bilateral agreements - on the allocation of funds by Russia for the modernization of the armed forces of Tajikistan and for the development of hydropower. Moreover, in Dushanbe they expressed the wish that Moscow would allocate more than $ 200 of millions of dollars promised for the rearmament of the Tajik army, the newspaper wrote.
Bear, Dragon and Eagle. Valentin Vasilescu ("Voice of Russia") talked about the fact that at the moment the US has deployed USPACOM 35000 military units in Japan, a pair of nuclear aircraft carriers, five destroyers, four frigates, set up a base in the port of Yokosuka. Around 17000 Marines are located on the island of Okinawa. The fleet of the US ally, Japan, has 3 helicopter carriers, 8 missile destroyers, 20 frigates and 16 submarines. At the same time, the Second Infantry Division and special forces brigades with 19700 military are in South Korea. USPACOM warehouses with military equipment, ammunition, fuel and food for the remainder of the 8 Army are located in Japan.
The US Pacific Fleet (USPACFLT), consisting of 3 aircraft carriers, 4 helicopter carriers, 9 cruisers, 25 destroyers and 26 nuclear submarines located in Pearl Harbor and San Diego, are specially prepared for operations in Southeast Asia.
What are the Chinese?
Today they have modern means, aimed not at defending the coast of China, but at offensive actions, and capable of hitting any target in Japan and Korea.
The US Secretary of Defense is preparing to increase the efficiency of the base in Fort Greely (Alaska) to counter North Korea. But the trajectory of intercontinental ballistic missiles fired by North Korea lies outside the zone of action of the American antimissile systems. And in general, to invade North Korea, the States would have to redeploy their forces from Japan and Hawaii to the Korean Peninsula.
"At this time, China will get free access to the Japanese water area, and the Russians without thinking twice will send their 36 supersonic TU-22М3 supersonic bombers capable of shooting down the B-52 B-bombers of the Air Force Base (Guam Island)."
As for the Bear and the Dragon, the author of the material reminds: in 2001, Mr. Jiang Zemin and Vladimir Putin signed the Treaty of Good Neighborhood and Fraternal Cooperation. Thus, Russia and China have increased the chances of a successful confrontation with the three centers of power: the United States, Japan and the EU. The journalist notes that Russia and China implemented the “Chinese drops” economic method, capable of destroying a huge American military force in the following years.
The US debt exceeds 16 trillions of dollars, and China holds most of it. Should China withdraw its borrowed funds, the US economy will collapse.
What is Putin? In 2005, he introduced a new strategy to increase Russia's gold reserves. Since then, the Russian Federation has become the main buyer of gold in the world market.
“The Chinese have their eyes on 8133 tons of gold, which are in US banks and represent 74,5% of the total foreign exchange reserve. China demands this gold on account of US debt. China wants to issue a new currency that would be an alternative to the dollar and would have gold backing. To this end, China has begun to repatriate its gold reserves from Switzerland, London and New York. ”
In addition, Beijing has signed an agreement with more than twenty countries (Argentina, Australia, Brazil, the United Arab Emirates, Japan, etc.). They have already recognized the yuan as the official currency of international transactions. For US currency, this means an exit from a part of the international financial market.
The analyst concludes: Washington needs to strengthen its presence in Southeast Asia. The Pentagon is obliged to distribute resources in this zone not only from USPACOM, but also from other divisions.
Planned an attempt on Capriles? Caracas accused US intelligence agencies of plotting the assassination of Enrique Capriles. This tells Alexander Reutov (Kommersant).
As stated by Nicholas Maduro, a plan to eliminate the governor of the state of Miranda, a candidate for the presidency, prepared by the CIA, the Pentagon and a number of former American diplomats. At the same time, says Comrade Maduro, Washington planned to place the blame for the killing of Enrique Capriles on the Venezuelan authorities. “They were going to wreak havoc in the country in this way,” he said. Nicolas Maduro assured that the Venezuelan government will do everything to protect all presidential candidates. And he urged the US government to abandon plans to eliminate Enrique Capriles.
But Capriles himself made other conclusions from the statements of Maduro. As the oppositionist wrote in the Twitter microblog, if something happens to him, the Venezuelan authorities must bear responsibility for this.
Venezuelans will vote for Maduro. The acting president of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, has serious chances of winning the presidential election scheduled for April 14. This is evidenced by the results of a public opinion poll; "Vesti" with reference to ITAR-TASS.
A telephone survey conducted by 11-16 in March shows that 48,8% of voters are going to vote for the deputy of the late Chávez, and only 33,8% for his rival, the candidate of the opposition Democratic Unity Bloc of Enrique Capriles.
At the same time, it turned out that almost 57% of respondents positively assess the overall situation in the country, and 40% give it a negative assessment. The economic situation was positively assessed by 48%, while 50% was called unsatisfactory.
Microsoft and bribes. The US authorities launched an investigation into Microsoft on suspicion of bribing representatives of the governments of China, Romania and Italy. In exchange, maykrosoftovtsy supposedly going to get lucrative contracts. Reports about it "Wall Street Jornal", transfers correspondent ITAR-TASS Alexander Bekreneva.
According to the American edition, the investigation is conducted by the US Department of Justice and the US Securities and Exchange Commission. While it is at a preliminary stage: no charges have been brought against Microsoft or its business partners.
The investigation was started by a former employee of Microsoft in China, who told American investigators last year that his colleague in the People's Republic of China instructed him to give a “kickback” to local officials for concluding contracts.
Hillary Clinton: following her husband on a curved path. Former US Secretary of State H. Clinton for the first time publicly supported the idea of same-sex marriage. She directly stated this in a video on the Internet, reports correspondent ITAR-TASS Dmitry Zlodorev.
“Americans who identify themselves as supporters of same-sex love are our colleagues, our teachers, soldiers, our friends. And they have exactly the same rights as other citizens, including the right to marry. I personally support this, ”H. Clinton said.
Previously, Hillary avoided answering questions on this topic. This time, she admitted that her "views have changed over time." It happened “thanks to those whom I know and love, thanks to my experience of representing our country on the world stage, my commitment to the law and human rights,” she said, calling marriage “the foundation of our society.”
Earlier, we note, Bill Clinton repented of discrimination against homosexuals. He composed (or Hillary composed for him) an article for the Washington Post, where he regretted that he had signed the Marriage Protection Act seventeen years ago, infringing the rights of same-sex couples.
Clinton He explainedthat “there was a different time then,” so he could not do otherwise, but now he supports the Obama administration, which seeks to repeal this law, in which the marriage is called the union “men and women”, in the country's Supreme Court.
MFA condemned and demands. The Russian Foreign Ministry condemned the refusal of the state attorney’s office of the State of Texas to accuse the adoptive parents of Maxim Kuzmin, who was adopted in Russia. Now Moscow is demanding that the United States provide all documents on the investigation of the death of a child. The Kuzmin case is likely to become one of the main topics of discussion at the meeting of Pavel Astakhov with the US Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul, reports Grigory Milenin ("Voice of Russia").
It is expected that the American diplomat will call the deadlines for the provision of documents to the Russian side with the results of examinations that were carried out after the death of a Russian child in a foster American family.
As noted by Renat Abdeev, a spokesman for the ombudsman for the rights of the child under the President of Russia, the red tape with the provision of these documents gives grounds for suspecting US law enforcement agencies of an inappropriate investigation.
What Rogozin said to Seagalu. In the article “Russia wants Sigal to change US weapons laws” ("Foreign Policy", USA; source of translation - "InoSMI") John Hudson said that the famous Steven Seagal could get the title of "arms lobbyist" if Russia succeeds in getting his way. The fact is, writes Hudson, that Dmitry Rogozin, Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, officially asked the star of martial arts to lobby for the abolition of restrictions on the sale of Russian small arms in the United States. Rogozin supposedly said to him:
“I think that your authority and connections in the American establishment will help solve this problem.”
Rogozin explained that his question relates to the American law 1996 of the year, which allows former Soviet countries to export hunting and sporting rifles to the United States. Russia finds the law unfair, as it allows only the export of weapons produced before 1996, and does not apply to all types of guns. The restriction, according to Rogozin, "hits on our manufacturers."
"Izhmash", the journalist croaks, is going to earn more in case of lifting the restrictions. But after all, the US already imports about 80% of its sporting and hunting weapons!
As for Seagal, this fellow for a couple with Putin recently appeared at an event promoting physical health in Russia.
American lobbyists won: “assault weapons” will be sold in the country, people will kill each other. US senators have eliminated the item on a nationwide ban on the sale of military automatic weapons from the bill on the control of firearms considered by the House. This decision was made yesterday by the head of the democratic majority of the Senate, Harry Reid, referring to the fact that, when voting in the chamber, a bill with the ban included in it will not gain the required 60 votes. Told about it correspondent RIA "Novosti" Denis Voroshilov.
Such an outcome can be considered a victory for the arms lobby in the person of the National Rifle Association. She objected to this prohibition and is still making a lot of efforts to ensure that the bill is not adopted.
Thus, we add from ourselves, those rifles that Democratic Senator Dian Feinstein classified as “assault”, and those stores that fit her definition of “increased capacity” will continue to be sold in US gun stores. Obviously, the senators will consider some restrictive measures, but they are unlikely to be taken. Obama ruled a country with a burdened conscience: he promised to ban free sale of weapons, and to close the prison in Guantanamo. Obviously, the “bad boyars” do not allow him to do either. They are also to blame for the fact that the US is slipping into a financial "default". It’s not long before 27 March ...
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