Geopolitical mosaic: Ukraine may not wait for Russian money, and the Americans think that the sun revolves around the Earth
Nasrallah: Stop the war in Syria! - John Kerry condemns. - John Kerry is concerned. - Sharia in action. - Double capital? - Nigerian massacre. - The European Union “freezes” Switzerland. - Rating Hollande fell below the baseboard. - Providing from Frau Merkel. - Kyrgyzstan: six from Syria. - Kiev: the end of the opposition occupation? - Order Klitschko. - For treatment in Poland. - Russia and Ukraine: to negotiate money did not work? - What will put pressure on the Russian budget: the opinion of a foreign expert. - McFaul opened his heart. - Yaroshenko turned to Putin. - New record of American dislike for Russia. - Does the American "Bill of Rights"? - Learning is light, and ignorance is the United States.
Nasrallah: Stop the war in Syria! Hezbollah’s leader Sheikh Nasrallah called on the Arab world to end the war in Syria, reports "Lenta.ru" with reference to Reuters. According to Nasrallah, if the Arab forces stop the war, Hezbollah will also refuse to participate in the conflict.
"If you want to save this region from chaos that will last for decades, stop the war in Syria," Nasrallah said, appealing to all the political forces of the Arab world.
At the same time, Nasrallah added that he would not allow the victory of the Syrian rebels, whom he considers radical Islamists.
John Kerry condemns. US Secretary of State John Kerry laid the responsibility on the government in Damascus for the lack of progress in the inter-Syrian talks in Geneva, the second round of which ended on Saturday. This is stated in a written statement by the head of the US Foreign Ministry, who is on an overseas trip to Asia, reports correspondent ITAR-TASS Dmitry Kirsanov.
“None of us is surprised that negotiations are difficult, that we are in a difficult moment. But we all have to agree that the obstruction on the part of the Assad regime further complicates the progress, ”the statement says.
“While the regime was creating obstacles and drawing time, the opposition showed courageous and mature seriousness and purposefulness, as well as readiness to discuss all aspects of the conflict,” said Kerry.
He also noted that the Syrian opposition had developed a “viable and reasoned road map for the creation of a transitional governing body” in Damascus, outlined a realistic “way to move the negotiations forward.” But the mood of the delegation of the Government of Syria was a stark contrast to what the opposition showed.
The US Secretary of State accused the Syrian authorities of actually blocking progress at the Geneva talks and at the same time “stepping up their barbaric attack on civilians”, using not only bombs against them, but also starvation tactics.
John Kerry is concerned. Stability in the Asia-Pacific region is directly dependent on the success of the maritime code negotiated by the ASEAN countries. This was announced in Jakarta by John Kerry, touring the countries of the Middle East and Southeast Asia, reports ITAR-TASS.
“The United States is considering with growing concern China’s attempts to establish control over regional waters, including the declaration of 23 of November on the air defense recognition zone in the East China Sea,” the US Secretary of State noted.
Sharia in action. A resident of Raqqa Fatum al-Jasim was sentenced to death for using Facebook. The sentence was passed by a local Sharia court. Fatum was stoned to death, transmits "Voice of Russia".
According to NEWSru Israel, the city of Raqqa is dominated by the most radical of the existing groups - the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
Double capital? Mahmoud Abbas initiated the transformation of Jerusalem into a common capital for Israelis and Palestinians, reports correspondent RIA "Novosti" Nazar Allian.
“Do not divide Jerusalem. The city should be open to the Palestinians and to the Israelis. This is the essence of coexistence, ”said Abbas, who hosted Israeli students at the residence in Ramallah around 200.
He demonstrated a willingness to compromise in addressing the problems of millions of Arab refugees who left modern Israel in different years and are counting on returning. Abbas assured students that he was not seeking to “flood” Israel with refugees. “We do not want to change the social structure of Israel. We do not want to “flood” it with millions of Palestinian refugees, ”he said.
Abbas laid on Israel, refusing to curtail settlement construction in the occupied lands, blamed for the slip of the peace process.
Nigerian massacre. In the north-east of Nigeria, 90 people died as a result of militant attacks on Izge village. The extremists surrounded the settlement located near the border with Cameroon, opened fire on local residents and set fire to dozens of houses, transmit "Vesti" with reference to ITAR-TASS.
No group has claimed responsibility for what happened. According to observers, the crime is probably backed by militants from Boko Haram.
Members of this group seek the establishment of sharia norms in northern Nigeria.
The European Union "freezes" Switzerland. The EU froze a number of grants for Swiss universities after the government decided to restrict the migration of citizens from the EU following a referendum. About this with reference to the statement of the union writes "The Local".
As noted by "Lenta.ru", the European Union explained that Switzerland’s participation in European grant programs is impossible if it does not provide freedom of movement. This writes the "France-Presse". In particular, funding for the Horizon-2020 innovation program, for which in 2014-2020 was suspended, was suspended. planned to spend 80 billion euros. 8 thousands of people should have joined the project.
Switzerland was also denied participation in the Erasmus student exchange program. In 2011-2012 more than 2600 students from this country were given the opportunity to study at universities in EU member states.
Lenta reminds that on February 15 the Swiss authorities refused to open their labor market for Croatia. Officials explained this with the decision of the national referendum on restricting migration.
Hollande's rating fell below the baseboard. French President has updated another record of unpopularity. The number of French dissatisfied with the policy pursued by the current head of state in February reached 79%. This is evidenced by the data of a monthly survey conducted by the Institute of Social Research IFOP for the newspaper “Journal du dimanche”, writes correspondent ITAR-TASS Ivan Batyrev.
The level of popularity of F. Hollande compared with January decreased by 2 percentage points. This month, only 20% of the population of the republic express their support for the president, of which only 2% are “very satisfied” with his work, the remaining 18 percent are “more likely satisfied”.
The number of opponents of Hollande also increased by 2 p.p. Among this category of respondents, 39% stated that they are “rather not satisfied” with the work of Hollande. 40% indicated that they were “extremely dissatisfied” with his political course. 1 percent of respondents refrained from responding.
“Francois Hollande is the president of the Fifth Republic, who rules as if during the time of the Fourth Republic. He is engaged in one thing or another, and does not have time for the moment, ”says influential French sociologist Jean-Marc Lesch.
Providing from Frau Merkel. Angela Merkel offered to create a European communication network so that email and other data should not be sent via US servers. She reported this to 15 February in her weekly podcast, reports "Lenta.ru" with reference to Reuters.
A. Merkel noted that she doesn’t approve of companies like “Google” and “Facebook”, which place capacities in countries with a low degree of data protection, and work in countries with a high level of computer security - for example, in Germany.
The German Chancellor plans to discuss the creation of a European network with the President of France during his visit to Paris, which will take place today.
Kyrgyzstan: six from Syria. Employees of the State Committee for National Security of Kyrgyzstan in the territory of the Osh region of the republic neutralized the group, which was “trained in the camps of international terrorist organizations in Syria”, reports correspondent ITAR-TASS Vadim Neshkumai.
“The group consisted of six natives of the Osh region, ranging in age from 20 to 33 years,” the ministry said. “They planned to carry out terrorist actions on the territory of the republic.”
Members of the group, which included participants in the fighting in Syria, were detained. As noted in the GKNB, during a search they were seized weapon and ammunition.
The Osh Municipal Department of Internal Affairs opened a criminal case under the articles “Public calls for terrorist activity or public justification of terrorism”, “Organization of a criminal community” and “Acquisition, production, storage, distribution, transportation and transfer of extremist materials, as well as deliberate use of symbols or attributes of extremist organizations ". The detainees are in the temporary detention center of the Main Department of Internal Affairs of Osh.
Kiev: the end of the opposition occupation? “Euromaidan” activists yesterday morning liberated the building of the Kiev city administration, which they occupied for more than two months, reports "Lenta.ru" with reference to France-Presse.
This is a reciprocal step to the release by the authorities of all 234-s detained protesters. So the authorities and the opposition comply with the provisions of the Amnesty Law, passed by the January 29 Rada.
Activists must release seized office buildings throughout Ukraine before February 17.
The note says that the opposition held a general cleaning in the Kiev administration building, and transferred their belongings to the October Palace and the Ukrainian House. The activists intend to finally leave the building by 12: 00 local time, when the next National Assembly begins on Independence Square.
According to Interfax, on Sunday, the buildings of Ternopil, Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv and Poltava regional administrations were also unblocked.
Order Klitschko. The Poltava District Administrative Court obliged Vitali Klitschko to provide information regarding the grounds for receiving the Order For Services to the Federal Republic of Germany, he reports Ukrainian resource "Law and Business".
As the portal reminds, on January 13, deputy of the Zin'kovskiy city council from the Batkivschyna faction, Sergey Salo, sent a request to Vitali Klitschko with a request to inform him of what services he had won the Order of the foreign state award. However, Klitschko refused to provide such information.
The Poltava District Administrative Court, however, concluded that “such information is of public interest and should be provided to requesters in the manner prescribed by Law No. 2939”.
Now, Mr. Klitschko, we add, will have to publicly explain to Ukraine. In addition to the Order, by the way, there are other "German" news on the topic of Vitali Klitschko.
According to "Controversy" referring to UNN, the leader of "UDAR" said at a press conference in Dnepropetrovsk that he had refused a residence permit in Germany and is now a citizen of Ukraine.
Klitschko explained that he "really ... had a right to reside in Europe." However, today he does not have such a “right”. The oppositionist said that he is a citizen of Ukraine. He added: "I do not have a residence permit in Germany."
It looks like we’ll add, despite the recent “fakie” from the State Department, who would like to see Yatsenyuk as the head of the Ukrainian state, Klitschko understands well that the United States and the EU are not getting along well today. And if Yatsenyuk is a figure promoted on the chessboard by the State Department, then Klitschko can make him quite a strong competition from the EU. And where is the interests of Ukraine, you ask. If the game goes between Washington and Brussels? And nowhere, we will answer. For Western strategists, Ukraine is nothing more than a chessboard, a field for geopolitics and promoting its own interests. The sensible Ukrainian people understand: the West cannot be trusted. Neither American nor European. And you could never be trusted. Under Gorbachev, Russia trusted the West. What happened next, everyone knows.
For treatment in Poland. 13 February, a spokesman for the Polish Interior Ministry, Marcin Wojciechowski, said that already the sixth citizen of Ukraine, who was injured in clashes on Grushevskogo street, arrived in Poland for treatment. He confirmed that the Polish authorities are ready to accept an even greater number of Ukrainians who were injured during clashes of demonstrators with the police. Write about it "Versions".
Yesterday, the Polish edition of Nowytydzien published an article entitled “Hospitals are not for Ukrainians.” The submission notes that, despite the statement by the Polish authorities about the free treatment of injured activists, there are no legal grounds for this.
“The authorities have no idea how to organize the medical treatment of“ euromaidan ”activists,” said the head of the Lublin province, Krzysztof Getman.
According to him, there is no reason to treat the Ukrainians at public expense. Director of the Lublin Regional Health Department Krzysztof Tushapsky stressed that citizens of Ukraine can receive treatment in private. "Poland does not have a bilateral social security agreement with Ukraine, and Kiev is not a member of the European Union," he recalled.
Russia and Ukraine: money negotiation failed? Having received the first tranche of the Russian loan in December, the Ukrainian authorities relaxed. But in Russia they can count their money, writes Yuri Gavrilechko (Vremya.ua).
On January 28, Vladimir Putin told reporters that Russia would not give up on an agreement to provide Ukraine with a loan of 15 billion. He also noted that the issue of the next tranche will be postponed until the new composition of the Ukrainian Cabinet is formed.
A day later, at a meeting of the Russian government with the participation of Putin, Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov noted that with a new loan, one would have to wait until a new government appeared in Ukraine.
At the end of the first decade of February, the Minister of Finance of Russia Anton Siluanov clearly outlined the position of the Russian Federation regarding further loans: the second tranche of the Russian loan is possible after calculating Kiev for gas.
Probably, Viktor Yanukovych failed 7 February in Sochi to negotiate with Putin about other conditions for the provision of funds by the Russian side. According to a columnist, at least until the end of February, or even until mid-March, money from Russia can not be expected.
But if Yanukovych goes to the dissolution of the parliament, then there will be no money until the summer. How to balance the budget in such conditions? Unclear.
“The Old Man” Lukashenka would have stabilized everything a long time ago, we’ll add. However, with him there would be no “euromaidan” at all. Even hints of such a disgrace could not have happened. “The Old Man” is a much more efficient manager than Obama or Hollande, who are considered to be great democratic experts in dispersing rallies, demonstrations and various kinds of protests. They disperse, Lukashenko does not allow.
What will put pressure on the Russian budget: the opinion of a foreign expert. Thomas Remington, a political analyst at Emory University, chose 10 for The Washington Post as the main factors that, in his opinion, the Russian budget will experience increasing pressure, writes "Inopressa".
Under the first number in the list is "long-term downturn". Its dependence on energy exports under President Putin has increased, while the share of other goods and services in total exports, on the contrary, has decreased.
The second source of trouble is the demographic situation. “Life expectancy is slowly increasing, and the birth rate is very low. Labor resources began to decline ... The number of non-working people per each employed population is rapidly increasing, ”Remington says. There is an “increase in spending on pensions and medical care.”
The situation is exacerbated by the “ambitious financial obligations” that Putin assumed. The author is referring to “large-scale infrastructure and demonstration projects,” such as the Winter Olympics.
The next unfavorable factor, from the point of view of a political scientist, is the increase in defense spending, especially since it occurs in Russia “due to deductions for health care and education”.
Further, Remington mentions "a substantial salary increase to senior government officials and civil servants in general."
Under the sixth number are the obligations under Putin’s May Decrees. Remington believes that because of them, a number of regional governments are "on the verge of financial collapse."
The seventh factor is the fall in investor confidence. This creates capital outflows and brain drain, as well as reduced consumer confidence. The result is a decrease in the competitiveness of the Russian industry in world markets and an increase in its dependence on the export of minerals.
The eighth problem is “the inefficiency of the tax system”: the dependence of receipts in the treasury on oil prices, a single (rather than progressive) income tax scale, the overall inefficiency of the tax collection mechanism.
The “very inefficient and corrupt” housing sector is the next source of pressure on the budget.
The tenth scourge of the Russian budget is a change in the structure of labor resources. The total number of the latter begins to decline, while the share of civil servants increases sharply.
What makes the Russian government? The author writes about the use of the ideological arsenal: “strengthening political control over the media”, “a conservative program in the public sphere”, “indulgence of the Russian Orthodox Church”, “anti-geyskoy” legislation, “Dima Yakovlev’s law”, “attempts to implant in the school program a single, nationalistically colored interpretation stories Russia. "
The author recommends the government of these funds. In his opinion, “for a long-term solution of financial problems, Russia would have to not only conduct a comprehensive structural reform of the economy, but also revise political institutions, which would make it possible to build a new social contract. Re-concluding a social contract is a much more difficult task than preparing for the Sochi Olympics. ”
The political analyst, we add from ourselves, did not in a bit reach in his councils such a “renewal of the social contract”, which could be called a “revision of the results of privatization”. Because it was at the stages of privatization that the “comprehensive structural reform of the economy” was carried out, from which Russia was saved only by the world price of oil that jumped under Putin. A significant part of Russian society, of course, would like to revise the results of privatization and build a “new social contract”, but this will not happen, since Russia lives under oligarchic capitalism. And if the oligarchy as a system is preserved (for all its injustice, with all the "sanctification" of the very principle of total theft and profit), what new social contract can we talk about? Therefore, distracting maneuvers such as combating the dominance of gays or rewriting textbooks to more “tolerant” ones will continue to be carried out in Russia. As a result, society repeatedly switches to politically safe, and often simply meaningless, topics, and the oligarchs continue to build yachts.
McFaul opened his heart. An article by Yulia Ioffe was published in The New Republic: “He Says All That" Dosvedanie ": a frank interview with Michael McFaul" (the source of the short translation is "Inopressa").
When the journalist expressed the opinion that the US-Russian relations had cooled almost to the limit, McFaul replied that at other times they were much worse.
Ioffe asked why the American side is not speaking louder about human rights violations in Russia. It was not only about harassment of LGBT people, but about “wider persecution”.
“I sat and watched in real time, as the verdict was read to Navalny. And when he was reporting on Twitter to the whole world, I tweeted in Russian: “Hello. I look". Who else did this? Who else did the government do? And then we, the Obama administration, very clearly stated that we consider this verdict politicized, ”said McFaul.
Ioffe asked in which cases there were the biggest discrepancies between the effort and the result or the lack of it. McFaul said that it was a ban on adoptions of Russian children by Americans. "In emotional terms, this was probably the most difficult of all that I had to face: tragedy, meaninglessness."
Will Russia be democratic in 20 years?
“I am optimistic about Russia. When I lived here, I saw the country closer - now I am more optimistic than two years ago, ”the ambassador replied.
Something McFaul will not be bored about, namely, “the need to think about every word I say to journalists like you.” And also about the need to coordinate their movement with the guard.
“If to speak more seriously, I am discouraged by the Russian press, the one that is controlled by the state. These relentless misconceptions that give the Obama administration and my country, and I don’t even know how to say cynicism ... it ... I cannot express it. The way it hits me. Hatred, the angry Twitter posts I get every day. Perhaps I will receive them at Stanford. But hardly".
The article by Doug Stanlin "McFaul remains optimistic and calls for the start of the second reset" ("USA Today"; source of translation - "InoSMI") is also dedicated to M. McFaul.
The ambassador spoke about two years of work in Russia and thought about the future of Russian-American relations.
Before being appointed as ambassador to Russia, McFaul was Special Assistant to President Obama on national security issues. He studied Russian at the Leningrad State University, and in 1990-i studied the features of the election process in Russia and became friends with many oppositionists. His scientific specialization is revolutionary movements, the author notes.
In the farewell interview McFaul gave to The New Republic, the author reports, he did not give an exact answer to the question about the future of the Russian opposition: “I don’t know. The space required for political activity has become extremely limited. It is obvious. At the same time, the liveliness of Russian society amazes me. It has a dynamism that has no end. ”
Michael Bom, editor of the Moscow Times comment page, writes that the Russian authorities expelled McFaul from the country because they did not like his growing popularity among Russians. According to Bohm, with the help of state-controlled television channels, the Kremlin “launched a dirty campaign” against the US ambassador to Russia. “In the end, the popularity of McFaul and his successful communication with ordinary Russians could not compete with the Kremlin’s gigantic propaganda machine,” he says.
Fyodor Lukyanov, the chief editor of Russia in Global Politics and the chairman of the presidium of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, believes that the bilateral program of the United States and Russia is "completely empty and that the parties do not know what to discuss." From his point of view, it is necessary to focus on international crisis management. He also speaks of the need to send to Russia "an extremely highly qualified career ambassador with excellent skills in maintaining diplomatic relations at the appropriate level."
Sergey Markov, the head of the Institute for Political Studies and a member of the Public Chamber, who met McFaul in 1990, believes that McFaul has chosen the most inappropriate moment for open diplomacy. According to him, this was contrary to the policy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, whose representatives prefer to remain more restrained. However, as Markov notes, Russian officials understand that in the conditions of a rapidly changing world of diplomacy, “McFaul is the future.”
In reality, we add from ourselves, behind the departing McFaul, only the past remains, full of political failures. And it is at least strange to talk about “open diplomacy” of the representative of that state, which is completely closed to spying on the whole world through the NSA and “fraternal” structures in Western Europe. Nothing “open” in the political establishment of Big Brother is and cannot be. And it’s not for nothing that Mr. McFaul is a specialist in revolutionary movements. It is these people that the White House likes to appoint ambassadors to various countries for the posts. This is not necessarily Russia, it is, for example, the countries of Latin America. There, in fact, every embassy is an oppositional microcosm, tailored to the sabotage patterns of the United States. Leaving Moscow, McFaul only acknowledges his own failures as ambassador. We have already written about this in previous releases of Mosaic, we see no reason to repeat. Moreover, the ambassador himself admitted some of his failures.
Yaroshenko turned to Putin. Pilot Yaroshenko, who is serving a 20-year sentence in an American prison - the first Russian captured by US intelligence in a third country and secretly taken out to the US - asked for his extradition to Russia, reports "Reedus" with reference to ITAR-TASS.
Konstantin Yaroshenko was convicted in the United States for drug smuggling. Now he called on the President of the Russian Federation to assist in returning to his homeland. “I beg you to appeal to the American side and personally to US President Barack Obama with a request for my early transfer to the Motherland. In Russia, I have a wife, daughter, and 73-year-old mother, whom I have not seen for many years and whom I want to see at least one more time, ”wrote Yaroshenko together with his lawyer Alexei Tarasov.
Earlier, the lawyer reported that Yaroshenko was being examined in a hospital: he is in pre-infarction condition.
New record of American dislike for Russia. According to Gallup, Putin and Russia scored the highest negative rating that Gallup had recorded for them over the past two decades — 63 and 60 percent, respectively, writes Mixednews.ru with a link to upiasia.com.
This negative opinion confirms the downward trend in the attitude of Americans towards Russia, which has received. development since Putin returned to the presidency.
The survey results are based on nationwide telephone surveys conducted from 6 to 9 in February, in which 1018 adults participated. The margin of error is 4 percent.
Is the American Bill of Rights valid? The Bill of Rights is the envy of many nations. The basic freedoms enshrined in it — freedom of assembly, freedom of the press, freedom from arbitrary searches — are the most powerful defense against presumptuous power.
“But why do these rights really stand in the USA today?” Asked Chase Madar, a correspondent of The Guardian (a source for short translation - "Inopressa").
Here is Cecily Macmillan, an 25-year-old student arrested two years ago during an Occupy Wall Street rally. During the arrest, the police officer grabbed her by the chest from the back, and she hit the offender with her elbow, hitting him in the eye. Now she is being tried for assaulting a police officer: she faces up to 7 years in prison.
“While our rights are fading away, we find solace in a disgusting reaction to the punk action of the Pussy Riot group in authoritarian Putin Russia,” the author writes. “But what will happen to the home-grown Pussy Riot in New York?” If we assume that a politically conscious hip-hop group will connect its amplifiers at the altar of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in the center of Manhattan, then you can be sure that the case will not be limited to prosecution for illegal entry. ”
“For decades, any hints of a comparison between the freedom-loving America and authoritarian Russia seemed like a tearful exaggeration,” Madar writes. And this is despite the fact that the United States ranks first in the world in the number of prisoners. In 2012, in America, 100 had thousands of 707 prisoners. This is one and a half times more than in Russia (402 per person per 100 thousand population).
Learning is light, and ignorance is the United States. The results of a survey by the National Science Foundation of the United States showed that one out of four Americans had not heard anything about the structure of the solar system and thought that the sun revolves around the earth. This is reported by the channel "RT".
The newspaper "Daily Mail" writes that more than 2,2 thousand Americans took part in the study. The survey provided answers to nine basic questions in physics and in biology. Only 74% of respondents indicated that the Earth revolves around the sun, and not vice versa.
Less than half of the respondents (48%) knew that humans were descended from earlier mammalian species. Total 39% on the question of the origin of the universe answered that it began with the Big Bang.
The results of the survey will be included in the report of the foundation, which will be presented to congressmen and Barack Obama.
Sorry, we add, this poll was not conducted in the Congress and the White House. It would be very curious to get a percentage from there.
Nasrallah: Stop the war in Syria! Hezbollah’s leader Sheikh Nasrallah called on the Arab world to end the war in Syria, reports "Lenta.ru" with reference to Reuters. According to Nasrallah, if the Arab forces stop the war, Hezbollah will also refuse to participate in the conflict.
"If you want to save this region from chaos that will last for decades, stop the war in Syria," Nasrallah said, appealing to all the political forces of the Arab world.
At the same time, Nasrallah added that he would not allow the victory of the Syrian rebels, whom he considers radical Islamists.
John Kerry condemns. US Secretary of State John Kerry laid the responsibility on the government in Damascus for the lack of progress in the inter-Syrian talks in Geneva, the second round of which ended on Saturday. This is stated in a written statement by the head of the US Foreign Ministry, who is on an overseas trip to Asia, reports correspondent ITAR-TASS Dmitry Kirsanov.
“None of us is surprised that negotiations are difficult, that we are in a difficult moment. But we all have to agree that the obstruction on the part of the Assad regime further complicates the progress, ”the statement says.
“While the regime was creating obstacles and drawing time, the opposition showed courageous and mature seriousness and purposefulness, as well as readiness to discuss all aspects of the conflict,” said Kerry.
He also noted that the Syrian opposition had developed a “viable and reasoned road map for the creation of a transitional governing body” in Damascus, outlined a realistic “way to move the negotiations forward.” But the mood of the delegation of the Government of Syria was a stark contrast to what the opposition showed.
The US Secretary of State accused the Syrian authorities of actually blocking progress at the Geneva talks and at the same time “stepping up their barbaric attack on civilians”, using not only bombs against them, but also starvation tactics.
John Kerry is concerned. Stability in the Asia-Pacific region is directly dependent on the success of the maritime code negotiated by the ASEAN countries. This was announced in Jakarta by John Kerry, touring the countries of the Middle East and Southeast Asia, reports ITAR-TASS.
“The United States is considering with growing concern China’s attempts to establish control over regional waters, including the declaration of 23 of November on the air defense recognition zone in the East China Sea,” the US Secretary of State noted.
Sharia in action. A resident of Raqqa Fatum al-Jasim was sentenced to death for using Facebook. The sentence was passed by a local Sharia court. Fatum was stoned to death, transmits "Voice of Russia".
According to NEWSru Israel, the city of Raqqa is dominated by the most radical of the existing groups - the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
Double capital? Mahmoud Abbas initiated the transformation of Jerusalem into a common capital for Israelis and Palestinians, reports correspondent RIA "Novosti" Nazar Allian.
“Do not divide Jerusalem. The city should be open to the Palestinians and to the Israelis. This is the essence of coexistence, ”said Abbas, who hosted Israeli students at the residence in Ramallah around 200.
He demonstrated a willingness to compromise in addressing the problems of millions of Arab refugees who left modern Israel in different years and are counting on returning. Abbas assured students that he was not seeking to “flood” Israel with refugees. “We do not want to change the social structure of Israel. We do not want to “flood” it with millions of Palestinian refugees, ”he said.
Abbas laid on Israel, refusing to curtail settlement construction in the occupied lands, blamed for the slip of the peace process.
Nigerian massacre. In the north-east of Nigeria, 90 people died as a result of militant attacks on Izge village. The extremists surrounded the settlement located near the border with Cameroon, opened fire on local residents and set fire to dozens of houses, transmit "Vesti" with reference to ITAR-TASS.
No group has claimed responsibility for what happened. According to observers, the crime is probably backed by militants from Boko Haram.
Members of this group seek the establishment of sharia norms in northern Nigeria.
The European Union "freezes" Switzerland. The EU froze a number of grants for Swiss universities after the government decided to restrict the migration of citizens from the EU following a referendum. About this with reference to the statement of the union writes "The Local".
As noted by "Lenta.ru", the European Union explained that Switzerland’s participation in European grant programs is impossible if it does not provide freedom of movement. This writes the "France-Presse". In particular, funding for the Horizon-2020 innovation program, for which in 2014-2020 was suspended, was suspended. planned to spend 80 billion euros. 8 thousands of people should have joined the project.
Switzerland was also denied participation in the Erasmus student exchange program. In 2011-2012 more than 2600 students from this country were given the opportunity to study at universities in EU member states.
Lenta reminds that on February 15 the Swiss authorities refused to open their labor market for Croatia. Officials explained this with the decision of the national referendum on restricting migration.
Hollande's rating fell below the baseboard. French President has updated another record of unpopularity. The number of French dissatisfied with the policy pursued by the current head of state in February reached 79%. This is evidenced by the data of a monthly survey conducted by the Institute of Social Research IFOP for the newspaper “Journal du dimanche”, writes correspondent ITAR-TASS Ivan Batyrev.
The level of popularity of F. Hollande compared with January decreased by 2 percentage points. This month, only 20% of the population of the republic express their support for the president, of which only 2% are “very satisfied” with his work, the remaining 18 percent are “more likely satisfied”.
The number of opponents of Hollande also increased by 2 p.p. Among this category of respondents, 39% stated that they are “rather not satisfied” with the work of Hollande. 40% indicated that they were “extremely dissatisfied” with his political course. 1 percent of respondents refrained from responding.
“Francois Hollande is the president of the Fifth Republic, who rules as if during the time of the Fourth Republic. He is engaged in one thing or another, and does not have time for the moment, ”says influential French sociologist Jean-Marc Lesch.
Providing from Frau Merkel. Angela Merkel offered to create a European communication network so that email and other data should not be sent via US servers. She reported this to 15 February in her weekly podcast, reports "Lenta.ru" with reference to Reuters.
A. Merkel noted that she doesn’t approve of companies like “Google” and “Facebook”, which place capacities in countries with a low degree of data protection, and work in countries with a high level of computer security - for example, in Germany.
The German Chancellor plans to discuss the creation of a European network with the President of France during his visit to Paris, which will take place today.
Kyrgyzstan: six from Syria. Employees of the State Committee for National Security of Kyrgyzstan in the territory of the Osh region of the republic neutralized the group, which was “trained in the camps of international terrorist organizations in Syria”, reports correspondent ITAR-TASS Vadim Neshkumai.
“The group consisted of six natives of the Osh region, ranging in age from 20 to 33 years,” the ministry said. “They planned to carry out terrorist actions on the territory of the republic.”
Members of the group, which included participants in the fighting in Syria, were detained. As noted in the GKNB, during a search they were seized weapon and ammunition.
The Osh Municipal Department of Internal Affairs opened a criminal case under the articles “Public calls for terrorist activity or public justification of terrorism”, “Organization of a criminal community” and “Acquisition, production, storage, distribution, transportation and transfer of extremist materials, as well as deliberate use of symbols or attributes of extremist organizations ". The detainees are in the temporary detention center of the Main Department of Internal Affairs of Osh.
Kiev: the end of the opposition occupation? “Euromaidan” activists yesterday morning liberated the building of the Kiev city administration, which they occupied for more than two months, reports "Lenta.ru" with reference to France-Presse.
This is a reciprocal step to the release by the authorities of all 234-s detained protesters. So the authorities and the opposition comply with the provisions of the Amnesty Law, passed by the January 29 Rada.
Activists must release seized office buildings throughout Ukraine before February 17.
The note says that the opposition held a general cleaning in the Kiev administration building, and transferred their belongings to the October Palace and the Ukrainian House. The activists intend to finally leave the building by 12: 00 local time, when the next National Assembly begins on Independence Square.
According to Interfax, on Sunday, the buildings of Ternopil, Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv and Poltava regional administrations were also unblocked.
Order Klitschko. The Poltava District Administrative Court obliged Vitali Klitschko to provide information regarding the grounds for receiving the Order For Services to the Federal Republic of Germany, he reports Ukrainian resource "Law and Business".
As the portal reminds, on January 13, deputy of the Zin'kovskiy city council from the Batkivschyna faction, Sergey Salo, sent a request to Vitali Klitschko with a request to inform him of what services he had won the Order of the foreign state award. However, Klitschko refused to provide such information.
The Poltava District Administrative Court, however, concluded that “such information is of public interest and should be provided to requesters in the manner prescribed by Law No. 2939”.
Now, Mr. Klitschko, we add, will have to publicly explain to Ukraine. In addition to the Order, by the way, there are other "German" news on the topic of Vitali Klitschko.
According to "Controversy" referring to UNN, the leader of "UDAR" said at a press conference in Dnepropetrovsk that he had refused a residence permit in Germany and is now a citizen of Ukraine.
Klitschko explained that he "really ... had a right to reside in Europe." However, today he does not have such a “right”. The oppositionist said that he is a citizen of Ukraine. He added: "I do not have a residence permit in Germany."
It looks like we’ll add, despite the recent “fakie” from the State Department, who would like to see Yatsenyuk as the head of the Ukrainian state, Klitschko understands well that the United States and the EU are not getting along well today. And if Yatsenyuk is a figure promoted on the chessboard by the State Department, then Klitschko can make him quite a strong competition from the EU. And where is the interests of Ukraine, you ask. If the game goes between Washington and Brussels? And nowhere, we will answer. For Western strategists, Ukraine is nothing more than a chessboard, a field for geopolitics and promoting its own interests. The sensible Ukrainian people understand: the West cannot be trusted. Neither American nor European. And you could never be trusted. Under Gorbachev, Russia trusted the West. What happened next, everyone knows.
For treatment in Poland. 13 February, a spokesman for the Polish Interior Ministry, Marcin Wojciechowski, said that already the sixth citizen of Ukraine, who was injured in clashes on Grushevskogo street, arrived in Poland for treatment. He confirmed that the Polish authorities are ready to accept an even greater number of Ukrainians who were injured during clashes of demonstrators with the police. Write about it "Versions".
Yesterday, the Polish edition of Nowytydzien published an article entitled “Hospitals are not for Ukrainians.” The submission notes that, despite the statement by the Polish authorities about the free treatment of injured activists, there are no legal grounds for this.
“The authorities have no idea how to organize the medical treatment of“ euromaidan ”activists,” said the head of the Lublin province, Krzysztof Getman.
According to him, there is no reason to treat the Ukrainians at public expense. Director of the Lublin Regional Health Department Krzysztof Tushapsky stressed that citizens of Ukraine can receive treatment in private. "Poland does not have a bilateral social security agreement with Ukraine, and Kiev is not a member of the European Union," he recalled.
Russia and Ukraine: money negotiation failed? Having received the first tranche of the Russian loan in December, the Ukrainian authorities relaxed. But in Russia they can count their money, writes Yuri Gavrilechko (Vremya.ua).
On January 28, Vladimir Putin told reporters that Russia would not give up on an agreement to provide Ukraine with a loan of 15 billion. He also noted that the issue of the next tranche will be postponed until the new composition of the Ukrainian Cabinet is formed.
A day later, at a meeting of the Russian government with the participation of Putin, Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov noted that with a new loan, one would have to wait until a new government appeared in Ukraine.
At the end of the first decade of February, the Minister of Finance of Russia Anton Siluanov clearly outlined the position of the Russian Federation regarding further loans: the second tranche of the Russian loan is possible after calculating Kiev for gas.
Probably, Viktor Yanukovych failed 7 February in Sochi to negotiate with Putin about other conditions for the provision of funds by the Russian side. According to a columnist, at least until the end of February, or even until mid-March, money from Russia can not be expected.
But if Yanukovych goes to the dissolution of the parliament, then there will be no money until the summer. How to balance the budget in such conditions? Unclear.
“The Old Man” Lukashenka would have stabilized everything a long time ago, we’ll add. However, with him there would be no “euromaidan” at all. Even hints of such a disgrace could not have happened. “The Old Man” is a much more efficient manager than Obama or Hollande, who are considered to be great democratic experts in dispersing rallies, demonstrations and various kinds of protests. They disperse, Lukashenko does not allow.
What will put pressure on the Russian budget: the opinion of a foreign expert. Thomas Remington, a political analyst at Emory University, chose 10 for The Washington Post as the main factors that, in his opinion, the Russian budget will experience increasing pressure, writes "Inopressa".
Under the first number in the list is "long-term downturn". Its dependence on energy exports under President Putin has increased, while the share of other goods and services in total exports, on the contrary, has decreased.
The second source of trouble is the demographic situation. “Life expectancy is slowly increasing, and the birth rate is very low. Labor resources began to decline ... The number of non-working people per each employed population is rapidly increasing, ”Remington says. There is an “increase in spending on pensions and medical care.”
The situation is exacerbated by the “ambitious financial obligations” that Putin assumed. The author is referring to “large-scale infrastructure and demonstration projects,” such as the Winter Olympics.
The next unfavorable factor, from the point of view of a political scientist, is the increase in defense spending, especially since it occurs in Russia “due to deductions for health care and education”.
Further, Remington mentions "a substantial salary increase to senior government officials and civil servants in general."
Under the sixth number are the obligations under Putin’s May Decrees. Remington believes that because of them, a number of regional governments are "on the verge of financial collapse."
The seventh factor is the fall in investor confidence. This creates capital outflows and brain drain, as well as reduced consumer confidence. The result is a decrease in the competitiveness of the Russian industry in world markets and an increase in its dependence on the export of minerals.
The eighth problem is “the inefficiency of the tax system”: the dependence of receipts in the treasury on oil prices, a single (rather than progressive) income tax scale, the overall inefficiency of the tax collection mechanism.
The “very inefficient and corrupt” housing sector is the next source of pressure on the budget.
The tenth scourge of the Russian budget is a change in the structure of labor resources. The total number of the latter begins to decline, while the share of civil servants increases sharply.
What makes the Russian government? The author writes about the use of the ideological arsenal: “strengthening political control over the media”, “a conservative program in the public sphere”, “indulgence of the Russian Orthodox Church”, “anti-geyskoy” legislation, “Dima Yakovlev’s law”, “attempts to implant in the school program a single, nationalistically colored interpretation stories Russia. "
The author recommends the government of these funds. In his opinion, “for a long-term solution of financial problems, Russia would have to not only conduct a comprehensive structural reform of the economy, but also revise political institutions, which would make it possible to build a new social contract. Re-concluding a social contract is a much more difficult task than preparing for the Sochi Olympics. ”
The political analyst, we add from ourselves, did not in a bit reach in his councils such a “renewal of the social contract”, which could be called a “revision of the results of privatization”. Because it was at the stages of privatization that the “comprehensive structural reform of the economy” was carried out, from which Russia was saved only by the world price of oil that jumped under Putin. A significant part of Russian society, of course, would like to revise the results of privatization and build a “new social contract”, but this will not happen, since Russia lives under oligarchic capitalism. And if the oligarchy as a system is preserved (for all its injustice, with all the "sanctification" of the very principle of total theft and profit), what new social contract can we talk about? Therefore, distracting maneuvers such as combating the dominance of gays or rewriting textbooks to more “tolerant” ones will continue to be carried out in Russia. As a result, society repeatedly switches to politically safe, and often simply meaningless, topics, and the oligarchs continue to build yachts.
McFaul opened his heart. An article by Yulia Ioffe was published in The New Republic: “He Says All That" Dosvedanie ": a frank interview with Michael McFaul" (the source of the short translation is "Inopressa").
When the journalist expressed the opinion that the US-Russian relations had cooled almost to the limit, McFaul replied that at other times they were much worse.
Ioffe asked why the American side is not speaking louder about human rights violations in Russia. It was not only about harassment of LGBT people, but about “wider persecution”.
“I sat and watched in real time, as the verdict was read to Navalny. And when he was reporting on Twitter to the whole world, I tweeted in Russian: “Hello. I look". Who else did this? Who else did the government do? And then we, the Obama administration, very clearly stated that we consider this verdict politicized, ”said McFaul.
Ioffe asked in which cases there were the biggest discrepancies between the effort and the result or the lack of it. McFaul said that it was a ban on adoptions of Russian children by Americans. "In emotional terms, this was probably the most difficult of all that I had to face: tragedy, meaninglessness."
Will Russia be democratic in 20 years?
“I am optimistic about Russia. When I lived here, I saw the country closer - now I am more optimistic than two years ago, ”the ambassador replied.
Something McFaul will not be bored about, namely, “the need to think about every word I say to journalists like you.” And also about the need to coordinate their movement with the guard.
“If to speak more seriously, I am discouraged by the Russian press, the one that is controlled by the state. These relentless misconceptions that give the Obama administration and my country, and I don’t even know how to say cynicism ... it ... I cannot express it. The way it hits me. Hatred, the angry Twitter posts I get every day. Perhaps I will receive them at Stanford. But hardly".
The article by Doug Stanlin "McFaul remains optimistic and calls for the start of the second reset" ("USA Today"; source of translation - "InoSMI") is also dedicated to M. McFaul.
The ambassador spoke about two years of work in Russia and thought about the future of Russian-American relations.
Before being appointed as ambassador to Russia, McFaul was Special Assistant to President Obama on national security issues. He studied Russian at the Leningrad State University, and in 1990-i studied the features of the election process in Russia and became friends with many oppositionists. His scientific specialization is revolutionary movements, the author notes.
In the farewell interview McFaul gave to The New Republic, the author reports, he did not give an exact answer to the question about the future of the Russian opposition: “I don’t know. The space required for political activity has become extremely limited. It is obvious. At the same time, the liveliness of Russian society amazes me. It has a dynamism that has no end. ”
Michael Bom, editor of the Moscow Times comment page, writes that the Russian authorities expelled McFaul from the country because they did not like his growing popularity among Russians. According to Bohm, with the help of state-controlled television channels, the Kremlin “launched a dirty campaign” against the US ambassador to Russia. “In the end, the popularity of McFaul and his successful communication with ordinary Russians could not compete with the Kremlin’s gigantic propaganda machine,” he says.
Fyodor Lukyanov, the chief editor of Russia in Global Politics and the chairman of the presidium of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, believes that the bilateral program of the United States and Russia is "completely empty and that the parties do not know what to discuss." From his point of view, it is necessary to focus on international crisis management. He also speaks of the need to send to Russia "an extremely highly qualified career ambassador with excellent skills in maintaining diplomatic relations at the appropriate level."
Sergey Markov, the head of the Institute for Political Studies and a member of the Public Chamber, who met McFaul in 1990, believes that McFaul has chosen the most inappropriate moment for open diplomacy. According to him, this was contrary to the policy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, whose representatives prefer to remain more restrained. However, as Markov notes, Russian officials understand that in the conditions of a rapidly changing world of diplomacy, “McFaul is the future.”
In reality, we add from ourselves, behind the departing McFaul, only the past remains, full of political failures. And it is at least strange to talk about “open diplomacy” of the representative of that state, which is completely closed to spying on the whole world through the NSA and “fraternal” structures in Western Europe. Nothing “open” in the political establishment of Big Brother is and cannot be. And it’s not for nothing that Mr. McFaul is a specialist in revolutionary movements. It is these people that the White House likes to appoint ambassadors to various countries for the posts. This is not necessarily Russia, it is, for example, the countries of Latin America. There, in fact, every embassy is an oppositional microcosm, tailored to the sabotage patterns of the United States. Leaving Moscow, McFaul only acknowledges his own failures as ambassador. We have already written about this in previous releases of Mosaic, we see no reason to repeat. Moreover, the ambassador himself admitted some of his failures.
Yaroshenko turned to Putin. Pilot Yaroshenko, who is serving a 20-year sentence in an American prison - the first Russian captured by US intelligence in a third country and secretly taken out to the US - asked for his extradition to Russia, reports "Reedus" with reference to ITAR-TASS.
Konstantin Yaroshenko was convicted in the United States for drug smuggling. Now he called on the President of the Russian Federation to assist in returning to his homeland. “I beg you to appeal to the American side and personally to US President Barack Obama with a request for my early transfer to the Motherland. In Russia, I have a wife, daughter, and 73-year-old mother, whom I have not seen for many years and whom I want to see at least one more time, ”wrote Yaroshenko together with his lawyer Alexei Tarasov.
Earlier, the lawyer reported that Yaroshenko was being examined in a hospital: he is in pre-infarction condition.
New record of American dislike for Russia. According to Gallup, Putin and Russia scored the highest negative rating that Gallup had recorded for them over the past two decades — 63 and 60 percent, respectively, writes Mixednews.ru with a link to upiasia.com.
This negative opinion confirms the downward trend in the attitude of Americans towards Russia, which has received. development since Putin returned to the presidency.
The survey results are based on nationwide telephone surveys conducted from 6 to 9 in February, in which 1018 adults participated. The margin of error is 4 percent.
Is the American Bill of Rights valid? The Bill of Rights is the envy of many nations. The basic freedoms enshrined in it — freedom of assembly, freedom of the press, freedom from arbitrary searches — are the most powerful defense against presumptuous power.
“But why do these rights really stand in the USA today?” Asked Chase Madar, a correspondent of The Guardian (a source for short translation - "Inopressa").
Here is Cecily Macmillan, an 25-year-old student arrested two years ago during an Occupy Wall Street rally. During the arrest, the police officer grabbed her by the chest from the back, and she hit the offender with her elbow, hitting him in the eye. Now she is being tried for assaulting a police officer: she faces up to 7 years in prison.
“While our rights are fading away, we find solace in a disgusting reaction to the punk action of the Pussy Riot group in authoritarian Putin Russia,” the author writes. “But what will happen to the home-grown Pussy Riot in New York?” If we assume that a politically conscious hip-hop group will connect its amplifiers at the altar of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in the center of Manhattan, then you can be sure that the case will not be limited to prosecution for illegal entry. ”
“For decades, any hints of a comparison between the freedom-loving America and authoritarian Russia seemed like a tearful exaggeration,” Madar writes. And this is despite the fact that the United States ranks first in the world in the number of prisoners. In 2012, in America, 100 had thousands of 707 prisoners. This is one and a half times more than in Russia (402 per person per 100 thousand population).
Learning is light, and ignorance is the United States. The results of a survey by the National Science Foundation of the United States showed that one out of four Americans had not heard anything about the structure of the solar system and thought that the sun revolves around the earth. This is reported by the channel "RT".
The newspaper "Daily Mail" writes that more than 2,2 thousand Americans took part in the study. The survey provided answers to nine basic questions in physics and in biology. Only 74% of respondents indicated that the Earth revolves around the sun, and not vice versa.
Less than half of the respondents (48%) knew that humans were descended from earlier mammalian species. Total 39% on the question of the origin of the universe answered that it began with the Big Bang.
The results of the survey will be included in the report of the foundation, which will be presented to congressmen and Barack Obama.
Sorry, we add, this poll was not conducted in the Congress and the White House. It would be very curious to get a percentage from there.
Observed and commented on Oleg Chuvakin
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