Geopolitical mosaic: Prince Bandar may be fired, Snowden became a university rector, and McFaul thinks Putin looks like Obama
Syrian question in the UN. - John Kerry does not want war. - About Iran. “Will Prince Bandar be fired after meeting McCain?” “Enter the hospital and kill the Arab babies.” - Maduro told about the American plan. - Corruption has ravaged the Colombian army. “Will the UN sue Kim Jong-un?” - Jews against Shenderovich. “Russians are driving out the ghost of Vancouver.” - The flourishing village of Putin. - Drink less vodka and dilute it. - The ruble continues to fall. - Comrade Lavrov demands. - Snowden became the rector of the Scottish University. - Three hundred thousand requests. “A memorial to the dead will be erected at Fort Hood.” - The US Congress is again dissatisfied with the American president. - The ship ran aground. - That naughty Mr. Obama. - McFaul: Obama is like Putin.
Attention readers! Ukrainian news submitted to a separate review: "Ukraine: dead and wounded, east and west".
Syrian question in the UN. The permanent members of the UN Security Council (Russia, Great Britain, China, the United States and France) defined the “politically significant” points of the resolution on the humanitarian situation in Syria. This was stated to journalists by the Permanent Representative of France to the United Nations, Gerard Aro, going yesterday to a closed meeting of the Security Council, reports correspondent ITAR-TASS Oleg Zelenin.
“We identified politically significant points. These are three or four points, ”he said. “The general impression is that we can agree on the text,” the diplomat noted.
“For us, one of the vital points is to allow humanitarian agencies to carry out cross-border activities,” said Aro.
John Kerry does not want war. Despite the slip of the Geneva-2, the US administration believes that the internal armed conflict in Syria does not have a military solution. This was stressed by the US Secretary of State at a press conference at the American embassy in Tunisia, where he was on a visit, according to correspondent ITAR-TASS Dmitry Kirsanov.
At the same time, the head of American diplomacy warned against pinning high hopes on Geneva-2. “No one expected the problem to be solved in two or three meetings,” said Kerry.
“Let me emphasize: there is no military solution” to the conflict in Syria, Kerry said, adding that “everyone agrees with this.”
Kerry also confirmed that the telephone conversation that had been held earlier between him and Sergey Lavrov talked about how you can “try to advance the process” of the inter-Syrian talks.
About Iran. As transmits "RT" With reference to ITAR-TASS, Tehran fulfills its obligations to limit the nuclear program in accordance with the interim agreement reached at the negotiations with the G-6 in November last year in Geneva. This was stated by Deputy Secretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman, who heads the US delegation at the talks in Vienna on the nuclear issue of Iran.
"Until now, both sides - both Iran and those who provided very limited, targeted easing of sanctions - fulfilled their obligations," Sherman said in an interview with CNN.
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Sergey Ryabkov also reported on Iran’s faithful fulfillment of its obligations. “There are no complaints so far,” he stressed. “Iranians are fully fulfilling their obligations.”
As transmits ITAR-TASSThe first day of negotiations between Iran and the Six in Vienna was not bad, but it’s premature to talk about some prospects for the results. This was reported to journalists by a source in the Russian delegation.
“It was possible to discuss the whole range of issues on the agenda,” the source emphasized. “We all have a desire to negotiate, (today) we will begin negotiations in the morning.”
Will Prince Bandar be fired after meeting with McCain? On the evening of February 17, Iranian television broadcast a message that the head of the Saudi secret services, Prince Bandar, could be relieved of his post. Now he is in Washington, where he is undergoing treatment at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, and at the same time plans to meet with US Senator McCain. Viktor Titov, candidate historical Sci., political commentator for the Middle East, in the journal "New Eastern Outlook".
Electronic media report that 54-year-old Prince Mohammed bin Naif, who was appointed Minister of the Interior of the Kingdom in November 2012, may take his place. Mohammed bin Naif is the nephew of the Saudi monarch and the son of the crown prince of the kingdom who passed away in June 2012 and the long-term Interior Minister Naif bin Abdel Aziz al-Saud. He is prophesied in the kings of Saudi Arabia.
Bandar is the main Saudi person responsible for overthrowing the Syrian regime. But all his intrigues failed. Bandar "lit up" and with a clearly fabricated case of the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian troops. Having been twice in Moscow in 2013, the prince tried to blackmail President Putin.
As a result, now both the rulers of Saudi Arabia and the leaders of the USA are trying to protect themselves from a person who did not disdain to use terrorists to achieve political goals and crossed all the “red lines”.
"Enter the hospital and kill the Arab babies." 30-year-old resident of Petah Tikva was arrested on charges that he wrote about his dream on Facebook: “Enter the hospital and kill the Arab babies.” He was arrested on charges of incitement to racism, writes MIGnews.com.
The local city court extended his detention until the circumstances of the case were clarified.
Maduro spoke about the American plan. The Venezuelan opposition will be able to achieve a change in the country's president no earlier than 2016, but it will have to collect the necessary signatures to convene a referendum on this issue, said the president of Venezuela, whose words are quoted by the Latin American media. He writes about it correspondent RIA Novosti Oleg Vyazmitinov.
The Venezuelan Constitution provides that the president can be recalled from his post after half a term expires in accordance with the results of a referendum on this issue, which can be appointed if more than 20% of voters have voted for it.
Earlier, Comrade Maduro stated that the right-wing forces want to remove him from the post of head of state by any means, and that the protests of recent days are a plan for a coup d’etat developed in the USA.
Corruption has ravaged the Colombian army. Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos dismissed Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces Leonardo Barrera and four generals. This was announced by Minister of National Defense Juan Carlos Pinzón, reports correspondent ITAR-TASS Anton Fokin.
According to Pinz n, Barrera was dismissed from military service for "inappropriate remarks that caused damage to the armed forces."
Semana magazine made public the conversation of the general with his former subordinate, Colonel Robinson Gonzalez del Rio, who at the time of the conversation (in 2012) was in a military prison on extrajudicial executions. The general, supporting the colonel, called the prosecutors in charge of the Gonzalez case an obscene word.
The overwhelming majority of experts believe that the real reason for Barrera’s resignation was suspicion of his involvement in the machinations of military equipment and equipment.
Four senior officers were also dismissed: deputy commander of the ground forces, Major General Manuel Guzman, commander of the army aviation General Fabrizio Cabrera, two brigadier generals - Diego Sanchez and Jaime Reyes. The head of the country's military department pointed out that the reason for their dismissal from service was suspicion of involvement in corruption with military procurement.
UN suing Kim Jong-un? The leadership of North Korea can be brought to an international court on charges of crimes against humanity, for torture, massacres and genocide, says Andrei Arkhipov ("Vesti").
An international commission collected evidence for a year. The other day in Geneva was presented 372-page report. One copy of the document was sent by mail to Kim Jong-un. In a letter to the North Korean leader, he was warned that he was personally responsible for the crimes.
"Any DPRK official who orders crimes against humanity, commits them or assists them, falls under criminal liability in accordance with international law," the commission’s head, Michael Kirby, said in a letter.
The report contains evidence of political terror and the contents of tens of thousands of political prisoners in concentration camps. Facts of repression, torture by hunger, violence against children and women are cited in a multi-page document.
However, the prospects for an international investigation are vague. China stated that it objects to the consideration of the case against the DPRK in the International Criminal Court. Beijing has promised to veto a relevant resolution in the UN Security Council.
Jews against Shenderovich. The head of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia, Alexander Boroda, recently criticized a note by Viktor Shenderovich, in which a parallel was drawn between Sochi-2014 and the Berlin Olympics in 1936. Beard said that the post Shenderovich "radical" blockade of the survey on the TV channel "Rain", transmits "Lenta.ru" with reference to ITAR-TASS.
Comrade Beard said that one cannot speculate on Nazism. “Shenderovich, in his own malice and resentment, is already using a very immoral and indecent technique,” he said, adding that the Olympics in Sochi is “the country's decoration and pride of the whole world.”
Beard’s position, notes Lenta, was supported by Benny Briskin, Executive Director of the Russian Jewish Congress, and Rabbi Zinovy Kogan, Vice President of the Congress of Jewish Communities.
Briskin called Shenderovich’s statements “a red line,” noting that “in recent history, one can hardly find an analogy to the atrocities that the fascist regime brought.” “And a Jew should know and remember, as well as which army liberated the prisoners of the Auschwitz camp: you need to bite your tongue,” he added.
In turn, Zinovy Kogan noted that Shenderovich “lost the measure”, but the publication of the note was also the fault of the radio station Ekho Moskvy.
Russians are driving out the ghost of Vancouver. Russia made a breakthrough in the medal standings, banishing the ghost of Vancouver. Sochi added patriotism to Russians, however, Russians interpret this concept very differently. Society has split into fans and haters of the Olympics. The topic of the Olympics-2014 is devoted to a new review of foreign newspapers from "Foreign Press".
After 11 days after the start of the Olympics, Russia finally broke into the first lines of the medal standings, writes Time correspondent Simon Schuster. “The sense of relief was palpable,” because “officials began to worry that the ghosts of Vancouver-2010, where Russia had the worst results at the Winter Olympics, might still demoralize the athletes,” the author notes.
"On Sunday evening, in the building of the Sochi port, where athletes go to relax after the competition, the Olympians began to uncork the bottles," Schuster further reports. Around midnight, six medalists gathered together to perform the old rite: they plunged their medals into a jug of champagne and passed it around in a circle, making large gulps.
Anna Nemtsova’s commentary in Foreign Policy is entitled: “Patriotism and the Olympics”. Thanks to the Sochi Games, “Russian patriotism is on the rise, like Putin’s rating,” the journalist notes.
Russians understand patriotism very differently, Nemtsov writes, and they often discuss what makes a person a real patriot. The journalist recalls the story of the TV channel "Rain" and the criticism of Shenderovich.
The Chief Editor of Dozhd, Mikhail Zygar, noted that society had split into fans and haters of the Olympics. Critics accuse the government of creating a fake export version of Russia.
“Russians often tell me that the West is biased towards the country,” notes Nemtsov. Some believe that a “good citizen” should keep quiet and show respect for politicians, “but others believe that a true patriot is someone who criticizes the government.”
Thank God that the hockey match between Russia and the United States was not a knockout game, writes the senior editor of the magazine “New Republic” Julia Joffe. Russian TV presenter Dmitry Kiselev explained to viewers why the third goal was not counted on the US team: “Did they pay two billion dollars for the broadcast to show their defeats?”
“The hockey episode illustrates the fundamental Russian principle: everything is permeated with politics and everything serves to show the West that we are better than it, and at the same time that we are extremely pleasant people,” the article says.
Russia needs to deal with its psychological problems, says Joffe.
Russia made a number of conflicting steps: it banned American couples from adopting Russian orphans, adopted “anti-geysk” laws, gave refuge to Snowden, but at the same time counted on Obama's arrival in Sochi and on admiration of the whole world. “Under Putin, Russia decided to force itself to be afraid, but at the same time she really wants to be loved, and she can’t understand why, when she goes, kicking everyone in her path and showing everyone the middle finger, the world does not climb to kiss her,” - the article says.
The journalist writes further: “There are days when I write about the gloom of the West, which really exists, and it hurts me for Russia, and there are days when Russophobia inside me rises against this place, forcing the best citizens to feel like traitors and foreigners for trying to ask questions and change something. Today is such a day. ”
Die Zeit publishes an interview with Semyon Simonov, the head of the Sochi branch of the human rights organization Memorial, in which he complains that he cannot get an Olympics fan’s passport: “I already went through the registration process on the Internet twice, but both times explanations. "
The human rights activist does not exclude that the refusal may be related to his professional activities: “So, last summer I documented the 300 procedure for cases of non-payment of wages of builders working on Olympic construction sites.” The day after his appeal to the prosecutor's office, they came to him from the FSB, the prosecutor's office and the tax police. “I thought that they had come in the case of deceived migrants, but they carried out a search and asked me what journalists I met and told to whom about those 300 cases.”
“When the international media nevertheless wrote about non-payment of wages to workers, mass arrests of migrants took place in Sochi, and I was invited to the Center“ E ”, which is engaged in extremist activities in the Ministry of Internal Affairs. They interrogated me there and threatened me with consequences, ”said a human rights activist, who fears that the Sochi branch of Memorial will soon have to stop working.
The flourishing village of Putin. Even before Vladimir Putin’s first victory in the presidential election, Le Monde’s journalist Pyotr Smolyar visited the Urals village of Putin, writes "Inopressa".
14 years ago, Putin struggled with alcoholism and interruption of water supply. The agricultural sector was falling apart. “It seemed that the village was doomed to look at the present from afar, through the branches of the powerful majestic fir trees surrounding it, lost in the great snowy expanses,” the author shares his impressions of the long trip.
On the eve of the Olympics, the journalist decided to visit the Russian gloubinka again. It turned out that one of the residents of the village, Samvel Kirakosyan, headed the former local state farm and put agriculture on its feet, and with it the whole village.
“To say that he achieved his goal is to say nothing,” Smolar writes. “As is often the case in Russia, the will of one person created a small miracle in a hostile environment, overcoming the climate, the mentality, the sluggishness of the administration.”
An entire corner in Kirakosyan's office is occupied by various diplomas and awards. 200 employees work at his enterprise (the population of the village is 1 thousand people).
Near the cottages in the village grew red brick houses. the journalist saw satellite dishes.
“For three years now, the number of births has exceeded the number of deaths,” says the head of the local administration, Vladimir Ovchinnikov. - No village in the area can not boast. Buy a house is expensive - almost a million rubles. From Putin do not leave. Is that young ... "
Residents of the village of Putin are frightened by what is happening in Ukraine (besporiadki). “The main thing is that we do not have revolution, unrest, property redistribution,” said Tamara Naskova, the head physician of the local medical unit.
“Thanks to Putin, Russia has preserved its integrity, it has been restored, despite the plans of the West to destroy us,” Smolyar quotes the main character of the report Samvel Kirakosyan. - Europe is generally silent. Only Russia is strong enough to contradict the United States. ”
Drink less vodka and dilute it. “Life expectancy in Russia is extremely short compared to other developed countries,” writes Rachel Newver, columnist for The New York Times (a source for short translations, "Inopressa"). For American men, the probability of dying before 55 is 9%, and for Russian men it is 25%.
As follows from two large-scale studies, vodka is to blame. “The main reason for the colossal difference in premature mortality between Western and Eastern Europe is alcohol,” said co-author of the study, epidemiologist Richard Peto. “Russians drink alcohol in a dangerous manner.”
The author explains: “Usually, Russian men drink undiluted vodka. They also tend to get drunk and then continue to drink. ”
However, habits can change. 25% mortality is already an achievement (until the recent government measures to combat alcoholism, this figure was at the level of 33%, according to the newspaper).
What advises Russian doctor Peto? Drink less and smoke less.
The ruble continues to fall. In the course of trading on the Moscow Stock Exchange on Tuesday evening, the ruble made another sharp jump down, refreshing the historical lows against the currency basket and the euro. Impetus to the fall of the ruble gave news about the purchase of currency by the Ministry of Finance in the Reserve Fund, notes Interfax.
Dual currency basket value (0,55 dollars and 0,45 euros) on 19: 37 Moscow time reached 41,38 rubles, the euro was rising at the Moscow stock exchange to 48,8 rubles, adding 54,75 rubles, increasing by 35,49 kopecks.
According to Interfax-CEA experts, the news that the Ministry of Finance and February 20 Federal Treasury will begin operations to buy foreign currency in the domestic foreign exchange market to transfer additional oil and gas revenues for 2013 to the Reserve Fund a year .
According to analysts, in the late evening, there is no Bank of Russia in the domestic foreign exchange market, which should smooth out sharp currency jumps. Thus, in the absence of the Central Bank, the currency players stepped up the attack on the ruble.
Comrade Lavrov demands. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov yesterday in a telephone conversation with his American counterpart John Kerry "posed the question" about the pilot, Konstantin Yaroshenko, convicted in the United States for attempting to smuggle drugs, the Russian Foreign Ministry said. He writes about it "Lenta.ru".
Comrade Lavrov demanded a “full-fledged” medical examination of Yaroshenko with the participation of Russian doctors and provide him with “qualified treatment”.
According to Lenta, a Russian pilot was arrested in Liberia in 2010 and extradited to the United States. He was tried for conspiracy to smuggle four tons of cocaine in the United States and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Yaroshenko pleaded not guilty. His lawyer recently asked for help from Vladimir Putin. In Moscow, said they would try to achieve the return of Yaroshenko to their homeland.
Snowden became rector of the Scottish University. Edward Snowden won the election of the rector of the Scottish University of Glasgow, reports "Voice of Russia" with reference to ITAR-TASS.
About the victory of Snowden said the official representative of the university. Snowden’s term in office is three years.
Voting was held in electronic format. Four candidates applied for the position: Snowden, British playwright and writer Alan Bisset, priest Kelvin Holdsworth and cycle racer Graham Aubrey.
“We already had precedents when people elected by the rector could not be present at the university (to exercise authority),” said Peter Aytchison, director of the university for relations with the media and the public. According to him, this is not a problem, because "the main rule is to act on behalf of students."
Answering the question whether this means that the rector’s position at the university is rather “honorable”, Aytchison agreed. He acknowledged that its owner “does not take part in the development of the university’s strategy and its policies.”
Three hundred thousand requests. The largest American telephone operator, AT&T, has released data on cooperation with the US authorities. For the first half of 2013, law enforcement agencies demanded data on 36 thousand of the company's subscribers. We are talking about telephone connections, the content of conversations, emails and text messages, as well as information about telephone connections, transmit "Vesti" with reference to ITAR-TASS.
Over the past year, AT&T has received about 300 thousand requests.
The publication of such reports was the result of a scandal that erupted after the revelations of Snowden. The public was outraged by the interference of the authorities in private life.
A memorial to the dead will be erected at Fort Hood. The building on the territory of the American military base Fort Hood (Texas), in which Major Nidal Hassan shot 2009 people in 13, destroyed. In its place will now establish a monument to the dead. This was stated to journalists by official representatives of the base, reports correspondent ITAR-TASS Ivan Pilshchikov.
In place of the hull number 42003 will be planted trees, built a gazebo and a memorial plaque.
The correspondent recalls that a Palestinian-American American psychiatrist Nidal Hassan opened fire at Fort Hood in November 2009, killing a 13 man and injuring 31. This was the bloodiest crime of its kind ever committed on American bases. In August 2013, a jury unanimously sentenced the major to death.
The US Congress is again dissatisfied with the American president. The implementation of the idea proposed by Barack Obama to increase the minimum wage in the United States will lead to a sharp increase in government spending and a reduction in the number of jobs. This is stated in the report of the Congressional Budget Office, reports correspondent ITAR-TASS Dmitry Zlodorev.
Last month B.H. Obama suggested that Congress raise the minimum wage from 7,25 dollars per hour to 10,10 dollars.
Experts of the Budget Department are confident that such an increase in the minimum wage can cost the treasury 16,5 billion dollars and lead to a reduction in 500 thousands of jobs by the end of 2016.
The ship ran aground. One of the two ships of the US Navy sent to the Black Sea during the Winter Games in Sochi, ran aground in the waters of the Turkish port, reports "Lenta.ru" with reference to France-Presse.
According to the agency interlocutors, the incident happened a few days ago in the port of Samsun in the north of Turkey, where the US Navy ship "Taylor" came in for refueling.
The U.S. Navy ship was able to independently get aground and reach the port. A preliminary inspection in the dock, as stated by representatives of the command of the American fleet, showed that at "Taylor" the blades of screws are damaged.
"Tape" recalls that "Taylor" along with the US Navy ship "Mount Whitney" entered the Black Sea February 5. It was reported that aboard the Taylor was about 200 Marines. Pentagon officials said American ships arrived to conduct training sessions.
This little naughty Mr. Obama. As transmits Voice of America News Service, Barack Obama expressed “deep disappointment” in connection with the planned introduction of Uganda’s law raising homosexuality to the rank of criminal offense.
In his statement, Obama indicated that the law against homosexuality would be “a step backwards and negatively affect” the obligations of this African country to protect human rights.
President Obama also noted that the United States declared Museveni that putting the law into effect "would complicate our valuable relations with Uganda."
According to Obama, he welcomes Ugandans and people around the world to support the "fundamental human dignity of all people."
Recently, we add, Mr. Obama has become something too much to speak on the same-sex topic.
For example, here's what the American president said on the eve of the Olympics: "If Russia does not have gays or lesbians among its athletes, it only makes her team weaker." It is known that after these words the journalists became interested: but not “that” Mr. Obama himself? AND It revealedthat several years ago, the future president often visited not only gay nightclubs, but even special saunas.
McFaul: Obama is like Putin. The presidents of the United States and Russia have many similarities. So says Michael McFaul, passes BaltInfo with reference to "RBC".
McFaul noted: “Both have an analytical mind. They both think a lot about their country, about their place in the world, and they are both straightforward. ”
The ambassador added that Obama does not like "empty talk, after which everyone is trying to understand what is behind them." “The President of the United States does not speak in the same way as President Putin. I think this is a very useful approach, even if there is disagreement, ”McFaul said.
Something, we will add from ourselves, presidents and differ. For example, Vladimir Vladimirovich, unlike Barak Hussein, does not sympathize with the "blue". The parliament is not hostile to Putin — as much as Congress is opposed to Obama. Putin has a rather high rating among the population of Russia, which cannot be said about Obama, who is considered to be almost the worst US president in all of American history. Finally, Putin is very lucky in foreign policy, which develops in favor of Russia as if on purpose: the rise in oil prices, the global crisis that hit the West, the whistleblower Snowden in Sheremetyevo, the desire of Washington to curtail “the game” in Syria or abandon the bombing of Iran. Even the fight for homosexual rights, led by Obama, left the head of the White House sideways. Putin, on the contrary, is now considered the defender of traditional family and social values throughout the world.
And thanks to Snowden, the United States is now compared to the totalitarian state from the novel by J. Orwell. The main movers of totalitarian ideas declared the Ministry of Homeland Security and the NSA. Russia, on the contrary, becomes a fighter for rights and freedoms. Russia represented by Putin, of course.
There is so much difference between the presidents that a logical question arises: where is the similarity? Question the color of the skin, mind you, we are not affected.
Well, five kopecks about the empty talk mentioned by McFaul. What, if not idle talk, are Obama's statements about American exclusivity? After all, this topic has caused widespread negative feedback throughout the world. Few, except for the Americans themselves, consider Americans exceptional. This was confirmed by the publication in the New York Times of a famous article, signed by V. Putin and received a lot of enthusiastic reviews, including Western readers.
To recap: President Obama is just a gift for Russia. For every American failure, the Russian president responds with new success. No wonder American conspiracy theorists have long called Barak Hussein a Kremlin agent recruited personally by Putin ...
Attention readers! Ukrainian news submitted to a separate review: "Ukraine: dead and wounded, east and west".
Syrian question in the UN. The permanent members of the UN Security Council (Russia, Great Britain, China, the United States and France) defined the “politically significant” points of the resolution on the humanitarian situation in Syria. This was stated to journalists by the Permanent Representative of France to the United Nations, Gerard Aro, going yesterday to a closed meeting of the Security Council, reports correspondent ITAR-TASS Oleg Zelenin.
“We identified politically significant points. These are three or four points, ”he said. “The general impression is that we can agree on the text,” the diplomat noted.
“For us, one of the vital points is to allow humanitarian agencies to carry out cross-border activities,” said Aro.
John Kerry does not want war. Despite the slip of the Geneva-2, the US administration believes that the internal armed conflict in Syria does not have a military solution. This was stressed by the US Secretary of State at a press conference at the American embassy in Tunisia, where he was on a visit, according to correspondent ITAR-TASS Dmitry Kirsanov.
At the same time, the head of American diplomacy warned against pinning high hopes on Geneva-2. “No one expected the problem to be solved in two or three meetings,” said Kerry.
“Let me emphasize: there is no military solution” to the conflict in Syria, Kerry said, adding that “everyone agrees with this.”
Kerry also confirmed that the telephone conversation that had been held earlier between him and Sergey Lavrov talked about how you can “try to advance the process” of the inter-Syrian talks.
About Iran. As transmits "RT" With reference to ITAR-TASS, Tehran fulfills its obligations to limit the nuclear program in accordance with the interim agreement reached at the negotiations with the G-6 in November last year in Geneva. This was stated by Deputy Secretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman, who heads the US delegation at the talks in Vienna on the nuclear issue of Iran.
"Until now, both sides - both Iran and those who provided very limited, targeted easing of sanctions - fulfilled their obligations," Sherman said in an interview with CNN.
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Sergey Ryabkov also reported on Iran’s faithful fulfillment of its obligations. “There are no complaints so far,” he stressed. “Iranians are fully fulfilling their obligations.”
As transmits ITAR-TASSThe first day of negotiations between Iran and the Six in Vienna was not bad, but it’s premature to talk about some prospects for the results. This was reported to journalists by a source in the Russian delegation.
“It was possible to discuss the whole range of issues on the agenda,” the source emphasized. “We all have a desire to negotiate, (today) we will begin negotiations in the morning.”
Will Prince Bandar be fired after meeting with McCain? On the evening of February 17, Iranian television broadcast a message that the head of the Saudi secret services, Prince Bandar, could be relieved of his post. Now he is in Washington, where he is undergoing treatment at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, and at the same time plans to meet with US Senator McCain. Viktor Titov, candidate historical Sci., political commentator for the Middle East, in the journal "New Eastern Outlook".
Electronic media report that 54-year-old Prince Mohammed bin Naif, who was appointed Minister of the Interior of the Kingdom in November 2012, may take his place. Mohammed bin Naif is the nephew of the Saudi monarch and the son of the crown prince of the kingdom who passed away in June 2012 and the long-term Interior Minister Naif bin Abdel Aziz al-Saud. He is prophesied in the kings of Saudi Arabia.
Bandar is the main Saudi person responsible for overthrowing the Syrian regime. But all his intrigues failed. Bandar "lit up" and with a clearly fabricated case of the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian troops. Having been twice in Moscow in 2013, the prince tried to blackmail President Putin.
As a result, now both the rulers of Saudi Arabia and the leaders of the USA are trying to protect themselves from a person who did not disdain to use terrorists to achieve political goals and crossed all the “red lines”.
"Enter the hospital and kill the Arab babies." 30-year-old resident of Petah Tikva was arrested on charges that he wrote about his dream on Facebook: “Enter the hospital and kill the Arab babies.” He was arrested on charges of incitement to racism, writes MIGnews.com.
The local city court extended his detention until the circumstances of the case were clarified.
Maduro spoke about the American plan. The Venezuelan opposition will be able to achieve a change in the country's president no earlier than 2016, but it will have to collect the necessary signatures to convene a referendum on this issue, said the president of Venezuela, whose words are quoted by the Latin American media. He writes about it correspondent RIA Novosti Oleg Vyazmitinov.
The Venezuelan Constitution provides that the president can be recalled from his post after half a term expires in accordance with the results of a referendum on this issue, which can be appointed if more than 20% of voters have voted for it.
Earlier, Comrade Maduro stated that the right-wing forces want to remove him from the post of head of state by any means, and that the protests of recent days are a plan for a coup d’etat developed in the USA.
Corruption has ravaged the Colombian army. Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos dismissed Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces Leonardo Barrera and four generals. This was announced by Minister of National Defense Juan Carlos Pinzón, reports correspondent ITAR-TASS Anton Fokin.
According to Pinz n, Barrera was dismissed from military service for "inappropriate remarks that caused damage to the armed forces."
Semana magazine made public the conversation of the general with his former subordinate, Colonel Robinson Gonzalez del Rio, who at the time of the conversation (in 2012) was in a military prison on extrajudicial executions. The general, supporting the colonel, called the prosecutors in charge of the Gonzalez case an obscene word.
The overwhelming majority of experts believe that the real reason for Barrera’s resignation was suspicion of his involvement in the machinations of military equipment and equipment.
Four senior officers were also dismissed: deputy commander of the ground forces, Major General Manuel Guzman, commander of the army aviation General Fabrizio Cabrera, two brigadier generals - Diego Sanchez and Jaime Reyes. The head of the country's military department pointed out that the reason for their dismissal from service was suspicion of involvement in corruption with military procurement.
UN suing Kim Jong-un? The leadership of North Korea can be brought to an international court on charges of crimes against humanity, for torture, massacres and genocide, says Andrei Arkhipov ("Vesti").
An international commission collected evidence for a year. The other day in Geneva was presented 372-page report. One copy of the document was sent by mail to Kim Jong-un. In a letter to the North Korean leader, he was warned that he was personally responsible for the crimes.
"Any DPRK official who orders crimes against humanity, commits them or assists them, falls under criminal liability in accordance with international law," the commission’s head, Michael Kirby, said in a letter.
The report contains evidence of political terror and the contents of tens of thousands of political prisoners in concentration camps. Facts of repression, torture by hunger, violence against children and women are cited in a multi-page document.
However, the prospects for an international investigation are vague. China stated that it objects to the consideration of the case against the DPRK in the International Criminal Court. Beijing has promised to veto a relevant resolution in the UN Security Council.
Jews against Shenderovich. The head of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia, Alexander Boroda, recently criticized a note by Viktor Shenderovich, in which a parallel was drawn between Sochi-2014 and the Berlin Olympics in 1936. Beard said that the post Shenderovich "radical" blockade of the survey on the TV channel "Rain", transmits "Lenta.ru" with reference to ITAR-TASS.
Comrade Beard said that one cannot speculate on Nazism. “Shenderovich, in his own malice and resentment, is already using a very immoral and indecent technique,” he said, adding that the Olympics in Sochi is “the country's decoration and pride of the whole world.”
Beard’s position, notes Lenta, was supported by Benny Briskin, Executive Director of the Russian Jewish Congress, and Rabbi Zinovy Kogan, Vice President of the Congress of Jewish Communities.
Briskin called Shenderovich’s statements “a red line,” noting that “in recent history, one can hardly find an analogy to the atrocities that the fascist regime brought.” “And a Jew should know and remember, as well as which army liberated the prisoners of the Auschwitz camp: you need to bite your tongue,” he added.
In turn, Zinovy Kogan noted that Shenderovich “lost the measure”, but the publication of the note was also the fault of the radio station Ekho Moskvy.
Russians are driving out the ghost of Vancouver. Russia made a breakthrough in the medal standings, banishing the ghost of Vancouver. Sochi added patriotism to Russians, however, Russians interpret this concept very differently. Society has split into fans and haters of the Olympics. The topic of the Olympics-2014 is devoted to a new review of foreign newspapers from "Foreign Press".
After 11 days after the start of the Olympics, Russia finally broke into the first lines of the medal standings, writes Time correspondent Simon Schuster. “The sense of relief was palpable,” because “officials began to worry that the ghosts of Vancouver-2010, where Russia had the worst results at the Winter Olympics, might still demoralize the athletes,” the author notes.
"On Sunday evening, in the building of the Sochi port, where athletes go to relax after the competition, the Olympians began to uncork the bottles," Schuster further reports. Around midnight, six medalists gathered together to perform the old rite: they plunged their medals into a jug of champagne and passed it around in a circle, making large gulps.
Anna Nemtsova’s commentary in Foreign Policy is entitled: “Patriotism and the Olympics”. Thanks to the Sochi Games, “Russian patriotism is on the rise, like Putin’s rating,” the journalist notes.
Russians understand patriotism very differently, Nemtsov writes, and they often discuss what makes a person a real patriot. The journalist recalls the story of the TV channel "Rain" and the criticism of Shenderovich.
The Chief Editor of Dozhd, Mikhail Zygar, noted that society had split into fans and haters of the Olympics. Critics accuse the government of creating a fake export version of Russia.
“Russians often tell me that the West is biased towards the country,” notes Nemtsov. Some believe that a “good citizen” should keep quiet and show respect for politicians, “but others believe that a true patriot is someone who criticizes the government.”
Thank God that the hockey match between Russia and the United States was not a knockout game, writes the senior editor of the magazine “New Republic” Julia Joffe. Russian TV presenter Dmitry Kiselev explained to viewers why the third goal was not counted on the US team: “Did they pay two billion dollars for the broadcast to show their defeats?”
“The hockey episode illustrates the fundamental Russian principle: everything is permeated with politics and everything serves to show the West that we are better than it, and at the same time that we are extremely pleasant people,” the article says.
Russia needs to deal with its psychological problems, says Joffe.
Russia made a number of conflicting steps: it banned American couples from adopting Russian orphans, adopted “anti-geysk” laws, gave refuge to Snowden, but at the same time counted on Obama's arrival in Sochi and on admiration of the whole world. “Under Putin, Russia decided to force itself to be afraid, but at the same time she really wants to be loved, and she can’t understand why, when she goes, kicking everyone in her path and showing everyone the middle finger, the world does not climb to kiss her,” - the article says.
The journalist writes further: “There are days when I write about the gloom of the West, which really exists, and it hurts me for Russia, and there are days when Russophobia inside me rises against this place, forcing the best citizens to feel like traitors and foreigners for trying to ask questions and change something. Today is such a day. ”
Die Zeit publishes an interview with Semyon Simonov, the head of the Sochi branch of the human rights organization Memorial, in which he complains that he cannot get an Olympics fan’s passport: “I already went through the registration process on the Internet twice, but both times explanations. "
The human rights activist does not exclude that the refusal may be related to his professional activities: “So, last summer I documented the 300 procedure for cases of non-payment of wages of builders working on Olympic construction sites.” The day after his appeal to the prosecutor's office, they came to him from the FSB, the prosecutor's office and the tax police. “I thought that they had come in the case of deceived migrants, but they carried out a search and asked me what journalists I met and told to whom about those 300 cases.”
“When the international media nevertheless wrote about non-payment of wages to workers, mass arrests of migrants took place in Sochi, and I was invited to the Center“ E ”, which is engaged in extremist activities in the Ministry of Internal Affairs. They interrogated me there and threatened me with consequences, ”said a human rights activist, who fears that the Sochi branch of Memorial will soon have to stop working.
The flourishing village of Putin. Even before Vladimir Putin’s first victory in the presidential election, Le Monde’s journalist Pyotr Smolyar visited the Urals village of Putin, writes "Inopressa".
14 years ago, Putin struggled with alcoholism and interruption of water supply. The agricultural sector was falling apart. “It seemed that the village was doomed to look at the present from afar, through the branches of the powerful majestic fir trees surrounding it, lost in the great snowy expanses,” the author shares his impressions of the long trip.
On the eve of the Olympics, the journalist decided to visit the Russian gloubinka again. It turned out that one of the residents of the village, Samvel Kirakosyan, headed the former local state farm and put agriculture on its feet, and with it the whole village.
“To say that he achieved his goal is to say nothing,” Smolar writes. “As is often the case in Russia, the will of one person created a small miracle in a hostile environment, overcoming the climate, the mentality, the sluggishness of the administration.”
An entire corner in Kirakosyan's office is occupied by various diplomas and awards. 200 employees work at his enterprise (the population of the village is 1 thousand people).
Near the cottages in the village grew red brick houses. the journalist saw satellite dishes.
“For three years now, the number of births has exceeded the number of deaths,” says the head of the local administration, Vladimir Ovchinnikov. - No village in the area can not boast. Buy a house is expensive - almost a million rubles. From Putin do not leave. Is that young ... "
Residents of the village of Putin are frightened by what is happening in Ukraine (besporiadki). “The main thing is that we do not have revolution, unrest, property redistribution,” said Tamara Naskova, the head physician of the local medical unit.
“Thanks to Putin, Russia has preserved its integrity, it has been restored, despite the plans of the West to destroy us,” Smolyar quotes the main character of the report Samvel Kirakosyan. - Europe is generally silent. Only Russia is strong enough to contradict the United States. ”
Drink less vodka and dilute it. “Life expectancy in Russia is extremely short compared to other developed countries,” writes Rachel Newver, columnist for The New York Times (a source for short translations, "Inopressa"). For American men, the probability of dying before 55 is 9%, and for Russian men it is 25%.
As follows from two large-scale studies, vodka is to blame. “The main reason for the colossal difference in premature mortality between Western and Eastern Europe is alcohol,” said co-author of the study, epidemiologist Richard Peto. “Russians drink alcohol in a dangerous manner.”
The author explains: “Usually, Russian men drink undiluted vodka. They also tend to get drunk and then continue to drink. ”
However, habits can change. 25% mortality is already an achievement (until the recent government measures to combat alcoholism, this figure was at the level of 33%, according to the newspaper).
What advises Russian doctor Peto? Drink less and smoke less.
The ruble continues to fall. In the course of trading on the Moscow Stock Exchange on Tuesday evening, the ruble made another sharp jump down, refreshing the historical lows against the currency basket and the euro. Impetus to the fall of the ruble gave news about the purchase of currency by the Ministry of Finance in the Reserve Fund, notes Interfax.
Dual currency basket value (0,55 dollars and 0,45 euros) on 19: 37 Moscow time reached 41,38 rubles, the euro was rising at the Moscow stock exchange to 48,8 rubles, adding 54,75 rubles, increasing by 35,49 kopecks.
According to Interfax-CEA experts, the news that the Ministry of Finance and February 20 Federal Treasury will begin operations to buy foreign currency in the domestic foreign exchange market to transfer additional oil and gas revenues for 2013 to the Reserve Fund a year .
According to analysts, in the late evening, there is no Bank of Russia in the domestic foreign exchange market, which should smooth out sharp currency jumps. Thus, in the absence of the Central Bank, the currency players stepped up the attack on the ruble.
Comrade Lavrov demands. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov yesterday in a telephone conversation with his American counterpart John Kerry "posed the question" about the pilot, Konstantin Yaroshenko, convicted in the United States for attempting to smuggle drugs, the Russian Foreign Ministry said. He writes about it "Lenta.ru".
Comrade Lavrov demanded a “full-fledged” medical examination of Yaroshenko with the participation of Russian doctors and provide him with “qualified treatment”.
According to Lenta, a Russian pilot was arrested in Liberia in 2010 and extradited to the United States. He was tried for conspiracy to smuggle four tons of cocaine in the United States and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Yaroshenko pleaded not guilty. His lawyer recently asked for help from Vladimir Putin. In Moscow, said they would try to achieve the return of Yaroshenko to their homeland.
Snowden became rector of the Scottish University. Edward Snowden won the election of the rector of the Scottish University of Glasgow, reports "Voice of Russia" with reference to ITAR-TASS.
About the victory of Snowden said the official representative of the university. Snowden’s term in office is three years.
Voting was held in electronic format. Four candidates applied for the position: Snowden, British playwright and writer Alan Bisset, priest Kelvin Holdsworth and cycle racer Graham Aubrey.
“We already had precedents when people elected by the rector could not be present at the university (to exercise authority),” said Peter Aytchison, director of the university for relations with the media and the public. According to him, this is not a problem, because "the main rule is to act on behalf of students."
Answering the question whether this means that the rector’s position at the university is rather “honorable”, Aytchison agreed. He acknowledged that its owner “does not take part in the development of the university’s strategy and its policies.”
Three hundred thousand requests. The largest American telephone operator, AT&T, has released data on cooperation with the US authorities. For the first half of 2013, law enforcement agencies demanded data on 36 thousand of the company's subscribers. We are talking about telephone connections, the content of conversations, emails and text messages, as well as information about telephone connections, transmit "Vesti" with reference to ITAR-TASS.
Over the past year, AT&T has received about 300 thousand requests.
The publication of such reports was the result of a scandal that erupted after the revelations of Snowden. The public was outraged by the interference of the authorities in private life.
A memorial to the dead will be erected at Fort Hood. The building on the territory of the American military base Fort Hood (Texas), in which Major Nidal Hassan shot 2009 people in 13, destroyed. In its place will now establish a monument to the dead. This was stated to journalists by official representatives of the base, reports correspondent ITAR-TASS Ivan Pilshchikov.
In place of the hull number 42003 will be planted trees, built a gazebo and a memorial plaque.
The correspondent recalls that a Palestinian-American American psychiatrist Nidal Hassan opened fire at Fort Hood in November 2009, killing a 13 man and injuring 31. This was the bloodiest crime of its kind ever committed on American bases. In August 2013, a jury unanimously sentenced the major to death.
The US Congress is again dissatisfied with the American president. The implementation of the idea proposed by Barack Obama to increase the minimum wage in the United States will lead to a sharp increase in government spending and a reduction in the number of jobs. This is stated in the report of the Congressional Budget Office, reports correspondent ITAR-TASS Dmitry Zlodorev.
Last month B.H. Obama suggested that Congress raise the minimum wage from 7,25 dollars per hour to 10,10 dollars.
Experts of the Budget Department are confident that such an increase in the minimum wage can cost the treasury 16,5 billion dollars and lead to a reduction in 500 thousands of jobs by the end of 2016.
The ship ran aground. One of the two ships of the US Navy sent to the Black Sea during the Winter Games in Sochi, ran aground in the waters of the Turkish port, reports "Lenta.ru" with reference to France-Presse.
According to the agency interlocutors, the incident happened a few days ago in the port of Samsun in the north of Turkey, where the US Navy ship "Taylor" came in for refueling.
The U.S. Navy ship was able to independently get aground and reach the port. A preliminary inspection in the dock, as stated by representatives of the command of the American fleet, showed that at "Taylor" the blades of screws are damaged.
"Tape" recalls that "Taylor" along with the US Navy ship "Mount Whitney" entered the Black Sea February 5. It was reported that aboard the Taylor was about 200 Marines. Pentagon officials said American ships arrived to conduct training sessions.
This little naughty Mr. Obama. As transmits Voice of America News Service, Barack Obama expressed “deep disappointment” in connection with the planned introduction of Uganda’s law raising homosexuality to the rank of criminal offense.
In his statement, Obama indicated that the law against homosexuality would be “a step backwards and negatively affect” the obligations of this African country to protect human rights.
President Obama also noted that the United States declared Museveni that putting the law into effect "would complicate our valuable relations with Uganda."
According to Obama, he welcomes Ugandans and people around the world to support the "fundamental human dignity of all people."
Recently, we add, Mr. Obama has become something too much to speak on the same-sex topic.
For example, here's what the American president said on the eve of the Olympics: "If Russia does not have gays or lesbians among its athletes, it only makes her team weaker." It is known that after these words the journalists became interested: but not “that” Mr. Obama himself? AND It revealedthat several years ago, the future president often visited not only gay nightclubs, but even special saunas.
McFaul: Obama is like Putin. The presidents of the United States and Russia have many similarities. So says Michael McFaul, passes BaltInfo with reference to "RBC".
McFaul noted: “Both have an analytical mind. They both think a lot about their country, about their place in the world, and they are both straightforward. ”
The ambassador added that Obama does not like "empty talk, after which everyone is trying to understand what is behind them." “The President of the United States does not speak in the same way as President Putin. I think this is a very useful approach, even if there is disagreement, ”McFaul said.
Something, we will add from ourselves, presidents and differ. For example, Vladimir Vladimirovich, unlike Barak Hussein, does not sympathize with the "blue". The parliament is not hostile to Putin — as much as Congress is opposed to Obama. Putin has a rather high rating among the population of Russia, which cannot be said about Obama, who is considered to be almost the worst US president in all of American history. Finally, Putin is very lucky in foreign policy, which develops in favor of Russia as if on purpose: the rise in oil prices, the global crisis that hit the West, the whistleblower Snowden in Sheremetyevo, the desire of Washington to curtail “the game” in Syria or abandon the bombing of Iran. Even the fight for homosexual rights, led by Obama, left the head of the White House sideways. Putin, on the contrary, is now considered the defender of traditional family and social values throughout the world.
And thanks to Snowden, the United States is now compared to the totalitarian state from the novel by J. Orwell. The main movers of totalitarian ideas declared the Ministry of Homeland Security and the NSA. Russia, on the contrary, becomes a fighter for rights and freedoms. Russia represented by Putin, of course.
There is so much difference between the presidents that a logical question arises: where is the similarity? Question the color of the skin, mind you, we are not affected.
Well, five kopecks about the empty talk mentioned by McFaul. What, if not idle talk, are Obama's statements about American exclusivity? After all, this topic has caused widespread negative feedback throughout the world. Few, except for the Americans themselves, consider Americans exceptional. This was confirmed by the publication in the New York Times of a famous article, signed by V. Putin and received a lot of enthusiastic reviews, including Western readers.
To recap: President Obama is just a gift for Russia. For every American failure, the Russian president responds with new success. No wonder American conspiracy theorists have long called Barak Hussein a Kremlin agent recruited personally by Putin ...
Observed and commented on Oleg Chuvakin
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- especially for topwar.ru
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