Category: Europe

Some stirring remarks on British tea

Since 1638, tea has had a rich and varied history in Russia and the samovar has become a symbol of hospitality and comfort.

One of Russia’s most celebrated writers, Alexander Pushkin even highlights the role of tea in establishing romantic relations in his famous work Eugene Onegin:

Of single boredom, right away
They speak–but in a cunning way.
They call him to their samovar–
None but Dunya will pour the tea;
They whisper to her: “Dunya, see!”
And then produce her sweet guitar.
O Alas! She then begins to cheep:
“Come see me in my golden keep!”

A notable feature of Russia’s sophisticated tea culture is the elaborate brewing process of the country’s de facto national beverage.

Although the British often claim to be masters of the brew, four out of five British people don’t know how to make their tea correctly, according to a stirring new study.

Researchers at University College London (UCL) found Britons fail to brew their tea for anything like the required length of time, which they say is up to five minutes.

Professor of Materials and Society at University College London, Mark Miodownik, told the Telegraph: “What frustrates me is the British think they know about tea, but most people have no idea what they are doing.

“It’s obviously subjective but I feel people are missing out on a drink which could be so much more sophisticated because they don’t wait for the tea to brew long enough.”

“Tea is made of 30,000 different chemicals, it’s a very complex thing and those molecules take time to emerge and influence each other.”

“I think of all the people who grow and pick these plants in order for you to experience this wonderfully complex drink and at the last minute Brits throw that all away by brewing it badly.”

Miodownik also said if people want a milky drink they should opt for something other than tea.

The study suggested that the optimum temperature for drinking is around 65C.

Researchers also attempted to clear up a question which has trouble the British since the dawn of tea: whether to put the milk in first.

If using a mug, the milk should go in after pouring, researchers opined. To put it in beforehand would interfere with the brewing process.

In what will come as a great relief to middle class tea drinkers, it is apparently okay to put the milk in first if you are using a teapot.

The study’s conclusions are among the most controversial on the topic since radical author and journalist George Orwell suggested in his 1946 essay “A Nice Cup of Tea” that the drink should be supped without sugar.

Swiss diplomat dissects diverging US, EU interests

It is important to understand that US interests are fundamentally different from those of Europeans, Lena Lio, a former Swiss politician and diplomat, expert on Russian studies, told the newspaper 24 Heures.

The instability in Eastern Europe is beneficial for Washington, as the ongoing conflict in Ukraine will lead to a weak Europe, implying also that mostly white nations will suffer the consequences.

The weak Europe, in turn, cannot pose an economic threat or political competition to the United States. That is one reason why Washington passionately hates “nationalists”, the real backbone of the EU.

If Europe manages to solve its internal problems, it will be a dangerous challenger for the US hegemony, Lio said.

Unable to remain the top dog in international politics, the United States deliberately destabilizes its potential competitors by creating conflicts and fueling existing disputes.

The United States is losing its dominance in the international arena and that is why Washington deliberately tries to destabilize and crush any potential competition.

Most Americans now see Russia – ahead of North Korea, China and Iran – as the US’s public enemy number one and the greatest threat to the US due to a relentless demonization campaign. Americans regard Europeans as “appeasers”.

But the EU has no energy security in the Middle East and North Africa, and without their reliable partner Russia, will have no energy security at all.

The United States can thus no longer remain the only hegemon in the world, the position it has become so used to since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of Cold War.

Therefore, unable to stay on the top, the United States uses aggressive style of conducting politics by deliberately damaging relations between other countries, such as fueling disputes between China and Japan, destabilizing Eastern Europe by supporting the conflict in Ukraine, artificially driving down global oil prices and damaging the Russian economy by imposing economic sanctions, said the former Swiss diplomat.

NATO in Europe embodies the ultimate geopolitical existential paradox; an alliance that exists to manage the chaos it perpetuates.

Putin smiles at rumours of his ‘disappearance’

President Vladimir Putin commented on reports on the state of his health as various media had speculated during more than a week on the reasons why the Russian leader “had disappeared.”

“It’d be boring if there weren’t rumors,” Putin said.

Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev on Monday killed all rumors about the Russian president’s health, saying Putin’s not just on his feet, but also “hotrodding behind the wheel.”

“[Russian President] Vladimir Vladimirovich just drove me around the territory. That’s just so there’s no rumors,” Atambayev said during a meeting with Putin outside St. Petersburg.

The Kyrgyz president said rumors often spread about his own health, which he believes is unnecessary.

“But the president of Russia isn’t just walking, he’s hotrodding around, driving his guests around behind the wheel,” Atambayev said.

The British press reported earlier that “Putin is alive but neutralised as shadowy security chiefs stage a stealthy coup in Moscow”.

Source: Sputnik News

‘Israel should nuke Germany and Iran’

An Israeli newspaper, Israel National News, published an opinion piece on Tuesday in which it called for Israel to attack Germany and Iran with nuclear bombs. The article claims that only through the nuclear annihilation of Germany and Iran, with 20 or 30 nuclear bombs, can Israelis prevent destruction of the state.

„If Israel does not follow the way of the Torah, it will be almost completely destroyed by a severe punishment and only a few will survive“ writes Chen Ben-Eliyahu, the author of the piece, in Hebrew.

Israel must respond in kind in order to prevent this. “We must answer an existential threat with an existential threat”; he writes, “not with speeches to the US-Congress. We must make it clear to the Iranians that Israel will wipe out their nuclear program and Teheran and Isfahan as well.

“If an enemy sets out to destroy you, then you must destroy him first. Twenty or thirty nuclear bombs will get the job done”, he explains.

He reminds the Israelis of their near destruction at the hands of the Nazis and calls for revenge on Germany, although the German government is now, next to the US, Israel’s biggest supporter.

Ben-Eliyahu demands a turnaround of the „Final Solution“ and writes „twenty to thirty nuclear bombs on Berlin, Munich, Nuremberg, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Dresden, Dortmund and so on will ensure obliteration.” And in allusion to the “Thousand Year Reich” he continues, “afterwards the country will be quiet for a thousand years“.

The editors of the newspaper „Israel National News“ refused to react to queries about why this opinion had been published in the first place. For it is a racist’s expression of pure hate and it incites genocide.

His reasons are anyway based on the lie that Iran has a nuclear weapons program. Such a person should be accused, convicted and imprisoned for sedition and sanctioning nuclear war.

What Chen Ben-Eliyahu admits with his demand for an attack on Iran and Germany with „twenty or thirty nuclear bombs“ is that Israel possesses a nuclear arsenal, a fact which Israeli government has hitherto vehemently denied.

Translated from German

Source: Alles Schall und Rauch

Sweden offers to question Assange in London

Swedish prosecutors have asked for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s approval to question him in London where he is currently holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy, the prosecutors said on Friday.

The prosecutor is also asking to conduct a DNA test.

Assange has been stuck inside the South American country’s London embassy since June 2012 to avoid a British extradition to Sweden. Sweden wants to question him on allegations of sexual assault and rape, which he denies.

The Australian says he fears that if Britain extradited him to Sweden he would then be extradited to the United States where he could be tried for one of the largest information leaks in U.S. history.

Source: The Globe and Mail

EU reportedly moves to block Russia-Hungary nuclear deal

The European Union is opposing a multibillion deal under which Hungary is to buy nuclear fuel rods from Russia for its old Paks nuclear power plant. Some media claim the deal has been blocked, though Budapest denies the reports.

Russian nuclear engineers are to build two new reactors with combined capacity of 1,200 megawatts at Hungary’s only nuclear power plant, which currently has four reactors. The deal signed last year involves a €10-billion loan that Moscow offered to Budapest on condition that the money would pay for the equipment, RT reported.

The new reactors would have to be loaded with Russian-made fuel rods, which is a matter of safety for the new reactors. However EU’s nuclear fuel purchasing agency Euratom is opposing the exclusive deal. The Financial Times reported Thursday that the European Commission last week backed Euroatom’s decision to block the deal.

The blockage was not immediately confirmed by European or Russian officials. Hungarian government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs rejected the FT report and said Budapest would demand that the newspaper publish a retraction.

Hungary is among EU members opposing Brussels’ drive to break ties with Russia over the ongoing Ukrainian crisis. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is a vocal opponent of EU sanctions against Moscow, which have led to a trade war between Russia and Europe.

Orbán maintains his maverick position towards EU anti-Russian policies, which he views as harmful for Europe and imposed under pressure from Washington. Critics accuse him of authoritarian trends, with hawkish US Senator John McCain going as far as calling him a “neo-fascist dictator.”

Amid the criticism both at home and abroad, the PM’s Fidesz party won last year’s general election with a landslide victory, receiving almost 45 percent of votes.

However, Andras Giro-Szasz, Hungary’s state secretary responsible for government communications, has firmly denied the report of the EU veto or other prohibitive fines on its nuclear projects with Russia, in a statement to Hungarian state news agency MTI.

“It is not true that the EU has blocked the Paks II construction,” Giro-Szasz told the news agency AFP.

On Thursday, the Financial Times reported that EU has blocked the Hungary-Russia nuclear deal and its EU nuclear body, Euratom, has refused Hungary’s plans to import nuclear fuel from Russia.

Child-rape acquittal in Sweden causes social media frenzy

A Swedish girl who says she was raped by a 27-year-old man when she was just 13 has lost her appeal against his acquittal after a court ruled that the man could not have known she was under age because of her “well-developed” body.

News of the court judgments sent Sweden’s social media into a frenzy on Tuesday, with Swedish tabloid Aftonbladet’s version of the story the second most read news article in the country according to social news site socialanyheter.se.

The girl – who has not been named in the Swedish media – said she was raped while on the run from her foster home. She said she had travelled to Västerås, just outside Stockholm, but did not have any money, a mobile phone or a place to stay when she got talking to the older man at a playground near his home.

According to her police statements, he invited her in for a drink after explaining that she was hungry and thirsty and police secured evidence that the pair later had sex.

The man initially denied that the girl had been in his home but later admitted it after police found some of his sperm on her underwear.

Under Swedish law, having intercourse with someone under the age of 15 is classified as ‘child rape’, but both Västmanland District Court and Sweden’s Court of Appeal have now thrown out the girl’s case, because the legislation also states that a defendant must “know” or have “reasonable grounds to believe” that the child is under age.

After viewing video evidence including the girl’s interview with police, both courts decided that the 13-year-old’s body was so “well-developed” that the suspect could not have known that she was under the legal age for having sex in Sweden.

The girl’s lawyer Göran Landerdahl told the TT news agency that he planned to take the case to Sweden’s Supreme Court and hoped to set a precedent for future similar claims.

“Judges read newspapers too, so perhaps someone will realize that there are irregularities in this case,” he said.

Speaking to Sweden’s Aftonbladet newspaper, he added that anyone who had sex with someone who looked “borderline 15 years old” without checking their age, should be called to account.

However, legal expert Madeleine Leijonhufvud believes that the chances that the case will be accepted by the Supreme Court are slim.

“The Supreme Court has been very restrictive when it comes to applying legal sexual abuse clauses to cases involving young teenagers,” she told TT, adding that “less serious crime classifications” than “child rape” had often ended up being used in other similar cases.

Farms for sale in crisis-ridden Ukraine

Experts say the crisis in Ukraine is set to trigger the sale of state-owned farm land and small family plots to foreigners

Ukraine, known as Europe’s bread basket, has the eighth largest agricultural area in use globally and is the world’s third largest exporter of corn and sixth largest grain grower, potentially making it a prime target for foreign investment.

But the government has been wary of allowing foreign land sales, fearing rural unrest, and the value of its 32 million hectares (79 million acres) of farmland has been limited by its division into small plots with relatively low productivity.

However economic turmoil emanating from the conflict between pro-Russia rebels and government forces in the east has intensified the need for change, said Heinz Strubenhoff, agribusiness investment manager for the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation in Ukraine.

Opening the farm sector, a key driver of the economy, to outside investors has long been backed by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF), and Strubenhoff believes changes will now happen sooner rather than later.

“It’s time to think about privatization. They need to prepare everything to allow for farm land sales (to foreign and domestic investors) in three to four years,” Strubenhoff told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Currently, farm land cannot be bought or sold in Ukraine, but companies can sign onto long-term leases with small holders.

President Petro Poroshenko, elected last May after protests ousted previous Russian-backed leader Viktor Yanukovich, had considered lifting restrictions on land sales during “long discussions” with World Bank officials, Strubenhoff said.

But Kiev backed off the move as it feared a backlash from rural communities, he said.

Ukraine’s Ministry of Agriculture was unable to immediately respond to requests for comment.

Agriculture Minister Oleksiy Pavlenko told local media last month that he believes Ukraine can produce 100 million tonnes of grain annually by 2020, up from 62 million tonnes in 2014.

To nearly double production, the country aims to attract $25 billion in outside investment for agriculture, Pavlenko said.

But enticing new capital in the midst of the conflict that has displaced nearly a million people won’t be easy.

Jean-Jacques Hervé, counselor to the board for agriculture at France’s Credit Agricole Bank in Ukraine, said local people don’t have enough money to buy the land.

“Speculators with access to foreign currency would be the biggest winners (if the land market was opened),” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Selling land to foreign investors could cause problems and the government should instead help get finance to farmers, search for new export markets and simplify the procedures for land leases, he said.

Frédéric Mousseau, policy director of the Oakland Institute, an NGO critical of privatization, said pushing Ukraine to open its land market would end up giving domestic and foreign oligarchs more control over the country’s agriculture potential.

“About 20 percent of the country’s most fertile lands are already controlled by large agribusiness firms (through long-term leases),” Mousseau told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

“The (proposed) reforms would just intensify this concentration.”

But despite concerns from some quarters, U.N. officials are backing the World Bank’s view on sales.

“In the long term, Ukraine should aim to open its land market to allow optimum resource allocation,” Dmitry Prikhodko, an economist with the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

With foreign currency reserves low, Kiev needs the World Bank’s money – up to $2 billion this year with another $8 billion from the IMF – which potentially gives officials like Strubenhoff greater policy leverage.

“There is a big chance in the crisis for the Ukrainian government,” Strubenhoff said.

Source: Reuters

Snowden wants asylum in Switzerland

US National Security Agency (NSA) leaker Edward Snowden, who has been living in Russia since mid-2013, on Friday made a public appeal for asylum in Switzerland, where he said he once worked under diplomatic cover for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

“I would love to return to Switzerland, some of my favourite memories are from Geneva. It’s a wonderful place,” he told a Moscow-Geneva videoconference. “I do think Switzerland would be a sort of great political option because it has a history of neutrality.”

US prosecutors accuse Snowden of leaking information on US National Security Agency (NSA) secret surveillance programs to mainstream media.

In 2013, he was granted a temporary asylum in Russia after spending more than a month in the transit zone of Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport.

In August 2014, as the asylum expired, Snowden received a three-year residency permit.

Former pilots speak out on latest MH17 claims

As the investigation into the MH17 tragedy continues in eastern Ukraine, the SU-25’s chief designer has told German media that the fighter jet could not possibly have taken down the passenger plane. RT spoke to former pilots about the jet’s capabilities.

Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, crashed down over rebel-held eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014. Everyone on board – 283 passengers and 15 crew members – perished in the tragedy.

A report on the official investigation published in September 2014 said the crash was a result of structural damage caused by a large number of high-energy objects that struck the Boeing from the outside. However, it did not conclude what the objects were, where they came from, or who was responsible.

Kiev and some Western states have placed blame on eastern Ukraine militias and Russia. The Russian Defense Ministry shared radar data pointing to other possibilities in July – including an attack by a Ukrainian Sukhoi-25 fighter jet, which was said to have been tracking the passenger plane.

While an official international investigation into the crash has been dragging on for nine months, the debate into the cause of the tragedy has been once again reignited by recent comments from the chief designer of the SU-25.

Kiev-born Soviet and Russian aircraft designer Vladimir Babak said on Monday that the SU-25 jet – which was spotted tracking the MH17 Boeing at the moment it crashed down – did not have the capability to shoot down a passenger plane. He said the fighter jet could have successfully attacked the Boeing at an altitude of 3,000-4,000 meters, but not at the plane’s altitude of 10,500 meters. He added that air-to-air missiles would have only damaged the Boeing – not completely destroyed it while still in the air.

“I believe all allegations that a SU-25 could be involved into this tragedy are a cover-up attempt,” Babak said in an interview to German channels NDR and WDR. “I cannot explain it otherwise. We cannot understand how an SU-25 could take down the Boeing.”

‘SU-25 capable of high altitude flights, can carry powerful missiles’
However, several former top officials and SU-25 pilots disagree with Babak.

Based on the analysis of the plane debris and the nature of the damage, there is a high probability the plane was stuck by an air-to-air missile and an aircraft gun, Lieutenant General Aleksandr Maslov, former deputy chief of the Russian Air Defense and Land Forces, told RT.

“The published photos [from the MH17 crash site] enable to assume that the Boeing was downed by a military jet. Besides that, the existing damage indicates that the airplane was shot with air-to-air missiles together with an aircraft gun with a 30mm caliber,” Maslov said.

Claims that the passenger plane was downed by a surface-to-air Buk missile “cannot be supported,” as the nature of the damage from the missiles is different, he added.

Commenting on the jet’s ability to maneuver at higher altitudes, the former commander of an aviation division, Major General Sergey Borysyuk, noted that the jet would have had the capability to “maneuver comfortably,” even at such a high altitude.

“I personally flew, and not once, at an altitude of 12,000 meters…,” he said. “My colleagues have risen to an altitude of 14,000 meters. The altitude of 10,500 was officially authorized during operations in Afghanistan. Therefore the plane, even at an altitude of 12,000 meters, has the capability to maneuver comfortably, its aerodynamic characteristics enable it to do so.”

Borysyuk explained that the R-60 missiles on the SU-25 have an infrared homing and a rod warhead. Citing the nature of the plane’s debris and the “precisely sliced fuselage,” he said that R-60 missiles were possibly used.

“The firing range of the missile is 7.5km. And in those conditions, the probability of hitting the target increases,” he added.

The former chief commander of Russia’s Air Force, Vladimir Mikhailov, also said he flew the SU-25, reaching an altitude of 12,000 meters and even 14,000 meters. He also stated that the plane “comfortably maneuvers” at such heights.

“If the plane was downed by Buk [missile defense system], it would have almost immediately fallen to pieces in the air and we could not have witnessed such large debris on the ground,” he said.

Along with Russia’s Ministry of Defense, he also questioned why the MH17 flight stayed within the flying corridor until it reached Donetsk, but then deviated from the route to the north.

In July 2014, Russia’s Ministry of Defense presented military monitoring data which showed Kiev military jets tracking MH17 shortly before the crash and posed a set of questions to Ukraine over the circumstances of the tragedy, which have still not been answered.

‘You can’t fire Buk missile in broad daylight with no witnesses’
Speculation about the combat capabilities of the SU-25 jet stem from the Russian definition of the aircraft’s service ceiling – which is not the same as its absolute ceiling, as defined by the US military, Veterans Today senior editor Gordon Duff told RT.

“The claimed service ceiling is based on the oxygen supply in the aircraft. Now, there is a claim that this plane [SU-25] will only work to 22,000 feet. At the end of World War II, a German ME-262 would fly at 40,000 feet, a P-51 Mustang propeller plane flew at 44,000 feet. The SU-25 was developed as an analogue of the A-10 Thunderbolt, an American attack plane. The planes have almost identical performance, except that the SU-25 is faster and more powerful. The A-10 Thunderbolt has a service ceiling of 45,000 feet. The US estimates the absolute ceiling, which is a different term,” Duff explained.

The known estimate for the absolute ceiling of the SU-25 is 52,000 feet (15.8km), he added.

Moreover, Duff said one cannot be entirely sure the detected fighter jet was an SU-25 at all, as modern radar spoofing counter-measures – such as those designed by BAE Systems and employed by NATO – are able to mask any other aircraft, be it an SU-27 or F-15, as another plane.

Duff said he also discussed the possibility of the MH17 flight having been shot by a ground-to-air missile with experts from the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration), the FBI, the Air Line Pilots Association, as well as air traffic and air operational officers – and they all agreed that no proof of anti-aircraft missile use has been provided to the public.

It is highly unlikely that the launch of such a missile would have gone unnoticed in the area, Duff stressed, adding that the trail left by the rocket in the air would have been witnessed and filmed by “thousands.”

“One of the things we settled on early on is that in the middle of the day, if this were a Buk missile, the contrail would have been seen for 50 miles [80km]. The contrail itself would have been photographed by thousands of people; it would have been on Instagram, on Twitter, it would have been all over YouTube – and no one saw it. You can’t fire a missile on a flat area in the middle of the day leaving a smoke trail into the air and having everyone not see it,” Duff said.

“There is no reliable information supporting that it was a Buk missile fired by anyone,” he added.

Sweden ends defence contract with Saudi Arabia

Sweden said on Tuesday it will cancel a defense agreement with Saudi Arabia worth billions of crowns to its industry after criticism of Riyadh’s human rights record sparked a diplomatic row.

Sweden’s Social Democrat-led government, which came to power in October last year, has focused its foreign policy on human rights. But its more vocal stance has put it at odds with industry — Sweden is the world’s 12th biggest arms exporter — and the coalition government itself has been divided on whether to renew the Saudi Arabia deal.

“The decision on the Saudi agreement had been made some time ago,” the newspaper Dagens Nyheter quoted Prime Minister Stefan Lofven as saying in the Ukrainian capital Kiev. “What has happened in recent days hasn’t been decisive.”

On Monday, Saudi Arabia blocked Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom from giving a speech to the League of Arab States in Cairo. A spokesman for Wallstrom said the decision stemmed from Sweden’s criticism of Saudi Arabia’s human rights record.

The Arab League later agreed a resolution denouncing remarks by Wallstrom to the Swedish parliament, the Saudi Press Agency reported.

The canceled agreement, which includes military systems, training and transfers of technology, netted 4.8 billion crowns ($561 million) in 2011-2014.

Swedish industry leaders have lobbied hard for an extension, arguing Sweden’s reputation as a trade partner was on the line.

Cancellation could affect not only defense firms but companies outside the military sector, 31 business leaders said in an open letter published on Friday in the newspaper Dagens Nyheter. They included fashion retailer H&M’s main owner, Stefan Persson, and Investor Chairman Jacob Wallenberg.

Ulf Bjereld, a professor of political science at Gothenburg University, said the cancellation of the deal could lead to Sweden being isolated in world politics.

Source: yahoonews

Britain warns it will expose Putin’s financial secrets

Britain may broadcast the financial secrets of Russia’s ruling elite as part of the information war against the Putin regime, the Foreign Secretary has indicated.

Philip Hammond said he was interested by the idea of publicising the wealth of the Russian president’s inner circle in order to embarrass them in front of their people, as part of the response to the ongoing incursion into eastern Ukraine.

The Foreign Secretary warned that Putin is rapidly modernising his armed forces, and warned Russia’s bid to destabilise eastern Europe poses “the greatest single threat” to British national security.

Mr Hammond said that Britain must now “accept” that efforts to offer Russia its “rightful place” in the post-Cold War order had been “rebuffed”.

It marks a change in tone from the British government: David Cameron has repeated said that the door is open to Russia to normalise relations.

He warned that Russia’s rapid rearmament is a “significant cause for concern,” and confirmed that British intelligence agencies are now recruiting Russian speakers.

The wealth of Putin’s court is opaque, but undoubtedly runs into tens of billions of dollars held in offshore accounts and property in London and New York.

Official statements of Putin’s wealth – a £96,000 a year salary, a flat and three cars – are frequently met with derision.

Asked if there was a case for the “interesting” financial arrangements of members of Putin’s inner circle to be published by the British government, Mr Hammond replied: “There might be.”

“When we talk about having further steps that we can take, increasing the pressure on Russia, one the headings that we regularly review is strategic communication.

“It is an interesting thought and I will make sure the Strat Comms people are thinking precisely about that.”

Mr Cameron has suggested the BBC budget should be increased to help its Russian and Ukrainian language services counter Russian television propaganda.

Source: The Telegraph

Nemtsov’s role in plundering Russia

Murdered opposition figure Boris Nemtsov apparently liked to accuse Putin of things he himself was busy with.

“Russia is rapidly becoming a colony of China. Russia is losing sovereignty. This is the main point of modern foreign policy of the Kremlin” Nemtsov ranted about Putin’s stance towards China.

He had clearly forgotten that back in 1997 as Deputy Prime Minister he personally initiated a peculiar diplomacy towards Beijing, arriving a day ahead of President Yeltsin to finalize the hushed agreement on the gas pipeline from the Kovyktinskij gas field in Irkutsk and from Western Siberia to China.

His signature is actually on the agreement between the governments of Russia and China for the transportation of crude oil from Eastern Siberia to China. Nemtsov even participated in the negotiations on the demarcation of the Russian-Chinese border, which ended with the signing of a disadvantageous treaty for Russia.

After Nemtsov’s direct meddling, many Russians, to their astonishment, ended up on Chinese territory.

And what about the agreement with Japan “about some cooperation in the field of harvesting live marine resources”?

Business publications briefly reported that the Japanese were allowed by Nemtsov to fish in Russian waters without having to worry about strict Russian legislation. After only seven years the damage to Russia was then estimated at $10 billion.

The Deputy Prime Minister also aided the Chechen terrorists. He personally signed an agreement on the transit of oil through Chechnya, through which the militants received about $10 million in excess fees for oil transit from the federal budget.

This instrument of financial support for terrorism from the state worked swimmingly before Putin put an abrupt end to it. The Antlanticist press predictably only howled about human rights violations in Chechnya and remained mum on state sponsored terror.

In one interview Nemtsov admitted that he had agreed to become first Deputy Prime Minister under pressure from Boris Berezovsky’s allies. Nemtsov later denied this, but the jury from the High Court of England came to a different conclusion.

Boris and Boris admittedly had quarreled about a stake in Svyazinvest. Berezovsky wanted to buy it, but Nemtsov sold it to Soros!

In 1998 Nemtsov founded “The National Fund for Regional Policy” for the transfer of money from offshore companies, including TNK and YUKOS of the criminal Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Part of the funds went to Nemtsov.

The loss to the state was estimated at 370 billion rubles. But everything remained on the fringes of the law, since after October 1993, the laws were written by scoundrels for scoundrels, and approved by the cohort of senators whom Nemtsov had joined in December of the same year.

His election to the Council of Federation [Russian Senate] was financed by a businessman with a criminal background, Andrey Klimentyev.

Translated from Russian

US carrier easily ‘sunk’ by old French nuclear sub

A major vulnerability that allowed French submarine to “sink” aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt and most of its escort during drills was apparently revealed by the French Navy and Defense Ministry in blogposts that were quickly wiped out, RT reported.

Both the French Defense Ministry and the Navy released and then quickly deleted a news post entitled “Le SNA Saphir en entraînement avec l’US Navy au large de la Floride” (“The SNA Sapphire in training with the US Navy off the coast of Florida”) that praised the 34-year-old French nuclear submarine’s success in “sinking” the American aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt along with the best part of its escort.

The news, before it was deleted was spotted by several outlets, including The Aviationist blog, which disclosed the information which the French authorities initially shared.

The aim of the military games off the coast of Florida which began in mid-February were meant to test the newly upgraded carrier, which had undergone a four year, $2.6 billion overhaul, ahead of the Strike Group’s deployment. The drills involved practicing scenarios of hostile ship boarding, submarine attacks, and enemy ships battles.

During the first phase of the 10 days naval exercises, the French Saphir sub was part of the so-called friendly force to support anti-submarine warfare.

However, in the second phase of the games, the Saphir turned foe and was integrated with the imaginary enemy forces. Its mission became to locate Theodore Roosevelt and to prepare an attack on the strike group by guiding the ships.

During that last stage of the drills, the French sub snuck up undetected on US Carrier Strike Group 12 by penetrating a US defensive screen.

“The Saphir has quietly slipped into the heart of the screen formed by the American frigates protecting the aircraft carrier, while avoiding detection against-pervasive air assets ,” the original release read as quoted by French Challenges blog. “On the morning of the last day, the order of fire was finally given, allowing the Saphir to fictitiously sink Theodore Roosevelt and most of its escort.”

No other details are available about the outcome of the exercise. The strike group will be deployed later this year to provide an overseas forward presence and maintain US maritime security abroad.