Wall Street Journal |
Russia-Ukraine Crisis Prompts Meeting With Putin at G-20 Summit
Wall Street Journal MOSCOW—The leaders of Russia, Germany and France agreed to meet on the sidelines of the G-20 meeting of major world economies in China next month to address the crisis in Ukraine, the Kremlin said Tuesday. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, ... Russia, Germany, France Raise Alarm Over Fighting in UkraineABC News Trump Is Already Helping Putin Consolidate Control of UkrainePolitico NATO standing up to Putin - Alliance prepared for aggression from 'unpredictableRussia'Express.co.uk Washington Post -Daily Signal -Deutsche Welle all 192 news articles » |
Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean (D.) told MSNBC on Tuesday that nothing scandalous has been found in Hillary Clinton’s emails and it is unlikely anything will be found in the newly-uncovered 15,000 documents that will be released later this year.
The FBI discovered a set of 15,000 emails during the course of their investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server. Clinton claimed she turned over all of her work-related emails from her tenure as secretary of state, but the FBI uncovered thousands more. The State Department will release the emails by the end of this year.
Hall pointed out that no one has seen the emails uncovered by the FBI, including Dean.
Dean interrupted Hall to say, “We have seen 30,000 emails so far and not one damn thing has been found in any of them.”
Hall then asked Dean not to swear on her show. Dean laughed and said he was “only using what [Sen.] Bernie Sanders said,” referring to his famous line from the first Democratic primary debate.
“No one can say with certainty what’s in those emails, is my point. Do you agree with that?” Hall Said, referencing the nearly 15,000 emails recently discovered by the FBI.
“We have seen nothing in 30,000 of them. I doubt we’re going to see anything of substance in the next 14,000. This is all the Republicans have,” Dean said.
The email scandal has followed Clinton’s presidential campaign since the issue surfaced last year. The emails revealed Clinton sent and received classified information from her personal email server. Clinton’s emails have also raised questions about her aides giving Clinton Foundation donorsaccess to the State Department.
The post Dean: Not One Damn Thing Has Been Found in Clinton’s Emails appeared first onWashington Free Beacon.
On August 27, Moldova marks 25 years of independence. On that date in 1991, the tiny country broke away from the collapsing Soviet Union. A generation after the fall of the U.S.S.R., how well has Moldova fared? RFE/RL's Moldovan Service sat down with the Luchianov family to discuss how their lives have changed over the last quarter century. (RFE/RL's Moldovan Service's. Correspondent: Vasile Botnaru. Camera: Alexei Golubev, Jaroslav Ptacnik. Producers: Alexandru Popescu, Jean Garner, Stuart Greer. Graphics: Petr Tetal)
Terror attacks, worker strikes and floods have caused a dramatic dip in Paris tourism, which has cost the French capital nearly $850 million in lost revenue, officials said.
A million fewer visitors came to the city between January and June this year, compared with the same timeframe in 2015, the BBC reports. The hit is so bad that the head of the Paris region’s tourist board wants to create a rescue plan.
“It’s time to realize that the tourism sector is going through an industrial disaster,” Frederic Valletoux said in a statement to the BBC. “This is no longer the time for communication campaigns but to set up a relief plan.”
A series of coordinated ISIS attacks left 130 people dead in Paris last November. The shaken country had barely recovered after the terror attack at the Charlie Hebdo offices in Paris killed 11 people in Jan. 2015
More recently, a driver plowed a truck into crowds of people celebrating Bastille Day on the French Riviera city of Nice in July, killing at least 84.
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Wikileaks has been criticised for not doing enough to screen sensitive information found in documents released via the site.
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An American was killed and another wounded on Tuesday as their patrol encountered an improvised explosive device during a routine patrol.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President François Hollande will discuss growing tensions between the countries with the Russian president, the Kremlin said Tuesday.
Iraqi forces surround oil refinery south of Mosulby Qassim Abdul-Zahra | AP
Iraqi forces say they have surrounded an oil refinery after launching a push to retake the Islamic State-held town of Qayara, south of Mosul.
The gunmaker Kalashnikov has opened a store in Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport, selling souvenirs that include plastic model guns and “I love AK” T-shirts.
By the end of 2016, 200 civilian goods, including weapon prototypes, glasses and headphones designed for target shooting, caps, sweatshirts, pens, bags and other souvenirs bearing the Kalashnikov symbols will be available to buy.
“‘Kalashnikov’ is one of the most popular brands that springs to mind when people all around the world come to think about Russia,” said Kalashnikov’s Marketing Director Vladimir Dmitriev in a statement on the website. “That is why we are happy to give everyone who comes to visit Russia an opportunity to take home a souvenir with a Kalashnikov logo.”
“We hope that people would highly evaluate our initiative and buy our company souvenirs as a memory of their trip,” he added.
An airport official told Reuters that the model guns—automatic pistols and rifles—would “very clearly be imitations and pose no security problems.”
Kalashnikov’s AK-47 assault rifle has armed Russian forces for 70 years and has been the preferred weapon of insurgents across continents. It was introduced in 1948, armed the whole of the Soviet Union and eastern Europe in communist times and served largely pro-Soviet rebel forces across Africa and Asia, Reuters reports.
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ABC News |
The email hits keep coming for Clinton
Politico With help from Ashley Gold. CLINTON'S BAD DAY ON EMAIL FRONT — Hillary Clinton's week got off to a rough start on Monday with the release of a trove of State Department emails and a development in a court case that makes it likely questions about her ... State Department ordered to review 15000 new Clinton documents in email caseCNN Judge Orders Immediate Review of 14900 Hillary Clinton EmailsWall Street Journal House panel ramps up pressure on FBI over Clinton emailsThe Hill Fortune-NBCNews.com-TIME-Huffington Post all 236 news articles » |
WASHINGTON(Reuters) - Shi’ite militias in Iraq detained, tortured and abused far more Sunni civilians during the American-backed capture of the town of Falluja in June than U.S. officials have publicly acknowledged, Reuters has found.
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LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - U.N. refugee officials bracing for an exodus of hundreds of thousands of people from the Iraqi city of Mosul said on Tuesday they were struggling to find land for camps to house them.
Hillary Clinton’s 15,000 New Emails to Get Timetable for Release by By MARK LANDLER and STEVEN LEE MYERS
A federal judge on Monday ordered the State Department to set a timetable to release new emails uncovered during an inquiry into her private server.
Center for Research on Globalization |
Is this the best the CIA has to offer?
Huffington Post If Mike Morell is the best the CIA has to offer, the agency should be replaced with a subscription to The New York Times at a savings of approximately $15 billion annually. Deputy to Jeane Kirkpatrick, United States Ambassador to the United Nations ... “Kill the Russians…”: A Lawless Plan to Target Syria's AlliesCenter for Research on Globalization all 3 news articles » |
FORT BRAGG, N.C. (AP) - The Latest on pretrial hearings in the case of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl (all times local):
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11:30 a.m.
Prosecutors say defense attorneys for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl have invented a legal issue by arguing the case was tainted by comments from U.S. Sen. John ...
In 2017 there will be only one insurer selling health care plans in the Obamacare exchanges in one-third of the country, according to an analysis from Avalere experts.
Avalere, a health care consulting firm, compared the health insurance carriers that offered Obamacare coverage in 2016 to the carriers who have announced their intention to exit the exchanges in 2017, such as Aetna, Humana, UnitedHealthcare, and some co-ops.
The experts projected that 36 percent of exchange market rating regions in the United States in 2017 will have just one health insurance carrier, and 55 percent of regions will have two or fewer carriers. This is a significant increase from 2016, when only 4 percent of regions had one or fewer health insurance carriers and 33 percent of regions had two or fewer insurers.
Seven states—Alaska, Alabama, Kansas, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Wyoming—will have only one health insurance carrier per rating region in 2017.
Experts at Avalere said there may be some sub-regional counties where no plans are offered in 2017. No insurer plans to sell coverage in Pinal Country, Arizona next year, according to a reportfrom the Hill.
“Depending on where consumers live, their choice of insurance plans may decrease for 2017,” said Elizabeth Carpenter, senior vice president at Avalere. “Some exchange enrollees may need to choose another insurance plan in order to maintain coverage.”
Large health insurers have announced they are exiting the marketplaces because of unsustainable financial losses.
“Lower-than-expected enrollment, a high cost population, and troubled risk mitigation programs have led to decreased plan participation for 2017,” said Dan Mendelson, president of Avalere. “Congress and the Administration can choose to stabilize these markets and re-establish competition—but only through a consensus process that brings in a broader swatch of the uninsured.”
A spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Human Services said consumers will have many choices when open enrollment begins.
“This report is premature and incomplete,” said Marjorie Connolly, the department’s press secretary. “A number of steps remain before the full picture of Marketplace competition and prices are known.”
“We remain confident that the majority of Marketplace consumers will have multiple choices and will be able to select a plan for less than $75 per month when Open Enrollment begins November 1st,” she said.
The post One-Third of U.S. Will Have Only One Insurer Offering Obamacare Plans in 2017 appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.
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Комсомольская правда |
Горбачев ответил на заявления о «гордости» Украины за развал СССР
РБК Бывший президент СССР Михаил Горбачев назвал «чушью» слова первого главы Украины Леонида Кравчука о том, что именно Украина «развалила СССР». Об этом Горбачев рассказал в интервью информационного агентства НСН. «Главная ответственность за развал (СССР лежит. Дипломат отказал Кравчуку в праве гордиться развалом СССРLenta.ru Горбачев съязвил о возрасте Кравчука в ответ на слова о развале СССР РИА Новости Горбачёв объяснил «возрастными изменениями» слова Кравчука о развале СССРНТВ.ru Комсомольская правда-Вести.Ru-Утро.Ru -Федеральное агентство новостей No.1 Все похожие статьи: 224 » |
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УНИАН |
В ЕС официально не говорят о конкретных сроках введения безвизового режима с Украиной - посол
УНИАН Представитель Украины при Европейском Союзе Николай Точицкий заявляет, что должностные лица европейских институтов официально не говорят о конкретных сроках введения безвизового режима с Украиной. Политика. 13:55, 23 августа 2016. ПРОЧЕСТЬ ПОЗЖЕ. REUTERS. Представитель Украины в ЕС отрицает безвиз с январяСЕГОДНЯ Безвизовый режим между Украиной и ЕС в этом году не заработает - СМИРИА Новости Украина О безвизе с 1 января от дипломатов Евросоюза я не слышал - посолЛІГА.net РБК Украина -GORDONUA.COM -Диалог.UA - Всегда два мнения -Новое Время Все похожие статьи: 64 » |
РБК |
Глазьев и Затулин ответили на публикацию прослушки их разговоров о Крыме
РБК Советник президента России Сергей Глазьев и директор Института стран СНГ Константин Затулин прокомментировали обнародованную в понедельник прослушку их переговоров о Крыме и Новороссии. По словам обоих, это «бред» и «подтасовка». Советник президента России ... Глазьев и Затулин отреагировали на прослушку СБУ о разделе УкраиныМосковский комсомолец Участник прослушки советника Путина признал факт опубликованных Киевом разговоровSlon.ru - Редакция деловых новостей Константин Затулин: сообщения Генпрокуратуры Украины - компиляция и подтасовкаПравда.Ру BFM.ru -Snob.ru -Корреспондент.net -Полит.ру Все похожие статьи: 119 » |
РБК |
Путин договорился о встрече с Меркель и Олландом на саммите в Китае
РБК Путин, Меркель и Олланд договорились встретиться на полях саммита G20 в Китае. В начале августа провести там новую встречу «нормандской четверки» предложила Украина, но позже Путин назвал ее бессмысленной после инцидента с диверсантами в Крыму. Президент России ... Путин привлек внимание западных партнеров к провокациям в КрымуВести.Ru Путин, Меркель и Олланд обсудят проблематику Украины "на полях" G20 в КитаеТАСС Олланд выразил надежду на возобновление дискуссий в "нормандском формате"РИА Новости Взгляд -Интерфакс -Комсомольская правда -Газета.Ru Все похожие статьи: 164 » |
Newsweek |
Putin's Impeachment Is Endgame for Russia's Parnas Party
Newsweek Russian opposition party Parnas will ask for President Vladimir Putin's impeachment if they are elected to parliament next month, one of the party's candidates said in a televised debate. Parnas, the party formerly led by slain opposition activist ... and more » |
Moscow Deliberately Undercounting Ethnic Ukrainians in Russia, Kyiv Official Says by paul goble (noreply@blogger.com)
Paul Goble
Staunton, August 23 – Russian officials from Vladimir Putin on down have routinely complained that the Ukrainian authorities discriminate against ethnic Russians in Ukraine while insisting that the two nations are in fact one nation, positions that have attracted widespread international attention and all too often been taken at face value.
Now a Ukrainian official has pointed out something that few Russians and even fewer people in the West recognize: there are millions more ethnic Ukrainians in the Russian Federation than Moscow acknowledges, reflecting both assimilation (as is the case with Russians in Ukraine) and a longstanding policy of undercounting Ukrainians in Russia.
Beginning at the end of tsarist times, millions of Ukrainians moved into what were considered traditionally Russian areas forming what their residents called “wedges.” The largest and most famous of these was “the green wedge” in the Russian Far East where ethnic Ukrainians in many areas outnumbered ethnic Russians.
In Soviet times, many of these people changed their identity to Russian both because the regime did not support Ukrainian language schooling and other institutions and because of the greater prestige being an ethnic Russian had at that time and thus the greater life chances people who identified as such gained.
Moreover, Soviet census takers and other statisticians accelerated this process by classifying as Russians people who identified as Ukrainians but spoke Russian; and Soviet regulations which typically did not allow people to change their nationality unless they were products of ethnically mixed marriages made an exception in the case of some Ukrainians.
Under these regulations, ethnic Ukrainians who rose to a certain rank in the military, the security services or the CPSU were able or required to re-classify themselves as ethnic Russians, San arrangement that helps to explain why so many Soviet generals and party leaders with Ukrainian names and Ukrainian roots were nonetheless listed as Russians.
Speaking at the Sixth World Forum of Ukrainians on Saturday, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Vyacheslav Kirilenko raised this issue. He said there are some 10 million ethnic Ukrainians in the Russian Federation but Moscow acknowledges only two million (kmu.gov.ua/control/uk/publish/article?art_id=249251646&cat_id=244276429).
The Ukrainian official said that this was the result of Russian state policy which is now “persecuting” ethnic Ukrainians “more than ever before.” In fact, Russian officials admit that there are about five million ethnic Ukrainians in Russia, just under two permanent residents or citizens and three million more who are working there on more temporary arrangements.
But the question of the fate of ethnic Ukrainians in Russia is important because it is so seldom raised. For background on this community and Moscow’s policies toward it, seewindowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2014/06/window-on-eurasia-zelenyi-klin-isnt.html,windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2016/06/a-real-wedge-issue-ukrainian-regions-in.htmlandwindowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2015/03/russians-repress-ukrainians-in-far-east.html.
And just how sensitive this issue is in Russia is suggested by a Svobodnaya pressa commentary Andrey Ivanov offers in which he simultaneously claims that Kirilenko’s words work against him and acknowledges that there are far more people in Russia with Ukrainian roots than even the Kyiv official said (svpressa.ru/society/article/154920/).
Ivanov notes that “in Russia now nationality is not indicated in any documents and during the census, it is ascribed exclusively according to the words of the respondent and then anonymously.” (For recent evidence that this is not in fact the case, seewindowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2016/08/ethnology-institute-allows-russian.html).
But despite that, the Svobodnaya pressa commentator says, there are data about the number of Ukrainians in Russia; and those data “can work against” Kirilenko’s argument because they show that what is going on is assimilation, the result, Ivanov says, of the attractiveness of Russian identity in Russia today.
“Living in Russia,” he continues, “many Ukrainians have begun to consider themselves ethnic Russians, to a large degree because they do not see a particular difference between the two Slavic peoples.” The same thing, Ivanov adds, is happening with ethnic Russians in Ukraine: Not seeing a distinction, they are adapting to the new reality and call themselves Ukrainians.
Ivanov acknowledges that Kirilenko’s suggestion there are ten million Ukrainians in Russia is “partially correct.” There are few in Russia who do not have distant relatives in Ukraine,” just as “in Ukraine it is hard to meet someone who does not have relatives in Russia.” But in Russia, he argues, “people don’t give particular significance to nationality” while in Ukraine, they do.
In support of his own argument, Ivanov cites the words of Bogdan Bezpalko, the deputy head of the Moscow Center for Ukrainian and Belarusian Studies, and Aleksey Martynov, the head of the Moscow Institute for the New States.
Bezpalko says that the decline in the number of ethnic Ukrainians in Russia is because “people ever more often associate themselves with Russia and identify as ethnic Russians.” That process has been assisted, he suggests, because the Ukrainian government “for the last 25 years” has discredited itself and Ukrainian identity.
The Moscow researcher says that this process of identity change is much more democratic in Russia than it is in Ukraine. In Russia, people have free choice; but in Ukraine, “the government had set as its political goal a reduction in the number of people who consider themselves ethnic Russians to demonstrate the success and attractiveness of the Ukrainian national project.”
Martynov adds that in fact the number of ethnic Ukrainians in the Russian Federation has been going up not only because of the military conflict in the Donbass but also because there is no work. According to him, at the present time, as a result, “half of all the taxi drivers in Moscow are from Ukraine.”
He says that there is no discrimination against Ukrainians in Russia, although he acknowledges that it is “another matter” as far as their “legalization” within the country is concerned. But no one is persecuting them or keeping them out, although perhaps Russians should think about that given the Ukrainian contribution to the Russian criminal world.
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Russia and Ukraine will Never Have Normal State-to-State Relations, Berezovets Says by paul goble (noreply@blogger.com)
Paul Goble
Staunton, August 23 – The last 25 years show that Russia and Ukraine will never have normal state-to-state relations because neither the Russian government nor the Russian people can accept Ukraine as an independent country with a different past, present and future than their own, according to Taras Berezovets.
“A quarter of a century,” the head of Kyiv’s National Strategies Foundation says, “is a sufficient period of time to draw conclusions” not only about the lives of individuals but also about relations between countries like Ukraine and the Russian Federation (nv.ua/opinion/berezovets/25-let-ukrainy-so-strannym-rossijskim-bratom-202230.html).
Russia’s relations with its neighbors over the last 25 years are “extremely instructive,” Berezovets says, suggesting that he would describe them in the following way: “the parents divorced long ago, but the children from the marriage … feel themselves and their responsibilities each in their own ways.”
Russia, which always felt itself to be “the older child” remains accustomed to “feeling a certain special status.”If all the others have gone their own way, the Ukrainian analyst says, “the odd older brother (in this case Rsusia- continues to live with its parents, feels itself their successor, and believes that it can live on the money its ancestors earned and put by.”
The others refuse to accept either Russia’s claimed status or its approach. And that raises the question: “Will Russia be able to cure itself from this complex and cease to feel itself to have a special status after five or 25 years?”Unfortunately, Berezovets says, the answer is “no” because it will continue to view itself as special and insist on dominating Ukraine and the others.
No one should think that Russia is not and will not remain prepared to “pay an enormous price” including in terms of human lives in order to get Ukraine back. Russia, Berezovets continues, “has always been prepared to pay the highest price for the chance to dominate its neighbors.”
“If we look at Russian history, then we note that the periods of peace are connected exclusively with those where Russia is weak.” Once the state recovers, then Russia will engage in aggression because “it is pathologically incapable of living in a state of peace” however much some hope for that.
“Even the Soviet Union when not formally fighting wars, always took part in conflicts by sponsoring wars or terrorism throughout the entire world,” the Ukrainian analyst says. And that means something else: “with the death of Putin nothing will be changed.” He “a product of Russia and the Russian people,” or perhaps “even their victim.”
The current Kremlin ruler is forced to follow the attitudes which predominate in Russian society, and on this issue at least, “any ruler of Russia is condemned to follow the very same imperial complexes: such is the will of the Russian people.”
As a result, Berezovets says, “relations between Russia and Ukraine will never become normal. Even the representatives of the mysterious Russian counter-elite who should be helping Russia escape from the complexes of chauvinism and imperialism – Grigory Yavlinsky, Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Irina Khakamada – do not have the necessary qualities for this.”
As for Aleksey Navalny, he is even more nationalistic in his public remarks than Putin allows himself to be, Berezovets says. “The only potential Russian leader who could have arranged normal relations with Ukraine was Boris Nemtsov. And for that reason, they killed him. It is hardly likely that such a person will appear again in the coming decades.”
According to Berezovets, “Ukraine would be able to have normal relations with Russia only if the latter ceased to exist in its current borders and was reduced to an axis from Kaliningrad to the Urals. With such a relatively European and relatively small Russia, Ukraine certainly could have more or less normal ties.”
But is this going to happen? And if it is, when? Berezovsky asks rhetorically.Ukrainians must make plans for Russia holding together for a long time to come because “Russia is united by an idea expressed already by the first International: rule on the basis of ideology.”And that ideology now calls for it to dominate its neighbors.
Ukraine must organize its relatins with Russia “not only as an equal state but also as a hostile state.” There need to be introduced such “defensive mechanisms” as visas because it is “completely illogical” that Russian agents can enter Ukraine without even having to get official clearance. Such a step is “vital” even though it will hurt Ukrainians working in Russia.
Ukraine must build up its armed forces and make its border with Russia as defensible as possible.And it must recognize that this is something it will have to do for a long time because Russia’s attitudes and actions have not only destroyed the economic and political ties between Russia and Ukraine: they have destroyed the human ones as well.
“More than 60 percent of Ukrainians,” Berezovets concludes, “consider Russia a hostile stat. In order to cure this split, far more time will be needed than for the restoration of diplomatic or economic ties.”
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Hitler-Stalin Pact Still Casts a Shadow Over Europe 77 Years Onby paul goble (noreply@blogger.com)
Paul Goble
Staunton, August 23 – Seventy-seven years ago, Hitler and Stalin reached the agreement on the division of Eastern Europe into spheres of influence, an agreement known as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and one that continues to divide Russia from the rest of Europe and to cast a shadow on the entire continent to this day.
If the countries that were its immediate victims and Europe as a whole view this agreement as the proximate cause of war in Europe and the division of the continent during the Cold War, Russian authors continue to insist that the pact was justified and, because it was justified, so too were Moscow’s annexations of other countries under its “secret protocol.”
That this division of opinions about the events of August 23, 1939, and their consequences should continue simultaneously highlights how little Moscow’s thinking has changed from Stalin’s time and how dangerous others both near and far from the Russian border see this lack of progress for their own futures and that of Russia as well.
Today, as it has done every August 23rd since 2009, the European Union will mark this anniversary as a Day of Remembrance “for the victims of totalitarian and authoritarian regimes” in order to “nourish [Europe’s] commitment to stand up for our common values and principles” (europa.eu/rapid/press-release_STATEMENT-16-2844_en.htm).
In advance of that commemoration, which this year will be centered in Bratislava, the European Commission released the following statement declaring among other things the following:
“On 23 August 1939, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. It marked the beginning of one of the darkest periods in the recent history of our continent, bringing with it the deportation, torture and murder of tens of millions of people under totalitarian regimes. While the end of World War II marked the defeat of the Nazi regime, many Central and Eastern Europeans continued to suffer under other totalitarian regimes.
“77 years after the Pact's signature, we will remember all the victims of the totalitarian and authoritarian regimes that have scarred parts of Europe during the 20th century. The Europe-Wide Day of Remembrance for the victims of totalitarian and authoritarian regimes keeps alive the memory of the victims and pays tribute to them. This commemoration also helps us to recall lessons learnt from this dark chapter in European history.
“Fortunately, the young generations of Europeans today have not experienced life under a totalitarian or authoritarian regime. However, we must never take our freedoms for granted. Therefore, the preservation of historical memory and our commitment to democracy, fundamental rights and the rule of law, remain more important than ever.”
Dalia Grybaukaite, the president of Lithuania, made a comment on Lithuanian radio on just how important such a commitment to such principles are for the countries of the region (eurobelarus.info/news/world/2016/08/23/gribauskayte-aes-v-ostrovtse-mozhet-byt-ispol-zovana-protiv.html).
August 23rd, she said, “is the Day of Our Baltic Way and the anniversary of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact” and represents a time to reaffirm that “the division” the 1939 accord imposed on Europe will never be restored. Unfortunately, she continued, Moscow continues to show itself in favor of such division and is prepared to use the most unconventional ways to promote it.
Just how close her words correspond to the truth is shown by a new article in the authoritative Moscow journal, “Voenno-Promyshlenny kuryer” which says Stalin had no choice, that the West and Poland were to blame, and that countries neighboring Russia who oppose it deserve whatever fate Russia imposes on them, including dismemberment and annexation (vpk-news.ru/articles/31974).
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Private Lives Exposed as WikiLeaks Spills its Secretsby webdesk@voanews.com (Associated Press)
WikiLeaks' global crusade to expose government secrets is causing collateral damage to the privacy of hundreds of innocent people, including survivors of sexual abuse, sick children and the mentally ill, The Associated Press has found. In the past year alone, the radical transparency group has published medical files belonging to scores of ordinary citizens while many hundreds more have had sensitive family, financial or identity records posted to the web. In two particularly egregious cases, WikiLeaks named teenage rape victims. In a third case, the site published the name of a Saudi citizen arrested for being gay, an extraordinary move given that homosexuality is punishable by death in the ultraconservative Muslim kingdom. "They published everything: my phone, address, name, details,'' said a Saudi man who told AP he was bewildered that WikiLeaks had revealed the details of a paternity dispute with a former partner. "If the family of my wife saw this... Publishing personal stuff like that could destroy people.'' WikiLeaks' mass publication of personal data is at odds with the site's claim to have championed privacy even as it laid bare the workings of international statecraft, and has drawn criticism from the site's allies. Attempts to reach WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange were unsuccessful; a set of questions left with his site wasn't immediately answered Tuesday. WikiLeaks' stated mission is to bring censored or restricted material "involving war, spying and corruption'' into the public eye, describing the trove amassed thus far as a "giant library of the world's most persecuted documents.'' The library is growing quickly, with half a million files from the U.S. Democratic National Committee, Turkey's governing party and the Saudi Foreign Ministry added in the last year or so. But the library is also filling with rogue data, including computer viruses, spam, and a compendium of personal records. The Saudi diplomatic cables alone hold at least 124 medical files, according to a sample analyzed by AP. Some described patients with psychiatric conditions, seriously ill children or refugees. "This has nothing to do with politics or corruption,'' said Dr. Nayef al-Fayez, a consultant in the Jordanian capital of Amman who confirmed that a brain cancer patient of his was among those whose details were published to the web. Dr. Adnan Salhab, a retired practitioner in Jordan who also had a patient named in the files, expressed anger when shown the document. "This is illegal what has happened,'' he said in a telephone interview. "It is illegal!'' The AP, which is withholding identifying details of most of those affected, reached 23 people — most in Saudi Arabia — whose personal information was exposed. Some were unaware their data had been published; WikiLeaks is censored in the country. Others shrugged at the news. Several were horrified. One, a partially disabled Saudi woman who'd secretly gone into debt to support a sick relative, said she was devastated. She'd kept her plight from members of her own family. "This is a disaster,'' she said in a phone call. "What if my brothers, neighbors, people I know or even don't know have seen it? What is the use of publishing my story?'' Medical records are widely counted among a person's most private information. But the AP found that WikiLeaks also routinely publishes identity records, phone numbers and other information easily exploited by criminals. The DNC files published last month carried more than two dozen Social Security and credit card numbers, according to an AP analysis assisted by New Hampshire-based compliance firm DataGravity. Two of the people named in the files told AP they were targeted by identity thieves following the leak, including a retired U.S. diplomat who said he also had to change his number after being bombarded by threatening messages. The number of people affected easily reaches into the hundreds. Paul Dietrich, a transparency activist, said a partial scan of the Saudi cables alone turned up more than 500 passport, identity, academic or employment files. The AP independently found three dozen records pertaining to family issues in the cables — including messages about marriages, divorces, missing children, elopements and custody battles. Many are very personal, like the marital certificates which reveal whether the bride was a virgin. Others deal with Saudis who are deeply in debt, including one man who says his wife stole his money. One divorce document details a male partner's infertility. Others identify the partners of women suffering from sexually transmitted diseases including HIV and Hepatitis C. Lisa Lynch, who teaches media and communications at Drew University and has followed WikiLeaks for years, said Assange may not have had the staff or the resources to properly vet what he published. Or maybe he felt that the urgency of his mission trumped privacy concerns. "For him the ends justify the means,'' she said.
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Biden Likely to Face Pressure During Turkey Visitby webdesk@voanews.com (Cindy Saine)
When U.S. Vice President Joe Biden visits Turkey Wednesday, he will be the most senior Western leader to visit that country since the failed coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on July 15. Many Turks say they are angry about what they see as a lack of solidarity from the West. Meanwhile, many in the West are concerned that Ankara has fired or suspended nearly 80,000 government employees and soldiers since the failed coup. Turkey has faced a series of horrific terrorist attacks like the one on August 20, that targeted a Kurdish wedding in Gaziantep. The attack occurred in the wake of a coup attempt that included the first-ever bombing of its parliament. “First and foremost the vice president's message will be to indicate our continued, ongoing strong support for our allies in Turkey. That’s a country that obviously is going through a lot," said White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest as he outlined Vice President Joe Biden’s mission. Some analysts say most people in Turkey think the U.S. and the European Union have been too critical of Anakara’s response to the traumatic coup. “In the Turkish public’s mind there is a puzzlement, why is it – and further to your initial question, why is it that it has taken such a long time for a very long-standing ally of Turkey to express solidarity and to manifest that solidarity with a visit to Turkey, and that also applies to the EU," noted Kemal Kirisci an analyst at the Brookings Institution. Turkish President Erdogan accuses the U.S.-based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen of planning the coup and is demanding that Washington turn him over right away. "We say to America: aren't we strategic partners? Don't we have extradition treaties? If that's the case, when you ask for terrorists (to be extradited) we didn't ask for documents," Erdogan said in a speech. At his Pennsylvania compound, Gulen told VOA he was not involved in the coup, and he condemned the violence. “It would be unprecedented and appalling if the United States took a frail, almost octogenarian, plopped him on a plane to go back into that kind of setting with the hideous things that are being said about him by the entire Turkish government," Gulen's lawyer, Reid Weingarten said. Biden is likely to repeat in Ankara what Press Secretary Earnest explained Monday. “There is a treaty, an extradition treaty that's been on the books between the United States and Turkey for more than 30 years," he noted. Earnest said some U.S. Justice Department officials will travel to Turkey this week to review some of the evidence they have collected. He said the U.S. will make the decision based on evidence and the rules of the treaty.
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Trump Abandons Call for Mass Deportation of Immigrantsby webdesk@voanews.com (Ken Bredemeier)
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has abandoned his call to deport all 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States, instead saying he would send convicted criminals to their home countries and handle other immigration residency disputes much the way the country does now. Trump, a real estate mogul making his first run for elected office, told Fox News commentator Bill O'Reilly late Monday, "The first thing we're going to do if and when I win is we're going to get rid of all of the bad ones." "We've got gang members, we have killers, we have a lot of bad people that have to get out of this country," he added. "We're going to get them out, and the police know who they are. They're known by law enforcement who they are. We don't do anything. They go around killing people and hurting people, and they're going to be out of this country so fast your head will spin. We have existing laws that allow you to do that." As for the remainder of immigration cases, Trump said, "We're going to go through the process, like they are now, perhaps with a lot more energy, and we're going to do it only through the system of laws." Trump noted, "What people don't know is that (President Barack) Obama got tremendous numbers of people out of the country. (President George W.) Bush, the same thing. Lots of people were brought out of the country with the existing laws. Well, I'm going to do the same thing." Backtracking on deportation force For a year, Trump has told voters he would create a deportation force to send all immigrants living in the United States illegally, the vast majority from Mexico and Central America, back to their homelands, allowing some of them to return through an administrative process. "They have to go," he said at one point, twinning his deportation stance with his vow to build a wall along the southern U.S. border with Mexico to thwart the flow of more migrants into the United States. Earlier Monday, in another interview, he rejected the idea that he was "flip-flopping" on the deportation issue. He has not ended his vow to build the wall. Trump has adopted his new immigration stance as he faces daunting odds in his contest against Democrat Hillary Clinton to win support from Hispanic and African-American voters in the November 8 election to pick the successor to Obama when he leaves office in January. Clinton lead among minority voters A new NBC News/Survey Monkey poll Tuesday shows Clinton, a former U.S. secretary of state, with a wide advantage over Trump among minority voters, the fastest growing segment of the U.S. electorate. The survey said Trump, a one-time television reality show host, holds a 50 percent to 41 percent edge over Clinton among white voters. But blacks favor Clinton, the wife of former U.S. president Bill Clinton, by an 87-8 margin, Hispanics by a 73-22 ratio and Asians by a 66-23 advantage. Overall, NBC said Clinton holds a 50 percent to 42 percent lead over Trump, virtually unchanged from her nine-point edge a week ago in a previous poll by the news organization. An average of numerous national polls compiled by realclearpolitics.com shows Clinton with a 5.5 percentage point lead. Clinton's lead in the NBC poll narrows in a four-way matchup that also includes Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson and Green Party contender Jill Stein. Then, NBC said the polling showed Clinton at 43, Trump 38, Johnson 11 and Stein 5. Trump on Monday also demanded an independent special prosecutor be appointed to investigate connections between the Clinton Foundation, founded by Clinton and her husband to promote charitable ventures throughout the world, and the State Department she headed from 2009 to 2013. Emails have surfaced showing that foundation officials often asked Hillary Clinton's top aides to connect the foundation's biggest donors with key officials at the State Department. Clinton discounts jabs about her health Clinton appeared Monday night on the "Jimmy Kimmel Live" comedy show, mocking Republicans' "wacky strategy" claiming that she is not healthy enough to become president. At one point, she opened a new jar of pickles, to show her hand strength. Both candidates are attending fund-raising events Tuesday, Trump in the solidly Republican southwestern state of Texas and Clinton in the equally Democratic western state of California.
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US New Home Sales Surgeby webdesk@voanews.com (Jim Randle)
Sales of new U.S. homes surged to a nearly nine-year high in July. Tuesday's report from the Commerce Department says sales were up more than 12 percent from the previous month, and jumped more than 31 percent from the same time a year ago. If new home sales continued at July's pace for a full year, buyers would get more than 650,000 homes. The sales data was stronger than most economists had predicted. Experts say low borrowing costs and employment gains are helping sales. These new, never-occupied, homes make up about one-tenth of the overall housing market. New home sales are considered a timely measure of market conditions. Wednesday, the National Association of Realtors, a business group, is scheduled to publish data on sales of previously-occupied homes.
LIVE UPDATES: Today a convoy of farmers from Krasnodar Territory who are attempting to go all the way to Moscow to complain about illegal land confiscations in the Kuban region vowed to continue their “march” despite frequent stops by police.
Welcome to our column, Russia Update, where we will be closely following day-to-day developments in Russia, including the Russian government’s foreign and domestic policies.
The previous issue is here.
Recent Analysis and Translations:
– The Kremlin is Working Hard to Make Donald Trump President
– Russian Elections Round-Up: Parnas List Accepted; Party of Pensioners Forced to Remove Candidates
– ‘What Would Boris Do?” Opposition Struggles with In-Fighting on Eve of September Elections
– NATO Got Nothing From Conceding To Russia In the Past, Why Should It Cave To The Kremlin Now?
– Russian Elections Round-Up: Parnas List Accepted; Party of Pensioners Forced to Remove Candidates
– ‘What Would Boris Do?” Opposition Struggles with In-Fighting on Eve of September Elections
– NATO Got Nothing From Conceding To Russia In the Past, Why Should It Cave To The Kremlin Now?
UPDATES BELOW
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Critics have contrasted the response to attacks in Paris and Brussels with the bombing
France is calling for new laws governing encrypted messaging apps used by jihadists
The group shouted 'Allahu Akbar' before letting off fake gunshots in the Old Town Square
Сталин, Васильева и Коротич by SvobodaRadio
Нынешний Кремль все активнее переписывает историю сталинских лет
Ссылка на источник - http://www.svoboda.org/a/27938602.html
Ссылка на источник - http://www.svoboda.org/a/27938602.html
Ковши Собянина: продолжение by SvobodaRadio
В Москве началась "вторая волна" сноса ларьков. Пока владельцы торговых точек, признанных властями "самостроем", могут снести их сами - получив взамен небольшую компенсацию
Ссылка на источник - http://www.svoboda.org/a/27940222.html
Ссылка на источник - http://www.svoboda.org/a/27940222.html
22 августа в Киеве состоялась репетиция военного парада в честь Дня независимости Украины. Смотрите съемку этого события, сделанную с беспилотника украинской службой Радио Свобода
Ссылка на источник - http://www.svoboda.org/a/27940320.html
Ссылка на источник - http://www.svoboda.org/a/27940320.html
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Accusations and smear tactics: how North Korea explains defectionsby Andrei Lankov for NK News, part of the North Korea network
Reaction to diplomat Thae Yong-ho’s escape shows the regime will try anything to discredit dissenters, says NK News
North Korea responded to the defection of a prominent diplomat and his family last week with typical hyperbole and inconsistency.
First, a spokesman for the government’s Ministry of Truth told newspapers that Thae Yong-ho had been a victim of a South Korean plot. The incident, the official said, was a “typical operation of South Korean intelligence services and part of a plot to bring down North Korea.”
Continue reading...Tough prison sentences 'will not end FGM in Dagestan'by Hajra Rahim and Rachel Horner
Moscow-based journalist Marina Akhmedova says criminalisation will drive practice underground in North Caucasus
A Russian journalist who reports on female genital mutilation says introducing prison sentences for perpetrators will not bring about an end to the practice, after a report released last week said that FGM was taking place in remote villages in the republic of Dagestan.
Marina Akhmedova, based in Moscow, has recently returned from the North Caucasus region, where she interviewed survivors of FGM. She is calling for a programme of on-the-ground advocacy.
Continue reading...The Guardian |
Finland says it is nearing security deal with US amid concerns over Russia
The Guardian Russia has warned it would respond to any move by Finland or Sweden to join Nato. In a meeting with his Finnish counterpart in early July, Vladimir Putin claimed (wrongly) that Russiantroops had been withdrawn 1500km from the Finnish border, but ... and more » |
CBS News |
Top US commander skeptical of military cooperation with Russia in Syria
CBS News WASHINGTON D.C. -- The top U.S. commander for the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) said Monday that he is skeptical of any additional military cooperation withRussia in Syria, and that he believes he can get the mission done ... SitRep: Mosul, Raqqa, Will Fall Within a Year; Russia Quits IranForeign Policy (blog) Report: In less than a year, Russia has killed more civilians than ISISBusiness Insider US commander skeptical of cooperation with Russia in SyriaFox News The Independent-CNN-International Business Times UK all 68 news articles » |
Christian Science Monitor |
One year on, Russia's war in Syria is hardly a 'quagmire'
Christian Science Monitor “Everyone understands there's been a significant adjustment in the Middle East, that theRussians once again are players and you have to take them into account,” says Nicolas Gvosdev, a Russia expert at the Naval War College in Newport, R.I. “Putin ... US urges Russia to stop aiding Syria regime's bombing campaignThe Hill all 4 news articles » |
The National Interest Online (blog) |
Russia Declares America's Stealth Fighters and Bombers to be 'Paper Fiction'
The National Interest Online (blog) Recently, in response to a column I wrote, Russian media denounced stealth technology as useless—asserting that aircraft such as the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor or F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) would easily fall prey to advanced Russian-built air ... |
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Washington Times |
Russia, Iran team up to rule Middle East
Washington Times Historically, the West has faced an existential threat from both the Persian and Russianempires. The Persian Empire was fueled by the expansionist dreams of Darius and Xerxes, foiled only by the heroism of the Greeks, led by men like Themistocles. In ... |
NEWS.com.au |
Russia joins South China Sea sabre-rattling
NEWS.com.au Russia's Pacific Fleet and elements of China's People's Liberation Army Navy will engage in manoeuvres designed to test tactics and equipment in amphibious troop landings and defensive operations in the disputed waterway. The September exercise ... China, Russia to hold South China Sea 'drills' next monthWashington Times all 35 news articles » |
Washington Post |
Trump Is Already Helping Putin Consolidate Control of Ukraine
Politico MOSCOW—In living rooms and kitchens across Russia and Ukraine, the U.S. presidential election is as riveting to TV viewers as “Game of Thrones” is to their American counterparts. Every time Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump speak of Russian President ... Tensions mount between Russia and Ukraine ahead of military drillsWashington Post Russia, Germany, France raise alarm over fighting in UkraineCTV News Ukraine, Russia flex muscles ahead of Independence DayDeutsche Welle Sputnik International-RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty-Daily Star all 161 news articles » |
New York Times |
Russia's Literary Icons, Explored on a Budget
New York Times Russians are fiercely proud of their literary tradition, which produced, particularly in the 19th and 20th centuries, some of the finest and most well-regarded novelists, playwrights and poets the world has ever known. I set off to spend part of my ... |
Hundreds of thousands of Syrians are in dire need of aid, with the situation especially acute in Aleppo, but the official said not a single relief convoy had been dispatched so far in August.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport rejected an appeal by Moscow, confirming that none of the country’s athletes would participate in the Games that begin on Sept. 7.
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