Fears of a third world war continue to ratchet higher. This time, the fear has spiked after president Donald Trump sent anti-tank missiles to Ukraine in a show of defiance against Russian president, Vladimir Putin.
The war games are all for show for now: that is until someone takes it just slightly too far…
President Trump’s administration supplied the weapons after shrugging off Putin’s warning whisking them off to Kiev could escalate a four-year smoldering war in the region. Ukraine’s defense minister General Stepan Poltorak was united with Trump and quipped he would waste no time in training his troops to use the highly sophisticated Javelin anti-tank weapons.
Poltorak showered praise on president Trump for a “positive decision which helps to significantly increase Ukraine’s defense capability and provide Ukrainian servicemen with modern weapons,” according to The Express UK.
Ukraine’s pro-western president Petro Poroshenko confirmed the arrival of the “long-awaited weaponry,” yet stopped short of saying just how many missiles were actually delivered. The ammo is part of a whopping $47 million Congregational military aid package that should consist of 210 Javelins and 37 launchers.
US and Ukrainian officials have blasted Russia for reportedly shepherding in hundreds of tanks and rockets into the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine. Since the war there erupted, the US has provided more than $1billion of non-lethal military assistance to Ukraine in the form of night goggles, body armor, and Humvee vehicles. This was under the Obama administration, which refused to supply lethal equipment fearing retaliation from Russia. -Express UK
Before Trump stepped in, Poroshenko pleaded with western backers to send Kiev arms in the early days of the war, which has claimed the lives of more than 10,000 civilians making it Europe’s bloodiest conflict since the Balkan wars.
Kiev, Ukraine – In yet another glaring example of the lack of democratic values present within the US-backed neo-Nazi Ukrainian puppet government, Anna Kurbatova, a reporter for Russia’s Channel 1, was kidnapped off the streets of Kiev in broad daylight by Ukrainian security services.
The journalist was then forcefully deported from Ukraine and barred from entering the country for three years for “smearing” the Ukrainian government, according to a security service spokesman. Kurbatova was “grabbed by unknown assailants, forced into a car and driven away,” according to a Channel 1 spokesperson.
Russia was quick to condemn the actions of the US-backed Ukrainian neo-Nazi government, as the Russian Foreign Ministry noted that they are closely monitoring the situation.
“At the moment we don’t have information, but, undoubtedly, we’ll do our best to clarify the situation,” Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
“The abduction of the Channel 1 journalist Anna Kurbatova in Kiev on August 30 and her compulsory deportation to Russia is clearly not an accidental occurrence, but a deliberate provocation launched by the Ukrainian law enforcement and nationalist radicals,” the Russian Foreign Ministry’s information and press department said in a statement.
Additionally, the Russian Foreign Ministry pleaded with international human rights organizations to closely monitor the repressive state of freedom of the press in Ukraine.
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“We draw the attention of international human rights organizations and other structures, designed to protect freedom and independence of the media, to the disgraceful attitude towards journalists in Ukraine. We hope for their appropriate response and practical steps regarding the outrageous actions of the Kiev authorities.”
According to international human rights organization, Human Rights Watch:
In just over a month, the Security Services of Ukraine (SBU) have expelled or denied entry to at least five foreign journalists – three from Russia and two from Spain – for allegedly engaging in anti-Ukrainian “propaganda.”
“The Ukrainian government’s practice of accusing journalists of anti-Ukraine bias, then expelling them or denying them entry, is a serious violation of its international human rights commitments,” said Tanya Cooper, Ukraine researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Barring journalists is short-sighted and vindictive, and undermines Ukraine’s pledges on democratic reforms and the rule of law.”
Mind you, the term neo-Nazi, when referring to the Ukrainian regime, is not a simple euphemism – but an actual assessment of belief systems. The BBC gave a nuanced look at the phenomena of neo-Nazis within the Ukrainian government:
This hyper-sensitivity and stonewalling were on full display after President Petro Poroshenko presented a Ukrainian passport to someone who, according to human rights activists, is a “Belarusian neo-Nazi.”
Among the recipients was Serhiy Korotkykh, a Belarusian national, to whom Mr Poroshenko awarded Ukrainian citizenship, praising his “courageous and selfless service.”
Experts who follow the far right have strongly objected to President Poroshenko’s decision. They say Korotkykh was a member of the far-right Russian National Unity party and also a founding member of the neo-Nazi National Socialist Society (NSS) in Russia.
According to Ukrainian academic Anton Shekhovtsov, the NSS’s main goal “is to prepare for a race war”.
Shekhovtsov said the Belarusian had been charged for involvement in a bombing in central Moscow in 2007, and was detained in 2013 in the Belarusian capital Minsk for allegedly stabbing an anti-fascist activist. He was later released for lack of evidence.
As Korotkykh’s case demonstrates, the ultra-nationalists have proven to be effective and dedicated fighters in the brutal war in the east against Russian-backed separatists and Russian forces, whose numbers also include a large contingent from Russia’s far right.
As a result, they have achieved a level of acceptance, even though most Ukrainians are unfamiliar with their actual beliefs.
The volunteer Azov Battalion is a case in point.
The Azov battalion seems to enjoy the support of several top officials
Run by the extremist Patriot of Ukraine organisation, which considers Jews and other minorities “sub-human” and calls for a white, Christian crusade against them, it sports three Nazi symbols on its insignia: a modified Wolf’s Hook, a black sun (or “Hakensonne”) and the title Black Corps, which was used by the Waffen SS.
Azov is just one of more than 50 volunteer groups fighting in the east, the vast majority of which are not extremist, yet it seems to enjoy special backing from some top officials:
Interior Minister Arsen Avakov and his deputy Anton Gerashchenko actively supported the parliament candidacy of Andriy Biletsky, the Azov and Patriot of Ukraine commander.
Vadim Troyan, another top Azov official and Patriot of Ukraine member, was recently named police chief for the Kiev region.
Korotkykh is also an Azov member.
Essentially, the Ukrainian government’s political terror machine—backed with the support of the United States—is moving to crush any free thinking small shoots of independent opinion and any evaluations of current events, made on their own by political parties, public organizations, journalists or writers. Hiding behind the cover of slogans about European values, democracy and the rule of law, in reality, the institutions of state power in Ukraine are acting through law enforcement agencies and neo-Nazi battalions, to carry out a systematic destruction of any dissidence.
READ MORE:Assange Just Hammered America"s Hypocrisy of Selective Outrage Over US-Support of Neo-Nazis
Not only did the Ukraine admit to these crimes but they openly bragged about kidnapping others who dare criticize the state.
A Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) spokesman confirmed that the Kurbatova was detained by the organization’s operatives, and will be deported from Ukraine to Russia, while threatening similar treatment for anyone who dares speak the truth about the Ukrainian neo-Nazi regime.
“Russian propagandist Anna Kurbatova will be forcibly returned to the Russian Federation. Ukraine is a constitutional state, its security services operate strictly within the legal framework. All necessary documents for her deportation are being prepared at the moment. It will happen to everyone who dares to smear Ukraine,” the spokesperson said in a Facebook post.
Russian Human Rights Commissioner, Tatyana Moskalkova, contacted her Ukrainian counterpart, following the snatch and grab of Kurbatova, to determine whether the security services are operating within the rule of law.
“I’ve just sent a request to my colleague Valeria Lukyanova asking her about the location [of the journalist], her health condition and the consular visit, i.e. whether all the conventions are being observed if she has been detained by law enforcement,” Moskalkova told Interfax.
“I’m outraged and deeply worried about the treatment of journalists. Freedom of speech is protected not only by states’ constitutions, but also by international legal acts, journalists worldwide are independent and have immunity.”
An SBU spokesperson later confirmed that the Russian journalist had been forcibly deported.
“Russian propagandist Anna Kurbatova, against whom a decision of forcible deportation from Ukraine was made, has crossed the Ukrainian-Russian border. She is barred from entering the territory of our country for three years,” an SBU spokesperson added.
READ MORE:Press Corps Erupts in Protest Over Lack of Access to White House
Prior to her kidnapping and deportment, Kurbatova had received death threats connected to her reporting and was placed on a list of “enemies of Ukraine” on a website that lists journalists the neo-Nazi regime accuses of “anti-Ukrainian propaganda” and “manipulating socially-important information.”
Additionally, just prior to her being snatched by the SBU, Kurbatova had been working on a report highlighting the ill-treatment of journalists in Ukraine, which has not yet aired.
As noted previously, in early August, another journalist, Tamara Neresyan, reporting for the All-Russia State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company (VGTRK), was deported following a very similar incident.
“I was detained in the street and promptly brought to the main SBU office, where I was questioned for three hours. They confiscated my phone, it was done very roughly, nearly breaking my arms. Following the questioning they read me a resolution of the SBU that I would be deported and barred from re-entry for three years,” Neresyan told Rossiya 24 TV channel.
Make no mistake that the US is willing to fund and arm anyone that forwards their geopolitical interests, whether neo-Nazis in Ukraine or al-Qaeda’s army in Syria, Jabat al-Nusra. Under the guise of spreading democracy and freedom, the US continually supports some of the most extremist elements in the world.
The US obviously operates under the treatise of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend,” in a continual struggle to embolden American hegemony, while attempting to propagandize their own citizens into supporting these radical elements by calling them freedom fighters or moderate rebels.
Please share this important information to wake others up to the dangerous game of supporting extremists elements being played by the United States government!
READ MORE:Parents Call Police to Report Teens for Distributing a Banned Book - Cops Show Up
[image: Slavyansk Delovoy]Since putschists usurping power in Ukraine launched war without mercy in April 2014 against freedom fighters in Donbass rejecting fascist rule, Washington provided political and military support.
Under Obama, National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) funding included hundreds of millions of dollars to Kiev for weapons and other material support, along with training by US special forces.
Trump may increase support for escalated aggression. A Pentagon and State Department proposal calls for supplying Javelin missiles, possibly along with anti-aircraft weapons.
Claiming these and other US-supplied weapons are only for defense, not offense, ignores where they’ll be deployed – along the contact line, separating armed forces of both sides, used for cross-border attacks, Kiev’s aggressive strategy.
Its regime systematically breached Minsk ceasefire terms since agreed on. War without mercy continues, civilians suffering most. Cross-border shelling targets residential areas, placing them in harm’s way.
Defense Secretary Mattis and National Security Advisor McMaster reportedly support escalated war, supplying Kiev with heavy weapons to wage it.
It’s unclear where Trump stands. Having delegated warmaking authority to generals, he’ll likely go along with what they propose, making US/Russia relations even frostier.
Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker was manipulated on his first visit to Kiev. He was shown a large residential building on the front line in Avdiivka, destroyed by Ukrainian forces, falsely blamed on Donbass freedom fighters, part of a scheme to convince Washington to supply ruling putschists with heavy weapons.
During a BBC interview, Volker said Kiev needs defensive arms and munitions from America – despite facing no threats. War it’s waging on Donbass is naked aggression, not humanitarian intervention or democracy building.
“I’m not…predicting where we go on this. That’s a matter for further discussion and decision, but I think that argument that it would be provocative to Russia or emboldening of Ukraine is just getting it backward,” Volker absurdly claimed.
US supported naked aggression on Donbass continues with no resolution in prospect because neocons infesting Washington want endless conflict, not resolution – another excuse to bash Russia for its own high crimes.
(GPA) — Earlier this week notorious war hawk US Senator John McCain (R-Az) was diagnosed with brain cancer. While the liberal and conservative establishments are sending their regards, Geopolitics Alert instead compiled a list of reasons why we don’t care about McCain.
The list is of course a history of all the instances McCain has called for US-led intervention around the world. There’s obviously a long history here, so Geopolitics Alert has compiled the largest examples from Europe to Asia. We’ll start with the obvious wars first.
Afghanistan and Iraq
Obviously every US senator (besides California’s Barbara Lee) voted to give president George W. Bush the power to invade Afghanistan following the events of September 11th. However, McCain wasn’t happy with just moving to invade Afghanistan. No, he had other targets on his mind as early as the day after the towers fell.
Despite McCain’s claim in 2014 that “the Iraq war probably wouldn’t have happened” if he had won the 2000 Republican primary and then general election, this assertion seems ridiculous. On September 12th 2001, McCain appeared on MSNBC presenting a long list of countries he felt were providing a “safe harbor” to groups like al Qaeda. This list of course included Iraq and several other countries that appear later on this list.
Syria
Another country on that 2001 list (of course) was Syria. Now, the Bush regime may have never gotten a chance to continue toppling Mideast countries (thanks to the failure in Iraq and the exposure of that war being sold on lies). But McCain seemingly never lost sight of his hatred for Bashar Al-Assad.
Shortly after the Arab Spring “broke out” in Syria, McCain – and his constant partner in war crimes Sen. Lindsey Graham – quickly found communication channels with the “Syrian opposition.” Just a few short months after the US endorsed protests in Syria (even having their ambassador attend), McCain and Graham began calling for arms to start flowing to the Free Syrian Army and other “rebel” groups.
Libya
McCain’s plans for Syria never quite worked the way he wanted but he probably should’ve know they would never yield a positive result. If McCain didn’t want to look at Iraq to prove that point, he had another more recent example he could’ve used: the NATO intervention in Libya.
It was less than a year before McCain wanted to arm Syrian takfiris that he had supported with the bombing and no fly zones in Libya. McCain even wanted tougher actions against the country. Which has now become an anarchic Wild West that’s home to all sorts of horrors from the Islamic State to a new slave trade.
West and Central Africa
McCain is also a champion of the “war on terror” in other parts of Africa. While McCain hasn’t directly supported terrorists in some countries in Africa, he still has called for more US intervention across the continent.
This list includes countries dealing with Islamic insurgencies, such as Mali. McCain has also called for plans like “deploying Special Forces” to rescue girls kidnapped by Boko Haram in Nigeria and intervention in Sudan, where McCain and his wife have invested money for some time.
Iran
Another country on the list of hated nations originally put forth by Bush undersecretary of defense Paul Wolfowitz, and also another long time target of McCain, is of course Iran.
Although McCain has always said “he prays” there will never be at war with Iran, the man constantly calls for it and even jokes about bombing the country when he feels the mood is right. The truth of the matter is, McCain’s positions towards Iran are so hostile that even flagship neoconservative institutions like the Cato Institute think he is too hawkish.
Bosnia and Kosovo
But McCain isn’t satisfied with just backing salafi jihadists in the traditional Middle East and North African theaters. He’s also backed violent radicals across the fringes of Europe. This trend really started in the mid 1990’s when McCain was a vocal supporter of then president Bill Clinton’s war in Bosnia.
Many of the Muslims traveling to Bosnia joining the mujahideen there have joined groups like IS in recent years. And IS flags can occasionally be seen in the Sunni areas of Bosnia now. McCain was still backing potential takfiri movements, recently accusing Russia of interfering in local affairs, and calling for more US intervention in the country.
McCain made similar decisions when he advocated US intervention in Kosovo in the late 90’s. In the Kosovo conflict, McCain backed the Kosovo Liberation Army: a genocidal jihadist organization with ties to Al Qaeda under Osama Bin Laden.
Ukraine
Don’t be fooled into thinking that McCain only supports jihadists in Eastern Europe though! He also backs the overt Nazis acting as death squads for Kiev in the ongoing Ukrainian conflict.
This of course started in 2014, but McCain has continued to pledge support for Kiev’s crimes in the Donbass region to this day. This is all par for the course in McCain’s larger theme of challenging Russia– the country he believes controls the separatists in eastern Ukraine.
Russia
The story of McCain’s hatred of Russia spans back to the Cold War. We won’t get into McCain’s fear of communism that’s evolved into just general Russophobia. But we will say he didn’t have many excuses to focus on making threats towards Moscow for a good 15-20 year stretch.
This changed in 2008, with the war in South Ossetia between Georgia and Russia. During this conflict McCain was the loudest voice saying the US “should immediately call a meeting of the North Atlantic Council to assess Georgia’s security and review measures NATO can take to contribute to stabilizing this very dangerous situation.”
This same situation repeated in Ukraine in 2014 but McCain’s worst comments came this year. As soon as the US Intelligence Community’s accused Russia of interference in the 2016 US elections– and without any evidence– McCain was first to say the event was an “act of war.”
North Korea
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DRPK/North Korea) was also an early target of McCain’s making his September 12th wish list. More recently though, the restyled “Trump opponent” McCain was all-in on the new regime’s saber rattling. Calling on Trump to strike the nuclear armed country.
Bonus: China
China is kind of in its own class with McCain, who’s made strange vague threats towards the country in the past. Such as “the Arab spring is coming to China,” whatever that means. China may be a target on the periphery for McCain but he does still encourage antagonizing the country to this day. Calling for things like more “freedom of navigation drills” and other naval exercises in the South China Sea.
So, in summation, next time someone asks why you don’t care about John McCain’s clock running out, show them this article. McCain has encouraged the spread of death worldwide. The day he leaves congress will be a victory for the human race.
This article was chosen for republication based on the interest of our readers. Anti-Media republishes stories from a number of other independent news sources. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not reflect Anti-Media editorial policy.
Technicians responded to the Pivnichna substation and took the circuit breakers off computer control, restoring power a little after 1 a.m. It was only the second confirmed case of a computer attack triggering an electrical blackout, and compared to the first, 12 months earlier—also in Ukraine—it was a fizzle, affecting far fewer customers and for a fraction of the time. In the six months since the Kiev attack, security researchers have wondered why the hackers even bothered with such a fleeting disruption and speculated that someone was using Ukraine as a testing ground for a more serious attack.
Now that dark assessment seems to be confirmed. Researchers at two security companies on Monday announced they’ve finally found and analyzed the malware that triggered the Kiev blackout, and it’s far worse than imagined. The computer code, dubbed “CrashOverride” by Maryland-based Dragos, and “Industroyer” by ESET in Slovakia, is a genuine cyber weapon that can map out a power station’s control network and, with minimal human guidance, issue malicious commands directly to critical equipment. Only once before has the world seen malware designed for such sabotage, with the 2010 Stuxnet virus used against Iran’s nuclear program. CrashOverride is the first to target civilians and the first such malware built to target a nation’s power supply.
It’s unclear who created CrashOverrride. Both ESET and Dragos say it was built from scratch, leaving none of the usual fingerprints that allow analysts to link one hacking campaign to another. Ukraine has faced a near-biblical plague of cyberattacks since entering into hostilities with Russia three years ago, and many have led unequivocally to Moscow. But not so with CrashOverride.
The only thing that’s certain, says security researcher Robert Lee, CEO of Dragos, is that the malware wasn’t built as a one-time weapon. It’s designed from the ground up to be easily reconfigured for a variety of targets and contains some payloads that weren’t even fired off in the Kiev attack.
According to acting State Department spokesman Mark Toner, Tillerson spoke to (illegitimate US-installed putschist) Ukraine (puppet) president Petro Poroshenko on Monday.
He reiterated Washington’s firm commitment to Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity – saying sanctions will remain in place until Russia returns control of the Crimean peninsula to Ukraine and fully implements its Minsk agreement commitments.
Fact: The Republic of Crimea is sovereign Russian Federation territory. The overwhelming will of its people by national referendum wants it no other way.
Fact: In February, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said “Crimea…belong(s) to the Russian Federation. We don’t give back our own territory.”
Fact: Russia and Donbass freedom fighters alone observe Minsk terms. Kiev putschists consistently violate them unaccountably.
Fact: As ExxonMobil CEO, Tillerson opposed sanctions, calling them counterproductive and ineffective.
On Monday after meeting with Sergey Lavrov, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini called Russian and EU strategic partnership “surreal” with sanctions in place.
The “full implementation of the Minsk Agreements by all sides” is a precondition for lifting them, she said – a pretext for maintaining them. Kiev is a serial violator.
Lavrov blasted its regime, saying “(t)he apparent sabotage by (its) leadership of everything that is written in the Minsk agreements should meet some (responsible) reaction from those who patronize this” rogue state.
Kiev ignores its responsibility under Minsk, pursuing its own agenda – with support and encouragement from Washington and key European nations.
Why is Russia sanctioned for observing Minsk, not Kiev despite its daily violations, Lavrov asked?
EU states are subservient to US imperial interests – maintaining a permanent state of war in multiple theaters, supporting putschists running Ukraine.
