Moscow To Trump: Are The ‘Smart Missiles’ To Destroy Evidence Of Fake Chemical Attack?

As many of us prepare for the worst, a brutal war with Russia and Syria, Moscow has responded to president Donald Trump’s declaration that he will strike Syria with “smart missiles.”  A Russian spokeswoman has responded with a rhetorical question asking if the “smart missiles” are being sent to destroy any evidence of this false chemical attack.

After eight years of Obama drone bombing people across the globe, Americans have grown war-weary. But our “leaders” don’t seem to care, knowing a war won’t impact them the way it will impact us. “Smart missiles should fly towards terrorists, not [Syria’s] lawful government, which has spent several years fighting against international terrorism on its territory,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said in response to Trump’s tweet on Wednesday.

Zakharova accused the US of attempting to cover up the evidence that this chemical attack was staged. “Are the OPCW inspectors aware that smart missiles are about to destroy all evidence of the chemical weapons use on the ground? Or is that the actual plan – to cover up all evidence of this fabricated attack with smart missile strikes, so that international inspectors had no evidence to look for?” Zakharova asked.

Trump’s “smart missile” threat is on the heels of the remarks made by Russia’s ambassador to Lebanon, Alexander Zasypkin, who said Russian troops deployed in Syria have legal grounds to shoot down any American missiles attacking targets there, and may do so in case of an attack.

The public suggestion of US military confrontation with Russia is sure to raise tensions in an already volatile situation. Trump said earlier this month, before the weekend’s suspected chemical attack on civilians at the hands of the Assad regime, that he wanted to withdraw US troops from Syria.

So why would the winner of the war use chemicals on their own people? Bashar al-Assad won and he must know that using chemical weapons would force the US to retaliate reigniting a war. The reason this is being called a false flag by many is not only because there’s no evidence, but because it is the only thing that makes sense.  The media’s narrative is falling apart, but it won’t matter if we end up in World War 3 because of a fabrication.

What a horrifying time to be alive, when you think about it.  One person, thousands of miles away from you has the ability to push a button and end it all.

War is nothing to enter into lightly.  Yet it appears, for all intents and purposes, that that is exactly what is happening.

Russia Warns It Will Retaliate Against American Media Next Week

It has been over a month since Russia and the US engaged in political tit-for-tat escalations, but that is about to change: after a recent crackdown by the U.S. government, which ordered state broadcaster RT to register as a foreign agent following accusations it interfered in last year’s presidential elections, and which saw Twitter ban all RT-sourced advertising (despite actively seeking RT"s business beforehand) Russia said on Thursday it would retaliate next week against the American media, Bloomberg reports.

While the Russians didn’t specify what measures would be taken, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Thursday that “practical implementation” of steps in response to the U.S. move would begin next week. Russia has previously warned its retaliation would mirror restrictions imposed by the U.S. The foreign-agent label, which applies to several state-owned outlets operating in the U.S. including Japan’s NHK and the China Daily newspaper, requires disclosure of the media organization’s foreign funding.

As reported earlier today, RT"s editor-in-chief, Margarita Simonyan, said on the broadcaster’s website that it has no choice but to comply with the DOJ’s demand to register as a foreign agent by a final deadline of Monday. Otherwise, the head of the channel’s U.S. subsidiary would face arrest and its bank accounts would be frozen, she said. “This demand violates U.S. law and we intend to appeal it in U.S. courts.”

What may Russia"s next move be?  One month ago, Zakharova said that “we have never used Russian law in relation to foreign correspondents as a lever of pressure, or censorship, or some kind of political influence, never. But this is a particular case..."

She cited a 1991 Russian law which, she said, stated that if a Russian media outlet is subject to restrictions in a foreign country, then Moscow has the right to impose proportionate restrictions on media outlets from that country operating inside Russia. “Correspondingly, everything that Russian journalists and the RT station are subject to on U.S. soil, after we qualified it as restriction of their activities, we can apply similar measures to American journalists, American media here, on Russian territory." She did not identify any specific U.S. media outlets that would be targeted. She said it made no difference from the Russian government’s point of view if those outlets were backed by the U.S. state, or privately-funded.

In September, Russia’s state communications regulator accused CNN International of violating its license to broadcast in Russia and said it had summoned the broadcaster’s representatives in connection with the matter. The watchdog did not publicly disclose the nature of the violation. The head of the regulator said it was a technical matter and denied that politics was involved. The U.S. Congress is investigating RT’s role in the 2016 election, as well as possible influence by state-owned Sputnik news service.

Russian authorities have signaled that CNN and Radio Liberty could be among those targeted in response to the action against RT.

Russia Has A "Surprise" Planned For US If It Bans RT, Sputnik Ads

A day after certain members of the Senate Intelligence committee expressed their profound disappointment with Facebook, Twitter and Google for appearing to blow off lawmakers’ concerns about a “sophisticated” Russia-backed propaganda campaign purportedly being carried out on their platforms, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova is hitting back, warning that Russia has “a surprise” response planned if US lawmakers overtly ban Russia Today and Sputnik from running advertisements on twitter and other US social media platforms.

According to Interfax and Sputnik, Zakharova said Russia would be forced to respond to the ban, which she said constituted “intimidation and blackmail.”

She also singled out Twitter, which was the first - and so far, the only - to prohibit Russia Today from running ads, criticizing the company for kowtowing to pressure from lawmakers and US intelligence agencies.

"By imposing this ban, Twitter demonstrates its commercial insolvency and absolute dependence on the will of the US security establishment, which directly controls the decision-making process in this company, as we see it at the moment," Zakharova said.

Additionally, the ban would only serve to further strain already tenuous relations between the US and Moscow.

"Of course, Washington"s policy for further degradation of US-Russian relations is regrettable. This is an absolutely short-sighted policy, fraught with negative consequences, including for the United States itself," Zakharova said.

Twitter banned all ads from RT and Sputnik last month under pressure from lawmakers.

While the Sputnik news agency has stated in its press-release that it had never paid for promotion on Twitter, RT has responded with numbers — the broadcaster"s editor-in-chief, Margarita Simonyan, has revealed the amount of money spent on Twitter ads during the US election race; the number totals $275,000, in comparison to the presidential nominees who spent about $1 billion each.

Simonyan also famously published the “full” sales pitch it received from Twitter ahead of the election last year. RT said it turned down the “multi-million dollar advertising proposal.” On Twitter, advertising largely consists of the platform promoting a user’s tweets in exchange for money.

Earlier today, Buzzfeed published emails from a Twitter ad executive to RT pitching a $3 million advertisisng campaign, which the company said would amplify RT"s voice seven-fold.

According to the Russian diplomat, the existing legislation in Russia allows, if necessary, to declare the foreign media outlets operating in the country as ""foreign agents" or "undesirable organizations."

Russian President Vladimir Putin has previously vowed to give a mirror-like response if the US decides to further restrict activities of Russian media outlets.
 

Russia Accuses US Of "State Hooliganism"

Against the constant tirade of US politicians calling Putin and his pals "thugs," a Russian official on Monday called the United States’ shuttering of Russian facilities "state hooliganism."

Reuters reports thAT Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov exclaimed,

"I am inclined to call what is happening state hooliganism."

This follows shocking revelations from Russia’s Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova that the FBI agents were searching the Russian diplomatic and consular compounds for explosive devices, something more common in the hideout of terrorist groups than in the embassies and consular properties of large states.

As TheDuran notes, during an interview on Rossiya One television, Zakharova described the incident in the following way,

“By the way, do you know, what they were looking for – as we were told before the searches? You would not believe it – they were looking for explosives”.

She added,

“Just try to imagine that you are being brainwashed for a year that an enemy is living overseas and this enemy is impacting your life and everything bad that might happen – the election of a president you don’t like – has been done by the Russians.

On September 2, black cars with FBI and State Department officers rolled up to our consulate general in San Francisco and they came into the building.

A day before, the directorate chief said that if the doors of our diplomatic compound, which is our property, were closed they would be broken. More to it, a car of a private company specialising in forcing open doors, locks and safes drove to our trade mission in Washington. We have posted this video in the internet.

I don’t know how our diplomats could find nerve enough to open the doors and be polite”.

With all this in mind, Irish Journalist Bryan McDonald asks American readers to put the shoe on the other foot for a moment...

Imagine an alternative universe where US officials reacted with outrage on Saturday after the Russian Foreign Ministry announced it was closing the US Consulate in Vladivostok and giving staff only 48 hours’ notice to evacuate.

To compound matters, on Monday, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) indicated its intention to carry out searches at the building on Tuesday afternoon. The raids would extend to trade missions in the capital, Moscow.

In Vladivostok, the operations won’t be restricted to US consular offices in the Far Eastern city, but will also take place at the apartments of staff who live in the building and who have diplomatic immunity. To perform those searches, Russian authorities have ordered those staff members and their families, including children and babies, to leave their homes for up to 12 hours.

"We are talking about an invasion in the consulate office and homes of diplomatic staff, who themselves are being ousted not to disturb FSB agents,” US State Department spokesperson Heather Ann Nauert complained. She pointed out that Washington was given just two days to close a consulate which serves the needs of “an area bigger than all of Europe.”

The Kremlin’s actions seriously violate international norms, including Moscow’s obligations in the Vienna declarations on diplomatic and consulate relations, Nauert said. These are “unprecedented measures on restricting the work” of the US diplomatic mission in Russia, she contested, “It is obvious that Russia is not interested in the development of relations between people.”

To make matters worse, Vladimir Putin’s spokesman confirmed his boss had personally ordered the measure. “This was a decision made by the president himself,” press secretary Dmitry Peskov told supporters. The US media was especially angered by Putin’s involvement, after he spent the past year promising to repair relations with Washington, repeatedly saying how “it’d be great to get along with America” and “we are going to have excellent relations.”

Mikhail Belov, a US expert, who has never been to America and can"t speak English, on news channel Rossiya 24 said: “We were all worried that Putin was going soft on the Americans when he started talking about making friends with them. The military industry will be relieved now he"s changing tack,” he said.

Real world woes

Obviously, the above is a joke. But the fact the US gave Russia two days last weekend to shut its San Francisco Consulate is no laughing matter. Nor were Saturday’s FBI raids on the building or the virtual mainstream media blackout of any dissenting views on the move. This would stand in stark contrast to the predictable reaction if Russia had even considered pulling a similar stunt.

Right now, the only conclusion to be drawn from Donald Trump’s choice is that Washington is actively looking for an escalation in its standoff with Moscow. Hoping Putin will take the bait and raise the stakes even further. Because how else can you interpret a move which would surely be hyped as an “act of war” if carried out by the Russian side?

For her part, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova insists America is seriously violating international regulations. She also says the latest US decision “even exceeds” Barack Obama’s move to expel Russian envoys and confiscate Russian consular property in the dying days of his presidency.

Zakharova may well be correct, because the searches of two compounds in Washington on Saturday certainly seemed like an illegal takeover, particularly in light of how the US authorities lifted diplomatic immunity from the trade mission compound at short notice – something considered extremely abnormal in diplomatic circles, especially between major powers.

So what happens next?

The main questions now are how will Moscow respond, and what do the US authorities hope to gain from their actions? Firstly, the Kremlin might not want to descend to the same level as their adversaries and may try to retake the moral high ground, as Putin did in response to Obama’s December orders. On the other hand, the Russians may feel enough is enough and prepare a similar clampdown on the Americans, perhaps by removing leisure facilities or conducting raids. Some well-placed sources have suggested a nuclear option where Moscow reduces its embassy personnel in the US to the bare minimum and forces their counterparts to do the same in Russia. A state-of-affairs which would see both sides restricted to their capital city properties only.

When it comes to working out what the Americans are really up to, the answer seems clear now. The White House wants to antagonize the Kremlin to such an extent that something like the extreme notion of a large-scale shutdown of bilateral interaction is implemented. In this event, the State Department may feel it gains by making Russia look like the petulant partner. The problem with this plan lies in how uncharacteristic it would be for Putin, and his foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, to take the bait.

The other confusing issue is Donald Trump’s behavior. He came to office promising a vast improvement in US-Russian relations. Thus, either he’s changed his mind, or he’s lost control of his own apparatchiks, and has been forced to surrender to their demands. Either way, America is now a dangerous rival, because there seems to be no longer any consistency in its conduct. And, barring impeachment or resignation, there’s still almost three and a half years of the Trump Presidency ahead. So, brace yourself, because things could get a lot worse.

Moscow Furious Over US Plan To Search Russia Trade Mission, Calls It "Unprecedented Aggressive Action”

Yesterday, the San Francisco fire department scrambled a team of firefighters to the city"s Russian consulate (scheduled to be vacated today in the latest tit-for-tat diplomatic escalation between the US and Russia) following reports of "blowing smoke" emerging from the building, only to learn that the Russians were engaged in what appears to have been some last minute confidential document "redaction."

Maria Zakharova, the spokeswoman for the Russian foreign ministry, explained that the smoke was part of a “mothballing” according to Reuters.

“In relation to this, the windows could be closed, the light could be turned off, the water could be drained out, the heating appliances could be turned off, the garbage could be thrown away, essential services could be turned off and many other things."

Of course, what was really going on was 11th hour document destruction (albeit the old-fashioned way, one not involving a hammer, blackberries, and thousands of deleted emails) and as subsequent events have showed, the Russians had reason to be paranoid: on Saturday, the US unveiled its intention to search the soon to be vacant Russian trade mission in Washington, a move which has infuriated Moscow, prompting Russia to summon the deputy chief of mission of the US Embassy in Moscow to lodge a note of protest over the planned search.

Anthony F. Godfrey was summoned to the ministry on Saturday, it said in a statement, adding that Russian diplomats have been denied access to the trade mission building despite it being owned by Russia and protected by diplomatic immunity. 

The ministry called the planned “illegal inspection” of Russian diplomatic housing an “unprecedented aggressive action”, which could be used by the U.S. special services for “anti-Russian provocations” by the way of “planting compromised items”.

“We consider the planned illegal search of Russian diplomatic premises in the absence of Russian officials and the threat we have received to break down the door of the building as an aggressive action, which the US intelligence service may use to orchestrate an anti-Russian provocation by planting compromising items."

We call on Washington to refrain from compromising the immunity of Russian missions in the USA https://t.co/A4eTKbhVUa#RussiaUSA pic.twitter.com/A8YkrLCWNP

— MFA Russia ???????? (@mfa_russia) September 2, 2017

Moscow has called on Washington to stop violating international law and refrain from compromising the immunity of Russian missions in the country. Otherwise, retaliation may follow, the ministry warned. On Friday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said the FBI was planning to search the general consulate premises, including homes of the diplomatic staff, which would violate diplomatic immunity.

Former US diplomats, questioned the reasons behind the searches, saying it will only lead to a further escalation of tensions. The US authorities are highly unlikely to find “anything of interest” in the Russian Consulate in San Francisco, as there is probably nothing more than “confidential diplomatic materials,” which are supposed to be there anyway, said Ted Seay, a former US diplomat.

“What are our people going to do in your ambassador’s apartments or in the consulate in San Francisco? Look for illegal recipes for borsch? Of course, you have to respond and to go into our consulate in St. Petersburg – looking for what? Perhaps, for too many copies of Doctor Zhivago in the embassy’s library?” John Graham, former US ambassador to Libya, said.

“This foolishness happens [but] it happens usually at the lower levels,” he added. Meanwhile, Seay warned that “things are already too tense between the two countries” and both sides should proceed with “great care. To me, that means again that anyone who is actually planning to raid diplomatic premises in San Francisco, has lost their mind,” the former US diplomat said.

Russia Is Pissed: Threatens To Spill Obama Admin Secrets If US Intel Doesn't Stop Leaking

This is a great find from Josh Caplan over at VesselNews / Gateway Pundit...

Towards the end of a press briefing in Russia late last week, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova made several comments about Russia"s frustrations with the Obama State Department over leaking diplomatic plans the United States had asked Russia to keep secret, and issued what can only be construed as a warning in response to the flood of highly classified information finding it"s way from the US Intelligence Community to the media.

The US Department of State has more than once asked us not to announce planned visits until the last minute. This is not our tradition. We have been operating openly for years, but we have respected the requests we have received from our colleagues in Washington in the past few years. But what happened after that? First, the US Department of State asked us to keep the planned visit quiet and not to announce it until the last possible minute, until we coordinated the date. We did as they asked. But a day or two later the information was leaked by the US State Department and sometimes by the US administration. Frankly, this put Russia and the media in a strange situation, because they didn’t know who to believe – the official agencies or the many leaks.

 Zakharova left the door open to diplomacy, implying it may have simply been how the Obama administration operated:

It is difficult to say if this diplomatic communication is a US tradition or the latest technique. As I said, such cases in our relations with the US Department of State have become a bad tradition over the past few years.

In regards to the leaks of highly classified information making it"s way out of the US Intelligence Community concerning Russia, a stern warning was issued:

Also, I would like to say that if the practice of leaking information that concerns not just the United States but also Russia, which has become a tradition in Washington in the past few years, continues, there will come a day when the media will publish leaks about the things that Washington asked us to keep secret, for example, things that happened during President Obama’s terms in office. Believe me, this could be very interesting information.

I wonder if that includes whatever President Obama was talking about with outgoing Russian President Dmitri Medvedev?

Obama: "After my election I have more flexibility"
Medvidev: "I will transmit this information to Vladimir" ???? https://t.co/lH3nQz4xZl???? pic.twitter.com/1ZtYkM6njd

— ZeroPointNow (@ZeroPointNow) March 28, 2017

You can read the entire briefing in English here.

Content originally generated at iBankCoin.com * Follow on Twitter @ZeroPointNow

Forgotten Interview Reveals How Russia Really Views Obama's Legacy

Authored by Darius Shatahmasebi via TheAntiMedia.org,

An overlooked interview of Maria Zakharova with Russia’s 1 TV Channel, Russia’s Foreign Affairs Spokesperson, on a national Russian TV show has brought insight into the frustration Russia encountered in dealing with the Obama administration over the years. Zakharova suggested President Barack Obama will go down in history as one of America’s evilest presidents.

In the program, Zakharova explains that Russia was warned countless times in 2015 during diplomatic talks that if they were to go into Syria to fight “terrorists,” their work would be undone by the media, which would label them the aggressor. This has clearly has been the case for the past year-and-a-half.

“[T]he media was one thing,” Zakharova noted. “The U.S. State Department and the White House, from the mouths of their official representatives, directly threatened to cause us pain.”

Zakharova continued:

“Then, official Foreign Affairs representatives began to call upon their people to come out and protest in front of Russian embassies.”

This is likely a reference to British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson’s calls for anti-war protesters to target Russia.

“That which began in October 2015 – ended with the murder of our Ambassador in December 2016.”

“I’ll remind you of one more thing – we’ve talked about this – let’s remember the real attacks. Not those campaigns with plastic arms and legs in London, or posters in front of our embassies in the E.U., but the shelling of the Russian Embassy in Damascus,” Zakharova also noted.

She then vented her frustrations regarding the instances when Vitaly Churkin (another diplomat who died mysteriously last month) questioned attacks committed by NATO-backed rebels in Syria at the U.N. According to Zakharova, the same diplomats who promised that Russia would feel pain for intervening in Syria were the same people blocking statements condemning these attacks, hindering progress on the issue. In doing so, Zakharova was unable to confirm if she was referring specifically to former secretary of state John Kerry, though this appears to be the implication of her allegations.

Asked about Obama’s failure to offer condolences for the death of Russia’s ambassador in Turkey in December 2016, Zakharova responded:

“Obama, I think, is a unique person…But Obama is a person, and I mean, the whole administration under him, whose team — as it worked out on the international arena — was bad for everyone. I think during his 8-year term, under the pretext of their “exclusivity,” they became the subject of disgust for the entire world. That is my impression.”

She continued:

“They did not deliver on any responsibilities they had to other nations, nor did they deliver on what the American people entrusted to them, on the international arena. This is an obvious thing.”

Zakharova didn’t hold back in her repeated criticism of the Obama administration.

“And the main thing – of course, I am not a lawyer or a human rights activist – but from a moral point of view they have committed crimes,” she added,  apparently disregarding numerous allegations against Russia’s complicity in war crimes of their own. “They showed us that the strongest military has unlimited rights to create evil.”

Nevertheless, Zakharova concluded:

“This is what’s going to go down in history for this administration. Let me say it again – they demonstrated that the strongest has the right to create evil.” [emphasis added]