Putin wants Russia to become “the largest world supplier of healthy, ecologically clean and high-quality food” — GMOs are banned

From RT
December 4, 2015

Russia could become the world’s largest supplier of ecologically clean and high-quality organic food, said President Vladimir Putin on Thursday. He also called on the country to become completely self-sufficient in food production by 2020.

© Eduard Korniyenko

“We are not only able to feed ourselves taking into account our lands, water resources – Russia is able to become the largest world supplier of healthy, ecologically clean and high-quality food which the Western producers have long lost, especially given the fact that demand for such products in the world market is steadily growing,” said Putin, addressing the Russian Parliament on Thursday.

According to the President, Russia is now an exporter, not an importer of food.

“Ten years ago, we imported almost half of the food from abroad, and were dependent on imports. Now Russia is among the exporters. Last year, Russian exports of agricultural products amounted to almost $20 billion – a quarter more than the revenue from the sale of arms, or one-third the revenue coming from gas exports,” he said.

Putin said that all this makes Russia fully capable of supplying the domestic market with home-grown food by 2020.

In September, the Kremlin decided against producing food products containing genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

Russia imposed an embargo on the supply of products from the EU and the United States as a response to Western sanctions. After Turkey shot down Russian Su-24 bomber, Russian authorities decided to ban the import of fruit, vegetables and poultry from Turkey. The ban will take effect from January 1.

https://www.rt.com/business/324605-russia-putin-healthy-food/

Also:

https://www.rt.com/usa/321630-oakland-monsanto-contamination-lawsuit/

https://www.rt.com/news/317638-eu-gmo-cultivation-opt-out/

 

US gives ISIS 45 minute warning before bombs, “runs out of ammo” against ISIS targets

See also NY Times article: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/17/world/middleeast/us-strikes-syria-oil.html?action=Click&contentCollection=BreakingNews&contentID=54598433&pgtype=article&_r=1

Global Research, December 04, 2015
Activist Post 2 December 2015
isis-oil-1024x575

Ever since the Russians began dropping real bombs on real ISIS targets in Syria, the United States and NATO have been forced to engage in a two-sided propaganda campaign that swears opposition to ISIS while simultaneously doing everything it can to facilitate and protect ISIS forces on the ground. It has also found itself in the bizarre position of trying to facilitate the death squad army while, at the same time, attempting to play catch-up to the Russians in at least the appearance of bombing ISIS.

Thus, when Russian forces truly hit at one of the sources of ISIS funding – the captured oil being shipped from Syria and Iraq to Turkey where it is purchased by Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan’s son, Bilal – the United States must then engage in its own faux bombing campaign against ISIS oil trucks.

Yet, instead of actually bombing the trucks – drivers and all – and putting them out of commission permanently, the U.S. bombing campaign takes the form of a laughable formality that involves a 45-minute warning to the oil convoys that a U.S. bombing campaign is about to take place. The warning involves an airdrop of leaflets to the tankers that read

“Get out of your trucks now, and run away from them. Warning: air strikes are coming. Oil trucks will be destroyed. Get away from your oil trucks immediately. Do not risk your life.”

The justification is that the drivers of the tankers might be civilians and not actual ISIS members.

Of course, there is no mention of the fact that, in any other context, an individual who renders “material support to terrorists,” particularly in the form of driving tankers of stolen oil in a war zone that will be used to fund the terrorist organization would killed without question under that designation.

There is also no mention as to why these “potential civilians” received ample warning but true civilians receive no such courtesy. It is truly a pity that the U.S. did not drop leaflets to the million Iraqis it has killed over the last decade or the thousands of Libyans that died at the hands of NATO.

Still, one need only look at the numbers of destroyed oil tankers racked up by the U.S. in comparison to the Russians to see a distinct difference. The United States, according to Col. Steve Warren, has taken out only 116 tankers since the bombing campaign began while the Russians have eliminated over 1,000 in five days. Remember, until the Russians began bombing the oil tankers, the United States had yet to launch an attack on them.

Even more laughable was the response that came when the U.S. military was questioned as to why they were unable to destroy more trucks than they did after such a highly publicized strategy. According to Army Co. Steve Warren, the American jets simply “ran out of ammo” in the process. “The goal was to destroy every truck there. They ran out of ammunition before they were able to do that. But the desire was to destroy every single truck there,” he said.

Even with the new attempt to be seen as truly aimed at fighting ISIS in the eyes of the gullible American public, the U.S. has been forced to use videos and photographs from Russian bombings to purvey across the mainstream media due to the fact that American strikes on ISIS oil trucks are so rare.

The pathetic propaganda fail by the United States military now stands as yet one more example of how the United States is not at all interested in defeating ISIS but instead on defeating Assad, Iran, and the Russians.

Indeed, American foreign policy propaganda would be greeted as much needed comic relief if it were not so tragic and potentially dangerous to the rest of the world.

Brandon Turbeville – article archive here – is an author out of Florence, South Carolina. He has a Bachelor’s Degree from Francis Marion University and is the author of six books, Codex Alimentarius — The End of Health Freedom7 Real ConspiraciesFive Sense Solutions and Dispatches From a Dissident, volume 1 and volume 2The Road to Damascus: The Anglo-American Assault on Syria, and The Difference it Makes: 36 Reasons Why Hillary Clinton Should Never Be President. Turbeville has published over 500 articles dealing on a wide variety of subjects including health, economics, government corruption, and civil liberties. Brandon Turbeville’s podcast Truth on The Tracks can be found every Monday night 9 pm EST at UCYTV. He is available for radio and TV interviews. Please contact activistpost (at) gmail.com.

Russia starts supplying power to Crimea

From NHK World, Japan
12-3-15

Russia has started to supply electricity to Crimea as large-scale blackouts continue in the peninsula.

Crimea was annexed by Russia in March of last year.

It has been suffering blackouts since November 22nd. Ukrainian activists who oppose the annexation are suspected of blowing up electricity pylons in Ukraine.

The Russian government has declared a state of emergency and is working to repair the power lines.

Russia began supplying electricity on Wednesday after workers partially completed the construction of undersea cables connected to Crimea via the Black Sea, ending its reliance on Ukraine.

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, who is visiting Crimea, said the start of power supplies is significant in securing electricity for the peninsula. He urged workers to speed up building other cables.

Russian media report that about 900,000 people in Crimea were without electricity as of Wednesday. Water supplies are also restricted.

Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak says power from Russia only covers 60 percent of that needed so far.

The Russian government plans to begin supplying power through another cable this month.

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20151203_31.html

NOTE: “Activists” blow up electricity pylons? No, that’s terrorism. “Crimea annexed by Russia”, with no mention of the Crimean referendum to rejoin Russia overwhelmingly approved.

NATO discussing ways to provoke Russia further

Global Research, December 02, 2015

On Tuesday and Wednesday, NATO foreign ministers are meeting in Brussels on the pretext of “work(ing) on further measures to assure Turkey’s security,” and related issues, based on a nonexistent Russian threat.

It sounds like a bad joke, except issues at stake are deadly serious, Russia-bashing featured in all NATO meetings, Erdogan’s well-planned act of aggression complicit with Washington called self-defense, Secretary-General Stoltenberg saying:

NATO has “standing defense plans for (member country) Turkey (including) augmented…air defenses, (part of its) long-term commitment to an ally” – despite no nation threatening its security.

Washington “deployed aircraft to support Turkey’s air defenses” – Britain to follow suit along with Germany and Denmark. “(W)e have decided to address the need to support Turkey before the incident last week.”

Were NATO officials briefed about plans to down a Russian aircraft before the incident? All the fuss about Turkey reflects the latest way of bashing Russia.

Are plans to defend Turkish airspace code language for more anti-Russian provocations?

Turkey already has one of the world’s strongest militaries, waging terror war against regional Kurds, entering Syrian and Iraqi airspace lawlessly, killing its fighters battling ISIS, Erdogan lying about combating terrorism.

Aiding its military with US and other NATO member countries’ firepower increases the chance of direct confrontation with Russia. Is this what Washington intends, Erdogan recklessly going along, possibly getting embroiled with something way over his head, gravely risking Turkey’s security by playing America’s dirty game?

Stoltenberg called enhanced Russian eastern Mediterranean and Baltic Sea region military capability a matter of “concern” – ignoring NATO’s hostile buildup and provocative military exercises near its borders, Russia responding responsibly to a confrontational US-led threat.

Stoltenberg claims NATO must focus on new ways of deterring a (nonexistent) Russian threat.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net

His new book as editor and contributor is titled “Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.”

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com. 

Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network.

It airs three times weekly: live on Sundays at 1PM Central time plus two prerecorded archived programs.

Bombshell: Russian Military Reveals Details of ISIS-Daesh Funding, Turkey’s Role in Supporting the Terrorists, Complete Transcript, Videos, Documents

Global Research, December 03, 2015

Russian Defense Ministry held a major briefing:

“A whole team of bandits and Turkish leadership [Erdogan’s family as well] stealing oil from their neighbors and are involved in illegal oil trade with ISIS” ~

[Full Video and Transcript of the Briefing by the Russian Ministry of Defence, 2 Dec. 2015]

.

FULL VIDEO REPORTS

Video Report by Russia Today

(with English translation)

Original video by Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation
(with English translation) 

FULL TRANSCRIPTS (3)

Deputy Defence Ministry Anatoly Antonov-1

(1) FULL SPEECH of the Russian Deputy Defence Minister Anatoly Antonov during the briefing “Russian Federation Armed Forces fighting against international terrorist. New data”

International terrorism is the world’s biggest threat today. It is not an imaginary threat. It is very real, and many countries, particularly Russia, have firsthand experience of suffering from it.

The notorious Islamic State is the absolute leader of international terrorism.

But there are ways to combat the raging monster of international terrorism, and defeat it. Russian Aerospace Forces have evidently demonstrated that over the past two months.

We are convinced that, in order to defeat ISIS, it is instrumental to deal a crushing blow to its sources of funding, as Russian President Vladimir Putin has pointed out on many occasions. Terrorism without money is a beast without its fangs.

Illegal oil revenues are one of the main sources of income for the terrorists in Syria. According to some reports, they make about $2 billion a year on illegal oil trade.

Turkey is the main destination for the oil stolen from its legitimate owners, which are Syria and Iraq. Turkey resells this oil. The appalling part about it is that the country’s top political leadership is involved in the illegal business — President Erdogan and his family.

We have warned on many occasions how dangerous it is to court terrorists. It is the same as pouring gasoline on fire. Fire may spread onto other countries, and that is exactly what we are seeing in the Middle East.

Today, we will present to you only part of the available facts that prove there is a single team at work in the region, composed of extremists and the Turkish elites conspiring to steal oil from their neighbors. Oil is transported to Turkey in industrial quantities along the “rolling pipelines” made up of thousands of tanker trucks.

We are certain that Turkey is the destination for that stolen oil, and today we will present you with irrefutable facts to prove it.

We have a lot of media people with us today, and many more of your colleagues will see broadcasts of this briefing. In view of this, there is one thing I would like to tell you.

We appreciate the work of journalists. We know there are many brave, courageous people in the press community, who do their job with integrity.

Today, we showed you how illegal oil trade is carried out, resulting in the funding of terrorism. We have presented you with hard evidence, which we believe could be used for journalist investigations.

We are confident that, with your help, truth will prevail.

We know how much Erdogan’s words are worth. He has already been caught red-handed by Turkish journalists, who have unearthed arms and munitions shipments from Turkey to the extremists, masked as humanitarian convoys. For that, those journalists have been jailed.

Turkish leaders, including Mr. Erdogan, would not step down or admit anything even if their faces were smeared with stolen oil. Maybe I am being a bit too blunt, but our comrades in arms have fallen at the hands of the Turkish military.

The Turkish leadership has demonstrated extreme cynicism. Look at what they are doing! They have invaded the territory of another country and are brazenly plundering it. And if the hosts are standing in their way, they must be removed.

I would like to emphasize that Erdogan’s resignation is not our goal. It’s up to the people of Turkey to decide.

Our purpose is fighting terrorism. Our objective is to shut down the sources of financing of terrorism. We call upon all those present here to join us in this effort. We are prepared to make your findings available to the public. We will continue to present you and the general public with evidence related to the financing of international terrorism.

Maybe, I would be too straightforward, but the control over this larcenous business can be trusted only to the closest people. It is interesting that no one in the West do not ask themselves a question, why the son of the Turkish President is the head of one of the largest energy companies and the son-in-law – the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources?

There are no opinions in the western media on this matter, but I am sure that the truth cannot be hidden.

Of course, the dirty oil dollars will work. I am sure that there will appear conversations that all the data demonstrated here is a fake. Well, if there is nothing to hide, let the journalists visit those areas, which are shown during the briefing.

It is evident that it was just a part of published information about heinous crimes committed by the Turkish elite, who were financing the international terrorism directly. Any sober-minded journalist is considered to fight the plague of XXI century.

The global experience has repeatedly proved that objective journalism can be an effective and dangerous weapon against different finance corruption schemes.

We encourage the colleagues for conducting a journalistic investigation on disclosure of schemes of financial support providing and delivering oil products from terrorists to the customers. Moreover, oil produced by the terrorists is transferred to other regions from the Turkish ports.

The Russian Defence Ministry will continue publishing materials concerning delivering oil products by terrorists to the foreign countries and informing about operations carried out by the Russian Aerospace Forces.

Let’s join our efforts.

We will be liquidating income sources of terrorism in Syria. Join us and do the same out of the Syrian borders. Lt.Gen. Sergei Rudskoy-1

(2) FULL SPEECH of the Chief of the Main Operational Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Lt.Gen. Sergei Rudskoy

It will be impossible to achieve a real victory against ISIS without shutting down its sources of funding.

As Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov has already mentioned, illegal oil trade is the main source of income for terrorists.

To terminate this source of funding, the Russian Aerospace Forces have been delivering airstrikes on oil extraction, storage, refining and transportation facilities in ISIS-controlled areas.

Over the past two months, Russian air strikes have inflicted damage on 32 oil production facilities, 11 refineries and 23 oil pumping stations. A total of 1,080 tanker trucks carrying oil and petroleum products have been destroyed.

This has enabled us to reduce the illegal oil turnover in Syria by almost 50 percent.

According to the most conservative estimates, the terrorist group’s revenues from its illegal oil operations have gone down from $3 million to $1.5 million a day. Multiply that figure by 4 years. After Russian strikes the terrorists’ income has decreased and constitutes 1,5 million dollars a day.

However, terrorist organizations continue to receive considerable financial resources, as well as weapons, ammunition and other supplies for their activities. Certain nations, primarily Turkey, are directly involved in Islamic State’s large-scale business project, thereby aiding the terrorists.

The General Staff of the Russian Federation Armed Forces has irrefutable evidence of Turkey’s involvement based on aerial and space reconnaissance data.

Today only a part of available information is to be presented.

We have identified three main oil transportation routes from ISIS-controlled Syrian and Iraqi territories into Turkey.

The Western route leads to the Mediterranean ports, the Northern route leads to the Batman oil refinery and the Eastern one ends at a large transshipment base in Cizre.

We will show you the entire chain of oil supplies into Turkey, from extraction to refining facilities.

Along the Western route, hydrocarbons produced from the oil fields near Al-Raqqah are transported to the north-west of Syria by motor vehicles.

The image made on November 13, 2015 shows the stretch of the highway near the town of Azaz linking Turkey and Syria where you can see a concentration of vehicles carrying petroleum products.

The area “A”, located on the Turkish side, shows 240 oil tanker trucks and semi-trailer vehicles. In the area “B”, located at the Syrian side, you can see 46 oil tanker trucks and vehicles waiting to cross the border.

According to available data, a number of tanker trucks are disguised as simple heavy vehicles.

Similar map can be seen near Reyhanli

Despite the fighting in the Aleppo province, you can see a constant two-way flow of motor vehicles, as well as a large amount of motor vehicles on Turkish territory.

The video shows vehicles, which are freely crossing of the border. Here the Syrian territory is controlled by the Jabhat al-Nusra illegal armed grouping, which allow the oil tanker trucks and heavy vehicles with oil to enter the territory of Turkey. These vehicles are not checked at the Turkish side of the border. There are hundreds of such vehicles.

https://www.youtube.com/ embed/AHx-4XCgzDY

Heavy vehicles are crossing Syrian-Turkish border with no restrictions near Reyhanli

The image taken on November 16 shows up to 360 oil tanker trucks and heavy vehicles close to the Syrian border.

Up to 160 oil tanker trucks that just crossed the border are located in area “B”. In the direction of the checkpoint located in the area “A”, a convoy of 100 vehicles is heading to the Syrian border.

Space reconnaissance data confirmed that after crossing the border oil tank trucks and semi-trailers are heading to the ports of Dörtyol and Iskenderun, where special mooring places for tankers are equipped. There, one part of the oil is loaded into the vessels and is sent to oil proceeding facilities beyond the borders of Turkey. The other is sold on the domestic Turkish market. On average, one tanker is loaded with oil in these ports every day.

The space images of this ports dated November 25, 2015, show a concentration of petrol tank vehicles, which are waiting for shipment.

395 petrol tank vehicles were detected in Dörtyol, and 60 in Scanderoon.

The next route leads to Turkey from the oil fields located at the Euphrates right bank. The region near Deir ez-Zor is one of the largest oil extracting and oil refining centers that is currently under the ISIS control

A large number of oil refining facilities is located here, one of them can been seen at the screen.

In this region, a concentration of petrol tank vehicles awaiting shipment is constantly registered. Photos of automobile columns with little distance between each other are presented.

In the area of Deir-ez-Zor, space intelligence means detected 1722 oil transporting vehicles on October 18, 2015. Most vehicles were on the unequipped parking areas.

It is worth mentioning that the number of trucks at waiting areas, located in Deir-ez-Zor as well as in other Syrian regions has been significantly decreased since the beginning of the operation carried out by the Russian Aerospace Forces against the ISIS oil infrastructure.

There is no need to speak about ecology consequences of barbarian oil production.

Terrorists built oil lakes in the sand. One of them is located in Raqqah.

After being loaded with oil, columns of trucks are moving from the Eastern regions of Syria to Kamisli border town and waiting for their turn.

The presented photos, which were made this August, demonstrate hundreds of oil trucks and heavy vehicles moving both to and from the Turkish border.

Finally, the most part of oil is being transferred from the Eastern Syria to a large oil refinery plant in Batman (Turkey), which is located 100-kilometers far from the Syrian border.

The third oil transportation route to Turkey is laid from oil fields located in the North-East of Syria and North-Western areas of Iraq through Karachok and Cham Khanik Syrian towns and Zakho and Tatvan Iraqi ones.

The photos demonstrate concentration areas of trucks and heavy vehicles located near these towns.

On 28 November, 50 oil trucks were registered near Karachok on the territory of oil transferring point.

The photo demonstrates waiting areas of oil trucks located at the Syrian-Iraqi borderline near Cham Khanik. There were registered 380 vehicles in August. Everything has remained the same.

Reconnaissance is still registering movement of a large number of tanker vehicles crossing the Turkish and Iraqi borders. Even more tanker vehicles are registered on the Iraqi-Turkish border. Their amount has not decreased for the last three months.

Therefore, footage, dating from November 14, allowed detecting 1,104 oil trucks and heavy vehicles near Zakho and Tatvan.

They can’t fail to be noticed.

However, there not strikes on these columns from the coalition party. Only significant increase in the number of strategic UAVs is being observed.

Taking into consideration the fact that there are no strikes by the US-led coalition, the coordinates of active concentration areas with tanker trucks near certain inhabited areas will be published on the Russian Defence Ministry web-site after the briefing.

Then the trucks are crossing the borderline near Zakho with no restriction. Oil products are transported from Zakho to refinery plants. The nearest one is located in Batman. Oil products can be also transported to the large logistics center of the route, which is located close to the border between Iraq and Turkey, near Silopi.

The photo taken from the space on November 14 demonstrates presence of 3,220 oil trucks and vehicles. There is no need in further comments. The scale of the illegal business are truly impressive.

In total, in their illegal oil business, terrorists are using no less than 8,500 trucks transporting up to 200,000 tons of oil every day. Most of the vehicles are entering the Turkish territory from Iraq.

The Russian aviation group will continue performing tasks concerning liquidating oil infrastructure facilities of the ISIS terrorist organization in the Syrian Arab Republic. The Russian Defence Ministry also encourages the coalition colleagues to such actions.

Lt.Gen. Mikhail Mizintsev-1

(3) FULL SPEECH of the Chief of the Main Operational Directorate of Chief of National Centre for State Defence Control Lt.Gen. Mikhail Mizintsev

Convincing and irrevocable facts of a large-scale and harsh of theft energy resources from the sovereign state of Syria have been demonstrated today.

It is to be stressed that financial flows from the resale of oil products aim not only to enrich the leadership of Turkey; they are partially, but in large quantities, returned to the Syrian Arab Republic in terms of weapons, ammunition and mercenaries of different kind.

This week, ISIS and Jabhat al-Nusra has been reinforced with up to 2,000 militants, approximately 120 tons of munitions and 250 pieces of automobile hardware coming from Turkey.

According to the hard evidence gained in the course of intelligence, the Turkish party has been providing such activities regularly and for a long time. They do not even plan to stop doing it.

Certainly, next week we will inform you about delivery of weapons, ammunition, components of explosives, communication and other means by the Turkish party, training of terrorists in camps in the Turkish territory.

Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation briefing-2

Russia says Turkish leadership involved in illegal oil trade with DAESH ~ [summary]

(RussiaToday Report, 2 Dec. 2015) ~ Turkey’s leadership, including President Erdogan and his family, is involved in illegal oil trade with Islamic State militants, says the Russian Defense Ministry, stressing that Turkey is the final destination for oil smuggled from Syria and Iraq.

The Russian Defense Ministry held a major briefing on new findings concerning IS funding in Moscow on Wednesday.

According to Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov, Russia is aware of three main oil smuggling routes to Turkey.

“Today, we are presenting only some of the facts that confirm that a whole team of bandits and Turkish elites stealing oil from their neighbors is operating in the region,” Antonov said, adding that this oil “in large quantities” enters the territory of Turkey via“live oil pipelines,” consisting of thousands of oil trucks.

Antonov added that Turkey is the main buyer of smuggled oil coming from Iraq and Syria.

“According to our data, the top political leadership of the country – President Erdogan and his family – is involved in this criminal business.”

However, since the start of Russia’s anti-terrorist operation in Syria on September 30, the income of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) militants from illegal oil smuggling has been significantly reduced, the ministry said.

© syria.mil.ru

© syria.mil.ru ~ [click to enlarge]

“The income of this terrorist organization was about $3 million per day. After two months of Russian airstrikes their income was about $1.5 million a day,” Lieutenant-General Sergey Rudskoy said.

At the briefing the ministry presented photos of oil trucks, videos of airstrikes on IS oil storage facilities and maps detailing the movement of smuggled oil. More evidence is to be published on the ministry’s website in the coming says, Rudskoy said.

The US-led coalition is not bombing IS oil trucks, Rudskoy said.

murad-turk

Live Updates (click):

Russian military reveals new details of ISIS funding

Russian Tu-22 MZ strategic bombers

Tu-22 MZ strategic bombers of Russia’s Aerospace Defense Forces set to hit ISIS targets in Syria © Ministry of defence of the Russian Federation / Sputnik

Russia’s five fronts

Will the Western public actively oppose their governments’ attempts to destroy Russia?

Posted on Fort Russ

November 30th, 2015
Katehon

In the near future, the Kremlin will be forced to focus on five areas of conflict, which are evident from the explicit and indirect threats to the Russian state.
Turkey as a new element of instability
Increased activity from Turkey, with the support of the US and the EU, could put Russia in a difficult position. Northern Syria may be subject to attacks not only from militants but also from Turkish government forces. Previously, Ankara announced its intention to support the Syrian Turkmen who live in that area. After the incident with the downed Russian jet, Turkey may behave more aggressively. As a member of NATO, it has received support from the EU. Enticed with the promise of membership in the future, in exchange for the containment of immigrants, Erdogan will have more latitude. The conflict with Russia is also beneficial to Erdogan, as it diverts attention away from internal problems and scandals.
Ukraine
The escalation of the conflict in Syria can be used by Ukraine to intensify military operations in the Donbass. The situation in the Donetsk and Lugansk Republics has been quite tense as of late. We can not exclude the coordination of action on two fronts at the same time, through Washington. Since the Minsk Agreement cease-fire, any response from Lugansk and Donetsk Republics, and Russia’s support, will be used by the west to favor Kiev.
Fifth column
Russia’s previous actions to block internal agents of the West were quite successful. Opposition leader Alexei Navalny was adjudicated and a number of western accounts and revenue streams in Russia have been closed. The Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation recognized that the foreign “Open Society” and “Support” foundations are not desirable on Russian territory any longer. Nevertheless, events show that the West is using every opportunity to escalate social conflict in the country. So, the discontent truck drivers who disagree with the new tax, have already led into a coalition of disgruntled drivers with the political opposition that is artificially fueled by the western media.
The sixth column
The actions of officials and decision-makers may also adversely affect the consolidation of efforts of the Russian leadership. Liberals in the government, and advisers, can offer various forms of “exchange” with the West, which provides – one way or another – for the change of Russia’s position. For example, the rejection of Russia’s interests in Ukraine and Donbass in exchange for recognition of Moscow’s role in the fight against ISIS. Or, for example, the promise of lifting sanctions under certain conditions from Washington. Obviously, any demands from the West will lead to the further weakening of the role of Russia in the international stage, and reduce the prestige and power of the country. Therefore, the activities of the emissaries of the West, embodied in the sixth column, will meet resistance from the block of military and security agencies (the “siloviki”) around Vladimir Putin.
The threat of homegrown terrorism
At the same time, cells of the terrorist underground in the North Caucasus, the Volga region, and major cities of Russia may be activated. Although attempts to carry out attacks occur regularly, and in most cases are stopped by Russian law enforcement agencies, under more difficult conditions when resources are dispersed and attention is given to other issues, there is a risk that some attacks may take place.
It is obvious that the West is seeking to synchronize all these attacks on Russia for maximum effect.