Germany’s Foreign Intelligence Service (BND) to become branch of America’s CIA?

Global Research, June 08, 2016
Flag_of_the_United_States_and_Germany

According to a news report in the June 7th German Economic News (Deutsche Wirtschafts Nachrichten, or DWN), headlined “Merkel entmachtet BND: USA kontrollieren Spionage in Deutschland” or “Merkel Ousts BND: US to Control German Espionage,” a new law will soon be passed in the German parliament and be approved by Chancellor Angela Merkel, which will make Germany’s version of the CIA, the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), nothing more than a branch of the CIA, to such an extreme degree, that even U.S. corporate espionage against German companies will become part of that ‘German’ operation. The independent capacities of the BND will become emasculated, no longer operational, under the new law.

“In practice, this means that the US intelligence services [NSA] will be allowed to continue to listen in on every company and every individual in Germany.”

(That includes the Chancellor herself, whose phone-conversations were previously embarrassingly revealed to have been listened-in upon by the NSA. Now it’ll be legal.)

This could be part of the West’s buildup toward a global war. According to a report issued on June 6th in German Economic News, the German government is preparing to go to war against Russia, and has in draft-form a Bundeswehr report declaring Russia to be an enemy nation. DWN said there:

“The Russian secret services have apparently thoroughly studied the paper. In advance of the paper’s publication, a harsh note of protest has been sent to Berlin: The head of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Russian State Duma, Alexei Puschkow, has posted this Twitter message: ‘The decision of the German government declaring Russia to be an enemy shows Merkel’s subservience to the Obama administration.’”

Back on February 17th, DWN had reported that German Chancellor Merkel “will develop a new military doctrine” declaring, “The ‘annexation’ of Crimea by Russia is the basis for military action against Moscow.” Apparently, that prior report will soon be fulfilled.

Taken all together, these news reports from DWN indicate a clear subordination of the German government to the U.S. government, in a period of preparation for a NATO war against Russia.

However, not mentioned at all in the DWN articles — nor anywhere else in Western ‘news’ media — is a crucial fact, a fact that the head of America’s ‘private CIA’ firm Stratfor acknowledged only when addressing a Russian-speaking audience, because it reveals the fraudulence of the West’s alleged ‘justification’ for all of this economic and now also military action by the West against Russia: that (in English) the overthrow of Ukraine’s President in Russia’s neighboring nation of Ukraine during February 2014 was “the most blatant coup in history.” That coup, in turn, led to the separation from Ukraine of the two regions of Ukraine that had voted overwhelmingly for the President whom Obama had just overthrown.

Extensive video documentation exists demonstrating that the overthrow was a coup, and even demonstrating that the Obama Administration had selected Ukraine’s post-coup leader 22 days prior to his being formally appointed by the Ukrainian parliament. Furthermore, the only detailed scholarly study of the evidence that has been performed came to the same conclusion — that it was a U.S. coup. The last month before the coup was incredibly violent, with Obama’s hired fascists attacking the government’s securitly forces brutally: Here is some of the bloodshed from the prior month, on January 21st, then January 22nd, then January 25th.

Moreover, immediately after the overthrow, when the EU sent its own investigator into Kiev to report back on how the overthrow had taken place, he too reported that it had been a coup. Subsequently revealed was that the Obama Administration had started preparing the coup inside the U.S. Embassy in Kiev by no later than 1 March 2013 — almost a year prior to the coup. Also, the even earlier preparation for the coup, extending through decades, on the part of CIA-affiliated ‘nonprofit’ or NGO organizations (funded by Western aristocrats and their corporations), laying the groundwork for this coup, has been brilliantly documented at some online sites.

None of this information has been widely published — it’s virtually not at all published in the West.Though the potential audience for it might be vast (especially since Western publics pay much of the tab for this operation and yet receive none of the benefits from the resultant looting of Ukraine, which goes all to aristocrats in the U.S. and allied aristocracies), the market in the West for reporting it, is virtually nil, because the market is the West’s news media, and they’ve all (except for a few small ones like this) been taken over by the aristocracy, and serve the aristocracy — not the public (their audiences, whom they’re in business to deceive). The aristocracy’s companies advertise in, and thereby fund, most of those ‘news’ media, and the aristocracy’s governments fund the rest — and the public pays for that, too, not just by being manipulated to vote for the aristocracy’s politicians, but by being taxed to pay what the NGOs and their aristocrats don’t (so the public are buying the weapons etc.). It’s a vast money-funnel from the many, to the few.

Though the transfer of Crimea from Ukraine to Russia is treated by Western ‘news’ media as having been a‘conquest’ by Russia, and as being Russia’s ‘seizure’ of Crimea, and Russia’s ‘stealing’ Crimea, nothing of the sort is true (and Crimeans had good reason to be terrified of the Obama-coup regime that had just been installed, from which Russia saved Crimeans), but the lie needs to be promulgated in order for the aristocracy’s invasion of Russia to be able to organized and carried out.

Unfortunately, the reason why this U.S coup in Ukraine has still not been reported in the West, is that to make it public to Westerners would jeopardize not only the Western economic sanctions against Russia after Russia accepted the overwhelming decision by Crimeans to separate from the post-coup Ukrainian government, but would also jeopardize the preparations by all of NATO to go to war against Russia: both the sanctions and the invasion would have no basis and no support among Western publics. All of that (the sanctions, and now the pouring of troops and weapons onto and near Russia’s borders for a possible invasion of Russia) would no longer be at all palatable by Western publics, if this history — that it all began by a violent U.S. coup in Ukraine — were to become known before the U.S. and NATO invasion occurs. So it all remains, instead, suppressed in the‘democratic’ West.

So: please email this article’s URL address (which is immediately above this article), to friends, so as to spread to them the word, that NATO is preparing an invasion of Russia. There’s no way that the ‘news’ media they see are likely to tell them (until it’s already too late).

Author’s Note: The above news report was offered on the morning of June 7th as an exclusive, to the following newsmedia, all of whom ignored it; and so it’s now being distributed free-of-charge to all newsmedia, but the following were the newsmedia that had already declined it as an exclusive news report: The Daily Beast, Slate, The Intercept, Huffington Post, Salon, Common Dreams, Truthout, ProPublica, Harper’s, Atlantic, Foreign Policy, National Journal, AP, Globe and Mail, National Post, Telegraph, Guardian, Financial Times, The Economist, Daily Mail, London Times, London Review of Books, New Statesman, The Spectator, Bloomberg, NYT, McClatchy, CBS, CNN, Politico, The Nation, The National Interest, The New Republic, Reason, Rolling Stone, Buzzfeed, Newsweek, Time, USN&WR, Consortium News Service.

Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of  They’re Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records, 1910-2010, and of  CHRIST’S VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that Created Christianity.

The genocide continues: America attacks more native people to take their land — oppose this action!

This excellent group exposes what the US military is doing environmentally and domestically. Well worth subscribing to their articles.

From West Coast Action Alliance (http://westcoastactionalliance.org):

Tinian

Tinian Island after the military took it over for war games

May 30, 2016 – While the country celebrates Memorial Day and thanks veterans and serving military for their service to our nation, American citizens are about to be forcibly evacuated from an island they’ve inhabited for 3,000 years.

Pagan

Pagan Island (pronounced pa-GAHN) as it looks now, before the Navy claims it for bombing practice.

The people of the Northern Mariana Islands in the western Pacific  decided in the 1970s to not seek independence, but instead to forge closer ties with the United States. They established a commonwealth in political union with the United States in 1975. Like other U.S. territories, the islands do not have representation in the U.S. Senate, but, since 2009, are represented in the U.S. House of Representatives by a delegate who may vote in committee, but not on the House floor.

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The Northern Marianas are a US Commonwealth.

In 2013 the US Navy and Marine Corps announced their intention to turn all of Pagan Island (pronounced “pa-GAHN”) in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands into a live-fire bombing range and training area. The military requested “unfettered and uninterrupted access” to the island, which means the people are to be forcibly removed. Pagan is called “the jewel of the Pacific” because it’s pristine and biologically rich but also fragile. It has been the ancestral and spiritual home of the Chamorro and Carolinian peoples for more than 3,000 years, with recorded history dating back to the 1300s, and is being proposed as an ecotourism resort.

Pagan_usgs

Pagan Island. The Navy has refused to communicate with indigenous peoples in their own languages, thus denying them the right to know what the plans are.

Because of a 1981 volcanic eruption that caused temporary relocation of many but not all residents, families who had to leave the island have been wanting to return ever since. Some residents never left and still live there. “It is one of the most habitable islands in the Mariana chain,” said Dr. Michael Hadfield, a biologist at the University of Hawaii who has studied the island’s unique flora and fauna. Unfortunately, the government has for decades denied resettlement to most of the island’s former residents who have applied, and now the Navy and Marines claim the island is “uninhabited,” which is not true. Because of the volcano they say it’s “too hazardous” for resettlement. And they intend to forcibly evacuate the island’s remaining residents so bombing can commence in 2017.

According to the Los Angeles Times, massive, “guns-blazing war games on Pagan at least 16 weeks a year” would allow aerial, naval, field artillery, grenade, mortar, laser, and rocket bombardment. The Navy says it’ll be a good steward of the island, but with more than 700,000 live rounds to be fired yearly, that’s hard to imagine. And with fewer than 600 of the island’s 11,680 acres officially surveyed for cultural resources, how would the military know where not to bomb? More than 180 historic sites are known on the island, 110 of which are eligible for the National Register of Historic Places. Contractors working for the Navy identified six of those sites, after which the Navy discontinued the survey. That is the military equivalent of shoot, shovel and shut up.

A disturbing chain of events and manipulation has led to this crisis: READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE

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Opposition to forcible evacuation and seizing their ancestral home is universal in the western Pacific.

http://westcoastactionalliance.org/how-the-navy-gets-its-way-part-5-forcible-evacuation

Western Washington: Navy SEALs extend training 8 weeks longer in sensitive habitat areas, exclude wildlife agencies

From West Coast Action Alliance

February 23, 2016 – New documents show Navy SEALs training 8 weeks longer than previously thought: Federal wildlife agencies excluded.

1 Where the Birds are - arcgis viewer

Where the seabirds are. The darker the color, the more birds. See key below for actual numbers, but in the purple grids there can be more than 3,000 seabirds in a 2-mile area. Click image to enlarge it.

2 Where the birds are - key

This is what’s happening on 68+ beaches and State Parks in western Washington:

3 SEALs coming ashore

An email and an internal draft of a biological assessment obtained by the West Coast Action Alliance reveal the Navy’s intent to extend their secret and massive SEALs training program on 68+ beaches and Washington State Parks from January 1 to May 31, 2016, and to bypass consultations with federal wildlife agencies. The two Navy slide shows previously obtained by Truthout (12,) had indicated the training would start in mid-January and conclude in mid-April.

Springtime is when places like the Salish Sea are vital for nesting birds. Nursing whale mothers don’t like disturbance, either.

A photogrammetry image of the entire I16 matriline of Northern Resident killer whales taken in 2014. This image shows the size of whales at different ages. Note the small, gray calf in the middle (I144), only a few months old, swimming to the right of its mother (I51). To the left of the mother is the calf’s older sibling (I129). Images to be used for health assessment. Credit: NOAA Fisheries, Vancouver Aquarium. Taken by UAV from above 90 feet under Fisheries and Oceans Canada research permit and Transport Canada flight authorization. More information at http://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/podcasts/2015/10/uav_killer_whale.html

A photogrammetry image of the entire I16 matriline of Northern Resident killer whales taken in 2014. This image shows the size of whales at different ages. Note the small, gray calf in the middle (I144), only a few months old, swimming to the right of its mother (I51). To the left of the mother is the calf’s older sibling (I129). Images to be used for health assessment. Credit: NOAA Fisheries, Vancouver Aquarium.

These documents, from December 2015, contradict the statement made by a Navy spokesperson in January, who said: “As far as I know, everything is in the very, very beginning planning stages, period. There has been no decision made on anything. Everything is speculation at this point.”

Read it for yourself. Does this look like “beginning stages?” Is it speculation? The Navy doesn’t waste its time doing biological assessments for “speculation.” The purpose for this one was to justify avoiding consultations with federal agencies. It was done 15 days before the training was to start. That’s not enough time to do anything but try to cover one’s legal backside.

list of training sites for 2016 is included. Which means the other training sites in the two slide shows were for previous years. Which means decisions have been made, and it’s game on. From reading the multiple documents and in the absence of further information from wildlife agencies, it should be assumed that the SEAL combat training has been taking place in these areas since 2014.

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What some nests look like. Think they’ll see that in the dark?

According to the Navy’s internal biological assessment, the purpose of the training is “to provide a “real world” environment for Special Forces personnel to practice stealth tactics” (translate: in civilian communities) and “to maneuver in the water and across land undetected.” It acknowledged that by law the Navy must assess impacts to endangered species, and it laid out three choices: No effect; May affect; and May affect, likely to adversely affect. It also acknowledged the requirement to consult with federal agencies if any impacts were anticipated; this obligation extends to assessing impacts to Essential Fish Habitat, under the Magnusen-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, and consulting with the State and with the National Marine Fisheries Service if any impacts are anticipated.

6 Plover on nest

A plover on its nest on the beach.

The “problem” was neatly solved by the Navy claiming in its internal biological assessment that since there would be no impacts, there would be no need to consult with the agencies. That equaled no notification at all. A call to the Fish and Wildlife Service in January confirmed that they had had no idea that the massive SEALs training program was about to begin for 2016, and no idea that it had been occurring since 2014. The FWS confirmed a keen interest in consulting with the Navy about potential impacts.

7 Salmon habitat

UW map showing critical habitat for Chinook Salmon, Steelhead Trout, Chum Salmon, and the Puget Sound Chinook Salmon. And the Navy didn’t bother to tell wildlife agencies?

Some logical conclusions:

  • One would think that commandeering 68+ beaches and State Parks from January 1 through late Spring might affect nesting birds and other sensitive species, and therefore be of interest to wildlife agencies.
  • One might rightfully question the Navy’s own expertise in assessing impacts to wildlife, since it has called whales “obstacles to safe navigation” in reports and says the purpose of its Joint Land Use Plans with communities is to ensure the Navy’s own activities continue unimpeded.
  • Given that the Navy refuses to allow wildlife agencies to assist them with the training they need to recognize sensitive species, one might question the above even more.
  • One would be correct in assuming a public process is required in order to close off access to public lands. The answer to “Aren’t such arbitrary and unannounced closures outside the law?” is yes.
  • Even if they get in and out undetected, it’s still psychologically intrusive for users of those beaches and State Parks, the mission for which includes not one word about “Realistic Military Training.” It’s disturbing to think of having armed Navy SEAL kill teams practicing in the midst of families enjoying their State Parks. (Read the two slide shows to confirm the fact that these teams will be armed.)
  • We should all be questioning the “wisdom” of normalizing military combat training in civilian communities where it does not normally occur.

So, after all this, could anyone claim with a straight face that the Navy is even trying to be a good neighbor?

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Tufted puffin, a species in decline. Photo credit: C. Hanson.

Obviously, not everything the Navy does can be public knowledge. But to conceal such a massive program from state and federal agencies is inexcusable. While the West Coast Action Alliance is not against training our military, we object to doing it in the places where we live, work, and recreate. We object to concealing it from appropriate oversight of state and federal agencies. And the fact that public informed consent is completely absent from any of the Navy’s massive encroachments on our communities and the wildlife in this region merely adds insult to injury.

http://westcoastactionalliance.org/2232016-seals-training-8-weeks-longer-than-expected-wildlife-agencies-excluded

More proof of faked radical Islam: terrorists attacking Syria’s Aleppo despite start of Ramadan – Russian MoD

These attacks further unmask the terrorists; they aren’t Muslim. They’re mercenaries and pretenders, false-flagging their assaults by order of their sponsors. These terrorists are most likely to have either no religious affiliation or have religious affiliations that oppose and despise Islam. Unfortunately, Western audiences seem to repeatedly fall for the act.

From Sputnik
June 7, 2016

Terrorists are attacking residential areas, government forces and Kurds in Aleppo despite the start of Ramadan, a holy month for Muslims, the Russian reconciliation center in Syria said in a statement.

“Despite the start of Ramadan, a holy month for all Muslims, on Monday, terrorist groups are attacking not only the positions of the government forces and Kurds in Aleppo but residential areas as well. The number of civilian casualties is growing.

In the night, the terrorists purportedly fired multiple rocket launchers, artillery, mortars and anti-aircraft weapons at Aleppo, the center said.

“Over 24 hours, the settlement of Handrat, the al-Nairab airport as well as al-Muhafaza, Meydan, Sheikh Maqsood and al-Zahra districts in Aleppo were subjected to mass fire from multiple rocket launchers and mortars.”

The ceasefire in Syria worked out by Russia and the United States took effect on February 27. The cessation of hostilities does not apply to terrorist organizations, such as Daesh and al-Nusra Front, outlawed in a number of countries worldwide including Russia and the United States.

Syria has been mired in civil war since 2011, with government forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad fighting numerous opposition factions and extremist groups.

http://sputniknews.com/middleeast/20160607/1040898411/terrorists-aleppo-ramadan.html

Exposed: ‘US Special Forces in Afghanistan killed pregnant women, removed bullets’

From RT
June 3, 2016

© Lucas Jackson

Saudi-led coalition demands removal from ‘wildly exaggerated’ UN blacklist of child-killers in Yemen; UN caves to pressure

From RT

© Khaled Abdullah

UN adds Saudi-led coalition to blacklist for ‘killing & maiming’ children in Yemen

From RT

June 3, 2016

<iframe width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”https://www.rt.com/news/345333-saudi-coalition-un-blacklist/video/&#8221; frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen/><!–iframe>

People walk on the rubble of an electronics warehouse store after a Saudi-led air strike destroyed it in Yemen’s capital Sanaa February 14, 2016. © Khaled Abdullah / Reuters

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has slammed the Saudi-led coalition for “killing and maiming” children in Yemen, adding it to an annual blacklist of countries and armed groups that have violated children’s rights in conflict.

“Grave violations against children increased dramatically as a result of the escalating conflict,” a report released by Ban on Thursday states.

“In Yemen, owing to the very large number of violations attributed to the two parties, the Houthis/Ansar Allah and the Saudi Arabia-led coalition are listed for killing and maiming and attacks on schools and hospitals,” the secretary-general stated in the document.

According to the report, the coalition was responsible for 60 percent of child deaths and injuries in Yemen last year, killing 510 people and wounding 667 others.

The coalition was also behind half of the attacks carried out on schools and hospitals in Yemen.

The UN report added the coalition to its blacklist of groups that “engage in the recruitment and use of children, sexual violence against children, the killing and maiming of children, attacks on schools and/or hospitals and attacks or threats of attacks against protected personnel, and the abduction of children.”

The coalition began a military campaign against Houthi rebels in March 2015. It sides with the exiled President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, while the Houthis are aligned with former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who resigned in 2012 following a popular uprising against his rule. The conflict has left nearly 4,300 dead since March, half of them civilians, according to UN figures.

The Houthis have been on the UN blacklist for at least five years, and are considered “persistent perpetrators.”

The UN report also named armed groups in other countries, including in Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, Iraq, Mali, Myanmar, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Colombia, Nigeria and the Philippines.

Government forces in Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, Myanmar, South Sudan, Sudan and Syria were also named on the blacklist.

But although the UN’s report cited a deadly US airstrike on a hospital run by Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Kunduz, Afghanistan, it said the attack was carried out by “international forces” and did not add the US to the blacklist.

Ban did, however, urge all 193 UN member states to ensure their engagements in conflicts comply with international law.

“It is unacceptable that the failure to do so has resulted in numerous violations of children’s rights,” he said.

https://www.rt.com/news/345333-saudi-coalition-un-blacklist/

Izmailov: Zakharchenko will beat Poroshenko with words, one “direct line” at a time; Tyutchev on unity

From Fort Russ

June 3, 2016 –
Oleg Izmailov, PolitNavigator – 
Translated by J. Arnoldski
It is difficult to imagine a more powerful and effective weapon in the fight against the Kiev Nazis than the head of the Donetsk People’s Republic conversing with Russian people, as planned and realized throughout a huge arc stretching from Kharkov to Odessa.
Talking is necessarily interactive and, as the experience of the “direct lines” with three Novorossiyan regions (Kharkov, Odessa, Kherson) showed, these direct lines have been more open, lively, sincere, and useful than official events organized under the auspices of state and business structures.
The first and second assertions confirm that Zakharchenko and his entourage are right, and they are armed with the truth. Common truth and honesty. After all, people perfectly understand whether and when they talk “for show” and report and where they give the maximum information which citizens are deprived of in the fascist state.
Thus, the leader of Donbass, in his “direct lines,” is faced with so much pressure and, let’s not be afraid of this word, passion from both sides. Alexander Zakharchenko and the countrymen of Novorossiya hold an interesting conversation, sometimes argue, and sometimes ask for something. Most of all they ask to be liberated from the fascist yoke in which the crumbling country of Poroshenko and company is harnessed.
I myself had to answer phone calls from countrymen from my hometown of Krasny Liman concerning the DPR head’s “direct line” with residents of cities which have been snatched away from the republic…
I asked my friends: what would you ask Zakharchenko? Their answers were unpretentious and predictable: “We have only one question for him: ‘When will you return and liberate us from this plague?’ Our children are being actively brainwashed and recruits are being taken into the army fight against their brothers. This can’t last long.’”
Undoubtedly, this upcoming “direct line” on June 2nd will surpass the popularity, attendance, quantity, and quality all the three before. I think that the people of Donetsk on the occupied territories detached from the DPR and LPR by the terrorist group of the Poroshenko regime will get direct and honest answers from Alexander Zakharchenko. 
As we can see, the so far small yet similar communications of the head of the DPR with Novorossiyans are making him not only into a regional, but a common national leader – the head of not only smaller Novorossiya, but within the boundaries of the large, geopolitically delineated arch stretching from Kharkov to Odessa.
And you know what, I would not be surprised if people in the Malorossiyan regions of Great Rus – Chernigov, Poltava, Vinitsa, Zhitomyr, and Cherkasy – will also wait for Zakharchenko’s voice tomorrow. Undoubtedly, of course, in ancient Kiev as well, which was appointed by history “to be the mother of all Russian cities.” 
The inviolable bookshelves of Russian history, truth, faith, and love stand behind Zakharchenko, behind us, and behind Donbass and the whole Russian world from Brest to Kamchatka and from Kiev to Tashkent and Kushka. 
We have always lived and will continue to live according to the words of Fedor Tyutchev:
“’Unity’, announced the oracle of our days,
‘Can be welded out of blood and iron
But we will try to weld it with love
And we will see that is durable…’”
This fragment is from the famous poem “Two Unities” written in September of 1870 just when the Welshman John Hughes landed in Taganrog to build the factory “of Novorossiyan society”, around which Donetsk grew for 150 years, where I am currently writing these lines. 
Editor: An English translation of the full poem can be found in The Complete Poems of Tyutchev in an English Translation by F. Jude — Poem 360 “Two Unities”
I would re-write the first paragraph for these days thus:
Blood is pouring over the brim of the cup
Filled to overflowing by the wrath of the West
And the world is drowning in it.
Your blood is being taken, is being spilled, is being thrown away, my friends, my brothers, my sisters!
Slavonic world, pull together, pull close together!
…………
[From Tyutchev translated by Jude]
“Unity”, an oracle of our century has said,
“can only be welded by iron and blood.”
Well, we’ll try welding it with love.
Let’s see which lasts the longer.

Zakharchenko inspects contact line in Donetsk (VIDEO)

From Fort Russ

6th June, 2016


Unlike the US-backed puppet sat in Kiev, Zakharchenko personally visits the line of contact, risking his life to ensure the morale of the NAF is in good stead. In the video we can see him awarding soldiers, assisting reconnaissance, driving near the airport, and ensuring the attire of his troops is adequate enough for combat.

http://www.fort-russ.com/2016/06/zakharchenko-inspects-contact-line-in.html

Pushilin: Elections are our defense against Kiev’s new strategy of sabotage; Zakharchenko holds conferences with South-East regions

From Fort Russ

June 6, 2016 –
Sergey Stepanov, PolitNavigator – 
Translated by J. Arnoldski
The Ukrainian oligarchs have realized that Donbass cannot be taken by military force, so they’ve changed their strategy to sending in their agents. The Donetsk People’s Republic has decided to hold primaries in order to exclude a victory of Kiev’s henchmen in upcoming elections. This and more was discussed by the speaker of the People’s Council of the DPR, Denis Pushilin in an interview with PolitNavigator.
PolitNavigator: Alexander Zakharchenko has stated that primaries will be held in Donbass. What does this mean for the DPR?
Denis Pushilin: Preliminary voting will offer us the opportunity to identify the best and brightest candidates who will represent the republic in potential elections. They should take place insofar as the Minsk Agreements are fulfilled.
[On the other hand], we perfectly understand that in order to win on the battlefield, soldiers need to train. 
PN: And who is going to be defeated?
DP: There are various threats in the political arena. The elections will be held on a majority system and candidates can be self-nominated. It is impossible to foresee everything, but we need to get ourselves in order so that representatives of the oligarchy or veiled represents of the parties on the other side of the contact line do not get in. 
We know that, as is happening now, a fifth column has infiltrated us.
PN: Are representatives of the Ukrainian oligarchs trying to infiltrate the DPR?
DP: Insofar as it is becoming clear that Donetsk and Lugansk cannot be taken by force, and that all that is necessary is the fulfillment of the Minsk Agreements, the oligarchs are attempting to penetrate the existing organs of power in the republic.
This has been recorded, detected, and now the Ministry of State Security is at work. 
PN: And what happens to such people?
DP: As a minimum, they are dismissed if nothing else is decided. You have to understand that they don’t have to do anything now. Perhaps this is a “long-term” game in which the priorities of the republic will be distorted and the realization of national projects will be sabotaged.
We need to fight corruption now. We have already managed to handle this to a certain extent, but it will return depending on whether the old elite will worm its way into the new government. 
PN: Literally just the other day the Verkhovna Rada amended the Constitution and held a “judicial reform.” Why were voices in favor of this able to be found in the Ukrainian parliament while Poroshenko can’t even find the needed number of deputies to support the realization of the Minsk Agreements?
DP: Ukraine has not been a subject of decision-making for a long time already. We perfectly understand that if the West wanted to, then it would find levers of influence in order to make Kiev vote. If it was so demanded, then Kiev would vote for everything needed in the Verkhovna Rada, even in violation of the rules and ignoring the views and interests of the citizens of former Ukraine.
PN: Is there hope that in 2016 Ukraine will take all the necessary decisions in regards to elections in Donbass?
DP: The chances are virtually close to zero. I don’t see any intentions on the part of Kiev to reconcile positions with Donbass. In the framework of the subgroup on political issues, we are largely on the same levels of agreement as we were a year ago.
PN: So the Minsk Agreements could be extended again?
DP: This is quite likely.
PN: Have there been any changes to the positions of the Ukrainian side at the negotiations in Minsk?
DP: There have been no changes either for better or for worse. We are in a period of stagnation. The Ukrainian side has chosen a strategy of delay. And the frequent replacement of Kiev’s representatives at negotiations is connected with this.
PN: Alexander Zakharchenko is currently holding a whole series of conferences with the regions of the South-East. Does this yield positive effects?
DP: There is a huge demand for this. We see that with each new conference the number of questions increases. We are learning to model certain situations. For example, the SBU is raising noise that we are actually unknowingly helping to spread information about the upcoming “hot line.”
Dialogue is important. People are interested in what’s happening in the republics because the picture which is painted by Ukrainian media differs strongly from reality.
PN: It has already been announced that the next conference with Alexander Zakharchenko will be held with Zaporozhye. Why is this city important?
DP: All cities are important, but, in first place of course are those of Greater Novorossiya. But other regions are also important. I think that Alexander Vladimirovich Zakharchenko will hold “hot lines” with all of them.