Tag: russia

George Clooney’s Foundation to Issue Arrest Warrant Requests for Journalists who say Nice Things About Russia

The Clooney Foundation for Justice’s Docket Project is pursuing secret arrest warrants for journalists in Europe whose reporting is favorable to Russia in a move that a Kremlin spokesperson has labeled “insane.”

By now, we’re all painfully aware that facts and truth don’t matter to a lot of people if they don’t align with their views, and now this foundation, which was founded by actor George Clooney and his wife, human rights lawyer Amal Clooney, is trying to use legal processes to stop professionals from doing their jobs.

The Docket Project’s legal director, Anna Neistat, recently told Voice of America radio that they are attempting to obtain the arrest warrants by appealing to the European countries that have laws against “war propaganda.” She announced: “We are submitting requests to initiate criminal proceedings in countries where this provision exists in the criminal code.”

She added: “If the warrant is issued, it essentially becomes an EU-wide warrant through Europol. This means journalists could potentially be arrested and extradited to the country investigating them.”

She would not disclose the names of the journalists they are targeting but did admit that they were focusing on “the most prominent Russian propagandists.”

Keep reading

US ‘flirting with neo-Nazis’ – Kremlin

Washington will stop at nothing, including the use of neo-Nazis, to damage Russia, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday, following a US decision to lift a ban on supplying weapons to Ukraine’s Azov Brigade.

The unit has notoriously welcomed into its ranks people who espouse ultranationalist and neo-Nazi ideologies, and has been described by the Western press as a magnet for such individuals from across the world.

On Monday, the US Department of State cleared the brigade to receive American military assistance, stating that it found no evidence of human rights violations by the group.

“This sudden change of stance by Washington proves that [US officials] would stoop to anything in their attempts to suppress Russia, using the Ukrainian people as a tool. They are even fine with flirting with neo-Nazis,” Peskov told journalists during a media briefing.

Keep reading

US Deploys Sub Hunter P-8 Poseidon Off Florida Coast To ‘Shadow’ Russian Flotilla

According to Newsweek, multiple open-source intelligence analysts have said the US has deployed air and naval assets off Florida’s eastern coast to ‘shadow’ Russian warships. This comes as Russian warships are expected to arrive in Cuba this week ahead of military drills in the Caribbean.

Open source intelligence (OSINT) analysts on Tuesday posted updates showing the CG Stone coastguard vessel, the USS Truxtun and USS Donald Cook destroyers, and the Royal Canadian Navy frigate HMCS Ville de Quebec travelling southwards down the Florida coast, purportedly following the Russian ships headed to Cuba. Above them, at least one US Navy P-8A Poseidon appeared to be conducting surveillance. -Newsweek

OSINT analysts on X weren’t clear which of Russia’s four-ship grouping, made up of the Gorshkov frigate, the nuclear-powered submarine Kazan, the fleet oil tanker Pashin, and the rescue tug Nikolai Chiker, were transiting in international waters off the coast of Florida. Still, they posted flight tracking data that showed at least one Boeing P-8 Poseidon circling above. 

Keep reading

Biden to Ukraine: You’re not getting into NATO, but that doesn’t mean you can stop bleeding for us

If Vladimir Zelensky is Ukraine’s most inflated politician, its most important one is not from Ukraine at all. Kiev’s war and its political regime both vitally depend on Washington’s faltering, though obstinate, octogenarian, President Joe Biden. Without his support, Western support as a whole would either collapse entirely or decrease decisively; the war would be over, and so would Zelensky.

That is why an interview that his US counterpart recently gave to Time Magazine was a severe blow to Kiev’s ruler, as even the ultra-hawkish British Telegraph noted. NATO, Biden explained, is not part of his plans for Ukraine’s future. To be precise, while NATO membership during an ongoing war has always been an absurd idea, Biden has ruled it out for the future postwar peace as well. Instead, he suggested that Ukraine would be supplied with weapons so “they can defend themselves.”

To add insult to injury, the American president also mentioned Ukraine’s record of “significant corruption,” a thing he should know a thing or two about from family experience: It was money from nepotistic non-work for the Ukrainian company Burisma that, according to Biden’s son Hunter’s own autobiography, “turned into a major enabler during my steepest skid into addiction,” while enabling him to “spend recklessly, dangerously, destructively. Humiliatingly.”

Let’s set aside the fact that Joe Biden’s statements contradict Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s recent promise that the upcoming NATO meeting in Washington will be used to build a “strong and well-lit bridge” to membership for Ukraine. Bridge to nowhere, it turns out, at least according to Blinken’s boss.

Is Biden reliable? Of course not. For one thing, he is clearly incapable of remembering most of his own statements. Indeed, the Time interview as a whole displays his rambling confusion all too clearly. (Almost as if he had been set up by those among the Democrats who’d still like to replace him with another candidate, but let’s not dwell on that.) In addition, even among politicians, he stands out as unusually immoral (ask the Palestinians), dishonest, and corrupt. And by openly permitting Ukraine to use American arms to strike within Russia (if with restrictions, for now), he has just shown again that his own declared ‘red lines’ are always up for revision.

Keep reading

NATO When You Don’t Want It; No NATO When You Do

After being promised a future in NATO in 2008, Ukraine is still waiting for membership. At last year’s NATO summit, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s pleas for membership, or at least a timeline to membership, was unceremoniously rebuffed by the alliance.

“Ukraine isn’t ready for NATO membership,” President Joe Biden said at the July 2023 NATO gathering. He reiterated that position in a recent interview with TIME. While American officials continue to say that Kiev’s future is in the bloc, that alliance is pressuring Zelensky to downplay the issue at this year’s NATO summit.

Last year, Zelensky reacted furiously to his demands for NATO membership not being met. “It’s unprecedented and absurd when time frame is not set neither for the invitation nor for Ukraine’s membership. While at the same time vague wording about ‘conditions’ is added even for inviting Ukraine,” he said.

This year’s NATO summit, to be held in Washington in July, will be presented differently to the world. Though Zelensky and Biden are expected to sign a security agreement between the two countries in July, NATO will not offer Ukraine membership or a timeline for membership at the upcoming summit.

After another year of fighting for NATO’s right to expand to Ukraine, Zelensky will be even angrier than last year. But no one will know it. To avoid last year’s embarrassing rejection of Ukraine’s aspirations, NATO officials have engaged in “expectation management,” muting NATO members supportive of Ukraine’s accession while warning Zelensky not to demand the “impossible.” NATO officials have asked Zelensky not to pressure NATO members to publicly support a timetable for NATO membership this time.

The NATO charter makes it clear to Ukraine that it cannot become a NATO member until the war ends. The NATO charter says that countries that aspire to membership must not be at war, must be committed “to resolve conflicts peacefully,” and cannot have territorial disputes.

NATO officials have also made it clear that Ukraine will not become a member until after the war has ended. The irony, though, is that it is becoming increasingly likely that the war can only be ended by a Ukrainian promise not to join NATO.

The bleak reality of Ukraine’s potential future in the bloc does not reflect the rosy public narrative. NATO membership has historically been promised to Ukraine and withdrawn from Ukraine in a provocative and divisive manner.

Keep reading

US defence industry struggles to manufacture basic artillery for Ukraine

The United States arms industry is not producing the basic ammunition required to sustain support for Ukraine and Israel, Bloomberg reported on June 8. This is an extraordinary situation since Russia’s armed industry is booming despite facing major Western sanctions.

According to the outlet, the US defence industry gave priority to the manufacture of high-tech ammunition and halted the production of basic artillery such as 155-millimetre ammunition, the most used in the wars that are being fought today. The US is also facing a shortage of basic products, such as gunpowder or trinitrotoluene (TNT), to produce these munitions and have had to turn to other countries, such as Poland and Turkey, to obtain supplies.

At some point an attempt was made to replace the 155-millimetre ammunition with higher-tech projectiles on the battlefront in Ukraine, but the effort failed because the new weaponry was neutralised by the Russian military.

“Higher-tech shells that were intended to replace the traditional 155mm munitions failed an early test in Ukraine, when their targeting systems were thwarted by Russia,” Bloomberg reported. “The prospect that future wars could resemble the grinding combat taking place there has stirred fears that the US arsenal could someday be stretched to the breaking point.”

Keep reading

Medvedev Warns That Any U.S. Strike on Russian Targets Will Be the ‘Start of World War’

A former Russian president is warning that a strike by the United States on any Russian target will amount to the “start of world war.”

Dmitry Medvedev, who has been quite vocal lately about the West’s behavior towards Russia, announced to the world this week that World War III will be set in motion the moment the U.S. strikes Russia in any capacity.

The current Deputy Chair of Russia’s Security Council, Medvedev said this after Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski stated that the U.S. will conduct such a strike if Russia uses any kind of nuclear weaponry in Ukraine.

In a post on X, Medvedev made the suggestion that Sikorski “apparently has decided to scare his masters” with such a statement, unlike the U.S. which is “more cautious” than the Poles.

“Americans hitting our targets means starting a world war, and a Foreign Minister, even of a country like Poland, should understand that,” Medvedev added.

(Related: According to Medvedev, Ukraine is “a classic failed state.”)

Poland pushing for world war

Medvedev also addressed similar statements made last month by Polish President Andrzej Duda about Poland’s willingness to host U.S. nuclear weapons if offered the chance under NATO’s sharing mechanism.

If any such arrangement comes to fruition and results in a nuclear strike on Russia, “Warsaw won’t be left out and will surely get its share of radioactive ash,” Medvedev assured about the outcome.

Sikorski, responding to Medvedev’s warning, expressed skepticism about Russia ever even launching a nuclear strike in Ukraine.

Keep reading

US Targets Journalists Who Criticize Administration’s Foreign Policy

Scott Ritter was pulled off a NY-to-Istanbul flight yesterday by US officials and his passport confiscated in a startling new development in the government’s open drive to censor and silence critics of the Administration’s foreign policies at a time when the United States is supplying billions of dollars in arms to foment wider war in Russia, accelerate the attacks on Gazans and set the stage for war with China over Taiwan.

A Marine veteran and true American patriot, Mr. Ritter is also a noted former Chief UN weapons inspector, author and journalist.  He was enroute to Russia to attend an international conference in St. Petersburg.  

Mr. Ritter first came to my attention when he testified at a Capitol hearing I sponsored to inquire into the Bush Administration’s plans to attack Iraq. Ritter warned in August of 2002 that a case had not been made for attacking Iraq.  

Had Congress listened to Mr. Ritter, the US would have been spared the loss of thousands of our soldiers and the waste of trillions of tax dollars. Over one million Iraqis died as a result of the US attack on their country. America’s financial and moral debt will never be able to be repaid, but would not exist if we had simply looked at the evidence he presented.

Keep reading

Macron Says France Working To ‘Finalize’ Plan To Send Troops to Ukraine

On Friday, French President Emmanuel Macron said France was working to “finalize a coalition” of NATO countries that are willing to send troops to Ukraine to train Ukrainian forces, a step that would mark a huge escalation in the proxy war.

During a press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Paris, Macron said Ukraine’s request for NATO trainers was “legitimate” and downplayed the risk of escalation.

“It’s much more efficient and practical for certain capacities in certain conditions to train on Ukrainian soil, it’s a legitimate request,” Macron said. “We’re going to use the coming days to finalize the broadest possible coalition.” He added that several NATO countries have already agreed to the plan.

Keep reading

Russia is developing an mRNA cancer vaccine

An mRNA vaccine that works on all types of cancer has shown promising results in mice, Gamaleya Center director Alexander Gintsburg said in a June 6 interview with Gazeta.ru.

The drug is “being created based on mRNA technologies like the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines”, Gintsburg told the outlet, adding that his institute has its own mRNA platform that doesn’t rely on Western patents. The genetic vaccine will be custom-fit to each individual patient based on the results of tumor biopsies.

When asked about the vaccine’s safety, Gamaleya’s director said that the benefits of mRNA “therapeutic” vaccines outweigh the potential risks—but that the same cannot be said of “preventative” mRNA drugs.

Keep reading