Putin abandons plan to expel US diplomats in tit-for-tat response

December 30, 2016 By administrator

In a head-spinning turn of events on Friday, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia announced that he would not retaliate against the United States’ expulsion of Russian diplomats and new sanctions — hours after his foreign minister recommended doing just that.
Mr Putin, apparently betting on improved relations with the next American president, said he would not eject 35 diplomats or close any diplomatic facilities, a proposed tit-for-tat response to actions taken by the Obama administration a day earlier.
In an announcement on the Kremlin’s website, Mr. Putin said he did not want to deprive children of access to a recreational area on an island in the Moscow River that his foreign minister had recommended closing. He went one step further, inviting all children of American diplomats accredited in Russia to celebrate the New Year and the Russian Orthodox Christmas with him at the Kremlin. (Their parents are presumably welcome; no date was announced.)
The switch was remarkable, given that the foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, had just made the recommendation in remarks broadcast live nationwide, and given the long history of tit-for-tat expulsions between the two countries. Both the Soviet Union and the Russian Federation have traditionally been sticklers for diplomatic protocol.
On Thursday, the Obama administration declared 35 Russians suspected of being intelligence operatives “persona non grata”; imposed sanctions on two of Russia’s leading intelligence services; and penalized four top officers of one of those services, the powerful military intelligence unit known as the G.R.U., because of its efforts to influence the presidential election.
As part of the punishment, the State Department said that it would close two waterfront estates — one in New York, the other in Maryland — that it said were used for Russian intelligence activities. It was not clear, however, whether the two properties were a base for the election-related hacking.

Putin says nobody believed in Trump’s victory “except us”

December 23, 2016 By administrator

Russia‘s President Vladimir Putin said Friday, December 23 that U.S. President-elect Donald Trump accurately read the popular mood in the United States to win the election, although “nobody except us” believed in his success.

The U.S. president-elect “precisely felt the mood of the society and worked in that precise paradigm, he went to the end, though nobody believed that he would win except us,” Putin said while answering a state media journalist at his annual press conference.

Asked what he thought about support among some Americans for him, Putin said “I don’t put it down to me, the fact that a large part of Republican voters support the Russian president.”

“It means that a large part of the American people have the same idea of how the world should be, of our common dangers and problems,” he said.

“It’s good that there are people that sympathise with us in our concept of traditional values,” he said, and it may be a good starting point in “building relations” between the United States and Russia.

Russia and Putin has been accused by Washington of meddling in the U.S. elections but the Kremlin leader broadly dismissed this as attempts by the election losers to save face by blaming outside factors.

Putin suggested that the hackers behind the massive breach of Democratic Party emails did a public service by exposing “true information” which is more important than the nature of the hack.

“The most important thing is the gist of the information that hackers provided to the public,” he said.

“What is the best evidence that the hackers unveiled true information?” he said. “That after the hackers showed how public opinion is manipulated inside the Democratic Party… the chief of the Democratic National Committee (Debbie Wasserman Schultz) quit.”

“That means she admitted that the hackers showed the truth,” he said, but “instead of apologising… they started to shout about who initiated the hack attacks.”

“Does that really matter?” Putin asked.

The U.S. Democratic party have lost not just the presidential election, but also in the Senate and Congress, Putin said. “Was that also our doing?”

“They are losing on all fronts and are looking for the guilty party on the side,” he said. “That’s beneath their dignity. You have to lose with dignity.”

“Show Some Proof Or Shut Up” Putin Lashes Out At Obama:

December 16, 2016 By administrator

by Tyler Durden,

Putin has had enough of the relentless barrage of US accusations that he, personally, “hacked the US presidential election.”

The Russian president’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said on Friday that the US must either stop accusing Russia of meddling in its elections or prove it. Peskov said it was “indecent” of the United States to “groundlessly” accuse Russia of intervention in its elections.

“You need to either stop talking about it, or finally show some kind of proof. Otherwise it just looks very indecent”, Peskov told Reporters in Tokyo where Putin is meeting with Japan PM Abe, responding to the latest accusations that Russia was responsible for hacker attacks.

Previously, on Thursday, Peskov told the AP the report was “laughable nonsense“, while Russian foreign ministry spox Maria Zakharova accused “Western media” of being a “shill” and a “mouthpiece of various power groups”, and added that “it’s not the general public who’s being manipulated,” Zakharova said. “the general public nowadays can distinguish the truth. It’s the mass media that is manipulating themselves.”

Meanwhile, on Friday Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister told state television network, Russia 24, he was “dumbstruck” by the NBC report which alleges that Russian President Vladimir Putin was personally involved in an election hack.

The report cited U.S. intelligence officials that now believe with a “high level of confidence” that Putin became personally involved in a secret campaign to influence the outcome of the U.S. presidential election. “I think this is just silly, and the futility of the attempt to convince somebody of this is absolutely obvious,” Lavrov added, according to the news outlet.

As a reminder, last night Obama vowed retaliatory action against Russia for its meddling in the US presidential election last month. “I think there is no doubt that when any foreign government tries to impact the integrity of our elections that we need to take action and we will at a time and place of our own choosing,” Obama told National Public Radio.

US intelligence agencies in October pinned blame on Russia for election-related hacking. At the time, the White House vowed a “proportional response” to the cyberactivity, though declined to preview what that response might entail. Meanwhile, both President-elect Donald Trump, the FBI, and the ODNI have dismissed the CIA’s intelligence community’s assessment, for the the same reason Putin finally lashed out at Obama: there is no proof.

That, however, has never stopped the US from escalating a geopolitical conflict to the point of war, or beyond, so pay close attention to what Obama says this afternoon.

According to an NBC report, a team of analysts at Eurasia Group said in a note on Friday that they believe the outgoing administration is likely to take action which could result in a significant barrier for Trump’s team once he takes office in January.

“It is unlikely that U.S. intelligence reports will change Trump’s intention to initiate a rapprochement with Moscow, but the congressional response following its own investigations could obstruct the new administration’s effort,” Eurasia Group analysts added.

At the same time, Wikileaks offered its “validation” services, tweeting that “Obama should submit any Putin documents to WikiLeaks to be authenticated to our standards if he wants them to be seen as credible.”

Source: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-12-16/putin-lashes-out-obama-show-some-proof-or-shut

Only one man Erdogan fear is Putin, backtracks on Syria Assad removal after calling with Putin,

December 1, 2016 By administrator

Turkey’s military operation in northern Syria does not target any country or individual, and is aimed only at terrorist groups, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said. He had earlier stated that Turkey was in Syria to “end the rule of the cruel Assad.”

“The aim of the Euphrates Shield Operation [in northern Syria] is not any country or person, but only terrorist organizations,” Erdogan said Thursday, as quoted by the Hurryiet Daily News.

“No one should doubt this issue that we have uttered over and over, and no one should comment on it in another fashion or try to derail it,” he added.

The latest comments come in contrast to remarks Erdogan made on Tuesday, when he said Turkey’s operation in Syria, launched in late August, aimed “to end the rule of the tyrant [Syrian President] al-Assad who terrorizes with state terror.”

This drew surprise from Russia, which asked for clarification of the remarks.

According to Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov, this was provided when Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish leader Erdogan discussed the issue by phone on Wednesday.

“I can only say that a telephone conversation between our president and Erdogan took place yesterday, and the topic [of Turkey’s presence in Syria] was addressed. Yes, he [Erdogan] gave an explanation,” Ushakov told reporters on Thursday, without elaborating.

On Thursday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said that Ankara’s operation in Syria is aimed at combating Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) terrorists and other armed terrorist groups.

Currently, in the framework of the ‘Euphrates Shield’ operation we are specifically working with our partners and allies. Our goal is to clear Syria, this region, from Daesh [Arabic pejorative term for Islamic State], from terrorists and Al-Nusra [Front] insurgents,” Cavusoglu said, speaking at a joint press conference with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in the Mediterranean town of Alanya.

“We will continue to pursue a policy that is harmonic and coincides with the position of Russia – to search for and find a political solution to the conflict and to provide systematic humanitarian assistance,” Cavusoglu added, as quoted by the Interfax.

He stated that Turkey’s policy on Syria “remains unchanged.”

“We are cooperating with other countries, but we think that our close cooperation with Russia will provide greater benefits,” Cavusoglu said.

Without a political solution on Syria, the fight against IS may prove ineffective, the Turkish foreign minister acknowledged following the meeting with his Russian counterpart.

Lavrov stressed on Thursday that he expected close Russia-Turkey cooperation on Syria to help make a real contribution to the implementation of decisions by the international community.

Putin OKs draft joint armed forces agreement with Armenia

November 14, 2016 By administrator

Russian President Vladimir Putin has approved and instructed to sign a draft agreement on a joint military force with Armenia.

According to the project, RIA says, the two countries seek to establish a joint group of forces in the Caucasus.

The bill says a Unified Command structure will be created to manage the force “to ensure the security of the sides in the Caucasus region.”

The initiative’s prerogatives include “repelling any armed attack on either party, as well as defending the state borders of Armenia and Russia.”

President Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party wins parliamentary election

September 18, 2016 By administrator

putin-party-wine Russia’s lower house of parliament will will be dominated by Kremlin loyalists after United Russia won 51 percent of the vote, partial results showed. Voter turnout plummeted by 20 percent since the 2011 election.

Allies of Russian President Vladimir Putin comfortably won a parliamentary election, early results showed on Monday.

According to a preliminary central election commission tally after a quarter of the votes had been counted, the ruling United Russia party won 51 percent of the vote in Sunday’s election – up two percent on 2011’s parliamentary election.

“We can say with certainty that the party has achieved a very good result; it’s won,” Putin said at the United Russia headquarters, minutes after polling stations closed on Sunday evening.

According to the incomplete official vote count, the right-wing populist LDPR party was in second place with 17.2 percent, while the Communists came in third on 14.9 percent.

The Kremlin-friendly, pro-business Just Russia party garnered 6.4 percent, leaving them in fourth position.

Economic turmoil

Putin said United Russian’s win showed that voters still trusted the leadership, despite an economic slowdown made worse by Western sanctions over Ukraine. Russia’s spluttering economy is forecast to shrink by at least 0.3 percent this year.

“We know that life is hard for people, there are lots of problems, lots of unresolved problems. Nevertheless, we have this result,” Putin said.

United Russia, which was founded by Putin, will now be able to extend its dominance in Russia’s 450-seat lower house of parliament, or Duma.

The victory is also of personal interest to Putin, whose aides are likely to use the result as a springboard for his campaign for re-election in 2018. The President is yet to confirm, however, whether he will seek another term in office.

Low turnout

Despite the success of United Russia on Sunday, the election’s low turnout suggested a softening of enthusiasm for the ruling elite.

According to election officials, two hours before polling stations closed on Sunday, turnout was at 39.4 percent, marking a huge drop from the 60 percent turnout seen at the last parliamentary election.

In the Siberian region of Altai, Russian officials were investigating reports of vote rigging. If the allegations are confirmed, the results from that region could be discounted.

The last parliamentary election in 2011 was also marked with widespread allegations of vote fraud, prompting anti-government demonstrations.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) was monitoring the elections throughout the country on Sunday – except in Crimea, which they consider an illegally seized part of Ukraine.

ksb/jm (Reuters, AP, AFP)

Erdogan in Russia for begging Putin “Turkish economy in total claps”

August 9, 2016 By administrator

erdogan went begging Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has arrived in Russia on a visit aimed to rebuild ties. Erdogan is seeking to overcome a long history of dispute with Moscow and forge new alliances after the July 15 coup attempt.

Shortly after touching down in St. Petersburg on Tuesday, Turkish President Erdogan said his country was entering a “very different period” in relations with Russia, and that solidarity between the two nations would help resolve regional problems.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said he was “glad” to be seeing Erdogan again.

“Your visit today, despite a very difficult situation regarding domestic politics, indicates that we all want to restart dialogue and restore relations between Russia and Turkey,” Putin said after the two leaders shook hands.

Turkey and Russia, which once described each other as strategic partners, have suffered disagreements, especially over their respective policies in the Syrian war, culminating in the infamous downing of a Russian fighter jet near the Syrian-Turkish border in late 2015. Erdogan, however, is hoping to leave the past behind, saying that the meeting in St. Petersburg would be a new beginning between him and his “friend Vladimir.”

“A new page will be opened in Russo-Turkish ties. This new page will include military, economic and cultural cooperation,” Erdogan told TASS ahead of the trip.

Russia has accepted Ankara’s expressions of regret over the downing of the warplane in the apparent hope of reconciliation while also reviving the relationship. Turkish officials have even detained the pilots of the Turkish planes that shot down the Russian jet on November 24, 2015, accusing them of being involved in the failed coup attempt.

In the long shadow of Turkey’s failed coup d’etat

The visit is Erdogan’s first foreign trip after the July 15 coup attempt, when a group of renegade Turkish military officers attempted to seize power leaving at least 230 people dead. Turkey has since blasted its Western allies for expressing concern over the scope of its ensuing crackdown on dissidents, complaining that the West has shown a lack of support for its democratically elected government. In contrast, Russia was quick to voice support to Erdogan after the failed coup without mentioning any concern about the crackdown.

A long history of disagreement

Russia reacted to the downing of its jet fighter with a ban on the sale of package tours to Turkey and an import embargo on Turkish agriculture, which Turkey countered by shelving a major Russian natural gas pipeline to Turkey. The bitter dispute even led Putin to declare that Erdogan had left modern Turkey’s founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk “turning in his grave.”

But relations between Turkey and Russia – two powers vying for influence in the region – have never been straightforward. Ties between the two nations can at best be described as a marriage of convenience.

Turkey’s predecessor state, the Ottoman Empire, and Russia’s precursor, the Russian Empire, have fought three centuries of war, culminating in an armistice with the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk at the end of World War I. Though the two powers didn’t exchange animosities during the Cold War they found themselves on opposing sides, with Turkey entering NATO and the Soviet Union forming the Warsaw Pact.

Putin take on western Media Warns Journalists of War: ‘I Don’t Know How to Get Through to You People’ (Video)

July 6, 2016 By administrator

‘How do you not understand that the world is being pulled in an irreversible direction?’

Vladimir Putin has finally taken the kid gloves off.

The Russian president was meeting with foreign journalists at the conclusion of the Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum on June 17th, when he left no one in any doubt that the world is headed down a course which could lead to nuclear war.

Putin railed against the journalists for their “tall tales” in blindly repeating lies and misinformation provided to them by the United States on its anti-ballistic missile systems being constructed in Eastern Europe. He pointed out that since the Iran nuclear deal, the claim the system is to protect against Iranian missiles has been exposed as a lie.

The journalists were informed that within a few years, Russia predicted the US would be able to extend the range of the system to 1000 km. At that point, Russia’s nuclear potential, and thus the nuclear balance between the US and Russia, would be placed in jeopardy.

Putin completely lost patience with the journalists, berating them for lazily helping to accelerate a nuclear confrontation by repeating US propaganda. He virtually pleaded with the western media, for the sake of the world, to change their line:

We know year by year what’s going to happen, and they know that we know. It’s only you that they tell tall tales to, and you buy it, and spread it to the citizens of your countries. You people in turn do not feel a sense of the impending danger – this is what worries me. How do you not understand that the world is being pulled in an irreversible direction? While they pretend that nothing is going on. I don’t know how to get through to you anymore.

Does anyone in the reeking garbage heap that is mainstream western media have a conscience? Do they even have enough intellect to get what Putin is saying – that they are helping to push the planet towards World War III?

https://youtu.be/8PgSX-WD96Q

Turkey your friand today your enemy tomorow, Putin to normalize trade ties with Turkey

June 29, 2016 By administrator

Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered his government to start the process of normalizing trade ties with Turkey, seven months after Ankara-Moscow relations went into a downward spiral following Turkey’s shooting down of a Russian jet last year.

“I ask that the Russian government begins the process of normalizing general trade and economic ties with Turkey,” Putin said at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, following a telephone conversation with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Putin said that Russia has also decided to lift travel restrictions against Turkey in the tourism sector.

“I want to start with the question of tourism… We are lifting the administrative restrictions in this area,” the Russian president said.

Moscow-Ankara relations became strained last November after Turkey shot down a Russian Sukhoi Su-24 aircraft with two pilots aboard, claiming the fighter jet had repeatedly violated Turkish airspace.

Ankara argued that the Russian plane strayed into its airspace and ignored repeated warnings. Russia, however, insisted the aircraft did not cross the border and accused Ankara of “planned provocation.”

Moscow said the plane was brought down in Syrian airspace, where Russia has been conducting combat sorties against Takfiri terrorists since late September 2015 upon a request by the Damascus government.

Of the two pilots aboard the warplane, one was rescued with the help of the Syrian army, but the other was killed by militants fighting the Syrian government.

Following the incident, Russia imposed a raft of sanctions against Ankara, including import restriction on Turkish foods, a ban on tourist travel to Turkey, an embargo on hiring Turkish citizens in Russia, and a ban on Turkish organizations’ activities in Russia.

Moscow also suspended all military deals with Ankara.

On Monday, the Kremlin said that the Turkish president apologized to Putin over Ankara’s shooting down of the Russian jet.

Turkey, however, said later it had only expressed regret to Russia, denying reports of an apology, and retracting a compensation pledge.

The Wednesday phone call between the Russian and the Turkish leader came after Putin expressed sympathy for the victims of the Tuesday night gun and bomb attacks at Istanbul’s Ataturk international airport, which claimed the lives of 41 people and injured 239 others.

Meanwhile, a Turkish official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP that the Turkish leader is expected to meet with his Russian counterpart on the sidelines of the forthcoming G20 summit in China in September.

The meeting between the two presidents would be their first face-to-face talks for months, following the diplomatic row.

Typical of Turks: I am desperate I Apologize “Erdogan apologizes to Putin”

June 27, 2016 By administrator

Erdogan apologize 400 President Vladimir Putin has received a letter in which Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan apologized for the death of the Russian pilot who was killed when a Russian jet was downed over the Syrian-Turkish border last November, the Kremlin said, according to RT.

Erdogan expressed readiness to restore relations with Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday, June 27.

The incident involving the downing of the Russian Su-24 bomber led to the worst deterioration of Turkish-Russian relations in recent history, with Russia describing it as a “stab in the back.”

“The head of the Turkish state expressed his deep sympathy and condolences to the relatives of the deceased Russian pilot and said ‘sorry,’” Peskov said.

In his letter, Erdogan called Russia “a friend and a strategic partner” of Ankara, with whom the Turkish authorities would not want to spoil relations.

“We never had a desire or a deliberate intention to down an aircraft belonging to Russia,” the letter read, according to a statement published on the Kremlin website.

According to the statement, Erdogan’s letter stressed that “the Turkish side undertook all the risks and made a great effort to recover the body of the Russian pilot from the Syrian opposition, bringing it to Turkey. The organization of the pre-burial procedures was conducted in accordance with all religious and military procedures.”

Ankara has treated the family of the dead Russian pilot as if it were a Turkish family and is “ready for any initiatives to relieve the pain and severity of the damage done,” the letter said.

The address by the Turkish leader also informed that a criminal investigation has been launched against the person suspected of killing the Russian pilot, the Kremlin said.

In addition, Erdogan expressed readiness to tackle security challenges in the region and fight terrorism together with Moscow, it added.

Turkish Hurriyet newspaper reported that sources close to Erdogan have confirmed that the letter with the apology was sent to Moscow.

On November 24, 2015, a Russian Su-24 bomber, taking part in an anti-terrorist mission in Syria, was brought down by the Turkish Air Force.

The plane crashed in a rebel-held territory in Syria near the Turkish border. The pilots ejected, but one was killed by machine gun fire from the militants on the ground.

Turkish nationalist Alparslan Celik has claimed responsibility for the death of Russian Lieutenant Colonel Oleg Peshkov.

Ankara claimed that it attacked the Russian bomber for violating its airspace, but was never able to provide proof that any wrongdoing took place.

Moscow vigorously denied the Turkish claims, calling the downing of the plane “a stab in the back” from a state which it had considered an ally.

Russia reacted harshly to the incident, imposing a wave of sanctions against Turkey, which affected trade, tourism, joint energy projects and other areas.

From the start, the Kremlin made it clear that restoration of normal relations with Turkey would be impossible without Ankara apologizing and paying compensation to the pilot’s family.

RT. Erdogan apologizes to Putin over death of Russian pilot, calls Russia ‘friend & strategic partner’