The charges brought against Yulia Navalnaya, who lives outside Russia, in absentia are to do with her alleged “participation in an extremist society”, Tass news agency said.

Navalny was Russia’s most significant opposition leader of the past decade. He died in February in an Arctic Circle jail. Russian authorities said he died of natural causes – but his widow said Navalny had been “tortured, starved, cut off and killed” by Russia’s president Vladimir Putin.

Navalny had been serving 19 years on extremism charges that were widely seen as politically motivated.

Continue reading HERE

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cg3mjzyp40go

The post Russian court orders arrest of Yulia Navalnaya first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The sudden death of Navalny, 47, was a crushing blow to many Russians, who had pinned their hopes for the future on President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest foe. Navalny remained vocal in his unrelenting criticism of the Kremlin even after surviving a nerve agent poisoning and receiving multiple prison terms.

The news reverberated across the globe, and hundreds of people in dozens of Russian cities streamed to ad-hoc memorials and monuments to victims of political repressions with flowers and candles on Friday and Saturday to pay a tribute to the politician. In over a dozen cities, police detained 401 people by Saturday night, according to the OVD-Info rights group that tracks political arrests and provides legal aid.

Continue reading HERE

Source: https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2024/02/18/over-400-arrested-for-attending-navalny-memorial-demonstrations-in-russia/

The post Over 400 Arrested for Attending Navalny Memorial Demonstrations in Russia first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has died in prison, the country’s prison service said Friday, following a yearslong struggle against official corruption and President Vladimir Putin’s government that saw him survive several poisoning attempts.

He was 47.

Navalny was poisoned with a military nerve agent while on a business trip in Russia in 2020 — an attempt on his life that he blamed directly on Putin — and spent his final years behind bars as the Russian leader reshaped the country to rally behind his war in Ukraine.

News of his death, which comes as the Kremlin is preparing to orchestrate another election victory for Putin in March, drew outrage from the West, where many leaders blamed Putin. President Joe Biden said he was “both not surprised and outraged.”

Continue reading HERE

Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/russian-opposition-leader-alexei-navalny-dies-prison-rcna79718

The post Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny dies in prison first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

It may be that a war is needed.  After all, what hasn’t gone wrong during the pretender’s first full year?   A skirmish would surely soak up plenty of ink and airtime. The White House is all about Russia’s pending incursion into Ukraine.  The occupant famously said that there might be a “minor incursion,” and then we’d just argue about who needs to do what.  Everybody from the redheaded spokes lady to the President of Ukraine has been trying to clean that up ever since. That, and of course the deadly Chinese flu conferring vast powers on government agencies. You don’t suppose a distraction is needed while they act like requirements and mandates are just a benign reality.  Here’s an idea.

How about we all pretend like we’re still free!  But you can’t get away with that in the great State of California.

The latest is that Putin has 100,000 troops on its border with Ukraine, and now they’re engaged in war games.  Putin has made no secret of the fact that he saw the implosion of the Soviet Union as a great disaster and is maneuvering to try to put it back together.  He plans to be calling the shots for another ten or twelve years, and figures he’d gain hero status if he succeeded in the impossible.  The foremost political prisoner in Russia is a man named Navalny.  Somebody, if not agents of the state, poisoned him by smearing a toxic agent in his clothes, but he eventually recovered.  He’s serving a term in a Russian prison and unapologetic-ally trying to overthrow a man he describes as impossibly corrupt.

TIME magazine ran a lengthy report on him and his situation.  The headline on the Drudge Report called him “The man Putin fears.”  His agents reportedly flew a drone over lavish palatial residences Putin frequents sparking a debate on the actual ownership.  It’s a childhood friend from way back who is the owner, so there.  Nevertheless, Navalny has set up remote operations that are working to turn public opinion against the dictator.  According to TIME, in a nutshell, this is what Putin is truly concerned about and everything else, including war-games on Ukraine’s border is directing attention elsewhere. These are mainstream outfits.  Who knows if they’re credible after all the non-sense they’ve publicized.

It’s pretty discouraging watching nearly everything go the wrong direction.  We’d rather not depress you further by making a list.  It’s in your face most days.  Let’s talk about what’s going on in the rest of the formerly free world.  It’s absolutely heart-breaking to see what has become of Australia, Canada and several nations in Europe.  Governments and health ministers have been issuing orders like they’re going out of style, and sure enough, they are.  The tech companies have tried to black out any news of resistance anywhere.  Apparently they want people to think they’re the only ones, and they’re isolated from what the masses have determined.

Any form of public resistance has been met with overwhelming force in a lot of instances.  People are arrested for whatever as police take dramatic action.  In Australia, we’re told, the masses are fully supportive of the most restrictive policies the government can come up with, and all in favor of severe punishment for those who wish to make their own decisions without having their job or their life terminated by some policy or other.

As the virus reportedly becomes exponentially more common and less lethal, the demands of “authorities” become more strident, and more bizarre.  Who’s thinking this stuff up?  They’re implementing a policy that demands truck drivers have proof of vaccination in order to cross the border, and so goes the talk of shortages.  That’s the Canadian border.  We don’t even want to know about the one to the South.  Seriously.  It turns your stomach.  Then you hear about the flights that land at 3:00 am and “immigrants” being smuggled into neighborhoods under cover of darkness.  No doubt some great people.  Unfortunately their upkeep will be added to the unmentionable national debt, courtesy of your grandchildren.

The virus news is just too much to wrap your head around.  Nations that touted nearly universal vaccination rates are drowning in terrible cases.  How is that possible?  Israel?  They’ve bragged on 90+% and yet are struggling with outbreaks.  It does kind of make you wonder.

We have to try to find some humor amid this rolling catastrophe, and hope and pray it’s temporary.  How is there nothing funny about the administration’s trying their hardest to get us back into the Iran Deal, and they can’t get it done!  Iran’s demands are just too much, to much public humiliation for even the current administration to swallow.  And that’s saying something after the Afghanistan debacle.  It’s enough have you recalling the Jimmy Carter days fondly.  Sarc.

How long will free people be ordered to and fro?  Maybe as long as we comply.  What will they next demand on the basis of “science” or medicine?  We’ve got our mandates.  They’re known as Commandments.  Whatever some discredited agency comes up with, we’ll decide.  Thanks anyway.

Mark

Source: http://www.intercontinentalcog.org/fridayupdates.php

The post Weekly Update for 21 January 2022 first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

EU leaders agreed Friday to plan for sanctions against Russia but rejected a push for a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

At the EU summit in Brussels, France and Germany had called for direct talks with Putin.

The proposal came after US President Joe Biden held his own meeting with Putin in Geneva, Switzerland, last week.

However, EU leaders failed to reach an agreement on such a summit. In a statement, they said that “they will explore format and conditionalities of dialogue with Russia” but did not mention a summit.

The statement also called on EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell “to present options for additional restrictive measures, including sanctions” against Russia.

“We defined again under what conditions we are prepared to work and communicate more closely with Russia… There was no agreement today on an immediate leaders’ meeting,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel said after meeting EU leaders.

Prime Minister Andrej Babis’ Czech Republic has been named, along with the US, as an ‘Unfriendly State’ by Russia

What did Merkel and Macron say about a Putin summit?

Merkel said the 27-member bloc needed direct dialogue with Russia because “conflicts can best be solved if you also talk to each other.”

French President Emmanuel Macron said warmer ties with Moscow were “necessary for the stability of the European continent.”

“We cannot remain in a purely reactive logic with regards to Russia,” he said.

The bloc has not held a summit with the Russian leader since 2014 amid an ongoing rift over the annexation of Crimea

What is the state of EU-Russia relations?

European-Russian ties have also been strained over the poisoning of opposition figure Alexei Navalny, who is currently imprisoned in a penal colony.

But the suggestion of closer ties with Putin has already created splits in the EU and came as a surprise to some EU governments. Two senior diplomats told DW that they first learned of the plan from the media.

Latvian Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins said there would be “difficulties” in seeking to build trust with the Russian government.

“The Kremlin understands power politics. The Kremlin does not understand free concessions as a sign of strength,” Karins told journalists.

The EU and Moscow have traded blows over the jailing of Alexei Navalny

Lithuania, another Baltic state, was also cool on the idea floated by Paris and Berlin.

“If without any positive changes in the behavior of Russia, we will start to engage, it will send very uncertain and bad signals to our partners,” the country’s president, Gitanas Nauseda, said.

“It seems to me like we try to engage a bear to keep a pot of honey safe,” he added.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said he would boycott any direct EU meeting with Putin, citing the downing of the MH17 flight over Ukraine in July 2014.

Nearly 300 people died in the disaster, most of them Dutch citizens. A Dutch investigation blamed pro-Russian separatists for shooting down the plane.

EU to continue migration support for Turkey

Merkel also said EU leaders agreed to provide Turkey with around €3 billion ($3.6 billion) in financial aid to stem migration.

Turkey had agreed to keep migrants from reaching the EU in 2016 in exchange for financial aid from the bloc.

Turkey currently shelters 3.7 million migrants from the war in Syria.

Merkel said earlier in the week that the financial humanitarian aid given to Ankara should be shifted to socio-economic assistance, as some of the migrants in Turkey have been there for 10 years.

Hungary under fire over LGBTQ draft law

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s government came under fire over legislation that banned LGBTQ content from being handed out in schools.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen this week branded the bill “a shame” that contradicts the fundamental values of the European Union and threatened to take Hungary to court.

Merkel said the EU leaders and Orban had a “very, very frank discussion.”

“We all made it very clear here what fundamental values we are pursuing” and the European Commission “will now continue to deal with the Hungarian law.”

Orban, however, remained unrepentant.

“This is not against homosexuality, any sexual interference. It’s not about homosexuals,” he said. “It’s about the right of the kids and the parents.”

Orban vowed not to withdraw the legislation.

“For me, Hungary has no place in the EU anymore,” Dutch Prime Minister Rutte said ahead of the meeting.

Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin said the bill broke “a fundamental value of the European Union” while Luxembourg’s Prime Minister Xavier Bettel called it “unacceptable.”

Leaders from 17 EU countries on Thursday signed a letter slamming “threats against fundamental rights, and in particular the principle of non-discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation.”

The issue has been front and center of European politics this week after UEFA, Europe’s football governing body, rejected a plan by Munich to light up its stadium in rainbow colors for a Germany-Hungary match on Wednesday.

Orban had been set to attend, but he decided to skip the game that ended in a 2-2 draw and saw Hungary eliminated from the European Championship.

jf, wd/rt (AFP, AP, Reuters)

Source: https://www.dw.com/en/eu-leaders-fail-to-agree-on-a-summit-with-vladimir-putin/a-58037408

The post EU leaders fail to agree on a summit with Vladimir Putin first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Russian servicemen conduct operations during Command Post exercise of the Airborne Force at the Opuk base in Crimea. (Photo by Igor Rudenko/Sputnik via AFP)

What does Russia want from Ukraine? This is one of the vital questions surrounding Russia’s growing buildup of military hardware and troops, both facing eastern Ukraine and from Crimea.

No one seems to be asking Putin any questions, but rather are just demanding that he pull his troops back and relieve the military pressure. Nor is it clear if anyone is in a position to ask that question.

The Biden administration has dug itself into a hole by slapping on new sanctions and kicking out Russian diplomats. The Russians have tried to do tit for tat.

So, too, have the Europeans got themselves into a tight mess. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has called for the Russians to pull out their troops, the EU is upset and the British and French are not far behind in offering condemnations.

None of this sets the stage for any meaningful dialogue. Even President Joe Biden, who called President Putin and suggested a summit meeting, has badly harmed his effort by slapping on more sanctions and crying fire.

The Russians are not amused. While kicking out American diplomats and barring others from visiting Russia, a Russian Foreign Ministry functionary, Yuri Ushakov, “suggested” to the US Ambassador in Russia, John Sullivan, that he might leave Moscow and take a plane to Washington.

Sullivan demurred and said something about staying in Moscow until hell froze over, but the next day he went home to see his family and meet with the Biden team on what the State Department calls a “short visit.” Steadfastness is apparently not a quality admired in the Biden administration.

But major parts of the Biden team are not yet even in place, and even if they are operating behind the scenes advising the president and the secretary of state, there is reason to be dubious.

Former US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland testifies before the Senate Intelligence Committee during a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. Photo: AFP/Nicolas Kamm

One of them, Victoria Nuland, a former Barack Obama administration official who got caught interfering in Ukrainian politics when her mobile phone was intercepted by the Russians, is slated to be the third-highest ranking official at the State Department.

She will have a lot to say about Ukraine and the best one can say about Nuland’s outlook is that she hates the Russians. Not much to cheer for if you are looking for negotiation, but a great team member if you want to go to war with Russia.

But it gets worse. Biden planned to bring on board a very senior specialist on Russia, Matthew Rojansky, who heads the Kenan Institute at the Washington-based prestigious Wilson Center.

But Rojansky, who was accused of being “soft” on Russia, was unceremoniously dropped from consideration after outcries from the anti-Russia mafia in Washington and from the anti-Russian Ukrainian political community in the US.

This leaves Biden with a group of advisers who are anti-Russia and who would rather get into a firefight with Moscow than make any deals with Putin, who Biden calls a “killer.”

The situation in Europe is not much better. The Alexei Navalny affair hangs over Europe as much as it is a noose around Putin’s neck. Will the Europeans decide to push for a war to support Navalny?

While it may sound ridiculous, unlike the Russian president who runs in pseudo-elections (where opponents are best not heard from or they go the way of Navalny), Europe’s current crop of leaders is all under a lot of pressure at home.

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and his wife Yulia walk towards the passport control point at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport upon the arrival from Berlin on January 17, 2021. Photo: AFP/ Kirill Kudryavtsev

In Germany, the Green Party is gaining significant ground and may be able to choose the next chancellor when Merkel retires this year. The Greens also may go out to kill the Nordstream 2 pipeline on environmental grounds, which will be a blow to Russia and its designs of exporting more gas to Europe.

In France, Emmanuel Macron is about as popular as rotten Swiss cheese and survives only because there is fear in France of a right-wing government that renders Macron marginally acceptable. Italy has no real government, which does not matter in the European scheme of things anyway. Italy is looked down on by northern Europeans.

The UK is out of the game because it is out of Europe. The absence of the UK may be good luck for Boris Johnson and the Tory party. Britain played no role in the now largely violated Minsk Accords. Cobbled together in 2015, the deal includes Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany with the OSCE acting as overseer.

This leaves the vacuous EU — an organization that has managed to turn Covid-19 vaccines from a godsend to an unmitigated disaster. The EU never stops its self-destruction.

Finally, there is China but it wants to stay aligned with Russia, so the chance of Beijing acting as a broker seems a big reach. This sorry state of affairs may cause a war because of the political problems affecting the players.

The reason behind Russia’s massing of forces is not entirely clear. Does Russia want to invade Ukraine and overthrow its government? Does Russia want to consolidate its gains in Donbass and maybe push the border further into Ukrainian-held territory?

Does Russia want to grab water supplies in southern Ukraine to support the Crimea? Or does Russia want to chase the US out of Ukraine and prevent Ukraine from joining NATO?

Putin attends the Navy Day parade in St Petersburg with Admiral Vladimir Korolyov, Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy. Credit: Kremlin photo.

Putin has been hinting very strongly that he wants negotiations.

In his annual address to the Federal Assembly in Moscow on April 21, Putin said “Russia has its own interests, of course, which we are defending and will defend within the framework of international law. And if others refuse to understand this obvious thing, do not want to engage in dialogue, choose an egotistical and arrogant tone, Russia will always find a way to defend its positions.”

In the past, Putin has made suggestions to reintegrate the Donbass into Ukraine but under a special status giving the area autonomy from Ukrainian control. The Ukrainians are far from anxious to make a special deal on Donbass.

One reason is that Donbass will send representatives to the Ukrainian parliament (Verkhovna Rada) that could tip the internal balance of political power in the country.  Some in Ukraine call this a Trojan Horse.

Knowing that getting the Ukrainian government to make concessions to Russia is a non-starter, some in Russia are floating the idea to the Germans and French to go ahead and negotiate without the Ukrainians and then impose a solution on them.  The idea, which has caused alarm in Ukrainian circles, is most likely a non-starter.

At the end of the day, Donbass is not Putin’s main interest. His goals almost certainly include guarantees that NATO will stay out of Ukraine, that the Crimea annexation will be accepted, that Western sanctions be lifted, and that some agreeable process is found to accommodate Donbass.

Not being able to pressure Ukraine and Ukraine’s allies until recently, Putin has raised the price by his massive military buildup. But so far it has not yielded results.

Ukrainian army conduct a drill with military tanks while military activity continues in the Donbas region, Ukraine on April 18, 2021. Photo: Armed Forces of Ukraine / Anadolu Agency via AFP

NATO is in no position to really come to Ukraine’s aid and any promises to do so will only encourage Kremlin hardliners and military expansionists to push for action in eastern Europe, either against Poland or the Baltic States as likely candidates.

Russia is clearly worried about American and NATO interference in its external and internal affairs. The latest allegation, that Western sources were organizing a coup d’etat against Moscow-leaning Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, whether true or not, feeds Russian paranoia.

Similarly, the outpouring of support for Navalny coming from the West is also seen as a challenge to the Putin government. Further complicating matters is that the US does not actually have a seat at the table if the Kiev Accords model is the basis to carry on talks on a settlement.

Obviously, the Biden administration is also trying to do too much by taking on Russia and China simultaneously. Geopolitically, this is dangerous and unnecessary. Instead, the US needs to figure out how it can reach some workable arrangement with Russia. One possibility is to carry on talks in the framework of the UN Security Council.

Such talks could create some ground for sorting out the unfulfilled promises of the Minsk Agreements and avert what increasingly looks like a coming war.

Source: https://asiatimes.com/2021/04/biden-picks-an-ill-conceived-fight-with-russia/

The post Biden picks an ill-conceived fight with Russia first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Richard Moore, 57, is the 17th “C” in the 112 years of the Secret Intelligence Service — MI6’s actual name. He is still its only member whose identity is made public. Credit: Handout.

The message was dire, straightforward, and matter-of-fact: Invade Ukraine, and you will pay “a huge price.”

According to MI6 intelligence boss Richard Moore, that was the warning sent to Vladimir Putin by the UK and the US, over a potential invasion of Ukraine.

In a wide-ranging interview on Times Radio, Moore also admitted, that MI6 agents have started “green spying” on the world’s biggest polluters to make sure they “play fair” and keep their climate change promises.

Russia this week pulled back more than 100,000 soldiers that were positioned on the Ukraine border after concerns Putin was about to launch an invasion, the report said.

But the military equipment massed on the borders will not be returning, according to media reports.

In the first-ever interview of a current MI6 chief, Moore, whose codename is C, told Times Radio that Russia was warned there would be a stark response to an invasion of Ukraine from the west.

“The Russians are in absolutely no doubt of where the UK stands on this issue,” he said.

“And they are in absolutely no doubt of where the Biden administration stands on this issue because channels are open.”

Moore, 57, said Putin’s posturing on the Ukraine border, which was the biggest military buildup by the country since the Cold War, was to deflect from Russia’s dire economic situation, the report said.

The MI6 chief said the recent imprisonment of prominent Putin critic Alexei Navalny was another indication the Russian President was worried about his country’s economic position and how it could threaten his grip on power.

“Russia is an objectively declining power economically and demographically,” he said.

“It is an extremely challenged place. And clearly, the treatment of Alexei Navalny as we saw with the thousands of protesters on the streets of well — not just Moscow — of a number of cities shows that there is a deal of disaffection with Mr. Putin.”

Meanwhile, Moore said the Secret Intelligence Service had begun to monitor large industrialized countries in support of what he described as the “foremost international foreign policy agenda item for this country and for the planet,” SkyNews reported.

It comes as the UK prepares to host the major COP26 climate change summit later this year.

Moore told Times Radio: “Where people sign up to commitments on climate change, it is perhaps our job to make sure that actually what they are really doing reflects what they have signed up to.

“As somebody used to say — ‘trust, but verify’ …

“On climate change, where you need everyone to come on board and to play fair, then occasionally just check to make sure they are.”

He was speaking after president Joe Biden warned world leaders that this is the “decisive decade” to avoid the worst of the climate crisis as he outlined targets for the US to halve its emissions by 2030.

Earlier this year, Moore issued a landmark apology for the ban until 1991 on gay and lesbian people working for MI6. stating that the employment restriction was “wrong, unjust and discriminatory,” The UK’s Evening Standard reported.

The spy boss stressed that the policy had meant “loyal and patriotic people had their dreams of serving their country in MI6 shattered” because of a “misguided” view that LGBT individuals would be more susceptible to blackmail.

Spy boss Richard Moore revealed the secret service will be taking inspiration from James Bond, and advertising for a ‘new Q” tech whizz to “use and harness technology.’ Credit: Sony Pictures.

In a video later issued on Twitter, a ground-breaking move for the normally secretive spy agency, he said: “Today, I apologize on behalf of MI6 for the way our LGBT+ colleagues and fellow citizens were treated and express my regret to those whose lives were affected.

“Being LGBT+ did not make these people a national security threat. Of course not. But the ban did mean that we, in the intelligence and diplomatic services, deprived ourselves of some of the best talent Britain could offer.

“Ready to serve but denied that opportunity.”

In the revealing Times Radio interview, Moore also said the secret service will be taking inspiration from 007 himself, James Bond, and advertising for a “new Q” tech whizz to “use and harness technology,” iNews.co.uk reported.

The spy boss said the new recruit would lead its technical team – a role whose title is inspired by the gadget specialist portrayed in the James Bond films.

“In this one life imitates art,” he said. “We were reshaping it a few years ago and we couldn’t think of the right name for it and in the end we thought ‘Well, come on, let’s go for it, and so we decided to call it Q.”

Moore said he is hoping to recruit someone from an industry background, adding: “We are in an increasingly contested, difficult world where technology is making what we do for a living more of a challenge. We have to therefore use and harness technology.

“The only way we can do that, I think, is with good leadership and somebody who can help us partner with the private sector effectively.”

In the wide-ranging interview, Moore said he still gets angry over the Novichok attack in Salisbury which, he said, came close to causing “very significant casualties.”

And he revealed his agency’s concerns about the “recklessness” of the regime of Russian President Putin.

Two Russian nationals are suspected of carrying out the Novichok poisonings in Wiltshire in March 2018.

Sergei Skripal, a former Russian spy turned double agent for MI6, and his 33-year-old daughter, Yulia, survived the incident.

Sources: Times Radio, SkyNews, Evening Standard, iNews.co.uk, CityAM.com

Source: https://asiatimes.com/2021/04/putin-warned-over-ukraine-invasion-says-mi6-boss/

The post Putin was warned over Ukraine, says MI6 boss first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in June 2019 that relations between Moscow and Washington were going downhill and getting worse. Experts believe that Putin’s gloomy assessment is now coming true, and Spain’s media El Mundo said it’s the worst moment for the Russia-U.S. relationship in 41 years.

Does the renewal of New START signal a thaw? 

While Russia and the U.S. quickly agreed to extend the New START arms control pact days after U.S. President Joe Biden took office, experts don’t believe the extension means a thaw in the Russia-U.S. relationship.

Read more:

The history of U.S.-Russia nuclear arms control deals and what’s next

The New START treaty limits Russia and the U.S. from deploying more than 1,550 strategic nuclear warheads each.

The post ‘Russia-U.S. ties worst in 41 years’: How much worse could it get? first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The question arises in light of new sanctions introduced against Russia on Tuesday, in response to its August 2020 chemical weapons attack on opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Those sanctioned include three German companies, now added to the U.S. government’s so-called “Entity List.” Those on the “Entity List” face increased restrictions or even bans from U.S. exports. The newly proscribed German companies, Chimconnect, Pharmcontract, and RIOL-Chemie, were cited for their support of Russia’s chemical weapons program.

Yes, you read that right, chemical weapons. This is much more than a standard fare Kremlin money laundering racket.

Putin’s covert chemical weapons program is supervised by the Russian GRU intelligence service. As I understand it, the sanctioned German companies are primarily involved in providing precursor materials and technical support to GRU supervised weapons manufacturing facilities in Russia.

Chancellor Angela Merkel should be taking this more seriously. After all, the GRU and its domestic FSB sister intelligence service have carried out at least two nerve agent attacks on innocent people in the last three years; one against Navalny and one against a former British intelligence agent and his daughter. Both attacks involved the use of highly concentrated Novichok nerve agent variants. The British incident led to the death of a completely innocent woman. The Kremlin now finds it amusing to tease that woman’s family publicly.

This context makes it utterly absurd that Germany has not closed down the three Russian chemical weapons facilitators. It’s not as if these companies are operating in the shadows. Established in a nice north-to-south line across Germany, they publicly advertise their offices and operations.

Chimconnect is located in the city of Konstanz, right next to the Swiss border. Its shoddy website evinces the GRU’s disdain for website development as an important element of deniable cover for covert programs. These GRU agents share a building with a language training company, a restaurant, and a weather forecasting service.

Pharmcontract is based openly in the central German business center of Frankfurt.

RIOL-Chemie is located in the village of Lilienthal, right next to the northern city of Bremen. German government records show that RIOL-Chemie’s chief executives are Dr. Igor Rozhenko and Sergiy Venger. One “Sergiy Venger” based in Bremen is also listed on the German “best companies” website as “advising third parties on logistics and customs clearance.” This would seem a useful skill for those attempting to smuggle chemical weapons or their predicate materials across national borders. The Dun and Bradstreet corporate analysis firm reports that in 2018, RIOL-Chemie’s had 12 employees and $2.5 million USD sales. GRU business is good.

I return to the central question: What on Earth is Merkel’s government doing in allowing these companies to operate so freely?

It’s not as if Germany has qualms about countering identified threats. The German federal government has even singled out the right-wing AfD party as an extremist organization, meaning the BfV domestic intelligence service can conduct coordinated surveillance of the AfD’s membership, records, and activity. AfD has 89 elected members in the Bundestag parliament!

So is it too much to shut down the GRU, a hyper aggressive organization with no qualms about murdering innocent people, hell-bent upon defeating NATO interests? Merkel’s sheltering of such interests is astonishing.

In response to the new sanctions, the Kremlin is already threatening to escalate. Putin will only be deterred by the practice of intelligent strength. What Merkel is allowing is the antithesis of such strength. In fact, it is an incarnation of extraordinary moral and strategic weakness. Perhaps it’s time for the Western media to reconsider their narrative of Merkel, savior of the Western universe narrative?

It’s certainly time for Biden to sanction-to-death the Nord Stream II energy pipeline.

Source: https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/why-is-germany-tolerating-russian-chemical-weapons-facilities-on-its-soil

The post Why is Germany tolerating Russian chemical weapons facilities on its soil? first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Vladimir Chizhov, Russia’s long-time ambassador to the European Union, thinks the bloc’s decision to impose further sanctions on Russia is a missed opportunity to fix relations between the two neighbours.

Foreign ministers from EU countries agreed on Monday to punish four Russian officials believed to be involved in the jailing of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny.

“From our point of view, this is another chance of rectifying our relations missed. And this is another step of the relationship slipping on a downward slope,” Chizhov said in his first interview with international media since the decision was reached.

The ambassador believes EU ministers treaded a “thin line” with the new raft of sanctions, which he considers a reaction to what he calls “this wave of emotions among the liberal public opinion, which includes, unfortunately, many members of the European Parliament”.

Chizhov thinks the punitive measures were taken “not to spoil the blossoming romantic relationship with the new American administration”.

But, he continues, the package avoided substantial economic damage because it did not target the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, a divisive infrastructure project unreservedly supported by Germany but opposed by many other EU countries.

“Any such decision is bad,” he adds. “Legally speaking, from the point of view of international law, sanctions is [sic] a tool which is in the hands of the UN Security Council and only that. Anything beyond that can be called unilateral restrictive measures, [which are] illegitimate by definition.”

‘Unreliable partner’

Speaking to Euronews in his office in Brussels, the ambassador tried to explain the controversial comments made by Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergey Lavrov during the visit of Josep Borrell, the EU’s chief diplomat.

Towards the end of their joint press conference, Lavrov called the EU “an unreliable partner” while Borrell stood silent by his side.

Chizhov says that after the 2014 Ukraine crisis, when Russia illegally annexed Crimea (a move he prefers to call an “expression of free political will”), the EU chose to freeze many of the strategic structures in place between the two sides. Conversely, the ambassador claims that Russia “has never closed any door”.

“When you have a partner that for reasons that are beyond understanding, without any proper evidence, takes decisions to introduce unilaterally restrictive measures or make statements that are hardly positive towards you, of course, you treat it as an unreliable partner.”

Despite his low expectations and critical rhetoric, Chizhov refrained from burning bridges.

“I’ve seen certain ups and downs in our relations with the European Union. Now, evidently, we are in [a] down position, but, you know, there is a Russian saying when you hit the floor, there is always somebody knocking from below. So I wouldn’t call it, the end of the relationship.”

The Russian ambassador spoke to Euronews in his office in Brussels.Euronews

Russia in a multipolar world

Chizhov is a well-seasoned expert in EU-Russia relations: the diplomat has been at the helm of the Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the EU since 2005.

In his view, modern societies live in a “multipolar world” where Russia can find its own voice and allies.

“[Russia] is not developing our relations or our cooperation with anyone at the expense of others. We are open for cooperation with the rest of the world, be it the European Union, be it the United States, be it our countries further east or further south.

“But of course, in doing that, we have to keep in mind how all those countries and regions are treating Russia and whether they are prepared to take into consideration Russian legitimate national interests.”

In contrast to the state of affairs in Europe, Russia is enjoying a much better relationship with its other big neighbour, China, the ambassador says, while underlining the partnership “is not a threat to the West”.

“Our Russian and Chinese relations have had their ups and downs as well, including in my own lifetime. But today I can say that the state of [the] Russia-China relations is the best that has been happening for decades.”

“And nothing that is being said either in Moscow or in Beijing, on global issues, on international relations, can be treated like going against Europe or going against other countries.”

Asked if the two countries are on the same page when it comes to human rights, the Russian diplomat recognizes the issue is indeed guided by shared universal principles, as expressed in the UN’s 1948 declaration. However, he opposes the way in which the EU and other like-minded countries approach the topic on the world stage.

“The problem is that some countries, and unfortunately the European Union is in that category; they are substituting the notion of international law with certain rules-based world order, which is a very vague definition,” Chizhov argued.

“Who writes the rules? And who approves them? And why should the author of those rule books expect the rest of the world to abide by them?”

Source: https://www.euronews.com/2021/02/26/new-eu-sanctions-on-russia-are-a-missed-chance-to-fix-relations

The post New EU sanctions on Russia ‘are a missed chance to fix relations’ first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.