by BAAZ

Russian Su-27 warns off NATO F-16 trying to approach defense minister’s plane over Baltic

 

Exclusive Zvezda TV channel footage

Jun 21, 2017

The rapprochement of the F-16 fighter with Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu’s airplane was shown by Russian TV channels
On the shots you can see how the NATO aircraft came up with the Russian at a distance of several tens of meters, after which a Su-27 fighter appeared between them.
The pilot of the Russian fighter shook his wings, demonstrating the pilot of the F-16 rocket. After that, the NATO aircraft left.
NATO aircraft attempted to escort the plane of the Russian Defense Minister over the neutral waters of the Baltic Sea, when he was traveling to Kaliningrad. The board, in which the head of the Defense Ministry was located, followed with an escort consisting of Su-27 naval aircraft fighters.

Su-27 Drives NATO F-16 Away From Russian Defense Minister’s Plane in Baltic Sky Su-27 fighter, one of the aircraft escorting Shoigu’s plane, then displayed its weapons, prompting the F-16 to retreat.

“On June 19, Russia’s airspace control facilities over the neutral waters of the Baltic Sea detected an air target flying toward the state border of the Russian Federation. To intercept the target, a Su-27 fighter was scrambled… which, after approaching it, identified it as an RC-135 US reconnaissance aircraft,” the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.

 


Russia’s Defense Minister: Russia’s western borders are heating up as NATO activity surges

21.06.2017 (13:58)

 

Head of the Russian Military Department General of the Army Sergei Shoigu held the Board Session of the Ministry of Defence

The Defense Ministry report

In Russian – On Wednesday June 21 defense Ministry meeting in Kaliningrad

 TASS reports

Today, the Board session of the Ministry of Defence was held in Kaliningrad under the leadership of the Russian Defence Minister General of the Army Sergei Shoigu.

The Russian Defence Minister started with an analysis of the current situation at the Western borders of Russia, which “has a tendency to deteriorate”.

“This is due to increasing military activity of NATO in the Eastern Europe,” stressed the Minister of Defence.

NATO is increasing its presence in the Baltic States. Improving the infrastructure of their ports, airfields and other military facilities.

In the Baltic States and Poland, the formation of four battalion tactical groups is being completed, the total number will be around 5,000 servicemen with weapons and military hardware.

The deployment of the European segment of the U.S. global missile defence is continuing. In 2018, in addition to missile defence base in Romania, it is planned to put into service a similar facility in Poland.

The intensity of operational and combat training of the Alliance is increasing.

Large-scale exercises of the Alliance, such as “Baltops-2017” and “Sabre Strike – 2017”, are being held at the Russian borders. More than 10,000 servicemen, more than 70 ships and auxiliary vessels, about 70 aircraft, including American bombers B-52 are involved in this exercises.

“It demonstrates the reluctance of the Western partners to abandon the anti-Russian course. This is evidenced by the summit of NATO on May, where international terrorism and Russia were placed in the position of the threats”, – said the Minister of Defence.

He also noted that “some countries are seeking to use military force as a tool to achieve geopolitical goals, apart from political, informational and economic pressure.”

“These unjustified actions of our Western colleagues lead to the destruction of the security system in the world. It increases mutual distrust and force us to use responses, primarily in the Western strategic direction,” said Sergei Shoigu. He also added that the Russian response to such unfriendly acts is the improvement of combat strength of the Russian troops and system of their location.

About 20 formations and military units will be formed in the Western military district until the end of the year.

All organizational arrangements are synchronized with the supply of modern weapons. Within last six months’ troops and forces of the district received more than 300 pieces of weapons and military hardware.

More than 30 battalion and company tactical groups are ready for immediate combat use, which are staffed and equipped with the necessary financial and human resources.

With the beginning of the year in the Western military district conducted more than 100 unannounced inspections, which confirmed the readiness of troops for combat use.

After a long break the presence of warships of the Baltic Fleet in operationally important areas of the Atlantic Ocean is resumed.

Preparation for the planned strategic exercises “West-2017” has begun. It will be attended by Belarusian and Russian servicemen.

“Our partners will receive more detailed information about this exercise as through diplomatic channels and through mass media within the established international contract terms. The events will be open to international observers and journalists,” – said Sergei Shoigu, stressing that “much less troops and hardware will be used in the exercise “West-2017″ than in similar maneuvers of NATO countries in Europe.”

The Minister of Defence proposed to review the providence of the Russian military security in the Western strategic direction and the measures taken for its improvement.

The senior personnel of the Armed Forces, acting Governor of the Kaliningrad region Anton Alikhanov, representatives of bodies of state power and the military-industrial complex participated in the Board session of the Ministry of Defence


 

The US Senate amends the new sanctions on Russia bill to allow continued imports of Russian rocket engines

Amendment to Senate bill allows continued imports of Russian rocket engines

by Jeff Foust — June 15, 2017

“Without passage of Amendment #250, we lose a tremendous portion of our access to space,” said Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) during debate on the Senate floor. Gardner was referring to an amendment he introduced that established an exemption to the sanctions for Russian engines and other hardware used for civil or commercial launches.

“Without this bipartisan amendment, multiple missions on the books today, multiple missions that are already planned today, will be delayed or even cancelled, and would be subjecting the U.S. taxpayers to significant cost increases,” he said. He cited a number of examples, from launches of weather satellites to commercial cargo and crew missions to the International Space Station.

Among the amendment’s cosponsors was Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) “It corrects what was not intended, but unless corrected, would be disastrous, not only for NASA, but for all of our burgeoning commercial space industry,” he said.

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) said he supported ongoing efforts to end reliance on Russian engines, but argued against the hard cutoff that the bill would effectively create. “I think it’s important, over a very short time, that we get off of purchasing Russian rockets,” he said. “But we need that transition period.”

Gardner said NASA had discussed the bill’s consequences with his office and supported his amendment. “NASA contacted my office yesterday and said of Amendment #250, ‘We believe this provides us the flexibility to maintain our commitments to our national space program,’” he said.

Gardner and other senators argued that they were correcting an unintended consequence of the bill, with Nelson calling the amendment “technical” in nature. However, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a strong critic in recent years regarding reliance on Russian engines, spoke out against the amendment.

“Have no doubt about what this amendment is, my dear colleagues and friends: it is a giveaway to the Russian military industrial complex,” he said, claiming it was backed by a “collection of lawmakers, executives and lobbyists” who support extending purchases of Russian engines.

McCain argued that NASA should follow in the footsteps of the U.S. Air Force, which is funding development of new rocket engines to end national security dependence on the RD-180. “NASA needs to the same,” he said, a sentence he repeated twice for emphasis.

 

——————-

Security…or Surveillance? The Edward Snowden’s Interview  to Ron Paul

Published on Jun 20, 2017

In this wide-ranging exclusive interview, former intelligence analyst turned whistleblower Edward Snowden tells all. What to say to those who argue that they’ve got nothing to hide so nothing to fear from the intrusive ears of the state? Snowden is engagingly philosophical yet frank about his current position and where we are headed as a society. Check out the Freedom of the Press Foundation, where he is Board President: https://freedom.press/

————

Privacy, Control & the Darknet – Alex Winter with Abby Martin

 

—————

Analysis: Iran’s missile strikes on Daesh Takfiri terrorists

Analysis: Iran’s missile strikes on Daesh Takfiri terrorists (I)

Analysis: Iran’s missile strikes on Daesh Takfiri terrorists (II)

Analysis: Iran’s missile strikes on Daesh Takfiri terrorists (III)

Analysis: Iran’s missile strikes on Daesh Takfiri terrorists (IV)

—————————————
Israel IDF Commando Brigade exercise in Cyprus, June 2017

 

 

—-

Questions raised in USS Fitzgerald collision that left 7 dead

————–

Russian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Ryabkov:

Russia cancels planned  bilateral consultations on the issues accumulated in Russian-American relations

[Translation is mine and not official, Scott]

On June 20, the Washington announced a new significant expansion of its sanctions against Russian individuals and legal entities, as a “political gift” from the U.S. to Poroshenko. The sanctions are being imposed under an old pretext of events in Ukraine. The absurdity of this reasoning is obvious, especially given the fact that Americans are now actually being blamed for the Ukrainian crisis, among others, the Moscow bike center and a well-known company involved in catering. The absurdity of these new actions are comparable with the last year sanctions, when the U.S. included to its sanctions list an open-air swimming pool called Chaika (“Seagull”) apparently, it was added to the sanctions list due to its location near the Crimean Bridge over the Moscow river.

Those in Washington cannot understand that such escapades only provoke the “party of war” in Kiev, seeking to disrupt the peaceful settlement of the conflict in Donbass. Concerns also exist in regard to the measures taken in the United States to keep following the path predetermined by Obama administration towards a collapse of relations between our countries. We are sorry that the new American leadership being controlled by the same inveterate Russophobes from the US Congress, who just don’t know what else to invent to “annoy” us, and most importantly – to “nullify” any prospects for better alignment in Russian-American relations.

<…>

This new American attack won’t be left without a proper reaction, including in the form of similar practical measures.

As you know, in the next few days we planned to continue our bilateral consultations on the accumulated in Russian-American relations “frustrations”, to find ways out of extremely difficult situation in which the American side has driven its partnership and cooperation with Russia. After yesterday’s decision on the new sanctions, the situation does not provide a proper atmosphere for the next rounds of this dialogue, especially considering Washington refusal to propose  anything tangible in this area. In instance, the U.S. government refuses to return expropriated in December last year Russian diplomatic properties.

In the U.S., of course, they may continue to entertain illusions that Russia can be “pressured”. Numerous previous “waves” of the U.S. sanctions did not bring the result expected by their initiators. Equally futile will be any new attempts to “get Russia to submit”.

I hope that the realization of this simple fact will encourage Washington to suspend their spiraling down their own sanctional slope and to return to our bilateral dialogue and interaction to normal.

Moscow open-air swimming pool called Chaika (“Seagull”)


21 June 2017

Mr. Vladimir Ivanovich Voronkov of the Russian Federation has been appointed as Under Secretary General of the United Nations to head the newly created Counter-Terrorism Office

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has appointed Vladimir Ivanovich Voronkov of the Russian Federation as Under-Secretary-General of the newly created United Nations Counter-Terrorism Office as established by the General Assembly resolution 71/291 on 15 June 2017.


A crowd of migrant workers most likely from Uzbekistan tried to free an arrested man who failed an ID check in Moscow on June 16, 2017

A crowd started pushing on arresting  police officers, while chanting ” Allahu Akbar,” but everyone stepped back after the Police officers reached for their guns and batons .

A Police officer explained that a suspect was arrested after he handed his ID to a third party being stopped on the street for a routine ID check. He was detained pending his identification. Someone from the crowd kept saying that a suspect was beaten, and the Police officer said that it wasn’t true.

Judging by the comments on this obscure website, this escalation took place after people started leaving Ramadan services from a local mosque in the center of Moscow near metro station Prospect Mira. The Police officers didn’t use firearms, although the law allows them to shoot the attackers. Preposterously, some saw this coolness and levelheadedness of the Moscow Police as a sign of weakness.  Still, some commentators call on their “Muslim brothers” to follow the laws of Russia while visiting and working there, since Russian authorities do everything reasonable to accommodate their religious needs.

 

 


 

F-16 crashes with ammunition on board while taking off from Houston airbase

 

The pilot, who is from a detachment of the 138th Fighter Wing, crashed on takeoff.

An Air Force pilot ejected from his F-16 fighter jet after it caught fire during takeoff Wednesday morning, according to the Houston Airport System.

Ellington officials said that the pilot was on an NORAD   mission at the time of the crash.

Because the aircraft was carrying military explosives at the time of the crash, Ellington Field was evacuated, and Harris County’s Office of Emergency Management elevated to a Level III status, KHOU reported.

Houston Police also blocked sections of Beltway 8 from Crenshaw to Galveston, because of the explosives the aircraft was carrying.

NORAD officials have not indicated what type of military ordnance was on the F-16, KPRC reported.

Personnel have been allowed to return while the crash is under investigation.

Ellington Field is a base for .te United States Air Force‘s 147th Reconnaissance Wing is an Air National Guard (ANG) unit operationally-gained by the Air Combat Command (ACC).

The 147 RW provides a 24/7 capability with MQ-1B Predator Unmanned Aerial Systems. In its conduct of combat support sorties, the 147 RW provides theater and national-level leadership with critical real-time Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) and Air-to-Ground Munitions and strike capability. A collocated Air Support Operations Squadron (ASOS) provides terminal control for weapons employment in a Close Air Support (CAS) scenario, integrating combat air and ground operations. [according to Wikipedia]

A one-mile evacuation zone has been issued around Ellington Field Joint Reserve Base in southeast Houston after an F-16 caught fire in the midst of takeoff Wednesday. The pilot ejected himself to escape the fire and was taken to a hospital.

The Houston Office of Emergency Management said that the jet had missiles on board, which is the reason for the evacuation zone.

Avoid the area around Ellington Field as @cohoustonfire responds to a military plane on fire. #hounews

— Houston OEM (@HoustonOEM) June 21, 2017

Due to #EllingtonCrash in SE Houston, @houstonpolice is closing Beltway 8 from Crenshaw to Galveston Road. #houtraffic @TxDOTHoustonPIO

— Houston OEM (@HoustonOEM) June 21, 2017

Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT) manufactures the F-16.

The pilot was conducting a training flight as part of a detachment of the 138th Fighter Wing, stationed at Ellington Field Joint Reserve Base in Houston, according to NORAD.

The evacuation order covers a 4,000 square foot radius from the crash site, and will be in effect for six hours, the fire department said.

It’s not known the kind of ordnance this jet carried.