June 28th Ukraine and World SITREP by Baaz

The Ukraine SITREP

• Farewell to Arms: Over 10,000 Soldiers Desert Ukrainian Army (Source)

Desertion galore: Ukrainian men understand the absurdity of the war their government is waging.

• Former Ukrainian Defense Ministry aid joins DPR militias (Source)

Since the moment Kiev launched the military crackdown in the southeast of the country hundreds of soldiers and officers had joined the forces of the Donetsk republic

• Ukrainian toddler with a knife: “Zig heil! I will stab the Russians!” (video) (Source)
• Ukrainian pianist fired from Toronto Symphony Orchestra for speaking out for Donbass, performs in Donetsk (video) (Source)

Valentina Lisitsa (at 39 min):

“I am incredibly grateful. This is one of the most important  days of my life. This is a great honor to be here with you on this day to enjoy this beautiful music together. Music is our spiritual legacy, just like our language, our faith, this is what is worth fighting for, it is our history, which no one can take away and rewrite. Seventy years had passed since we defeated fascism the first time, and now our role is to defend Europe, to defend the entire world from this brown plague, which is raising its head once again. And you are on the frontline, defending the entire world, the entire humanity. I am grateful to tears to be with you on this day. Thank you!”

• Normandy Four’s Foreign Ministers to Discuss Ukraine Ceasefire on Tuesday (Source)
• Russian, Moldovan Deputy Prime Ministers to Discuss Transnistria Wednesday (Source)
• Patrushev: “Russia can’t prevent volunteers from going to the Donbass” (Source)

Russia “doesn’t call on or encourage” Russian volunteers to join Donbass militia, however, “it’s impossible to stop the process,” Patrushev said in an interview with the newspaper Kommersant. He noted that the refugees from Ukraine tell their “relatives and friends” about the “atrocities which are being committed there,” after which people depart for the Donbass under the influence of emotions and take part in combat.

Patrushev said that he can’t close the border with Ukraine. “What, are we supposed to organize a blockade, like the one around Leningrad? For the entire Donbass population? We are practically feeding them now, their situation is extremely difficult.”

The Security Council Secretary underscored that what’s happening in eastern Ukraine is a “civil conflict” in which it would be “inappropriate” for Russia to intervene.

In Patrushev’s opinion, the US is responsible for starting the conflict in eastern Ukraine. Since, according to Patrushev, US president Obama said that Washington acted as an intermediary during the Ukraine government change, he de-facto admitted the US initiated the conflict. Citing Victoria Nuland, Patrushev also said that the US spent $5 billion on Ukraine [since 1991, on developing Ukraine’s democratic institutions]. It’s the regime change that triggered the civil conflict in eastern Ukraine.

Patrushev views the Ukraine “destabilization project” as an effort “create an instrument to severely weaken Russia.”

In April, Patrushev said at the meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization that the West wants to “turn Ukraine into an agrarian country.”

• The Donbass conflict may be frozen” (Source)
• The Agreement That Will Save Ukraine (Source)
• Ukraine’s Right Sector Rejects Minsk Deal (Source)

Can Poroshenko’s government resist Right Sector pressure much longer?

• Shadow economy accounts for nearly 70% of Ukraine’s economy (Source)

Only 33% of the business players in Ukraine are paying taxes, Deputy Finance Minister of Ukraine Elena Makeeva estimates

• Ukrainians are tired (Source)
• Ukraine’s Pres. Poroshenko Says Overthrow of Yanukovych Was a Coup (Source)
• Kid Glove Treatment of the Extreme-Right (Source)

The Murder of Journalist Oles Buzina in Ukraine

• Crimea is Lost for Ukraine. It is a Fact’ – Yanukovych to Western Media (Source)

In his first Western media interview since his overthrow in February 2014 and the instigation of the military conflict in his country, ex-Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych admitted that the loss of Crimea was a “fact which had already happened” and thanked President Putin for rescuing his life.

• Yanukovich meets Gabriel Gatehouse – Newsnight (Video) (Source)
• Unemployment as a factor in Ukraine’s death (Source)
• Poland turns on Ukraine (Source)
• West’s Bluster in Ukraine Not Backed by Dollars (Source)

In his article for The National Interest, Eurasia policy expert Paul J. Saunders argues that expert analysis of the Ukraine crisis will require scrutiny in order to avoid disastrous and expensive policy outcomes, adding that post-Maidan Ukraine’s continued misery is the result of Western leaders’ inability to make a genuine commitment to Kiev.

• President Poroshenko Rules Out Federalization in Ukraine (Source)
• Venice Commission Advises Kiev to Create Special Status for Southeast (Source)
• Goldman Sachs Predicts Solvency Crisis, Default in Ukraine as Soon as July (Source)
• Ukraine’s Neo-Nazis : A Presentation (Source)
• Victims Of Terrorism In Ukraine : A Presentation (Source)
• The Minefield” of Vyacheslav Vysotsky(Source)
• Goodbye, Minsk II: Poroshenko Signs Law Allowing Foreign Troops in Ukraine (Source)

Kiev puts Minsk II in the paper shredder, again

• Kiev’s human rights envoy calls for social payments to Donbass instead of blockade (Source)
• Good-bye, Ukraine? (Source)
• Poroshenko’s Exit Strategy? (Source)
• Boomerang! No more cheap gas to Ukraine. Putin says low global gas price means no more gas discount to US neo-nazi colony (Source)
• Saakashvili and Chechens in Ukraine :I have seen the future, it’s murder (Source)Source
• Ukrainian military prosecutor: “There are too many anti-social elements in the armed forces” (Source)
• Dolgov Propaganda Committee: DNR will Liberate all Occupied Territories (Source)
• Viktor Yanukovych interview at BBC Eng Subs (Source)

The World SITREP

• Tianxia A Distinctly Chinese Vision of Global Hegemony(Source)

An exploration of a new Chinese vision of international relations which positions the erstwhile “Middle Kingdom” as the 21st century’s lodestar of global stability and progress.

• China: New System a Step Forward on RMB Internationalization (Source)
• Iran Energy Profile: Holds Some Of World’s Largest Deposits Of Proved Oil, Natural Gas Reserves – Analysis (Source)
• Russia as Seen by Two Chinese Scholars of Russia (Source)
• The Rush to a New Cold War (Source)

A new Cold War has taken shape between nuclear-armed Russia and the United States with very little public debate, just a return to hostile rhetoric and military moves and counter-moves over Ukraine, an issue that journalist Robert Parry has followed over the past year and a half.

Parry, a longtime Washington-based investigative reporter and editor of Consortiumnews.com, was interviewed about the crisis by Dennis J. Bernstein for Pacifica Radio’s Flashpoint program.

• There’s a Massive Security Flaw in the iPhone and Mac (Source)
• Super Weapon: China Reveals Deadly New Armor-Piercing Gun (Source)

China has revealed the world’s most powerful armor-piercing gun canon that could be used for the next generation of Chinese main battle tanks.

• Ecuador on Track to Become the Safest Country in Latin America (Source)
• Yemeni Troops Seize Control of Saudi Military Base (Source)
• Massive Explosions Shake Southern Saudi City (Source)
• Signs Of Financial Turmoil Are Brewing In Europe, China And The United States (Source)
• The Confederate battle flag is what makes America stupid: Spengler (Source)
• The truth about Diego Garcia: 50 years of fiction (Source)
• The US and China Won’t See Military Conflict Over the South China Sea (Source)

The United States and China both have an overriding interest in keeping the peace.

• Why Is NATO In Yugoslavia? (Source)
• A “Secular ISIL” Rises In Southeast Asia (II) and I (Source)
• UN Committee to Review Puerto Rican Independence (Source)
• Cost of Israel to the US (Source)
• NATO plans 40,000-strong rapid response force in E. Europe (Source)
• Russia-Greece pipeline: Will Turkish Stream ever stream? (Source)
• US 2016 Presidential Race: Impact on America-Russia Bilateral Relations (III) ,(II),(I) (Source)
• West’s Indiscretion Brings Moscow and Baku Closer to Each Other by Dmitry Babich (Source)
• George Soros as Disaster Capitalist by Valentin Katasonov (Source)

George Soros is a well-known billionaire. He has recently started to take an active part in Ukrainian affairs. No, Mr. Soros does not play the role of peacekeeper, to the contrary, his activities are aimed at inciting a large-scale war against Russia.

• US Would ‘Stand Up’ to Russia Reviving Soviet Sphere of Influence (Source)

The United States is not going to make an enemy out of Russia, but will counter any effort by Moscow to reestablish the Soviet sphere of influence, US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said in a speech at the Atlantik Brucke (Atlantic Bridge) conference in Berlin.

• Putin and the Saudi Caravan by Pepe Escobar (Source)
• Anti-intellectualism Is Killing America (Source)
• Exposed: Iran’s Super Strategy to Crush America in a War (Source)
• Geopolitics trumps everything! No way will NATO and EU let Greece leave Europe to find prosperity in Russia and China’s arms (Source)
• NATO thirsty for conflict. U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter travels to Germany to convince Europeans to provoke war with Russia (Source)
• Remarks by Secretary Carter at Atlantik Brücke: US, Germany, & NATO are Moving Forward Together”, in Berlin, Germany (Source)
• NATO Preparing for Endless Conflict With Russia (Source)

We’ve always been at war with Eastasia

• US and Russia: Liberalism vs Conservatism (Source)

America’s problem is not simply with Putin — it’s with a conservative Russian society

• Washington and the myth of “Isolated Russia” (Source)

The time has come to say it: It is not Russia that is isolated, it’s Western Europe.

• US, NATO Bracing for Long-Term Standoff With Russia Under Putin and Beyond (Source)

Instead of building bridges and accepting Russia’s stance as having merit, the US and the North Atlantic Alliance have chosen to immerse themselves in shaping up for a lasting showdown with Moscow.

• The Spies of GCHQ and NSA — and the Entertainment Business (Source)
• America’s White Supremacists At Home and Abroad (Source)

Dylann Roof, the 21-year-old killer who shot dead nine African American worshippers in a bible study class, is a self-declared Neo-Nazi white supremacist. Photographs and writings from his social media websites show the young white man revelling in racial hatred and paying homage to the Apartheid regimes of former South Africa and the German Third Reich. Roof foretold in blood-curdling words how he was going to «save the white race» by carrying out his act of mass murder in the African American church in Charleston, South Carolina. In other words, this American Nazi would be right at home in the company of the paramilitary armies that the US-backed Kiev regime has unleashed in Ukraine.

As the former black leader Malcolm X once said of the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963 – «the chickens are coming home to roost». The violence that US government begets around the world is a continuum of the violence that resides in the heart of American society at home.

• Moscow yogis unite in 108 sun salutations for the summer solstice (Source)

On International Yoga Day, the Russian version of Yoga Journal hosted a “yoga marathon” bringing together yogis and instructors of different styles for a good cause.

• Chief Economist for Deutsche Bank, Russia: Russia’s estimated growth potential is around 2-4 % (Source)
• Russia alarmed by worsening situation in Afghanistan (Source)
• Ready, Steady, Go! US Set to Usher in Era of New Nuclear Arms Race? (Source)
• A new approach needed to end tribal insurgency in north-eastern India (Source)
• Myanmar Operation: Why Pakistan is so rattled  (Source)
• How India only cares about Northeast when it’s a national security threat story (Source)

It’s sad how we lecture our distant ethnicities and minorities on unity in diversity, but treat them as lesser citizens than the mainlanders.

• The strategic implications of India’s cross-border raid (Source)
• Muscle-flexing that may backfire (Source)

Those who preach the virtue of India adopting a new ‘muscular response strategy’ vis-à-vis its neighbours need to be careful not to overstate their case. India’s current policy is one of strategic restraint and is a well-thought-out one

• The Pentagon’s War Reluctance (Source)

Despite Republican pressure and State Department hawkishness, the Pentagon and the White House remain reluctant to dive deeper into the fight against the Islamic State, wishing to avoid U.S. combat casualties, writes Gareth Porter for Middle East Eye.

• The US contemplates partitioning Iraq (Source)
• SCO not to become NATO: Russia (Source)

The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) does not intend to become an analogue of NATO, despite the upcoming inclusion of new members, in particular India and Pakistan, according to chief of Russia’s presidential administration Sergei Ivanov.

• -US deploying 250 military vehicles ‘incl. Abrams tanks’ near Russian border (Source)
• Why the PCR Won’t Get Sucked Into a Pointless War with the United States :China Syndrome (Source)

China’s leaders aren’t going to blow their big chance by getting sucked into a costly and pointless war with the United States.  That’s ridiculous. They’re going to keep plugging away until the Silk Road becomes a reality.

• Pentagon: China Aims to Unseat US as King of the Skies (Source)

The United States sees China as a serious threat to its military superiority in air and space, so the Pentagon is seeking new technologies and systems to keep America ahead of its rival, the US deputy defense secretary said.

• ‘F**k US imperialism’: Germany’s ex-finance minister slams defense secretary’s Europe visit (Source)
• Totally betrayed’: Greek pensioners protest against austerity deal (Source)
• Is Big Brother spying on you through your computer? (Source)
• Greenwald: Putin’s ‘Trolls’ Are No Match for UK’s Internet Manipulation Program (Source)

NSA files published by Greenwald expose unit within British intelligence that plants stories, sets up bogus sites and plants comments on the Internet in a far more systematic way than anything the Russians are accused of.

• Brilliant Readers’ Comments Sum up the Ridiculous EU Attempt to Freeze Russian Assets (Source)

The asset freezes enforce a judgment in Khodorkovsky’s favor that is procedurally flawed, grotesquely biased and still under appeal Zero Hedge readers pounce on the absurdity

• NATO vs Russia: ‘US tries to create enemy out of nothing’ (Source)
• Russia Gets Very Serious on De-dollarizing (Source)
• Ron Paul Warns Seizure Of Russian Assets Will Hasten Dollar Demise (Source)

While much of the world focused last week on whether or not the Federal Reserve was going to raise interest rates, or whether the Greek debt crisis would bring Europe to a crisis, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague awarded a $50 billion judgment to shareholders of the former oil company Yukos in their case against the Russian government. The governments of Belgium and France moved immediately to freeze Russian state assets in their countries, naturally provoking the anger of the Russian government.

The timing of these actions is quite curious, coming as the Greek crisis in the EU seems to be reaching a tipping point and Greece, having perhaps abandoned the possibility of rapprochement with Europe, has been making overtures to Russia to help bail it out of its mess. And with the IMF’s recent statement pledging its full and unconditional support to Ukraine, it has become even more clear that the IMF and other major multilateral institutions are not blindly technical organizations, but rather are totally subservient lackeys to the foreign policy agenda emanating from Washington. Toe the DC party line and the internationalists will bail you out regardless of how badly you mess up, but if you even think about talking to Russia you will face serious consequences.

The United States government is desperately trying to cling to the notion of a unipolar world, with the United States at its center dictating foreign affairs and monetary policy while its client states dutifully carry out instructions. But the world order is not unipolar, and the existence of Russia and China is a stark reminder of that. For decades, the United States has benefited as the creator and defender of the world’s reserve currency, the dollar. This has enabled Americans to live beyond their means as foreign goods are imported to the US while increasingly-worthless dollars are sent abroad. But is it any wonder after 70-plus years of a depreciating dollar that the rest of the world is rebelling against this massive transfer of wealth?

The Europeans tried to form their own competitor to the dollar, and the resulting euro is collapsing around them as you read this. But the European Union was never considered much of a threat by the United States, existing as it does within Washington’s orbit. Russia and China, on the other hand, pose a far more credible threat to the dollar, as they have both the means and the motivation to form a gold-backed alternative monetary system to compete against the dollar. That is what the US government fears, and that is why President Obama and his Western allies are risking a cataclysmic war by goading Russia with these politically-motivated asset seizures. Having run out of carrots, the US is resorting to the stick.

The US government knows that Russia will not blithely accept Washington’s dictates, yet it still reacts like a petulant child flying into a tantrum whenever Russia dares to exert its sovereignty. The existence of a country that won’t kowtow to Washington’s demands is an unforgivable sin, to be punished with economic sanctions, attempting to freeze Russia out of world financial markets; veiled threats to strip Russia’s hosting of the 2018 World Cup; and now the seizure of Russian state assets.

Thus far the Russian response has been incredibly restrained, but that may not last forever. Continued economic pressure from the West may very well necessitate a Sino-Russian monetary arrangement that will eventually dethrone the dollar. The end result of this needless bullying by the United States will hasten the one thing Washington fears the most: a world monetary system in which the US has no say and the dollar is relegated to playing second fiddle.

• Guest Column by Vladimir Putin (Source)
• The Return of the Romanov’s to Russia (Source)
• Russia considers banning chocolate and flowers from EU – food safety watchdog (Source)
• Russian military to order major research to counter ‘color revolutions’ (Source)
• A First: China Sends Troops to US-Mongolia-Led Khaan Quest Exercise (Source)

For the first time, China is sending People’s Liberation Army troops to exercise Khaan Quest.

• The 2015 US-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue: What (and What Not) to Expect (Source)

Four things to expect from this week’s Strategic and Economic Dialogue.

• China Prepares Its 172,000 Civilian Ships for War (Source)

Chinese civilian shipbuilders have to ensure that their vessels can be used by the PLAN during times of ‘crisis’.

• Is a Sino-US War Inevitable? (Source)

How to stop the unthinkable from becoming the inevitable.

• America’s Asia Policy: The New Reality (Source)

The U.S. policy goals in Asia – short and long term – are now clear.

• Report: US Needs New Small Nuclear Bombs (Source)
• The Merging of Government and Wall Street Into One Criminal Entity: The Rising Tide of State Fascism in the US and Canada (Source)
• Russia, Saudi Arabia: New Turn in Relationship (Source)
• Where is the LAC? (Source)
• The Failure of Obama Policy: A State of Middle East Anarchy (Source)

There was much speculation and angst in Western capitals at the time that the Arab-Israeli conflict in 1973 could trigger a direct US-USSR Super-Power confrontation in the desert of Sinai, leading to a Third World War, unimaginable in the nuclear age. For a moment, it looked as if that just might happen with America intervening to protect Israel and Russia intervening to strengthen its ally, Egypt. The Middle East today finds itself engulfed in a moment even more precarious and dangerous than those autumnal days forty two years ago.

• Iran’s Khamenei says U.S. wants to destroy Tehran’s nuclear industry: TV (Source)
• China Headlines: China unveils V-Day parade plans, stressing anti-Fascist role (Source)
• A Competitive Strategies Approach to Defining U.S. Nuclear Strategy and Posture for 2025–2050 (Source)

Project Atom is a forward-looking, “blue-sky” review of U.S. nuclear strategy and posture in a 2025-2050 world in which nuclear weapons are still necessary. The report highlights and addresses the current deficit in national security attention paid to the continued relevance and importance of U.S. nuclear strategy and force posture, provides a new open-source baseline for understanding the nuclear strategies of other countries, and offers a credible, intellectually tested, and nonpartisan range of options for the United States to consider in revising its own nuclear strategy.

• TIE Fighter – short film (Video) (Source)

What if there was an Empire-focussed short Star Wars animation, drawn with the crazy detail and shading of classic 80s anime that’s all but vanished from Japan nowadays?

• Israel conducts air strike over the border in Lebanon to ‘destroy its own downed drone’ (Source)

Israeli war plane reportedly struck a remote area in Lebanon’s western Bekaa region to destroy a drone which landed over the border

• Saakashvili’s New Nightmare: ‘I Know Kremlin is Planning Something… (Source)

It looks like Ukrainian politics doesn’t work without the “Russian threat” card: the Odessa Region’s new governor Mikheil Saaksshvili now claims that the Kremlin is working on another project, “Bessarabia”; without providing any palatable details, the governor only claimed that it is going to be implemented in the Odessa Region.

• Pentagon rewrites ‘Law of War’ declaring ‘belligerent’ journalists as legitimate targets (Source)
• US to EU : Sanctions are for suckers (Source)

It’s a rich irony – in fact a richness worth about $7.4 billion, and counting. In the same week that European Union envoys voted to extend trade sanctions on Russia, news emerges from the Paris Air Show that American aviation giant, Boeing, is moving ahead to sell a fleet of its 747 cargo planes – to Russia.

• Level Up: Kalashnikov Presents New Pistol for Russian Military (Source)
• Secret doc: US to give Tehran nuclear technology, refurbish reactor under deal (Source)
• Turkey and Crimea: the politicised results of a single mission (Source)
• ISIL: Made in Langley and propped up by Tel Aviv and Riyadh (Source)

It is becoming more and more apparent that the Islamic State for Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), or «Daesh» as it is known in Arabic, or ISIS – the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham — preferred by Israel supporters because of the uncomforting similarity between «Israel» and «ISIL» – is part of another Central Intelligence Agency operation to artificially create a new «strategy of tensions» for the Eurasian and African land masses.

• EU Flags Trampled On (Video) (Source)

Bratislava witnessed unprecedented emotional protests hitting the streets on June 20. The Slovakian capital has enjoyed the fame of a quite city, actually one of the quietest in the European Union. Now the people want the EU to stop imposing its security concepts that run contrary to national interests. EU flags were trampled on against the background of clasheswith police.

• Russia through the Saudi looking glass (Source)
• The problem with Pope Francis’ encyclical is that nature is nasty: Spengler (Source)

The trouble with natural theology (the notion that nature itself points us to an understanding of the divine) is that nature herself is a nasty piece of work. When St. Francis of Assisi and his namesake, the reigning Pope, laud nature as “mother” and “sister,” they open a can of theological worms. Nature is no sister of mine. Christians like to view things in terms of teleology–their ultimate goal–and the teleology of the world we know is to be destroyed in a fireball.

Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si’ opens with this praise of nature:

“LAUDATO SI’, mi’ Signore” – “Praise be to you, my Lord”. In the words of this beautiful canticle, Saint Francis of Assisi reminds us that our common home is like a sister with whom we share our life and a beautiful mother who opens her arms to embrace us. “Praise be to you, my Lord, through our Sister, Mother Earth, who sustains and governs us, and who produces various fruit with coloured flowers and herbs”.

This sister now cries out to us because of the harm we have inflicted on her by our irresponsible use and abuse of the goods with which God has endowed her. We have come to see ourselves as her lords and masters, entitled to plunder her at will. The violence present in our hearts, wounded by sin, is also reflected in the symptoms of sickness evident in the soil, in the water, in the air and in all forms of life. This is why the earth herself, burdened and laid waste, is among the most abandoned and maltreated of our poor; she “groans in travail” (Rom8:22). We have forgotten that we ourselves are dust of the earth (cf. Gen2:7); our very bodies are made up of her elements, we breathe her air and we receive life and refreshment from her waters.

• The Yogi and the Hindu (Source)
• Russian satellite-gagging jammer field tests announced (Source)

A leading Russian producer of electronic warfare systems is to roll out a new jammer that would render enemy precision weapons useless by suppressing guidance systems, including those relying on satellite signals.

“The system is meant to jam enemy aviation, carrier-launched, tactical and strategic, and jam the signals of foreign military satellites,” Yury Maevsky, deputy head of KRET, told TASS

• McCain Blows His Top Over US Inability to Abandon Russian Rocket Engines (Source)
• Russia has no aggressive plans, but army’s consistent development will continue – Putin (Source)
• Scandal in Kyrgyzstan After Protest Organizer Seen With US Diplomat (Source)
• China’s Rise: The Strategic Impact of Its Economic and Military Growth (Video) (Source)
• Why America Can’t Stop Russia’s Hybrid Warfare (Source)

In important respects, America’s inability to counter Russia’s hybrid tactics may have less to do with Moscow’s approach than our own.

• Russia and China’s Moment: Exploiting America’s Weakness (Source)

While Washington debates where to focus its energy, Beijing and Moscow are looking for new ways to capitalize on its indecisiveness.

• This Is What Russia Really Wants(Source)

I am absolutely sure that Russia is not going to yield anything,” Andranik Migranyan told an audience at the Center for the National Interest.

• US-Ukraine Strategic Partnership Lacks Strategy, Partnership (Source)
• The Ghost of Thucydides: Is War in Asia Inevitable? (Source)
• Newly Declassified Docs on India’s Nuclear Weapons Program, 1973-1976 (Source)
• Short Cuts: “The Legal Case for the Right to Make War” (Source)
• The Privatization of Nuclear War (Source)

GRTV Report Produced by James Corbett, Featuring Michel Chossuodvsky

• Space Weapons and World Empire (Source)
• US to Begin Invasion of Syria (Source)
• Latvia -Another Proxy War Coming ? (Source)
• What should Russia do to Escape Kiev Faster (Source)
• Three Victories of the Greek Government (Source)
• Turkey’s Troubling War on Syria (Source)

In Syria, the war to overthrow the secular government in Damascus has attracted Islamic militants from around the world, but they have relied on funding and support from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and – perhaps most importantly – Turkey, where an election reflected growing popular resistance to this war policy, writes Rick Sterling.

• The Nitwits Are in Charge (Source)

Exclusive: Pundit Thomas Friedman laments that the new Cold War isn’t funny enough for him, but there really isn’t anything funny about the U.S. plunging into an unnecessary nuclear showdown with Russia over Ukraine while Friedman and his fellow VIPs misreport what’s happening, writes Robert Parry.

• China Builds World’s fastest Tank Gun (Source)

Earlier this month, the Chinese army received a multipurpose cannon which reportedly will surpass any such cannon in the world. Days later, however, all references to the new weapon had disappeared, implying a desire for secrecy during testing.

• Fatal Friday: Scores dead after France, Tunisia & Kuwait hit by terrorist attacks (Source)
• Nuclear Nightmare Redux. U.S. “First Strike” Nuclear Attacks. “Three Minutes to Midnight” (Source)
• Neocons Urge Embrace of Al Qaeda (Source)

Exclusive: The latest neocon gambit is to build support for “regime change” in Syria by downplaying the evils of Al Qaeda, rebranding it as some sort of “moderate” terrorist force whose Syrian affiliate is acceptable to Israel and supported by Saudi Arabia. But this audacious argument ignores reality, writes Daniel Lazare.

• China’s WW2 Military Parade to Include Russia, Mongolia – and Taiwan (Source)

China divulged new details about its September 3 military parade this week.

• Why Are India’s Warships in Thailand and Cambodia? (Source)

Indian vessels visited the two Southeast Asian nations this week as part of India’s ‘Act East’ policy.

• Defense ministers of NATO was 06/26/2015 agreed to increase military support for the extreme right regime in Ukraine. (Source)
• Novorossiya Moments #21 – A Donetsk Rose from a Ukrainian Grad (Video) (Source)
• New Maidan outside Ukraine? Calls for government to step down in another post-Soviet state.(Video) (Source)

Armenia is in the headlines and it’s not because of Kim Kardashian. The small post-Soviet state is located some 200 kilometers from Russia. The countries are very close allies. Water cannons, batons and arrests – police moved in to disperse protesters, who walked out in thousands. The reason – a 15 percent hike in electricity prices. And it’s the 3rd time in 2 years the government raises the threshold. The sit-in continues, the demonstrators are building barricades. While some protesters says it’s all about economy, others are ready to go fall in against the government.

• Sergey Lavrov’s comments after the Normandy format FMs in Paris (Source)
• Russia’s Advanced S-400 Systems Could ‘Neutralize NATO Airpower’ (Source)

The S-400 “deployment in greater numbers along Russia’s borders with NATO could challenge the latter’s ability to achieve air dominance in the event of a conflict with Moscow,” Zachary Keck said in an article titled “Watch Out, America: Russia Sends Super Advanced S-400 to NATO’s Borders.”

• Russia’s Lethal Nuclear Arsenal Gets an Upgrade: Should NATO Worry? (Source)
• India’s Upgraded Attack Submarine Heads Into Final Trials (Source)

India’s INS Sindhukirti is set to reenter service after nearly a decade-long upgrade process.

• Liquidate NATO Before It’s Too Late (Source)
• Revealed: India’s Master Plan for the Indian Ocean (Source)
• NATO Troops Train to Take On Pro-Russian Rebels (Source)

In NATO’s latest exercise in souther Poland involving troops from 9 nations NATO “fought” an enemy modeled after Ukraine’s Donbass rebels

• NATO Buildup in Poland Portends Catastrophic Consequences – Vice Admiral (Source)
• The Matrix is Everywhere” Kinetic Typography (Video) (Source)
• There is no Constitutional right to vote for President (Source)
• US, NATO Powers Intensify Preparations for Nuclear War (Source)
• Russia and China should outmaneuver NATO by expanding influence in the Balkans and Indochina (Source)
• NATO Defence Ministers confirm enduring support for Afghanistan (Source)
• NATO-Russia Collision Ahead? By Pat Buchanan (Source)

In Washington, Congressional hawks are primed to show Putin who is truly tough. But in shipping weapons to Ukraine and sending U.S. troops and armor into the Baltic States, they have behind them a divided nation and a NATO alliance that wants no part of this confrontation.

• Unlike the Cuban missile crisis, it is Russia that has regional military superiority here, and a leader seemingly prepared to ride the escalator up right alongside us.

Are we sure it will be the Russians who blink this time?

• A Black President Eulogizes a Black Reverend and State Senator Slain for Being Black (Video) (Source)
• NATO drastically increasing presence in eastern Europe (Source)
• The Fateful Triangle: Russia, Ukraine and the Jews (and Israel) (Source)

A thorough examination of Jewish-Ukrainian-Russian-Israeli affairs. Some points:

Israel wishes to remain neutral in the Ukraine crisis

Putin is personally friendly to Israel

Jews in eastern Ukraine support the general pro-Russian trend

Fringe Israeli right-wingers are supportive of Russia and are courting it for support of right-wing Zionism

Russia’s support for Palestine, opposition to war on Syria and Iran precludes it from winning support in Ukraine crisis in Israel and among American Jews

• Kerry’s Visit To Sochi: New Dynamics Of Russia-US Engagement – Analysis (Source)
• Armenia’s biggest Orthodox church handed over to Russian military base (Source)
• Xi-Putin Bonhomie Fails Western Policy Towards Russia – Analysis (Source)
• Stratfor: Russia will Not Allow a Color Revolution, despite NATO efforts (Source)
• Putin’s Gas Pincers (Source)
• Russia Unveils Its ‘Hell Machine’ – New Generation Mine Layer (Source)
• Modern Warfare: Russia’s T-15, Armata Tank’s Younger Brother (Source)
• Caucasus Without Russia: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow by By Rostislav Ishchenko (Source)
• Here’s the Difference Between Russian and Western Civilizations (Starikov) (Source)
• Libya, Syria, Ukraine: It’s worse than we can imagine (Source)
• Polish Professor Explains Warsaw’s Craving for US Military Bases (Source)
• Donbass Self-Defense: “My open hand now turned intoa fist…” 18+  (Source)
• Congressman Dana Rohrabacher grills U.S. ambasador to the U.N. Samantha Power on Ukraine (Video) (Source )
• NATO Ups the Ante in the Ukraine Crisis by James Carden (Source)
• In Ukraine, will soon be a “secret” research center,which will carry out experiments with deadly
  viruses. The project is funded by the company, closelyassociated with the US Department of Defense, the likelabs are already working in Georgia and Moldova.
  What is it? The myth of bioterrorism or a real threatbacteriological attack? (Video) (Source)
• Russia’s Dynamic Duo – Rogozin & Shoigu – Part I Dmitry Rogozin (Source)

The revival of Russia’s military power owes much to Dmitry Rogozin’s flamboyant leadership of the country’s defense industries – he’s a politician rather than a technocrat

• Russia’s Dynamic Duo – Rogozin & Shoigu – Part II – Sergey Shoigu (Source)

A brilliant manager, Sergey Shoigu is rapidly re-establishing Russia’s military as the strongest force in Europe and western Eurasia

• Iran nuclear deadline: Showdown in Vienna By Pepe Escobar (Source)

This is it? No one knows. As foreign ministers gather in Vienna ahead of the June 30 deadline, an Iranian government source tells Asia Times it’s a “done deal.” For days, there have been no leaks, certainly to prevent hardliners on both sides – Iran and especially the U.S. – from ruining it at five seconds to midnight.

• The choice in the Levant is between a controlled burn or a conflagration (Source)
• US-China strategic dialogue talks: Waiting for Mr. Xi (Source)
• Japan tests West’s boycott of Russia (Source)
• On Greece and Europe On the Delphi Declaration by Michael Hudson (Source)
• “NO, OKHI…”Greek Diaries by Tariq Ali (Source)
• The World is Turning, Don’t Let it Turn Away by Andre Vltchek (Source)

Latin American Revolutions Under Attack

• Stephen F Cohen (John Batchelor Podcast ) (Source)

Russian Media

• Харьков. С защиты диплома в военкомат на медкомиссию (Source)
• Юнкер: Еврокомиссия предложила Греции 35 миллиардов евро до 2020 года (Source)
• Комбат «Торнадо» признался в пытках (Source) (Video)
• “Торнадо” андрогина Онищенко: батальон “опущенных” и “обиженных” (Source)
• Канадские военные инструкторы прибудут в Украину в августе (Source)
• Валентина Лисица после концерт в Донецке (Video) (Source)
• Администрация Петра Порошенко: 380 десантников из США тренируют бойцов Нацгвардии Украины (Source)
• Хроника военных событий в Новороссии за 24.06.2015 (Source)
• Януковичу предложили вернуться (Source)
• Украинцы ездят в Россию в шесть раз чаще, чем россияне на Украину (Source)
• Полтава. видео взрывов боеприпасов в машине (Video) (Source)
• Сергей Лавров отметил странную работу микрофонов на переговорах глав МИД «нормандской четвёрки» (Source)
• Было поздно, скорее всего, вы спали уже, когда я положил новый репортаж )) Гриша в Новороссии #39 -Донецк Детски Дом (Video) (Source)
• М-да. Европейским правозащитникам отказали во въезде на Украину. (Source)
• Это же так удобно – если у вас что-то не в порядке, то виноват Путин (video) (Source)
• перешла к прямому шантажу зарубежных кредиторов: (Video) (Source)
• Сухопутные войска Германии приняли на вооружение первую серийную БМП “Пума (Source)
• Телеканал Порошенко: Установим ПРО США, а потом НАТО за два дня зачистит Донбасс(Source )
• Декларации США о плюрализме в СМИ резко диссонируют с замалчиванием фактической дискриминации российской журналистики (Source)
• Точно америкосы HAARP врубили! В наших краях такого еще не наблюдалось: смерч в Днепропетровске 26 06 15 (Source)
• Саакашвили потребовал уволить недавно назначенного руководителя Одесской таможни ★ Русская весна (Source)
• Вести.Ru: Навальный и Яшин получили 54,5 тысячи евро компенсации за задержание в 2011 году (Source)
• План украинского возмездия Крыму и Донбассу: репрессии, ассимиляция и поражение в правах на долгие годы (Source)
• Михаил Саакашвили устроил истерику вовремя заседания (Video) (Source)
• Политолог о западных СМИ: Путин вызывает слепоту, облысение иавтокатастрофы (Video) (Source )