Palestinian Leader, President Trump to Hold First Phone Call

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Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will speak Friday by telephone with U.S. President Donald Trump in the first contact between the two leaders since Trump took office in January.

Trump’s planned phone call to Abbas was revealed in a White House notice.

Abbas has spent many hours on the phone and in meetings with U.S. presidents and secretaries of state over the past decade but he has been unsuccessful when reaching out to Trump. His office did not comment ahead of the call. (Read more from “Palestinian Leader, President Trump to Hold First Phone Call” HERE)

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‘Man-Made’ Famine Leaves Millions Facing Starvation in Africa

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Years of internal conflicts and poor governance are not the only problems facing the African countries of South Sudan, Nigeria, and Somalia.

The United Nations recently declared famine in parts of South Sudan and Nigeria. Judging by current conditions, it won’t be long before Somalia follows suit.

The number of people affected is staggering. In South Sudan, 100,000 people are on the verge of starvation with another 5 million at risk. That number of at-risk people totals 6.2 million in Somalia—half of its population—and 4.4 million in Nigeria.

Across all three countries, roughly 1.4 million children are at imminent risk of death. Those numbers are unlikely to decrease anytime soon and could even increase in the coming weeks.

This is not the first time these three nations have faced famine and starvation. The semi-arid climates in parts of their countries make them prone to drought.

But this current famine was brought on by more than below-average rainfall. Humanitarian aid organizations and the U.S. State Department have called the famine in South Sudan “man-made.”

It is not difficult to understand why. Weather conditions may cause drought, but poor governance and instability quickly turn a drought into a humanitarian crisis.

Take South Sudan as an example.

After 25 years of war, the country gained independence from Sudan in 2011. Only 18 months later, tensions within the government plunged the South Sudanese nation into a crippling civil war that cut off South Sudan’s trade routes with neighboring countries, prevented farmers from growing and harvesting food, and caused remaining food prices to skyrocket.

A famine was narrowly averted in 2014 thanks only to a massive international humanitarian effort. However, famine looms again. Various countries have pledged help for this latest hunger crisis, but this relief may never reach the people who need it most.

Despite the South Sudanese government promising “unimpeded access” for aid workers in the country, the South Sudanese security services and aligned forces frequently block the delivery of humanitarian relief.

The government has delayed agencies’ paperwork that would allow them to distribute aid. Soldiers have instituted military checkpoints around famine stricken areas and are preventing relief workers from crossing them.

The government is blocking aid for a number of likely reasons. It has for years stirred up anti-Western and anti-U.N. sentiment over the international community’s pressure on the government to halt its campaign of war crimes and ethnic killings. It may be blocking humanitarian aid in an attempt to retaliate.

The government is also likely blocking aid to rebel-controlled or influenced areas to punish those communities for what the government believes is their support for the rebels.

Poor governance and internal conflict have similarly contributed to the hunger crises in Somalia and Nigeria. Internal conflict has wreaked havoc in Somalia for nearly three decades, and the internationally-backed government has been mired in corruption and bickering.

Furthermore, the government has been unable to extend its authority to much of the country.

Nigeria’s government is relatively stable, but for years it has mismanaged the fight against the ISIS-aligned Boko Haram terrorist group that at one point controlled much of northwest Nigeria. Now, that same northwest region—torn by violence and terrorism—faces the worst of this famine crisis.

As the current humanitarian crisis grows, the international community will continue to offer emergency relief, and it should. But without better governance and stability in these countries, there is only so much these efforts will achieve. (For more from the author of “‘Man-Made’ Famine Leaves Millions Facing Starvation in Africa” please click HERE)

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North Korea, Malaysia Ban Each Other’s Citizens From Leaving

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North Korea barred Malaysians from exiting its borders and Malaysia followed suit Tuesday, turning ordinary citizens into pawns in the diplomatic battle surrounding the investigation into the bizarre death of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s half brother.

The tit-for-tat directives come as relations between the two countries disintegrate over the poisoning of Kim Jong Nam in a crowded airport terminal in Kuala Lumpur on Feb. 13.

“This is way out of normal diplomatic practice,” Lalit Mansingh, a New Delhi-based scholar and longtime top Indian diplomat, said of North Korea’s decision. He could not recall anything similar in recent years, where so many everyday citizens were pulled into a diplomatic standoff. (Read more from “North Korea, Malaysia Ban Each Other’s Citizens From Leaving” HERE)

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ISIS Attacks Military Hospital in Afghan Capital

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Gunmen wearing white lab coats stormed a military hospital in Afghanistan’s capital on Wednesday, killing at least four people, wounding dozens and setting off clashes with security forces that were still underway hours later.

An Islamic State affiliate claimed the attack on the 400-bed military hospital, which is located near two civilian hospitals in Wazir Akbar Khan, Kabul’s heavily-guarded diplomatic quarter.

Health Ministry spokesman Ismail Kawasi said at least three bodies of civilians and more than 60 wounded people had been brought to nearby hospitals, adding that the toll was likely to rise as ambulances were still at the scene. (Read more from “ISIS Attacks Military Hospital in Afghan Capital” HERE)

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Pakistani Judge Threatens to Shut Down Country’s Social Media Over Free Speech ‘Terrorists’

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Pakistan is no place for free speech.

A justice on Pakistan’s Islamabad High Court (IHC) has threatened to shut down the entirety of social media if criticism of Islam’s Muhammad continues, declaring these “blasphemers” as “terrorists.”

According to local reports, Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqi burst into tears while issuing the warning for those who apparently have taken to social media to criticize Muhammad. Siddiqi made it very clear that Pakistan would not allow for such displays of free speech.

“Why is the blasphemous content present on the social media? What steps had the government taken up in this regard so far?” Siddiqi asked. “I submit and sacrifice myself and all what I have including my parents, my life and job to the person of Allah’s messenger … If the sacrilegious pages cannot be blocked, then, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) should cease to exist,” he added.

Siddiqi then took his comments a step further, arguing that social media in its entirety should be cut off for Muhammad’s sake.

“Each and everything can be sacrificed for the honor of Allah’s Messenger. I will close entire social media, if I have to,” he said.

And then came the conclusion: The justice declaring those who decide to engage in free speech as “terrorists.”

“I hereby declare as terrorists who commit blasphemy to the holy Prophet.” the IHC justice declared.

About 75 percent of Pakistanis support the country’s blasphemy laws, which say that insulting Islam is punishable by death. This has led to massive discrimination against Christians and other religious minorities living inside Pakistan. The blasphemy edicts sometimes lead mobs to take the streets, and guarantees violent repercussions for those who have been deemed slanderers of Islam.

Pakistan is currently fending off a wave of jihadist terrorist attacks. In one such incident in February, a suicide bomber killed 88 people after detonating his vest at a Sufi shrine. This might lead observers to believe that such a vital issue to national security would take priority in Islamabad. Instead, the judiciary is discussing how to block what its citizens discuss on social media.

Free speech does not exist in Pakistan. And worse, the highest levels of government are accused of becoming cozy with international terrorist groups.

Pakistan was notoriously once the home base for deceased al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, who set up shop in Abbottabad, located less than a mile away from a prominent Pakistani military academy. Its Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency has long been accused of collaborating with jihadist terror outfits. (For more from the author of “Pakistani Judge Threatens to Shut Down Country’s Social Media Over Free Speech ‘Terrorists'” please click HERE)

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Russia and Corruption: Jeff Sessions Versus the Clintons

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Attorney General Jeff Sessions was asked, during his Senate confirmation hearing, if he had had contact with Russian officials during the late campaign on behalf of then-candidate Donald Trump. He quickly and candidly said no.

Turns out he did meet with the Russian Ambassador twice last year. Were I a bettor, I would place a healthy amount on the belief that the AG did not mention these meetings because they were so far removed from anything to relating to the Trump campaign that they did not even occur to him.

Then-Senator Sessions was chairman of the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces. Has it occurred to anyone that in that capacity, he might have wanted to speak to the ambassador of America’s leading challenger in the realm of nuclear weapons about its resurgent and deliberate nuclear re-armament?

Regardless, one thing is sure: President Trump’s chief rival for the presidency, Hillary Clinton, as well as her husband, former President Bill Clinton, have deep ties to Russia, including ties that involve, potentially, Russia’s nuclear weapons capacity.

Bill & Hillary’s Excellent Uranium Payoff

In 2010, according to the New York Times, “leaders of the Canadian mining industry, who (had) been major donors to the charitable endeavors of former President Bill Clinton and his family” sought access to uranium production facilities in the U.S. “Among the agencies that eventually signed off was the State Department, then headed by Clinton’s wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton.”

Funny thing: Soon after, the Times reports, things got quite interesting for the Clintons. The president of Uranium One, as the company came to be known, “used his family foundation to make four donations totaling $2.35 million” to the Clinton Foundation.

And that was just a fraction of what came pouring in: The Clinton Foundation received no less than $145 million from nine of Uranium One’s shareholders. As noted by Peter Schweizer, who exhaustively tracks the extensive corruption of the former first couple, “the deal allowed Rosatom, the Russian State Nuclear Agency, to buy assets that amounted to 20 percent of American uranium. Rosatom, by the way controls the Russian nuclear arsenal.”

Back to the Times: “Shortly after the Russians announced their intention to acquire a majority stake in Uranium One, Mr. Clinton received $500,000 for a Moscow speech from a Russian investment bank with links to the Kremlin that was promoting Uranium One stock.”

$500,000 — yikes. As the former chief speechwriter for the Secretary of our country’s largest Cabinet department, I can only say that must have been one epic speech.

Skolkovo: Russian for “More Clinton Cash”

Then there’s the case of Skolkovo Innovation Center “Russia’s Silicon Valley.” Then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pulled together a number of American high tech firms to underwrite Skolkovo. A number of these firms had already given to the Clinton Foundation and, soon, 17 of their Russian counterparts in Skolkovo also contributed to the Foundation. As Peter Schweizer notes, these “financial commitments to the Clinton Foundation (were in the) tens of millions of dollars, or sponsored speeches by Bill Clinton.”

Sleazy enough, but only the first peel of a rancid onion: As explained by journalist Rudy Takala, “Government documents suggest Skolkovo’s work conflicted at least in part with U.S. military interests. The U.S. Army Foreign Military Studies Program described it in 2012 as a ‘vehicle for worldwide technology transfer to Russia in the areas of information technology, biomedicine, energy, satellite and space technology, and nuclear technology.’”

FBI Assistant Special Agent Lucia Ziobro, in a recent op-ed, affirmed these concerns: “The FBI recently released a notification to technology companies and research facilities … warning them of the possible perils of entering into joint partnerships with foreign venture capital firms from Russia … The FBI believes the true motives of the Russian partners, who are often funded by their government, is to gain access to classified, sensitive and emerging technology from the companies.”

Former presidents have access to pretty much whatever information they want. Certainly sitting Secretaries of State do. Yet Bill and Hillary Clinton, fully aware of the intimately close connections between Russian “private” industries, the Russian military, and the Putin regime, went forward with their Skolkovo initiative.

And one more: At one time, “Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman John Podesta sat on the executive board of an energy company, Joule Unlimited, which received millions from a Putin-connected Russian government fund,” writes journalist Jerome Hudson. In addition, Podesta held 75,000 common shares in Joule which he later put in a “holding company.”

The Sad Circus

I have highlighted only the Clintons’ connections with Russia and its dangerous government. There is so much more in the vast archive of their multiple relationships with foreign governments, many of which have policies inimical to the interests of the United States. And still they continue to wander the globe selling influence and accruing massive wealth.

Meanwhile, Jeff Sessions is being assailed and unctuously belittled by the giants of the American Left, even today, for forgetting to mention a couple of meetings with the Russian Ambassador. This circus is a sad commentary on the character of our times. (For more from the author of “Russia and Corruption: Jeff Sessions Versus the Clintons” please click HERE)

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Iraqi Forces Near Government Buildings in Mosul as Fight Against ISIS Continues

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US-backed Iraqi forces are set to reach the main government complex in Mosul, their next target in the battle to retake the city from Islamic State.

The site should be taken on Monday, Lieutenant Colonel Abdel Amir al-Mohammadawi told the Reuters news agency.

Meanwhile, Colonel John L Dorrian, spokesman for Operation Inherent Resolve, the American-led coalition against ISIS, told Sky News the Iraqi forces were “imposing their will on the enemy” in the city.

“They’re not going to be pushed out of Mosul – they’re going to surrender or they’re going to be killed there,” he vowed.

A senior commander said earlier Iraqi troops had been involved in the “heaviest” clashes yet with ISIS fighters in the west of the city since the start of their offensive. (Read more from “Iraqi Forces Near Government Buildings in Mosul as Fight Against ISIS Continues” HERE)

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How Soros Money Is Corrupting Politics in This Small European Nation

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In the economy of world politics, George Soros has billions at stake, and they extend even to remote places like the Republic of Macedonia.

In fact, the tiny Balkan state is becoming emblematic of a battle royale taking place in Europe between conservative parties that support traditional values and national sovereignty, and those — often funded by the liberal billionaire — with an ambitious agenda that includes liberal drug and sexual orientation policies as well as trans-nationalism.

Making things even more complicated are the Kremlin’s routine strategic interferences. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s vast propaganda network often intrudes into these disputes, whether invited in or not, by ostensibly taking up the traditionalists’ cause and going to war with his arch-nemesis, Soros.

In some places, such as Macedonia itself, there is one added variable: Obama-era embeds.

The Obama-appointed U.S. ambassador in Skopje, Jess Baily, has come under congressional scrutiny over accusations that he has shown a political bias against the Macedonian conservative party, VMRO, and that he facilitated coalition negotiations between the main leftist party and ethnic Albanian parties.

In a letter sent to Baily on Jan. 17, Republican members of the House and the Senate also asked him to explain reports that his embassy had selected Soros’ Open Society Foundations as the main implementer of U.S. Agency for International Development projects in Macedonia.

The State Department’s Feb. 6 response, which I had the chance to read, was thin on details regarding funding for Soros’ foundation and groups it controls.

Grants to them were awarded through a “competitive procurement process,” the letter said. The aid, it added, was to “strengthen the rule of law, increase economic growth, support regional security,” and pursue other nebulous goals.

But in fact, a Feb. 27 USAID announcement of a $2.54 million contract with the foundation revealed that the project included paying for training in “civic activism,” “mobilization,” and “civic engagement.”

Far from strengthening the rule of law or regional security, these are activities associated with the redefinition of civics as 1960s-style progressive political activism. They are all strategies straight out of Saul Alinsky’s subversion manual, “Rules for Radicals,” whose translation into Macedonian, incidentally, was funded by Soros’ foundation in 2014.

One of the world’s richest men, Soros has a long history of intervening politically around the globe in the pursuit of his dream of open borders, global governance, and the erosion of regional particularism — what he calls the “open society.”

Because the State Department’s letter was “vague and failed to answer the questions we posed,” the same six Republican members of the House who wrote him — plus a new one, Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz. — last week asked the comptroller general of the Government Accountability Office to open an investigation and audit of the State Department and USAID regarding Macedonia and Soros’ foundation.

The legal watchdog Judicial Watch, for its part, has filed Freedom of Information Act requests asking that the State Department and USAID produce documents related to any grants, contracts, communications, assessments, etc. made by the department to the Foundation Open Society-Macedonia and its subsidiaries.

Whatever comes from these efforts, the political parties that the U.S. ambassador was helping negotiate — the leftist Social Democratic Union and three ethnic Albanian-based parties, the Democratic Union for Integration, Besa, and the Alliance of Albanians — did on Sunday reach an agreement to form a government.

But Macedonia’s president, Gjorge Ivanov, on Wednesday refused to give the Social Democratic Union a mandate to form a government because its leader, Zoran Zaev, acquiesced to the Albanian parties’ demand that Albanian become an official language throughout Macedonia.

The parties worked out the language deal next door in Tirana, Albania — one of the reasons Ivanov cited for withholding the mandate.

Albania is another country where the activities of Soros and his foundation are also under scrutiny for supporting the government of Prime Minister Edi Rama — a socialist who personally brokered the “Tirana Platform.” And in Albania, too, we find an Obama-era ambassador, Donald Lu, who backs the Soros-supported parties.

Rama, who is so close to Soros he attended his 2013 wedding, last week issued an impassioned plea for the U.S. not to abandon the Balkans to Russia, whose influence, he told The Telegraph, “is stronger than ever before.” “Russia,” he added, “has been interested in spreading its influence and there’s a lot of it in the region.”

Putin’s Kremlin routinely and opportunistically tries to maneuver itself into the politics of Europe. Senior Whitehall sources say it plotted to assassinate Montenegro’s prime minister last year.

In Macedonia, too, it has tried to portray itself as being on the side of the conservative VMRO, which leads the present government and won the most votes in the Dec. 11 elections. Even an article I wrote last month was quoted at length by Russia’s Sputnik International.

Reuters reported that on Thursday, March 2, Russia accused Albania, NATO, and the European Union of trying to impose a pro-Albanian government on Macedonia.

Far from backing pro-Putin policies, however, VMRO has long been a staunchly pro-U.S., pro-NATO party.

But our embassies’ notorious support for Soros and his progressive policies does irritate traditional-minded people in Macedonia and elsewhere.

“Some of my conservative friends in Macedonia are now telling me, ‘I hate America,’” Jason Miko, an American businessman who has been visiting the Balkan country for over two decades, told me. “They don’t really hate America. They hate what the Obama administration has done.”

“If Soros wants to spend his own money, then let him, but when he starts using taxpayer money it’s something else,” said Miko, Macedonia’s honorary consul in Arizona. (For more from the author of “How Soros Money Is Corrupting Politics in This Small European Nation” please click HERE)

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Anti-Israel Hate Is a Symptom of the UN Human Rights Council’s Cancerous Corruption

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The U.N. Human Rights Council (UNHRC) is corrupt to its core, and its lashing out at Israel is a manifestation of the group’s immoral, corrupt structure. Tasked a decade ago with promoting and defending human rights around the world, the UNHRC has failed to carry out its founding mission.

The U.S. delegation to the council, led by Erin Barclay, threatened America’s departure from the prominent U.N. subdivision Wednesday, claiming the international organization’s unhealthy “obsession” with the state of Israel threatens the group’s credibility and “makes a mockery of this council.”

In Geneva, Barclay, the U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state, stated: “The U.S. also remains deeply troubled by the council’s consistent, unfair and unbalanced focus on one democratic country, Israel.”

“For this council to have any credibility, let alone success, it must move away from its unbalanced and unproductive positions,” she said. “As we consider our future engagements, my government will be considering the council’s actions with an eye to reform, to more fully achieve the council’s missions to protect and promote human rights.”

The UNHRC has long been a group that has overlooked worldwide atrocities in favor of singling out Israel with rhetorical aggression and condemnation.

But the UNHRC not only has an Israel problem — the institution’s membership roster itself shows why it could never truly promote human rights. After all, how can an organization have any credibility on human rights when its members are a who’s who of the world’s foremost violators of universal ideals?

Ruthless authoritarian countries such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, China, Cuba, Venezuela, and many others are tasked with upholding the UNHRC’s core mission to promote and protect human rights.

In 2015, the council chose Saudi Arabia’s ambassador Faisal bin Hassan Trad to chair the UNHRC panel on selecting human rights experts. In the ambassador’s country, women are treated as second-class citizens. They cannot go out in public without a male companion, and need to wear clothing that covers them head-to-toe, with only their eyes and hands permitted to be uncovered. In Saudi Arabia, Islam is the only recognized religion, and the country follows an extremely harsh penal code to punish violations of Shariah law.

The U.N. Human Rights Council has long abandoned the promotion of actual human rights and has dedicated the last decade to delegitimizing Israel – the only free country in the Middle East.

From 2006 to 2016, the UNHRC adopted 135 resolutions condemning countries. An incredibe 68 (over half) of those resolutions singled out the Jewish state for criticism.

However, Israel is only a symptom of the cancer that is the UNHRC. If the United States wants the UNHRC to foster an environment that campaigns for true human rights, the U.N. body needs to purge the forces of evil from within it. (For more from the author of “Anti-Israel Hate Is a Symptom of the UN Human Rights Council’s Cancerous Corruption” please click HERE)

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Deep State War? 7 Russian Officials Murdered or Found Dead Since Election Day

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Russian diplomats seem to be an endangered species, as seven officials have been found dead under mysterious or unexplained circumstances just since Election Day, and — although any link remains as yet unprovable — the deaths certainly provoke a number of questions.

1. Sergei Krivov:

First is the perplexing case of Sergei Krivov — disputably a consular duty commander at the Russian Consulate in Manhattan — died on November 8, Election Day, under perhaps the most problematic circumstances of any of the deaths listed.

Found unconscious and unresponsive on the floor inside the consulate, Krivov suffered blunt force trauma to the head — initially reported as received in a fall from the roof of the building — and passed away before emergency services could reach the scene.

Consular officials quickly backtracked that Krivov died after plunging over the building, instead insisting he’d suffered a heart attack — but the diplomat’s lack of a paper trail, and ambiguity from officials about his career position, make the death appear to be far from ordinary.

“That position is no ordinary security guard,” reported BuzzFeed on Krivov’s ambiguous role at the consulate. “According to other public Russian-language descriptions of the duty commander position, Krivov would have been in charge of, among other things, ‘prevention of sabotage’ and suppression of ‘attempts of secret intrusion’ into the consulate.

“In other words, it was Krivov’s job to make sure US intelligence agencies didn’t have ears in the building.”

2. Andrey Karlov:

On December 19, Russian Ambassador to Turkey, Andrey Karlov, met his fate while giving a speech at an art exhibit in Ankara, when Mevlüt Mert Altıntaş — an off-duty Turkish riot police officer — fired several shots from behind, fatally wounding the diplomat and injuring several others.

Altıntaş proceeded to declare jihad and implored the terrified, small crowd of attendees and press, “Do not forget Aleppo, do not forget Syria!”

It was later revealed Altıntaş had used his law enforcement identification to enter the gallery; but at the time, Russian President Vladimir Putin railed against the attacker, thin security allowing him to enter the exhibit, “Russia Through Turks’ Eyes,” without issue, and the possible implications for resolving the conflict in Syria, stating,

This murder is clearly a provocation aimed at undermining the improvement and normalization of Russian-Turkish relations, as well as undermining the peace process in Syria promoted by Russia, Turkey, Iran and other countries interested in settling the conflict in Syria.

3. Petr Polshikov:

At some point on the same day — and prior to the brazen assassination of Karlov — Petr Polshikov, a senior diplomat in the Latin America division at the Russian foreign ministry, died in his Moscow apartment of a gunshot wound to the head. An announcement of the suspicious death did not become public until a few hours after Altıntaş shocked the world in Ankara.

Detailed information on Polshikov’s untimely demise remains difficult to obtain, but reports at the time alleged authorities found two bullet shells on the scene and a firearm under a sink in the bathroom.

4. Oleg Erovinkin:

Ex-KGB chief, Oleg Erovinkin — believed to have assisted former British spy, Christopher Steele, with a lurid dossier alleging explicit acts by President Donald Trump — was found dead in his black Lexus on December 29.

Erovinkin had been close to Igor Sechin, a former deputy prime minister and now head of State-owned oil company, Rosneft, and had acted as a key liaison between Sechin and Putin.

Although validity of the contents of that dossier have been called into serious question, Erovinkin’s alleged involvement in compiling the information makes his death dubious by nature. An investigation is ongoing.

5. Andrey Malanin:

Despite living alone on a tightly-guarded street, Andrey Malanin — head of the consular section at Russia’s embassy in Athens — was “found on the floor of his bedroom by a member of the embassy’s staff with no evidence of a break-in, the official said on condition of anonymity,” Reuters reported January 9.

Authorities also told Reuters there were no indications Malanin had been murdered, but homicide officials are investigating the death due to his status as a diplomat.

6. Aleksandr Kadakin:

On January 26, Russian ambassador to India, 67-year-old Aleksandr Kadakin — who had served in the position since 2009 and spent over two decades as a diplomat — died in New Delhi, ostensibly from heart failure.

Although it appeared the man’s death was unrelated to the others and had been natural, the timing in conjunction with Karlov, Polshikov, Erovinkin, and Malanin raised some eyebrows.

7. Vitaly Churkin:

Then, last week, Russian ambassador to the United Nations, Vitaly Churkin, died one day before his 65th birthday in New York City — reportedly of a heart failure.

According to the New York Times on February 20, “The Russian government said he died suddenly but did not specify a cause. The New York City police said there were no indications of foul play.”

However, Pravda reported, “According to ABS-CBN, a post-mortem examination of Churkin’s body showed the presence of poison in his kidneys. Allegedly, the diplomat had had late supper, at around midnight, hours before his death. Perpetrators could have added an unknown substance in his food.”

Churkin had been a vocal critic of hypocritical Western foreign policy, particularly concerning military actions in Syria.

An obituary in the Guardian stated Churkin “hated the moralising tone of his US, British and French counterparts on the UN security council who, he felt, were not only hypocritical but were playing to the global gallery and aiming to score rhetorical points instead of looking for compromises that could lead to the resolution of differences. This applied particularly to the war in Syria, about which western governments tabled resolutions that could lead, in the Russian view, to full-scale military intervention against the Syrian government and which they knew Churkin was bound to veto. Russia preferred to produce resolutions that criticised the Syrian army for using ‘disproportionate’ force and sought agreement on ceasefires. Churkin consulted the security council’s five permanent members on these resolutions, but chose not to provoke vetoes when he realised there was no consensus.”

What, if anything, this growing Russian diplomat body count actually means might never be fully known, but many suspect the deaths evince a methodical, covert war between the Deep State and Russia — particularly as hostilities continue mostly unabated — as a shift in power away from the ailing imperialist U.S. empire gathers speed. (For more from the author of “Deep State War? 7 Russian Officials Murdered or Found Dead Since Election Day” please click HERE)

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