Posts

Putin Flexing Russia’s Nuclear Muscle: Multiple ICBM’s Launched, Bombers Scrambled

/2 Comments/in , /by

President Vladimir Putin took a leading role in the latest tests of Russia’s strategic nuclear arsenal, the most comprehensive since the 1991 Soviet collapse, the Kremlin said on Saturday.

The exercises, held mostly on Friday, featured prominently in news reports on state television which seemed aimed to show Russians and the world that Putin is the hands-on chief of a resurgent power.

Tests involving command systems and all three components of the nuclear “triad” – land and sea-launched long-range nuclear missiles and strategic bombers – were conducted “under the personal leadership of Vladimir Putin”, the Kremlin said.

An RS-12M Topol Intercontinental Ballistic Missile was launched from the Plesetsk site in northern Russia, and a submarine test-launched another ICBM from the Sea of Okhotsk, the Defence Ministry said. Long-range Tu-95 and Tu-160 bombers fired four guided missiles that hit their targets on a testing range in the northwestern Komi region, it said.

“Exercises of the strategic nuclear forces were conducted on such a scale for the first time in the modern history of Russia,” the Kremlin statement said.

Read more from this story HERE.

Syria and Turkey are on the Brink of All-out War, Threatens US-Russian Involvement

/1 Comment/in , /by

The cross-border bombardments that Restoring Liberty has been reporting on have now become daily occurrences. Some pundits believe that the conflict could erupt into a regional war, and worse. Here’s one report from the front lines:

If anyone believed that Syria’s bloodshed would stay inside the country’s borders, the events of the last week should have put them right. I’m in southern Turkey, near the frontier with Syria, and this area feels like the new front line of the battle against Bashar al-Assad’s regime. Convoys of Turkish army vehicles ply the roads down to the border and, quietly, civilians are trickling away to safer areas.

The reason is simple: cross-border artillery and mortar bombardments have become daily events. Last Friday, I went to the scene of the bloodiest incident so far, when a Syrian mortar bomb landed outside a family home in the Turkish town of Akçakale. By malign chance, a mother, her six daughters and a female relative happened to be outside, making dinner under an olive tree, when the weapon exploded beside them. They were, quite simply, cut to pieces. When I arrived, a severed human finger, covered in flies, was still lying on the ground. Three of the girls survived with critical injuries; the mother, three daughters and the visiting relative were all killed.

Additionally, the increasingly Islamic Turkey, a NATO member country that the United States is obligated to defend by treaty, forced down a Russian plane yesterday and is at risk of direct conflict with Russia:

Adding to strains with Turkey over the conflict in Syria, Russia demanded an explanation on Thursday after Turkish warplanes forced a Syrian passenger plane flying from Moscow to Damascus to land in Ankara on suspicion of carrying military cargo.

The episode on Wednesday also marked a sharp escalation of Turkey’s confrontation with Syria as authorities in Ankara ordered Turkish civilian airplanes to avoid Syria’s airspace and warned of increasingly forceful responses if Syrian artillery gunners keep lobbing shells across the border.

The forced landing exposed new fissures of dispute as the Russian Foreign Ministry demanded an explanation from Turkey, and other officials in Moscow denied that there were weapons or other military supplies on board the plane, which was carrying some Russian passengers.

Moscow’s complaints brought a quick response from Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag, who was quoted by the semiofficial Anatolian News Agency as saying “materials that infringed international regulations” had been confiscated when Turkish officials searched the aircraft.

Russia and Turkey are already at odds over the Syrian crisis with Ankara joining Western and many Arab nations in support of insurgents seeking to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad while Moscow has consistently shielded Mr. Assad, its main regional ally. Russia is Syria’s main arms supplier.

Russian Orthodox Demand that Apple Remove “Offensive” Logo, Replace with Cross

/2 Comments/in , /by

Christians from Russia’s Orthodox community are demanding that the country’s Apple division remove the famous half-bitten apple logo from its products and replace it with a cross, because they find the apple image offensive to their beliefs.

In popular culture, an apple is often used to represent the fruit that Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of Knowledge when tempted by the devil, as found in Genesis 3 in the Bible – although the exact type of fruit is not mentioned in Scripture.

Still, conservative Christians in Russia have insisted that the logo should be removed and replaced with a cross, Xbitlabs.com reported from a translated article from Interfax news agency.

The Russian conservatives may get their way and force Apple to change its logo because of new laws being proposed in the country’s parliament on blasphemy and insults targeting religious, spiritual, or national values. It is expected that President Vladimir Putin will back the laws, especially since the Russian Orthodox Church heavily supported him during his election campaign in 2012. Besides replacing the logo, conservatives may even stop Apple product sales in Russia if they manage to convict the company of committing anti-religious deeds.

Apple’s iconic symbol has been in use in one form or another for over 35 years. The first bitten apple silhouette was introduced in 1976, and has undergone a number of design changes to reach its current glass-themed logo, which was introduced in 2003.

Read more from this story HERE.

FBI: Russian Agent Living as Texas Businessman, Sending Advanced Electronics to Russian Military for 10 Years

/2 Comments/in , /by

A reputed Houston-based agent for the Russian government is accused of leading an operation that clandestinely shipped sensitive cutting-edge microelectronics from the United States to Russia’s military and intelligence agencies.

Alexander Fishenko, who owns Arc Electronics and other companies linked to the charges, was among 11 people accused in an indictment unsealed Wednesday for their alleged roles in a “Russian military procurement network.”

The microelectronics involved are subject to U.S.-government controls, as they could be enlisted for a wide range of military applications, including surveillance, missile guidance and detonation triggers, according to U.S. authorities.

Eight people were arrested in Houston. Three are fugitives believed to be abroad. The ring operated from 2008 until it was derailed by U.S. federal agents making arrests, and searching homes, businesses and bank accounts.

“In this day and time, the ability of foreign countries to illegally acquire sensitive and sophisticated U.S. technology poses a significant threat to both the economic and national security of our nation,” said Stephen L. Morris, head of the FBI’s Houston Division, which led the two-year investigation.

Read more from this story HERE.

Al-Qaeda blamed for Europe-wide forest fires

/2 Comments/in , /by

Al-Qaeda has been blamed for a recent series of forest fires across Europe, as the head of Russia’s Federal Security Service claimed they were set by arsonists as part of the group’s low-cost attack strategy.

Deadly fires have swept through forest land in EU countries such as Portugal and Spain.

“One should note that setting fires to forests in the countries of the European Union is a new tendency in al-Qaeda’s strategy of a ‘thousand cuts’,” Alexander Bortnikov said, according to state news agency RIA Novosti, at a meeting of heads of security agencies.

“This method allows (al-Qaeda) to inflict significant economic and moral damage without serious preliminary preparations, technical equipment or significant expenses.”

In linking al-Qaeda to the deadly wildfires, Mr Bortnikov pointed to calls to launch a “forest jihad” by various extremist websites which he said also publish detailed instructions about how and where to best carry out arson.

Read more from this story HERE.

Russia declares “ownership” of Arctic Ocean Region Adjacent to Alaska by Russian Orthodox Consecration

/5 Comments/in , /by

Photo credit: NASA Goddard

Russia has taken a bizarre step to declare its “ownership” of the Arctic Ocean region by having a Russian Orthodox bishop “consecrate” the North Pole on behalf of the church.

According to the Daily Telegraph, a bishop named Iakov of the northern Naryan-Mar (which lies north of the Arctic Circle) placed a “holy memorial capsule” into the icy sea while aboard the Rossiya, a nuclear-powered icebreaker during a polar expedition arranged by Russia’s Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute.

The capsule featured an inscription that read: “With the blessing of Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, the consecration of the North Pole marks 1,150 years of Russian Statehood.”

Moscow is keen to assert its domination of the Arctic, given the huge reserves of untapped oil and gas believed to reside in the region, and has also accelerated its remilitarization there. Reportedly, the Russian military’s MiG-31 supersonic interceptor aircraft will be deployed in the Arctic region by the end of this year.

According to Bishop Iakov, the consecration is important to both the Orthodox Church and the Russian people for it “symbolizes the efforts of the state to recover the positions of Russia and confirmation of its achievements in the Arctic.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Russia halts imports of Monsanto corn over cancer fears

/1 Comment/in , /by

Russian authorities temporary suspended the import and sale of Monsanto’s genetically-modified corn after a French study suggested it may be linked to cancer.

The Russia’s consumer-rights regulator Rospotrebnadzor asked scientists at the country’s Institute of Nutrition to review the study. The watchdog has also contacted to European Commission’s Directorate General for Health & Consumers to explain the EU’s position on GM corn.

The report prepared by France’s University of Caen and published last week, claimed that rats fed over a two-year period with Monsanto’s genetically modified NK603 corn, developed more tumors and other pathologies than a test group fed with regular corn. The NK603, sold under the Roundup label, is genetically engineered to withstand glyphosate weed killer.

The company criticized the study, saying it “doesn’t meet minimum acceptable standards for this type of scientific research” and the data was incomplete.

Monsanto also said Russia’s ban will have little effect on its business as the country import small volumes of corn from the US. Besides that, the Russian government doesn’t permit farmers to plant GM crops. “Russia is a net exporter of grain, so the actual impact of their temporary suspension, if any, is likely to be small,” the spokesman said in a statement.

Read more from this story HERE.

Ahmadinejad Joins Russia’s Call for a New World Order Free of US Domination

/2 Comments/in , /by

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Tuesday that a new world order needs to emerge, away from years of what he called American bullying and domination.

Ahmadinejad spoke to The Associated Press in a wide-ranging interview on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly – his last as president of Iran. He was to address the assembly Wednesday morning.

The Iranian leader also discussed solutions for the Syrian civil war, dismissed the question of Iran’s nuclear ambition and claimed that despite Western sanctions his country is better off than it was when he took office in 2005.

“God willing, a new order will come together and we’ll do away with everything that distances us,” Ahmadinejad said, speaking through a translator. “I do believe the system of empires has reached the end of the road. The world can no longer see an emperor commanding it.”

“Now even elementary school kids throughout the world have understood that the United States government is following an international policy of bullying,” he said.

Read more from this story HERE.

Russian DM: “Today, the world begins to unite against the USA”

/40 Comments/in , , , /by

The media outlet for the Russian government, Pravda, reported this weekend that a Russian observer at the recent APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) summit in Vladivostok came away convinced that the world is moving away from a U.S. dominated world. He noted that “everyone still plays by American rules, but the countries already demonstrate their independence in economic policy.”

This Member of the Duma, Yevgeny Fyodorov (who also serves as the head of the Duma’s Committee on Economic Policy and Entrepreneurship), said that China’s recent snubbing of Hillary Clinton reflected the United States’ loss of power and prestige: “I was there and saw how angry Mrs. Hillary Clinton was when she came from China, where several Chinese leaders – especially those who are to become top officials of China next year – did not even want to meet her.” He cited China’s refusal to allow Clinton “to take on mediator’s functions in resolving China’s territorial disputes with Asian countries” as further evidence of the US’s precipitous decline.

Observing that the U.S. “consumes a half the world’s GDP, despite the fact that there is only 4.5 percent of the population living there,” and that Americans “eat ten times as much as compared to the citizens of all other countries,” he argues that this excessive consumption occurs “at the expense of China, Russia, India, Brazil – all other countries.”

The Pravda interview concludes with DM Fyodorov stating that, “Today, the world begins to unite against the colonizer – USA.” He believes that the APEC conference is the start of a “national liberation movement to free the world from the U.S. occupation.”

There’s little doubt that the anti-American sentiment that erupted across the Middle East about this same time last week contributed to the atmosphere at the 21-nation APEC summit. And we can thank Obama’s love-fest with the Muslim Brotherhood for that.

Belarus Going Nuclear, China & Russia Helping

/0 Comments/in , /by

Europe’s last dictatorship may soon go nuclear as it announces major construction of its first nuclear power plant while at the same time it is apparently aiding Communist China with its mobile launchers for intercontinental ballistic missiles.

On Thursday, September 13, the Russian-based engineering company Atomenergoproyekt told the Belarusian Telegraph Agency (BelTA) that it will commence major construction on Belarus’s first and only nuclear power plant on June 15, 2013.

On Wednesday, a day before the announcement, a meeting of the sixth operational group on the nuclear power plant project was held and led by Belarus’s First Deputy Prime Minister Vladimir Semashko.

Additional representatives of the “Belarusian government, NPP construction directorate (customer), the united company NIAEP-Atomstroyexport (the general designer of the power plant and the general contractor), Belarusian subcontractors, and the Grodno Oblast administration,” were also present at the meeting, according to BelTA.

The construction site of the proposed power plant was examined by officials prior to their meeting. Excavation and work on the foundation is already well under way. Builders are scheduled to have the bed drainage completed by November 20. This drainage will “simultaneously protect the bottom part of the excavation pit from frost penetration,” according to BelTA.

Read more from this story HERE.