This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.

NATO Threatens To Send In Troops After Russia Stations Ground "Battalion" In Syria

Tyler Durden's picture




 

As the propaganda “war” between East and West intensifies ahead of what might ultimately transform into an actual war in the skies above Syria, the world is transfixed with the scope of Russia’s week-old military campaign in support of the Assad regime. 

Thanks to the fact that the West selected Islamic militants as its anti-Assad weapon of choice, Putin gets to pitch the entire effort as a “war on terror” which means The Kremlin effectively has a license to brag and sure enough, slickly-produced ISIS videos of beheadings have now been definitively replaced by slickly-produced videos of Russian warships launching cruise missiles at terrorist targets. 

In short, Moscow is on a roll both militarily (of course that’s not difficult when you’re a superpower playing against a couple of JV militias) and perceptually, which makes it possible to continually ratchet up the pressure on anti-regime forces as the global applause only seems to grow with each incremental escalation much to chagrin of both the Pentagon and Washington’s Mid-East allies and as we said earlier this week, "a very likely course of events is that despite Russia's denials, the Pentagon will use the gambit of a Russian ground campaign, credible or not, to get permission from Congress to send a 'small', at first, then bigger ground force of US troops in Syria to, you guessed it, 'fight ISIS', but really to do everything to prevent Russian troops from taking over key strategic positions."  

On Thursday we get the latest set of headlines from Syria, starting with NATO asserting that Russia has a ground battalion at the ready supported by tanks. Here’s Reuters:

Russia's military build-up in Syria includes a "considerable and growing" naval presence, long-range rockets and a battalion of ground troops backed by Moscow's most modern tanks, the U.S. ambassador to NATO said on Wednesday.

 

Speaking on the eve of a NATO defense ministers meeting to be dominated by Russia's intervention in Syria's civil war, U.S. Ambassador to NATO Douglas Lute said Moscow had managed a "quite impressive" military deployment over the past week to its Syria naval base in Tartous and its army base in Latakia.

 

"There is a considerable and growing Russia naval presence in the eastern Mediterranean, more than 10 ships now, which is a bit out of the ordinary," he told a news briefing.

 

"The recent Russian reinforcements over the last week or so feature a battalion-size ground force ... There is artillery, there are long-range rocket capabilities, there are air defense capabilities," Lute said.

 

A battalion is typically around 1,000 soldiers.

 

Western officials say that in strategic terms, Russia's new air strike campaign in Syria appears designed to help reverse rebel gains increasingly endangering Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, protect Russian military assets in the country including its sole Mediterranean port, and reassert Moscow’s place as a big international power competing with the United States.

 

"The force that they have deployed down there is actually quite impressive for a rapid deployment of a week or so," Lute said. "(It is) all arms, combined arms, attack aircraft, it is the attack helicopters and artillery, rocket artillery."

And that means NATO needs to indicate that it too is willing to deploy troops via Turkey, where Ankara will simply acquiesce to anything the West wants to do as long as Washington turns a blind eye to Erdogan’s “war” with the PKK which is far more important domestically than any conflict with ISIS or Russia because Erdogan is effectively fighting to secure the “right” to change the country’s constitution and thereby consolidate his power. Here’s Reuters again:

NATO said it was prepared to send troops to Turkey to defend its ally after violations of Turkish airspace by Russian jets bombing Syria and Britain scolded Moscow for escalating a civil war that has already killed 250,000 people.

 

Officials at the U.S.-led alliance are still smarting from Russia's weekend incursions into Turkey's airspace near northern Syria and NATO defense ministers are meeting in Brussels with the agenda likely to be dominated by the Syria crisis.

 

"NATO is ready and able to defend all allies, including Turkey against any threats," NATO's Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters as he arrived for the meeting.

 

"NATO has already responded by increasing our capacity, our ability, our preparedness to deploy forces including to the south, including in Turkey," he said, noting that Russia's air and cruise missile strikes were "reasons for concern".

 

As Russian and U.S. planes fly combat missions over the same country for the first time since World War Two, NATO is eager to avoid any international escalation of the Syrian conflict that has unexpectedly turned the alliance's attention away from Ukraine following Russia's annexation of Crimea last year.

 

The incursions of two Russian fighters in Turkish airspace on Saturday and Sunday has brought the Syria conflict right up to NATO's borders, testing the alliance's ability to deter a newly assertive Russia without seeking direct confrontation.

This, of course, is nothing more than an attempt to create an excuse to counter the Russians. The Russian warplanes that allegedly crossed into Turkey’s airspace obviously were not intending to bomb Ankara, so the only reason the West continues to focus on the story is to build a narrative that justifies sending ground troops in via Turkey.  

Meanwhile, the Iran-sponsored ground cleanup crew is apparently on the move and advancing quickly: 

Syrian troops and allied militia backed by Russian air strikes and cruise missiles fired from warships attacked rebels forces on Thursday as the government extended a major offensive to recapture territory in the west of the country.

 

Rebel advances in western Syria earlier this year had threatened the coastal region vital to President Bashar al-Assad's control of the area and prompted Russia's intervention on his side last week.

 

In a further show of force, the Russian defense ministry said missiles fired from its ships in the Caspian Sea hit weapons factories, arms dumps, command centers and training camps supporting Islamic State forces.

 

Ground forces loyal to the government targeted insurgents in the Ghab Plain area of western Syria, with heavy barrages of surface-to-surface missiles as Russian warplanes bombed from above, according to the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and a rebel fighting there.

 

It said rebels had shot down a helicopter in Hama province in western Syria. It was unclear if it was Syrian or Russian.

 

Syria said a major military operation was under way.

Yes, "ground forces loyal to the government" or, stripping away the facade, "Shiite ground forces loyal to Tehran" who, once the campaign in Syria is over, will cross right back into Iraq and continue the fight against Sunni extremists only now they'll be backed not only by the IRGC, but by the Russian army, and on that note, we close with the following from AFP:

Russian President Vladimir Putin's bullish entry into the Syrian conflict has worked wonders for his popularity in neighbouring Iraq, where some await "Hajji Putin" like a saviour.

 

Sitting at his easel in his central Baghdad workshop, painter Mohammed Karim Nihaya touches up a portrait of Putin he copied from the Internet.

 

"I have been waiting for Russia to get involved in the fight against Daesh," he says, referring to the Islamic State group that last year declared a "caliphate" straddling Iraq and Syria.

 

"They get results. The United States and its allies on the other hand have been bombing for a year and achieved nothing," the bespectacled artist says.


 

- advertisements -

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.
Thu, 10/08/2015 - 09:09 | 6643765 ToSoft4Truth
ToSoft4Truth's picture

"legal right"

LOL - Back in the Freedom Zone with you.

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 09:15 | 6643800 Infinite QE
Infinite QE's picture

Some ancient scroll map the chopped-dicks have called greater israel.

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 09:51 | 6643888 Sparehead
Sparehead's picture

The US and its controlled MSM claim Assad has no legitimacy. They offered no real evidence but they kept saying it hoping it would stick. It's all moot now as Putin has maneuvered Obama into a losing position (bearing in mind they know what he will and will not do).

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 09:44 | 6643944 TeethVillage88s
TeethVillage88s's picture

You are correct.

However, you forget corporations have no limits and they control the US govt.

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 10:39 | 6644202 rejected
rejected's picture

None. The ussa has not declared war on Syria so therefore is nothing more than a aggressor, not unlike Germany in WWII. Actually worse,,, Germany didn't try to cloak their Fascism or Nazi ways as the ussa does.

Under international law a sovereign nation can request military help from another nation,,, that said, the ussa considers international law a relic in the new global world with them at the helm,,, of course. Russia, China and the Bricks want to keep their sovereignty and their customs while Europe, Canada and Australia don't seem to mind bowing to others. Sort of natural for them considering their past.

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 11:03 | 6644307 Moe Howard
Moe Howard's picture

The answer to you questions from the current Strongman Obamao's Regime in Washington D.C.:

 

Silence.

 

They claim they don't know the answer.

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 09:04 | 6643741 TeethVillage88s
TeethVillage88s's picture

I heard Russia has a military agreement with Syria, China, and Iran.

I heard China has a Carrier Group in the Sea nearby, Iran has cut off the IS Rebels on their Border, and 150,000 Volunteer Spteznac have cut off other escape routes for IS.

Sort of a Grand Chess Check Mate.

The brink of WW III.

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 09:20 | 6643835 Sparehead
Sparehead's picture

I hope it is checkmate, and we mearly lose influence/power/money in the middle east. That may be our best lost war yet. Unfortunatley, I imagine our novice player will set up the board for another go somewhere else.

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 09:42 | 6643936 TeethVillage88s
TeethVillage88s's picture

I understand US Military Officers are in the military for life.

They can be recalled to duty even if Retired.

Might be a good idea now. Probably would have to be Voluntary.

Not only is our lines between corporations and our military all blurred, no one knows who is in charge in our federal government, certainly not for intelligence and black programs, banking and central banking, federal agencies and state agencies, foreign policy and domestic policy.

Need complete Sweeping Reforms, Reorganization.

And if Col L. Fletcher Prouty is legit, sounds like CIA has grown beyond the range of any control, treaties, and authority.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwbqWWglElg

- I'm pretty sure the corporations want the middle east and don't care if it is war, win, lose or draw.

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 10:07 | 6644054 Sparehead
Sparehead's picture

As I recall that doesn't apply to junior officers. Once they finish their initial commitment is when they have to accept "voluntary indefinite" status to stay in. I'm not sure what you're advocating. A military coup, depending on who's calling the shots, could make things much worse. Should the government collapse I'd hope the military stays faithful to their oath and allows for new civilian government to be established. If that involves S hitting the F followed by rounding up all the unconstitutional traitorous criminals currently running things for tribunals and executions so be it. I'll check out the vid when I have more time.

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 10:57 | 6644279 Moe Howard
Moe Howard's picture

Retired in the US Army means you are on the retired rolls and can be recalled to active service. As for accepting "indefinite status" in the US Army, I have plenty of friends who were kept in when they wanted out. Needs of the service, doncha know. Ever hear of Stop Loss?

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 12:18 | 6644666 11b40
11b40's picture

You are right, and also, many think the draft was abolished.  It was not, just suspended with the provision it could be re-instated during any time of need.

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 11:01 | 6644293 Moe Howard
Moe Howard's picture

150,000 Spetnaz? When everybody is Spetnaz, nobody is.

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 15:36 | 6645810 CWolfRu
CWolfRu's picture

>150,000 Volunteer Spteznac

 

Hold on, what? 150k Spetznaz troopers? Who told you that strange thing?

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 09:07 | 6643754 Kina
Kina's picture

WW3 might be over in minutes.

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 10:54 | 6644260 Dickweed Wang
Dickweed Wang's picture

WW3 might be over in minutes.

Sure, that's the conventional wisdom. I think that in reality with all of the tactical, micro (less than 5KT) and mini (less than 1KT) nukes in the hands of all of the nuclear powers (not to mention the ones we don't know about) that WWIII will not be fought with the city busting ICBM's and SLBM's - it will be fought with the "little guys" to destroy things like air bases, naval groups, etc.  There will be "nuclear war" but it will be on a much more isolated and regional scale than everyone believes. 

Regardless of how crazy TPTB appear to be I am pretty sure that the last thing they want is to essentially destroy the planet as that would leave them nothing to rule over. Could there be some use of the monster nukes?  Probably, but once that cat starts sticking its head out of the bag I am pretty sure that they are going to step back and stop as the reality of Mutually Assured Destruction will become evident real fast. 

The main problem with this thesis is that with all of the long range monster nukes basically on a hair trigger standby all it would take for Armageddon to take place is an over-reaction on one or more of the adversary's parts - i.e. "launch on warning".  If that happens, we're all fucked . . . .

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 09:07 | 6643756 Mais78
Mais78's picture

Assad is no worse than a dozen other dictators backed by the US including saudi king, erdogan of turkey etc. American rebels = good rebels? lol

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 09:08 | 6643757 RockySpears
RockySpears's picture

Russians, Chinese and Iranians all fighting on the same side, you could not make this up. Just 1 year ago, did anybody predict that the US and Europe would be totally humiliated by (no longer Super Power) Russia, with the aidof China and Iran.

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 09:37 | 6643909 jtg
jtg's picture

The East is drawing a line in Syria and telling the West 'no more'.

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 09:08 | 6643760 Lea
Lea's picture

Nato will send troops ON ISIL AND AL-QAEDA's sides?

Great, morons. And then, you'll wonder why Trump polls so high.

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 09:09 | 6643764 Falconsixone
Falconsixone's picture

Black dressed nato's already there.

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 09:10 | 6643771 rsnoble
rsnoble's picture

Oh boy, NATO to the rescue!!!! Stop killing our terrorists!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 09:14 | 6643792 Sparehead
Sparehead's picture

Ugg, someone please take the keys away from our Nobel Peace Prize winning, naive, incompetent, easily manipulated, latest puppet president already. Arming and using ISIS was the equivilent of walking into the wall drunk while wearing a lampshade on his head. Call it an early loss and send him off to the golf course before Putin breaks out the shaving cream and sharpies for a decorative victory shaming.

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 09:14 | 6643799 christiangustafson
christiangustafson's picture

Vladimir Putin has blue eyes like I do.

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 09:18 | 6643817 Gold_Spot
Gold_Spot's picture

Things are exponentially growing. nato already started looking fo possible false flags (civilians victims even before Russian planes took off, some oke in that hit country Moldova claiming the sellin of nukes from Russia to isisl, etc), but I seriously doubt thatnato is so stupid to enter Sirya. it would be a fucking suicide mission, but I may be wrong. natos are indeed stupid beyond comprehension

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 09:44 | 6643946 Lucky Leprachaun
Lucky Leprachaun's picture

Don't forget that all wars are good for the MIC.

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 11:17 | 6644366 Victor von Doom
Victor von Doom's picture

Not if you take aim at them they're not.

 

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 09:18 | 6643819 ross81
ross81's picture

How many NATO members would actually want to commit ground troops? Remember back to the Kosovo war, the alliance was close to imploding because some countries flatly refused to commit ground forces into Kosovo/Serbia. Milosevic caving due to a weak Russia (under the drunken puppet Yeltsin) ultimately saved NATO's blushes.

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 09:21 | 6643822 Kina
Kina's picture

So we will end up with permanent Chinese and Russian airforce and naval bases in Syria and Iran.

Not what the CIA and Mossad had in mind when the created all these terrorist groups to oust leaders they didn't want.

 

But how long before France and Germany get cold feet, already having Ukraine to worry about.

Britain however has always been the more than willing fuck-doll of the USA.  Cameron loves the taste of Obama semen.

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 09:21 | 6643838 tuttisaluti
tuttisaluti's picture

It is time to get the Chinese involved

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 09:22 | 6643844 yogibear
yogibear's picture

LOL, NATO, think of the French.

Last time the French and Russians went at it they failed.

The Fench are better at cooking, wines and art, They suck at conflicts.

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 13:36 | 6645141 ndree
ndree's picture

doublon

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 13:35 | 6645143 ndree
ndree's picture

they specialize in terrorizing and pillaging weak African countries! have been at it for centuries!

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 09:27 | 6643858 Fireman
Fireman's picture

NATO aka North Amerikan Terror Organ is a flaccid limp dick on the Anglozionazi Golem that couldn't even pull off its terror op in Nazi friendly Ukropland.

The dollah is toast and the serial judaic wars paid for by the rest of humanity in return for the Saudi Mercan petroscrip toilet paper dollah are finito.

 

Soon USSA will be "busy" tearing itself apart.

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 09:42 | 6643935 Lucky Leprachaun
Lucky Leprachaun's picture

And then the Great Reset.

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 09:28 | 6643870 nah
nah's picture

They have WMD and are bombing our northern allies, regime change.

.

-George Bush

.

Run amok

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 09:29 | 6643875 Kina
Kina's picture

Germany, Britain, France etc will eventually have to decide if they want to self-destruct with the last gasp of USA empire, or abandon them.

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 09:39 | 6643918 Pullmyfinger
Pullmyfinger's picture

Absolutely! Any serious attempt to engage Europe in a war with Russia will be the last gasp of NATO and the Last Stupid Thing that triggers the collapse of the US Empire of Chaos. The Germans in particular will be forced to finally end the Occupation that never ended.

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 09:41 | 6643930 Lucky Leprachaun
Lucky Leprachaun's picture

It always makes me wonder whad thay have on their European satraps that they sell their peoples down the river time and again.

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 10:59 | 6644285 GreatUncle
GreatUncle's picture

Reckon that is easy to understand.

USA uses fiat dollar global reserve currency to manipulate economies for its own ends as used against Iran and Russia. Remember the likes of JPM are into 70 trillion in derivaives and if you can push that around in the markets then most nations economies can be attacked financially.

Very few would challenge this and become puppet nations provided they had a nice life, not so for the serfs.

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 11:35 | 6644448 Zwelgje
Zwelgje's picture

they're on film

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 12:05 | 6644610 Zadig
Zadig's picture

What do they have on their satraps?  Everything.  The Snowden releases made clear that the local puppets, like Merkel & Hollande, are the highest priority targets for Nazgul surveillance.

Any prominent Euro politician is probably incapable of openly disobeying Mordor.  Someone without fatal baggage would be required to effect any real change.  Hence the systemic hatred of "outsiders".

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 09:29 | 6643877 Hope Copy
Hope Copy's picture

Erdogan’s “war” with the PKK will go HOT and they can't handle that.

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 09:30 | 6643883 zeroaccountability
zeroaccountability's picture

<This will escalate quickly

<The Russian troops will leave Syria quickly and world peace will resume

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 09:40 | 6643927 flyingcaveman
flyingcaveman's picture

No time for a wound licking?

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 09:50 | 6643973 xavi1951
xavi1951's picture

Really?  A hairy cunt?

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 09:57 | 6644002 Pullmyfinger
Pullmyfinger's picture

The world is not that binary, my dichotomous friend.

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 09:31 | 6643884 pupdog1
pupdog1's picture

NATO is now a hegemonic rogue ziobanker outfit that has nothing to do with European interests.

Washington DC  is now a hegemonic rogue ziobanker outfit that has nothing to do with American interests.

Bucket of gasoline + road flare + five-year-old.

What could possibly go wrong?

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 09:39 | 6643923 Lucky Leprachaun
Lucky Leprachaun's picture

True. Fog (Fuck?) Rasmussen, former NATO head has joined the Squid.

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 09:35 | 6643891 Government need...
Government needs you to pay taxes's picture

So this is the beginning of the next world war.  Let's just not pretend that Syria matters.  Ironic, our .gov will be asking us to pay/fight/suffer thru the next great conflict.  We have no need to fight ANYONE over Syria.  We should be laying wood to the tyrants in DC, however.

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 09:36 | 6643899 MoHillbilly
MoHillbilly's picture

Has any EU country ever had a referendum on leaving NATO?

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 09:41 | 6643928 Pullmyfinger
Pullmyfinger's picture

Nein!

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 10:00 | 6644020 Sandmann
Sandmann's picture

NATO created 1949 after Berlin Blockade, Warsaw Pact created 1955 after German Rearmament. Russia retreats from Central Europe, NATO advances to Russia

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 10:05 | 6644049 TeethVillage88s
TeethVillage88s's picture

Heard that CIA Budgeting was changed in 1949 too.

It seemed they had to convince Congress to allow them more flexibility.

1:48:00 into video
Col L. Fletcher Prouty
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwbqWWglElg

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 10:27 | 6644154 falconflight
falconflight's picture

"German Rearmament?"  Stooge and NeoSoviet murderer. 

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 16:28 | 6646112 michelp
michelp's picture

"Has any EU country ever had a referendum on leaving NATO?"

Has any EU country ever had a referendum on joining NATO?

m.


Thu, 10/08/2015 - 09:42 | 6643910 tyberious
tyberious's picture

Do not forget in every war game scenario run by the Petagram, NATO and the US could not defeat The Russian Federation, let alone with China.

When you are righteous you can not lose.

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 12:01 | 6644588 Dragon HAwk
Dragon HAwk's picture

Love to see your source on that little Statement..

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 12:25 | 6644701 11b40
11b40's picture

I think it boils down to the baxic question of what it means to "win" a war with a nuclear enemy?

Can you say M.A.D.?

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 09:39 | 6643913 dsty
dsty's picture

Did UN send troops to Ukraine?

No

Aint gonna happen

You bunch of Paranoid Putin Puffers

 

 

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 10:02 | 6644029 Sandmann
Sandmann's picture

Ukraine supplied lots of troops for UN Peacekeeping to earn hard currency. Security Council members pay for Peacekeeping troops and elites in Pakistan and Ukraine sell their troops for hard currency

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 18:09 | 6646596 Crocodile
Crocodile's picture

The UN doesn't send troops; they send "Peace-keepers" idiot; I mean TROLL!

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 09:44 | 6643937 The Count
The Count's picture

NATO can't even (or doesn't want to) defend it's borders against an invasion of unarmed refugees! Hahaaaa. After the U.S. managed to totally fuck up the middle east and the only one with cohones to kick ISIS's ass ist Putin. How embarrassing is that>?!

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 10:06 | 6644047 Tortuga
Tortuga's picture

The ME doesn't need the US to "totally fuck" it up.

Got the Jesus derevative?

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 09:50 | 6643970 yogibear
yogibear's picture

Guess the US is discovering the end of petrodollar is near. Like a trappped animal they get desperate.

Once Russia, Syria and Iran overtake the Saudis the game is over.

The Fed bankster's reserve currency  Ponzi game crumbles.

 

 

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 09:52 | 6643983 Omega_Man
Omega_Man's picture

Bomb the US dollar

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 09:56 | 6643999 litemine
litemine's picture

Get Canada the fuck out of NATO.

Our Troops will see that from Turkey is where the terrorists are coming from. The fight for OIL and Natural gas over in the ME is not Canada's Problem. Ours is with the America Propoganda Machine that lables our oil as Dirty Tar Sand Oil and pay Movie Stars to fly provate jets over the mines yet nothing about the areas that have been reclaimed with buffalo living on it.

We need pipelines and refineries then sell our oil on the World Market, sell our US Treasuries and back our currency with Gold. Too long our Politicians  have taken it up the Ass.    

Haper says were 100% behind Isreal......I say No One gets put in front of Mainstreet Canadians. 

P.S.   News should not be allowed to be labled News while knowingly telling LIES.

Harper......You stubbed you Dink on that on.  Did the Bilderburger Group threaten you with wearing the Horses head or were you there when the ritual killed someone?

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 10:50 | 6644248 Moe Howard
Moe Howard's picture

Finally a Canadian I can agree with. More power to you, brother.

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 10:57 | 6644275 Global Hunter
Global Hunter's picture

I'm in Canada and have been saying something along those lines for a few years.  Agree 100%.

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 18:45 | 6646761 MEAN BUSINESS
MEAN BUSINESS's picture

"our" oil? How quaint.

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 10:01 | 6644022 moneybots
moneybots's picture

"NATO said it was prepared to send troops to Turkey to defend its ally after violations of Turkish airspace by Russian jets bombing Syria and Britain scolded Moscow for escalating a civil war that has already killed 250,000 people."

 

Russia isn't attacking Turkey, it is attacking Syrian insurgents.  Turkey doesn't need defending, as there is no threat to them.

 

 

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 10:03 | 6644035 Sandmann
Sandmann's picture

NATO ie US troops needed to keep border crossings open supplying arms to ISIS

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 10:11 | 6644075 JimmyRainbow
JimmyRainbow's picture

why the hell does assad not close the airspace for western flights?

ucraine just published a new propaganda idea:

turkey is between ucraine and syria, so it is clear that putin wants turkey.......

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 10:12 | 6644083 highwaytoserfdom
highwaytoserfdom's picture

 No worries  China refused the export of suicide nets just wish Pentagon was taller building...   IMF and Banksters take notice.... China manufactures having sale on Nail Guns...     Hey   does the Peltz KKR gang (Milkin, Peltz, Petraeus)  mean there going to find the GE engine parts on 911 at pentagon?    Just wondering....

NeoCons  can still occupy FEMA.   Putin has his Wag the Dog MIC  and he needs to buy more sports teams for his Circus... 

 

 

DECLASSIFY THE 28 PAGES

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 10:25 | 6644141 falconflight
falconflight's picture

 

 

You fcking Neosoviet troll.  How does Putzin's Putz taste in your mouth faggot? You have zero cred and like many here are KremlinHasbraTrinas participating in a cyber circle jerk.  Enjoy

 

Links to Existing Trotskyist Tendencies and their Affiliated Organizations

CBCI — Bolshevik Current for the Fourth International (BCFI).

CRFI — Center for the Reconstruction of the Fourth International, associated with the Partido Obrero/Argentina and co-thinkers. They used to be called the Fourth Internationalist Tendency.

CLI — International Leninist Current, Voce Operaia (it) tendency.

COFI —Communist Organization for the Fourth International

CWI or CWI — Committe for a Workers International.

FI — Fourth International, founded in 1938 by Leon Trotsky

FI(p) — FI(posadist).

FI-IC — Fourth International — International Committee, one of two splits of the FI,  
             associated with James P. Cannon, Pierre Lambert

FI-IS — Fourth International — International Secretariat, one ofr two splits of the FI,  
            associated with M. Pablo, E. Mandel & Pierre Frank

FI (La Vérité) — formerly Fourth International (International of Center for  
                         Reconstruction) associated with Pierre Lambert

FI (USFI) — United Secretariat of the Fourth International

IBT — International Bolschevik Tendency.

ICFI based in Britain— part of ICFI led by Healy until his death.

ICFI based in USA—part of ICFI led by North.

ICL(FI) — International Communist League (Fourth Internationalist), the Spartacists

ICL — International Communist League , international supporters of the SWP [us]

ICOT —International Center for Ortodox Trotskyism, in Spanish CITO,

ICU — Internationalist Communist Union, Lutte Ouvriere international

ILO — International Left Opposition, 1928, predecessor of the FI

IMT/CMI — International Marxist Tendency/Corriente Marxista Internacional (IMT/CMI)

iSt — International Spartacist Tendency, now the ICL(FI)

IST — International Socialism Tendency, SWP/Britain and others.  
          Associated with Tony Cliff. Click HERE for a subject index of writers and documents from the IST.

ITC — Intnernational Trotksyist Committee. International tendency lead by the RWL[us].

ITO — International Trotskyist Opposition, Grisolia tendency [it] and the Trotskyist League [us]

IWC — International Workers Committee, now defunct, formally associated with Workers Voice group [us]

IWL(FI) — International Workers’  League (Fourth International), in Spanish LIT,  
                Moreno founded organisation

LFI — League for the Fourth International
Internationalist Group tendency [Split from ICL(FI)]

LMRCI — Liason Committee of Militants for the Reconstruction of Commmunist International

LRCI — League for the Revolutionary Communist International.

LTT — Leninist-Trotskyist Tendency.

MT — Marxist Tendency, unofficial name, tendency associated  
         with Ted Grant and Alan Woods

TF — Trotskyst Fraction - Fourth International, split of LIT, PTS/Argentina and others.  [web site: http://www.ft-ci.org/]

WI(RFI) — Workers’ International, Slaughter-Nagy tendency

WIU (FI) — Workers’ International Unity (Fourth International), in Spanish UIT,  
                   Zamora-Ramos 1994 split form LIT. 

https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/intl.htm

 


 

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 10:48 | 6644239 litemine
litemine's picture

Obviously you are a Minion.

That research is indepth old but indepth........

 Huge debts Just like your puppet masters have put the World.

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 10:54 | 6644265 falconflight
falconflight's picture

Big fcking yawn..ZH often mimics the George Soros' Jewster funded Think Progress and Media Matters.  

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 11:03 | 6644302 farflungstar
farflungstar's picture

another one who blows terrorists and is hopping mad the jihadi pets are getting slaughtered by the Russians

Go cry your nonsense someplace else, you Al-Qaeda kissing piece of hasbarat dogshit.

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 10:32 | 6644162 PhiBetaZappa
PhiBetaZappa's picture

The United States and its allies on the other hand have been bombing for a year and achieved nothing," the bespectacled artist says.

 

Nonsense. The MIC became much richer. So, 'mission accomplished'.


Thu, 10/08/2015 - 10:48 | 6644242 Moe Howard
Moe Howard's picture

Plus all the munitions drops to ISIS should count for something.

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 10:32 | 6644172 falconflight
falconflight's picture

 

https://news.vice.com/article/cold-as-ice-canadas-election-as-told-throu...

'Cold as Ice': Canada’s Election, as Told Through Russian Propaganda

By Justin Ling

September 30, 2015 | 2:40 pm

Sputnik News, dubbed the "Buzzfeed of propaganda," has been paying particular attention to the current Canadian federal election. And it is bizarre.

The news agency's headlines paint a bleak, and unfailingly pro-Kremlin, view of the Canadian campaign, employing headlines such as "Cold as Ice: All Three Major Canadian Parties Vow to be 'Tough on Russia,'" "Meet Canada's Parliament Candidate Who Had No Idea About Auschwitz," and "Are Canada's Elections at Risk of Becoming as Corrupt as America's?"

The online news network, which also runs radio broadcasts and English-language television in Europe, is directly run by the Russian government and was created by a decree of Vladimir Putin — though you wouldn't know that from the news outlet's Wikipedia page,which is frequently scrubbed of any suggestion that it operates with pro-Putin bias.

The outlet rarely pays attention to Canadian news, but coverage has picked up as Canada's three main political parties have been vying to form a government — and occasionally name-dropping Putin along the way.

Sputnik wrote a long piece looking at the three-way debate on Canada's foreign policy held on Sept. 29, where all three party leaders vowed to keep up the pressure on the Kremlin.

"It doesn't seem that the icy relationship between the two northern neighbors will thaw any time soon, regardless of who wins the parliamentary elections next month," Sputnik's coverage of the debate concludes.

The story picks up on the fact that when Justin Trudeau, leader of the centrist Liberal Party — and scion of former prime minister Pierre-Elliott Trudeau — answered a question about sitting face-to-face with the Russian president, the audience broke out in laughter.

Sputnik also notes that when the senior Trudeau was in power, he "actually sought to mend relations with the Soviet Union, and to break out of the East vs. West mentality."

The story concludes that opposition leader Thomas Mulcair, head of the centre-left New Democratic Party, and prime minister Stephen Harper, leader of the centre-right Conservative Party all engaged in active "Russia-bashing."

The agency's news coverage frequently hones in on issues that get scant attention in Canada. VICE News reported in June that Sputnik picked up on an otherwise unreported story about Canada skipping its turn to patrol Iceland's airspace in favor of continuing a training mission in Eastern Europe designed as a show of force against Moscow.

In a section about Canada's role in the Ukraine "crisis," Sputnik writes that Canada voted against a UN resolution condemning the glorification of Neo-Nazism — which Canada, the US and Ukraine all voted against it, arguing it could limit freedom of expression.

They also write that Ottawa was "embroiled in scandal" over its decision to give shelter to anti-regime protesters during the Euromaidan uprising in Kyiv — which is a revelation that garnered some news coverage but that never amounted to a 'scandal.'

They also report that "a scandal also blew up" over Canada's "possible involvement" in training ultranationalist and neo-Nazis as part of its training mission with the Ukrainian military — a claim for which there is no evidence and which the Canadian military hasexpressly denied.

Sputnik's coverage is often completely at odds with how the same story is reported in the West.

On Sept. 18, Sputnik ran "Canada's Prime Minister Pledges to Maintain Open Door to Immigration."

By comparison, Canadian state broadcaster CBC ran a story the week prior, reporting "Canada's refugee acceptance falls far short of Stephen Harper's claims," as most domestic media focused on criticism that Ottawa was doing too little for refugees.

A Sept. 24 report carried the headline "Are Canada's Elections at Risk of Becoming as Corrupt as America's?" and reported that Canada's main election body was warning of "American-style electioneering and voter suppression."

Sputnik's story stemmed from a leaked presentation that suggested American efforts to target and discourage voters from going to the polls could theoretically be replicated in Canada, and that it should be monitored.

Sputnik also penned an article on a candidate for the New Democratic Party who admitted she had never heard of the Auschwitz concentration camp, after making a penis joke at its expense, and published another about Trudeau's plans to legalize marijuana.

Sputnik's content, which is usually kept short and laden with embedded Tweets, is in contrast with RT, Russia's other state-funded English-language TV station that has faced years of accusations of bias.

RT generally takes a more heavy-handed approach, running harshly critical columns about Western and Canadian politics.

"No room for anti-Israel commentary in Canadian politics," reads one web article for the television station.

"It would seem the height of Orwellian doublespeak to eliminate a political candidate for calling a war crime a war crime," the story begins, before reporting on an NDP candidate who was turfed after old Facebook posts emerged where he referred to Israel's activities in Gaza as "ethnic cleansing."

As Foreign Policy author Elias Groll puts it, "like RT, Sputnik slickly remixes President Vladimir Putin's brand of revanchist nationalism for an international audience, presenting the United States as an ailing imperial power bent on holding on to its domains. But whereas RT functions more like a tabloid news service, Sputnik looks to be presenting a kind of propaganda that's very much rooted in 2014."

Follow Justin Ling on Twitter: @justin_ling 

 

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 11:12 | 6644350 farflungstar
farflungstar's picture

the cut-and-paste Hasbarat. Vice News is Fox News for the hipster douchebag crowd. They get to be hip and edgy while pimping the establishment POV

Some kids are so fucking stupid these days

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 11:15 | 6644358 Teh Finn
Teh Finn's picture

You poor poor loser...

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 11:40 | 6644474 Baby Bladeface
Baby Bladeface's picture

Well, you still fall behind. Common problems of inertial thinking.

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 12:37 | 6644756 farflungstar
farflungstar's picture

eh one of the dumb fucking kids opens his mouth and nothing worthwhile comes out

poor deluded, establishment-kissing twat waffle

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 10:33 | 6644181 Dickweed Wang
Dickweed Wang's picture

"The force that they have deployed down there is actually quite impressive for a rapid deployment of a week or so," . . . .

This issue is what is really freaking out the military/industrial assholes in the "west", particularly in the USA, as they have been maintaining for years that Russia does not have the logistics capability to pull something like this off (if it's true at all, which remains to be seen). They were very confident that because of this any Russian efforts to put ground troops in the ME region would be extremely limited - note the term "a week or so" - that's as fast (or faster) than the USA could mobilize and put troops on the ground in that area . . . . .

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 10:47 | 6644233 Moe Howard
Moe Howard's picture

As for the US, keep in mind massive quantities of equipment and munitions are pre-positioned in SA and Kuwait [maybe more places, I don't have that information]. Just need to move troops there. I have no idea if anything is pre-positioned in Turkey.

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 10:58 | 6644278 Dickweed Wang
Dickweed Wang's picture

As for the US, keep in mind massive quantities of equipment and munitions are pre-positioned in SA and Kuwait [maybe more places, I don't have that information]. . . . .

 

Good point!  That's definitely an advantage the Russians don't have . . .

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 10:34 | 6644185 black dragon
black dragon's picture

China and others are positioning their currencies to rise with the demise of the petrodollar, which is based around U.S. military hegemony around the world – an empire of illusion that cannot last, and is under threat by the trend of foreign affairs. A global basket of currencies is expected to replace the dollar, but in the meantime, the dollar may become worthless, and people who have no plans or preparations may starve.

no pharmaceutical scripts also.   the world is waiting for NATO to make its fatal mistake

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 10:42 | 6644213 Moe Howard
Moe Howard's picture

Isn't every combat flight by NATO into Syrian airspace a violation of International Law? Isn't trying to depose the legitimate government against the UN charter? Seems to me the only foreign power flying LEGAL and LEGITIMATE combat missions in Syria is Russia.

 

I'm no Putin fan, but I am less of a fan of our captured, evil government here in the USA. Our government has been doing very nasty things in Syria, has gotten into bed with the monsters of the area, if they weren't in bed before Syria [debatable]. Thousands of combat air flights over Syria, and no accomplishment to speak of. That says it all about the US and NATO response to "IS or ISIL or whatever the fuck they are calling it now". Haven't the Israelis been violating Syrian airspace for at least a decade? Is their party over? Time will tell.

 

For sure, if you wanted World War III, the "west" response to what Russia is doing is the best way to get there. That much is obvious. If I was in the Israeli government, I would be calling "full stop" to the nonsense and hooliganism they have been up to before the risk of becoming a huge glass parking lot escalates any further. Note the recent Temple Mount issues were STARTED by Israelis, the Arabs are responding to Israeli actions. That much is clear.

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 10:44 | 6644219 falconflight
falconflight's picture

 

“The Wolf who cried Fascist!” – Pathology of Russian Propaganda against Ukraine, pt. 1

 

 

Posted on March 21, 2014 by 

 

The F-word is almost entirely meaningless today. “Fascism” has mostly become a perjorative word, used as an insult – and a scare tactic by Russia meant to paralyze opponents. In 1944, George Orwell wrote

“almost any English person would accept ‘bully’ as a synonym for ‘fascist'”.

It is now probably the most misused and overused term of our time.

“Anti-fascists” = fascists

But even more, it is becoming clear how “the fascists of the future will be called anti-fascists” ( a quote attributed to Winston Churchill). A quick look at the ‘antifascist’ crusaders in Moscow will suffice: police state in Russia, murdered opposition journalists, information monopoly on its own citizens, brutall suppression of its own minorities, military invasions of neighboring countries in “its sphere of influence” etc….

 

Meanwhile, in Ukraine:


Ukrainian books burned by pro-Russian ‘antifascists’ in Kharkiv 3/2014

On March 1, 2014 Russian citizen Mika Ronkainen climbed to the top of the State Administration building in Kharkiv and photographed himself hoisting a Russian flag.

In a later interview he described himself as a ‘Russian activist and citizen-journalist’ who travelled to Kharkiv to liberate that city from ‘fascist’ and ‘Western supported’ Kyiv government. Investigative journalists  established that he takes part in the Putin-supported xenophobic movement “Locals”. Above is a photo of Mr. Ronkainen from his FaceBook.

It is a commonplace to see thugs using the most savage methods “to fight fascism.” In Sevastopol, Crimea, police looks the other way as pro Russian ‘anti-Fascists’ beat a  pro Ukrainian demonstrator:

And then there’s ‘anti-Fascist’ Pavel Gubarev, self-proclaimed (and short tenured) governor of Donetsk. Mr. Gubarev also belongs to the Russian National Unity party:

Here is a sample poster from the Russian Unity Party:


‘Let’s clean Russia!’

Projection

Projection is a proven propaganda technique to accuse the opponent of one’s own sins, much like a man in a marriage who has thoughts of infidelity. Instead of dealing with these thoughts consciously, he projects them onto his innocent wife and imagines her having an affair. This becomes so ‘real’ to him that he may act in a violent way based on his fantasies. Hitler accused the Jews of a plot to brutally dominate Europe and the world before he set out on his own dirty work.

Present day Moscow rhetoric is more of the same. After centuries of life under the Tatar Yoke, the brutal imperialism of their Tsars and Empresses, and the Soviet Union, Russia itself has a long history of ultra-nationalism and brutal authoritarianism to come to terms with.

So they constantly raise alarums about all the ‘fascists’ they are fighting against. And yet, this is how Russia deals with their own peaceful antiwar protestors:

Moscow police herd anti Crimean demonstrators onto trucks to drive them away

Sergei Markov, a Kremlin-connected analyst and politician, was in Crimea meeting with local officials. and offered his view on the Kyiv protests. Interestingly, his statement rings true only after reversing the words “Russia” and “Ukraine”:

“The plan it seems to me to was very clear. Give Ukraine a Mikheil Saakashvili type leader. Start a big anti-Russian campaign, train the army to Nato standards, fill everyone with anti-Russian ideology, and then throw the Ukrainian army into Russia at a time when a coup is being organised. I haven’t spoken to Putin about it personally, but I am certain he thinks the same.”

A Ukrainian army that needs to beg eastern oligarchs for fuel and is less than 1/20th the size of Russia’s will invade Russia? Mr. Markov unwittingly revealed much more about Russian intentions than he was trying to pin on Ukraine.

Today’s Goebbels in Moscow

Goebbels wrote:

“The most brilliant propagandist technique… must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over.”

Sifting through the avalanche of accusations about Ukraine  from pro-Russian sources we can discern several themes: “hate groups… nationalists… neoNazi… fascist… anti-Russian… extremists” and to a lesser extent “anti-Semite and anti-gay”.

Anti-Maidan talking points

Moscow’s style sheet for anti-Ukrainian information basically consists of emotional “bullet-points” derived from the basic threads above. Two or more of any these bullet points can be pasted together in an infinite variety to produce the desired result. It doesn’t really matter which ones you combine or in what order.. with a Thesaurus on hand, they will all  work:

First, foreboding generalizations:

“deeply troubling… ambiguous… disconcerting… facing uncomfortable questions… chilling… problematic… insidious… unsavory… increasingly authoritarian… highly suspect and divisive… ‘reports of’… extremely alarming… etc”

then, ‘Fascist’ – theme and variations:

“neo-Nazis/ Nazi-allied… neo-Fascists/ fascist militia… stormtroopers… brownshirts… Kyiv putschists/coup regime/ rump regime… “evokes images/ memories/echoes of Nazism…far Right/ bona-fide far Right… anti-Semitic/ openly anti-Semitic/ hardline ant-Semitic… anti-Russian/ vehemently anti-Russian/ anti-Russian cabal/ hate all Russian speakers… extremists/violent extremists… xenophobic… ultra-nationalists… supremacists… etc”

finally, a grab bag of blanket labels:

“terrorists… neocons… vicious ideologues/ demagogues/ virulent ideology…public outrage/ international condemnation…armed thugs… black masks and Kalashnikovs… body armor, helmets, kneepads… lethal collection of weapons… far right football hooligans… highly organized… preplanned… anti-gay… anti-women… etc”

(About the only name not included is “Imperialist”… understandably, that works rather less well this time around…)

Enter the Savior 

And who will rescue the world from all these horrors? Moscow.

Russian historical studies, Imperial as well as Soviet, exalted every Russian action in “collecting all the lands of Rus” and extension of Russian territory. The most brutal barbarian acts of the Moscow elite to enslave neighboring nations and conquer foreign lands were always rated a “historically positive factor.” Nations, attached to “Russian land” during their period of enslavement underwent horrendous genocides, utter decimation of their national elites, forced Russianization, and brutal relocations from their native soil.

The Soviet era continued this with a vengeance. And yet, today’s pro Russian ‘anti fascists’ defend the monuments which glorify the supreme architect of the Soviet Union – Lenin…

Today’s Crimea underwent a brainwashing when Russia censored all sources of news and information except Russian state TV and radio. The absurdity of their anti-fascist’ claims can be seen in a typical quote from a Simferapol resident (march 17) : “I mean, I am all for the superiority of the white race, and all that stuff, but I don’t like fascists.”

While still in bed with Hitler, Stalin annexed the Baltics, tore apart Poland and started a war with Finland. Why is this not ‘fascist’ if the Nazis were doing the same thing? And then, did Stalin’s subsequent horrendous acts suddenly stop being ‘fascist’ once Hitler became his enemy?

Part 2 will examine Russia’s ‘anti-fascist’ activities between the World Wars, the Right Sector in Ukraine, and the role of the media.

 

By Adrian Bryttan, March 21, 2014

SHARE THIS:
Thu, 10/08/2015 - 11:27 | 6644416 litemine
litemine's picture

Until Israel frees Palistinians and the Settlers stop stealing their lands .........Fuck Off.

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 11:33 | 6644433 falconflight
falconflight's picture

Fake made up nationality of Arab barbarians, and someday, they'll run for their lives to Jordan.  xxoo

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 14:58 | 6645576 Rhett72
Rhett72's picture

The Palestinians are the descendants of the indigenous Canaanite population.  They have always been there, and will always be there.  Unlike the Ashkenazi Jews who founded Israel, who are European converts, which is now even admitted by the New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/09/science/ashkenazi-origins-may-be-with-...

 

http://www.livescience.com/40247-ashkenazi-jews-have-european-genes.html

 

When the Muslims conquered Palestine from the Byzantines, they let Jews return to Jerusalem (they had been banned by the Christian Byzantines).  When Saladin reconquered Palestine from the Crusaders, he let Jews return to Jerusalem (they had been banned by the Christian Crusaders).  Without Muslims, Jews wouldn't exist today and would have been wiped off the face of the earth by Christian pogroms and the Inquisition.

 

To my Jewish brothers, I say: "You're welcome."

 

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 11:45 | 6644491 Baby Bladeface
Baby Bladeface's picture

The parable about the boy, shouting "Wolf! Wolves!" all know, and here's something special: a boy forced to shout "Wolf! Wolves!" adults to have an excuse not to help!

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 10:48 | 6644240 falconflight
falconflight's picture
Latvia proposes ‘alternative’ to Russian TV propaganda

EurActiv.com by Georgi Gotev  08 Jan 2015 - 14:29 updated: 14 Jan 2015 - 17:10

Viktors Makarovs [Georgi Gotev]

Latvia, which took over the rotating Presidency of the Council of the EU on 1 January, intends to launch independent quality media in Russian language which could include a Russian-language TV channel to counter Kremlin propaganda, a high ranking government official told journalists in Riga.

Viktors Marakrovs, adviser to the Latvian foreign affairs minister Edgars Rink?vi?s, said that the Latvian government is strongly in favour of a European effort to support initiatives aimed at establishment of independent quality media in the Russian language.

The official said his country hoped that specific ideas and initiatives would be developed as a result of independent expert deliberations organized under a project of the European Endowment for Democracy, a Brussels-based NGO, that is due to come up with results in May.

They should then be followed up upon by policy-makers. Whether creation of a “European Russian TV channel” will be among the options proposed by experts remains to be seen.

Some 40% of Latvians are native Russian speakers and regularly watch several Russian TV channels, including RBK Ren TV, RTR Planeta, NTV Mir.

For some time now, Latvia has complained about increased Russian propaganda targeting its population. Ilze Juhansone, Latvian Permanent Representative to the EU, recently said it was a “state responsibility” to provide alternative views on events.

>> Read: Upcoming Latvian EU presidency slammed for anti-Russian bias

“If you compare it to Soviet-era propaganda, the difference is that these channels resonate with peoples’ feelings and emotions”, Makarovs said, admitting that Moscow’s messages today were more successful than during Soviet times. He added that the kind of content disseminated by the Russian channels conveyed the message that people in his country couldn’t live together.

Makarovs regretted that the majority of Russian channels broadcasting for Latvia were registered in the UK and in Sweden, and questioned whether it was normal that a third country channel would target one EU country’s market and could be registered and regulated in another. He expressed doubts that such practice could ensure proper regulation in accordance with the Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD). Makarovs clearly advocated that the procedure should be that if a media is targeted toward a specific country, it should be registered in that particular country.

To counter Russian propaganda, the Latvian official said an option was to create “an alternative comparable in technical terms”, that is, a generalist TV channel providing high quality TV shows. In that sense, the channel would greatly differ from the Russian-language version of Euronews, which is only a news channel, he explained.

Makarovs also insisted that Russian propaganda should not be countered with “Brussels propaganda”, and that the planned TV channel would be editorially free.

Although Latvia would like the planned channel to be an EU project, more realistically, it could be a project partially financed by the EU Commission, co-financed and branded by “countries concerned” and countries that would volunteer to be part of it, the official said. Among the countries who could volunteer he mentioned Sweden and Denmark.

As next steps, Makarovs said that he expected that independent experts should be tasked with putting together proposals by April, and that a political follow-up based on this idea could be decided in May.

Regarding the possibility of using other media than television to counter Russian propaganda, Makarovs said that radio could be an option. But he saw no need to include online media, as most news websites in his country had Russian language editions.

 FURTHER READING PRESS ARTICLES
Thu, 10/08/2015 - 11:30 | 6644422 nnnnnn
nnnnnn's picture

WOW thats a lost of shit in one comment!  zh-staff will award you today as the greatest shitposter of the week

 

congrats mr. shitposter

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 10:51 | 6644254 TheObsoleteMan
TheObsoleteMan's picture

Well, it would seem that it won't be much longer before we hear this:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etvNHZx_Bb4

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 10:59 | 6644289 falconflight
falconflight's picture

http://www.euractiv.com/sections/global-europe/nato-says-will-defend-tur...

NATO said today (8 October) it was prepared to send troops to Turkey to defend its ally after violations of Turkish airspace by Russian jets bombing Syria, and Britain scolded Moscow for escalating a civil war that has already killed 250,000 people.

Officials at the US-led alliance are still smarting from Russia's weekend incursions into Turkish airspace, near northern Syria, and NATO defense ministers are meeting in Brussels, with the agenda likely to be dominated by the Syria crisis.

"NATO is ready and able to defend all allies, including Turkey against any threats," NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters as he arrived for the meeting.

"NATO has already responded by increasing our capacity, our ability, our preparedness to deploy forces including to the south, including in Turkey," he said, noting that Russia's air and cruise missile strikes were "reasons for concern".

As Russian and American planes fly combat missions over the same country for the first time since World War Two, NATO is eager to avoid any international escalation of the Syrian conflict that has unexpectedly turned the alliance's attention away from Ukraine following Russia's annexation of Crimea last year.

The incursions of two Russian fighters into Turkish airspace on Saturday (3 October) and Sunday (4 October) has brought the Syria conflict right up to NATO's borders, testing the alliance's ability to deter a newly assertive Russia without seeking direct confrontation.

>>Read: US, NATO condemn Russia's violations of Turkish airspace

While the United States has ruled out military cooperation with Russia in Syria, NATO defense ministers will discuss how to encourage Russia to help resolve the crisis, betting that Moscow also wants to avoid being bogged down in a long conflict.

"There has to be a political solution, a transition," Stoltenberg said.

"Russia is making a very serious situation in Syria much more dangerous," Michael Fallon, Britain's Secretary of State for Defence, said, calling on Moscow to use its influence on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to stop bombing civilians.

For 40 years, NATO's central task was deterring Russia in the east during the Cold War, but now, after a decade-long involvement in Afghanistan, the alliance is facing a reality-check close to home, with multiple threats near its borders.

Divisions between eastern NATO members, who want to keep the focus on the Ukraine crisis, and others who fret about Islamic State militants, risk hampering a unified response from the 28-nation North Atlantic alliance.

France and Britain, NATO's two main European powers, are understood to be willing to see the alliance use its new 5,000-strong rapid reaction force beyond NATO borders, potentially helping stabilize post-conflict governments in Libya or Syria.

"We need to agree a long-term approach to Russia. But NATO needs a strategy to its south," Britain's envoy to NATO, Adam Thomson, said on the eve of the defense ministers meeting.

"The world is changing and NATO needs to develop the ability to react to many things at once," he said.

Others nations, including Poland and the Baltics, want a permanent NATO presence on their territory to act as a credible deterrent to any further effort by Russian President Vladimir Putin to gain influence in former Soviet states.

Fallon underscored the balancing act, saying that Britain would send some troops to Poland and the Baltics for training, as NATO opens small new command posts in Eastern Europe.

"That is part of our policy of more persistent presence on the eastern side of NATO, to respond to any further Russian provocation and aggression," he said.

Erdo?an warns Russia Turkey won't buy its gas, nuclear central

In the meantime, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an told Russia there were other places Turkey could get natural gas, and other countries that could build its first nuclear plant, in the wake of Russian incursions into Turkish air space.

"We can't accept the current situation. Russia's explanations on the air space violations are not convincing," a number of Turkish dailies quoted Erdo?an as telling reporters as he flew to Japan for an official visit.

Erdo?an said he was resentful over what had happened, but did not currently plan to speak to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"These are matters for Russia to think about. If the Russians don't build the Akkuyu [nuclear plant in southern Turkey] another will come and build it," he said.

In 2013, Turkey commissioned Russia's state-owned Rosatom to build four 1,200-megawatt reactors, but a start date for what is Turkey's first nuclear power plant project has not yet been set.

"We are Russia's number one natural gas consumer. Losing Turkey would be a serious loss for Russia. If necessary, Turkey can get its natural gas from many different places," he said.

Around 28-30 billion cubic meters (bcm) of Turkey's 50 bcm annual natural gas needs are met by Russia.

 FURTHER READING
Thu, 10/08/2015 - 11:02 | 6644301 cordial savage
cordial savage's picture

Mmmmm, Turkish airspace.

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 12:16 | 6644648 rejected
rejected's picture

The ussa has two military's. Two thirds of nato's budget is paid by the ussa. Nato is an occupation force in disguise. Europeons will deserve what they get but then they're used to bowing to their supposed betters. 

No mention of the Turks violating Syrian Airspace in 2012,,, in fact to find anything about it I had to go to page 22 on a Google Search.

http://www.jordantimes.com/news/region/turkey-vows-action-against-syria-...

The amount on propaganda, the deleting of events not favorable, and the outright lying by the ussa and it's vassals has gone into hyper-drive.

Exactly why the u.s government wants a war with Russia/China, one they cannot win without using nukes is beyond me.... and why the citizens of the u.s and the europeons will allow their governments the option of incinerating them and their 'loved' ones is even more curious.

 

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 11:05 | 6644316 falconflight
falconflight's picture

Putzin's spritually awakened Russia:

 

Russian Pensioner Attacked for Removing Stalin Portrait From Bus Windshield

 

An elderly man in Russia's Siberian city of Tobolsk has been attacked and beaten for removing the portrait of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin that was displayed on the windshield of a city bus, a news report said Wednesday.

 

The man ripped the portrait off the glass as he entered the bus, local Tobolsk.ru news portal reported Wednesday.

 

The action allegedly prompted the bus driver to leap out of his seat and beat the elderly passenger, while others inside the bus and on the street looked on, a woman who witnessed the incident was quoted as saying.

 

A spokesperson for Tobolsk's public transportation company confirmed the incident, but said the attacker who beat the elderly man was not the driver, but another passenger, a young man, the report said.

 

Police are investigating the incident, the report said.

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 11:12 | 6644347 SirBarksAlot
SirBarksAlot's picture

So, here's a recap of the offical story, as I recall it.

1).  The Muslims are bad, violent people, so we have to fly over to their part of the world and kill them, so they don't come here.

2).  There are good Muslims we have to save, so we are bringing them here, along with some bad Muslims.

3).  We have to start a world war over the bad Muslims that the rest of the world is trying to save, because the rest of the world is bad, too. 

4).  We have now brought this war to your neighborhood.  If you are patriotic, you will sign up.

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 11:14 | 6644353 rita
rita's picture

Europeans should demand a referendum to choose which countries want to stay which want out. For sure the result would be a painful wake up call for who ever thinks Nato is in our intersts, peace, love and rock an roll.

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 11:22 | 6644396 falconflight
falconflight's picture

A anthropological goldmine. The more things change, the more they stay the same. A website only a PutzinPutz could love.  Get out your ragtag Ruble rubble and support the 'cause.'

https://www.allposters.com/-st/Russian-Propaganda-Vintage-Art-Posters_c9...

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 11:24 | 6644405 PrimalScream
PrimalScream's picture

it's hardly surprising that the Russians are scaling up their forces on the ground.  if they don't do this, they are very vulnerable to truck bombings from Islamic Militants.  this step was completely logical.

The Russian attack helicopters will probably do far more damage to the terrorists in Syria than the bombing campaign is doing.

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 11:29 | 6644417 falconflight
falconflight's picture

Georgia, Crimea, Ukraine, next the Baltics...Same ole Russia imperialism (Mass murder)

 

 

- - Wednesday, September 23, 2015

RIGA, Latvia — The Baltic states and NATO are training troops, repositioning armor and bulking up other defenses to counter Moscow’s increasingly bellicose stance toward Russia’s neighbors.

The fight over the airwaves in the region is less obvious.

EstoniaLatvia and Lithuania have struggled to accommodate the large Russian-speaking minority populations they inherited when they broke away from the Soviet Union in the early 1990s. About 30 percent of the populations of Estonia and Latvia speak Russian, and 8 percent speak the language in Lithuania.

SEE ALSO: Carly Fiorina: Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin ‘have a lot in common’

Accordingly, many Russians in the Baltics have long watched television programming, including news, produced in Russia. Those broadcasts often have reflected a pro-Russian bias that has concerned Baltic leaders.

Recently, however, in the wake of Russia’s annexation of the Crimean Peninsula and Moscow’s interference in eastern Ukraine, officials in Riga, Tallinn and Vilnius increasingly fear that Russia’s propaganda could be a precursor to more violent aggression.

“If you look at those TV channels from Russia, you will not find a pluralistic approach,” said Andis Kudors, executive director of the Center for East European Policy Studies, a Latvian think tank. “For example, Russian officials are saying, through the media, that Latvians are like fascists. It’s the same kind of thing they are saying about Ukrainians.”

The Russian TV channel RTR Rossiya, for example, recently covered a dispute between the Latvian government and the Russian organizers of a popular song contest with a pro-Moscow bent that was clearly designed to embarrass RigaMr. Kudors said.

The contest usually takes place in the popular Latvian beach town of Jurmala, but when officials banned two Russian singers from entering the country to participate in the event because they publicly supportedMoscow’s annexation of Crimea, the organizers moved the contest to Sochi, Russia, this year.

“RTR Rossiya showed an empty beach in Jurmala,” said Mr. Kudors. “Maybe they filmed in the early morning, because the beach is busy every day. They said, ‘Look what happened. They lost 30 percent of Russian tourists because Latvia is against this Russian song contest.’”


The television newscast didn’t mention that Russian tourism abroad has dropped with the plummeting value of the ruble.

Similarly, Russian television covers World War II remembrance events every year in Latvia by saying the government in Riga is permitting a neo-Nazi march. It’s true that the march memorializes Latvian troops who fought for Germany, Mr. Kudors said, stressing that Latvians were drafted into the German and Soviet armies during the war.

In Latvia, three of the six most popular TV channels are Russian-owned and transmit a steady diet of anti-Western messages into the country, said Mr. Kudors. He believes the broadcasts undermined Russian speakers’ integration into Latvian society, where more than 300,000 Russian speakers are technically not Latvian citizens but hold either Russian passports or are officially stateless.

“How can you unite two groups if they are living in different informational spheres with different interpretations of events?” he said.

Western officials have responded to the problem.

Last year, NATO opened the Strategic Communications Center of Excellence in Riga in part to counter Russia’s media influence in the region. In one of its first reports, the center found that Moscow’s influence over the mass media was a powerful tool in its aggressive policies.

“This control over the media has made it difficult for democratic states with free media to compete with the forceful, synchronized messaging of the Russian government,” the report said.

Propaganda, no propaganda

In the past year and a half, Latvia and Lithuania have imposed temporary bans on the Russian-owned TV channels for breaking local laws by inciting hatred and knowingly disseminating false information, including downplaying a violent Soviet crackdown that resulted in 13 deaths in Lithuania after the country declared independence in 1991.

Uldis Lielpeters, deputy state secretary for the media at the Latvian Ministry of Culture, said Riga has increased its Russian-language programming on Latvian public television and promoted public awareness about Russian propaganda.

The government decided not to launch its own public relations push to oppose Russia‘s, said Mr. Lielpeters. Officials preferred to offer Russian speakers quality journalism as an alternative to Moscow’s state-controlled channels rather than spend money on spin.

“I would say the best answer to propaganda is no propaganda,” he said.

Estonian officials had the same idea. At the end of the month, the country is slated to open a Russian-language public broadcasting television channel that will include an online presence.

“In Estonia, we don’t currently have a multimedia environment which allows Russian-speaking people to receive, create and exchange information,” said Ainar Ruussaar, who sits on the board of the Estonian public broadcaster, ERR. “There is a growing need among Russian-speaking people here and elsewhere for balanced and just news and journalism.”

Local coverage might be an antidote to Moscow’s broadcasts that treat everyone in the Russian diaspora as a monolithic community, Mr. Ruussaar said.

“Today, the Russian-speaking people can consume media which represents a collective historical narrative, but not their personal and local stories,” he said.

It’s not clear whether Estonia’s and Latvia’s television stations will succeed against the power of Russian-backed broadcasting. The combined budgets of all of Latvia’s television stations are equal to the budget of one Russian television channel, Mr. Kudors said.

The Lithuanian public broadcaster, LRT, has no plans to establish more Russian-language media. It broadcasts in many minority languages, but the chairman of the LRT board, Zygintas Peciulis, said the county’s Russian-speaking population is too small to have a channel devoted to it.

Estonians are relying partly on support from Germany, whose public foreign news service Deutsche Welle will be sharing programming with the Russian-language channel in Estonia, according to ERR.

In the city center of Riga, 42-year-old chemist Inese Puzule said she was glad more resources were going into Russian-language broadcasting.

“Russians will watch TV in their own language,” she said. “If they don’t have Latvian news in Russian, they will watch TV from Russia, with those views and ways of understanding things.”

 

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/sep/23/russian-language-propaga...

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 11:44 | 6644487 nnnnnn
nnnnnn's picture

@falconflight shitposting, shitposting shitposting shitposting   shitposting!(shitposting)

 

shitposting shitposting  shitpostingshitpostingshitposting shitposting

shitposting shitpostingshitpostingshitposting shitposting shitposting shitposting shitposting

shitposting  shitposting  ?shitpostingshitpostingshitposting shitposting

 

 

shitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitposting

shitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitposting

shitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitposting shitposting shitposting

shitpostingshitpostingshitposting shitposting  shitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitposting

shitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitposting shitpostingshitpostingshitposting

shitposting  shitpostingshitpostingshitposting

 

shitpostingshitpostingshitposting shitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitposting shitposting

shitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitposting shitposting shitposting shitposting

shitpostingshitposting shitposting shitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingvshitpostingshitpostingshitposting shitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitposting shitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitposting

shitposting

shitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitposting

shitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitposting

shitposting

 

 

shitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitposting shitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitposting

shitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitposting

 

https://media.giphy.com/media/ZJyn5HEzW7THO/giphy.gif

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 11:53 | 6644546 rejected
rejected's picture

Washington Times!

Bwahahahhahhhahhhahhhhahhhaaaahhhahhahahahahahahahahahah

rinse, repeat...

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 12:47 | 6644835 Victor999
Victor999's picture

It beggars belief that Russia would ever want to invade any of those shithole, worthless Baltic states.  You would as soon fight over a bag of shit.

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 14:46 | 6645526 Victor von Doom
Victor von Doom's picture

+1 Fuck, I literally burst out laughing at the office over that one!

 

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 11:34 | 6644435 paddycomeback
paddycomeback's picture

China is slow showing it's hand. NATO seems to be confident that either Russia would lose a conventional war or Putin will be deposed before nukes deployed. Without Chinese backing for Russia it looks like WW3 to me.

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 11:36 | 6644453 falconflight
falconflight's picture

Russia’s Propaganda Trolls become a power in cyberspace

Summary: Cyberspace is not just a means to steal information and wreck systems, but also a means to touch people’s minds and change how they see the world. The tech is new, but the methods are old. Russia has a long history of playing this game well. Here Emilio Iasiello explains how they have aggressively exploited this new medium.

 

Russia’s Propaganda Trolls
Make an Impact in Cyberspace
By Emilio Iasiello, 27 August 2015
From DarkMatters: superior attack intelligence Posted with their gracious permission.

 

Russia’s propaganda machine in action

Recent reporting reveals that the Russian government may be using online propagandists in order to project a positive Russian image to the global community, while attacking those perceived to be a threat to Russian government interests.

Two individuals that used to work for an organization called the “Internet Research Agency” exposed the propaganda machine whose objective was to influence public opinion, and in some instances, discredit specific targets.

The Internet Research Agency is an organization that employees hundreds of online “trolls” – individuals whose job it is to create online discontent.

Located in four floors of a building in St. Petersburg, these trolls logged twelve-hour days supporting the Russian government while attacking perceived enemies – the United States, political oppositionists, for example – on social networks, blogs, and comment areas for social media sites (“One Professional Russian Troll Tells All“).

These online operators created personas and blogs in order to disseminate propaganda to the wider Internet audience. Techniques ranged from blatant attacking content to leveraging more subtle techniques in attempt to discredit the West. According to one former “troll,” the operations were tightly controlled and closely supervised. Assignments were handed out to the propagandists, each focusing on a theme and a list of key words to be used in online content. (“My life as a pro-Putin propagandist in Russia’s secret ‘troll factory’“.)

Some of the more prevalent topics included the situation in Ukraine, the Syrian conflict, and stories related to U.S. President Barak Obama. For this they received a monthly salary of approximately $750 (“Woman who sued pro-Putin Russian ‘troll factory’ gets one rouble in damages“).

 

Information warfare is the new great game between States

According to these individuals, operational security measures such as using proxy servers in order to conceal their true IP addresses were strictly implemented. Tight oversight of the operations ensured that the work process ran efficiently. A closed circuit TV monitored all activities, and those failing to reach their quotas or deliver successful postings receive fines.

However, given the blatant disinformation spread by these individuals, these activities border more on information warfare than propaganda in its purest sense. The Internet Research Center would doctor legitimate news sites and fabricate stories to solicit responses from the public they targeted.

One such example included a news story about a chemical fire in Louisiana in September 11, 2014, creating the sense that a major disaster transpired on the anniversary of the most significant terrorist attack against the United States. The purpose for such a story might be to cause unease and uncertainty in the U.S. public, while showing the Russian public that the U.S. is not an idyllic place but one fraught with its own problems.

The revelations of the Internet Research Agency are not surprising given Putin’s penchant for engaging in propaganda as an influencing agent. Russia has a long history of using propaganda to promote its own interests particularly to influence public opinion in neighboring countries, as well as Western targets.

According to one U.S. congressman, Russia’s aggressive and deceptive propaganda may be more dangerous than its military because of the volume and reach that it has as well as its ability to undermine U.S. security interests in Europe (“Vladimir Putin’s ‘misinformation’ offensive prompts US to deploy its cold war propaganda tools“).

Nonetheless, the result of these online efforts have been extraordinary; a recent report by the independent U.S. federal agency the Broadcasting Board of Governors concluded that the Kremlin was far outpacing Washington in promoting its position to a global audience (per Reuters).

With the exposure of the Internet Research Center, it also appears that Russia is drawing on disinformation techniques used during the Soviet Union. One Russian propaganda scholar has referred to it as less of an information war as much as a war on information (“A Russian TV Insider Describes a Modern Propaganda Machine“).

Regardless of the view, such activities have been successful in helping to oust governments or influence public behavior. This should be very telling, especially considering ongoing efforts between the two governments to try to gain mutual understanding on cyber security issues. One area that highlights this challenge is how security should be addressed in cyberspace.

The U.S. prefers to look at cybersecurity through a purely technical lens, whereas Russia (and China for that matter) sees it in terms of networks as well as the information that is stored or traverses through them.

One source reports that Russia spends approximately $400-$500 million per year on foreign information efforts; conversely, the United States spends just $20 million per year (Reuters, ibid).

Given the value Russia is placing on manipulating information, it’s understandable why they see it as potentially dangerous as any traditional cyber attack and demonstrates that not all threats in cyberspace involve 1s and 0s.

http://fabiusmaximus.com/2015/09/16/russia-cyberpropaganda-89271/
Thu, 10/08/2015 - 11:48 | 6644508 Collapsed_Elast...
Collapsed_Elastic_Pants's picture

Your drawn out posts are clogging up the works here. It's bad enough there's not a back to top link at the bottom of the page, without having to scroll through your bullshit. Go educate the masses on a Trump forum somewhere. "Gosh the US only uses technology for good". Like Stuxnet. LMAO

 

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 11:43 | 6644458 NuYawkFrankie
NuYawkFrankie's picture

RUSSIA: War ON Terror

ZATO: Wars OF Terror

Fcuk ZATO!

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 11:39 | 6644470 falconflight
falconflight's picture
By Joanna Paraszczuk

Over the weekend, reports emerged that Russian forces are expanding a military airport in Syria's coastal province of Latakia. 

This comes amid more reports of a Russian military buildup near Latakia. 

Two weeks before these reports broke, Life News, a tabloid-style Russian website with links to the security services, carried a story that appears to set the scene for these developments, warning of the threat posed by the Islamic State (IS) group in Latakia. 

And in an emotional appeal to its Russian readers, it frames the "war on terror" in Latakia as an extension of Russia's own struggle against Islamic militancy in the North Caucasus.

Life News claimed IS has dispatched "natives of [Russia's North] Caucasus republics" to Latakia. "Among them are militants who took part in actions against the Russian Army during the Chechen campaigns, and then fled from Russia," it said. "Their skills aid in the development and implementation of operations in the Latakia heights."

Half-Truths

The Life News report is based on elements of truth that have been misinterpreted -- or twisted -- to tell a particular narrative.

It is true that there are several groups of Chechen militants based in the forests of Latakia (though Life News only refers to one). And three of those groups have leaders and fighters who are known to have fought against Russian forces as part of the Islamist insurgency in the North Caucasus.

Indeed, North Caucasus militants in Syria like to say that Latakia is "Syria's Caucasus." They joke that fighters feel at home there, because they can hide out in the forests and mountains.

The catch is that none of the Latakia Chechen groups is connected with IS.

The three main Chechen-led groups in the Latakia mountains are Ajnad al-Kavkaz (Soldiers of the Caucasus), Junud al-Sham (Soldiers of Syria), and a much smaller group, Tarkhan's Jamaat.

Ajnad al-Kavkaz is led by Abdul-Hakim al-Shishani (Hamzat Azhiyev), who is believed to be from Prigorodnoye, a town southeast of the Chechen capital, Grozny.

Azhiyev came to Syria via Turkey after losing several fingers from his left hand in an injury sustained during the armed insurgency against Russian government forces in the North Caucasus.

A media activist with Azhiyev's group told RFE/RL earlier this year that Azhiyev had not sworn an oath of allegiance to the North Caucasus militant group the Caucasus Emirate, but would fight alongside them if he were to return to Chechnya.

Junud al-Sham is led by the veteran ethnic Chechen militant Muslim al-Shishani (Murad Margoshvili) from Georgia's Pankisi Gorge, who fought alongside Arab foreign fighters in Chechnya.

Tarkhan's Jamaat is a much smaller group of fighters loyal to Chechen militant Tarkhan Ismailovich Gaziyev.

All three fight against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces alongside Syrian Al-Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra and Ahrar al-Sham -- factions that are opposed to IS.

Why Create An 'IS Threat' In Latakia?

The Life News claim that IS poses a threat in Latakia is part of Moscow's "grand narrative" about the Syrian conflict, according to which Assad is engaged in a war against extremist groups funded by external enemies.

Moscow has insisted that only the Syrian Army is capable of opposing these groups, chiefly IS. "Excluding the Syrian Army from the fight against IS is absurd," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on September 13. 

Life News makes another assertion that is based on distorted facts but which reveals a larger truth about why Moscow is helping Assad shore up his military capabilities in Latakia.

Controlling the mountains of Latakia is "not the terrorists' goal," Life News says. Instead, the Chechen-led groups have advanced into Latakia to "advance from Idlib Province...and advance into Hama Province."

This claim is misleading. All three Chechen-led militant groups in Latakia have been entrenched there for well over a year before they took part in the Idlib offensives.

What is true is the claim that rebels from Idlib could advance on Latakia. That is a very real fear for Assad (and Moscow).

A key loyalist bastion, Latakia is the home of numerous Syrian government officials -- including Assad himself. And so far, although there have been Islamist rebel offensives here -- against the Armenian town of Kessab in 2014, for example -- Syrian government supporters have by and large felt safe there.

But that is changing.

Since taking Idlib city in March, Nusra-led fighters including the Chechen groups have advanced toward Latakia. In April they took Jisr al-Shughour, on the road between Latakia city and Aleppo.

The current focus of the battle is the Al-Ghab plain, a strategic area between Latakia, Hama, and Idlib provinces, which connects Idlib with the Latakia mountains. 

If the rebels advance past Al-Ghab, Assad is in serious trouble. He cannot afford to undertake a strategic retreat from his heartland of Latakia, a fact Russia understands all too well.

Ahead of any Russian military build-up in Latakia, it is therefore convenient for Life News to conflate the presence of Chechen militants in that province with the IS threat -- even if the threat to Assad's stronghold does not come from IS.

http://www.rferl.org/content/why-russia-propaganda-links-chechens-is-lat...
Thu, 10/08/2015 - 11:46 | 6644500 Pliskin
Pliskin's picture

YAWN! More of Falconflight's Falconshite!

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 12:06 | 6644611 Baby Bladeface
Baby Bladeface's picture

Funny more than can be funny.

Throws wonderful tantrums on the propaganda, hysterical even. Then pours the copypasta from rferl.org emitter of CIA propaganda since many decades.

You are on the verge of pathetic plum. Don't give up! As impressive tantrum must not end so ignominiously - choking in his own snot.

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 11:45 | 6644482 Hubbs
Hubbs's picture

Wolf!!!  

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 11:44 | 6644486 falconflight
falconflight's picture

http://www.jrnyquist.com/continuing-talk-of-war.html

 

  Continuing Talk of War in Europe and Asia
Commentary for 31 May 2015

In May I received a note from Romanian analyst Anca-Maria Cernea who referred to a conference “by an excellent Polish analyst, Prof. Przemyslaw Zurawski vel Grajewski, who was saying that whatever the Russians were about to do, in terms of advancing to war, it was probably going to happen before Obama’s second term is over. So it’s going to be now, or quite soon, or never….” As Cernea also observed, war may occur because Putin is “desperate about the possibility of losing power….”

Yet Russia’s war preparations are grounded on something deeper, and more far-reaching, than the political ambitions of one man. The foundation of the present Russian military buildup was laid many years ago, when Vladimir Putin was still a boy. It may be argued that the foundation of the current situation was laid in 1957 – by Leonid Brezhnev’s special committee for reconfiguring Soviet strategy. With the advent of intercontinental rockets and the hydrogen bomb, Soviet strategy had to find a way around the problem of “mutual assured destruction.”

Today our weakened nuclear deterrent is vulnerable to a first strike. Our nuclear forces are old and run down. We have been fighting wars against Muslim extremists, paying little or no attention to our former Cold War rival. Recently Putin announced the resumption of TU-160 “Blackjack” (nuclear) bomber production. There has been no similar announcement of a buildup from the American side. One would think that the socialists and peaceniks around the world would take Mr. Putin to task (for being a warmonger). But they do not. The World Socialist Website, published by the International Committee of the Fourth International, is busy denouncing the United States deployment of B-1 bombers and Marines to Australia. According to the “World Socialists,” the U.S. is guilty of preparing for war. “[T]he preparations for war by the US and its allies are far more advanced than is known by masses of people,” says theWorld Socialist Site. According to these "socialists," America has no business deploying forces to Australia at all, and the Marxists in Beijing are in 100 percent agreement on this point. Beijing has warned the U.S. about these deployments. They are “risky,” we are told. They are “provocative.” Yes, we had better leave our Australian allies to their fate. What business does America have, interfering with China’s plan to dominate Australia and New Zealand? Since 1941 the United States has sent Marines and other forces to Australia on several occasions. Such deployments have been as natural and normal as mom and apple pie. But now the Chinese are full of “serious concern,” issuing warnings. The Americans had better be careful.

The Chinese are acting as if Australia is within their sphere of influence.

The World Socialists say the Australian government is embarrassed by the deployment of U.S. troops and bombers and has shifted into “damage control.” But when has a government, threatened by a hostile power, been embarrassed by the forward deployment of friendly forces? Embarrassment in this case doesn’t make sense, except to the noisy Leftist idiots who always fall for Communist propaganda. The World Socialists explain their position in the following way: “With the Obama administration plotting a provocation in the South China Sea in the coming months or even weeks, it is becoming increasingly difficult for the establishment to prevent public discussion on the potentially catastrophic consequences of this reckless imperialist policy.”

The poor blameless Chinese and Russian militarists are Obama's “victims.” Yet if Obama is so wicked, then why did the “excellent Polish analyst” cited by Cernea say the Russians must act before Obama’s second term is up? Perhaps Obama isn’t an imperialist after all. Perhaps, for Russia and China, he represents an opportunity, a strategic opening, that Moscow must soon act upon. And yes, there is danger of war. But this danger is not because of Obama’s imperialism but on account of Obama’s weakness.

Obama's imperialism is not the problem. As Cernea explained, “In Poland and Ukraine, they are almost sure that the Russians will soon start a bigger offensive. The timing may also depend on the weather conditions, as it’s now spring in the region, and it rains a lot, and the soil is wet, which makes it very difficult for heavy military equipment … to use the roads – which are in terrible condition.”

So it is all about the Russians waiting for the ground to dry out. “It is certain that the Russians are continually reinforcing their lines and seem to be preparing for a large-scale attack on Ukraine,” Cernea noted. At least, that is what we see. What actually happens is anybody's guess. And in the Far East we see the same sort of thing. China and North Korea are preparing for a conflict.

And we have Obama in office for another 19 months.

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 11:46 | 6644493 nnnnnn
nnnnnn's picture

@falconflight shitposting, shitposting shitposting shitposting   shitposting!(shitposting)

 

shitposting shitposting  shitpostingshitpostingshitposting shitposting

shitposting shitpostingshitpostingshitposting shitposting shitposting shitposting shitposting

shitposting  shitposting  ?shitpostingshitpostingshitposting shitposting

 

 

shitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitposting

shitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitposting

shitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitposting shitposting shitposting

shitpostingshitpostingshitposting shitposting  shitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitposting

shitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitposting shitpostingshitpostingshitposting

shitposting  shitpostingshitpostingshitposting

 

shitpostingshitpostingshitposting shitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitposting shitposting

shitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitposting shitposting shitposting shitposting

shitpostingshitposting shitposting shitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingvshitpostingshitpostingshitposting shitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingvshitpostingshitpostingshitposting shitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingvshitpostingshitpostingshitposting shitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingvshitpostingshitpostingshitposting shitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingvshitpostingshitpostingshitposting shitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingvshitpostingshitpostingshitposting shitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingvshitpostingshitpostingshitposting shitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingvshitpostingshitpostingshitposting shitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingvshitpostingshitpostingshitposting shitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingvshitpostingshitpostingshitposting shitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingvshitpostingshitpostingshitposting shitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingvshitpostingshitpostingshitposting shitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingvshitpostingshitpostingshitposting shitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingvshitpostingshitpostingshitposting shitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingvshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitposting shitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitposting

shitposting

shitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitposting

shitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitposting

shitposting

 

 

shitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitposting shitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitposting

shitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitpostingshitposting

 

https://media.giphy.com/media/ZJyn5HEzW7THO/giphy.gif

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 11:46 | 6644497 mototard
mototard's picture

Germany, France, Sweden, the Netherland and others already have a serious NO GO zone probelm.   Germany's chief of police has already admitted there are areas where his police cannot go. This will make the EU problem even worse.

 

No Go Zones and the European Migration Crisis

http://tsecnetwork.ca/2015/09/18/no-go-zones-and-the-european-migration-crisis/

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 11:51 | 6644529 nnnnnn
nnnnnn's picture

in the next 5 years there will be +5 to 7 million muslims coming to germany alone, covered as refugees

 

europe will never be beautiful ever again

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 14:51 | 6645545 Victor von Doom
Victor von Doom's picture

Rubbish. Once they are all ground up as fertilizer the place will be greener than ever!

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 15:05 | 6645607 Rhett72
Rhett72's picture

You mean like the beautiful Alhambra built by the Moors?

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 12:12 | 6644634 Eahudimac
Eahudimac's picture

Berlin will be the new Detroit. 

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 11:51 | 6644525 falconflight
falconflight's picture
What Is Russia Today? The Kremlin's propaganda outlet has an identity crisis

 

By Julia Ioffe

SEPTEMBER /
OCTOBER 2010
368 WORDS

On Election Day 2008, two African-American men in black fatigues and berets stood outside a polling station in a predominantly black neighborhood of Philadelphia. They were members of the New Black Panther Party, which the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League have labeled a hate group. One of the men wielded a police-style nightstick, and there were complaints about voter intimidation. Police eventually escorted the armed man away without incident, but the outgoing Bush administration filed a civil suit against the party alleging violations of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. In May 2009, against the advice of prosecutors who had worked on the case, President Obama’s Justice Department dropped the suit, a move that caused barely a ripple in the press at the time. The case came back to life in July, though, when a former Justice Department lawyer testified before the Commission on Civil Rights that the case was dropped because the Justice Department did not want to protect the civil rights of white people.

Fox News began to air allegations of an anti-white bias at the Obama Justice Department. But almost no one else reported on the case—it was old, tenuous, and even a prominent conservative commenter called it “small potatoes.” One outlet that did pick up the story, however, wasRussia Today, a fairly new and still mostly obscure English-language cable news channel funded by the Russian government.

Russia Today was conceived as a soft-power tool to improve Russia’s image abroad, to counter the anti-Russian bias the Kremlin saw in the Western media. Since its founding in 2005, however, the broadcast outlet has become better known as an extension of former President Vladimir Putin’s confrontational foreign policy. Too often the channel was provocative just for the sake of being provocative. It featured fringe-dwelling “experts,” like the Russian historian who predicted the imminent dissolution of the United States; broadcast bombastic speeches by Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez; aired ads conflating Barack Obama with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad; and ran out-of-nowhere reports on the homeless in America. Often, it seemed that Russia Today was just a way to stick it to the U.S. from behind the façade of legitimate newsgathering. 

So it was fairly unremarkable when Russia Today, in a July 8 segment called “Fox News stirring up racial fears in America,” interviewed the chairman of the New Black Panther Party, Dr. Malik Zulu Shabazz, who lambasted Republicans for playing on people’s fears in an effort to dominate the fall midterm elections.

But then Russia Today did something out of character. When Fox’s Glenn Beck attacked the segment, asking why Russian state-run TV was suddenly “in lock-step” with the Obama administration, Russia Today fired back in a way that was puzzling to anyone familiar with the channel. On July 9, Alyona Minkovski, who hosts a daily program calledThe Alyona Show, laid into Beck—“the doughboy nut job from Fox News”—with patriotic American fervor: “I get to ask all the questions that the American people want answered about their own country because I care about this country and I don’t work for a corporate-owned media organization,” she said, her voice rising.

Fox …you hate Americans. Glenn Beck, you hate Americans. Because you lie to them, you scare them, you try to warp their minds. You tell them that we’re becoming some socialist country…. You’re not on the side of America. And the fact that my channel is more honest with the American people is something you should be ashamed of.

Huh? Forget the Obama administration, since when does Russia Today defend the policies of any American president? Or the informational needs of the American public, for that matter? Like many of RT’s journalists, Minkovksi is a Russian immigrant, born in Moscow, raised and educated in the West, and hired by the network for her fluency in both English and Russian—she is someone who could be both Russia’s ambassador to the West as well as its Sherpa into the Western mind. But her tirade against Fox offers a glimpse into the mind of a changing Russia Today.

On April 25, 2005, Russian President Vladimir Putin went on national television and told his nation that the destruction of the Soviet Union was “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the twentieth century.” He meant that the union’s dissolution had ushered in years of sinusoidal financial crises, but also that he mourned the passing glory of a great empire he had once served as a lieutenant colonel in the KGB.

http://www.cjr.org/feature/what_is_russia_today.php

 

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 12:01 | 6644585 Omega_Man
Omega_Man's picture

that julia ioffe bitch needs to go back to Israel where she is from

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 12:02 | 6644597 falconflight
falconflight's picture

Didn't know that

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 12:08 | 6644619 Omega_Man
Omega_Man's picture

yes is from there... that evil POS, why do you think CNN always has her on? Actually she is from Russia, then lived in Israhell

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 12:03 | 6644600 Moccasin
Moccasin's picture

you made your point and your are piontless. Stop trolling ZH, please fuck off. Thank you and have a great day.

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 13:15 | 6645008 jcdenton
jcdenton's picture

To answer your question, this is how it all works ..

http://www.veteranstoday.com/2015/10/06/antiwar-new-faces-in-the-war-on-...

From someone who just had a face-to-face talk with the Grand Mufti of Syria. Assad's chief adviser ..

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 12:01 | 6644589 Moccasin
Moccasin's picture

It appears to be an admission by NATO that ISIS is one their assets that needs to be preserved. I wonder if the ISIS air force which flies out of Israel will have the balls to attack Damascus now that the Russians control the air space. Modern warfare can escalate quicker than a Thursday news cycle.

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 12:02 | 6644594 falconflight
falconflight's picture

Here's a hat tip to your Twitter campaign of Putzin Agitprop.

@WageWarOnWar

Twitter feed in support of a new socialist working-class international anti-war movement sponsored by the International Committee of the Fourth International.

  Worldwide  wsws.org   Joined January 2011   120 Photos and videos                

 

Tweets
  1.  2h2 hours ago

    US officials seek to contain fallout from in - World Socialist Web Site

     0 retweets0 favorites
     Reply

     

     Retweet

     
     

     

     Favorite

     
     

     

     More

  2.  4h4 hours ago

    and the drumbeat of world war - World Socialist Web Site

     0 retweets0 favorites
     Reply

     

     Retweet

     
     

     

     Favorite

     
     

     

     More

  3.  6h6 hours ago

    Washingtons in - World Socialist Web Site

     0 retweets0 favorites
     Reply

     

     Retweet

     
     

     

     Favorite

     
     

     

     More

  4.  22h22 hours ago

    backs Obama on war - World Socialist Web Site

     0 retweets0 favorites
     Reply

     

     Retweet

     
     

     

     Favorite

     
     

     

     More

  5.  Oct 7

    US, step up threats to over - World Socialist Web Site

     0 retweets0 favorites
     Reply

     

     Retweet

     
     

     

     Favorite

     
     

     

     More

  6.  Oct 7

    joins trilateral “dialogue” with US and - World Socialist Web Site

     0 retweets0 favorites
     Reply

     

     Retweet

     
     

     

     Favorite

     
     

     

     More

  7.  Oct 6

    US ratchets up war rhetoric against Moscow following Turkish intercept of Russian jet

    0 retweets0 favorites
    Reply

     

    Retweet

     
     

     

    Favorite

     

     

    More

  8.  Oct 6

    World Socialist Web Site: Washington's war crime in - Kunduz

    0 retweets0 favorites
    Reply

     

    Retweet

     

     

    Favorite

     

     

    More

  9.  Oct 5

    UK : A party of and nuclear war - World Socialist Web Site

    0 retweets0 favorites
    Reply

     

    Retweet

     

     

    Favorite

     

     

    More

  10.  Oct 5

    Washington divided over debacle - World Socialist Web Site

    0 retweets0 favorites
    Reply

     

    Retweet

     

     

    Favorite

     

     

    More

  11.  Oct 5

    US repeatedly bombs hospital in , - World Socialist Web Site

    0 retweets0 favorites
    Reply

     

    Retweet

     

     

    Favorite

     

     

    More

  12.  Oct 5

    Listen to Part I of Why and How the GPU Murdered Leon

    0 retweets0 favorites
    Reply

     

    Retweet

     

     

    Favorite

     

     

    More

  13.  Oct 4

    La poursuit ses aériennes en , le risque grandit d'une guerre plus vaste

    0 retweets0 favorites
    Reply

     

    Retweet

     

     

    Favorite

     

     

    More

  14.  Oct 3
Thu, 10/08/2015 - 12:05 | 6644609 Omega_Man
Omega_Man's picture

how do we ban this dick

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 12:14 | 6644624 nnnnnn
nnnnnn's picture

 

 

 

1. Right click the comment number in the upper right corner of the comment. 

2. Click "Copy link" 

3. Go to your email. 

4. Click "New email" 

5. Right click in the body, and click "Paste"

6. Type in what you find offesnive about the comment, e.g., it's shitposting. 

7. Send to abuse [at] zerohedge.com

 

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 12:52 | 6644874 besnook
besnook's picture

that's censorship. a favorite zionazi game.

let them post. they sound stupid so letting them post hurts their cause so let them post. in fact, we need more hasbara here so it can become more clearly obvious how obtuse and plain stupid they all are.

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 14:55 | 6645559 Victor von Doom
Victor von Doom's picture

Are you against us censoring them with a nailgun?

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 16:04 | 6645984 alphahammer
alphahammer's picture

---

Define "them" I have my own definition. You probably won't like it. :-)

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 19:14 | 6646862 CWolfRu
CWolfRu's picture

You probably a cunt, everybody know it.

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 12:41 | 6644785 farflungstar
farflungstar's picture

I know. Has to post his "Putin, Russia BAD, see?" nonsense to feel better about himself. Pushing the Establishment line - such a rebel!

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 19:13 | 6646856 CWolfRu
CWolfRu's picture

And where is the "spam" button... crap!

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 12:04 | 6644603 Omega_Man
Omega_Man's picture

hey stop this dumb posting... it's too hard to scroll down..

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 19:16 | 6646868 CWolfRu
CWolfRu's picture

+1. Too hard to be patient whey you see THAT SHIT!

 

Gosh, this place really needs "spam" button.

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 12:04 | 6644606 BarkingCat
BarkingCat's picture

>>>>>>.... and Britain scolded Moscow for escalating a civil war that has already killed 250,000<<<<

They managed to do this between rapes of little boys???

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 12:13 | 6644621 wizteknet
wizteknet's picture

Damn I'm bored back to bed, all this war crap has me exhausted. 17k dow almost
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/09/world/europe/russia-syria-intervention...

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 12:11 | 6644628 Omega_Man
Omega_Man's picture

Where is China? They should move a few million troops near EU... that will shut NATO up

FU NATO

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 12:12 | 6644631 Omega_Man
Omega_Man's picture

Now US is going to harrass China in the China Sea so that they won't send so much stuff to Syria..

 

FU USA

Do NOT follow this link or you will be banned from the site!