Report: The British Crown is Connected to Russian Money Laundering Network

(Photo Credit: United Nations)

 

The report details how billions of dollars in cash have been funneled through offshore companies to disguise their original sources.

London’s The Guardian newspaper has published an expose detailing how a charity run by Prince Charles has received donations from an offshore company that funneled $4.6 billion in cash from Russia.

The report states that money flowing through the network is linked to “some of the most notorious frauds committed during Vladimir Putin’s presidency.” It notes that more than 1.3 million transactions have been identified by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project as the result of one of the largest bank record leaks in history.

Stocking Up for World War III

 

Nuclear nonproliferation efforts are ending. A new arms race has begun.

Since the United States and the Soviet Union backed away from the precipice of nuclear war in the 1980s, the world’s stocks of nuclear weapons have declined from an estimated 60,000 to an estimated 10,000.

According to a 2014 study by science journal Earth’s Future, however, it would take just 100 nuclear detonations to create a worldwide climate catastrophe causing massive famine and death.

Russia Warns of Severe Consequences if Georgia Joins NATO

Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) and PM Dmitry Medvedev in 2014 / Getty Images

 

Dmitry Medvedev, speaking in an interview with the Kommersant daily broadcast by Russian state television, called NATO’s plans to offer membership to Georgia in the future “absolutely irresponsible” and a “threat to peace,” the Associated Press reports.

“There is an unresolved territorial conflict … and would they bring such a country into the military alliance?” Medvedev said. “Do they understand the possible implications? It could provoke a horrible conflict.”

Russia Just Won Big In The European Gas War

 

There’s been a lot of talk on both sides of the Atlantic about the U.S. pivot and efforts at locking in natural as market share in Europe. Much of this comes amid President Donald Trump’s so-called American energy independence push as well as both U.S. and several EU members thrust to wean Europe off of geopolitically charged Russian gas.

In fact, Trump has pushed for U.S.-sourced LNG to become so much of the EU’s energy security that several European states, particularly Germany, have accused the president of playing energy geopolitics, cloaking American concern for European energy security under the guise and to the benefit of U.S. LNG producers.

Now, however, Trump and U.S. LNG exporters will have an even harder time convincing key EU members to offset overreliance on Russian piped gas with U.S. LNG.

Ukraine Gets Official NATO Status: Weighing Up the Pros and Cons

 

NATO has granted Ukraine the status of an aspirant country. Macedonia, Georgia, and Bosnia-Herzegovina have similar status. This means Kiev has been offered a real chance to make its dreams come true. The next step will be obtaining its Membership Action Plan (MAP), a set of criteria to meet before the country is allowed to join. It is tailored to each applicant country’s individual profile. This type of plan can be granted at any time; there is no need to wait for summits or ministry-level meetings. Macedonia and Bosnia-Herzegovina are aspirants with a MAP.

Last summer, Ukraine’s parliament (Rada) adopted a resolution recognizing full membership in NATO as a foreign policy goal. In 2008, NATO agreed that Ukraine and Georgia should become members at a future date.

NATO’s Northern Expansion (II)

 

BERLIN/BRUSSELS/STOCKHOLM(Own report) – Officially neutral Sweden can be considered a “de facto member” of NATO, a Swedish foreign policy expert confirmed in a new German foreign policy periodical. Last fall’s large maneuver in Sweden sent a clear “message” that the country’s neutrality has “de facto been suspended,” completely changing the entire military “map” of the Baltic region “to NATO’s advantage.” In fact, back already in the 1990s, Sweden had begun to build links to the western war alliance; crucial decisions had been taken already before the Ukraine conflict’s escalation and Crimea’s integration into the Russian Federation. The Bundeswehr is heavily involved in integrating the Swedish armed forces into NATO’s structures, focusing on naval cooperation. This cooperation is aiming at including the Swedish military into NATO’s naval operations. The cooperation of the naval forces is not limited to NATO’s framework, but may also be within that of the EU.

Russia deploying ballistic missiles to Baltic enclave: Lithuania

 

Lithuania on Monday accused Russia of deploying nuclear-capable ballistic missiles to its Kaliningrad exclave on the Baltic, as relations between Moscow and the West sink to post-Cold War lows.

Russia has previously sent Iskander missiles to Kaliningrad for drills, but Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite said that this time they were being deployed for a “permanent presence”.

WAR GAMES: Russia ‘secretly practised full-scale invasion of Europe with bombing raids on Germany during Vladimir Putin’s military drills’

This graphic shows the areas of the drills and what military forces were used

 

The terrifying Russian war drills were carried out in September and featured ground, sea and air forces as well as artillery and missile launches.

RUSSIA has practised a full-scale mock invasion of the West that includes capturing Baltic states, bombing Germany and invading neutral countries, it has been revealed.

The terrifying war drills were carried out in September and featured troops, artillery, tanks, missile attacks and naval and air force raids.

Russian News Agency RIA: It Will Become Clear That The Eastern European Countries’ Fear Towards Russia Is Not Unfounded; ‘Russia Is Preparing For War’

Zapad 2017 (Source: Sputniknews.com)

 

On September 21, 2017, Russian news agency RIA published an article, titled “The West Was Right To Fear ‘Zapad-2017, For Russia Is No Longer Nice,” by journalist Irina Alksnis. According to the author, the recent Russia-Belarus joint Zapad-2017 drills (September 14-20) reflect Russian military policy towards the West.[1] “Russia is preparing for war; it is preparing in earnest. And first and foremost, on the Western axis,” writes Alksnis.

The author adds that Eastern European countries understand that “the flamboyance and overtness” of Russia’s drills indicate that Moscow is guided by the classical principle “if you want peace, prepare for war”‘. However, Alksnis stresses: “The world also knows two Russian maxims: the classical one about the rifle hanging on the wall, and the modern one: ‘Russia will never again fight on its own territory’.”

Alksnis’ analysis dispenses with the usual Russian reaction to Western apprehension over growing Russian military might. This is not irrational panic, or an attempt to divert public attention but recognition that Russia has returned to the international arena as a dominant player and shed of its previous sentimentality. In other words Western fears prove the efficacy of Russia’s foreign and defense policies and should be viewed with satisfaction.

NATO on guard ahead of major Russian war games

 

NATO has put Moscow on notice that it will be keeping a close eye on a major military exercise with Belarus next week, in a region still on edge after Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014.

Similar drills in the past included a simulated invasion of Poland by tens of thousands of Russian troops culminating in a nuclear strike on Warsaw, and the coming show of force, codenamed “Zapad 2017” (West 2017) has sparked months of speculation and fears along NATO’s eastern flank.

Observers say that while there is little chance of Russia using the exercise as cover for an actual invasion, there are concerns about what troops and equipment it will leave behind afterwards.

NATO Beefs Up Logistics Infrastructure for Offensive Operations

 

Some very important news is kept out of spotlight and undeservedly so. Bits of information pieced together indicate that very quietly the North Atlantic alliance is gearing up for large-scale combat operations. War preparations are not limited to weapon systems deployments and troop movements that hit headlines. No combat can be waged without logistics.

Russian Military bombs ‘Enemy Submarine’ in Drills Near U.S. War Games

The Russian KA-27 is specially designed to detect and destroy enemy submarines, making it a formidable aircraft for NATO forces stationed near Russia’s military in the Baltic region. (MAIQUEL TORCATT/AFP/GETTY IMAGES)

 

Russian helicopters on Wednesday staged explosive exercises, destroying maritime targets in the already tense Baltic region, where the U.S. began its own multinational war games just one day earlier.

The Russian military deployed 10 Kamov KA-27 antisubmarine warfare helicopters from the naval aviation branch of its Baltic Fleet to participate in bombing a simulated hostile submarine off the coast of Kaliningrad, an exclave of Russian territory situated between Lithuania and Poland. Both of these countries, along with the Baltic states Latvia and Estonia, are part of the U.S.-led military alliance NATO, which on Tuesday launched a regional exercise called Tobruq Legacy 2017, involving multiple European allies of the U.S. As the rivalry between Russia and NATO heats up, both displayed the readiness and might of their respective armed forces.

After Poland, Lithuania Becomes U.S. LNG Buyer

 

Seeking to diversify its gas imports away from Russia’s giant Gazprom, Lithuania’s state-held gas trader Lietuvos Duju Tiekimas said on Monday that it had signed a deal with Cheniere Marketing International to buy LNG directly from the U.S., adding to the growing list of customers of America’s LNG cargoes.

The Lithuanian company expects to receive the first LNG cargo delivery in the second half of August.

A Giant Russian Exercise Will Soon Put 100,000 Troops on NATO’s Border. Then What?

Russian soldiers dressed in a new field uniform marched along the Red Square last month during the Victory Day military parade to celebrate 72 years since the end of WWII. (Yuri Kochetkov/AP)

 

As Russia and Belarus prep for their quadrennial fight-the-West wargame, NATO’s Baltic states are watching more than a bit nervously.

For the Baltic countries on NATO’s northeastern flank, carefully monitoring Russia’s various defense investments and activities is nothing new. Like brushing your teeth, it’s just a matter of staying healthy, Estonia’s defense minister told a small group of reporters while visiting the U.S. last week. Observing Russian military activity is that routine, “but we do it even more often,” he said.

Putin And Erdogan Drifting Away From The West

 

Political and economic developments in the European Union, Turkey and Russia are cumulatively aiding Russian President Vladimir Putin to become an ascending star in the international firmament. In an unexpected twist, the supporting actor in this dramatic ascent is Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a former staunch critic of the Kremlin in the Syrian civil war who is now aligned with Putin in hostility towards the EU.

The rise of right-wing populism in the EU – Brexit, improved performance by Geert Wilders’ Party for Freedom in the 15 March Dutch general election, and the lead position of the National Front’s Marine Le Pen in French opinion polls – is a contributory element. Another is the refugee crisis which has widened the base of Europe’s rightwing parties. Though less severe now than in 2015, the present quiescent state of the refugee crisis depends on Erdogan’s good will. By closing Turkish borders with neighboring Greece, he drastically reduced the refugee influx into the EU. Equally, he could reverse his decision and revive the crisis.