Venezuela Has 20 Tons of Gold Ready to Ship. Address Unknown

Venezuela Has 20 Tons of Gold Ready to Ship. Address Unknown (Yahoo!)

 

(Bloomberg) — Venezuelan lawmaker Jose Guerra dropped a bombshell on Twitter Tuesday: The Russian Boeing 777 that had landed in Caracas the day before was there to spirit away 20 tons of gold from the vaults of the country’s central bank.

The claim set off a welter of social media speculation and outrage. When asked how he knew this, Guerra provided no evidence.

US Threatens To “Take Out Russia’s Nukes” If Needed

FILE IMAGE: Sputnik / Sergey Pyatakov

 

The US would work on options to “take out” new Russian missiles if they become operational, US Ambassador to NATO Kay Bailey Hutchison stated accusing Russia of violating the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) treaty during an October 2 press briefing.

Russia argues the Marine Corps’ beefed-up presence in Norway is an attack

A Marine with Marine Rotational Force-Europe 18.1 sends live rounds down range while conducting a squad attack during winter warfare training at Haltdalen Training Center, Norway, April 18, 2018. (Gunnery Sgt. Clinton Firstbrook/Marine Corps)

 

Last week, the Russian Embassy in Norway warned of consequences and on Friday, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova claimed the Corps’ presence in the Arctic country may, in fact, be an attack.

Norway recently agreed to boost the number of Marines in the country from 330 to 700 and opened a second training area closer to the Russian border in the Troms region.

‘Don’t threaten a NUCLEAR power’: Putin REJECTS British ultimatum on Russian spy attack

Putin’s envoys in the UK have refused to respond to Britain’s ultimatum over the Russian spy attack (Getty-EPA)

 

VLADIMIR Putin’s envoys in the UK have refused to respond to Britain’s ultimatum over the chemical attack on former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury. In a statement on Twitter the Russian embassy threaten retaliation if Theresa May was to respond with “punitive measures”.

Theresa May earlier issued Russian President Vladimir Putin  24 hours to respond to claims that Russia was “highly likely” behind the attempted murder of Mr Skripal and his daughter Yulia.

The ultimatum has sparked World War 3 fears as Whitehall sources revealed the Prime Minister could launch a cyber attack on Russia in the wake of recent events.

Russia Has A “Surprise” Planned For US If It Bans RT, Sputnik Ads

 

A day after certain members of the Senate Intelligence committee expressed their profound disappointment with Facebook, Twitter and Google for appearing to blow off lawmakers’ concerns about a “sophisticated” Russia-backed propaganda campaign purportedly being carried out on their platforms, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova is hitting back, warning that Russia has “a surprise” response planned if US lawmakers overtly ban Russia Today and Sputnik from running advertisements on twitter and other US social media platforms.

Moscow Furious Over US Plan To Search Russia Trade Mission, Calls It “Unprecedented Aggressive Action”

 

Yesterday, the San Francisco fire department scrambled a team of firefighters to the city’s Russian consulate (scheduled to be vacated today in the latest tit-for-tat diplomatic escalation between the US and Russia) following reports of “blowing smoke” emerging from the building, only to learn that the Russians were engaged in what appears to have been some last minute confidential document “redaction.”

Maria Zakharova, the spokeswoman for the Russian foreign ministry, explained that the smoke was part of a “mothballing” according to Reuters.

“In relation to this, the windows could be closed, the light could be turned off, the water could be drained out, the heating appliances could be turned off, the garbage could be thrown away, essential services could be turned off and many other things.”

Russia threatens to shoot down missiles test-fired by Ukraine

Russia’s air defense network on the Ukrainian border was placed on its highest level of alert on Wednesday evening following Ukraine’s announcement that it will conduct missile tests on Thursday and Friday near Crimea, an area that Russia annexed in 2014. Kiev claimed that the missiles are to be launched towards the Black Sea, west of Crimea.

Russia Threatens Retaliation If Washington Engages In “State Cyberterrorism”

In the latest startling revelation that the US and Russia are ever closer to a state of, if not “kinetic”, then certainly cyberwar, overnight NBC reported that U.S. military hackers had penetrated Russia’s electric grid, telecommunications networks and the Kremlin’s command systems, making them vulnerable to attack by secret American cyber weapons should the U.S. deem it necessary. As noted earlier, American officials have long accused Russia, China and other nations of probed probing and leaving hidden malware on parts of U.S critical infrastructure, “preparing the battlefield,” in military parlance, for cyber attacks that could turn out the lights or turn off the internet across major cities.

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In any case, Russia responded to the report, and said that it expects Washington to provide an explanation if it is indeed true that Pentagon hackers have penetrated Russia’s power grids, telecommunications networks, and the Kremlin’s command systems for a possible sabotage.

Russia warns against US attack on Syrian forces

BEIRUT (AP) — Russia warned the United States Saturday against carrying out any attacks on Syrian government forces, saying it would have repercussions across the Middle East as government forces captured a hill on the edge of the northern city of Aleppo under the cover of airstrikes.

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Russian news agencies quoted Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova as saying that a U.S. intervention against the Syrian army “will lead to terrible, tectonic consequences not only on the territory of this country but also in the region on the whole.”

Russian FSB guard attacked U.S. diplomat outside Moscow embassy

In 2013, U.S. diplomat Ryan C. Fogel was briefly detained by the Russian security services and then ordered to leave the country . (Handout/Reuters)

 

In the early morning of June 6, a uniformed Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) guard stationed outside the U.S. Embassy in Moscow attacked and beat up a U.S. diplomat who was trying to enter the compound, according to four U.S. officials who were briefed on the incident.

This previously unreported attack occurred just steps from the entrance to the U.S. Embassy complex, which is located in the Presnensky District in Moscow’s city center. After being tackled by the FSB guard, the diplomat suffered a broken shoulder, among other injuries. He was eventually able to enter the embassy and was then flown out of Russia to receive urgent medical attention, administration officials confirmed to me. He remains outside of Russia.

The attack caused a diplomatic episode behind the scenes that has not surfaced until now. The State Department in Washington called in Russian Ambassador Sergey I. Kislyak to complain about the incident, an administration official said.

Russia Speaks of Nuclear War as U.S. Opens Missile Defense System

MOSCOW — As American and allied officials celebrated the opening of a long-awaited missile defense system in Europe with a ribbon cutting and a band, the reaction in Moscow on Thursday was darker: a public discussion of how nuclear war might play out in Europe and the prospect that Romania, the host nation for the United States-built system, might be reduced to “smoking ruins.”

“We have been saying right from when this story started that our experts are convinced that the deployment of the ABM system poses a certain threat to the Russian Federation,” the Kremlin spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, told reporters in a conference call.

Renowned Russian Intellectual Fyodor Lukyanov On Valdai Discussion Club Website: ‘The End Of The G8 Era: Russia Does Not Need Western Hierarchy’

On April 12, 2016, the website of the pro-Kremlin think tank Valdai Discussion Club published an article by Fyodor Lukyanov, academic director of the Valdai Discussion Club, chairman of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, and editor-in-chief of the Russia in Global Affairs journal. In his article, titled “The End of the G8 Era: Russia Does Not Need Western Hierarchy,” Lukyanov argues that there is no reason to revive the G8 after Russia’s 2014 suspension from it following the Russian annexation of Crimea. Noting that “the G8 reflected a certain period of history when Russia really wanted to be integrated into the so-called Extended West,” he adds that since Russia’s suspension from the G8, it has become clear that Russia does not “fit into the Western community.”