Russian South Stream 2.0 Comes Out of the Shadows

Source: Kommersant

 

Russia and Turkey have announced that the two countries have reached significant progress in reviving the November 2014-shut down South Stream gas pipeline intended to land Russian gas across the Black Sea. The project is the part of the already secured open tender contracts for purchases of gas signed between Gazprom, Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary, Slovakia and Austria.

The new Black Sea gas pipeline Turkish Stream will run under sea from Krasnodar to a landing hubv just west of Istanbul. On November 19, presidents Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan met in Istanbul to announce the completion of pipeline’s off-shore section.

From the Bundeswehr’s Areas of Operation (I)

BERLIN/PRISTINA (Own report) – The EU is discussing redrawing borders in Southeast Europe. The Kosovo leadership could thus cede control over its Serbian-speaking North to Belgrade, in exchange for the Albanian-speaking Preševo valley of Southern Serbia. Obviously backed by France, the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Federica Mogherini, is promoting this exchange, against Germany’s rejection. The plan, in fact, is redrawing borders in accordance with the ethnic criteria pursued by the German government in Southeast Europe, in particular during in the 1990s and early 2000s. After having been stationed in Kosovo for nearly 20 years, the Bundeswehr is preparing a major withdrawal. Its focus will now be on training and arming Kosovo’s armed forces, which have begun cooperating with NATO, while Kosovo’s population continues to languish in poverty, after nearly two decades of western occupation. It is the second poorest region in Europe. Only military cooperation with NATO is flourishing.

Poland’s US Military Base Is More About China Than Russia

Illustration Only

 

Poland is proposing to host a permanent US military base on its territory.

Poland wants to replace Germany as the US’ preferred partner in Europe, taking advantage of American distrust with Berlin over Nord Stream II and trade disagreements while capitalizing on the Pentagon’s desire to “contain” Russia, thus satisfying multiple strategic objectives at once. The Polish leadership believes that the region-wide “Three Seas Initiative” of 11 other Central and Eastern European states that it wants to lead is ideologically compatible with the Trump Administration’s anti-liberal populism and represents another strategic convergence with the US. Paradoxically, however, while Poland is striving to advance its national sovereignty, it’s nevertheless sacrificing it by wanting to host an American military base, which is why a deeper explanation of this proposal is necessary.

Berlin Calls for a “One-Europe Policy”

BERLIN/BEIJING (Own report) – Berlin sees China’s growing economic presence in the EU’s eastern periphery as an increasing threat to German predominance over Eastern and Southeastern Europe. During his visit to Paris at the end of August, German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel warned against the People’s Republic’s alleged “division of Europe.” Beijing’s cooperation with 16 Eastern and Southeastern European countries is threatening the EU’s “unity” and must be stopped. China should follow a “one-Europe policy.” German media and think tanks have been sharply criticizing Chinese economic activities in Eastern and Southeastern Europe since years. In a recent analysis, the Friedrich-Naumann Foundation (FDP) assailed the Czech government for signing a “declaration on the territorial integrity of the People’s Republic of China” in view of comprehensive Chinese investments in that country. Beijing has reacted to these attacks by pointing to Germany’s dominant status in the EU.

Trump Will Now Become the War President

President Trump has been defeated by the military/security complex and forced into continuing the orchestrated and dangerous tensions with Russia. Trump’s defeat has taught the Russians the lesson I have been trying to teach them for years, and that is that Russia is much more valuable to Washington as an enemy than as a friend.

The Limits of the Dictates

BERLIN/ATHENS/BELGRADE/BEIJING (Own report) – Berlin’s austerity dictate, ruthlessly imposed on Athens, is suffering its first blowbacks, weakening German hegemony over the EU. The China Ocean Shipping Company’s (COSCO) purchase of stakes in the Piraeus Port Authority, Athens had been forced to sell under pressure from Berlin and Brussels, is one example. COSCO, which had already acquired a small share in 2009, has been upgrading the port with investments in the three-digit millions. In the meantime, Piraeus has become Europe’s eighth largest port and is among the top 40 worldwide. Greece, which economically has been completely ruined by the austerity dictates, is hoping for more Chinese investments – and is no longer willing to participate in the EU’s routine official condemnation of China at the UN Human Rights Council. A similar development can be seen with Serbia. As part of its “Silk Road” initiative, China is planning to upgrade the rail line between Belgrade and Budapest. For the Serbian government, this offers hopes for a long term recovery. Brussels has now launched a probe into this project. According to experts, a policy based solely on austerity dictates and open pressure, as has been pursued by Berlin and the EU, can no longer be successful “in a multi-polar world.”

The Years of Terror (II)

BERLIN (Own report) – Following the recent terror attacks, international pressure has been mounting on a major supporter of global jihadism – Saudi Arabia, a close German ally. In London, leading politicians from the opposition are calling on the British government to finally publish an investigation of the – presumably Saudi – financiers of British jihadis. Protest against the western powers’ pact with the Saudi ruling clan is being raised also beyond Europe’s borders. The youth league of the world’s largest Islamic organization, the Indonesian Nahdlatul Ulama, for example, has published a declaration accusing the West of ignoring the direct correlation between the Saudi Salafist crusade “and the spread of terrorism worldwide.” For decades, Saudi Arabia has been promoting Salafi jihadi milieux throughout the world – partly in alliance with Germany, partly with Berlin’s de facto approval – significantly strengthening them in Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Sahel, North Africa, the Middle East and the European countries with Muslim populations, such as Kosovo, as well as in Southeast Asia – in Indonesia and in the Philippines. While milieux supported by Saudi Arabia have increased their terror also in Western Europe, Berlin is continuing its cooperation with Riyadh.

SCHENGEN LOCKDOWN: Hungary uses prisoners to build massive border fence to block migrants

Hungary are using prisoners to build another high-tech border fence [RT/Getty]

 

HUNGARY has used prison inmates to build a second line of fencing along its southern border with Serbia in another move to block immigration into the country.

The move is likely going to attract severe criticism from the country’s Schengen and European Union partners.

Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s right-wing government considers migration from the Middle East and Africa to be one of the largest threats to the European way of life.

The daunting new barrier is capable of delivering electric shocks to migrants attempting to scale the fence and is also armed with heat sensors, cameras and loudspeakers to further deter them.

Report: Communist front groups are staging ‘spontaneous’ anti-Trump protests

ANSWER Coalition demonstrators

 

Anti-Trump demonstrations painted by the major media as “spontaneous” are, in fact, “100 percent contrived, phony exhibitions of street theater” orchestrated in advance by pro-communist organizations, a report said.

One such group is the ANSWER Coalition (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism).

Established in 2001 by Ramsey Clark’s International Action Center, ANSWER is staffed in large part by members of the Marxist-Leninist Workers World Party, according to Frontpage Mag.

World War 3 Update: Serbia Permits Russia to Deploy Military Measures, NATO Worried

 

While World War 3 speculations seem to indicate the deterioration in Europe and Russia relations, an invite from Serbia to Russian military authorities for moving “lethal devices” in the country indicates something different.

Russia Launches Drills in Serbia as NATO Tensions Increase

Please see the source for the video.

 

Russia and Belarus are to send troops for a week-long military drill in Serbia for the second time this year, the Serbian Ministry of Defense has announced.

The drill, entitled the Slavic Fraternity, will involve the deployment of paratroopers across several locations, including in the outskirts of the capital city of Belgrade. The exercise will engage 212 Russian troops, 56 Belarusian troops and 450 troops from the host country Serbia.

Germany’s War Record (I)

BERLIN/PRIŠTINA (Own report) – Around 17 years after NATO’s war against Yugoslavia and the beginning of the occupation of Kosovo with German participation, observers note that the de-facto protectorate is in a desolate political, economic and social condition. The first war in which the Federal Republic of Germany played an important role has had catastrophic consequences. De facto under EU control, Priština’s ruling elite is accused of having close ties to organized crime and having committed the most serious war crimes. Its rampant corruption is spreading frustrated resignation within the population. Thirty-four percent of the population is living in absolute – and twelve percent in extreme – poverty, healthcare is deplorable, life expectancy is five years less than that of its neighboring countries and ten years below the EU’s average. A report commissioned by the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF), describes the horrifying human rights situation, which includes vendettas “constantly carried out” with firearms. (This is part 1 of a german-foreign-policy.com series, reporting on consequences of German military interventions over the past two decades, in light of the German government’s announcement of plans to increase its “global” – including military – interventions.)

REVEALED: 10 bombshells the EU is hiding until AFTER the referendum

As the UK gears up for a historic vote on whether to leave the EU in just nine days, it has been claimed that a series of bizarre and costly decisions are being shelved until after the poll.

The issues have been highlighted by MEP Daniel Hannan, author of Why Vote Leave, and detail weird and occasionally sinister proposals, which have apparently been put on the back burner until after the vote.

Migrants linked to 69,000 would-be or actual crimes in Germany in first three months of 2016: police

BERLIN (Reuters) – Migrants in Germany committed or tried to commit some 69,000 crimes in the first quarter of 2016, according to a police report that could raise unease, especially among anti-immigrant groups, about Chancellor Angela Merkel’s liberal migrant policy.

There was a record influx of more than a million migrants into Germany last year and concerns are now widespread about how Europe’s largest economy will manage to integrate them and ensure security.

Bomb-sniffing dog discovers 2 Hellfire missiles bound for Portland

Being that missiles don’t normally get packed in wooden coffins, let alone non-military planes, we could be likely looking at terrorist plans to attack America from the inside.

 

BELGRADE, Serbia — Serbia’s authorities are investigating reports that a cargo package bound for Portland contained two missiles with explosive warheads on a passenger flight from Lebanon.

N1 television said the package with two guided armor-piercing missiles was discovered Saturday by a sniffer dog after an Air Serbia flight from Beirut landed at a Belgrade airport.