Though told by the Eurovision Song Contest organisers that Ukraine risks being banned from future competitions, and despite rumours that some participants are now considering boycotting the forthcoming Contest in Kiev unless Ukraine changes its stance, Ukraine still refuses to grant a visa to Russian contestant Yulia Samoilova to attend this year’s Contest.
The Russian navy will shortly receive Kazan, the second in class of the Yasen series of nuclear submarines, which has just been launched by the giant Sevmash shipyard in the northern port city of Severodvinsk in Arkhangelsk region.
Russia has released this video of Kazan’s launch, which gives a sense of the sheer size of this submarine
It has become increasingly clear over the last two weeks that the amateur sleuths who are driving Russiagate are taking the Trump Dossier prepared by the British ex-MI6 officer Christopher Steele as their starting point.
This is despite the fact that the Trump Dossier is still “uncorroborated”, and has been trashed by seasoned intelligence professionals like former CIA Acting Assistant Director Michael Morell.
The only document which NATO members violate more frequently than the Charter of the United Nations, is the NATO Charter itself.
NATO is supposed to be a defensive alliance, but recent years have shown it to be an aggressive organisation which has famously targeted two states which neither threatened nor bordered any NATO member. Furthermore, they didn’t threaten anyone else, NATO member nor otherwise. The two countries in question are of course Yugoslavia in 1999 and Libya in 2011.
The High Court in London this morning granted Russia’s request for an expedited hearing (ie. summary Judgment) of its claim against Ukraine arising from Ukraine’s non-payment of the $3 billion loan Ukraine owes Russia.
In recent weeks criticism of Crowdstrike – the IT company that has attributed the Podesta and DNC hacks to Russia – has been mounting.
Dear WADA President Sir Craig Reedie and Executive Committee,
Dear IOC President Thomas Bach and Executive Committee,
I hope you will persevere and overcome the differences and disagreements between WADA and the International Olympic Committee and Russia. Many people around the world were displeased with the controversy last summer. The contentious situation and mutual accusations distracted from the Rio Olympics, reduced attendance and appeared to undermine the goals of the Olympic Charter against national discrimination.
Alexey Navalny, the organiser of yesterday’s unsanctioned protest in Moscow, and the person who called the protests elsewhere in Russia, has now been convicted by a Moscow court of organising an unsanctioned protest and has been ordered to pay a $350 fine.
The British government is now lobbying hard on behalf of Britain’s intelligence agencies, demanding that they be put in a position of being able to read encrypted messaging provided by platforms like WhatsApp.
Some sections of the international media including RT, Russia’s publicly funded international TV broadcaster, are reporting today that Moscow and Russia has been hit by a “wave of protests”.
Here is a detailed description of the Moscow protest by The Duran’s Vladimir Rodzianko, who went to see what was happening for himself (photographs and video provided).
