Russia’s reserves of the U.S. dollar have been on the wane as of late. Russia isn’t investing American currencies or American debt, but is choosing to put its money into something with a more diverse portfolio of uses, like gold, for instance. Russia’s reserves of U.S. dollars are down to $14.9 billion in May from $96.1 billion in March, while increasing its gold reserves by over 100 tons since the beginning of the year.
According to a member of the German Parliament, the failure of the German and British intelligence to produce evidence that Russia was responsible for the Skripal poisonings demonstrates that they really don’t have any such evidence.
Around the time Trump announced the United States’s withdrawal from the Iranian nuclear non proliferation agreement, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Bolton was pushing this idea of a kind of ‘Arab NATO’ type of alliance, to take America’s place in the Middle East. Trump has been touting the idea of withdrawing American troops from the region, but that wouldn’t suit Washington’s agenda over there, and could result in the return of some degree of stability, and that just can’t be allowed. So, enter the Bolton factor.
After being released from detention in Germany on a Spanish arrest warrant, the deposed Catalonian President, Carles Puigdemont, announced that he was going to continue to pursue the cause of Catalonia’s independence. Puigdemont made the statement at a joint press conference in Waterloo, the site of Napoleon’s 1815 defeat, and from where the cause for Catalonia’s independence will be orchestrated through a ‘Republican Council’, which he says that he is going to organize. Much of Puigdemont’s political activism will take place from Belgium.
In its mission to further develop a growing alliance to fend off the Russian aggression threat, NATO is officially engaging in talks with Macedonia. Following Crimea’s ‘annexation’ by Russia, Russia is perceived as a very grave threat by some European nations which seem to fear something like that happening to them. A High NATO Delegation has taken place in Skopje, headed up by the leader of the Euro-Atlantic & Global Partnership office of NATO.
The Russian Navy has picked some new hardware this year, with three new advanced warship and nearly 50 Kalibr cruise missiles, and four anti-ship missiles during the first half of 2018. Kalibr cruise missiles cruise at subsonic speeds and some of them can hit targets at supersonic speeds, giving defensive systems no opportunity for defensive reactions. Additionally, the Russian Navy expects to add six more project 22350 frigates into service by 2025.
RT reports:
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Johannesburg, South Africa for bilateral talks. Most recently the met during the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit in Qingdao, China, back in June, and before that in Sochi back in May, where the Russia India relationship was deemed a ‘special privileged strategic partnership’. Modi arrived at the summit on Wednesday. BRICS consists of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, and this year’s summit is symbolically taking place in South Africa.
Nikki Haley, the US Ambassador to the United Nations, has a long history of opposing Palestine at the UN, whether in the General Assembly or through the Security Council, and of supporting Israel’s lethal actions against Palestinians on the Gaza Strip, most notably during the recent massacres which took place during the Great March of Return, during which many dozens were killed and thousands more i
The European Union’s European Commission head, Jean-Claude Juncker, flew to Washington to have a sit down with US President Donald Trump about the tense trade situation between the traditional allies and trade partners. Trump’s tariffs programme might have been billed as a national security precaution, but that’s just how he managed to get it by Congress. The rhetoric surrounding Trump’s trade policy as it relates to the EU had to do with negotiating ‘better’ deals, because the current ones just aren’t good enough for America.
The US federal government has unveiled a new plan to subsidize American farmers whose business plans just don’t factor current market conditions. The federal handouts are expressed as being in the multiple billions in a plan that is being implemented not in the case of some natural disaster, but in the interest of remunerating farmers for changes in the demand for their products. But farmers are saying that they don’t want a bailout, but rather that they are more interested in extensive market stability.
