A major Russian daily newspaper on Friday revealed a classified incident wherein a Russian battleship located and tracked a 'stealth' US nuclear powered submarine.

It reportedly took place last April, near in time to when the US, UK, and France launched massive strikes from air and sea on targets in and around Damascus in response to the alleged government chemical attack on Douma.

The popular Russian-language daily Izvestia newspaper revealed the story, citing a source in the Russian Navy. While not itself state-owned, the historic newspaper was in the past owned by Gazprom prior to being sold, and has long had close ties to the government.

Currently it's impossible to independently verify the claims, but if true, it would be of monumental importance as it follows recent statements by Pentagon officials sounding the alarm over the rapid pace of Russian and Chinese advances in defense technology, including things like hypersonic weapons.

The United States rejected a Russian offer to include mutual assurances of non-interference in polls from a proposed joint declaration at the Helsinki summit, media said.

Russia suggested adding a clause that would call cyberattacks on critical infrastructure – power grids, water pumps, banks and hospitals – unacceptable, three Russian and US officials told the Kommersant newspaper.

Sources said Moscow had proposed "joint measures to prevent the use of cyberspace to destabilize internal political processes, including elections." The United States initially agreed to sign the joint declaration but then rowed back on it.

The June 2016 Trump Tower meeting between high-ranking members of the Republican presidential campaign staff and a Russian lawyer with Kremlin ties remains the cornerstone of claims that Donald Trump colluded with Russia to steal the election.

A growing body of evidence, however, indicates that the meeting may have been a setup -- part of a broad effort to tarnish the Trump campaign involving Hillary Clinton operatives employed by Kremlin-linked figures and Department of Justice officials. This view, that the real collusion may have taken place among those who arranged the meeting rather than the Trump officials who agreed to attend it, is supported by two disparate lines of evidence pulled together for the first time here: newly released records and a pattern of efforts to connect the Trump campaign to Russia.

In the Lithuanian city of Kazlu Ruda, the construction of the first NATO-standardized air force training polygon in the Baltic region is nearing completion, the press service of the Lithuanian Ministry of Defense has announced.

The polygon will be located about 60 kilometers from the border with Russia and has the explicit mission of “contributing to the NATO policy of deterring Russia.” In it, military aircraft will be able to practice attacks against land targets. In addition, the structure will be used for the training of military pilots.

The construction of the polygon began in 2017 and its end is scheduled for the last quarter of this year. The project is being developed with the help of the US Air Force engineering unit, RED HORSE. Construction funding comes from the European Security Guarantees Initiative (ERI).

The United States will not obligate any funds to implement the Open Skies Treaty until penalties are imposed against Russia for previous violations, the 2019 NDAA revealed.

"None of the funds authorized to be appropriated by this Act… may be obligated or expended to carry out any activities to modify any United States aircraft for purposes of implementing the Open Skies Treaty," the legislation said on Monday.

The Russian military is inside hundreds of thousands of routers owned by Americans and others around the world, a top U.S. cybersecurity official said on Friday. The presence of Russian malware on the routers, first revealed in May, could enable the Kremlin to steal individuals’ data or enlist their devices in a massive attack intended to disrupt global economic activity or target institutions.

On May 27, Justice Department officials asked Americans to reboot their routers to stop the attack. Afterwards, the world largely forgot about it. That’s a mistake, said Rob Joyce, senior advisor to the director of the National Security Agency and the former White House cybersecurity coordinator.

“The Russian malware is still there,” said Joyce.

Stock market go down? Blame Mr. Putin and Russia. Pension fund problems? Blame Mr. Putin and Russia. Having problems finding that missing $50,000,000,000,000 that you set aside? Blame Mr. Putin and Russia. Can't get reach customer non-service in India? Blame Mr. Putin and Russia. Flat tire? Blame Mr. Putin and Russia. Didn't get the grades from your professors you wanted? Blame Mr. Putin and Russia. Wrong person elected to the local animal shelter control board? Blame Mr. Putin and Russia. Spies didn't die when you laced their house with nerve agents? Blame Mr. Putin and Russia. (The last one is particularly useful, for it gives you the excuse to impose more sanctions.)

The new round of sanctions this week unleashed by the United States on Russia has only one meaning: the US rulers want to crush Russia’s economy. By any definition, Washington is, in effect, declaring war on Russia.

The implemented economic measures may have a seemingly abstract or sterile quality about them: banning electronic exports to Russia, rattling financial markets, stock prices falling. But the material consequence is that American officials are intending to inflict physical damage on Russian society and Russian people.

It’s economic warfare on a sliding scale to military warfare, as the Prussian General Karl von Clausewitz would no doubt appreciate.

It seems all the more significant that this week also saw US internet services launching a major clampdown on anti-war websites, suggesting that the powers-that-be want to shut down any criticism or public awareness of their reckless warmongering.

Senate Democrats are circulating a proposal based upon their claim of Russian hacking that will completely takeover the internet and social media which has been leaked.

They are adopting the EU approach to silence political criticism. They claim it is necessary, just as the EU argued, that they must act to prevent Russian hackers and “restore” the people’s trust in our institutions, democracy, and the free press. They are proposing comprehensive GDPR-like data protection legislation following the EU.

They are calling it a proposal for “Regulation of Social Media and Technology Firms,” and the draft was created by Sen. Mark Warner.

The allegations, voiced by some US politicians, that Russia had a role in last year's violent clashes in the US city of Charlottesville, are absurd just like other US claims that Moscow had meddled in Washington's domestic affairs, the Russian embassy in the United States said.

Rep. Tom Garrett, the US lawmaker from the Republican Party, told the CNN broadcaster on Saturday, that he was told at a recent briefing with the FBI chief, Christopher Wray, that Russia’s interference had had to do with "fomenting the flames of what happened in Charlottesville."

An investigation into Ukrainian and Israeli armaments show a deep connection between the Zionist entity and the Nazi-Banderist Battalion, that is also now part of the police forces of the oligarchic and pro-Atlanticist regime of Kiev.

Resulting from Russia’s declaration that it would be establishing eight militarized outposts along the de facto Syria-Israel border, the UN has been prodded into action, and is re-engaging its own responsibilities to monitor the region. The UN previously was unable to perform, due to pressure from the US, Israel, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia chiefly, to pressure the UN not to guard the demilitarized zone.

The result of a lacking UN presence was that the area was more easily used by Israel to provide safe harbor, arms, equipment, and medical care to Al-Qaeda and ISIS groups, under these and several related brands. Russia has been looking for a solution ever since. With the US’s waning influence in the region, and significantly reduced force projection capacity, we entered into a new period.

Russia will further decrease its holdings of U.S. securities in response to new sanctions against Moscow but has no plans to shut down U.S. companies in Russia, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said on state TV on Sunday, RIA news agency reported.

First US President Donald Trump meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki and appears to make some progress towards his stated goal of putting ties between Washington and Moscow on a positive course. Immediately, all hell breaks loose. Trump is a called a traitor. The “sanctions bill from hell” is introduced in the Senate. Trump is forced on the defensive.

Next Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky visits Moscow, where he meets with Putin and gives him a letter from Trump proposing moderate steps towards rapprochement. Paul also talks with Russian Senators and invites them to come to Washington to continue the dialogue. Immediately, all hell breaks loose. Paul is called a traitor. The State Department “finds” the Russians guilty of the using illegal chemical weapons (CW) in the United Kingdom and imposes sanctions. Trump is forced even more on the defensive.

Relations between the US and Turkey — a key American ally and home to NATO’s second-largest army — hit a new low on Friday, with the presidents of both countries rhetorically declaring economic war on each other. And over the course of a single day, the Turkish lira lost 17 percent of its value.

Within hours, early signs of panic spread to world financial markets. A European currency trader, who asked that his name not be published, told WhoWhatWhy on Sunday that he had never seen so much trade and volatility over a weekend, blaming it on the Turkey events.

Moscow will continue selling off its holdings of US Treasury securities in response to the new penalties Washington is ready to introduce against Russia in the near future, according to Russia’s Finance Minister Anton Siluanov.
The minister added that the government will stick to the plan of moving away from the US dollar for international trade, as it recently proved to be a “risky” payment method.

“I do not rule it out,” Siluanov said in an interview with Rossiya 1 TV channel. “We have significantly reduced our investment in US assets. In fact, the dollar, which is considered to be the international currency, becomes a risky tool for payments.”

In 2010, Russia was among the top-10 holders of US debt at over $176 billion. With several rounds of US sanctions targeting Russia since 2014, Moscow began selling off its holdings to below $100 billion by October 2017.

But as bad as the Trump Tower meeting was, it took place at the request of the Russians. They were the ones who approached the Trump campaign, not the other way around.

By contrast, the Clinton campaign proactively sought dirt on Trump from Russian government sources.

They did it through cutouts. In April 2016, Clinton campaign lawyer Marc Elias retained opposition research firm Fusion GPS to compile incriminating information on Trump. Fusion GPS in turn hired Christopher Steele, a former British MI6 operative with sources among Russian government officials. The result was the salacious dossier, whose sources included “a senior Russian Foreign Ministry figure” and “a former top level intelligence officer still active in the Kremlin.” Steele’s work was paid for by Clinton’s presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee. That means a paid agent of the Clinton campaign approached Russian officials for damaging material on Trump.

Russian state-owned RT News translated sections of the exclusive Izvestia story, and describes the claimed April incident as follows:

The frigate Admiral Essen of the Russian Black Sea Fleet managed to track down one of the Ohio-class submarines currently in service with the US Navy, Izvestia newspaper revealed on Friday, citing a source in the Russian Navy. The Russian ship left Sevastopol, a major Black Sea port located on the Crimean Peninsula, on March 13 and returned on June 30. The frigate was deployed most of the time in the Mediterranean Sea.

RT touts the claimed success of the operation, echoing military sources, as follows:

The pursuit lasted more than two hours, during which the Russian ship recorded the basic parameters of the American submarine, which will be deciphered and added to the acoustic characteristics of the submarine...

Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hit back Saturday at US "threats" over detained American pastor Brunson which has escalated tensions between the two NATO allies, sent the Turkish currency into a historic nosedive on Friday and crashed Turkish capital markets.

"It is wrong to dare bring Turkey to its knees through threats over a pastor," Erdogan lashed out during a rally in the Black Sea town of Unye.

"I am calling on those in America again. Shame on you, shame on you. You are exchanging your strategic partner in NATO for a priest."

"They are threatening us. You cannot tame our people with threats" but perhaps a collapse in the stock market will suffice: the Turkish lira crashed as much as 20% against the dollar on Friday, its biggest drop on record, after President Trump announced he would double steel and aluminium tariffs on Turkey, adding to pressure to Turkey's troubled economy. The White House has said the newly-imposed sanctions would take effect from August 13.

The Russian Embassy in the United Kingdom slammed anti-Russia rhetoric by UK Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson, saying that his statements are aimed at justifying expansion of NATO states’ defense budgets.

Earlier in the week, Williamson, in his address at the Atlantic Council, accused Moscow of aggression, cyberattacks and the political sabotage.

"An unusually belligerent rhetoric of Gavin Williamson … sheds light on the true motives behind the forced increase in spending by NATO countries, expected to reach $1.26 trillion in 2018," the embassy’s spokesperson said on Friday.

The Russian military operation in Syria is nearing the end of its third year. Since 2015, Moscow has been employing its air power, military advisors and diplomatic resources to defeat a multitude of terrorist groups, to support the legitimate Syrian government, and to promote a peaceful dialogue across the country, thereby creating the framework for a diplomatic settlement of the conflict on the international and regional levels.

A group of United Nations experts have produced a figure which puts a price tag on seven years of war in Syria in terms of overall destruction to the country: nearly $400 billion.

The UN just concluded a two day meeting of over 50 Syrian and international experts in Lebanon who met under the aegis of the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA).

According to the AFP, the group of economic analysts concluded that the "volume of destruction in physical capital and its sectoral distribution" is estimated at more than $388 billion (334 billion euros).

It started with Hillary Clinton floating out the big lie, that 17 US intelligence agencies are “confident” that Russia hacked DNC servers and John Podesta email accounts, in a Kremlin plot to elect Donald Trump as President of the United States.

Fast forward two years later and witness Silicon Valley tech giants colluding in a span of 12 hours to de-platform Infowars and Alex Jones.

These are not isolated incidences. The one gave us the other.

The Deep State’s chosen candidate, Hillary Clinton, lost to the ultimate outsider, Donald Trump. All eyes, and all lies, turned to the perennial scapegoat Russia.

This time the elitist plan was more sinister than ever. Why let a good lie like ‘Russia election meddling’ go to waste?

Wednesday was a day of mixed signals coming to Russia from the US. Hours apart, the Kremlin got two letters, one calling for closer ties and one notifiying more trade sanctions, imposed on what Moscow sees as a flimsy pretext.
A letter was brought to Moscow by Senator Rand Paul. In it, President Donald Trump reportedly suggested to President Vladimir Putin that the US and Russia should engage on issues like terrorism, legislative dialogue and cultural exchanges. Trump loves nice letters, for sure.

You can always count on the neocons in Congress to ignore reality, ignore evidence, and ignore common sense in their endless drive to get us involved in another war. Last week, for example, Senators John McCain (R-AZ), Lindsey Graham (R-NC), Bob Menendez (D-NJ), and others joined up to introduce what Senator Graham called “the sanctions bill from hell,” aimed at applying “crushing” sanctions on Russia.

Senator Graham bragged that the bill would include “everything but the kitchen sink” in its attempt to ratchet up tensions with Russia.

US and British navies could counter Russia’s nuclear-powered autonomous torpedo, Poseidon, by using undersea sensors and anti-submarine aircraft, writes Covert Shores website. But is this really a viable tactic?

The development of the Poseidon unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV), originally known as ‘Status-6’, was first mentioned in November 2015. Western media later dubbed the submarine drone a doomsday weapon.

A proposed "crushing" bipartisan bill introduced by the US Senate on August 2 will not be debated until the autumn and many of the harsh terms could be considerably watered down, Luis Saenz, the co-head of equities at BCS Global Markets said in reaction to the latest round of blows between the two rivals.

A bill was presented that targets Russian debt and energy companies, designed to punish Russia for interfering in the US presidential election, that includes penalties on debt and energy projects as well as requiring a second “Kremlin Report” detailing president Vladimir Putin's wealth. The co-sponsors are three Republicans, including Arizona’s John McCain, and three Democrats.

The United States Department of Justice would apparently have you believe that the Kremlin sought to subvert the five-million-member strong National Rifle Association (NRA) by having two Russian citizens take out life memberships in the organization with the intention of corrupting it and turning it into a mouthpiece for President Vladimir Putin.

Both of the Russians – Maria Butina and Alexander Torshin – have, by the way, long well documented histories as advocates for gun ownership and were founders of Right to Bear Arms, which is not an intelligence front organization of some kind and is rather a genuine lobbying group with an active membership and agenda.

Contrary to what has been reported in the mainstream media, Russians can own guns but the licensing and registration procedures are long and complicated, which Right to Bear Arms, modeling itself on the NRA, is seeking to change.

The US has imposed a new round of sanctions on Russia over the Skripal poisoning in Britain, despite the absence to date of evidence. This follows the reimposition of Iran sanctions following Trump’s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal. The sanctions will further bleed the targeted countries, but could they backfire?

In the third serious flare-up of violence in the last month, a major escalation began between Israel and Hamas militants in Gaza overnight, which involved approximately 180 projectiles fired towards Israeli territory, and more than 150 Israeli airstrikes on targets inside Gaza, according to statements by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF).

Reports citing Israeli sources say of about 180 projectiles launched from Gaza overnight, the Iron Dome defense system intercepted over 30, while most hit open fields. However, official statements also noted strikes on playgrounds, houses, cars, and factories.

The BBC reports up to seven Israeli civilians wounded by the rocket and mortar fire, with Palestinian health officials confirming the death of a pregnant Palestinian woman and a toddler. The AFP identified the victims as 23-year old Enas Khammash and her 18-month-old daughter Bayan, killed in the Jafarawi area of central Gaza.

Russia has threatened to ban sales of a key rocket engine to the United States in response to new sanctions over the Skripal poisoning.

Sergei Ryabukhin, head of the budget committee in the upper house of parliament, called the measures announced by the state department late on Wednesday the “most obnoxious and cynical behaviour on the market” and said Russia has the means to respond if leader Vladimir Putin wishes to do so.

“The United States needs to finally understand that it's useless to fight with Russia, including with the help of sanctions,” he said.

He said Russia could in particular stop exports to the United States of the RD-180 rocket engine, which powers the first stage of the Atlas 5 rocket made by Boeing and Lockheed Martin.

If he accepts the Senate’s request to testify, Julian Assange may provide evidence that would upend allegations that Russia hacked the DNC, putting to rest two years of Russiagate hysteria, journalist Patrick Henningsen told RT.
The WikiLeaks founder should “absolutely” agree to speak with the US Senate Intelligence Committee – but his testimony may cause problems for devout followers of Russiagate’s main tenets, according to Henningsen, executive editor of 21st Century Wire. Assange could in fact provide information to the committee that would “destroy the sort of mainline conspiracy theory that the Russians hacked the DNC servers and stole the emails and handed them to WikiLeaks. The whole Russiagate case more or less hinges on that conspiracy theory.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has addressed the most recent round of sanctions introduced by the US against Moscow.

"We consider the link between the sanctions introduced by the US and the Skripal case to be unacceptable," Peskov told journalists, adding that Moscow one more time denied "any accusations of Russia's engagement in the Salisbury incident."

According to the official, the possibility of Russia having used chemical weapons was "out of the question." Peskov harshly criticized London's approach, repeating that the UK refuses to present any evidence or at least share any information on the matter.

German soldiers with the 391st Mechanized Infantry Battalion provided fire support during a combined Georgian Special Forces Exercise in Waziani Training Area, Georgia August 5, 2018.

Germany joined 12 other nations participating in Operation Noble Partner 18, an exercise where both should enhance the ability of participating nations to conduct multinational mission leadership, integration, execution and synchronization.

As the new commander of US Submarine Forces took the reins Friday, he stressed that America will continue to dominate beneath the waves.

Vice Adm. Charles A. Richard relieved Vice Adm. Joseph E. Tofalo as head of US Submarine Forces and Allied Submarine Command Friday at a ceremony aboard the Virginia-class attack submarine USS Washington, according to a Navy release.

"The mission of our Submarine Force today is clear," Richard said. "We are back in a world in the midst of major power competition. In that competition our strength undersea is a key advantage that we have. That will not change on my watch. With so much at stake, we cannot let up and must execute our mission with a continued sense of urgency."

Rick Gates, Paul Manafort's longtime business partner, took the witness stand in Manafort's financial crimes trial for the second time on Tuesday, this time revealing that the former Trump campaign chair had worked on policies to help bring Ukraine closer to the European Union.

According to Vice News, on the stand, Gates moved away from offering details on alleged financial crimes the two committed in their heyday and instead shed some light on Manafort's work as a campaign consultant for former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych in 2010.

Gates claimed that Manafort had signed an annual $4 million advisory agreement to give life to campaign pledges that Yanukovych had campaigned on. One of the policies that Manafort was reportedly working on was called "Engage Ukraine," a project meant to push Ukraine into the European Union, Vice reported.

As Georgia and its supporters mark the tenth anniversary of Russia’s invasion, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev warned Tuesday that any move by NATO to admit the former Soviet republic “could provoke a terrible conflict.”

Medvedev told the Kommersant daily that NATO leaders’ recent decision reaffirming that Georgia will someday become a member of the transatlantic security alliance was “an absolutely irresponsible position and a threat to peace.”

Spanish fighter jets taking part in a NATO Air policing mission over Estonia have been temporarily suspended from completing their duties, after one of the pilots erroneously fired an armed missile during a training flight.

A group of two Spanish Eurofighter Typhoon 2000 jets and two French Mirage 2000 jets were taking part in a training exercise over southwestern Estonia on Tuesday when one of the Spanish planes accidentally launched an air-to-air missile, the Spanish Defense Ministry said in a statement, adding that the projectile “did not hit any aircraft.”

All the jets then safely returned to their Saiuliai air base in Lithuania, the ministry said, adding that it has opened an investigation into the incident. Meanwhile, the Estonian authorities decided to ban the Spanish aircraft from taking part in the air policing missions over its territory for a while.

In comments on Tuesday, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert called on Russia to withdraw its military entirely from the two breakaway Republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. The US does not recognize the regions’ independence.

The comments come 10 years after the brief Russo-Georgian War, during which Georgia attempted to attack South Ossetia, ended up fighting Russian troops therein, and fairly quickly lost. In the aftermath, Russia recognized the independence of both regions.

The hostile American market is of no importance to Russia next to the opportunities offered by the booming Middle Kingdom

Turkey is seeking to host a new Syria summit without the US, which indicates the beginning of the end of Washington's influence in Syria, Turkish analysts told Sputnik, further suggesting that France and Germany are also interested in expanding ties with Russia and Turkey.

The upcoming Istanbul summit on the Syrian crisis will leave Washington out in the cold, Turkish analysts told Sputnik Turkey.

According to Can Unver, a Turkish security analyst, the summit that will take place on September 7 will become "one of the most important diplomatic and political steps of the last period of time, carried out without the participation of the United States."

The recent political scandal involving French President Emmanuel Macron and his former bodyguard Alexandre Benalla prompted some media pundits and politicians to accuse Russia of spinning the case out.

Tuesday marks the fourth anniversary of the Russian import ban on certain Western products in response to Ukraine-related sanctions, as some EU countries continue to struggle to change the anti-Russia policy to revive trade.

On August 7, 2014, Russia imposed a food embargo on countries that adopted sanctions against Moscow over Crimea's reunification with Russia and alleged interference in the conflict in Ukraine. The food embargo banned the imports of meat, fish and seafood, vegetables, fruit and dairy products from the EU countries, the United States and several other states. The ban has recently been prolonged until the end of 2019.

Such important reality as is shown in this picture below is virtually unpublishable in mainstream US ‘news’media, because US ‘news’media need to deceive their public about the most important international realities — such as that the US imposed upon Ukraine a nazi regime against Russia, and the US now lies to accuse Russia for doing what Russia must do in order to protect itself from the US nazi regime next-door.

This picture is among many which were originally published in the excellent 4 July 2018 article by Asa Winstanley at The Electronic Intifada. His article was headlined "Israel is arming neo-Nazis in Ukraine”. That article focuses upon Israel’s strong support for the racist-fascist (or ideologically nazi) Government of Ukraine. (Click onto it to see the documentation — it’s Israeli nazis, against Russians, not against Jews, though they’re allied with ones that are against both, which is why the US did this — aiming to conquer ultimately Russia.)

Former two-term Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says the dollar is one of the major pillars of US dominance over global finance and trade. He has called for change in the current world order.

“Things need to change, current orders should be reordered,” the former leader of the Islamic Republic tweeted on Monday, hours before the first round of the US sanctions came into effect.

The Magnitsky Act Behind the Scenes has been pulled from everywhere. You do not ban a film in Europe and the United States if it is wrong. This is perhaps a huge cover-up that goes really beyond comprehension. The film was funded by ZDF TV in Europe and they have the power to prevent it from being shown despite the fact that they are taking a huge loss. They would not do that unless there was political pressure behind it.

In 1971, Gary Allen published his book, None Dare Call it Conspiracy. It quickly became an unofficial best seller.

Over the years, several million copies have been sold.

Allen’s thesis was stark: super-rich American capitalists were financing socialism. This bizarre paradox was resolved when socialism was properly understood—not as “power to the people”—but as elite power over the people. In other words, as a hoax.

These days, the socialist hoax is still unknown to most of the population.

Cloak a global power grab as progress for all of humanity.

Here, from chapter six of None Dare Call it Conspiracy, “The Rockefellers and the Reds,” is a devastating passage commenting on the period just after the Russian Revolution of 1917:

“The Rockefellers assigned their public relations agent, Ivy Lee, to sell the American public the idea that the Bolsheviks were merely misunderstood idealists who were actually kind benefactors of mankind.”

Officially called the “No Oil Producing and Exporting Cartels Act”, NOPEC is the definition of so-called “lawfare” because it enables the US to extra-territorially impose its domestic legislation on others by giving the government the right to sue OPEC and OPEC+ countries like Russia because of their coordinated efforts to control oil prices.

Lawsuits, however, are unenforceable, which is why the targeted states’ refusal to abide by the US courts’ likely predetermined judgement against them will probably be used to trigger sanctions under the worst-case scenario, with this chain of events being catalyzed in order to achieve several strategic objectives.

The first is that the US wants to break up the Russian-Saudi axis that forms the core of OPEC+, which leads to the second goal of then unravelling the entire OPEC structure and heralding in the free market liberalization of the global energy industry.

Since 1991 and the formal end of the first Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, the world has experienced an American “unipolar moment” as the bipartisan US policy establishment sought to consolidate and perpetuate its hegemonic control over the entire plant. Doomed to fail even before it received its fullest articulation in 1996 by neoconservative ideologists William Kristol and Robert Kagan (misleadingly billed as “Toward a Neo-Reaganite Foreign Policy”), that misbegotten moment thankfully is coming to an end.

The Russian Embassy to the United States has said that it regrets the US State Department's decision to summon Dmitry Zhirnov, the embassy’s minister-counselor, over allegations of Moscow using social media to foment division in the United States.

“We can only regret the fact that the State Department has once again resorted to ‘megaphone diplomacy’… In fact, it turns out that the foreign affairs department favors those forces in the US establishment that are pushing forward the agenda of ‘Russia's interference’ in the political processes of the United States in their own interests,” the embassy wrote on Facebook.

If half of what I have come to understand about the Curious Case of Bill Browder is true, then the “Magnitsky Trio” of Senators John McCain, Lindsay Graham and Ben Cardin are guilty of espionage, at a minimum.

Why? Because they know that Browder’s story about Sergei Magnitsky is a lie. And that means that when you tie in the Trump Dossier, Christopher Steele, Fusion GPS, the Skripal poisoning and the rest of this mess, these men are consorting with foreign governments and agencies against the sitting President.

As Lee Stranahan pointed out recently on Fault Lines, Cardin invited Browder to testify to Congress in 2017 to push through last year’s sanctions bill, a more stringent version of the expiring Magnitsky Act of 2011, which has since been used to ratchet up pressure on Russia.

Six masterpieces from Russia’s top art galleries and museums will be moved to Crimea to be housed in a new cultural center on the peninsula, according to a project presented to President Vladimir Putin.

The planned arts center is another step integrating Crimea, annexed from Ukraine in 2014, into the Russian state, after a major bridge linking the peninsula and the Russian mainland was opened in May.

The project, outlined by Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets, will feature an opera and ballet theater, a museum, a cinema and a school of dance, the politician told Putin in a conversation transcribed on the Kremlin website.

According to the United States, the Democratic Peoples’ Republic of Korea (DPRK or North Korea) is violating United Nations Security Council (UNSC) restrictions concerning their nuclear testing and missile development programs. These accusations come from a six-month report released last week by the UN which claims Pyongyang is violating restrictions on both of these programs according to new intelligence gathered.

Besides the alleged violations of the UNSC restrictions on the DPRK’s arms development, Korea has also been accused of violating economic sanctions “through a massive increase in illicit ship-to-ship transfers of petroleum products, as well as through transfers of coal at sea during 2018.” The UNSC also claimed that the DPRK was assisting the governments of Syria with weapons as well as attempting to sell arms to the Ansarullah movement (Houthis) in Yemen.

The report says the US Embassy in Moscow fired her quietly last year to avoid embarrassment.

A Russian woman allegedly spied on the US Secret Service on behalf of Russian counterintelligence while she was working at the US Embassy in Moscow, says a report by The Guardian, citing an unnamed source in US intelligence.

According to the report, the woman was hired by the US State Department and worked for the Secret Service as a part of her duties at the embassy. As a consequence of those duties, she had access to the embassy's intranet and email systems, which could have possibly enabled her to access highly confidential material, such as the schedules of the US president and vice president.

The Treasury Department slapped sanctions on a Russian bank on Friday, accusing it of processing transactions for North Korea in violation of United Nations sanctions.

Agrosoyuz Commercial Bank knowingly facilitated "a significant transaction" on behalf of a person affiliated with North Korea's weapons of mass destruction, the agency said in a statement.

The individual was named as Han Jang Su, the Moscow-based chief representative of North Korea's primary foreign exchange bank, the Foreign Trade Bank.

The statement also detailed a long relationship between the Russian bank and North Korea. The bank held, processed and transferred millions of dollars for North Korea, despite sanctions which are meant to isolate it economically.