More than three months ago, Russian President Vladimir Putin's national security adviser Nikolai Patrushev gave his Israeli counterpart a document. It contained an unofficial proposal for a deal between the U.S. and Russia on Syria and Iran intended to start a wider dialogue between Washington and Moscow to improve relations, two Israeli officials with direct knowledge tell me.

Why it matters: The Russian proposal would have tied a U.S. withdrawal from Syria to an Iranian exit from the country, and provided the U.S. and Israel more influence over a future political settlement in Syria. However, it also called for a freeze on U.S. sanctions on Iran — something Netanyahu found unacceptable. Ultimately, the U.S. gave up much of its leverage in Syria with President Trump's surprise announcement Wednesday of a unilateral withdrawal.

Authored by Finian Cunningham via The Strategic Culture Foundation,

Oh what a lovely big stocking-filler for the Kiev regime this week from Washington. Just in time for Christmas too, and only weeks after President Petro Poroshenko tried to incite a war with Russia from a naval provocation in the Kerch Strait.

First we had US government envoy Kurt Volker announcing this week that an additional $250 million in military weapons were being packaged in Congress for Ukraine. Then the DC-based international lending institutions, the IMF and World Bank, signed off on multi-billion-dollar loans for Poroshenko’s regime.

The leader of Ukraine’s Batkivshchina party, Yulia Timoshenko, has pointed to mass violations in last Sunday’s elections of heads of territorial communities.

"The elections were terrible. I’ve been in politics for many years and I’ve seen many things. What I witnessed this time, though, was extraordinary," she said. "Ballot papers were photocopied, ballot papers were totally unprotected, a hundred faked ballot papers with marks suddenly emerged out of nowhere… Bribery was massive through all resources available to the current legislators who participated in the election from the current authorities."

Also, Timoshenko complained about the return of the notorious situation in which a large percentage of voters cast their ballots at home without any officially recognized excuses or certificates.

In 1974 a notorious cold warrior, Albert Wohlstetter, absurdly accused the CIA of underestimating the Soviet threat. As the CIA had every incentive for reasons of budget and power to overestimate the Soviet threat, and today the “Russian threat,” Wohlstetter’s accusation made no sense on its face. However he succeeded in stirring up enough concern that CIA director George H.W. Bush, later Vice President and President, agreed to a Team B to investigate the CIA’s assessment, headed by the Russiaphobic Harvard professor Richard Pipes. Team B concluded that the Soviets thought they could win a nuclear war and were building the forces with which to attack the US.

The report was mainly nonsense, and it must have have troubled Stephen Cohen to experience the setback to negotiations that Team B caused.

In 1974 a notorious cold warrior, Albert Wohlstetter, absurdly accused the CIA of underestimating the Soviet threat. As the CIA had every incentive for reasons of budget and power to overestimate the Soviet threat, and today the “Russian threat,” Wohlstetter’s accusation made no sense on its face. However he succeeded in stirring up enough concern that CIA director George H.W. Bush, later Vice President and President, agreed to a Team B to investigate the CIA’s assessment, headed by the Russiaphobic Harvard professor Richard Pipes. Team B concluded that the Soviets thought they could win a nuclear war and were building the forces with which to attack the US.

The report was mainly nonsense, and it must have have troubled Stephen Cohen to experience the setback to negotiations that Team B caused.

Facebook has suspended the account of Jonathon Morgan, the researcher behind a disinformation campaign against an Alabama Republican candidate who ended up losing the race for a Senate seat. Morgan claimed it was “research.”
Morgan, the CEO of New Knowledge, a social media research firm that published a major report on alleged Russian interference in the 2016 elections, has confirmed to The Washington Post that his Facebook account was suspended.

In a statement, Facebook said it had yanked "five accounts run by multiple individuals for engaging in coordinated inauthentic behavior" and was investigating them.

"We've removed thousands of Pages, Groups and accounts for this kind of behavior, as well as accounts that were violating our policies on spam and coordinated inauthentic behavior during the Alabama special election last year,"Facebook said.

Hillary Clinton gave a full-throated defense of the war machine Friday on Twitter while attacking President Trump for moving to pull out of Syria.

The Resistance icon said: "Actions have consequences, and whether we’re in Syria or not, the people who want to harm us are there & at war. Isolationism is weakness. Empowering ISIS is dangerous. Playing into Russia & Iran’s hands is foolish. This President is putting our national security at grave risk."

The presence of United States forces in Syria does not contribute to a political and diplomatic solution to the crisis in the Arab country, spokesman for the Russian presidency Dmitry Peskov said.

“The presence of the US forces on the Syrian soil does not help reach the political and diplomatic settlement. Of course, the involvement of Washington in the relevant talks under the UN bumbershoot, the harmonious work of the US officials with [UN Envoy for Syria Staffan] de Mistura in the interests of this settlement would contribute to reaching this final goal,” Peskov told Russia’s Channel One.

According to Peskov, the main efforts around Syria at the moment are focused on forming the commission that will rewrite the country’s constitution, which for the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, can be completed early next year.

Investigative journalist John Pilger has called out the “grotesque absurdity” of those in the Western media who hype the so-called threats from Russia and China to Cold War levels, in an interview with RT’s Going Underground.
Pilger told RT’s Afshin Rattansi that he finds it “difficult to believe” how some journalists “should go along, should allow themselves to be indulged by the British government at a time when there is a litany of lies about Russia, about China — about so many issues that endanger us.”

“I've never known such a grotesque absurdity as the elevation of Russia and China and the perceived enemies to the kind of Cold War status they had when I was a child,” he said.

Kiev is moving parachute units to the sea coast of Azov and the Black Sea, stated Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko during his visit to the part of the Donetsk region controlled by Ukrainian authorities.

According to the Ukrainian president, among others who will be dispatched by air include detachments of the 95th brigade, which will also strengthen the defense of the coast, a Ukrainian TV channel said.

Poroshenko added that after the imposition of martial law, the short-term training of the brigades that defended the most dangerous flank was carried out.

Russian President Vladimir Putin held his annual end-of-the-year press conference on Thursday. The event was the first since the beginning of President Putin’s new presidential term, which began in May. A record number of journalists, over 1,700 had been accredited for the press conference, according to the Kremlin.

Gavin Williamson today pledged Britain will stand with Ukraine against Russian aggression after a Royal Navy ship was sent to beef up defence in the Black Sea.

The Defence Secretary said he had dispatched HMS Echo to the region to show Britain's 'solidarity' with Kiev.

But in a sign tensions are rising in the region, Vladimir Putin hit back by sending a Russian warship towards the Azov Sea, just north of the Black Sea.

KIEV, Ukraine – Several NATO countries have decided to allocate additional investments to the trust funds through which Ukraine receives military assistance.

This information was confirmed by the Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine, Ivanna Klimpush-Tsintsadze, after the meeting of the Ukraine-NATO Commission at the level of ambassadors, reports Ukrinform agency .

“Several countries even announced today that they add additional resources to our programs, or to trust funds,” he said.

In particular, according to the policy, Norway has already announced the decision to provide additional 140,000 euros for the professional development program of NATO. In addition, the Minister of Defense of the Czech Republic also signed a decree on the allocation of additional funds to the logistics trust fund.

Germany also confirmed that it would make an additional contribution to the trust fund for the medical rehabilitation of Ukrainian military personnel, added the deputy prime minister.

The deployment of a hydrographic survey ship, the HMS Echo, which docked in Odessa on 19 December, to Ukraine was announced by UK Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson last month.

The Russian Embassy in London has blasted UK Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson’s trip to Ukraine, stating that he is “instigating” Kiev to new provocations.

"Having failed to effectively neutralise drones over Gatwick Airport, Williamson seems to be engaged in a more important matter – instigating Ukraine to new military provocations. Russia has indeed accepted the signal: it implies that the British conservative government will provide the Kiev regime with political and military support no matter how irresponsible its steps are. This is how London tries to ‘assist’ in the settlement of the internal Ukrainian conflict”, the embassy’s statement read.

The Russian Army is planning to set up a military base near the US-run base in Al-Tanf region in Southeastern Homs near the border with Jordan, field media activists reported on Saturday.
The activists in Syria's Desert reported that a number of Russian military vehicles along with military hardware and pre-fabricated rooms have been dispatched to the Syria Desert in Southeastern Syria.

They further said that a number of Syrian soldiers have been accompanying the Russian convoy.

The sources went on to say that the Russian convoy was sent to Zaza strategic region between Syria Desert and the small towns of Eastern Qalamoun along the Damascus-Baghdad international highway almost 50 km away from the US-run Al-Tanf base.

In the meantime, Arabic Sky News pointed to the Russian convoy, and said that the Russian forces are planning to build a military base in the region.

Authored by Patrick Armstrong via The Strategic Culture Foundation,

In previous essays I argued that NATO tries to distract our attention from its crimes by accusing Russia of those crimes: this is "projection". NATO manipulates its audience into thinking the unreal is real: this is "gaslighting". NATO sees what it expects to see – Moscow's statements that they will respond to medium range missiles emplaced next door are re-jigged as the "threats" which justify NATO's earlier act: this is "confirmation bias". And, finally, NATO thinks Russia is so weak it's doomed and so strong that it is destroying the tranquility of NATO Land: this is a sort of geopolitical "schizophrenia". (I must acknowledge Bryan MacDonald's marvelous neologism of Russophrenia - a condition where the sufferer believes Russia is both about to collapse, and take over the world.)

Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier spoke of possibility of a nuclear war following the US withdrawal from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF)

If the United States deploys its missile systems in Europe after terminating the INF Treaty, Russia will have to aim its own missiles at those systems, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in a Channel One broadcast on Thursday night.

Russia not seeking arms race, but a balance of power — Putin
The presidential spokesman was asked to comment on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s words about the possibility of a nuclear war following the US withdrawal from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty.

The US will provide $10 million extra in military aid to help Ukraine beef up its naval capabilities, the State Department has announced, days after a Senate resolution called for such aid in response to the Kerch Strait incident.
Russia was ordered to "immediately return to Ukraine the seized vessels and detained Ukrainian crews" involved in last month's naval provocation and to allow Ukrainian ships to freely navigate the Kerch Strait and the Sea of Azov in Friday's statement from deputy State Department spokesperson Robert Palladino. The financial decision was made "in solidarity with" Lithuania and the UK, which also plan to step up their funding of the Ukrainian military, he added.

With saber rattling on both sides, large troop movements towards the borders, and bellicose rhetoric, war seems to be a real possibility. If it happens, Ukrainian armed forces would be decimated in a matter of hours, and Ukrainian youth know this, so they are fleeing conscription, heading to Russia and the EU, anywhere but home.

One of Russia’s state-run banking giants sanctioned by the US, Promsvyazbank, has brought its security deposits payable to international payment systems – Visa and Mastercard – down to a minimum.

The measure is set to be implemented by converting domestic banking transactions to Russia’s Mir payment system, launched by the Central Bank of Russia in 2015, a year after Western sanctions against the country were introduced.

Russia’s ninth biggest financial institution has also reduced its foreign-exchange holdings, according to Promsvyazbank president Pyotr Fradkov, as quoted by Russian business daily Vedomosti.

A RUSSIAN missile frigate is moving in the direction of the Azov Sea from Crimea amid World War 3 tensions between Moscow and Ukraine.

The frigate was spotted 1.5 nautical miles off the Crimean coast in the area of the town of Feodosia. A helicopter was visible onboard, the witness said. Tensions are high in the area after Vladimir Putin’s warships opened fire on three Ukrainian ships in the Black Sea on November 25.

Trump’s abrupt call for US troops to leave Syria is being lambasted by his domestic critics as “a gift to Russia.” The paradox is that peace signals on Syria could bode sharper conflict with Russia in Ukraine. Hardly a gift.

President Trump’s announcement via Twitter of a military pullout from Syria is best understood as a superficial political move.
The subsequent prompt resignation by his Defense Secretary James Mattis – within hours of Trump’s declared withdrawal – shows the president is deeply at odds with the Pentagon. Military officials say they were blindsided by Trump. Mattis’ resignation, therefore, came as a rebuke.

Bridge over troubled water
Washington officially insists all Crimea-related sanctions will remain until Moscow returns the peninsula to Ukraine. This will never happen. For Moscow, Crimea is already back to where it belongs. After all, Nikita Khrushchev, a sentimental Ukrainian, had transferred Crimea to Ukraine in 1954 in a fit of proletarian brotherhood, while blatantly violating the Constitution of the USSR.

US neocons and assorted Russophobes insist that Washington should further weaponize Kiev’s land, sea and air forces to counter “Russian aggression”, but Crimeans treat this as a bad joke.

Everyone knows Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko needs a diversion from his dismal, corrupt government. Thus the illegal – according to the Minsk agreements – bombing of cities in Donbass and the recent Kerch “incident”.

"Alleged Terrorist says Russian TV Channel influenced attack on Buckingham Palace."

This was an actual headline -in big bold type- run by NBC recently.

The subtext of this headline – what the headline is really saying - is this:

“Man watches news report on government-controlled channel of our enemy, Russia, which convinces him to commit an act of terror!”

In other words, “Russia is guilty of instigating terror in London!”

During the 14th annual press conference, Russian President Vladimir Putin called the situation with the formation of the so-called autocephalous Orthodox Church in Ukraine a case of state intervention in church life. On this December 20th, reports RIA Novosti .

“Unfortunately, in Ukraine they have now created a united splitting church of the Istanbul parish. See what kind of dependence comes from Turkey. There are appointments, and, most importantly, money. I think this is the main motive of Bartholomew – to subjugate this territory, and then also gain it, ” the president said.

Russian communications watchdog Roskomnadzor initiated an inspection of the BBC World News channel in Russia as well as BBC digital editions to verify the media's compliance with the Russian law after the UK Office of Communications (Ofcom) accused RT broadcaster of bias, the watchdog's press service said Friday.

"In connection with the situation regarding the decision made by the UK regulator Ofcom on the violation of the broadcasting rules by the RT channel, Roskomnadzor initiates control measures against BBC World News aired on the territory of Russia, as well as regarding BBC resources on the Internet for compliance of their materials with Russian legislation," the watchdog said.

The peninsula of Crimea will hold its third referendum on March 16, 2014 on whether it should gain greater autonomy or reunite with Russia.

The peninsula previously held two referendums, in 1991 and 1994, focusing on similar issues.

As Washington is determined to leave the landmark INF Treaty, it seems Moscow is looking for a response. Russian media has cited diplomatic sources as saying that Moscow is eyeing a strategic air base off Venezuela's coast.
The arrival of two Russian Tu-160 strategic bombers to Venezuela earlier this month has provoked a nervous reaction from Washington and led to a brief heated exchange between the US and Russian officials. This might have been a prelude to a more ambitious endeavor, Russia's Nezavisimaya Gazeta (NG) daily revealed, citing military and diplomatic sources.

Sources told the paper that Moscow seeks to create a semi-permanent base for the Russian long-range aviation on one of Venezuela's islands in the Caribbean Sea as it prepares for “long-time military presence” in the US 'backyard'.

Russia has completed rearming air defense forces in Crimea with its advanced S-400 Triumf surface-to-air missile systems, Russian officials confirmed at an annual Defense Ministry year end review meeting on Tuesday.
“This year, we have completed rearming air defense units stationed in Crimea with the S-400 Triumph systems. Today they are on combat duty, reliably protecting the airspace over the entire Crimean Peninsula,” the Commander of the Southern Military District, Colonel-General Alexander Dvornikov said, according to TASS. Russian commanders have touted the S-400 missiles' capabilities of engaging targets at a distance of 400km and at an altitude of up to 30 km (though western analysts say the numbers are lower), and have lately widely publicized the new Crimean missile deployments following the Nov. 25 Kerch Strait incident.

A tsunami warning has been issued for the coastal areas of Russia’s Far East after a strong earthquake off the coast of Kamchatka. Waves are said to be possible within 300 kilometers of the epicenter.

The quake was registered on Friday morning local time, at the depth of 33 kilometers (20 miles) under the Bering Sea, some 80 kilometers east of the coast of Kamchatka.

There was no threat as of yet to Alaska, the continental US, or Hawaii, the US government’s Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said.

International politics and hypocrisy have always gone together like sewers and stink, but the contrast between the recent media and government reactions to the Skripal poisoning, on the one hand, and the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi, on the other, reflects a new high water mark for duplicity and deceit by the New World Order and its satraps.

The blizzard of newsfeed and groupthink from the usual talking heads in the immediate aftermath of the “Skripal affair”, as it came to be known, called for serious sanctions against Russia even before any official investigation had been concluded. Some went so far as to call the curious incident an “act of war”. Yet even now, when it is fairly clear that Mohammad bin Salman himself ordered the hit on Khashoggi, no significant action has been taken to jeopardize our relationship with our “great ally” Saudi Arabia for its involvement in the journalist’s murder.

A resolution by US Senators calling on President Donald Trump to spearhead "multinational freedom of navigation operation" in the Black Sea is inciting Ukraine to commit new military provocations, a Russian lawmaker says.
The resolution introduced by 41 US Senators on Wednesday urges Trump to retaliate against what it calls "Russian aggression" seen during a standoff between Ukrainian and Russian ships in the Kerch Strait in November. The Senators want the US to lead a "robust freedom of navigation operation" in the Black Sea, and call for an end to the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, linking Russia and Germany along the bottom of the Baltic Sea.

Fresh tensions have broken out in ties between Moscow and Tel Aviv, already entangled in a row over the downing of a Russian aircraft in Syria, this time over the Palestine issue and the Ukraine conflict.

Recently, the Gaza-based Palestinian resistance movement Hamas said that its Political Bureau Head Ismail Haniyeh would travel to Moscow in late December upon an official invitation from the Russian Foreign Ministry.

During the visit, Haniyeh would discuss bilateral relations and the political developments in Palestine with the Russian leadership, Hamas added.

Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riad Maliki has also been invited to Moscow, but it is still not clear whether he would sit down with Haniyeh.

Russia's government is accusing the United States of forcing Russian national Maria Butina to falsely confess that she's a secret agent for the Kremlin.

On Thursday Butina pleaded guilty to joining a conspiracy on behalf of the Kremlin to infiltrate the Republican party via the NRA just before Donald Trump's presidential election in 2016.

The 30-year-old pleaded guilty to a count of 'conspiracy against the United States' when she appeared in federal court in Washington D.C. in a deal with prosecutors.

But the Kremlin insists that the charge is 'ridiculous' and she was coerced to make the confession.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said that he concurred with his US counterpart Donald Trump that the terrorist group, the Islamic State (outlawed in Russia) had been defeated in Syria on the whole.

"As for the victory over the Islamic State, I agree with the US president by and large," Putin told Thursday’s annual news conference. "We’ve achieved considerable changes in the struggle against terrorism in that area and dealt severe blows to the Islamic State in Syria."

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he regrets growing global tendency of underestimating the risks of a nuclear war.

"I just thought somehow the danger of such a development in the world is somehow fading into the background," he said. "It seems impossible or something not so important. In the meantime, should anything like that happen, God forbid, this may result in the death of civilization and, possibly, the entire planet."

President Putin hopes mankind will have enough common sense to prevent a third world war from ever happening.

This video shows the Russians arriving in a show of support for Venezuela with joint military drills.

image

They get a very warm emotional welcome.

The “Tu-160” nuclear-capable bombers have the distinction of having the largest wingspan of any combat aircraft in use and being the fastest bomber in the world today,

Moscow is allowing fighters from Hezbollah and other pro-Iranian Shiite groups operating in Syria to carry Russian flags in order to protect them from Israeli airstrikes, Russia's Kommersant newspaper reported Wednesday.

The report follows a Russian snub earlier this week to Israeli military officials, as Moscow appears reluctant to ease its anger over the loss of one of its planes during an IAF bombing raid in Syria in September. The plane was brought down by Syrian missiles targeting the Israelis, but Moscow insists that Jerusalem did not provide sufficient warning of its strike to allow its aircraft to reach safety.

The Federal Security Service (FSB) detained a gang member in the Republic of Crimea for storing 12 kg of TNT. According to the intelligence service, the accused is related to the nationalist organization “Noman Chelebidzhikhan’s battalion” TASS reports today, December 19th. Noman Chelebidzhikhan was a prominent figure in Crimean Tatar history. He was head of the Crimean Tatar national government in 1917-1918, and was a writer, poet, and the author of the national anthem.

By this year’s end its evident, the PR activity of the Ukrainian “National Corps” and its “Fuhrer”Andrey Biletsky, is gaining momentum. It seems that this radical force offers itself not only to situational allies, such as the head of the Interior Ministry of the country Arsen Avakov, but also to the presidential camp.

More than 40 US senators called on President Donald Trump to conduct a multinational military operation against Russia in the Black Sea.

According to them, it is necessary to ensure freedom of navigation, as well as to demonstrate support for “internationally recognized borders” and bilateral agreements. It also notes the need to “resist the excessive claims of Russia to sovereignty.”

In addition, the document calls for NATO to increase its presence in the Black Sea, as well as a call for European allies and partners to deny Russian warships the right to call their ports for resupply and refueling.

The secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, Oleksandr Turchynov, said that Ukraine plans to carry out a new passage of ships through the Kerch Strait with the involvement of international partners.

“This is, for us, fundamental. If we stop and retreat, Russia will actually fulfill its task of seizing the Sea of ??Azov, presenting to the world certain new sea borders in the Black Sea, de facto legalizing the occupation of the Crimea,” he said in an interview with BBC Ukraine.

Ukraine will send warships back to its Azov Sea ports again, a security official said on Wednesday, despite Russia’s seizure of three navy vessels and their crew in the area last month.

Ukraine and Russia have been at loggerheads since Moscow’s 2014 annexation of Crimea, with more than 10,000 people dead in battles between Ukrainian troops and Russian-backed separatists.

The dispute deepened when Moscow last month seized two small Ukrainian gunboats and one tugboat - with a combined crew of 24 - off Crimea, accusing them of illegally entering Russian waters as they headed from the Black Sea via the Kerch Strait.

While Russia continues to support diplomacy with the US on tying to resolve the Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty dispute, they will not be letting the United States directly inspect any Russian nuclear missiles, saying such a step wouldn’t be justifiable.

Russian Deputy FM Sergey Ryabkov says such inspections would be “extremely intrusive,” and that the US had previously refused Russian requests to inspect US submarines in relation to a different arms treaty.

Russia has completed rearming air defense forces in Crimea with the advanced S-400 Triumf surface-to-air missile systems.

"This year, we have completed rearming air defense units stationed in Crimea with the S-400 Triumf systems. Today they are on combat duty, reliably protecting the airspace over the entire Crimean peninsula," Commander of Russia's Southern Military District Colonel-General Alexander Dvornikov said at the Defense Ministry's year-end board meeting on Tuesday, the Russian news agency TASS wrote.

For the purposes of neutralizing possible threats, the troops of the Southern Military District continued accomplishing their combat duty tasks to ensure air defense of Russia's southern frontiers and protect its allies in the airspace in the troops' entire zone of responsibility, he said.

Investigative journalist John Pilger has called out the “grotesque absurdity” of those in the Western media who hype the so-called threats from Russia and China to Cold War levels, in an interview with RT’s Going Underground.
Pilger told RT’s Afshin Rattansi that he finds it “difficult to believe” how some journalists “should go along, should allow themselves to be indulged by the British government at a time when there is a litany of lies about Russia, about China — about so many issues that endanger us.”

“I've never known such a grotesque absurdity as the elevation of Russia and China and the perceived enemies to the kind of Cold War status they had when I was a child,” he said.

Kim Jong Un, angered by the newest U.S. sanctions, is warning that North Korea’s commitment to denuclearization could be imperiled and we could be headed for “exchanges of fire.”

Iran, warns Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, is testing ballistic missiles that are forbidden to them by the U.N. Security Council.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has warned that, within days, he will launch a military thrust against U.S.-backed Kurdish forces in northern Syria, regarding them as allies of the PKK terrorist organization inside Turkey.

Vladimir Putin just flew two Tu-160 nuclear capable bombers to Venezuela. Ukraine claims Russia is amassing tanks on its border.

How did the United States, triumphant in the Cold War, find itself beset on so many fronts?

As my regular readers will probably recall, according to my personal, pseudo-Chinese zodiac, 2017 was “The Year of the Headless Liberal Chicken.” This year, having given it considerable thought, and having consulted the I Ching, and assorted other oracles, I’m designating 2018 “The Year of Putin-Nazi Paranoia.”

Not that 2017 wasn’t already paranoid. It was. It was completely paranoid, and otherwise clinically batshit crazy. But 2018 has been batshit crazier. It started out with the Internet companies that control the flow of information that most of us now perceive as “reality” launching an all-out War on Dissent, purportedly to protect the public from “divisive” and “confusing” content, and other forms of Russian “influencing.”

Is Russia learning that Washington wants no deal with Russia except Russian vassalage and that relying on agreements with the West is delusional? There is some indication that Russia is learning, but it seems to be a slow process.

Russia Insider reports that the Russian government has told Israel that Israeli strikes inside Syria are no longer acceptable.

Syria will adopt a new rule of engagement with Israel now that Russia has taken a tougher and clearer stance on the conflict between Israel and the “Axis of the Resistance”. Henceforth, Damascus will be responding to any Israeli strike. If it damages a specific military target it will reply with a strike against a similar objective in Israel. Decision makers in Damascus said “Syria will not hesitate to hit an Israeli airport if Damascus airport is targeted and hit by Israel. This will be with the consent of the Russian military based in the Levant”.

BuzzFeed was dealt a major blow in court on Tuesday, after a Judge decided that a Russian internet entrepreneur named in the infamous "Steele Dossier" is not a public figure.

The decision by Judge Ursula Ungaro means that Russian businessman Aleksej Gubarev, who sued BuzzFeed last year for defamation, has to prove a much lower standard of evidence against the media outlet.

Public figures typically need to be able to prove the more demanding standard of "actual malice" when bringing a libel suit, while nonpublic figures only need to prove negligence, according to Politico.

BuzzFeed spokesman Matt Mittenthal expressed disappointment in the decision, but he stressed that the media company is advancing several other legal arguments about why it was justified in its decision to publish the dossier former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele compiled about alleged ties between President Donald Trump and Russia. -Politico

Russia’s Defense Ministry announced on Tuesday that they are planning to send “more than 10” warplanes to the Crimean Peninsula as part of a “permanent deployment.” Those planes are expected to arrive by the end of the week.

Those deployments come amid growing tension between Russia and Ukraine, and following a recent maritime incident in the Sea of Azov. Russian officials are citing concern of an upcoming Ukrainian “armed provocation” in Crimea as part of the decision.

Russian FM Sergey Lavrov was deeply critical of Ukraine, saying they would “regret” carrying out any planned provocations against Russia. He added that the “Ukrainian regime has full Nazi and neo-Nazi characteristics.”

The US Navy is considering whether to deploy submarine-hunting P-8 Poseidon aircraft to a Cold War-era base in Alaska in an effort to keep a closer eye on Chinese and Russian movements in the Arctic.

"Our Russian friends are warming up five airstrips and 10,000 Spetsnaz troops [in the Arctic] for quote unquote search and rescue. The Chinese are up there. Everybody is up there," US Navy Secretary Richard Spencer told lawmakers last week.

"Everybody but us," fired back Alaska Senator Dan Sullivan.

The former deputy director of Russian military contractor Voentorg, Leonid Teyf, will remain in US custody until trial in the criminal case on laundering $150 million, a court filing said.

"The Court held a detention hearing and found that detention is warranted," the document said on Monday. The reasons for detention include serious evidence against the defendant and the lengthy sentence he may face, according to the filing.

Another defendant in the case, Alexei Polyakov, declined to ask for release and also will remain in custody until the beginning of the trial, while Teyf's wife Tatiana has been released on bail, the document said.
Teyf was arrested on December 6 and is detained in a North Carolina prison.

Prosecutors allege that Teyf and his wife began running the scheme in 2010, when then-Defense Minister Anatoliy Serdyukov granted Voentorg a contract to provide Russian military with goods and services, according to an indictment that was unsealed earlier this week.

A new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) warned that the current ballistic missile defense system in the US is powerless against hypersonic missiles from China and Russia.

The missile's speed, altitude, and maneuverability could defeat all networked sensors (including space-based) and ground- and sea-based radars; ground- and sea-based interceptor missiles; and render the Pentagon's command, control, battle management ineffective in a hypersonic missile attack.

“China and Russia are pursuing hypersonic weapons because their speed, altitude and maneuverability may defeat most missile defense systems, and they may be used to improve long-range conventional and nuclear strike capabilities,” the report said.

The US Navy is considering whether to deploy submarine-hunting P-8 Poseidon aircraft to a Cold War-era base in Alaska in an effort to keep a closer eye on Chinese and Russian movements in the Arctic.

"Our Russian friends are warming up five airstrips and 10,000 Spetsnaz troops [in the Arctic] for quote unquote search and rescue. The Chinese are up there. Everybody is up there," US Navy Secretary Richard Spencer told lawmakers last week.

"Everybody but us," fired back Alaska Senator Dan Sullivan.

Washington has confirmed its decision to withdraw from the INF treaty is final, Russia’s deputy foreign minister said, adding that Moscow will 'take measures' if American missiles that threaten its security are placed in Europe.

“Washington publicly announced its plans to withdraw from the treaty (the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces) already in October. Through the high-level bilateral channels it was confirmed to us that this decision was final and wasn’t an attempt to initiate dialogue,” Sergey Ryabkov told the Kommersant newspaper.

The Russian Defense Ministry on Monday said it would "return" more than 10 warplanes to Crimea, according to Russian news agency Interfax.

The ministry said fighter jets, including Sukhoi Su-27 and Su-30's, will be sent to the annexed Ukrainian territory as part of a "permanent deployment." They are expected to arrive by Saturday.

The announcement comes after Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov claimed in an interview that Ukraine was preparing an "armed provocation with Russia on the border with Crimea during the last ten days of December."

Israel has in recent weeks lodged furious protests with Russia over its recent invitation to Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh to visit Moscow later this month, according to a television report on Tuesday.

The objections were raised both by Israel’s embassy in Moscow and in conversations with the Russian embassy in Tel Aviv, Channel 10 reported.

But Russian officials rejected the complaints, noting that Israel was itself talking to Hamas, albeit indirectly. The Hamas delegation is expected in Moscow in late December.

The control over the ionosphere has become an ambitious project for some military forces, as it has the capacity to disrupt communication of enemy satellites. The U.S., for instance, was also involved in a multimillion-dollar project called the High-Frequency Active Auroral Research Program, also known as HAARP, located 200 miles north of Anchorage, Alaska, and funded by the U.S. military and the Defense Department in 1993. HAARP was later transferred from the U.S. Air Force to the University of Alaska Fairbanks on August 11, 2015.

This is the moment two men dressed up as Santa Claus trade blows in a violent street-fightwhich left children in tears in the Ukrainian city of Odessa.

Video shows the brawl between the competing Father Christmases - known as Did Moroz or Grandfather Frost in Ukraine - as passers-by try to intervene.

The battle began when a small girl posed for a photo with the older of the two Santas, at which point the other approached and ordered his competitor to 'leave at once', say reports.

With mounting problems at home, the UK Establishment is stepping up its campaign to divert our attention on to non-existent dangers from abroad. The so-called 'Russian threat,' is not only good for the arms industry, and defense budgets, but for politicians who have no answers to the very real threats the British public face in their daily lives.

A knife crime epidemic. A significant rise in the murder rate. The NHS at breaking point. A 60% rise in homelessness since 2010/11 and a sharp rise in child and pensioner poverty. A hideously expensive and unreliable public transport system that is not fit for purpose.

Additional and continuing “delivery” of US weapons to Ukraine would increase tensions and undermine efforts for peace on Ukrainian soil, Russian officials said after US special envoy Kurt Volker announced such plans and more sanctions.

“Moving through Congress is a military financing package of around $250 million and the ability to sell additional equipment,” Volker told reporters in Brussels on Monday. “Within the next months there will be some announcements about the first tranches. And it will be ongoing.”

He also stated that Ukraine is “under attack” from Russia and defended a Western military presence near or even within that country, to “raise the visibility of Russia’s actions.”

Russia’s advanced weapons, which will ensure the country’ security for decades to come, will force those who got accustomed to militarist rhetoric to think, Russian President Vladimir Putin told the Defense Ministry’s expanded board meeting on Tuesday.

"A serious breakthrough has been made in developing advanced and unparalleled weapons, about which I said in the address to the Federal Assembly on March 1 this year," Putin said. "I hope our newest systems will make think those who got accustomed to militarist and aggressive rhetoric."

The Russian leader noted that serial production of Avangard hypersonic missile systems has been launched, and successful tests of Russia’s most advanced Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile have been carried out. The Kinzhal air-launched precision hypersonic weapon has been successfully placed on combat duty and Peresvet combat lasers have entered duty.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) will immediately provide the Ukrainian government with the $1.4 billion tranche from a new loan package worth $3.9 billion, according to the fund’s press release.

"The approval of the SBA enables the immediate disbursement of SDR 1 billion (about US$1.4 billion)," the release said Tuesday.

Ukraine Struggles With Reforms to Receive 'Dangerous Money' From IMF
The rest of the financial aid will be available after semi-annuals reviews have been completed, the fund added.

The US-installed, Nazi-infested, Kiev regime represents militant fascist extremism in Europe’s heartland – supported by Brussels instead of denouncing its illegitimacy and threat to European and world peace.

The Obama regime transformed democratic Ukraine into a US vassal state, supported by Trump regime hardliners, using the country as dagger aimed at Russia’s heartland.

Flashpoint conditions are hugely dangerous. On Monday, Sergey Lavrov warned that US-installed puppet president Poroshenko “is planning an armed provocation on the border with Russia, on the border with Crimea, during the last ten days of December.”

What’s likely coming follows the Kiev regime’s hostile November 25 made-in-the-USA Kerch Strait provocation in Russia waters. The same holds for what Lavrov warned about.

The US may consider the possibility of increasing its military presence in the Black Sea, US Special Representative for Ukraine Kurt Volker said on Monday during a press briefing.

"As far as the Black Sea goes, Turkey plays a critically important role," Volker stated. "We also want to work with Turkey on security in the Black Sea and on freedom of navigation."

"That said, I think that there are things that we should now be looking at that maybe we weren't looking at before - to increase presence in the Black Sea, whether on a bilateral basis or under EU auspices," the US diplomat pointed out.

Washington has slapped sanctions on Russian individuals and firms operating in Crimea in connection with a November incident, in which Russia seized three Ukrainian Navy vessels that violated its maritime border.

US Special Representative for Ukraine Kurt Volker did not rule out that the United States would impose new sanctions on Russia over last month's Kerch Strait incident.

Speaking in Brussels, Washington's point man for Ukraine conceded that "it's not looking good to get the detained Ukrainian sailors released soon," according to Teri Schultz, a reporter covering the European Union and NATO.

Volker went on to describe Moscow's response to actions of Ukrainian boats in the Kerch Strait as "an incident that clearly has raised serious concerns across Europe."

Russia has deployed a number of fighter jets to the Crimean Peninsula amid rising tensions with Ukraine, following remarks by the country’s foreign minister that Kiev was planning an "armed provocation" in the coming weeks and before the end of the year.

Russian news agency Interfax said on Monday that Moscow had sent more than 10 Sukhoi SU-27 and SU-30 fighter jets to the overhauled Belbek air base in Crimea as part of a "permanent deployment."

The announcement came after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview that Ukraine was preparing an "armed provocation with Russia on the border with Crimea during the last ten days of December."

The state-run TASS news agency quoted Lavrov as saying that Moscow would not allow the Ukrainian government to act on those plans and "they will regret it."

According to the Russian news agency Tass, Russia is establishing a strategic air base on the Venezuelan island, La Orchila. Russian sources explain this development as part of the boomerang effect of Trump’s abandonment of the intermediate range missile treaty with Russia.

Russian Deputy Minister of Defence Timur Ivanov said the Russian ministries of defence, industry and trade are working on a project to build a shipyard in the Syrian port of Tartus.

“We have a joint project to build a shipyard in cooperation with the Ministry of Industry and Trade in Tartus, for the maintenance of vessels of different categories,” Ivanov said in an interview with Russian Kommersant newspaper.

The agreement to expand and modernise Russia’s naval facility in the Syrian port gives full immunity to Russian military personnel and their families, allowing Russia to deploy up to 11 warships at one time. Tartus is Russia’s only base in the Mediterranean Sea.

Russia has supported the regime of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad providing ground and air forces to regain control of areas his forces had lost.