Russia: Plans for Moscow 'Eye of Sauron' scrapped

A Moscow creative art group has ditched plans to erect a giant glowing "Eye of Sauron" atop a city skyscraper, after complaints from church and city leaders.

The Svecheniye (Glow) group intended to install the Eye - familiar to Lord of the Rings fans - on a building in the Moscow-City business district. The metre-tall (3ft 3in) globe would have burned overnight in tribute to JRR Tolkien's fantasy works, but the plans have now been scrapped. "Sadly we are obliged to halt the Eye of Sauron," Svecheniye says in a press statement reported by RIA Novosti news agency, adding that it apologised for having "elicited such a public reaction". Although the "fan project" was meant to mark the Moscow premiere of the latest Hobbit film, it was not an advertising event, "nor did it have a religious or political subtext", the group says.

The denial of any religious intent follows criticism from the Russian Orthodox Church's public relations chief, Vsevolod Chaplin, who denounced the Eye of Sauron as a "demonic symbol of the triumph of evil" that might "bring misfortune upon the city". The Moscow mayor's office said they would almost certainly remove the Eye, as they had not granted their permission. But some social media users think the church's objections will actually prove to be counter-productive. "Now magic, sorcery and witchcraft will gain even more public attention," writes one reader of the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper, while another complains: "The Church thinks that it alone can put on such a mass show." One person suggests an alternative location for the Eye: "The roof of the US Embassy's the best place for it."

Credit to BBC

THOUSANDS OF CELLPHONE USERS RECEIVE GOVERNMENT “EMERGENCY ALERT”

Thousands of cellphone users in Kentucky were surprised to receive an “emergency alert” from the federal government warning them to “prepare for action,” a message local authorities later blamed on “human error” during testing.

The alert, which was was sent out to people in the Corbin and London areas of Southern Kentucky earlier today, came from the Emergency Operations Center in Frankfort via the Federal Communication Commission’s Wireless Emergency Alert system.

The messages are designed to warn local residents of immediate safety threats in their area, but some have criticized the “government alerts” as being invasive.


Frankfort Emergency Operations spokesman Buddy Rogers said that the alert was mistakenly sent out “during testing” and was the result of “a computer error, followed by a human error.”

Back in 2011, the FCC began to roll out emergency government alerts to cellphone users in major citiesbefore the program was made mandatory on all new smartphones. Although a user can opt out of some of the alerts, presidential messages direct from the White House cannot be turned off.

This is not the first time that erroneous messages sent out via the government’s emergency alert system have caused consternation.

Early tests of the cellphone emergency alert system in New Jersey caused panic after Verizon customers received text messages warning them that a “civil emergency” was in progress and to “take shelter,” prompting alarmed citizens to flood 911 lines with anxious calls.

Verizon Wireless later apologized to its customers for causing alarm, admitting that the confusion was caused by a “test” of the PLAN emergency alert system.

Back in October we also reported on how television viewers in several different states were interrupted by an emergency alert from the White House warning them to stand by for an emergency message and not to use their phones.

AT&T subsequently blamed a nationally syndicated radio station for triggering the alert message, although this explanation was questioned by some given that only the federal government has the capability of sending out EAS alerts.

Credit to Infowars

Attacker shouts 'kill the Jews' and stabbed a Israelí student in Brooklyn

A young haredi man was stabbed and wounded early Tuesday morning in a Chabad house in the Crown Heights neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York. 

Calvin Peters, 49, can be seen on amateur video of the confrontation waving a knife in the Chabad-Lubavitch headquarters in Crown Heights at about 1:40 a.m. after police say he attacked Levi Rosenblat, who was studying inside, according to Chabad-Lubavitch spokesman Rabbi Motti Seligson. Rosenblat was stabbed in the temple, officials said, and was expected to survive.

A witness flagged down a patrol officer, who confronted the 49-year-old man and told him to put the knife down. He initially put it down, but picked it up again, police said. More officers responded and repeatedly ordered the man to drop the knife.




He refused and, with the knife in his hand, charged at one of the officers, who fired once, striking the man in the torso, police said.

Peters had a documented history of mental illness and had been arrested 19 times since 1982, most recently in 2006 for drugs, police said. He had also been to the Chabad-Lubavitch before, which is open to the public at all hours.

Detectives are investigating, but don't suspect terrorism, police said.

The 22-year-old Rosenblat was in stable condition, officials said.



Attorney Jeffrey A. St. Clair opened the Peters family's front door in a New York suburb and said the man had a history of bi-polar disorder.

"Calvin Peters was a loving and devoted father," he said. "And the family is quite frankly shocked and disappointed at what happened. Our prayers go out to the person that was injured. But we really ask that you respect our privacy and allow them to grieve."

St. Clair said there were no recent incidents that would have caused alarm. "No," he said. "Just total shock."

Assemblyman Dov Hikind, whose Brooklyn constituents are largely Orthodox Jewish, condemned the attack.

"I'm told that the attacker came earlier that evening, too. He was stalking the scene. Thank God he didn't inflict more harm nor do more damage to more people," Hikind said in an email statement.

"The Jews are easy prey for the hatred and incitement that is spreading around the world every moment," said Yaakov Hagoel, head of the Department for Activities in Israel and Countering Antisemitism at the World Zionist Organization.

"The stabbing of a Jew in the Chabad house is part of the significant uptick in violent anti-Semitism in France, Belgium, Europe as a whole, and of course, the United States. US authorities must wake up and begin to take a harder stance against anti-Semitism."


Credit to Ynet

A Clergy Response Team Insider Reveals the Duties of a Pastor Inside of a FEMA Camp

Many people in the independent media have reported that an estimated 28,000 pastors were recruited by FEMA/DHS, as part of the Clergy Response Team, and that their initial and primary training was to tell their flock to obey the DHS version of Romans 13. Romans 13, in the King James version of the Bible, begins:

“Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.” Romans 13:1

Many of us have been quick to point that this bastardization of the Romans 13 is designed to force compliance to government edicts who might not otherwise comply.

Certainly all governments are not established by God. Were the governments of Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot, all ordained by God? What about George the III? Most people in the independent media think that this is the extent of the threat posed by the existence of the Clergy Response Teams.

Romans 13 Is Just the Tip of the Iceberg

I have discovered that the Clergy Response Teams are taking on much more nefarious duties and it can be accurately stated that the pastors associated with the DHS/FEMA/Clergy Response Teams are going to be doing a whole lot more than encouraging their flock to obey the government.

On December 9, 2014, I conducted a telephonic interview with Pastor Walt Mansfield. Pastor Mansfield was among the first of the pastors recruited to become a part of the Clergy Response Team. The revelations he conveyed to me about this program had pastors doing a whole lot more than preaching Romans 13. But before going to the disturbing contents of the interview, let’s take a look at relevant legislation which helps to legitimize Pastor Mansfield’s outrageous claims.

Background Legislation

On December 31, 2011, President Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) into law which in addition to allocating $662 billion to the Pentagon also contains a measure which allows U.S. citizens to be taken into custody and held indefinitely without ever being charged with a crime.

Not only can any citizen deemed a threat to “national security interests of the United States,” be held forever without receiving a trial, but the military will be the ones arresting those citizens.

NDAA Section 1022, subsection c allows “(1) Detention under the law of war without trial until the end of the hostilities authorized by the Authorization for Use of Military Force.”

The National Emergency Centers Act or HR 645 mandates the establishment of “national emergency centers” to be located on military installations for the purpose of to providing “temporary housing, medical, and humanitarian assistance to individuals and families dislocated due to an emergency or major disaster,” according to the bill.

The legislation also states that the camps will be used to “provide centralized locations to improve the coordination of preparedness, response, and recovery efforts of government, private, and not-for-profit entities and faith-based organizations”.

The bill also provides that the camps can be used to “meet other appropriate needs”, as determined by the Secretary of Homeland Security. This a carte blanche mandate that many fear could mean the forced detention of American citizens in the event of widespread rioting following a national emergency or a total economic collapse.

Pastor Mansfield’s “Insider” Revelations

Pastor Mansfield was recruited to become a member of the Clergy Response Team which would operate under the control of NOVAD and DHS. Mansfield’s revelations about his experiences are stunning and concerning at the same time.

Pastor Mansfield attended several briefings and he could barely believe his ears. He learned of the government’s plan to enact martial law as well as to implement forced population relocations. Mansfield emphasized that when martial law is enacted, the enforcement would be immediate. In other words, family members will be separated from each other and part of the training that the clergy received was how to comfort separated family members.

Pastor Mansfield emphasized that the FEMA/DHS drills were predicated on bioterrorism. The pastors were trained to go to homes were people refused to be relocated by the authorities and  their immediate job was to convince the reluctant to willingly go to the relocation camps. Ostensibly, this was to be done in lieu of sending in the SWAT teams.

I asked Mansfield if FEMA camps were real and he stated that much of the clergy training focused around this scenario of pastors operating within the forced relocation centers. The main goal of a pastor assigned to a FEMA was to bring order and encourage compliance with DHS requests, hence, the emphasis on Romans 13. 

The pastors were forced to sign non-disclosure. Interesting, the pastors were told not to quote Scripture. The DHS document which was prepared for the pastors clearly stated that Scripture had been used to “oppress” people in the past and the presenters strongly discouraged the its use. Please see the following excerpt from one of the DHS training manuals:

Healing Scripture and Prayer In the Pastoral Crisis Intervention

“During a time of crisis people do go through a  “crisis of faith.” 

Sometime quick mention of God and scripture may not be helpful. As we all know the Scripture has been used to oppress, dominate and at the same time used for healing and reconciliation- renewing of relationship with God and people. If the pastor senses it is appropriate to use the scripture and prayer, it must carefully be done for healing of victims not to uphold pastoral authority.” (Page 14)   

In other words, all legitimate pastoral authority was abrogated by the pastors who participated in the roundup of American citizens.

Also on page 14 of the same training document, pastors were admonished to avoid “Unhealthy God talk….” Specifically pastors are ordered to avoid using references to God when helping people cope with the loss of a loved one:

        “4. God must have needed him/her more than you.”

        “5. God never gives more than we can handle.“

Pastor Mansfield also revealed that pastors will be issued badges under the Clergy Response Team program. Any pastor not displaying the badge, indicating that they have been trained under these guidelines, will not be permitted into the established and designated “DHS safety zones”. This reminds me of the banishment of religious figures from Plymouth Colony who, in good conscience, refused to go along with some of the extremism of that day. Along these lines, the Clergy Response Team is also a “Kool-Aid drinking program”. Pastors are absolutely forbidden to publicly to speak about any aspect of the program. If you were to ask your pastor if they are a FEMA trained pastor, they will not likely tell you.

Disturbingly, Pastor Mansfield reiterated several times that the number one job of these pastors is to calm down people and encourage their compliance within the people’s new surroundings.

Pastor Mansfield also stated that pastors will be utilized as informants. This violates the legal privilege of confidentiality between pastor and church-goer, that is currently recognized by law. All church-goers can no longer trust the sanctity of personal confessions and revelations made to pastors, priests or rabbis’. This one illegal act by DHS completely undermines the Christian Church in America!

Summary

What pastor could, in good conscience, participate in this heinous program? Mansfield told me that there are an estimated 28,000 FEMA trained pastors. The pastors in America are being coerced to participate because when an emergency is declared, no pastor, who does not have the “FEMA-trained government badge” will be allowed to be in a declared “emergency” area. Pastor Mansfield felt strongly this was the government’s way of removing Jesus from America’s landscape and set the stage for the ushering in of a new-age religion.

It is mindboggling to fathom how so many reporters and media types deny the existence of FEMA camps under these circumstances. It is also disturbing that any pastor would agree to participate in a program in which Jesus and the Bible end up on the cutting room floor.

Since interviewing Pastor Mansfield, I have been contemplating the potential wisdom of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn in which made the following quote:

Solzhenitsyn once said that
“We should have resisted the KGB at the front door. If the KGB thought that they might not go home that night, the Russian people might have had a different fate”.

Credit to Common Sense

FEMA Camps across North America

America’s Epitaph: The U.S. Will Soon Stand Alone vs. the Nations of the World

This article represents the beginning of the end of the United States. Many who will read this article will find themselves in agreement, at least initially, because the developments which serve to threaten the future existence of the United States because the events are well-documented. However, many will reach a saturation point and will close their computer screen and write an angry response and accuse the author of “fearmongering”.  

I would rather be labeled a fearmonger than be correct about the developments contained in this article. Americans need to deal realistically with the real reasons why America is about to be run over, both economically and militarily by Putin and his new found friends across the globe. I cannot shake the feeling that this is America’s epitaph and no amount of my own personal cognitive dissonance will convince me otherwise.

The Russo-Chinese Energy Deals

The haughtiness of the West as they impose sanctions on Russia over Ukraine is almost laughable. The sanctions are a boomerang in disguise and will come back at us to destroy the American economy which will lead to World War III.

At the heart of the American economy and the Petrodollar is energy and Russia and China just cemented an agreement where they do not need the dollar. The Russia –China  $400 billion energy deal, signed in May this year will by 2018 have some 38 billion cubic meters of gas flow through the so-called ‘Holy Grail’ pipeline from the largest gas producer, Russia, to the largest energy user, China. This deal  is many things at once: It is, of course a symbolic step in the process of decoupling hydrocarbon trading from the dollar, as it foresees payments in local currencies, rubles and yuan. It sidesteps the  Petrodollar for hydrocarbon trading. Over one-third of the planet just moved away from the dollar when this recent deal was cemented.

As if the Russian-Chinese energy deal is not bad enough, the BRICS are driving a stake into the American economy as they have set up a  new development and investment bank for all of the BRICS countries. The banks  will be headquartered in Shanghai, China, with the first president of the bank will be from India. The BRICS nations, of course, are a group of emerging economies and draws its name from the five member countries – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. BRICS is also considering starting a joint infrastructure fund with an initial capital infusion of around $100 billion to begin investing in each other’s transportation, water and sewage systems.

Turkey’s Gas Deal with Russia Is a Strategic Game-Changer

The fragmenting of NATO

Turkey’s gas deal, just inked with Russia, represents one more time that the grand chess master, Putin, has outmaneuvered the amateur checkers player, Obama.  With this gas deal, Turkey may not have formally left NATO, but make no mistake about it, Turkey has left NATO.

Turkey and Russia are long-time adversaries since the implementation of the Cold War and the advent of the 1947 Truman Doctrine. This gas deal is a staggering blow to the U.S. and NATO because Turkey has been not only a key NATO ally, but it has been the linchpin of all American efforts to bypass Russia with oil and gas pipelines. The situation caused by the Turkey-Russia gas deal is so dire, that in the event of World War III, the U.S. would be forced to destroy this pipeline. In other words, Turkey has just become a military ally with Russia.

Russia’s decision to cancel Russia’s South Stream gas and oil pipeline project was bad enough, but this coupled with Turkey’s signing a gas and oil deal with Russia delivered a staggering and perhaps knockout blow to the ability of the United States to hold together a rapidly fragmenting NATO. South Stream was envisioned as a way to supply Central and Western Europe with Russian gas without worrying about disruptions caused by the Ukrainian situation.

South Stream was supposed to run through the Black Sea, Bulgaria, Serbia and Hungary into Austria and points west and it attempted to counter South Stream by proposing another pipeline, called “Nabucco” which was to have linked Austria, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria with Turkey and Azerbaijan. This pipeline failed because the United States failed to secure funding for the pipeline and or a source of gas. Are you keeping a body count of the NATO allies which are going to have extreme difficulty heating their homes and businesses and are now subject to Putin’s blackmail? From a military perspective, these nations provide a buffer between Russian invasion of America’s primary NATO allies of Germany, France, Italy and the UK. Putin will now focus on seeking defectors from these four allies.

Germany, France and Italy’s Motivation to Leave NATO

The eventual defection of Germany, France and Italy is easy to foretell. This is a case of a picture, or in this case, an energy map, is worth a thousand words.

To anyone possessing an IQ above room temperature, this map is the road map to the destruction of NATO. Key NATO allies are being held hostage by Putin through energy blackmail. If NATO was to survive, the time to have attacked Russia was last Spring, but that ship has sailed.  Can you imagine, you just opened your contacts list on your phone and all of friends and business associates are gone. This is what is happening to the United States.

Britain Is Waffling At the Threat of the Coming World War

America is on the verge of losing its closest and most important ally, Great Britain.

Ahead of the Vienna Conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons, members, mostly British, have expressed extreme trepidation of the possibility of coming nuclear war. The conference participants stated that “Urgent action is needed to minimize the risk of a nuclear war”.  Some of the signatories include:

Conservative Defense Secretary Lord King

A Labor Party counterpart Lord Browne

Former Foreign Secretaries Margaret Beckett and David Owen

Former NATO Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe, Lord Richards

Former Liberal Democrat leader Sir Menzies Campbell

John McColl, former Chief of the Defense Staff,

Even General James Cartwright, Former Vice-Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, signed the following letter.

The above and other prominent UK leaders stated the following:

“Tensions between nuclear-armed states and alliances in the Euro-Atlantic area and in both South and East Asia remain ripe with the potential for military miscalculation and escalation,” says the letter to Sebastian Kurz, Austria’s Minister for Foreign Affairs.

“In a vestige of the Cold War, too many nuclear weapons in the world remain ready to launch on short notice, greatly increasing the chances of an accident.

“This fact gives leaders faced with an imminent potential threat an insufficient amount of time to communicate with each other and act with prudence.”

“There should also be better crisis management in “conflict hotspots” and new security measures, warning that stockpiles were “insufficiently secure, making them possible targets for terrorism”.

The above is a chicken-little, Neville Chamberlain type of proclamation which is telling the United States that we will not be supported as world events move toward World War III. America will soon be alone.

The Eurasian Economic Union (EAU)

The developments in Russian gas deals has given rise to resurrection of a major portion of the old Soviet Union. Just like the mythical Phoenix, the old Soviet Union is attempting to rise out of the ashes. The EAU is a proposed economic union of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia. On November 18, 2011, the leaders of  Belaurus, Kazakhstan and Russia signed an agreement, setting a target of establishing the Eurasian Union by 2015. Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan have expressed interest in joining as well as has Belarus’ neighbor to the immediate south, Ukraine. Isn’t it interesting that Georgia’s Prime Minister, Bidzina Ivanishvili, stated in September of 2013 that they were also examining the advantages of acceding to the EAU. Also in September of 2013, Armenia has announced its intention to join the EAU. This union cannot be allowed to happen by the West because it will tip the balance of power in the world.

Putin’s Red Dawn “Checkmate America” Strategy

Putin and Ortega

Not only has Putin undermined NATO and is strategically leaving America alone to fend for itself, he is quickly putting together a quick strike team from which to militarily invade the United States. As this crisis moves forward, it is amazing how accurate the Red Dawn movie of the 1980’s was almost 30 years ago. Amazingly, Obama has not done one thing to counter the following Latin American Russian military alliance being constructed to invade the United States.

1. According to a March 2014 report by the Strategic Culture Foundation, a progressive, pro-Russian think tank, Nicaragua’s quoted former Sandista leader, Daniel Ortega, who reinstalled himself in 2007 as the Nicaraguan leader stated that  “We are very grateful and very much appreciate the Russian people’s support of our country.” Ortega has accepted the arrival of two Russian strategic bombers and added that more will be on the way as Russia announced that Nicaragua has announced that it will accept routine Russian patrols in both its Caribbean and Pacific ports as well as participating in the joint training of military personnel. Russia and Nicaragua have moved in the direction of a strategic economic and military relationship.

2. Argentinean President, Cristina Fernández is determined to develop close economic relations with Russia as the left-wing liberal Argentinean leader has invited Russia to invest in fuel projects in an obvious attack upon the Petrodollar. Fernandez also cut a deal with Putin which supports Russia’s grab of Crimea in exchange for Russia’s support of Argentina’s quest to annex the Falkland Islands.

Putin and Correa

3-5. Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa praised Russia as a “great nation”, while visiting Moscow in October of 2013. Putin was indeed praise-worthy because he promised to invest $1.5 billion into new domestic energy projects in Ecuador. Correa also stated that his country was planning on buying Russian military equipment. Russia has signed several billion dollars of contracts with Venezuela and supplies Bolivia, among other countries from the region with military weapons. The military package includes attack aircraft and helicopters.

6. Brazilian Defense Minister Celso Amorim, stated that “More than buying military equipment, what we are seeking with Russia is a strategic partnership based on the joint development of technology.” Amorim’s statement is consistent with the fact that Brazil, South America’s most populous nation, has announced that it is planning to purchase short-to-medium-range surface-to-air Pantsir S1 missile batteries and Igla-S shoulder-held missiles from Russia. Previously, Brazil has purchased 12 Mi-35 attack helicopters. Russia and Brazil have also signed an agreement for Brazil to acquire 36 attack aircraft. Amorim said Russia and Brazil would also look at working together on space technology and on defense against cyber attacks, an area that has become a Brazilian priority since disclosures that the NSA  has spied on Brazilians, their president and the country’s largest oil company. Russia is marrying their military with Brazil and Brazil could become Russia’s space partner in “killing” America satellites.

7.  Newly elected El Salvadorian President, Sanchez Ceren, has signed an agreement with Putin entitled “Federal Law On Ratification of the Agreement on the Foundations of Relations” which pledges economic and military cooperation. Ceren, is a self-declared Marxist-Leninist and is considered to be very-anti American.

Leaders from the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) and Russia declared their intention to establish a means of continuous dialogue “to discuss and synchronize positions on international issues.” CELAC includes thirty-three countries in the Americas, but the United States and Canada are excluded. This is the breeding ground of a “Red Dawn Scenario”.

Putin and Castro

8. Pravda quotes Putin as stating that Russia had obtained the consent of the Cuban leadership to place “the latest mobile strategic nuclear missiles on the Island…”  Recently, the Russians surprisingly docked a Russian spy ship in Havana. This is the Cuban Missile Crisis revisited!

Conclusion

The year 2015 looms large as this is the target date for Putin to complete the construction of the EAU and form an alliance with the other BRIC nations. This means that a war will likely take place prior to the end of 2015 or in early 2016. This war will undoubtedly be nuclear with the losing side resorting to the nuclear option.

To my fellow Americans, it is easy to fall in love with Putin and declare him a hero because he is opposing the IMF and the World Bank. However, if Putin has his way, he will become America’s worst nightmare. Putin is under the control of the banksters at the highest level. The Bankers from Basel want World War III. Putin and Obama are merely pawns in the same scheme. What most of us do not realize is that there is the central banking cartel and then there are the people who really run finance on this planet. The central banks, such as the Federal Reserve, are merely mid-level managers which were created to serve a purpose. The coming conflict is about the preservation of central banking as an international element of control. The real power on this planet are above central banking and are pushing the world towards an eventual war of unification.

A subsequent World War III will wipe out all competing economies and out of chaos will come order, the New World Order. We are about to witness an old-fashioned cockfight while the real power brokers are sitting back and waiting for nature to take its course.

Why hasn’t Obama moved to counter Putin’s moves with regard to the energy encirclement of the United States? If Obama were truly representing the people, he would have done so multiple times. Instead, he spends his time on the golf course while Russia encircles America both economically and militarily. If America was truly to be outmaneuvered by Putin from an energy standpoint and the ruination of the Petrodollar and the American economy were at hand, the time to have launched a war against Putin would have been before NATO began to fragment. I can draw no other conclusion than this President is part of the plot and he is fulfilling his Manchurian Candidate mission of undermining America’s chance to prevail in World War III. There is a good chance that America may be forced to capitulate without firing a shot and the “dreams of Obama’s REAL father will be realized”.

Credit to Common Sense

Sanctioned Russian banks begin testing national payment system next week

Russia’s Rossiya and SMP banks, which fell under Western sanctions, are among the eight lenders that will start testing the country’s new national payment system on December 15.

"The pilot project involves SMP Bank and Rossiya Bank, those for which the story is very critical and important. These are quite large banks,” the head of the Russian National payment system (NPS) Vladimir Komlev said in an interview with Rossiya 24 TV.

The move comes as a part of Russia’s ambitious initiative to move away from the Western dominance of its financial markets. Last month the Russian Central Bank said it would have its own international inter-bank payment system, an alternative to the global SWIFT network up and running by May 2015.

Gazprombank, Rosbank, Alfa Bank and Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development are among eight other banks to join the pilot project. They were selected based on the size of business, location and technology platform, Komlev said.

Another bank involved in NPS testing is Russia’s second largest VTB. Recently its management has been vocal about the need to make Russia’s financial system more self-sufficient and ditch the US Dollar, Vedomosti reports.

Credit to RT

NATO Intercepts Russian Bombers Over Baltic Sea

BRUSSELS — NATO warplanes intercepted a “significant” force of six Russian nuclear-capable bombers over the Baltic Sea, the alliance said in the latest such encounter amid tensions with Moscow over Ukraine.

Four Tu-95 Bear strategic bombers and two Tu-22M Backfire long-range bombers were intercepted in international airspace by Portuguese F-16 fighter jets assigned to NATO, spokeswoman Oana Lungescu said.

Lungescu said that while most intercepts carried out over the Baltic are “routine,” the intercept of the six bombers “represented a significant level of activity by Russia.”

In two other incidents later on Sunday, NATO warplanes intercepted a total of seven Russian military aircraft, including Tu-134s used for training and moving passengers as well as An-72 transport aircraft, Lungescu said.

“Such activity can be destabilizing and potentially dangerous, if international norms are not respected,” Lungescu warned.

She was referring to times when Russian warplanes do not communicate their positions or provide flight plans, putting at risk commercial airliners flying in the vicinity.

NATO has reported a surge in such intercepts since the crisis in Ukraine erupted earlier this year, at levels not seen since the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the West.

Alliance chief Jens Stoltenberg said there have been around 400 intercepts of Russian military flights near its member countries this year, 50 percent more than last year.

The US-led military alliance has deployed more aircraft as well as more ships and personnel in a bid to reassure newer members like the Baltic states and Poland, which were once ruled from Moscow and are unnerved by Russia’s intervention in Ukraine.




Credit to Defence News

Russian Media Warns Of World War 3 Over U.S. Resolution 758

Russian media is already warning that the recently-passed House Resolution 758 could lead to “all-out” war if the U.S. Senate were to pass similar legislation. While President Barack Obama has yet to offer lethal aid and weapons to Ukraine, Canada has already announced they will provide military assistance outside the constraints of NATO.

In a related report by the Inquisitr, Ron Paul believes that a “reckless” Congress has essentially declared war on Vladimir Putin and Russia based upon Resolution 758. Fears of World War 3 were stoked when Russian fighter jets faced off against NATO jets in blitz designed to be a “show of force” by Vladimir Putin.

House Resolution 758 officially calls upon President Obama “to provide the Government of Ukraine with lethal and non-lethal defense articles, services, and training required to effectively defend its territory and sovereignty.” It’s possible that the current Democratic majority in the U.S. Senate, led by Harry Reid, will block similar legislation from passing the Senate, but John McCain has already promised to pass a similar resolution in 2015.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich claims that supplying lethal aid to Ukraine would be a direct violation of the Geneva Agreements. In addition, Russian media funded by the government has published an editorial that attempts to refute House Resolution 758. RT even goes so far as to claim that the United States is provoking World War 3 by bring the United States one step closer to an “all-out” war with Russia.

“The opening paragraph of HR 758 accuses Russia of conducting an “invasion of Ukraine” and violating its territorial sovereignty…. There are many more such preposterous claims and dangerous demands in HR 758, yet the document has been greeted with a deafening silence in the United States by the corporate-owned media,” the article from RT.com states. “Before the US Senate votes on HR758, it should ask itself these simple questions, otherwise it risks stirring up a hornet’s nest of problems the world does not need.”

Recently, Canadian Defense Minister Rob Nicholson announced this week that Canada will send Canadian soldiers into Ukraine in order to provide training, including security measures and battlefield medicine. The declaration of intent was made independent of NATO and it’s not considered a legally binding treaty under international, but it does stop short of providing lethal aid and weapons to Ukraine. Still, the Canadian declaration does resemble elements of the U.S. House Resolution 758.

“Russia has flagrantly violated the territorial integrity of Ukraine and continues its efforts to intimidate and undermine the democratically elected government in Kiev,” the declaration reads. “Canada and Ukraine are committed to continue working together to strengthen the capacity of the Ukrainian government and its security forces to defend Ukraine’s territorial integrity and its people. We declare our intent to continue working together to explore ways in which to build upon these gains, particularly as concerns defense capacity-building through the provision of general support training such as military police, medical and personal protective measures.”

The Ukrainian government in Kiev continues to seek lethal aid from NATO member countries. While both the United States and Canada have rejected calls to send lethal aid into Ukraine, both countries would be obligated by NATO treaties to respond with military force if Russia’s actions were to ever violate Article V of NATO’s Washington Treaty, which declares that “an attack on one is an attack on all.” At the same time, others feel that it’s the U.S. and NATO who are the aggressors in the Ukraine crisis, not Russia or Vladimir Putin.


Credit to Inquisitr
Read more at http://www.inquisitr.com/1668419/russian-media-warns-of-world-war-3-over-u-s-resolution-758-canada-offers-military-aid-to-ukraine/#bfvmQEZSgewW85LC.99