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Collective defense partnership: Russia, Abkhazia sign alliance

http://rt.com/news/208327-ruissia-abkha ... ce-treaty/

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Russia Mistral: France halts delivery indefinitely

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-30190069

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unir os pontos

http://mfa.gov.ua/en/press-center/inter ... e-involved

“We are absolutely sure and we checked yesterday that no missiles have been taken from the Ukrainian army,” said Klimkin.

http://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/m ... 97885.html

Der BND kam zu eindeutigen Ergebnissen: Ukrainische Aufnahmen seien gefälscht, sagte Schindler, das lasse sich anhand von Details erkennen.

"AP Changes Title of Article to Suit Shifting Misinformation Dynamic 07/24/14 but someone noticed..... #MH17





http://www.unian.net/politics/950394-da ... n-gpu.html

В рамках четырехстороннего соглашения, подписанного 8 августа между Украиной, Нидерландами, Бельгией и Австралией, информация о расследовании катастрофы малайзийского “Боинга-777” разглашаться не будет.
Подробности читайте на УНИАН: http://www.unian.net/politics/950394-da ... n-gpu.html

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The Russian president in the TASS special project Top Officials

http://en.itar-tass.com/russia/761152

We’re speaking about developments in Ukraine today and our partners tell us all the time about the importance of observing the territorial integrity of that country. They say that all those fighting for their rights and interests in the east of Ukraine are pro-Russian separatists. While those who fought against us in the Caucasus, including those who did it under al-Qaeda guidance, for its money and with its weapons in the hands and even the al-Qaeda militants involved in combat actions were fighters for democracy. It’s incredible, but it’s a proven fact. We were rebuked for a disproportionate use of force then. We were told then, “You’re firing from tanks and using artillery. It’s no way!” And in Ukraine? Aviation, tanks, heavy artillery, and salvo systems. They’ve even used cluster bombs and ballistic missiles and the latter fact simply defies belief! And no one has said a word about the disproportionate use of force.

- Because it is assumed the Ukrainian troops are counteracting Russia.

Because it is assumed that Russia has interests there but our right to defend them and the people living in those territories is denied.

What are we doing now?

We simply need to calmly implement our agenda. Many say that oil prices are falling, including because a tie-up is possible between traditional producers, in particular, between Saudi Arabia and the United States. They say this is being done specially to sink the Russian economy.
If you talk to specialists now, I mean true specialists and not specialists like me…

- Who are true specialists, if not you?

We have such specialists as the Economic Development Ministry, the Finance Ministry and the Central Bank. What will they tell you? Some things lie on the surface. Look, oil prices have fallen. Why did they fall, by the way? Supply has increased. Libya is producing more, as well as Iraq, no matter how strange it may seem, despite all its problems. Illegal oil has appeared at $30 per barrel, which the Islamic State is selling on the black market. Saudi Arabia has increased extraction. Meanwhile, consumption has contracted due to the period of certain stagnation or, say, slower-than-projected global economic growth. There are fundamental factors. Let’s assume that there are also partners’ purposeful steps on the world energy market. Can we presume this? Yes, we can. What is the result? This leads to the depreciation of the ruble, our national currency. This is one of the factors, not the sole one, but one of them. And what does this mean for the Russian budget? We don’t calculate the budget in dollars. The ruble’s value has fallen and it has depreciated a little.

- By a third.

 By 30 percent... But look: we earlier sold a product that was worth one dollar and got 32 rubles for it. And now we’ll get 45 rubles for the same product costing one dollar. Budget revenues have increased and not decreased. Yes, certain corridors and curbs exist related to the fact that the situation is deteriorating for production sectors and enterprises oriented to purchases abroad with foreign currency. But this is not so for the budget and we’re confidently resolving social problems. This also relates to the tasks of the defense industry. Russia has its own base for import substitution. Thank God, we have inherited a lot from the previous generations and we have also done much in the past 15 years for the industry’s modernization. Does this do us damage? Partial but not fatal. If deliberate efforts are being taken to lower energy prices, they also affect those who introduce these constraints.
Contemporary world is interdependent. This does not at all mean that the sanctions, a sharp fall in oil prices and the depreciation of the national currency will bring about negative results or disastrous consequences solely for us. Nothing of this kind will happen! Problems arise, they are present and they will increase, deteriorating the situation but not only in Russia but also in our partners’ countries, including in oil and gas producing countries. We talk about falling oil prices. This occurs, among other things, because the United States has started to extract shale oil and shale gas. The US now provides itself with its own raw materials to a considerable extent. Not fully so far, but to a considerable extent. But what is the breakeven point of this production? It differs in various regions of the United States. Estimates range from $65 per barrel to $83. Now the oil price has fallen below $80 per barrel. Shale gas production is becoming unprofitable. Perhaps, the Saudis specially want to “kill” their rivals…

But this does not mean we don’t have corruption. We constantly speak about it ourselves. I believe this is one of very serious problems, which we have inherited from the past when the administration at any level thought it had the right to do everything and no one could have the right to encroach on its powers and control it somehow. But then something else was added to this, which only aggravated the situation. I mean non-transparent privatization. This was awful and this was a big mistake. We’re all clever persons with hindsight. Perhaps those who made decisions then would have now done many things differently. Incidentally, this was also in the 1990s when the Europeans told us that we needn’t listen to American experts. But we went along this road… The non-transparent privatization made people think: well, if some are allowed to steal billions from the state, then why can’t we take away something cheaper? Why some are allowed and others are not?

-You are talking about the 1990s but we are living in late 2014.

But mentally all this has remained and has never got out of people’s minds...
There is also another aspect. When decisions were taken on the creation of market mechanisms and the functioning of society’s democratic institutions, we somehow forgot that democracy and a careless attitude to law were different stories. Law has to be observed by everyone. There is no unbridgeable abyss between a market economy and state regulation. Incidentally, as soon as crisis manifestations emerge, everyone recalls the state. But it is not even a matter of the principles of building economic life. The point is that we failed to create control instruments during the transition to a market economy.
Sometimes, we have to observe strange situations even at large joint stock companies. It is believed that owners won’t steal from themselves. This is hardly so! They steal in large amounts. Why? Those who hold a controlling stake don’t very much want to share with minority shareholders. That is why, they create hundreds of schemes for the withdrawal of resources from companies. And this can be observed in many spheres!
We’ll have not only to tighten fiscal policy or law-enforcement sanctions. We need educative work and work for creating an effective, modern and certainly market system of relations in the economy, which should actually limit a possibility of the emergence of corruption. We need to work on this, look at world best practices and introduce them. Of course, this requires time, efforts, persistence and the will but we have no other way.

- And there should be no untouchable persons.

I absolutely agree with you, this is one of the components.

Is the president’s chair forever with you?

 No. This is not good and detrimental for the country and I do not need it as well. There are terms defined by the Russian Constitution. I believe it is important to observe requirements stipulated by the supreme law. We will see what the situation will be like, but in any case the term of my work is restricted by the Constitution.

- But the Constitution allows re-election in 2018.

 Yes it indeed allows but it does not mean that I will make such decision. I will proceed from the general context, domestic understanding and my personal feelings. Isn’t it too early to think about it right now? We are still in the year of 2014, and you are talking of 2018. There’s much time ahead and a lot can change…

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Remarks by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at the XXII Assembly of the Council on Foreign and Defence Policy, Moscow, 22 November 2014

http://www.mid.ru/brp_4.nsf/0/24454A08D ... 9A004BA32E

Naturally, I will start with Ukraine. Long before the country was plunged into the crisis, there was a feeling in the air that Russia’s relations with the EU and with the West were about to reach their moment of truth. It was clear that we could no longer continue to put issues in our relations on the back burner and that a choice had to be made between a genuine partnership or, as the saying goes, “breaking pots.” It goes without saying that Russia opted for the former alternative, while unfortunately our Western partners settled for the latter, whether consciously or not. In fact, they went all out in Ukraine and supported extremists, thereby giving up their own principles of democratic regime change. What came out of it was an attempt to play chicken with Russia, to see who blinks first. As bullies say, they wanted to Russia to “chicken out” (I can’t find a better word for it), to force us to swallow the humiliation of Russians and native speakers of Russian in Ukraine.

We hear the daily repeated mantra that Washington is aware of its own exclusiveness and its duty to bear this burden, to lead the rest of the world. Rudyard Kipling spoke about “the white man’s burden.” I hope that this is not what drives Americans. The world today is not white or black, but multi-coloured and heterogeneous. Leadership in this world can be assured not by persuading oneself of one’ exclusiveness and God-given duty to be responsible for everyone, but only by the ability and craft in forming a consensus. If the US partners committed their power to this goal, this would be priceless, and Russia would be actively helping them.

However, so far, US administrative resources still work only in the NATO framework, and then with substantial reservations, and its writ does not reach beyond the North Atlantic Alliance. One proof of this is the results of US attempts to make the world community follow its line in connection with the anti-Russian sanctions and principles. I have spoken about it more than once and we have ample proof of the fact that American ambassadors and envoys across the world seek meetings at the highest level to argue that the corresponding countries are obliged to punish Russia together with them or else face the consequences. This is done with regard to all countries, including our closest allies (this speaks volumes about the kind of analysts Washington has). An overwhelming majority of the states with which we have a continuing dialogue without any restrictions and isolation, as you see, value Russia’s independent role in the international arena. Not because they like it when somebody challenges the Americans, but because they realise that the world order will not be stable if nobody is allowed to speak his mind (although privately the overwhelming majority do express their opinion, but they do not want to do so publicly for fear of Washington’s reprisals).

Many reasonable analysts understand that there is a widening gap between the global ambitions of the US Administration and the country’s real potential. The world is changing and, as has always happened in history, at some point somebody’s influence and power reach their peak and then somebody begins to develop still faster and more effectively. One should study history and proceed from realities. The seven developing economies headed by BRICS already have a bigger GDP than the Western G7. One should proceed from the facts of life, and not from a misconceived sense of one’s own grandeur.

It has become fashionable to argue that Russia is waging a kind of “hybrid war” in Crimea and in Ukraine. It is an interesting term, but I would apply it above all to the United States and its war strategy – it is truly a hybrid war aimed not so much at defeating the enemy militarily as at changing the regimes in the states that pursue a policy Washington does not like. It is using financial and economic pressure, information attacks, using others on the perimeter of a corresponding state as proxies and of course information and ideological pressure through externally financed non-governmental organisations. Is it not a hybrid process and not what we call war? It would be interesting to discuss the concept of the hybrid war to see who is waging it and is it only about “little green men.”

So far, those who are not guided by real problems, but rather by a desire to quickly grab things from freshly turned up ground. It is deplorable. Exporting revolutions – be they democratic, communist or others – never brings any good.

State, public and civilisational structures are actually disintegrating in the MENA region. The destructive energy released in the process can scorch states that are located far beyond this region. Terrorists (including the Islamic State) are claiming a national status. Moreover, they are already beginning to create quasi-governmental bodies there that engage in the administrative work.

On this backdrop, minorities, including Christians, are banished. In Europe, these issues are deemed not politically correct. They are ashamed when we invite them to do something about it together at the OSCE. They wonder why would we focus specifically on Christians? How is that special? The OSCE has held a series of events dedicated to keeping memories about the Holocaust and its victims alive. A few years ago, the OSCE started holding events against Islamophobia. We will be offering an analysis of the processes leading to Christianophobia.

On 4-5 December, OSCE ministerial meetings will be held in Basel, where we will present this proposal. The majority of EU member states elude this topic, because they are ashamed to talk about it. Just as they were ashamed to include in what was then the EU constitution drafted by Valery Giscard d'Estaing a phrase that Europe has Christian roots.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said at the Valdai Club meeting in Sochi that we need a new version of interdependence. This was a very topical statement. The leading powers must return to the negotiating table and agree on a new framework that takes into account the basic legitimate interests of all the key parties (I can’t tell you what it should be called, but it should be based on the UN Charter), to agree on reasonable self-imposed restrictions and collective risk management in a system of international relations underpinned by democratic values. Our Western partners promote respect for the rule of law, democracy and minority opinion within countries, while failing to stand up for the same values in international affairs. This leaves Russia as a pioneer in promoting democracy, justice and rule of international law. A new world order can only be polycentric and should reflect the diversity of cultures and civilisations in today’s world.

You are aware of Russia’s commitment to ensuring indivisibility of security in international affairs and holding it in international law. I won’t elaborate on this.

I would like to support the point the SVOP has been making that Russia won’t succeed in becoming a major, successful and confident power of the 21st century without developing its eastern regions. Sergei Karaganov was among the first to conceptualise this idea, and I fully agree. Taking Russia’s relations with the Asia Pacific countries to a new level is an absolute priority. Russia worked along these lines at the Beijing APEC meeting and the G20 forum. We will continue moving in this direction in the new environment created by the upcoming launch of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) on 1 January 2015.

We have been treated as “subhumans.” For over a decade, Russia has been trying to establish partnership ties with NATO through CSTO. These efforts were not just about putting NATO and CSTO “in the same league.” As a matter of fact, CSTO is focused on catching drug dealers and illegal migrants around the Afghan border, and the North-Atlantic Treaty Organisation is the backbone of the international security forces, which, among other things, were tasked with fighting the terrorist threat and eliminating its financing schemes, which involve drug trafficking. We tried everything: we pleaded and then demanded real-time contact, so that once NATO detects a caravan transporting drugs and is unable to stop it, it alerts us across the border, so that this caravan could be intercepted by CSTO forces. They simply refused to talk to us. In private conversations, our NATO well-wishers (and I actually mean this in the positive way) told us that the alliance can’t view CSTO as an equal partner for ideological reasons. Until recently, we saw the same condescending and arrogant attitude with respect to the Eurasian economic integration. And that despite the fact that countries intending to join the EAEU have much more in common in terms of their economies, history and culture than many EU members. This union is not about creating barriers with anyone. We always stress how open this union is expected to be. I strongly believe that it will make a significant contribution to building a bridge between Europe and Asia Pacific.

I can’t fail to mention Russia’s comprehensive partnership with China. Important bilateral decisions have been taken, paving the way to an energy alliance between Russia and China. But there’s more to it. We can now even talk about the emerging technology alliance between the two countries. Russia’s tandem with Beijing is a crucial factor for ensuring international stability and at least some balance in international affairs, as well as ensuring the rule of international law. We will make full use of our relations with India and Vietnam, Russia’s strategic partners, as well as the ASEAN countries. We are also open to expanding cooperation with Japan, if our Japanese neighbours can look at their national interests and stop looking back at some overseas powers.

There is no doubt that the European Union is our largest collective partner. No one intends to “shoot himself in the foot” by renouncing cooperation with Europe, although it is now clear that business as usual is no longer an option. This is what our European partners are telling us, but neither do we want to operate the old way. They believed that Russia owed them something, while we want to be on an equal footing. For this reason, things will never be the same again. That said, I’m confident that we will be able to overcome this period, lessons will be learned and a new foundation for our relations will emerge.

The idea of creating a single economic and humanitarian space from Lisbon to Vladivostok can now be heard here and there and is gaining traction. Germany’s Foreign Minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, has said publicly (while we have been saying it for a long time) that the EU and the EAEU should engage in dialogue. The statement President Vladimir Putin made in Brussels in January 2014, when he proposed the first step by launching negotiations on a free-trade zone between the EU and the Customs Union with an eye on 2020, is no longer viewed as something exotic. All of this has already become part of diplomacy and real politics. Although this is so far only a matter of discussion, I strongly believe that we will one day achieve what is called “the integration of integrations.” This is one of the key topics we want to promote within the OSCE at the Ministerial Council in Basel.

Russia is about to assume BRICS and SCO presidency. The two organisations will hold their summits in Ufa. These are very promising organisations for the new age. They are not blocks (especially BRICS), but groups where members share the same interests, representing countries from all continents that share common approaches regarding the future of the global economy, finance and politics.

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Putin drops South Stream gas pipeline to EU and courts Turkey instead

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/12/0 ... XE20141201

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Russia, Iran Serious About Bypassing Dollar, Boosting Economic Integration

http://russia-insider.com/en/business/2 ... l_national

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Presidential Address to the Federal Assembly

http://eng.kremlin.ru/news/23341

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http://rt.com/news/211599-ruble-oil-sanctions-russia/

West behind falling ruble, oil prices - Russian spy chief

Washington and its allies are pursuing a regime change policy towards Russia, deliberately introducing sanctions and attacking the ruble through manipulation of world oil prices, the head of Russia's external intelligence agency has said.

He also attributed the more than 30 percent drop in oil price partly to US actions. Lower prices on one of Russia's main exports placed immense pressure on the ruble, which is also suffering from sanctions. The ruble has lost 39 percent of its value against the dollar so far this year.

"The government knows who these profiteers are. It is time to do something about them," Vladimir Putin said during his 11th state of the nation address in the Kremlin’s St. George’s Hall in Moscow.

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Grandmaster Putin's Golden Trap

http://www.gold-eagle.com/article/grand ... olden-trap

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Russia's Military Will Get Bigger and Better in 2015

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/ ... 12753.html


France Gives Russia 'Last Chance' to Negotiate With West – Experts

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/arti ... 12756.html

[Alvalade]

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Russia creates new missile defense systems

http://rbth.co.uk/news/2014/12/08/russi ... 42050.html


Russia, India to sign strategic, 15-year nuclear energy cooperation agreement

http://rbth.co.uk/news/2014/12/09/russi ... 42080.html


Russia to secure its role of reliable energy supplier to Asian markets — Putin

http://itar-tass.com/en/economy/766040

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Oil Prices and Energy Wars: The Empire of Frack versus Russia

http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2 ... ussia.html