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Barely a few hundred yards inside NATO’s jittery eastern border with Russia, a high school teacher asked students in his social studies class this week to address a topic of paramount importance for their future: the election of Donald J. Trump as the next president of the United States.
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“If World War III starts, we will be the first to know about it,” said one of the students in the 12th-grade class who, in keeping with school policy, gave only his first name, Nikita. Odd though it may seem, in view of the threat that a newly aggressive Russia may pose, he and many other students in this Russian-speaking town welcomed Mr. Trump’s victory because, they said, the billionaire wanted to cut a deal with Moscow and calm tensions.
Jurgen, another student in the class, described Hillary Clinton as a menace because she “wants war with Russia,” adding: “Trump wants friendship. In a war, we would be just in the way.”
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Students in Mr. Mazur’s class laughed uproariously when asked whether they would ever want to live in a place like Ivangorod, the decrepit Russian town on the other side of the Narva River.
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In a surprise move, Sweden today announced that they will reintroduce truck-based coastal defense batteries equipped with the Saab RBS15 heavy-anti ship missile. This is not a new system for Sweden, which operated exactly such a unit for five years between 1995 and 2000. This was then rapidly disbanded in the general drawdown of the Swedish Defense Forces.
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The interesting part is that Sweden at very short notice has decided to introduce a new(ish) weapon system with a very limited operational life span of just five to ten years, after which it will have to be replaced with a new missile.
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The fact that this significantly heightens the Swedish Defense Forces ability to defend their home waters is great news for Finland as well, as this is one place where our supply lines would be vulnerable to intercept without the Finnish Navy or Air Force being able to do something. However, this also causes a very uncomfortable question to pop up again:
What does the Swedish Commander-in-Chief know, that our politicians pretend they don’t?
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Peter Rutland is Professor of Government at Wesleyan University and currently Leverhulme Visiting Professor at the University of Manchester in England, where he is working on the project, "Visualizing the Nation." He is the editor in chief of Nationalities Papers and associate editor of Russian Review. His recent articles cover topics such as neoliberalism in Russia, oil and national identity, and Russian soft power. His research is available on the Wesleyan website.
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Marten says KGB was never reformed, no lustration. Yeltsin didn't go to bat on this.
Marten says kompromat has played a central role in Russia's KGB past. Siloviki' power today suggests that they have kompromat on Putin.
"Opacity of rule"—KGB never took top spots in Soviet power institutions. That KGB officers are deputies doesn't mean they're not in charge.
Marten asks why the FSB has come to the forefront in Russia, not the foreign intelligence, like during Soviet times.
Marten says Putin had a strong rivalry with Evgeny Primakov, who likely packed the SVR with people hostile to Putin.
Marten says institutional rivalry among Russian siloviki will continue. (Maybe that's why Putin wanted National Guard—not for protesters.)
Taylor's 3 claims: (1) siloviki aren't a cohesive group, (2) they won't defend the regime w/ violence, (3) reactive in defending status quo.
Taylor says Russian siloviki can be counted on for "low-intensity coercion" (harassing opposition), but not "high-intensity" (death squads).
Taylor says the Kadyrovtsy do, however, have the ideological ties necessary for high-intensity force in a regime crisis situation.
Marten says Putin's St. Petersburg clan has escaped any crackdown, likely because they all have kompromat on Putin and each other.
If the crackdown hits any of them, expect a major kompromat war, with all kinds of secrets being leaked, Marten says.
Knight says Putin might allow @Navalny to run against him as a "paper tiger." "Frankly, I'm surprised Navalny is still alive," she says.
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Marion Maréchal-Le Pen meeting Russian right-wing extremists during her visit to Moscow: http://tinyurl.com/jm8y9xw
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Following Maréchal-Le Pen's visit to Moscow, now the Italian far right Lega Nord is there
https://www.facebook.com/anton.shekhovtsov/posts/10208040243179679
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"They’ve made contact!” says Russian State TV. Kiselev jokes: after the Putin/Trump telephone call “Europe feels like an abandoned lover”
Kiselev mocks Obama’s trip to Europe to “console” leaders: “Obama’s like a eunuch, he can’t do anything, he can’t even promise anything”
“Farewell!” is the headline. I suspect Russian TV means Obama. But is Moscow thinking Merkel, too? German elections next year.
Tonight Russian State TV described Trump as “an alpha male". It called Obama "a eunuch". Moscow’s position clear, I think.
In earlier version of Vesti Nedeli for eastern Russia, Kiselev said Obama "waved his arms like in the jungle". Omitted from Moscow version.
A pol ti je ok, ko so pred zid postavili naše petokolonašeCitat:
Uporabnik 8888 pravi:
Kar misli si. Balti bodo svoje petokolonaše spravili pred zid, tako kot so jih med drugo sv. vojno!
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How Romanian People Power Took On Mining and Corruption
One doesn’t usually think of the southeast corner of Europe as a hotbed of citizen dissent and mobilization. Yet people power in the region has been on the rise in recent years, producing some impressive outcomes. This has been most notable in Romania, where grassroots action has challenged corrupt political-economic interests, undone a toxic gold mining project, and put teeth back into the country’s democracy.
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It took the fallout from the 2008 global economic crisis to stir Romanians to action. Against a background of harsh austerity, the government’s usual cronyism and graft became too much to bear. Corruption was hitting home. Public fury catalyzed around the resignation of a respected deputy health minister, Raed Arafat, who had opposed the government’s plans to partially privatize the health care system. On January 12, 2012, demonstrations against privatization, corruption and government incompetence took place in the country’s major cities, occasionally resulting in violent confrontations between police and demonstrators. Five days later, Arafat was reinstated, the privatization plans were shelved, and the government resigned. Many people pinned their hopes for reform on the Social Democratic opposition party, which won both local and national elections that year and propelled Victor Ponta, a former prosecutor, to the prime minister’s office. The party’s success was based on its promises to revoke some of the austerity measures introduced by the previous government, such as a 25 percent wage cut for public servants.
But it soon became clear that little had changed. During his campaign, Prime Minister Ponta had repeatedly criticized a controversial gold mining project near the quaint mountain village of Rosia Montana, vowing to subject it to a fully transparent and open reevaluation if elected. But in 2013, within eight months of taking office, he reneged on this key election promise.
What happened next shows what’s possible when a small group of citizens overcomes apathy and marginalization, manages to grow its support, and joins forces with allies to grow into a nationwide movement that challenges some of a country’s most powerful entrenched interests.
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dooolga solata o dogajanju med l. 1995 in 2013
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The turning point came on August 27, 2013, when Prime Minister Ponta’s administration submitted a draft law to Parliament that would give RMGC the power to expropriate property for the mining project, including the houses and buildings of the villages slated for destruction.
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The next day, four seasoned activists chained themselves to a fence surrounding a government building in Bucharest to voice their opposition to the proposed law. A social media campaign joined in, and people took to the streets with banners, drums, loudspeakers, and tents. Soon protesters were occupying Constitution Square in front of the Parliament, and on September 8, a huge crowd rallied in the square, chanting slogans such as “corporations don’t make the laws” and “the revolution begins with Rosia Montana.”
Various loosely connected organizers developed an innovative tactic. They decided to hold weekly marches throughout Bucharest, not only in the center but also in far-flung neighborhoods. Since local media companies had lucrative advertising contracts with RMGC, there was little coverage of the protests. Activists decided that it was essential to circumvent them by reaching out directly to the city’s residents. Once it became impossible to ignore the emerging movement, mainly referred to as “Save Rosia Montana,” the media tried to discredit it by presenting the protesters as unemployed vagrants, drug addicts, or stooges of Hungarian-American billionaire George Soros, a frequent focus of conspiracy theories in Romania. His Open Society Foundation was active in Romania at the time and sided with the cause.
The protesters’ main demands were for parliament to reject the RMGC bill, to ban cyanide mining and shale gas extraction, and to add Rosia Montana to the country’s list of UNESCO World Heritage sites. They called for the resignation of top officials, including the ministers of culture and of the environment, as well as of Prime Minister Ponta himself.
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Solidarity demonstrations, some involving the Romanian diaspora, were organized in the United States, Germany, Greece, France, and England. International figures, from Prince Charles to Woody Harrelson, also expressed support.
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The Save Rosia Montana campaign ultimately became the biggest movement of its kind in Romania’s post-communist history. The political establishment was overwhelmed by citizens’ sustained collective outrage. On June 14, 2014 the Parliament bowed to public pressure and rejected the RMGC bill. In 2016, Minister of Culture Vlad Alexandrescu vowed to put an end to cyanide gold mining once and for all. He declared Rosia Montana to be a historic site of national interest and put it on the UNESCO Heritage Site list, thereby prohibiting all mining in the area. He also urged the National Anti-Corruption Directorate to investigate the entire RMCG deal. (To date, however, this has not happened.)
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What can we conclude from Romania’s people power awakening? First, when democratic institutions are compromised and representative democracy itself fails to deliver, citizens do have recourse. Second, taking action is hard and often involves personal and financial sacrifices. Thus, the potential for bottom-up mobilization increases when corruption affects daily life, or when elites are so venal that public indignation becomes widespread.
Finally, we learn that a political establishment as compromised as Romania’s cannot easily fix itself. The Rosia Montana mining project demonstrated how vested interests (including the media, local officials, and even national politicians) who benefit from graft and abuse will try to circumvent rule of law and democratic processes. Therein lies the strategic contribution of extra-institutional pressure. Grassroots mobilization can disrupt the corrupt status quo, and more generally, support those on the inside who are working for change or those who seek to move into the government in the hopes of transforming it.
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Uporabnik Pac_Man pravi:
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Uporabnik Pac_Man pravi:
Super, ruski skrajni desničarji, kot kaže z državno pomočjo, pripravljajo teroristične napade v Črni Gori.
Zdaj je s položaja odletel še Leonid Rešetnikov, en bolj vplivnih predstavnikov Malofeeve ultrakonzervativne linije.
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Serbia has been offered six Russian Mikoyan MiG-29 multirole fighters and armored vehicles at a huge discount according to defense analyst Miroslav Lazanski. The analyst’s comments came amid unconfirmed reports that Moscow is ostensibly planning to transfer weapons to Belgrade.
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“These aircraft could cost more than $100 million, but we will receive them for approximately $20 million if we take into account repair costs as outlined by Russia. In other words, Russia is planning to give us approximately $80 million as a gift,” the expert added.
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Pac-Man
# 31.10.2016 ob 13:11
Amaterski false flag? Koliko so plačali Patruševu, da je nepričakovano priletel v Beograd?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Patrushev
Najverjetneje so srbski obveščevalci odkrili nekaj velikega in za kazen nagnali domov par ruskih vohunov z diplomatsko krinko. Patrušev je prišel sanirat konflikt, od uspeha pa je odvisno ali so bodo odnosi RU-SRB ohladili ali pa lahko pričakujemo rusko odkupnino za povzročene probleme. Ekonomske investicije, morda poceni migi 29?