Russian Economy Minister Cites Lenin Saying ‘The Era Of Peace Is Over’ (Source Business Insider)

Russia’s economy minister Alexei Ulyukayev borrowed a quote from communist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin in his speech to the Gaidar Forum in Moscow today. Ulyukayev cited the founder of the Soviet Union as he told guests at the economic summit that the era of peace is over to be “replaced by an era of relatively much more impulsive, spasmodic, disastrous, conflict”, according to Russian business daily Vedomosti. However, he assured his audience that there was “no reason to panic” because the Russian budget is healthier than it was in 2008. He advised people to look after their loved ones rather than worry about oil prices and sanctions. The minister’s comment comes after months of turmoil for the country, as oil prices have plunged by more than 50% since June last year. Russia is still heavily reliant on the commodity to fund its government budget and fuel economic growth. Moreover, the country has also been battered by a combination of Western economic sanctions that have frozen a number of large Russian companies out of international markets, and tit-for-tat sanctions imposed by Moscow on Western goods that have helped drive inflation up to 11.2% in December.

Putin’s view of power was formed watching East Germany collapse (Source theguardian.com)

Twenty-five years ago tumultuous scenes were unfolding in the East German city of Dresden: inside the central station, tens of thousands of people clashed violently with police, army and Stasi forces. And the chances are high that a 36-year-old KGB officer named Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin would have followed the chaos with his own eyes. Inside East Germany, just south of Dresden, would-be refugees were stuck on the southern borders of their unloved state. Instead of going home, they started protesting in large numbers. And more East Germans managed to reach the Prague embassy before the borders were fully sealed. With the borders now closed, this second set of overflowing trains became known as the “last trains to freedom”, and everyone wanted a ticket: 2,500 people flooded Dresden’s main railway station, blocking the tracks in the hope of getting on board; another 20,000 packed the area outside. For hours, the blockage forced the trains to wait south of the city centre. Panicked, the East German leaders contacted their Czech comrades, asking them to take the trains back, but Prague refused. So the Dresden police and Stasi decided to fight through the night to clear the station. More than 400 East German soldiers, armed with machine guns, were sent to the city as well. Stasi files record that 45 members of the East German security forces were injured and at least one police car was turned over and set on fire. Protesters later recounted multiple incidents of police brutality, both on the streets and at hastily organised detention centres. It took until the early hours of 5 October to get at least three of the trains through. The rest had to be re-routed through other cities. Dresden helped to set in motion a chain of events that would lead to the fall of the wall. It is impossible to say with any certainty where Putin was during these events. He made sure he covered the tracks of his German posting by burning documents, partly to prevent them from falling into the hands of protesters. But it is clear that he spent much of the late 1980s in East Germany as a member of the Soviet secret police, and there is no reason to think he was absent that October. Putin would later call the collapse of the Soviet Union and its authority in Eastern Europe the greatest tragedy of the 20th century. Since he witnessed it with his own eyes, he has presumably never forgotten the experience. The Dresden disaster must have had an enormous impact on him – and understanding that may help us to understand his actions today. Political scientists such as Alexander George have long theorised that world leaders function according to an internal “operational code” acquired during younger, formative years, which they then rely on to guide them years later when in power. The events of 4-5 October 1989 may very well have helped to shape Putin’s operational code. His swift and aggressive responses both to the popular uprising in Kiev earlier this year and to the earlier demonstrations in Moscow suggest that they did. He saw the crowds seize control – and is not, to put it mildly, comfortable with that precedent

Ukraine Agreed to a Monsanto “Land Grab” to Get a $17 Billion Loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) (globalresearch.ca) The World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) is helping biotech run the latest war in Ukraine. Make no mistake that what is happening in the Ukraine now is deeply tied to the interests of Monsanto, Dow, Bayer, and other big players in the poison food game. Monsanto has an office in Ukraine. While this does not shout ‘culpability’ from every corner, it is no different than the US military’s habit to place bases in places that they want to gain political control. The opening of this office coincided with land grabs with loans from the IMF and World Bank to one of the world’s most hated corporations – all in support of their biotech takeover. Previously, there was a ban on private sector land ownership in the country – but it was lifted ‘just in time’ for Monsanto to have its way with the Ukraine. In fact, a bit of political maneuvering by the IMF gave the Ukraine a $17 billion loan – but only if they would open up to biotech farming and the selling of Monsanto’s poison crops and chemicals – destroying a farmland that is one of the most pristine in all of Europe. Farm equipment dealer, Deere, along with seed producers Dupont and Monsanto, will have a heyday. In the guise of ‘aid,’ a claim has been made on Ukraine’s vast agricultural riches. It is the world’s third largest exporter of corn and fifth largest exporter of wheat. Ukraine has deep, rich, black soil that can grow almost anything, and its ability to produce high volumes of GM grain is what made biotech come rushing to take it over.

Why the Russian Far East Is So Important to China (Source huffingtonpost.com) Russia is seldom thought of as an Asia-Pacific country. Yet it is one — thanks to its Far East. The Russian Far East is a huge area of northeastern Eurasia stretching from Lake Baikal to the Pacific Ocean. Allowing Russia direct access to the Asia-Pacific region, the RFE makes it a truly transcontinental nation, the only other such a country being the U.S. The RFE contains all kinds of natural treasures — oil and natural gas, iron ore and copper, diamonds and gold, pristine fresh water (Lake Baikal alone has 20 percent of the world’s unfrozen surface freshwater), timber and fish stocks (for example, the Sea of Okhotsk is one of the most biologically productive areas of the world ocean). The entire vastness of the RFE contains just over 6 million residents. Being remote from, and having tenuous transportation links to, the country’s European core, suffering from underdevelopment and the lack of infrastructure, the RFE is a source of constant concern for Moscow. Ever since Russia acquired these territories, there have been recurring worries that they are at the risk of being lost due to external aggression, foreign encroachment, internal separatism — or a combination of the three. Speaking at Saint Petersburg’s Economic Forum in May 2014, Chinese Vice President Li Yuanchao called for the linking up of the RFE with northeast China in order to “turn the two into a big market — a new economic bloc in Asia.” In dealing with the RFE, Beijing can deploy its giant state-owned corporations, which boast some of the deepest pockets in the world and are driven by the government’s strategic calculations as much as by purely commercial considerations. Compared to Western companies with shareholder responsibility, they can make hefty investments with much longer planning horizons and without expecting short-term returns. This gives China a significant advantage in the RFE, where business projects often require massive financial outlays, are accompanied with significant risks, and do not promise quick profits.

Gay Irish Priest Comes Out To Parishioners — And Gets A Surprising Response (Source huffingtonpost.com) After serving a Roman Catholic parish in Ireland for 15 years, the Rev. Martin Dolan told congregants the truth about his sexual orientation over the weekend. Dolan was standing at the pulpit during a Saturday mass at Dublin’s Church of St. Nicholas of Myra when he began encouraging parishioners to support legalizing same-sex marriage, according to The Irish Sun. Then, he made the unexpected announcement: “I’m gay myself.” The priest reportedly received a standing ovation. A community youth worker in Dublin told The Irish Sun, “We are all very proud of Father Martin. Because he has admitted that he is gay doesn’t change the person that he was before it.” The church doesn’t formally ban gays from the priesthood, but requires all clergy to take a vow of celibacy. Pope Francis famously addressed the question of homosexuality in the priesthood in 2013, saying in Italian: “Who am I to judge a gay person of goodwill who seeks the Lord? You can’t marginalize these people.”

Did Top Gear Russia Really Out A Secret Submarine?(Source Foxtrot Alpha)Top Gear’s shot at the top of the post is by far the clearest photo I could find on this Russian experimental submarine but it appears to have been the object of some discussion and conjecture over on Russian submarine forums for years. Known supposedly as Project 10831“Losharik,” and AS-12 in its operational form, this submarine is said to have had a development period starting as far back as 1988. The idea behind this experimental boat is rumored to have been to create a very deep diving, long endurance, nuclear submarine that is made up of a string of spherical pressure vessels, with the boat’s propulsion, living accommodations, command and control interfaces, and everything else for that matter, being placed within that string of attached internal spheres. This leaves the outer hull as more of a facade, with it being used to mount sensors, ballast tanks and other less-sensitive operating components. What is even more interesting about this shadowy deep diving sub, which is the size of some large diesel submarines, also is said have a carrier mothership. The program appears to have been starved of funding, like so many others, during the 1990s, but was restarted around the turn of the century and the Project 10831 was rumored to have been built. Meanwhile, it is known that a mothership was modified to accept midget submarines, even of the very large variety, during this same period of time, with some rumors stating that it was assigned to the Project 10831 program. Although details remain sketchy, the 510 foot long Orenburg may have been adapted to multiple mothership projects, with the Project 10831 Losharik being the largest rumored to be carried. Other smaller, but still highly capable submersibles were also said to have been used with the design. One of these is said to have been called ‘White Salmon‘ with a dive depth of 1km, while Losharik is said to have a dive depth of a whopping 6km.  Its job is clearly one of espionage and surveillance due to its deep diving abilities, where it can plant listening devices, manipulate those of the enemies, tap into fiber optic cables or sit for long periods of time surveying its dark domain.

11 Earthquakes Jolt North Texas in 24 Hours (Source weather.com) Texas is trembling. In the last 24 hours, 11 earthquakes have rattled the Irving area, including three Wednesday, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. No major damage or injuries were reported in 11 earthquakes with magnitudes from 1.6 to 3.6. According to CBS Dallas-Fort Worth, there have been 16 earthquakes centered in Irving since the start of November 2014. The latest earthquakes were the strongest yet to hit the area. Irving, with a population topping 250,000, is 12 miles west of Dallas. The tremblors forced students and faculty in the Irving Independent School District to run earthquake procedure drills. The quakes have an eerie timing. Just Monday researchers from Southern Methodist University put a seismograph in Irving to better track tremors, the Dallas Morning News reports. By Wednesday, the newspaper reported nearly two dozen more sensors will be installed in the coming weeks to get more information.

Retailers are closing up shop (Source CNBC) Another day, another retailer trimming its store count. J.C. Penney said that it will close 40 of its locations -about 4% of its stores-this year. Then Macy’s said it would close 14 stores in early spring. The announcements came one day after teen retailer Wet Seal said it will shutter about two-thirds of its 500-plus stores, and a bankruptcy judge in Delaware ruled that Deb Shops can shut down nearly 300 stores as part of its liquidation. These are far from the only retailers whittling down their square footage. When it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last month, teen name Delia’s said it will seek court approval to close all of its stores. Sears, which is trying to turn around its performance after a string of declining sales reports, said last month it would accelerate the number of closings during the year, from 130 to 235. And RadioShack, which is negotiating with lenders to gain approval to shutter 1,100 stores, said last month that it had closed 175 locations in 2014. Several macroeconomic factors are driving this push toward a smaller store base, analysts said. For one, retailers simply have too many stores, particularly as more consumers shop online. For another, the demographics no longer make sense for stores to exist in certain suburban locations, as more young Americans are flocking to cities and staying there longer. But it’s more than just external factors. Many of the retailers closing stores are facing company-specific problems that in some ways forced them to downsize.

Why Did Pope Francis Push for a U.S.-Cuba Thaw? (Source thetrumpet.com) The surprise restoration of relations between the United States and Cuba represents a major victory for the pope. Is it cause for celebration? In the decades since the Berlin Wall crumbled, the Vatican has wielded its political power in other international disputes: In the early 1990s, it helped bust Yugoslavia apart along lines that benefited Germany’s Europe project. In 2007, it defused a potentially explosive conflict by persuading Iran to release 15 captured British sailors. The next year, it was instrumental in forcing the resignation of an Italian prime minister. But last month, all these events were eclipsed by a bolder and starker display of papal political might: Restoring diplomatic ties between the U.S. and Cuba after a 53-year deep freeze. “Pope Francis issued a personal appeal to me, and to Cuba’s President Raúl Castro,” President Barack Obama said Dec. 17, 2014. Pope Francis has made clear that he wants to topple the global system of free market capitalism. Francis called free market global capitalism “a new tyranny,” and condemned it as “a financial system which rules rather than serves.” Which nation is the mother ship of free-market global capitalism? The United States of America. Pope Francis directly commands no military divisions, but his power is formidable. Under him, the Vatican’s might and influence are rapidly growing. In the year ahead, watch for him to wield that power more boldly and more

Snowden: Cyber war more damaging to US than any other nation (Source RT) The United States has “more to lose than any other nation on Earth” when it comes to cyber warfare, former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden said in a recent interview. Speaking on PBS’ NOVA Next program, the NSA whistleblower took a break from talking about surveillance to detail how and why the United States’ efforts to dominate cyberspace may be misguided and, ultimately, damaging to the country’s national security. Since the technical sector is what Snowden described as the “backbone” of the American economy, it stands to reason that efforts to undermine or damage the internet would cause more harm to America than it would other countries. As a result, Snowden argues that the US should allocate more resources to defensive maneuvering in cyberspace than towards offensive capabilities. “Defending ourselves from internet-based attacks, internet-originated attacks, is much, much more important than our ability to launch attacks against similar targets in foreign countries, because when it comes to the internet, when it comes to our technical economy, we have more to lose than any other nation on Earth,” Snowden told Bamford.