Switzerland comments on possible Russian asset freeze

The neutral country said it was ‘very probable’ the Russian assets would be frozen this week

Swiss President Ignazio Cassis did not rule out freezing of Russian assets by financial institutions in the country amid Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine. The politician said such a scenario was likely despite Switzerland’s long-standing neutral status.

Cassis told Swiss television station RTS on Sunday that “it is very probable” the Swiss government “will decide to do so [freeze assets] tomorrow.”

“But I cannot anticipate decisions not yet taken,” he added.

The president said that while Switzerland has supposedly remained committed to its policy of neutrality, “that does not prevent us from calling a spade a spade.”

Neutrality has been the main pillar of Swiss foreign policy since 1815 and the country officially remained neutral in both World War 1 and World War 2. Switzerland is obliged, however, to implement sanctions imposed by the United Nations.

Switzerland previously announced on Thursday that it would sanction three Russian banks and introduce travel restrictions on 361 Russian State Duma officials.

Cassis claimed that Switzerland “did not directly adopt sanctions” against Russia in 2014 “for reasons of neutrality,” but that the government had now “sharpened its response.”

“The EU sanctions issued yesterday are to be integrated into this ordinance in the form of anti-circumvention measures, and individual measures will be tightened, particularly in the financial sector,” Cassis said.

https://www.rt.com/russia/550804-switzerland-russian-asset-freeze/

Denmark to allow citizens fight in Ukraine

Copenhagen has said that Danes are free to “contribute directly” to the military conflict between Russia and Ukraine

Copenhagen has revealed it will allow Danish nationals to join an international military force Kiev plans to set up to aid its own military in the conflict with Russia.

“It’s a choice that anyone can make. This goes for all Ukrainians who live here, but also for others who think they can contribute directly to the conflict,” Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told a press conference on Sunday.

“There is nothing at first sight that would legally prevent someone from going to Ukraine to participate in the conflict, on the Ukrainian side,” Frederiksen added. Earlier, the PM took part in a massive protest against Moscow’s operation in front of the Russian embassy in Copenhagen, telling the crowd that “it is all of you and all of Europe who are threatened by Russia.”

It comes after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced the creation of Ukraine’s International Legion of Territorial Defense that would make it possible for foreigners to join its ranks and fight alongside the Ukrainian military against Russia’s and Donbass’s forces.

The Danish prime minister is not the first to support the idea. Earlier on Sunday, the UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss also said she would “absolutely” support Brits, who would choose to join the military action on the side of Ukraine.

“I do support that. Of course, that is something that people can make their own decisions about,” she told BBC’s Sunday Morning show, adding that Ukraine fights for “freedom and democracy” for the “whole of Europe.”

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba subsequently announced that volunteers should contact Ukraine’s diplomatic missions in their respective countries.

On Thursday, Moscow launched a large-scale military operation to “demilitarize” and “de-Nazify” Ukraine, according to the Kremlin. Zelensky referred to the “special operation” as a “war against Europe,” urging everyone willing to join the fight to “stand side by side” with Ukrainians. The western nations have responded to Russia’s operation by imposing tough sanctions on Moscow and vowing to supply Ukraine with lethal weapons.

https://www.rt.com/russia/550798-denmark-volunteers-join-conflict-ukraine/

European Commission head says EU wants Ukraine ‘in’

Ursula von der Leyen has argued that Kiev “belongs” to the European Union

The president of the European Commission has claimed that the EU wants to see Ukraine joining its ranks as a military conflict between Kiev and Moscow rages on. The official was short on specifics and did not provide a timeline for the potential accession, however.

“We have a process with Ukraine that is, for example, integrating the Ukrainian market into the single market. We have a very close cooperation on the energy grid. So, many topics where we work very closely together,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Sunday.

“Over time, they belong to us, they are one of us, and we want them in,” she added.

https://www.rt.com/russia/550803-european-commission-wants-ukraine/

https://youtu.be/K3vRnPUD1ZI

Ukraine accuses Moscow of ‘planning acts of genocide’ in UN court filing

Kiev maintains that Russia’s claim that it subjected the people of Donbass to “genocide” is baseless

https://www.icj-cij.org/public/files/case-related/182/182-20220227-PRE-01-00-EN.pdf

War Propaganda About Ukraine Becoming More Militaristic, Authoritarian, and Reckless

Every useful or pleasing claim about the war, no matter how unverified or subsequently debunked, rapidly spreads, while dissenters are vilified as traitors or Kremlin agents.

In the weeks leading up to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, those warning of the possible dangers of U.S. involvement were assured that such concerns were baseless. The prevailing line insisted that nobody in Washington is even considering let alone advocating that the U.S. become militarily involved in a conflict with Russia. That the concern was based not on the belief that the U.S. would actively seek such a war, but rather on the oft-unintended consequences of being swamped with war propaganda and the high levels of tribalism, jingoism and emotionalism that accompany it, was ignored. It did not matter how many wars one could point to in history that began unintentionally, with unchecked, dangerous tensions spiraling out of control. Anyone warning of this obviously dangerous possibility was met with the “straw man” cliché: you are arguing against a position that literally nobody in D.C. is defending.

Less than a week into this war, that can no longer be said. One of the media's most beloved members of Congress, Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), on Friday explicitly and emphatically urged that the U.S. military be deployed to Ukraine to establish a “no-fly zone” — i.e., American soldiers would order Russia not to enter Ukrainian airspace and would directly attack any Russian jets or other military units which disobeyed. That would, by definition and design, immediately ensure that the two countries with by far the planet's largest nuclear stockpiles would be fighting one another, all over Ukraine.

Kinzinger's fantasy that Russia would instantly obey U.S. orders due to rational calculations is directly at odds with all the prevailing narratives about Putin having now become an irrational madman who has taken leave of his senses — not just metaphorically but medically — and is prepared to risk everything for conquest and legacy. This was not the first time such a deranged proposal has been raised; days before Kinzinger unveiled his plan, a reporter asked Pentagon spokesman John Kirby why Biden has thus far refused this confrontational posture. The Brookings Institution's Ben Wittes on Sunday demanded: “Regime change: Russia.” The President of the Council on Foreign Relations, Richard Haass, celebrated that “now the conversation has shifted to include the possibility of desired regime change in Russia.”

Having the U.S. risk global nuclear annihilation over Ukraine is an indescribably insane view, as one realizes upon a few seconds of sober reflection. We had a reminder of that Sunday morning when “Putin ordered his nuclear forces on high alert, reminding the world he has the power to use weapons of mass destruction, after complaining about the West’s response to his invasion of Ukraine” — but it is completely unsurprising that it is already being suggested.

https://greenwald.substack.com/p/war-propaganda-about-ukraine-becoming

Former NSW MP engaged in ‘serious corrupt conduct’ over Chinese Friends of Labor donation, says ICAC

The NSW corruption watchdog has released damning findings following an investigation into a $100,000 political donation facilitated by the Chinese Friends of Labor.

The New South Wales anti-corruption body has found that former Labor MP Ernest Wong engaged in “serious corrupt conduct” by failing to disclose a $100,000 donation from controversial businessman Huang Xiangmo.

The Independent Commission Against Corruption released its findings following an investigation into political donations facilitated by the Chinese Friends of Labor ahead of the 2015 NSW election.

ICAC found that Mr Wong was involved in a scheme to “circumvent” NSW electoral laws by accepting $100,000 from a prohibited donor.

Mr Wong and restaurateur Jonathan Yee recruited 12 people – 10 of whom were associated with Mr Yee’s Emperor’s Garden restaurant and the Harbour City Group – to “falsely” sign declarations that they had donated cash totalling the $100,000.

“The aim was to conceal the true source of donations that Mr Wong had arranged, or was intending to arrange,” the ICAC report found.

The report also said Mr Wong had attempted to persuade an associate to “give false testimony” to investigating authorities that he had made a donation.

The Commission found Mr Huang was the true source of the cash donation and that the contribution was “unlawful” as it exceeded the $5,000 cap on political donations.

ICAC also found that Mr Huang was “not a person from whom political donations could be accepted” given that he was not enrolled on the electoral roll at the time.

“The Commission found that Mr Wong believed Mr Huang to be a ‘prohibited donor’ and knew he was the true source of the $100k cash at the time,” the report continued.

“Mr Wong also told the putative donors, who were to give evidence at the ICAC in the lead up to the Commission’s public inquiry that started in August 2019, to keep telling falsehoods that they had previously told the NSWEC investigation.

“The putative donors who gave evidence did eventually admit to the Commission that they had not been the source of the donations.”

https://www.skynews.com.au/australia-news/politics/former-nsw-mp-engaged-in-serious-corrupt-conduct-over-chinese-friends-of-labor-donation-says-icac/news-story/e2260b4947f8b64bf352f0da8fef9b4a

Ben Roberts-Smith kicked handcuffed Afghan man over slope, former soldier tells court

A former elite soldier has told a Sydney court he witnessed war veteran Ben Roberts-Smith kick and "catapult" an unarmed, handcuffed Afghan man over a slope before he was shot dead.

The incident is one of the central allegations in the defamation trial

Mr Roberts-Smith has denied all elements of the story

Today's witness told the court the incident left him "in shock"

Mr Roberts-Smith is suing The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Canberra Times newspapers for defamation in the Federal Court, claiming a series of 2018 articles contained false allegations of unlawful killings, bullying and domestic violence.

One of the central allegations in the stories was that an unarmed, handcuffed Afghan farmer named Ali Jan was kicked over a cliff during a September 2012 mission in the village of Darwan.

Publisher Nine Entertainment is relying on a truth defence.

Mr Roberts-Smith has previously told the court a suspected Taliban "spotter" was killed in a cornfield that day, denying all elements of the story about the cliff.

A former Special Air Service Regiment (SAS) witness codenamed Person 4 today told the court of an Afghan man with a donkey who was searched, questioned and taken prisoner — becoming a PUC (person under control) of the Australian soldiers — as his patrol waited to be extracted from Darwan that day.

He said he later saw the handcuffed and detained man being held by a colleague, Person 11, by the right shoulder with his back towards a slope.

"At the same time, I noticed Ben Roberts-Smith, he had walked to a position maybe three to four metres away," Person 4 said.

"As I was trying to understand what was happening, he turned around and walked forward and kicked the individual in the chest.

"The individual was catapulted backwards and fell down the slope.

"I saw the individual's face strike a large rock and sustain a serious injury. He had knocked out a number of his teeth, including his front teeth."

Person 4 said he was "in shock at that point".

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-02-28/ben-roberts-smith-trial-hears-more-evidence-from-afghanistan/100856732

AZ study finds 200k ballots counted with mismatched signatures; Trump rips Big Tech election rigging

Estimate is more than eight times the number of mismatches acknowledged by the county

A study of Maricopa County's mail ballots in Arizona's 2020 presidential election estimates that more than 200,000 ballots with mismatched signatures were counted without being reviewed, or "cured" — more than eight times the 25,000 signature mismatches requiring curing acknowledged by the county.

Commissioned by the Arizona State Senate, the signature verification pilot study was conducted by Shiva Ayyadurai's Election Systems Integrity Institute, which released its final report to the public on Tuesday. Ayyadurai is an engineer and entrpreneur with four degrees from MIT who bills himself as the inventor of email, a claim which critics have alleged is exaggerated.

Of the 1,911,918 early voting mail ballots that Maricopa County received and counted in the 2020 presidential election, the county reported that 25,000, or 1.3%, had signature mismatches that required curing, but only 587 (2.3%) of those were confirmed mismatched signatures.

Under Maricopa County election rules, a reviewer first compares a signature on an envelope with the signature on file for the voter, which takes about 4-30 seconds. If the signature does not appear to match, the ballot is cured, which takes three or more minutes and includes attempts to contact the voter to determine whether or not the signature is a match.

In the signature verification study, three expert forensic document examiners and three novices reviewed 499 images of early voting mail ballot envelopes to determine if the signatures on them matched with the signatures on file. All the reviewers agreed that 60 of the 499 envelopes, or 12% were signature mismatches.

The pilot study extrapolated from the sample that more than 204,430 ballots should have been cured, and 5,277 should have been rejected.

"We want to be humble about this," Ayyadurai said in a virtual presentation of the study. "While the study is compelling, an expanded study is warranted to confirm the findings of this study."

Meanwhile, at CPAC on Saturday, an unbridled Donald Trump demanded Congressional investigation of alleged collusion between Big Tech and the Democrats to effectively rig the outcome of the 2020 election. Addressing an audience of zealous supporters in sometimes raw language, the former president decried social media censorship of news harmful to Joe Biden during the 2020 campaign and vast private donations to effectively convert public election offices into Democrat voter turnout engines in carefully targeted swing state districts.

"A Republican Congress should launch a select committee … to get to the bottom of Big Tech’s 2020 interference," said Trump. "Let's find out who made the decision to censor the Joe and Hunter Biden corruption bombshell, which the pollsters said amounted to about 15 points, the largest illegal campaign contribution in American history.

"And let's do a full forensic audit of the $417 million given by [Facebook cofounder] Mark Zuckerberg, who used to come to the White House and kiss my ass, that they spend to take over local election offices in key Democrat counties. And I believe you're going to be hearing a lot of it.

"You know, if you're a person that wants to make a [campaign] contribution, you’re allowed to give less than $6,000. Otherwise, they put you in jail. He gave $417 million. What the hell is going on? What are we doing? $6,000 and you go to jail, $417 million spread all over the place. It's something that obviously is going to have to be looked at. It is so horrible what's happening to our country.

https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/elections/maricopa-countys-200k-mail-ballots-mismatched-signatures-not-cured-2020