28 Jul, 2022 22:23

Russia says US call request will be met ‘when time allows’

Washington said it was seeking a conversation between State Secretary Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov

Moscow has acknowledged receiving a call request from Washington on Thursday. A conversation between the two nation’s top diplomats might take placeas soon as the busy schedule of Russia’s top diplomat, Sergey Lavrov, makes it possible, the Foreign Ministry said.

Lavrov will “pay attention to this request when time permits,” the ministry’s spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, told journalists, referring to Washington’s request for a phone conversation between Lavrov and US State Secretary Antony Blinken.

Earlier on Thursday, State Department spokesman Ned Price said at a news briefing that the US “made it clear to the Russian Federation that we are seeking a conversation between State Secretary Blinken and Foreign Minister Lavrov.”

The request had been conveyed to Russia “directly” and “repeatedly,” Price said. The US expects the two top diplomats to “have an opportunity to speak in the coming days,” he added.

The State Department spokesman, however, admitted that he had “no update” on any potential dates for the conversation, adding that the two sides “continue to discuss that in the appropriate channels.”

Zakharova said on Thursday that the Russian foreign minister currently “has a busy schedule with international contacts,” including a Shanghai Cooperation Organization ministerial summit and some bilateral meetings.

The US plans to use the call to follow up on its “substantial proposal” on the release of two Americans currently held in custody in Russia: basketball player Brittney Griner, who was arrested on drug smuggling charges, and Paul Whelan, who has been jailed on suspicion of espionage.

On Wednesday, Blinken told journalists that he hoped he could “advance the efforts to bring them home” in a conversation with Lavrov. CNN earlier reported that the US might be willing to swap the sports star and the convicted spy for the Russian arms dealer, Viktor Bout, who was sentenced to 25 years in prison in the US back in 2012 after being charged with arming a terrorist group and conspiring to kill US nationals.

Blinken did not officially confirm that report and never mentioned Bout by name during his latest press briefing despite being asked a direct question about him. Instead, he said that he wanted “to make sure that the proposal that we put forward has a good chance to advance.” Moscow responded by saying there had been no results in negotiations on swapping prisoners with the US, adding that the interests of both sides should be respected during any such talks.

https://www.rt.com/news/559804-lavrov-blinken-call-time-permit/

I knew Blinken’s virtue signaling for doing an exchange to swap for two US prisoners in Russia, for one Russian in a US jail was not going to work. It was a State Dept ploy to blame Russia for not cooperating. Blinken is way over his depth of strategy and skills. I doubt Russia wants Victor Bout back, why would they? They certainly would not admit having anything to do with him, even if they were connected.

27 Jul, 2022 19:28

Former Russian president presents future map of Ukraine

Medvedev offers Kiev a visual on its worst case scenario

Ukraine is more likely to be reduced to Kiev and its surroundings than to ever re-encompass Crimea and the Donbass republics, former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev said on his Telegram channel on Wednesday.

The one-time president and long-time prime minister who now heads the national security council also posted two maps helpfully illustrating his argument.

The first map showed Ukraine in borders prior to the US-backed coup in 2014, including Crimea and the two eastern regions of Donetsk and Lugansk. A month after the militants backed by Washington seized power in Kiev, Crimea voted to rejoin Russia, while the two Donbass regions declared independence.

“In the mind of the president of Ukraine, damaged by psychotropic substances, this is what the map of his country’s bright future will look like,” Medvedev wrote on Telegram.

“Western analysts believe it will look like this, actually,” he said, posting a second map. On it, “Ukraine” is reduced to Kiev and its surroundings. Seven regions in the West have been annexed by Poland, and three in the southwest by Hungary and Romania, respectively.

Everything else is marked “Russia.”

He did not specify which Western experts may have envisioned such a partition.

The Ukrainian government has repeatedly rejected any possibility of territorial concessions, insisting that Kiev’s objectives were a “capitulation” of Russia and “reintegration” of Donbass and Crimea.

Medvedev served as president of Russia between 2008 and 2012, and then as prime minister until 2020, when he was put in charge of the national security council. Over the course of the conflict in Ukraine, he has made a name for himself with colorful Telegram posts. Just this month, he warned Kiev of “Judgment Day” if they attacked Crimea and offered a list of “Russian sins,” followed up by those of the West.

https://www.rt.com/russia/559735-medvedev-ukraine-partition-maps/

>>16929225

Good if Ukraine is reduced to Kiev they cant take billions from countries to defend themselves, no one will want to live there

28 Jul, 2022 21:59

Trump speaks about 9/11 at Saudi-sponsored golf event

The former president dismissed questions about Saudi involvement in the attack

Former US President Donald Trump has defended his decision to host a Saudi-sponsored golf event at his course in New Jersey. With protesters outside blaming Saudi Arabia for the 9/11 terror attacks, Trump argued that “nobody’s gotten to the bottom” of the tragedy.

A group representing families of 9/11 victims has condemned Trump for hosting the event at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, picketing the course and urging the former president to cancel the event in a letter sent to Trump last week.

“We simply cannot understand how you could agree to accept money from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s golf league to host their tournament at your golf course, and to do so in the shadows of Ground Zero,” the letter read.

Asked about the protests on Thursday, Trump told ESPN that “nobody’s gotten to the bottom of 9/11, unfortunately, and they should have,”referring to the hijackers who killed nearly 3,000 people in the 2001 attacks as “maniacs.”

The involvement of the Saudi Arabian government in the strikes is widely suspected. Of the 19 hijackers, 15 were from Saudi Arabia, as was Osama bin Laden, leader of al-Qaeda and mastermind of the attacks. While the 9/11 Commission found “no evidence” that Riyadh funded or organized the attacks, it did identify Saudi Arabia as funding al-Qaeda.

Some 28 pages from this report, all concerning Saudi Arabia, remain classified.

However, FBI documents declassified last year identified several Saudi officials as providing “significant logistic support” to two of the hijackers. The name of one of these officials – a mid-level staffer in the Saudi embassy in Washington, DC – was inadvertently leaked by the agency a year earlier.

Trump himself brought up the specter of Saudi involvement on the campaign trail in 2016, during a tirade against the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

“Who blew up the World Trade Center? It wasn’t the Iraqis, it was Saudi, take a look at Saudi Arabia,” he told a Fox News panel that February. At a campaign rally later that day, he declared that classified papers – apparently the aforementioned 28 pages – may prove that the Saudis “really knocked down the World Trade Center.”

Once in office, Trump made Saudi Arabia his first foreign destination and authorized an arms deal worth $100 billion with the Kingdom’s rulers. Fragments of an American bomb were later found at the scene of an airstrike on a school bus in Yemen.

However, Trump is not the only US president to talk tough on Saudi Arabia before placating its leaders. President Joe Biden vowed in 2019 to make the Gulf state an international “pariah” over the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, but traveled there earlier this month and asked the Saudi royals to pump more oil, after greeting Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman with a fist-bump.

“It pains us to say it but you are the first president since the Sept. 11 attacks who has not met with the families and survivors,” the group representing 9/11 families wrote in a separate letter to Biden.

“Yet you just traveled halfway around the world to fist-bump Saudi crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, where he had the gall to lecture you about human rights and ‘values’,” the letter continued, referring to Salman telling Biden that the US attempts to “impose” its values by force on Iraq and Afghanistan were “mistakes.”

https://www.rt.com/news/559805-trump-saudi-911-golf/

I hesitate to post this but most anons know who planned and executed it.

28 Jul, 2022 13:44

Warsaw mulls cutting down on Christmas lights

The authorities want to demonstrate to people that they need to save energy, the mayor of the Polish capital says

The Warsaw city administration is mulling the idea of limiting the number of decorative lights this Christmas or even turning them off completely to encourage Poles to save energy, local media reported on Wednesday, citing the mayor, Rafal Trzaskowski.

“We want to symbolically show the people of Warsaw that energy needs to be saved,” Trzaskowski told Radia ZET, adding that this would not solve the energy crunch, but would demonstrate that Poland is serious about saving energy.

The festive lighting is usually placed along the Royal Route, which features many of the city’s historic landmarks, including several palaces and churches.

The mayor also said that the authorities are planning other measures to reduce energy consumption.

As is the case with the rest of Europe, Poland is facing a severe energy crisis, exacerbated by surging gas prices and Russia’s decision to cut off natural gas supplies to the country in late April. Russian energy major Gazprom halted gas deliveries after Warsaw refused to pay in rubles.

In late March, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that nations, including Poland, which imposed sanctions on Russia but are still importing its gas would be required to makes payments in Russia’s national currency.

Earlier in July, to mitigate the impact of the crisis, Poland backed legislation to loosen the gas trading rules, extended tariff protection for consumers, and drew up contingency plans for electricity operators. These measures are aimed at fast-tracking the authorities’ response if the energy crunch becomes even more severe.

In June, the government also reminded citizens that they are allowed to gather firewood from forests to keep themselves warm if they obtain a permit.

Plans to limit the Christmas lights in Warsaw come as another European city, Berlin, considers similar steps. Earlier this month, Mayor Franziska Giffey backed the idea of not lighting up landmarks such as the Brandenburg Gate to save energy. The local authorities went so far as to suggest leaving some street lights off as long as it does not compromise safety.

https://www.rt.com/news/559762-christmas-poland-lights-energy/

All for a shithole, money laundering, Nazi country, Ukraine. Disgusting!

28 Jul, 2022 12:35

Cow dung can’t replace Russian fuel – expert

Energy generated from organic waste won’t replace even half the gas Germany gets from Russia, a trade group expert says

Despite great hopes, gas produced from manure cannot alone rid Germany of its dependence on Russian fossil fuels, a leading biogas expert has explained.

Berlin has been rushing to find ways to replace Russian natural gas after the EU imposed sanctions on Moscow over its military operation in Ukraine.

Biogas, which is produced from organic waste such as manure, corn or grass, has been discussed in German media as an alternative to the Russian natural gas delivered through pipelines.

There are around 9,500 biogas plants scattered across rural Germany, according to Der Spiegel magazine.

Farmers convert the generated gas into electricity and heating for their homes.

Asked by German daily Die Welt on Tuesday if biogas could replace Russian energy supplies, Dr. Guido Ehrhardt, an expert at the German Biogas Association, said: “No, unfortunately not.”

“Biogas from Germany can replace a lot, but not that much,” Ehrhardt added. “From a purely technical standpoint, it would be possible to replace 40% of Russian gas imports with biogas in one or two years.”

But even reaching that target would be challenging and would require “political will,” the expert explained, as the industry would need more skilled workers and materials, and the government would have to cut red tape.

Germany imported 55% of its gas from Moscow before the Russia-Ukraine conflict, according to AFP.

While the EU has promised to phase out Russian gas and urged member states to ration and conserve energy, German officials repeatedly warned that an immediate end to supplies from Moscow will badly hurt the economy.

https://www.rt.com/news/559768-germany-manure-gas-russia/

(Holy smokes, this is so fucking stupid its not even funny. The leaders in EU dug their own grave. Trump was right, as always)

28 Jul, 2022 11:36

Russia fines US tech giants

Tinder, along with WhatsApp and Snapchat, has been ordered to pay millions of rubles for refusing to comply with Russia’s data localization law

A Moscow court has fined the entities owning popular social media platforms Snapchat, Tinder and WhatsApp for refusing to localize the data of Russian users in the country, according to reports from the courtroom on Thursday. All three platforms are owned by companies based in the US state of California.

Tinder has been ordered to pay 2 million rubles ($33,300) and Snapchat has been fined 1 million rubles ($16,000) for their refusal to follow Russian data localization laws. Meanwhile, WhatsApp has been found to be in repeated breach of the law and has been slapped with the maximum fine of 18 million rubles ($300,000).

A magistrate court of the Tagansky District of Moscow launched the case against the owners of Whatsapp, Spotify, Tinder, and Snapchat earlier this month for violating a Russian law that requires operators to ensure that the recording, systematization, accumulation, storage, clarification (updates, changes) or extraction of personal data of citizens of the Russian Federation is done using databases located in Russia. The fine for breaching this law can range from 1-6 million rubles ($16,600-$100,000), while a repeated offense can cost up to 18 million rubles.

Roskomnadzor, Russia’s national internet and media watchdog, had previously reported that about 600 representative offices of foreign companies such as Apple, Microsoft, Samsung, PayPal, Booking and LG, among others, had localized the storage of the personal data of Russian users.

However, a number of social networking sites, most notably LinkedIn,have been blocked in Russia for refusing to follow the localization requirement.

Russia has taken a firm stance against the way foreign tech companies operate in the country and has been particularly critical of how foreign platforms distribute content online.

Back in March, Russia banned Facebook and Instagram after designating their owner, US tech giant Meta, an extremist organization for refusing to remove what Moscow considered to be false content about the conflict in Ukraine, calls for illegal protests, as well as hate speech targeted against Russian nationals.

Google has also been targeted by the Russian authorities on several occasions. Just last week, it was fined $366 million dollars for repeatedly failing to delete “misleading” information on YouTube regarding Russia’s military offensive in Ukraine.

Roskomnadzor says it had sent Google 17 requests to abide by Russian law prior to issuing the fine, but the tech giant refused to comply. The watchdog claims that Google has yet to delete at least 7,000 “illegal materials” from the video hosting platform.

https://www.rt.com/news/559760-russia-fines-tinder-whatsapp-snapchat/

(Those fines are not going to make a dent. Why aren’t this sites banned everywhere?)

>>16929331

Yes, they are all stupid!

Baker can we have a captcha every 4 posts, every post makes it hard to discuss anything?

>>16929291

The stupod leaders of these countries dont seem to understand, citizens are getting or are cynical about the sacrifice for Ukraine. If we know Ukraine is a corrupt shithole, certainly all EU countries know they are. Poland should get over their hatred of Russia and take care of their people

>>16929387

“In the mind of the president of Ukraine, damaged by psychotropic substances”,

That is interesting, thanks. Did you catch this, it serms like the Azovs (Nazis), Zelensky and all involved are always jacked up on drugs.

Such a strange situation the world is supporting a drug addicted country that is replicating what the Nazis did and the world is buying it

We’ve gotta to get right with God

>>16929581

You’re right even in UK etc. There’s something really sick in these people, guaranteed no one actually voted for them. Wouldn’t surprise me is US congress and senate do the sane