Moscow ready for Putin-Trump meeting — Kremlin

The Kremlin says Moscow is still ready for a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Donald Trump

MOSCOW, December 14. /TASS/. Moscow remains ready for a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Donald Trump, since both countries need such a meeting, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

"We are still convinced that such a meeting is equally necessary for both Moscow and Washington," he said.

Peskov stressed, citing Putin, that Russia remained ready for a bilateral summit, as well as for other meetings at various levels, "in order to start discussing pressing matters concerning the two countries and issues of global strategic stability."

The Russian and US presidents were supposed to hold a meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit, which took place in Argentina’s capital of Buenos Aires on November 30 to December 1. However, Trump cancelled the meeting shortly before the appointed time, citing the November 25 incident in the Kerch Strait, where Russia had detained Ukrainian sailors for violating the border. Moscow expressed regret over the US president’s decision and said on numerous occasions that the two heads of state needed to hold a meeting to discuss the INF Treaty and other pressing issues.

http://tass.com/politics/1036024

Christopher Steele: Hillary Clinton was preparing to challenge 2016 election results

British ex-spy Christopher Steele, who wrote the Democrat-financed anti-Trump dossier, said in a court case that he was hired by a Democratic law firm in preparation for Hillary Clinton challenging the results of the 2016 presidential election.

He said the law firm Perkins Coie wanted to be in a position to contest the results based on evidence he unearthed on the Trump campaign conspiring with Moscow on election interference.

His scenario is contained in a sealed Aug. 2 declaration in a defamation law suit brought by three Russian bankers in London. The trio’s American attorneys filed his answers Tuesday in a libel lawsuit in Washington against the investigative firm Fusion GPS, which handled the former British intelligence officer.

In an answer to interrogatories, Mr. Steele wrote: “Fusion’s immediate client was law firm Perkins Coie. It engaged Fusion to obtain information necessary for Perkins Coie LLP to provide legal advice on the potential impact of Russian involvement on the legal validity of the outcome of the 2016 US Presidential election.

“Based on that advice, parties such as the Democratic National Committee and HFACC Inc. (also known as ‘Hillary for America’) could consider steps they would be legally entitled to take to challenge the validity of the outcome of that election.”

The Democrats never filed a challenge, but Mr. Steele’s answer suggested that was one option inside the Clinton camp, which funded Mr. Steele’s research along with the Democratic National Committee.

The U.S. intelligence community concluded that Moscow interfered in the election by hacking Democratic Party computers and stealing emails that it released via WikiLeaks.

No Trump associate has been charged with collusion.

In a previous court filing in a second case in April-May 2017, Mr. Steele said his job was to find links between Trump associates and Moscow.

Hired by Fusion in June 2016, he wrote a 17-memo dossier alleging a “extensive conspiracy” between the two, which two years later hasn’t been proven publicly by special counsel Robert Mueller or Congress.

In his most recent London court filing, Mr. Steele is defending against a libel lawsuit by citing a discredited story about a computer server, Trump Tower and a Russian bank.

http://www.gopusa.com/christopher-steele-hillary-clinton-was-preparing-to-challenge-2016-election-results/

Russian Defense Detects More Than 3,000 Spy Planes Near its Borders in 2018

MOSCOW, Russia – In 2018, anti-air defense forces detected and escorted about 3,000 foreign fighter aircraft, of which more than 1,000 were reconnaissance aircraft, reported the Russian Aerospace Force.

The exact number of foreign military aircraft was announced by the commander of the Russian Aerospace Forces Radiotechnical Troops, Major General Andrei Koban, in an interview with the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper.

“The intensity of air traffic within the limits of responsibility of the Radiotechnical Troops is what mainly hampers military service. In 2018, the units in service of the Radiotechnical Troops detected and monitored more than 980,000 aerial targets, among which there were about three thousand foreign airplanes including more than 1,000 reconnaissance aircraft,” he said.

At the same time, the Russian major general underlined that the air defense units were put in combat readiness more than four thousand times.

“This is clear evidence of the high voltage of the service in the Radiotechnical Troops, which we are accustomed to and for which we are ready,” Koban said.

In his words, Russian anti-aircraft units detect and escort more than five thousand aerial objects daily, of which about 2,500 are foreigners. In addition, each day about 20 military units are put in combat readiness.

Earlier, the same newspaper reported that over the past week, Russian authorities have identified 16 foreign aircraft carrying out reconnaissance activities near Russian borders. In that connection, Russian jets were sent twice in that period to intercept foreign airplanes, preventing them from entering Russian airspace.

The presence of foreign spy jets conducting reconnaissance activities near the Russian border has been frequent. Also according to Krasnaya Zvezda, at least 17 military aircraft from other countries were seen in this situation earlier this month.

The Russian Ministry of Defense regularly reports on foreign aircraft approaching national borders. In this connection, it has repeatedly called on international partners to limit such activity. Despite this, the number of reconnaissance flights continues to be high.

https://www.fort-russ.com/2018/12/russian-defense-detects-more-than-3000-spy-planes-near-its-borders-in-2018/?utm_medium=ppc&utm_source=wp&utm_campaign=push&utm_content=new-article

Homicides in Sadiq Khan’s London Hit Ten-Year High

Homicides in London have reached their highest point in a decade under the mayoralty of Labour’s Sadiq Khan, despite huge strides in trauma care and lifesaving infrastructure.

The number of deaths in the British and English capital has hit 130 since January 1st, according to the BBC — a figure that a spokesman for Mr Khan admitted was “shameful” — including some 73 victims who were stabbed to death and 14 victims who were fatally shot.

“The causes of violent crime are deeply complex and made far worse by huge government cuts over the last eight years to the police, youth services, councils and charities,” the spokesman wheedled, putting little if any responsibility on either the criminals as free agents or the Mayor.

Other apologists for Mayor Khan have stressed that, despite massive increases in offences such as acid and machete attacks, moped-enabled crime, and terrorism which have been apparent during his time in office, homicides do remain below their high points in the 1990s — but this does not account for the fact that the establishment of the London Trauma System incorporating specialist Major Trauma Centres and Trauma Units in 2010 has greatly increased victims’ odds of surviving potentially mortal injuries in recent years.

Other factors improving the survival rates of victims of violence include the expansion of London’s Air Ambulance Service, which is now attending more stabbings and shootings than road traffic accidents for the first time in its 30-year-history, and the widespread adoption of techniques developed on the battlefield in war zones like Afghanistan by doctors and paramedics, such as the routine use of tourniquets.

Even taking the statistics as they stand, youth homicide in particular is massively up compared even to the years prior to 2008, with some suggestion that London’s shifting demographics are contributing to a breakdown in social cohesion, previously observed by scholars such as Professor Robert Putnam in communities undergoing a rapid increase in diversity.

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2018/12/13/homicides-in-sadiq-khans-london-hit-ten-year-high/

McCain Replacement Sen. Jon Kyl Resigning at End of Year

PHOENIX—Sen. Jon Kyl is resigning from the seat he was appointed to less than four months ago following the death of John McCain, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey announced on Dec. 14. Kyl’s decision means the Republican governor will need to appoint another replacement lawmaker.

The decision by Kyl, 76, was not unexpected. He had retired from the Senate in 2012 and said when he took the appointment in September that he only committed to serving until the end of the year. His resignation is effective Dec. 31.

Ducey sidestepped selecting a longer-term replacement after McCain died on Aug. 25, saying he picked Kyl because he was “the best possible person, regardless of politics” for the job. But Kyl made it clear he only agreed to the appointment out of a sense of duty and had no plans to stay in the job for long.

Now all attention is on Ducey’s pick, who will serve until a special election in 2020 allows voters to select the person who fills the final two years of McCain’s six-year term.

Ducey said he will pick a replacement “in the near future.”

Speculation has centered on Ducey’s former chief of staff, Kirk Adams, a former state lawmaker who recently resigned from the governor’s office; Rep. Martha McSally, who narrowly lost the race for the state’s other U.S. Senate seat in November; and Arizona State Treasurer Eileen Klein.

Kyl’s brief resignation letter said he decided to resign at the end of 2018 so that Ducey’s new appointee “can begin the new term with all other senators in January 2019 and can serve a full two (potentially four) years.”

Kyl noted that when he accepted Ducey’s appointment that he agreed to serve through December and then re-evaluate whether to serve longer.

“Senator Kyl didn’t need to return to the Senate,” Ducey said in a statement. “His legacy as one of Arizona’s most influential and important political figures was already without question. But he did return, and I remain deeply grateful for his willingness to step up and serve again when Arizona needed him. I wish him and his family all the best.”

McCain died at age 81 at his ranch near Sedona, Arizona just over a year after he announced he had glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer that came with a dire diagnosis.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/mccain-replacement-sen-jon-kyl-resigning-at-end-of-year_2739326.html

Lavrov explains reasons behind Maria Butina's plea deal

BAKU, December 14. /TASS/. Russian Maria Butina made a plea deal with the US justice to get a chance to be released as soon as possible and return to her homeland, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday.

"As far as I understand, the essence of this deal with the justice - this practice is usual chiefly in the US - was to manage to get a chance to be released as soon as possible and return to homeland," the minister said.

He noted that Russian diplomats visited Butina on Thursday. "She is still being held in very non-standard conditions, conditions which are usually used against extremely dangerous criminals. We again demanded that she be transferred to a general confinement room," Lavrov pointed out. "She said that she was not under pressure and that she voluntarily pled guilty to one of the charges brought against her - a collusion in an attempt to influence something."

"I understand this woman: she is staying in the most difficult conditions and faced specific kind of tortures for months: they either forcibly wake her up and let her walk in the night or place her in a solitary confinement cell, and so on. I have reasons to assume that the goal of the [detention] conditions that were created for her was to break her will and make her admit to something that she most probably did not commit," Lavrov pointed out.

"However, it is her fate, her decision. We will do everything to provide the rights of our citizen and enable her return home as soon as possible," the foreign minister stated.

On Thursday, Butina pled guilty under one of the charges on collision aimed at the violation of the laws on foreign agents in the US. She earlier signed documents on a deal with the prosecutors. The court accepted the confession and scheduled the next session under the case for February 12. The date of the sentencing was not announced because of a prosecutor who said that Butina agreed to cooperate with the investigators, and this process may take some time.

Butina case

Butina was arrested in Washington on July 15, ahead of a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump in Helsinki. The 30-year-old Russian was charged with collusion for conducting activity on US territory to benefit the Russian government. In addition, the American intelligence service state that the Russian conducted this activity without being registered with the US Department of Justice as an agent of a foreign state.

In a telephone conversation with US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo on July 21, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov demanded that Butina be released from custody as soon as possible and called the accusations against her fabricated.

Butina came to the US to study. She received a master’s degree at the American University, where she studied foreign affairs.

http://tass.com/politics/1036038