Politics
Saturday 9 February 2019
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“A bill of [the] Verkhovna Rada that restricts the rights of observers at the elections of the President of Ukraine violates the international law.”
While Ukraine's banning of Russian citizens from entering the country to take part in the OSCE election monitoring mission is "without precedent," it does not violate international law, and there will still be OSCE observers. Only two members of the team were Russian citizens. -
“The Russian economy has seen the biggest growth since 2012, expanding by 2.3 percent last year, according to preliminary estimates provided by [the] Russian state statistics agency.”
The statistics are contradicted by numerous independent analyses and have even been questioned by senior Russian officials. The past head of the responsible government agency was recently dismissed. -
"Guaido’s status cannot be determined from abroad, whether by the president of the United States or any other country. It can be determined only by the people of Venezuela and only by constitutional means. In this sense, for Russia the presidential status of Guaido doesn’t exist."
The U.S. is just one of many countries and international organizations which recognize the interim presidency of Venezuelan opposition politician Juan Guaido. Many of these countries didn't recognize Maduro’s controversial reelection in 2018. His original term ended on January 10, 2019. -
“Objectively, for the Americans contacts with ISIL are more interesting… – for spreading sabotage actions beyond the pales of Afghanistan. On the border with Turkmenistan there is a major offensive is being cooked by Islamic State and allied groups. That is where they may surface.”
The Afghan Special Forces confirmed they conducted the operation arresting Islamic State members and transferring them under the Afghan National Directorate of Security control. The U.S. was not involved. -
“U.S. largest audience TV host, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow (Democratic party aligned) this evening: Russia will freeze you and your family to death.”
WikiLeaks mischaracterized the MSNBC host and RIA Novosti enhanced the misinformation. Both relayed only part of the program, ignoring actual U.S. government warnings cited in the program. Maddow’s concerns about a potential Russian threat were not baseless. -
“At the Defense Ministry, which I have no connection with, I cannot negotiate the financing/supply of a private military contractor that doesn't exist.”
“Putin’s chef” denies both the existence of the Wagner Group and his role in bankrolling the mercenary band, which has served everywhere from Ukraine to Syria. But Prigozhin’s claims do not stand up to scrutiny. -
“Maria Butina is a human rights activist, for me Maria Butina is a public figure, a student of the American University, and the most relevant is that she is a person who did not work (collaborate) with the Russian state bodies.”
Alexander Ionov, vice chairman of the Russian State Duma’s Security Committee, has come out in support of “human rights” activist Maria Butina. He told VOA she never “worked” with Russian state bodies. But the long trail of evidence and links resulting in Butina’s U.S. guilty plea shows otherwise. -
“NATO puppet #Bellingcat created an account pretending its [sic]"In #Venezuela" when the Bellingcat author behind it actually a student in Canada.”
While the Twitter account calls itself “In Venezuela,” it publicly identifies its physical location as based in Toronto, Canada. This is also stated at the top of the “about” section on the writer’s blog. -
“(The Wall Street Journal) noted that the head of the government (Hungary’s Orban) has been receiving orders (from the U.S.) to counter Chinese cyber espionage and support Ukraine as a counter to Russia.”
RIA Novosti “quoted” a Wall Street Journal article, attributing to it wording that was not in the original piece. The U.S. cannot “order” foreign governments to follow certain policies, although the Hungarian leader objected to "pressure" from the U.S. -
“From the outset, Salmond insisted that the process was political and the charges were investigated with violations. The court supported him. It’s dangerous to be an RT presenter.”
Simonyan distorts the court’s actual decision in favor of Salmond, and makes other errors about the Scottish court system. RT put out an official statement declining to comment to preserve "due process." -
"It is specified that an anti-aircraft mount (ZU-23), a BTR-70 [armored personnel carrier] and one armored reconnaissance-patrol vehicle (BRDM-2) were found there [in Donbas] during the monitoring."
The OSCE Special Monitoring Mission report for January 22-23 does mention these vehicles, but they are all light armored vehicles that do not violate the Minsk agreement. -
“Demanding from the Russian side answers to queries by investigators that seemingly have already been fully answered by Russia, the Dutch authorities simply categorically refuse to give up their own secrets, which could be useful in the course of investigation.”
While the Joint Investigation Team has not shared with Russia all of the material from its ongoing investigation of the MH-17 shoot-down, they have concluded Russia is to blame for the downing, and say Moscow has not fully responded to the Joint Investigative Team requests.