Verdicts
Monday 10 June 2019
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“Probably, the level of integration in the CIS format is not the same as in the Eurasian Union... But this is a common story. These are, as we say, variable-speed tracks of integration.”
Looking at all of Russia’s main trading partners, only one has seen the share of trade dramatically increase over the past decade. -
“The Normandy landings were not a game-changer for the outcome of WWII and the Great Patriotic War. The outcome was determined by the Red Army’s victories – mainly, in Stalingrad and Kursk. For three years, the UK and then the US dragged out opening the second front.”
Prior to the 75th anniversary of D-Day, the Russian Foreign Ministry said that effort to liberate Nazi-occupied France was not a Second World War "game changer." While the large Soviet sacrifice in defeating Nazi Germany cannot be understated, historians agree that D-Day was pivotal. -
“The experts found that, according to Article 17 of the Constitution of Ukraine, the Armed Forces of Ukraine cannot be involved in any conflict within the country. They are intended only to repel external aggression.”
Russian media has seized on comments made by the lawyer for the former chief of the Ukrainian armed forces’ General Staff, who repeated an expert commission claim that constitutionally, the Ukrainian military can only be deployed at home to repel external aggression. That claim, however, is false. -
“The Turkish Stream gas pipeline project offers ample opportunities for joint efforts. Its extension through the territory of Bulgaria will strengthen your country’s energy security.”
TurkStream is a diversionary pipeline to carry Russian natural gas currently being transited to the Balkans via Ukraine. TurkStream will not provide natural gas volumes from an alternative source, thus will not enhance Bulgaria’s energy security. -
“Worse of all, the idea of organizing racial rallies to cause the U.S.A. to collapse is not an isolated case of an acute psychotic break-down of some mentally ill staffer. In the same letter, Prigozhin’s staffers are bragging about their participation in the wars in eastern Ukraine, in Syria. They are also building plans to ‘assist in training national security forces’ in such countries as Qatar, Sudan, CAR, Chad, Madagascar, as well as ‘implementation of joint projects with Congo, South Sudan, Ethiopia.’ And that, as we know, are not just plans but reality.”
The U.S. Justice Department indictment and the data on Russian advertisements on Facebook released to the U.S. Congress allege that Yevgeny Prigozhin and companies controlled by him have been conspiring to defraud the U.S., including by aggravating social divisions. -
“Communist past revived in Russian schools”? Another #fake from @thetimes. Law prohibits political activity in Russian public schools. The photo was made at event held by the opposition Communist party.”
While schools worldwide often promote patriotism, there are reports of Russia's "Young Army" promoting the president, of history altered in textbooks to support state policy, students forced to participate in pro-Putin rallies and disciplined for repeating opposition messages. -
"The army was turned into a private business. A business where you profit from the officials. It is the business of selling the bodies of our soldiers, which are supplied from Ukraine to Europe."
The Russian TV channel NTV made a number of claims about former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili and his wife Sandra Roelofs, including that she is part of black market organ harvesting in Eastern Ukraine. But the latest spin on this conspiracy theory is lacking in both evidence and logic. -
“In recent years, mortality [in road accidents] has decreased in this country. From 19 people per 100,000 population, it has already fallen to 13 people, but... the final goals we set are even more stringent: to 4 people per 100,000 population.”
Traffic fatality rates in Russia are falling and hover around the number cited by the minister of internal affairs. The goal to reduce the rate to about that of Germany in five years is ambitious. It took Germany nearly a quarter of a century to achieve a similar reduction. -
“As for the question that you asked US Secretary of State on the allegations regarding Russia meddling in the US election, I would like to say that today I transmitted to Mike Pompeo a copy of an article published in the United States in 1987 claiming that the Soviet Union would try to meddle in the 1988 US presidential election.”
The article is from a fringe publication and states that the Soviets were very interested in the 1988 U.S. presidential election. That's not comparable to the evidence of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and it doesn't support Moscow’s denials. -
“Actually, these are already not restrictions at all: this is a direct and unequivocal declaration of economic war against the entire European subcontinent.”
New sanctions bill will not amount to a trade war with Europe, as it only targets the handful of world companies that have the know-how to operate pipe-laying vessels. Only the Swiss Allseas and the Italian Saipem will be directly affected. -
“Most likely [Ukrainian President Zelenskiy’s] inaugural speech was edited overseas, otherwise the president wouldn’t be making belligerent statements on the very first day, threatening to seize the territory of a neighboring state.”
Chechen head Ramzan Kadyrov attacked the new Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, claiming he threatened “to seize the territory of a neighboring state.” But while Zelenskiy prioritized regaining Ukraine’s “lost territories” in his inaugural speech, he did not suggest using force to do so. -
“Poroshenko is preparing for a 3rd round of presidential elections in Ukraine.”
A Ukrainian website recently posted a story claiming that outgoing Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko was willing to risk civil war by engineering a questionable legal pretext for a third round of voting. The only problem – the inauguration date has already been set.