A US intelligence agent inquired about confidential details of real estate deals, a Turkish paper reports.

The Central Intelligence Agency has “openly” threatened Turkish businessmen for trading with Russia, prying into their real estate deals over concerns about the potential circumvention of US sanctions, Yeni Safak daily reported on Friday. ● The paper has learned that the CIA’s Turkey office chief allegedly called high-ranking construction-company employees, inquiring about transactions and other confidential details of recent real-estate purchases involving Russian entities or individuals. ● According to the report, the CIA officer interviewed businessmen under the guise of monitoring the US-imposed anti-Russia sanctions. He was interested to know the exact number of “houses sold to Russians,” what channels and currency were used for transactions, and whether the payments were made through a bank or cash-in-hand.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman says initiative to ban Russian language at workplace affects half of country's population.

Russia on Friday slammed as "discriminatory" Latvia's initiative to ban the Russian language at workplaces, saying the former member of the Soviet Union turned humiliation of ethnic minorities into a state policy. ● In a statement, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said a draft law, that is being prepared in this connection, contradicts international rules.

💬 "Such absurd, discriminatory initiatives, affecting the interests of almost half of the population of Latvia and going against numerous recommendations of relevant international structures, have long been a shameful practice," she said. ● "In this Baltic country, linguistic genocide and humiliation of ethnic minorities, whose representatives are considered second-class people by Latvian authorities, have been elevated to the rank of state policy." ● Zakharova added: "Unfortunately, the European 'democratic' structures are shamefully silent."

Kremlin propaganda is real, but its reach is decidedly minor in comparison to the massive disinformation campaigns being launched by the Western national security state. And as Alan Macloed reveals, London’s Department of War Studies is a key part of that information war.

Set in an imposing building near the banks of the River Thames in Central London, the Department of War Studies is at the heart of the British establishment. Current staff includes the former Secretary General of NATO, former U.K. Minister of Defense, and a host of military officers from NATO and NATO-aligned countries. ● It is also a favored training ground for the secret services. A 2009 report published by the CIA described how beneficial it is to “use universities as a means of intelligence training,” writing that “exposure to an academic environment, such as the Department of War Studies at King’s College London, can add several elements that may be harder to provide within the government system,” also mentioning that the department’s faculty have “extensive and well-rounded intelligence experience.”

Facebook CEO has effectively confirmed the feds secretly control major US social media (RT.com)