Dmitry Medvedev (Interview by Nadana Fridrichson)
Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev

Nadana FRIDRICHSON: Bloomberg writes that the Biden administration's plan to send Ukraine more advanced weapons and allow Kiev to strike Russian targets in Crimea will force Russia to negotiate with Ukraine. How do you assess their strategy? Are they right in their prediction?

DMITRY MEDVEDEV: No, they are not. The result will be just the opposite. There will be no negotiations, only retaliatory strikes. All of Ukraine, which remains under Kyiv's rule, will go up in flames.

This reasoning can only be made by moral freaks, of which there are many in the White House and the Capitol. By the way, people in the Pentagon are more adequate, they understand the consequences.

If Washington really wanted to end the war it provoked, it could do so with a snap of a finger, ordering its drug-addled lackeys to the negotiating table. But the Washington morons in the Administration and the hawks in the Congress are simply not interested.

NADANA FRIDRICHSON: If Kiev, with the permission of the United States, starts striking at Crimea or deep into Russia, what would be our response?

DMITRY MEDVEDEV: Our response could be anything. The President of Russia has made this quite clear. We place no limits on ourselves and, depending on the nature of the threat, we are prepared to use all kinds of weapons. In line with our doctrinal documents, including the Fundamentals of Nuclear Deterrence. I can assure you: the response will be swift, tough and convincing.

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Stephen Lendman

All things related to Russia and Ukraine were made-in-the-USA. Puppet Zelensky — a detached from reality buffoon — was a US creation, installed as an empire of lies front man for perpetual war on Russia.

Ignored by the fake Biden, US lawmakers and their MSM press agents is the growing risk of greater direct confrontation than already between the world’s leading nuclear powers.

On Christmas Day, Russia’s Deputy Security Council Chairman, Dmitry Medvedev, warned of the growing risk, stressing:

💬 “The only thing that stops stops our enemies (so far) is the understanding that Russia will be guided by (its publicly stated doctrine of) nuclear deterrence.” If there’s “a real threat (to the nation’s security), we will act” in self-defense as international law allows. US-dominated Western regimes are teetering “between a burning desire to maximally humiliate, dismember and destroy Russia, on the one hand, and the desire to avoid a nuclear apocalypse, on the other.”

Unless Russia’s security is guaranteed, things will “teeter on the brink of World War III and nuclear catastrophe.” Is the dominant criminal class in the empire of lies, its Western vassals and Ukrainian Nazis “ready…to unleash a full-fledged war against us, including a nuclear war?”

There’s “no one” in the West or Kiev for Moscow to “negotiate” with. “Our world (ominously) changed, forever.” “And the main question remains…what kind of future begins today?” "New disarmament agreements are currently unrealistic and unnecessary.” “(N)ormaliz(ation) requires guaranteed security for Russia, a notion the empire of lies rejects. — And wherever its ruling regimes go, Western vassal states follow, even at the expense of their own security and other vital interests.

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M. K. BHADRAKUMAR

Turning point: Russian special forces have entered the strategic industrial port city of Mariupol on the Black Sea coast

After substantially degrading Ukraine’s military capabilities, Russia is poised to escalate the special operation leading to the victory lap. Moscow has given signals in this direction.

The most significant signal came from the Kremlin spokesmen Dmitry Medvedev, who said on Monday, “Russia has a sufficient potential for conducting the special military operation in Ukraine. The operation is proceeding in accordance with the original plan and will be completed on time and in full.”

As I had written more than once previously, Russian military strategy is on course, contrary to what the hyped up western disinformation has conveyed, namely, that the special operation has “failed”. Peskov hinted that there is no question of stopping the operation prematurely. He spoke amidst western calls for “ceasefire.”

Peskov disclosed that President Vladimir Putin had specifically ordered the armed forces to refrain from an immediate assault on the cities, including Kiev, so as to prevent heavy civilian casualty. The operation, therefore, took into account the ground reality that the extremist Neo-Nazi groups had deployed weapons in densely-populated residential areas. This meant that the tactic narrowed down to...

“...working with modern high-precision weapons, hitting only military and information infrastructure facilities.”

Clearly, this also explained the slow pace and low intensity of the operations interspersed with lulls in the fighting and the tactic of encircling large settlements instead of attacking them frontally.

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Paul Craig Roberts

Begin by reading Michael Hudson’s explanation that the sanctions actually fall on Germany and serve the interests of the three interest groups who rule in Washington. The sanctions do far more to serve Washington’s interest than to hurt Russia’s. For Russia the main burden of the sanctions is the insult.

Russia is in position to issue crippling sanctions against the US and Europe, but so far has not done so. The Russians seem determined to prevail with as little force as possible. The Kremlin has not paralyzed Germany by turning off the gas. The Russians have not nationalized US and European assets. The Russians have not disrupted global supply chains by refusing to sell minerals. The Russians have not stopped the export of wheat. The Russians have not issued international arrest orders for American and European war criminals for their crimes against humanity in Serbia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria and for their various assassinations.

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Stephen Lendman

A right wing thug from Kiev throws a petroleum bomb at
the trade union building in Odessa, Ukraine, on Friday. At
least 31 people were killed in the blaze. (Stringer/Reuters)

Kiev putschists helicoptered them in. They came with orders to cause mayhem. They attacked federalization supporters. They did so violently. Gunfire was heard. Three deaths were reported. So were over a dozen injuries. The House of Trade Unions was set ablaze. Neo-Nazis did so with anti-Maidan activists inside. Reports said 38 people died. Thirty succumbed to carbon monoxide poisoning. Eight perished jumping out of windows. Another 50 needed medical treatment. Ten policemen were affected.

An emergency meeting followed. Mayor Vladimir Nemirovsky said: "We are making all possible intensive measures to restore law and order." Violent perpetrators will be prosecuted, he added.

Reports said about 1,500 Kiev supporters gathered in central Odessa's Sobornaya Square. Radicalized Chernomorets football club supporters joined them. Right Sector insignia were prominently displayed. Thugs came armed with chains, bats, shields and other weapons. They came looking for trouble. They shouted "Glory to Ukraine." "Death to enemies." "Knife the Moskals." It's a derogatory Ukrainian term for Russians. Hundreds of anti-Kiev activists confronted them. Clashes followed. Mayhem explains what happened. Both sides used Molotov cocktails, smoke grenades and rocks.

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Mark Glenn

Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill exchanges kisses with
President Dmitry Medvedev as Medvedev's wife, Svetlana,
and President-elect Vladimir Putin await their turn at an
Easter Sunday service in downtown Moscow. (S. L. Loiko)

What are we accomplishing?” they asked. “Here is this man performing many miraculous signs…If we allow him to go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then we will lose our place and our nation.” Then one of them named Caiphas who was High Priest that year spoke and said “You fools, you know nothing at all…Do you not realize it is better that one man die than that the whole nation perish?” — Book of John

The mood in Tel Aviv that day in early September 2013–specifically in the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu–had to have been absolutely electric. The news blaring out over the airwaves the world over was that more war (as if there weren’t enough already) was on its way to the Middle East, close enough to Israel in fact that gawkers and fans, if they so desired (as many did during Operation Cast Lead) could pull up lawn chairs and gigglingly watch the spectacle as if it were 2nd century Rome and Christians were being fed to lions.

The winning lottery ticket that had Chosenites the world over as giddy as schulgirls was the fact that Barack Obama had finally been Bar Mitzvaed, politically speaking, as virtually all American presidents inevitably must. Having experienced his ‘coming to Moses’ moment, the news was that he had finally decided to ‘get right’ with the god of Israel by surrendering his authority as leader of the free world to the genocidal demands of the Jewish state viz-a viz the obliteration of Syria. - Given the nature of what was involved then, how could such news have been greeted in Zionist circles in any fashion other than one of orgiastic celebration?

As stated earlier, ‘electric,’ and not just any old sort of AC/DC razzle dazzle/razzmatazz, but rather the kind of ‘high voltage’ energy one sees taking place every year during the Judaic festival of Purim…Handshakes, hugs, kisses, high-fives, throaty shouts of ‘Mazel Tov’, Magan David flowing like blood from a severed jugular vein and hearty backslaps between goombahs from Likud, Beiteinu and everything in between as they congratulate each other over the fact that, once again Jewish threats, Jewish needling, Jewish duplicity and of course the infamous kvetching for which this peculiar cult has been historically well-known had finally paid off, resulting now in the 4 horsemen of the Apocalypse stampeding towards ancient Assyria faster than a swarm of Tomahawk cruise missiles bearing painted slogans on their sides such as ‘Bomb a sand nigger for Jesus’.

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Stephen Lendman

The Damn Fool in the White House

Geopolitical conditions today are incendiary. Obama's war on Syria rages. No end in sight looms. Washington manipulated peace talks to fail. Odds favor full scale US intervention. Doing so risks regional war. In late February, Israel bombed Hezbollah targets. It did so along Lebanon's border with Syria. Hezbollah vowed to respond "at the appropriate time." It justifiably denounced "blatant" Israeli "aggression." Washington and Israel partner in regional adventurism. Do Obama and Netanyahu want war on Lebanon? Are they planning regional conflict? Will Iran be targeted? Will US-orchestrated violence in Venezuela continue? Will other nations be targeted for regime change? The damn fool in the White House risks global war. Ukraine is a major flashpoint. Conditions today are the most dangerous since the 1962 missiles of October crisis.

Jack Kennedy was a real president. Early in his administration he changed from cold warrior to peacemaker. He wanted all nuclear weapons abolished. He favored "general and complete disarmament." He wanted all US forces out of Vietnam by December 1965. He wanted to "splinter the CIA in a thousand pieces and scatter it to the winds." After resolving the 1962 crisis, he said he "never had the slightest intention" of confronting Cuba or Soviet Russia aggressively. - The damn fool in the White House is no Jack Kennedy. Neocons infest his administration. Rogue elements make policy.

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Stephen Lendman

As things now stand, Obama won. EU partners won. Fascist extremists won. Russia lost. So did ordinary Ukrainians. Months of struggling for something better apparently turned out in vain. More on this below. Events remain fast-moving.

Overnight negotiations produced an early Friday morning deal. Talks lasted eight hours. Opposition leaders Arseniy Yatsenyuk, Oleh Tyahnybok and Vitali Klitschko were involved. So were Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, Russian Human Rights ombudsman Vladimir Lukin, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski.

Ukraine's ruling Party of Regions called on

"everyone involved in the confrontation to lay down their arms." "This deed will be your greatest contribution to Ukraine's future," it said. "We should all consolidate around the common goal of restoring peaceful life on our soil." "We should stop this fratricidal war for the sake of peace, for the sake of justice and for the sake of Ukraine's future."

On Thursday, Ukraine's parliament passed a resolution near unanimously. It condemned the use of force against protesters. It prohibits Ukrainian Security Council counterterrorism. Yanukovych expressed willingness to hold early presidential and parliamentary elections later this year. He's amenable to constitutional change before summer. He's willing to form a national unity government in days.

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Israel Shamir / Paul Craig Roberts

Paul Craig Roberts: Note: The reports of missile destruction to which Shamir refers might be newspaper fantasy. Regardless, the main point of Shamir’s article seems to be correct. Obama did stand down. The opposition of Russia supported by China, the British Parliament, and the UN and the lack of enthusiasm for another war on the part of the American people, Congress, and NATO was too much for the Washington/Israeli warmongers to overcome. The tide has changed, and Washington can no longer do as it wills.

Israel Shamir, an Israeli writer whom I have long admired, saved me from having to write a column by writing it himself. My readers will recognize similarity of our thoughts.

Shamir, reporting from Moscow on the US/Russian confrontation over Syria, was well positioned to have good information. Shamir reports that according to diplomatic leaks, missiles launched against Syria, apparently by the US but perhaps by Israel, were, according to the Asia Times and Middle Eastern newspapers, either shot down by Russian ship-based sea-to-air defenses or rendered helpless by powerful Russian GPS jammers. This decisive response from a major nuclear power, together with the British Parliament’s loud NO and the same coming from the UN, the US public and Congress together with NATO’s lack of enthusiasm resulted in the Obama regime having second and better thoughts.

Americans are long accustomed to thinking that no one can stand up to America. This crazy idea has perverted the judgment of the government in Washington. If the fools in Washington don’t find a way to recover from their hubris and arrogance, the fools will bring us the end of the world.

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Jordan Shilton & Chris Marsden

EU officials insist on installing an economic dictatorship over the Cypriot economy.

The Cypriot government and the European Union (EU) arrived at an agreement early yesterday morning to secure a bailout of Cypriot banks and avert state bankruptcy in Cyprus.

The terms set by the bailout amount to the economic devastation of the island country in the interests of Europe’s financial elite. Cyprus’s financial sector, accounting for around half of economic output, will immediately be reduced by up to half. Laiki bank, the second largest, is to be wound up with its debts to the ECB taken on by the Bank of Cyprus. Further losses are inevitable, as banking done in Cyprus is shifted to other euro zone countries’ banks.

The dictates of the EU and the criminal financial practices of Cyprus’s ruling elite alike have paved the way for massive attacks on working people. With unemployment at more than 14 percent, there will inevitably be thousands of job losses in banking, Cyprus’s main employer, and from restructured companies and privatised services.

The bailout, which is massively opposed by the Cypriot population, is to be imposed without a vote in the Cypriot parliament. To this end, the original proposal to impose a levy on bank deposits, which had been rejected by the Cypriot parliament, was removed from the final agreement. The new plan provides for the freezing of all deposits over €100,000 to cover the bailout. Depositors and shareholders in Laiki will see their assets transferred to a “bad bank” and could lose everything.

These measures, together with a privatisation programme and tax increases, are projected to raise the €7 billion Cyprus has been ask to contribute to the €17 billion bailout from the EU, ECB and International Monetary Fund.

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