Roberto Abraham Scaruffi

Thursday, 7 August 2014

The European Union Times


Posted: 06 Aug 2014 11:41 AM PDT

An ominous report issued by the Ministry of Defense (MoD) says that President Putin’s order today to move thousands of more troops and military equipment to the Ukrainian border, coupled with his order yesterday to all state organs to begin retaliation against the West for their imposing unjust sanctions on the Federation, is, in fact, a “Global War Order” against the Obama regime blamed by the Kremlin for starting this conflict to cover-up the West’s impending economic collapse.
According to this report, Putin’s order involves forces from the Air Defense Troops in the Central Military District which include the Ural’s Sverdlovsk, Chelyabinsk regions, Republic of Bashkortostan and West Siberia’s Altai territory. “More than five thousand servicemen and around two thousand units of military hardware will be involved in [these] military exercises,” a spokesman of the Central Military District said.
These thousands of extra troops and their equipment will join their military counterparts on the Ukrainian border, this report continues, who were activated this past Monday and are currently conducting war exercisesdesigned to repel US led NATO retaliatory forces should they be needed.

Though the Obama regime has stated that they are “deeply concerned” over Russia’s military Ukrainian border buildup, this report further notes that Prime Minister Donald Tusk of Poland warned his people yesterday that the risk of Russia invading Ukraine has increased in the “last dozen hours or so”.
To the likelihood of Russian forces having to intervene in Ukraine, this report says, was made more urgent yesterday after UN envoy Vitaly Churkin described to his international counterparts on the Security Council the situation in eastern Ukraine as a “catastrophic, full-blown war”.
Grimly, this MoD report says, are that four million people in the combat area in eastern Ukraine (200,000 of them are deprived of water) are on the verge of a European “humanitarian catastrophe” of unprecedented proportions, a situation not seen on the continent since the ending of World War II in 1945.
So dire has the situation in eastern Ukraine become, this report continues, that this past Sunday, 438 Ukrainian soldiers crossed into Russia in the Rostov region asking for asylum with many of them being reported as being near starvation and total exhaustion.

Earlier today, in fact, this report states, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) arranged a flight from Moscow to the Rostov region for foreign reporters to personally interview these defecting Ukrainian soldiers, but as ITAR-TASS News Service reports, all of the journalists from the leading US media working in Russia refused to go and interview them for themselves.
The US media in refusing to report on the truth to the American people about this war, MoD experts in this report say, coincides with the new laws imposed upon the people of Ukraine by their coup-installed fascist government allowing them to arrest anybody who uses social media to engage in political activism against the war.
And as the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Geneva has stated they are ready to help the Russian Red Cross (RRC) in setting up a humanitarian corridor which would allow the safe transit of sick children from Ukraine, this report sadly states the Obama regime led Ukrainian government will not allow it.
So angry has Russia been about the Obama regimes nefarious machinations in Ukraine, it bears mentioning, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov earlier this spring accused them of “running the show” in Kiev “without any scruples”.
Backing up Lavrov’s earlier assessment is the MoD stating in their report that far from helping the women and children in this brutal Ukrainian war, the Obama regime and its European allies are preparing to make it even worse with the US now sending in military advisors into Ukraine and deploying hundreds of heavy tanks, armored personnel carriers and landing crafts into Norway, and the EU flagrantly violating the Geneva Convention in lifting their ban on sending weapons and ammunition to Ukraine too.
To some of the further war moves against the Obama regime Putin could order, this report grimly warns, would be the disposal of European companies’ assets in Russia, which would deliver a heavy blow to European manufacturers – a measure that analysts in Brussels describe as an “economic nuclear weapon”.
Another Putin war move being activated with yesterday’s Russian-Iranian energy agreement, this report concludes, is for the Federation and its allies to unleash upon the world a “virtual sea of cheap oil and natural gas” that could only be paid for in rubles, a situation best described by top American investor Jim Sinclair whorecently warned:
“If Russia accepts payment for oil and gas in any currency other than the dollar – whether it’s gold, the Euro, the Ruble, the Rupee, or anything else – then the U.S. petrodollar system will collapse”.
Though not mentioned in this MoD report, and as our world lurches ever closer to all-out war, Russia, which is the most resource rich nation on Earth possessing over $75 trillion of national wealth (compared to the US in 2nd place at $45 trillion), President Obama this past week dismissed them as a nation that “doesn’t make anything”, leading one to wonder if this “leader” of the supposed free world even knows what he’s doing.
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Posted: 06 Aug 2014 11:38 AM PDT
Nepalese residents and rescue personnel stand amid debris at the site of a landslide on the Sukoshi River in Sindhupalchowk district, August 3, 2014.
A massive mudslide triggered by heavy rains has killed at least 16 people in central Nepal as several dozens more are feared buried.
Officials said Monday that rescue forces are trying to find more victims through piles of rock, mud and upturned trees in the district of Sindupalchowk, where a hill gave way under heavy rains over the weekend.
Reports say at least 150 people are still missing after the disaster.
“We have no chance of finding any of the missing people alive under this pile of debris,” Head of the Department of Natural Disaster Management Yadav Prasad Koirala said on Sunday. “We have the names of 159 people who are believed to be missing and buried, but there could be even more people.”
Thousands of villagers living along the banks of the Sukoshi River in the affected district were forced to leave their homes following warnings of floods downstream.
Meanwhile, another landslide in the eastern district of Sankhuwasabha on Monday killed a 10-year-old boy and left 10 others missing.
Landslides are common in mostly mountainous Nepal during the rainy season, which runs from June through September.
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Posted: 06 Aug 2014 11:35 AM PDT

A one-year ban has been imposed on certain agricultural produce, foods and raw materials from countries that have sanctioned Russia. An order on economic measures to protect the country’s security has been signed by President Putin.
The decree “on the use of specific economic measures” has been signed in response to sanctions imposed on Russia by a number of states over the Ukrainian crisis, the Kremlin said on its website.
While the law comes into force immediately, the government has been tasked to come up with a concrete list of imports to be banned.
The decree orders the Cabinet to take measures to provide a balance on product markets and prevent rapid price growth. The government has also to join efforts with manufacturers, businesses and retail store chains to increase the Russian goods supply.
Meanwhile, ministers are already drafting a list of products that could be affected by the ban and it can be ready already on Thursday, Natalia Timakova, a press-secretary for PM Dmitry Medvedev told Vedomosti newspaper.
However, the agricultural watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor said it needs two to three days to prepare the list.The watchdog is to hold consultations on Thursday with Ecuador, Brazil, Chile and Argentina on expanding product imports to Russia from those countries.
The register of the banned or restricted products will be flexible, a source in the government told Vedomosti daily. It will include different kinds of vegetables, fruit, and meat. However, wine and baby foods will “definitely” not come under sanctions, the source added. According to another government official, cheeses, meat, and dairy products are those most likely be affected by the ban.
Last week, the European Union approved a new (the harshest so far) round of sanctions against Russia in addition to steps taken earlier. The package targeted financial, energy and defense sectors of the Russian economy. The so-called sectorial sanctions hit five Russian banks, including the country’s biggest, Sberbank. The banks were banned from raising capital on the EU’s capital markets. Also, the EU introduced an embargo on the import and export of arms and related material to and from Russia.
Speaking on Tuesday, ahead of signing the decree, Putin stressed that Moscow’s response should be “cautious.”
“Obviously we need to do it cautiously in order to support domestic manufacturers, but not hurt consumers,” he said.
Putin described the political tools of pressure being used against the Russian economy as unacceptable and added that they go against international rules and norms.
A day earlier, Medvedev said that Moscow would consider possible responses to EU sanctions against Russian airlines.
Vedomosti daily has been reporting Russia would limit European flights to Asia that cross Siberia, in response to EU sanctions that caused Aeroflot subsidiary, Dobrolet, to suspend flights on Monday. However, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Wednesday the report was a baseless rumor.
The Russian Retailers’ Association gave an assurance that the ban on agricultural imports will only affect the premium market segment, and ordinary customers will not feel the impact. The group’s executive director, Andrey Karpov told RIA Novosti that the association will now reconsider the pool of foreign suppliers and increase the number of Russian vendors.
At the same time, Russia’s import limitations will not change the European Union’s stance on Ukraine, the EU ambassador to Moscow, Vygaudas Ušackas, told RIA Novosti.
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Posted: 06 Aug 2014 11:31 AM PDT

The Ukrainian government has called on people in the country’s east to leave the flashpoint area as government troops close in on pro-Russia forces in the region.
The Ukraine military called on pro-Russia forces in the eastern cities of Donetsk and Lugansk to open corridors to allow civilians to leave the area.
The military also said its troops had already taken control of a checkpoint on the western edge of the city of Donetsk.
This came as the Ukrainian forces said they were closing in around Donetsk after making more gains against pro-Russian forces over the last month. Government forces are seeking to cut off pro-Russian forces in the city from their comrades in Lugansk and the Russian border.
Pro-Russia forces, however, have pledged to continue fighting against Kiev in the cities they hold.
Meanwhile, local officials in Lugansk said almost half of the city’s 420,000 populations had escaped amid warnings of humanitarian crisis. The city has been reportedly without power, running water and internet for three days.
The UN refugee agency said some 117,000 people had fled the country’s east to other regions, and 168,000 others had applied for asylum to Russian authorities.
Ukraine’s mainly Russian-speaking regions have witnessed deadly clashes between pro-Russia protesters and the Ukrainian army since the government in Kiev launched military operations in mid-April in a bid to crush the pro-Russia protests. The United Nations (UN) says at least 1,129 people have been killed in the military campaign.
The fighting has intensified in east Ukraine since July 17, when a Malaysian airliner, carrying 298 people, was downed in the Donetsk region. Western powers accuse pro-Russia forces of downing the civilian airliner. The pro-Russians deny any involvement and blame the Ukrainian army for the incident.
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Posted: 06 Aug 2014 11:28 AM PDT


The eastern Ukrainian city of Lugansk has declared a state of humanitarian catastrophe over a lack of medical supplies, electricity, lighting, mobile and internet communication. Some 250,000 civilians are unable to leave, the statement also says.
“As of August 5, Lugansk remains disconnected from electricity. The situation remains critical on the city’s territory. Lugansk is has no energy, is in a state of humanitarian catastrophe. Since Sunday, part of the population in the region’s center have been without light or water, as well as mobile and internet communication,” the statement on the city council website read.
Due to high temperatures and the damage to most community services’ cars, rubbish collection “completely stopped,” which is why the city is basically “on the brink of an ecological catastrophe,” the administration said.
“Today 250,000 civilian Lugansk residents – mainly retirees and families with children who don’t have the money to leave the city and who have nowhere to go – have been the hostages to the situation: the people are forced to live in the conditions of armed clashes, with the lacking communications, the remaining nutrition disappearing from the counter of shops and supermarkets which are still working,” according to the statement.
An especially burning issue has become the lack of medical supplies.
“People can’t purchase the essential medical supplies, only a handful of drugstores are operating,” the statement added.
Donbass Community Fund representative Roman Korotenko told Novorossiya press center that Lugansk has descended into “the Stone Age.”
“We are practically in the Stone Age – we have no light, no water, and all this comes amid unstoppable shelling by the Ukrainian army. Electricity is on only for few hours as the power lines are constantly under fire from the military.”
“Many people have left the town – I had almost no one left, only my sister. If you had gone out to your balcony in the evening, there would be a feeling that the city had died out,” a former resident of Lugansk, Olga, who recently moved to more peaceful Kharkov, told RIA Novosti.
Transport communication is no good in the embattled city these days, Olga said.
“The buses go to Kharkov, Starobelsk. <…> In the city, the buses are infrequent, they used to come every five minutes, now it’s half an hour. The drivers won’t keep to the route – it’s dangerous. Also, there is no petrol, and if there is, it’s very expensive. No trolleybuses or tramways are left.”
The shops work several hours a day, and Olga said the prices have increased, there are almost no cigarettes on sale, but it’s still possible to buy food.
In the evenings, people try not to go out. Attacks and clashes are an every-day occurrence.
Another resident Olga, who spoke to RT, said that the situation has recently changed: for the worse.
“The fighting used to be away from residential areas. But now the locals, the children are suffering, they’re scared,” she told RT’s Maria Finoshina.
Many of the residents who stayed in the city are forced to shelter in the basements. There is a shelter in almost every household: it looks like an apartment, but underground.
The locals say they “don’t know what to do anymore” and that “there was no hope left.”
Even the youngest ones share the adults’ fears, as 13-year-old Artyom said.
“I was really scared when the glass started flying. I’m still scared.”
While RT’s Marina Finoshina was speaking with the locals, the electricity went dead.
“Sometimes the wires get ruptured. When it’s in neutral zone, some workers go there to fix the connection. They carry a white flag, but they just get fired on,” local resident Irina explained.
The Ukrainian army has approached the outskirts of Donetsk and Lugansk, preparing to storm these cities, the speaker for the Council of National Security and Defense, Andrey Lysenko, declared, as quoted by Ria Novosti.
“The main forces of the anti-terrorist operation, including the territorial battalions have approached those areas. It doesn’t mean that the storming has already started, but preparation to free the cities is on,” he said.
The attack won’t be announced, only the seizing of the cities, Lysenko added.
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Posted by Roberto Abraham Scaruffi at 11:33