The European Union Times |
- Putin saved Russia from disintegration – Gorbachev
- North Korea calls Barack Obama a ‘Monkey’ after accusing US over internet blackout
- USA harbors plans to decapitate Russia within minutes
- China can soon target US with sea-based nuclear weapons
- Saudi Arabia braces for $39 billion deficit, to cut wages due to low oil prices
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Posted: 27 Dec 2014 01:20 PM PST
 Russian President Vladimir Putin saved the country from falling apart, former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev said during the presentation of his new book ‘After the Kremlin.’ Gorbachev also commented on the situation in Ukraine and NATO expansion. “I think all of us – Russian citizens – must remember that [Putin] saved Russia from the beginning of a collapse. A lot of the regions did not recognize our constitution. There were over a hundred local constitutional variations from that of the Russian constitution,” RIA Novosti quoted Gorbachev as saying on Friday. He added that saving Russia during that crucial period was a “historical deed.” Gorbachev remarked that he knew the Russian president before Putin took office, describing him as having good judgment and discipline. Commenting on the situation in Ukraine, the ex-Soviet president said the armed stand-off must be immediately stopped and both sides need to come to the negotiating table. “All of us are concerned by what is happening in Ukraine – politicians and the public. And the fact that our government is supporting the people who are in trouble there, no matter how hard things are at home, it is what always distinguished us,” Gorbachev said, stressing that the conflict cannot be solved through violence. Gorbachev also noted that influential American and European politicians need to speak out against the worsening of international ties, adding that many of his old colleagues are seeing the first signs of a new Cold War and understand how crucial it is to calm things down. He said he has received comments which include concerns on how not to miss the escalating situation, and stopping it before it “acquires an explosive nature.” In terms of Russia’s worries over NATO’s expansion, Gorbachev agrees that the US is playing a key role in the process. “[NATO] began to establish bases around the world…I think the president is mostly right when drawing the attention to the special responsibility the US has,” Gorbachev said. Meanwhile, when speaking about the domestic situation in the country, the former president of the USSR expressed confidence that Russia will get out of the crisis, adding that the only questions are “when and at what price.” “Now we need to be very careful in politics – what policy is implemented, by who, and who stands to benefit?” While discussing his own mistakes, Gorbachev admitted he was “presumptuous” at times, believing he had everything under control. Mikhail Gorbachev served as general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991, and as the USSR’s only president from 1988. He led controversial perestroika reforms that are believed to have accelerated the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Gorbachev’s rule was also marked by the warming of relations with the West. Source           |
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Posted: 27 Dec 2014 12:44 PM PST
 The “rogue state” of North Korea used a racial slur to describe the American president Barack Hussein Obama, as the row over the Sony Pictures hack and release of The Interview continues. North Korea has sparked outrage after referring to Barack Obama as “a monkey in a tropical forest”, while accusing America of orchestrating an internet blackout in the Sony Pictures hack row. The “rogue state” of North Korea released a statement this morning claiming the United States was responsible for internet outages in recent days, as the two countries continue their confrontation over the film The Interview. North Korea experienced Internet problems last weekend and a complete outage of nearly nine hours before links were largely restored on Tuesday. Source      |
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Posted: 27 Dec 2014 12:40 PM PST
 The West has declared a cold war on Russia. The ultimate goal of the United States of America is to destroy Russia. The Americans already consider plans about the neutralization of the nuclear potential of Russia. Plan A is to strike a blow that would behead Russia. Plan B is to destroy the launcher. President of the Academy of Geopolitical Problems, Konstantin Sivkov, shared his views about the developing standoff between Russia and the West in an interview with Pravda.Ru. “American politicians have committed a variety of crimes. Will anyone be held accountable for those crimes? What about the international law, the UN and other organizations? Are they doing anything?” “Indeed, one can enumerate their crimes for long. In Iraq, about 1 million 200 thousand people have been killed. The American elite will answer for all that when Nuremberg-2 trial takes place. Hitler’s elite answered for all atrocities and crimes only after Hitler’s war machine was destroyed and the Nuremberg trial was held. “The American elite will not be held accountable for anything until their military machine is destroyed. Needless to say that external forces can not contribute to the defeat of the American elite. Ferguson showed only a little bit of tension. In fact, the American society is very conflicted from the inside. There are extensive layers of conflict. Layers of conflict are very extensive. There are ethnic, cultural, property, territorial differences and even ideological signs. In the United States, there are many internal contradictions. “Today, these contradictions get lost in overconsumption, but the time of overconsumption comes to an end. There are already people in America, who line up and fight for free food coupons. The American society will decay some day, and that will be the day, when the question of responsibility of the American elite is going to arise.” “In addition to carrots of consumption, they use sticks in America at a much greater extent. The penal system in the United States is very strong.” “This is true. Hitler’s state machine was the same. Nevertheless, there were people in Nazi Germany, who were fighting against all that. They try to give an acceptable level to the majority of population. Yet, they do not have enough brains to ensure decent maintenance to veterans of their own armed forces. In the United States of America, scandals related to retired military men, who do not receive social benefits, are frequent. American society will decay some day “Suffice it to recall the recent scandal about the soldier, who, allegedly shot Osama Bin Laden. Well, that’s not even the point. Pay attention to the last speech from the Chief of Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, General Gerasimov. His speech was nothing but a de facto recognition of the fact that the West had declared cold war on Russia. I want to remind you that in 1949, it was not the USSR, but the West that started the cold war. It was not the Soviet Union, but the West that was building the Iron Curtain. The United States created NATO in 1949, and the Warsaw Pact saw the light only in 1955, six years later. We had to take some measures in response. Today, the story is the same.” “There are many reports saying that the United States has been seriously preparing for war against Russia, that they plan to use thousands of cruise missiles.” “This is an absolutely realizable thing. Against Yugoslavia and Iraq, the United States used more than a thousand missiles. Yet, one has to deploy all these missiles somewhere first. It is impossible to launch them all at once – such an attack will have to be conducted for quite a long time. Therefore, if they launch a missile at Russia, Russia will respond with a retaliatory nuclear strike. Therefore, thousands of missiles can be good only if they succeed in neutralizing Russia’s nuclear potential. “It can be possible to neutralize Russia’s nuclear potential in two ways. The first one is an attack that would behead Russia. The idea is to destroy command centers, from which orders are made. The second way is to destroy the launcher that launches missiles. They can use both ways too. Note that during the recent years, the Americans have been criticizing Russia for its alleged violations of the treaty on medium-range missiles. By signing this treaty, we, in fact, made all of Europe unreachable for our medium-range missiles. Now, Russia can strike nuclear blows on Europe only with the help of air forces. Yet, there are powerful air defense systems in Europe that are difficult to overcome. “We went for it, because the Americans developed Pershing-II missiles. A distinctive feature of this missile is a flat trajectory of flight and a very high precision contact – about five-ten meters. Such a ballistic missile overcomes the distance of 2.5-3 thousand kilometers within 5-8 minutes. Thus, the Americans created conditions for a beheading strike. They obtained an opportunity to strike Moscow and other Russian cities from the territory of Turkey and many other places. Americans take efforts to destroy Russia in mere minutes “In order to protect our country from this decapitating strike, we took up the treaty on intermediate-range missiles. Today, the Americans scream and shout that we allegedly violate the treaty. All this, of course, is being done to find a reason to pull out from the treaty and launch the deployment of such missiles. In addition, the Americans have the so-called breakout potential. After the START-1 Treaty that Gorbachev concluded, nuclear weapons were cut from about ten to nearly four thousand warheads for each side. Russia destroyed 6,000 warheads. Moreover, the weapons-grade uranium and plutonium obtained from the disassembly of those warheads was handed over to the United States for a symbolic amount.” “You mean it was sold for a penny?” “Sold for a penny, yes. Today, the Americans use it for their nuclear power plants. They also supply it to Ukraine. The Americans have not dismantled their 6,000 nuclear warheads – they still store them there in America. Those warheads, at any time, can be mounted on the second stages of Minutemen missiles that have not been dismantled either. The Americans dismantled only the third stage of those missiles. With its second stage, a Minuteman can fly for about 5,000 kilometers. They can deplay such missiles in Europe. So today, Russia has found itself in a very difficult situation. “The Soviet Union had a clear ideology when it entered the Cold War. The Soviet ideology was recognized globally. The USSR also had the consolidated classless society. The USSR was led by unconditional patriots, who won the war. The Soviet Union had the economy the potential of which was equal to 30-50 percent of the US economy. The USSR had a well-developed industry that did not depend on the West. The Soviet industry could develop independently. “In the USSR, there were full-fledged scientific schools that were as advanced as American scientific schools. Most importantly, the USSR had a great strategic backyard in the form of socialist countries, where Soviet troops were stationed. That was how the Soviet Union entered the Cold War. Today’s situation, if compared to the beginning of the previous Cold War, is like heaven and earth. “Today, we are in a situation, when, unfortunately, theory begins to turn into practice. Today’s Russia does not have anything of that. The economic potential of today’s Russia makes only ten percent of the American economic potential. To crown it all, we are tied to the West thanks to the destruction of our fundamental and applied science.” “Do you think that the situation is that catastrophic?” “We are entering the war being in a catastrophic situation. Extraordinary measures should be taken. If these measures are not taken, our country will be defeated very quickly. The only thing that holds back the West today is our nuclear capability. Nevertheless, this nuclear potential can be neutralized. A modern war against Russia will be carried out the way it had been done in Ukraine, Syria, Egypt, Libya, Iraq …” Source      |
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Posted: 27 Dec 2014 10:59 AM PST
 China’s military is set to acquire a reliable, hard-to-destroy sea-based nuclear deterrent, with a dozen JL-2 missiles that are being mounted on its JIN class submarines, according to a report submitted to Congress by the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission. The missiles have a strike range of around 7,350 km, meaning they can reach all 50 US states if they are launched from waters west or east of Hawaii. Currently, the Chinese can target the US only with land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles. However, land-based weapons had become vulnerable to a US first strike due to advancements in surveillance that could track their location and movements. The integration of the new missiles into China’s three JIN-class nuclear-powered submarines has boosted their lethality, giving the country a credible second-strike capability and increasing Beijing’s nuclear deterrence. The Chinese have also invested significantly on the CJ-10 land attack cruise missiles, capable of striking US forces in Japan and South Korea. Many Chinese scholars believe that the sea-based nuclear deterrent can insulate China from a US nuclear attack. The scholars say China’s military doctrine remains essentially defensive, and its accelerated weaponization program is mostly a reaction to Washington’s so-called “pivot” to the Asia-Pacific region, a strategy that Beijing interprets as China-containment policy. Source      |
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Posted: 27 Dec 2014 10:51 AM PST
 The number one crude oil exporter, Saudi Arabia, has projected a $39 billion deficit in 2015. The impact of lower oil prices, along with the decision not to cut production, is putting pressure on the country’s finances. The figure was part of the endorsed 2015 budget, which was made public in a statement read out on state-run television on Thursday. The estimated trade deficit will be Saudi Arabia’s largest on record. The Finance Ministry said the government will try to save some money by cutting salaries, wages, and allowances that represent around “50 percent of total budgeted expenditures.” But the move could anger Saudi youth, who are already struggling to cover the costs of living in the country. According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), about two-thirds of the population works for the government. The 2015 budget includes 860 billion riyals (US$229.3 billion) in spending and 715 billion riyals ($190.7 billion) in revenue. Saudi Arabia promised to cover the difference by digging into its reserves. Saudi Arabia’s 2015 budget is probably assuming an oil price of $80 a barrel so it will be seen as a sign of confidence in the market, former economic adviser to the country’s government, John Sfakianakis, told Bloomberg after the budget was announced on Thursday. The assumption is down from $103 a barrel for this year, Sfakianakis added. “Everyone was expecting to see a budget built on a price around $60 but that would have sent a negative message to the oil market,” Sfakianakis said. “With a fiscal break even price of $80 a barrel, the government is sending a message to the market that we are expecting to see a rebound in oil prices.” Oil accounted for 89 percent of Saudi Arabia’s revenue last year. At the latest OPEC meeting in Vienna, Austria, the Gulf country opted not to cut the production ceiling of 30 million barrels per day, despite oil prices plunging nearly 50 percent since summer. Saudi Arabia has also made clear that it is unwilling to cut down production, even if oil prices continue to fall further. Last week, the country’s oil minister, Ali Al-Naimi, said that output would not be reduced, even if prices fall to $20 a barrel. The decision has been interpreted by some experts as trying to weed out new players from North America, who can competitively produce shale oil only at higher crude prices. However, lower oil prices also directly hurt the economies of countries like Russia, Iran, and Venezuela. Some economists fear that the deficit in 2015 might be even larger than projected, since Saudi Arabians have underestimated the figure in the past. “I believe we are headed for a difficult year in 2015. I think the actual deficit will be around 200 billion riyals [$53 billion] because actual revenues are expected to be lower than estimates,” Saudi economist Abdulwahab Abu-Dahesh told AFP. “Spending in the budget is not in line with the sharp decline in oil prices,” he said. According to the country’s Finance Ministry, the 2014 fiscal year budget is set to post a deficit of 54 billion riyals ($14.4 billion) – the first budget shortfall since 2009. Source     |
