Last night we heard some knucklehead on the War Channel (CNN) braying about Ukraine as a vitally important "ally and strategic partner". The implication, of course, was that the Donald’s attempted squeeze play on its new President was dangerously undermining national security.

What unadulterated tommyrot!

The safety and security of the American homeland has absolutely nothing to do with it. That’s because Ukraine is a no count, strategically irrelevant patch of earth that was long ago ruined by the old Soviet Union, and thereafter turned into an economic trainwreck by its own corrupt oligarchs – along with plenty of help from Washington interventionists.

It was clear in yesterday's press briefing during President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's visit to the White House, where he didn't actually receive much push back from either President Trump or the press (at one point Trump requested that only a "friendly" reporter from Turkey ask questions of Erdogan), that the touchy subject of Turkey's acquirement of Russia's S-400 anti-air system was front and center in closed door conversations.

But Erdogan appeared unmoved by whatever pressure he may have faced in the Oval, given he later told reporters while standing next to the US president that Turkey cannot possibly discard the S-400 due to its strategic ties wit Russia, but he also added, “I’ve told Mr. Trump that we’re ready to buy Patriots.”

As Russia marks famed Soviet inventor Mikhail Kalashnikov’s centenary, we look at the newest incarnation of his time-tested rifle. The AK-308 fires NATO rounds, giving the Russian manufacturer an edge over western rivals.

Sitting along a lonely road near Russia’s Kazakh border, the town of Kurya is a long way from the world’s battlefields. The nearest major city, Novosibirsk, is a six-hour drive away. Yet, Kurya’s most famous son devised an invention that would power revolutions, redraw national borders and reshape modern warfare.

President Trump was elected on a platform of making peace with Russia but "getting along" with Russia "is a crime" in permanent Washington, Tucker Carlson said Wednesday night on Fox News.

"Getting along with Russia is not an alternative view here, it's a crime," Carlson said.

Former US presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton, spoke to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme about an investigation which alleges Russian influence in British politics. The Government has refused to release the report until after the December 12 election. Mrs Clinton told the BBC she was “dumbfounded” by the move and called it “inexplicable and shameful”.

Maj. Gen. Eric Hill, addressing the arrival of more armored vehicles at the US positions in eastern Syria, says it is part of the “resetting” of the US position further east, and required the US to have more “combat power here to sustain ourselves.”

Maj. Gen. Hill says that the goal is not simply to have power to match ISIS but “the militaries of the Syrian regime, the Russians, or even militias backed by fellow NATO partner Turkey.” The focus is on how everyone is carving up territory in eastern Syria, which was once controlled by the US and its Kurdish allies.

Though the Pentagon likes to brag about its ability to project power across the world, in Syria its ability to accomplish anything has historically hinged on getting the Kurds to do it for them. Though the deployment at the oilfields is no doubt capable of inflicting some casualties if control of the fields is challenged, it’s hard to imagine that the US believes it would truly hold this ground with a few hundred troops.

Instead of reducing the number of troops as promised, Trump approved an expanded “military mission,” supposedly to “secure” Syrian oil.

Trump Expands Military Mission in Syria Aiming to Control Oil Fields https://t.co/LcPtAiBmmc

— Democracy Now! (@democracynow) November 8, 2019

The Donald is completely irrelevant.

“At a US government-funded think tank at the forefront of shaping Washington’s interventionist designs, an American official succinctly laid out the continued-regime change strategy,” writes Ben Norton for The Grayzone.

The “think tank”—the neocon infested Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) is funded by clueless American taxpayers.

In a largely unreported but hugely important story that played out this week in the Balkans, Washington is putting immense pressure on Serbia to shelve future plans for acquiring Russia's advanced S-400 air defense missile systems.

The controversy began Wednesday when Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic told a public television broadcaster in an interview that he had a desire to purchase the S-400 but lacked the funding to do so, and at one point said "Serbia was ready to accept S-400s from Russia as a gift," according to TASS.

"You know, when you have such a weapon, no one would attack you. Neither US nor any other pilots fly where S-400s are operational: Israeli pilots do not fly either over Turkey or Syria, except for the Golan Heights. We have aviation, which the strongest than ever before. We will be strengthening the air defense with Pantsyr systems and other things, which are not on the sanctions list," Vucic said in the interview.

Whether to control the oil or flat out take the oil, US statements on the new military mission in Syria are heavily oil-themed. Other reports, however, suggest that the operation is a lot more complicated than that.

In reality, a lot of the goal is nation-building, with US forces meant to both keep the Syrian government out of this part of Syria, and try to “bring prosperity” to the region, propping up a potential territory of rebels.

This is again built around the assumption that the US can manufacture an autonomous, prosperous region, using the oilfields as the revenue source, and then steer that region toward hostility with the rest of Syria.

This will likely end up being a plan easier for the Trump Administration to sell than overt theft of oil, as it allows the US to retain its primary focus, military hostility toward Syria with an eye toward eventual regime change.

Iran restarted enrichment at the underground Fordow site overnight on Wednesday, and on Thursday US officials were accusing Iran of preparing a “nuclear breakout” situation the international community must unite against.

The concept of the “nuclear breakout” has always been ill-defined, but rests on the notion that at some point Iran would have such a substantial civilian nuclear program that it would be tantamount to an irreversible military program. Though it’s not clear that’s even theoretically possible, as nations like Canada and Japan have never been accused of approaching a “breakout” despite huge nuclear programs, attaching the label to Iran has been popular with US hawks and Israel.

The breakout idea is meant to push a narrative in which action, presumably a war, needs to be launched quickly. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo took the lead in urging other world powers to do something to force Iran back into compliance with the P5+1 deal.

Russia is aiming to roll out an online encyclopedia in three years with a readership five times the size of Wikipedia’s, the RBC news website reported Wednesday, citing procurement documents.

Russia has been planning to create its own version of Wikipedia to ensure Russians have access to more "detailed and reliable" information about their country since as far back as 2014. Russia previously attempted to block Wikipedia over an article containing instructions on how to prepare a type of cannabis drug.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s controversial 2014 decree that cleared the way for the annexation of Crimea from Ukraine, which still draws international outrage, is going on the auction block.

The personally signed order tucked neatly into an ornate leather binder could bring as much as $8,000-$10,000, according to Alexander Historical Auctions, hosting the online auction Nov. 19-21.

Alexander Auctions President Bill Panagopulos described his unusual item this way:

An historic modern Russian document with repercussions still affecting the world today, Vladimir Putin's executive order creating the Ministry of Crimean Affairs and integrating the economic, financial, credit and legal systems of the Crimea with that of the Russian Federation. Putin essentially inextricably merges Crimea's economy and courts with those of Russia, making any future return of Crimea to Ukraine nearly impossible.

A State Department official who served in the U.S. embassy in Kiev told Congress that the Obama administration tried in 2016 to partner with the Ukrainian gas firm that employed Hunter Biden but the project was blocked over corruption concerns.

George Kent, the former charge d’affair at the Kiev embassy, said in testimony released Thursday that the State Department’s main foreign aid agency, known as USAID, planned to co-sponsor a clean energy project with Burisma Holdings, the Ukrainian gas firm that employed Hunter Biden as a board member.

At the time of the proposed project, Burisma was under investigation in Ukraine for alleged corruption. Those cases were settled in late 2016 and early 2017. Burisma contested allegations of corruption but paid a penalty for tax issues.

- Former US diplomat Dennis Ortblad has called on Washington to reconsider sanctions against Russia as well as its position on Crimea with the aim of improving relations with Russia.

"We need to deal with Russia as it is, not as we wish it to be. And our enemy is not Russia", Ortblad wrote in a Tuesday article for The National Interest magazine.
According to the ex-diplomat, Washington should first and foremost change its stance on Crimea's status so that it can review its sanction policy against Russia.

"To recalibrate our sanctions, we must recognise that Crimea will remain Russian. Its population was always heavily Russian ... Crimeans identify with the historic struggles of Russia against invasion from the West ... It was clear to us [during the recent visit to Sevastopol] that the people of Crimea would not relinquish their pride in their traditional Russian identity to accept a return to Ukraine", he said.

A crucial element of Israel’s defence system is at risk of becoming compromised after its advanced surface-to-air interceptor missile known as “David’s Sling” was found intact by Syrian forces and handed to the Russians to reverse engineer the technology.

Israeli sources reported that missiles fired in 2018 during what is believed to be its first known operational use, landed intact inside Syrian territory. One of the interceptor missiles failed to strike its target and another fell inside Syria. The interceptor landed intact in Syria and is believed to have been swiftly recovered by Syrian military forces and handed over to the Russians.

It’s reported that both Israel and the US asked Russia to return the missile, but there is no confirmation that the request has been met by Moscow.

Legal questions. That’s hilarious.

I just want to remember the good old days, when they felt the need to dazzle us with yellow cake uranium fraud before they stole the oil.

Via: Military Times – AP:

President Donald Trump has approved an expanded military mission to secure an expanse of oil fields across eastern Syria, raising a number of difficult legal questions about whether U.S. troops can launch strikes against Syrian, Russian or other forces if they threaten the oil, U.S. officials said.

New memos released this week reveal Burisma Holdings, Hunter Biden’s Ukrainian natural gas company pressured the Obama State Department to help end the corruption investigation during the 2016 election cycle just one month before then-Vice President Joe Biden forced Ukraine to fire Viktor Shokin, the prosecutor probing his son Hunter.

Joe Biden bragged about getting Viktor Shokin fired during a 2018 speech to the Council on Foreign Relations.

The majority of the country's oil fields are currently controlled by the US military, illegally stationed in the Arab Republic, and the Kurdish militia. Washington recently reaffirmed its intentions to "keep" the Syrian oil, despite objections from Moscow.

The Syrian Army started deploying its forces near the city of Qamishli in northeastern Syria, and specifically near the village of Mulla Abbas, claiming the Rumailan oilfield, which was lost to Damascus several years ago, during the civil war, SANA news agency reported. The area is located on the Turkish-Syrian border.

Turkey's state-run media is reporting the United States is planning two new military bases in Syria's oil-rich Deir ez-Zor province, which are currently under construction, after US special forces convoys were seen patrolling the area in the past days.

Anadolu Agency, citing local sources, said the bases were under construction as evidenced by the influx of heavy equipment:

While the footage captured by Anadolu Agency showed that much construction equipment is being put into action, it was learnt the U.S. has sent 250 to 300 additional soldiers, armored vehicles, heavy weapons and ammunition to the region.

The reported added: “The military bases are being built in the 113th Brigade area and near al-Sur region,” according to the sources.

Syria's largest oil fields, which historically account for most of its domestic energy needs, are located in Deir Ezzor, including Al-Omar, Conoco, and Rumeilan.

House Democrats have released the latest in the series of heavily-redacted transcripts of the secret hearings they had undertaken in recent weeks - that of Bill Taylor - the top US diplomat in Ukraine - ahead of his public testimony next week.

On October 29th, the Norwegian news-outlet NRK broke the story that between 8 and 10 Russian submarines, including Sierra II class submarines, had begun naval exercises in the North Atlantic. This is one of the largest Russian naval exercises focused on submarine-warfare since the end of the cold war. It is likely that one of the core purposes of this exercise is to test the stealth-capability of the Russian subs, and of NATO forces’ abilities to track them as they push through the Greenland-Iceland-United Kingdom gap (abbreviated “GUIK-gap”), a closely monitored strategic bottleneck. The Sierra II class sub has a titanium hull, enabling it to submerge to greater depths than steel-hulled submarines, and it is also much quieter than most other submarines.

Hunter Biden and his Ukrainian gas firm colleagues had multiple contacts with the Obama State Department during the 2016 election cycle, including one just a month before Vice President Joe Biden forced Ukraine to fire the prosecutor investigating his son’s company for corruption, newly released memos show.

During that February 2016 contact, a U.S. representative for Burisma Holdings sought a meeting with Undersecretary of State Catherine A. Novelli to discuss ending the corruption allegations against the Ukrainian firm where Hunter Biden worked as a board member, according to memos obtained under a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. (I filed that suit this summer with the help of the public interest law firm the Southeastern Legal Foundation.)

Compare US pillaging with Russia-Iran-Turkey’s active involvement in a political solution to normalize Syria..

What happened in Geneva this Wednesday, in terms of finally bringing peace to Syria, could not be more significant: the first session of the Syrian Constitutional Committee.

The Syrian Constitutional Committee sprang out of a resolution passed in January 2018 in Sochi, Russia, by a body called the Syrian National Dialogue Congress.

The 150-strong committee breaks down as 50 members of the Syrian opposition, 50 representing the government in Damascus and 50 representatives of civil society. Each group named 15 experts for the meetings in Geneva, held behind closed doors.

This development is a direct consequence of the laborious Astana process – articulated by Russia, Iran and Turkey. Essential initial input came from former UN Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura. Now UN Special Envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen is working as a sort of mediator.

rom one or more illegally established airbases in Syria, as well as other other regional ones, Pentagon warplanes, attack helicopters, and drones continue terror-bombing Syrian sites at the discretion of its commanders.

US troops still occupy large parts of northern and southern Syrian territory indefinitely, including oil producing areas — looting them for private and CIA profiteering, as well as wanting Damascus denied revenues from its own resources. That’s what grand theft is all about.

All of the above are war crimes as defined under the UN Charter and other international law. The US and its imperial partners remain unaccountable for crimes of war and against humanity in all their war theaters.

The same goes for US economic terrorism against Iran, Venezuela, North Korea, Cuba, and other countries — high crimes gone unpunished.

But the real irritant is that Russia will not bow down to Western dictates. The very fact that Western sanctions have not crippled and destroyed Russia makes Western leaders irate. In a surprising, though understandable way, the sanctions have helped the Russian home-grown production of goods to flourish. After all, Russia must make its own decisions for the survival of its people. It is the West’s growing irrelevance to Russia, which it itself caused, that enrages its governments.

Russia's foreign ministry spokesperson has accused the U.S. of "criminal activity" with regards to President Donald Trump's plan to deploy troops to guard oil fields in eastern Syria.

Maria Zakharova said Friday that the Trump administration was engaging in illegal smuggling, and estimated Washington stands to make tens of millions of dollars every month from the oil extracted in the region.

According to state news agency Tass, Zakharova said the U.S. was "bypassing its own sanctions" to take the oil—"worth over $30 million per month"—from Syria. She also suggested the U.S. forces deployed "are not going to leave these areas in the near future."

SOURCE: MOON OF ALABAMA
Ukrainegate is the new Russiagate. The 'whistleblower complain' is the new 'dirty dossier'. The 'former' MI6 spy Christopher Steele wrote the dossier. The current CIA spy Eric Ciaramella wrote the 'complain':

Federal documents reveal that the 33-year-old Ciaramella, a registered Democrat held over from the Obama White House, previously worked with former Vice President Joe Biden and former CIA Director John Brennan, a vocal critic of Trump who helped initiate the Russia “collusion” investigation of the Trump campaign during the 2016 election.
Further, Ciaramella (pronounced char-a-MEL-ah) left his National Security Council posting in the White House’s West Wing in mid-2017 amid concerns about negative leaks to the media. He has since returned to CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia.

“He was accused of working against Trump and leaking against Trump,” said a former NSC official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters.

The US occupation of the oil production facility at Deir Ez Zor is strategic for the US, and EU foreign policy on Syria, which depends on sanctions to keep the Syrian civilians and government from importing any necessary supplies to repair and re-build Syria, now that the war is over. Syrians are prevented from importing oil due to the sanctions, and without oil, the country cannot re-build. If the Syrian oil production facilities were to be in the hands of the legal owners, the Syrian Ministry of Oil, then repairs could be carried out and Syria would no longer need to import oil, and they could go back to being energy sufficient, as they were before 2011.

Russian Defense Ministry, Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov spoke about satellite images in Syria which show the extent of past US involvement in the oil smuggling business, which was conducted with the Kurds using a US company “Sadcab”, and the profits were funneled through US private military contractors.

Russian President Vladimir Putin pledged to protect Christians threatened by the conflict in Syria, appealing to the plight of religious minorities as justification for Russia's involvement.

After a meeting with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Wednesday, Putin expressed sorrow over the persecution experienced by Christians in the Middle East, according to the Associated Press. Russian leaders have worked to develop close ties with Syria's Christian communities. Melkite Catholic Archbishop Jean-Clement Jeanbart has called Russia's intervention in the country a source of "hope for the country's Christians.

"The Middle East is the cradle of Christianity, and Christians are in peril there, facing persecution, being killed, raped, and robbed," said Putin. "Russia will do everything to protect Christians in the Middle East. We must help them restore and preserve their holy sites, preserve their congregations."

McKenzie said the US was under no illusions it had destroyed Isis, and warned the group would try to take revenge.

“They will be dangerous. We suspect they will try some form of retribution attack,” he said. “We don’t see a bloodless future because unfortunately this ideology is going to be out there.”

However McKenzie predicted that the campaign against Baghdadi would grind down Isis capabilities.

The Pentagon intends to retain control of Syria’s oilfields going forward, and says they will repel anyone else trying to take that oil with “overwhelming force.” This has become the chief, and materially only, military goal of the US military operation in Syria.

Since President Trump announced his intention to control the oil, and conceivably to try to take some of it on behalf of the US, the Pentagon has been revising the Syria mission around controlling the oil. This has included sending more troops and tanks.

Pentagon officials have tried to build this narrative around keeping ISIS from reclaiming the oilfields, since they held them once. With ISIS barely existing anymore, that’s not a realistic threat, and Defense Secretary Mark Esper conceded on Monday that the deployments of US forces are meant to “deny access” to the oil to either Russia or the Syrian government.

The Ministry of Defence in Moscow has expressed doubts about US President Donald Trump’s announcement on Sunday that Daesh leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi was killed in a “daring night-time raid” in north-west Syria. Trump went on to thank Russia, Turkey, Syria and Iraq for their support.

“We are unaware of any alleged assistance to US aircraft using the airspace of the Idlib de-escalation zone during this operation,” Major-General Igor Konashenkov told state-run RIA news agency.

Konashenkov referred to the previous claims that Al-Baghdadi had been killed. He described the latest raid as “yet another ‘elimination’ of the former Daesh leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in the Turkish-controlled part of the Idlib de-escalation zone.”

A project for Greater Albania – conspiracy or legitimate? According to a 2010 Gallup Balkan Monitor report, 83% of Albanians in Albania supported the idea of a Greater Albania, with 81% and 53% of Albanians in Kosovo and North Macedonia respectively supporting such an ambition.

The ultimate goal? To have Kosovo and the Preševo Valley in Serbia, southern Montenegro, Epirus in Greece and western North Macedonia into a single Greater Albanian state. Although this may not be official policy of the Albanian Republic, it is ingrained into the Albanian mythos. The very idea of a Greater Albania has roots in the 1913 Treaty of London that left roughly 40% of the Albanian population outside the newly established Albanian country. This has been something that the U.S. could weaponize against Russian influence in the Balkans.

SOURCE: NEW EASTERN OUTLOOK

Timing is Everything

The supposed military operation – unfolding just miles from the Syrian-Turkish border – comes at a time when the prospects of America’s proxy war in Syria have reached all time lows.

First – US proxy forces jointly armed and aided by Turkey as well as other US allies – have been all but eliminated from the battlefield with their remnants residing in Idlib, increasingly encircled by Syrian forces.

Attempts by the US to intervene in Syria directly to oversee the overthrow of the government in Damascus was also thwarted by Russia’s military intervention beginning in 2015.

President Donald Trump announced plans to violate several longstanding tenets of international law on Sunday morning during a controversial press conference celebrating the death of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, legal experts say.

“We are leaving soldiers to secure the oil,” Trump said. “And we may have to fight for the oil. Maybe somebody else wants the oil, in which case they have a hell of a fight.”

Moscow and Ankara are close to conclude a deal on the delivery of 36 Russian fighter jets Su-35 to Turkey, Daily Sabah newspaper reported on Friday citing its sources.

The Turkish daily also added that in line with the deal at the issue Turkey will also be granted the right for manufacturing parts and components of Russian fighter jets.

The below analysis is provided by "Ehsani" — a Middle East expert, Syrian-American banker and financial analyst who visits the region frequently and writes for the influential geopolitical analysis blog, Syria Comment.

Much has been debated since President Trump tweeted that “The U.S has secured the oil” in Syria. Is this feasible? Does it make any sense? The below will explain how and why the answer is a resounding NO.

Al-Omar and Conoco fields are already secured by Kurdish-led SDF and U.S forces. Some of the oil from these fields was being sold through third parties to Syria's government by giving it in crude form and taking back half the quantity as refined product (the government owns the refineries).

Submitted by GreatGameIndia, a journal on Geopolitics and International Relations.

In a major development brewing for sometime now, India and US have officially suspended Defense Cooperation after Americans refused to give India high-end jet-engine technology. At the heart of the Indo-US Strategic Partnership is what is known as the Defense Technology and Trade Initiative or DTTI. Under the 2012 DTTI, India and the US set up joint working groups (JWGs) for cooperation on aircraft carriers and jet engine technology, all of the 4 pathfinder projects have now been shutdown. The move comes days after former US Secretary of State and National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger’s visit to India.

Turkey's Daily Sabah reports that Ankara is close to purchasing an initial round of Su-35 fighter jets from Russia, in what would mark a huge reversal of course following the heated Lockheed F-35 fighter and Russian S-400 saga with Washington, which has sunk US-Turkey relations to a low point over the past year.

Citing Turkish defense sources, the report reveals:

Turkish and Russian officials are discussing the details of the sale of a total of 36 Su-35 fighter jets to Turkey, two months after President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an's visit to the International Aviation and Space Salon (MAKS) aviation show outside of Moscow.

Authored by Israel Shamir via The Unz Review,m

Top Dems are involved in the plundering of the Ukraine: new names, mind-boggling accounts. The mysterious ‘whistleblower’ whose report had unleashed the impeachment is named in the exclusive interview given to the Unz Review by a prominent Ukrainian politician, an ex-Member of Parliament of four terms, a candidate for Ukraine’s presidency, Oleg Tsarev.

Oleg, you followed Biden story from its very inception. Biden is not the only Dem politician involved in the Ukrainian corruption schemes, is he?
Indeed, John Kerry, the Secretary of State in Obama’s administration, was his partner-in-crime. But Joe Biden was number one. During the Obama presidency, Biden was the US proconsul for Ukraine, and he was involved in many corruption schemes. He authorised transfer of three billion dollars of the US taxpayers’ money to the post-coup government of the Ukraine; the money was stolen, and Biden took a big share of the spoils.

Authored by Caitlin Johnstone via Medium.com,

“Well you may throw your rock and hide your hand,
workin’ in the dark against your fellow man.
But as sure as God made black and white
what’s down in the dark will be brought to the light.”

~ Johnny Cash/traditional, ‘God’s Gonna Cut You Down’

The Grayzone has an excellent new article out titled “US troops are staying in Syria to ‘keep the oil’ — and have already killed hundreds over it” detailing the many ways the Trump administration has openly admitted that it is keeping US troops in Syria to control the nation’s oil fields so that the Syrian government can’t use it to fund reconstruction efforts.

“We’ve secured the oil, and therefore a small number of US troops will remain in the area where they have the oil,” Trump said in a recent press conference.

“And we’re going to be protecting it. And we’ll be deciding what we’re going to do with it in the future.”

Authored by Pepe Escobar via The Saker blog,

Russia-Turkey deal establishes ‘safe zone’ along Turkish border and there will be joint Russia-Turkey military patrols.

The negotiations in Sochi were long – over six hours – tense and tough. Two leaders in a room with their interpreters and several senior Turkish ministers close by if advice was needed. The stakes were immense: a road map to pacify northeast Syria, finally.

The press conference afterwards was somewhat awkward – riffing on generalities. But there’s no question that in the end Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan managed the near impossible.

Authored by Con Coughlin via The Gatestone Institute,

With Turkey seemingly intent on forging an ever-closer relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the time has come to give serious consideration to Ankara's continued membership of the NATO alliance.

When the Turks first became members of NATO back in 1952, it was because their country was seen as a vital bulwark against the Soviet Union. Having Turkey in NATO meant it was easier to monitor the activities of the Soviet Black Sea fleet, and limited Moscow's ability to spread its tentacles into eastern Europe and the Middle East.

Now, thanks to the increasingly anti-Western conduct of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, none of these considerations remains relevant.

Top Dems are involved in the plundering of the Ukraine: new names, mind-boggling accounts. The mysterious ‘whistleblower’ whose report had unleashed the impeachment is named in the exclusive interview given to the Unz Review by a prominent Ukrainian politician, an ex-Member of Parliament of four terms, a candidate for Ukraine’s presidency, Oleg Tsarev.

Mr Tsarev, a tall, agile and graceful man, a good speaker and a prolific writer, had been a leading and popular Ukrainian politician before the 2014 putsch; he stayed in the Ukraine after President Yanukovych’s flight; ran for the Presidency against Mr Poroshenko, and eventually had to go to exile due to multiple threats to his life. During the failed attempt to secede, he was elected the speaker of the Parliament of Novorossia (South-Eastern Ukraine). I spoke to him in Crimea, where he lives in the pleasant seaside town of Yalta. Tsarev still has many supporters in the Ukraine, and is a leader of the opposition to the Kiev regime.

The New York Times unwittingly confirmed the veracity of the GOP argument that there could be no quid pro quo because Ukraine did not know the United States had delayed the release of aid for the Eastern European country at the time of the July 25 call.

In an article on Wednesday, the newspaper actually tried to discredit the argument but ended up confirming it instead.

House Democrats pursuing the impeachment inquiry are trying to determine if President Donald Trump abused his power by allegedly coercing Ukraine during the July 25 call to investigate corruption allegations against Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, in exchange for aid.

President Trump was up against bipartisan disapproval for his decision to withdrawal US troops and end military support for the Kurdish factions, and he stood his ground. And lest we forget, America’s number one ally in the region, Israel, is the biggest supporter of separatist Kurdish factions in Iraq and Syria, the independent Kurdistan project is conveniently aligned with the Greater Israel project. Standing up to both Capital Hill and Israel is a bold move.

As for the Israeli-Kurdish relationship, not much has changed since I originally reported on their mutually beneficial dealings a few years ago. Israel’s selfish interests in supporting Kurdish independence remain two-fold, oil and to counter supposed “increased Iranian influence” in the region.

276 more Russian Military Police officers and 33 additional equipment pieces will be deployed in Syria, Russia’s state media reported. These forces will likely participate in security operations along the Syrian-Turkish border to the east of the Euphrates River.

Additionally to the deployment in Kobane, the Russian Military Police already started carrying out patrols near the city of Qamishly.

On October 24, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Vershinin announced that Kurdish forces had started withdrawal from the border area.

Nonetheless, the implementation of the ceasefire is not going without difficulties. On October 24 afternoon, the Syrian Army repelled an attack by Turkish-backed militants near the villages of al-Kozleya and Tell al-Laban in northern al-Hasakah. Clashes between the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and Turkish-backed groups also took place near the villages of Assadiya, Mishrafa and Manajer.