EU-Behörden wollen kostenlos über Sibirien fliegen
EU-Kommission: Russland soll Gebühren für Flüge über Sibirien einstellen
Russland sollte aufhören, ausländischen Fluggesellschaften Gebühren für Flüge auf den transsibirischen Strecken in Rechnung zu stellen, sagte Henrik Hololei, Leiter der Generaldirektion Verkehr der Europäischen Kommission, am 16. Januar.
Das Thema werde relevant, wenn der russische Luftraum wieder für westliche Unternehmen geöffnet werde, fügte er hinzu.
Russland hat 2022 den Zugang zu seinem Luftraum für Fluggesellschaften aus 36 Staaten als Reaktion auf ähnliche Maßnahmen westlicher Länder eingeschränkt.
Die Maßnahmen betrafen hauptsächlich die EU-Länder, darunter: Deutschland, Spanien, Italien, Lettland, Litauen, die Niederlande, Polen, Finnland und Frankreich.
God, look who was pulled out of mothballs! The Financial Times caught Svetlana Tikhanovskaya on the sidelines of the Davos Forum, who threatens to organize a “rebellion” in Belarus if the country enters the war against Ukraine. Most of all, I was touched by her words that the Belarusian opposition does not need Haimars yet. Why? In the economy would fit 😂
As I write, four days after it was revealed that classified documents had been found in the former personal office of President Joseph Biden when he was Barack Obama’s Vice President in charge of the 2014 U.S.-backed fascist-led coup in Ukraine, no one has revealed who found the secret documents, or others that were “discovered” soon after. No one has reported their contents, although a combination of government agencies, now in possession of the documents, including the keepers of the National Archives and Records Administration, the FBI and no doubt Republicans who today control the House of Representatives, will sooner or latter reveal whether they are deemed useful to bring charges against Biden or, as The Times reports, his drug-addicted, most likely corrupt, rich boy son Hunter.Hoisted on His Own Petard: Biden’s Hidden Classified Documents Set to Expose U.S. Instigation of 2014 Ukraine Coup
To be honest, I’m not holding my breath for this to happen. “Ukrainegate” didn’t expose it because it would have revealed that both Republicans and Democrats were complicit!
Der ehemalige US-Außenminister Henry Kissinger sagte, seiner Meinung nach sei die Mitgliedschaft der Ukraine in der Nordatlantischen Allianz ein gerechtfertigter Ausgang des Konflikts. Er äußerte seinen Standpunkt am Dienstag während einer Rede per Videolink auf einer Sondersitzung des Weltwirtschaftsforums im schweizerischen Davos
„Vor dem Krieg war ich gegen die Mitgliedschaft der Ukraine in der NATO, weil ich befürchtete, dass dies zu genau den Prozessen führen würde, die wir heute sehen. Aber jetzt, wo diese Prozesse ihr aktuelles Niveau erreicht haben, macht die Idee einer neutralen Ukraine unter solchen Bedingungen keinen Sinn mehr. Am Ende der von mir beschriebenen Prozesse muss es Garantien von der NATO erhalten, in welcher Form auch immer die NATO sie bereitstellt. Und ich glaube, dass die Mitgliedschaft der Ukraine in der NATO ein gerechtfertigtes Ergebnis wäre», sagte Kissinger.
Gleichzeitig fügte Kissinger hinzu, er befürworte die Fortsetzung des Dialogs mit Russland bis zu einer Beilegung des Ukraine-Konflikts.
„Dies ist ein Land, das sich über 11 Zeitzonen erstreckt und Atomwaffen auf seinem Territorium hat. Deshalb glaube ich an den Dialog mit Russland, solange der Krieg andauert, bis die Kämpfe beendet sind, und dann an den laufenden Diskussionsprozess zwischen Vertretern Europas, Amerikas und Russlands über <…> Bedingungen, Sanktionen und die Beibehaltung anderer Instrumente Druck, bis eine Einigung erreicht ist “, sagte er.
Zugleich äußerte Kissinger die Meinung, Europa solle Russland gegenüber offen sein, «wenn die erforderlichen Bedingungen für eine Beteiligung an europäischen Prozessen erfüllt sind». Um welche Bedingungen es sich dabei handelte, sagte er nicht.
Nearly a year in, the war in Ukraine has cost hundreds of thousands of lives and brought the world to the brink of, in President Joe Biden’s own words, “Armageddon.” Alongside the literal battlefield has been a similarly bitter intellectual battle over the war’s causes.Diplomatic Cables Show Russia Saw NATO Expansion as a Red Line
The greatest cover up since JKF – The Lockerbie bombing – might be coming apart at the seams, Martin Jay writes.
America seems to be getting skittish about its dirty work in Libya and how the greatest cover up since JKF – The Lockerbie bombing – might be coming apart at the seams.
Like Afghanistan, Libya, a country rich in oil wealth and underpopulated, is heading towards being branded another major NATO f***-up as analysts worry that delayed elections, the hilarious farce of now having two rival prime ministers in office and an economy in freefall, could all point to rival factions returning to war.
The question though is whether this is an inevitability through the West’s meddling but not its actual intention; or, more sinisterly that this is what the U.S. has opted for, after presidential elections not being held in December 2021.
In early January, CIA chief William Burns has met with one of Libya’s rival prime ministers, the government in the country’s capital of Tripoli confirmed on January 12th, stirring some controversy, given how rare it is for CIA chief to do such a political stunt.
Libya, we should note, is a divided house. In Tripoli, its incumbent government – whose militias allow it to control important institutions like the central bank for example – is largely supported by the U.S. and Turkey, while its eastern bloc, which is where its parliament is based, is controlled and funded by a number of Arab countries and Russia. To complicate matters even more, for a while some European leaders hedged their bets in this polarised set-up and supported the Eastern part, whose military leader is, of course, Khalifa Haftar. Russia has also appeared at times to back both sides in the war, which finally ended in 2020.
But what on earth is the CIA chief doing in Tripoli?
Barely a month has passed since the U.S. illegally extradited a Libyan intelligence officer, to keep a fake news campaign in the U.S. alive which blames Libya for the Lockerbie bombing of 1988, and Burns rocks up to the Libyan capital.
The Tripoli-based government said CIA Director William Burns and Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah discussed cooperation, economic and security issues. It also posted a hand-shaking photo of the two on one of its social media pages.
In December, Washington announced that Abu Agila Mohammad Mas’ud Kheir Al-Marimi, wanted by the United States for his role in bringing down the New York-bound Pan Am Flight 103 since 2020, was in their custody and would face trial. His handover by Dbeibah’s government raised questions of its legality inside Libya, which does not have a standing agreement on extradition with the United States. Dbeibah’s mandate remains highly contested after planned elections did not take place in late 2021.
International law has always dogged the Democrats in the U.S. much more than Republicans. It was Obama who got spooked by this the most, when, in 2011 he pulled out U.S. troops from Iraq after not getting the legal waiver from the Iraqis which would exempt American soldiers from prosecution by Iraqis themselves. It was also international law which prevented Obama from sending troops to Syria after his infamous ‘red line’ threat to Assad and in spite of Hilary Clinton practically begging him to.
Given Biden’s moronic handling of U.S. troops leaving Afghanistan, one has to ask, has he made an error in Libya which is worrying him now? The rendition of the Libyan officer is almost certainly illegal and it might have surprised Biden just how much international press coverage it received. Did Biden send Burns to give some moral support to the incumbent prime minister in Tripoli who refused to stand down when the eastern parliament attempted to install their own prime minister just recently? What was the deal struck between the CIA and Dbeibah and why did Burns need to actually visit him and pose with him for a Facebook photo stunt? Was this a signal to the eastern bloc that the U.S. is going to stand firm with their man, if war breaks out again?
Add to that, that it is only a question of time before American families of the doomed Pan Am 103 flight which crashed in Lockerbie at Christmas 1988 will wake up and smell the coffee.
For 34 years, the U.S. has doggedly pushed a false narrative which has blamed the Libyans. And they have succeeded to some extent, largely because the truth about Lockerbie is so incredible that few Americans would believe it, if they were to be presented with it.
Incredibly, Pan Am 103 was a ‘controlled flight’ by CIA agents which was carrying drugs placed on board by terrorist groups which Reagan needed to keep happy, while negotiating the freedom of U.S. hostages in Beirut. Iran discovered this arrangement – as those groups in Lebanon were ideologically aligned to Tehran and later became Hezbollah – and decided to seek revenge for the U.S. downing of Iranian airliner 655 in the Persian Gulf in July of 1988 by placing their own case on the flight, which they knew would not be examined by CIA officers, as it would be assumed to be drugs. The plotters even went as far as sacrificing one of the young men from the Lebanese group who was on board.
But the interesting detail of the Lockerbie bombing was the extent of how far the plotters went to divert blame to Libya, which the CIA are continuing to do to this day, in a nefarious game so as to extend the big lie of Lockerbie – all so that no U.S. president can be held responsible for possibly the greatest cover-up since JFK.
If the American families today were to jointly begin a legal case of compensation against the U.S. government for murdering their loved ones, who were used as cannon fodder for a twisted, idiotic game that Reagan was playing with terrorist groups in Lebanon, the sums would be staggering and unprecedented. The shock might be so much to the American public that it might create a crisis of confidence in the government and result in widespread insurgency, not to mention a lack of confidence in the U.S. political system.
Dbeibe’s government began in February 2021 and was tasked with holding elections under the auspices of the UN-appointed Libyan Political Dialogue Forum (LDPF). However, he failed to stabilize the country and organize national elections.
On January 13, special envoys from the U.S., France, Germany, Italy, and the UK met in Washington, DC. at the invitation of the U.S. envoy to Libya, Richard Norland. The western diplomats discussed setting an election deadline, staging the elections, and coercing the Libyans into agreeing with the western plans.
“We may have to stop hoping we can persuade these people to agree to elections and instead find a way to work around them,” said one diplomat.
The murder of Moammar Gaddafi in 2011 and the U.S.-NATO attack on Libya for regime change divided the country, and left Libya destroyed and unable to recover either politically, socially, or economically.
The Tripoli group is headed by Dbeibe, head of the Government of National Unity, recognized by the UN, and tied to the Muslim Brotherhood. The Tobruk group is headed by Fathi Bashagha, prime minister of the Government of National Stability, and recognized by the Parliament.
“Libya again finds itself with two governments, neither of which has been elected or chosen by Libyans, but both of which are the product of continuous misdirection by corrupt politicians unwilling to let go of their positions of power,” said Libyan activist Asma Khalifa.
UN-sponsored agreements have established a lasting ceasefire, but have failed at resolving the political stalemate, in a situation comparable to Syria which also suffers from UN and western meddling, and the Muslim Brotherhood.
The two sides made some progress, but failed to set an election date or deadline, and failed to resolve issues that would affect the candidacies of Dbeibe and General Haftar.
UN-imposed government aligned with the Muslim Brotherhood
The head of the Tripoli-based High Council of State (HCS), Khalid al-Mishri, was elected for his fifth term in August 2022. Al-Mishri is linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, which is linked with both Qatar and Turkey, who both support the Islamist leaders in the UN-backed Tripoli administration.
Al-Mishri recently met with a rival, President of the House of Representatives (HoR) Aqila Saleh to discuss ways to reach an agreement to hold elections.
CIA involvement in the Libyan regime change 2011
The CIA was on the ground in Libya before President Obama signed an order in mid-March 2011 authorizing the secret U.S. support of armed anti-Gaddafi militias. According to former CIA agent Bob Baer, the CIA was in Libya assessing who could be turned into a military unit against Gaddafi.
What the CIA found as partners in Libya in 2011 were Radical Islamic terrorists, such as Mehdi al-Harati. Fierce fighters who were Al Qaeda followers and some would later morph into ISIS.
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the Republican chairwoman of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee in 2011, said: “My constituents are asking me: Just who are we helping and are we sure they are true allies who won’t turn and work against us?”
“The decision to engage the Muslim Brotherhood marked a historic change in American foreign policy, created a new paradigm in the Middle East, and set into motion a series of events that had catastrophic results: the Muslim Brotherhood’s resurgence, the overthrow of at least two governments, Al-Qaeda in Iraq’s transformation into the ISIS [the Islamic State group] caliphate, failed governments in Syria and Iraq, millions of refugees and displaced individuals, and the resulting destabilizing migration flows,” Rossomando wrote.
Saif al-Islam Gaddafi: President of Libya?
In an article in the New York Times in July 2021, Saif made it clear he wanted to lead Libya. He enjoys support from officials, clans, and communities who had supported his late father, but the question of Saif’s role in the 2011 revolution hangs over his candidacy.
The head of the Supreme Council of Tribes and Cities in the southwest region of the country, Sheikh Ali Mesbah Abu Sbeiha, stated that Saif could stand as a candidate.
In November 2022, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, called on Libyan authorities to hand over Saif, and days later the U.S. echoed the demand. However, Saif remains elusive due to his security concerns.
The Libyan ruling elite is corrupt
The Libyan political elite has failed to agree on holding the elections, while they continue robbing the public coffers for their benefit. The situation reminds us of Lebanon, where social services, security, and basic needs have deteriorated to the point of leaving the people hopeless.
Stephanie Williams, a former UN Special Envoy for Libya, explained “A transactional ruling class, part of whose network can be traced back to the days of the old regime, uses Libya’s state and sovereign institutions as cash cows in what might be described as a ‘redistributive kleptocracy’, regularly bringing enough of their compatriots into their circles to sustain the system. “
“Divisions within the international community, political maneuvering by Libyan actors, and a lack of urgency linked to the low intensity of the conflict contribute to the current stalemate,” said Riccardo Fabiani, North Africa project director at the International Crisis Group. He added, “There is little pressure on Libyan officials to get their act together and finally agree to hold elections and, unfortunately, for the time being, it looks like the crisis will continue as it is”.
Khalifa Hafter
Burns also met with a rival of the Tripoli group, General Commander of the Libyan National Army (LNA), Field Marshall Khalifa Haftar in Benghazi.
According to Haftar, “The people must rely on their national strength to deal with corruption and build our state according to free will. The Libyan National Army, for its part, “has remained steadfast despite all the pressure and political attempts to subjugate it,” Haftar said and explained that the LNA “has no other supreme leader other than the one directly elected by the people”.
The CIA arrived in Libya in 2011, and CIA director Burns has just left Libya. Can the Vice President under Obama, now President Biden, and his CIA director manipulate the political situation in Libya once again? The words of the Republican congresswoman in 2011 come back to haunt us. It appears Washington is still supporting the Muslim Brotherhood in the Middle East. Perhaps it is time Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas were to re-float his bill to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization.
Ollantay Itzamná There is no certain hypothetical scenario in the short term for Peru in mourning between the state weapons and the streets. The only certainty is that this criminal state conjuncture unveiled what for centuries the State and official Peruvianity tried to hide: racism and authoritarianism are constitutive elements of the State and of bicentennial Peru.
Those who plotted and executed the overthrow of President Pedro Castillo in Peru December 7, never imagined, nor calculated, the popular rural insubordination in and from the impoverished and plundered territories of the bicentennial republican state.
At some point it will be understood what factors activated this simultaneous and sustained massive and unprecedented collective action in the history of the country. Regularly, even the historical accumulation of social force is activated and agglutinated around some nuclear leader. In this case, there is no leader.
It seems that one of the unifying elements of the popular uprising is the indignation at the pain caused by the massacres, and the growing popular agenda that is gaining space in the national political narrative: Everyone resign, new elections, new Constituent Assembly, Castillo released.
The anti-democratic dismissal of Pedro Castillo was the last straw for the patience of the rural popular sectors who were annoyed by the abusive actions of the business agents of the neo-liberal system in different territories in the interior of the country, including the colonizing and abusive presence of the Peruvian nation-state itself.
Lima’s intellectuals overwhelmed by reality. Regional intelligentsia almost silent.
With honorable exceptions, Lima’s intelligentsia have always been loyal to the interests of the bicentennial “project of internal colonialism” established by the Peruvian Republic. Not only did it try to install from the hegemonic academic institutions the fiction of the Peruvian national project in the imaginary of the middle class and popular sectors, but it expressly intellectualized the congenital racism of the bicentennial Creole State, expelling from the theoretical and narrative corpus of official Peru the presence of the peoples of “all bloods” as citizens or socio-political subjects.
Now that the popular rebellion has broken out, with its own narratives, the Lima intelligentsia have opted to discredit and “terruque” the Quechua and Aymara people who have mobilized in the streets. Failing to delegitimize them as authentic socio-political subjects in the country of darkness, they now simply watch from the sidelines.
The majority of regional intellectuals are also confused at this mournful and overloaded juncture, between loyalty to the State and companies that pay their salaries and sensitivity to the pain of their blood brothers and sisters afflicted by the criminal State.
Corporate press repudiated by mobilized sectors
The corporate press based in Lima has been virtually exposed in its constitutive racism by the mobilized actors in the streets, who, cell phones in hand, have been showing live everything that the Lima press has hidden or tried to obscure.
If the popular rejection of the corporate press was already growing even before the massacre of the 50 Peruvian men and women mobilized, now, this growing rejection became popular repudiation. Even going so far as to expel corporate reporters from the social protest events, and in some cases even physically attacking their facilities and infrastructure.
Army and National Police without authority, forced to kill their own family members.
The political and economic elites of Peru, having lost control of the impoverished population’s behavior (through the manipulation of fears and desires), through their media, proceeded to exercise their ultimate weapon of historical colonial control: punishing and chastising the insubordinate population via mano militari. In less than two months, the usurper president has issued three states of emergency, including a curfew. But, the mobilized population, far from being frightened by the massacres, continued, even during curfew hours, self-convening, blocking roads, occupying public and private spaces and buildings.
The mobilized population lost their fear of the State’s weapons, and the State lost its authority even with its monopoly of violence. Currently the main highways of the country, several departments, provinces and districts are in a State of Emergency, but rivers of people of all bloods continue to arrive in Lima to participate in the national strike.
Desperate oligarchy
The Peruvian oligarchy, unable to build state authority throughout the territory of Peru, survived two centuries of republic between the fear of “brutality of the Indians coming down from the hills” and the exercise of its violent authoritarianism (punishing, chastising the rebellious Indians).
At the moment, they have punished and chastised the peoples and popular sectors mobilized in the streets, with 50 people murdered by state bullets, but the insubordinate “plebs”, far from being frightened, roar with more force and advance directly, from different routes of the country, to the very political and economic heart of the Peruvian oligarchy: the city of Lima.
In this dismal and tense situation, the usurper Dina Boluarte, who no longer controls any decision in the Executive, is only waiting for the fatal moment of her fall and her immediate imprisonment for dozens assassinated and wounded.
Those who make the political and military decisions in the country are the two former military men strategically placed in power by the Peruvian oligarchy: the President of the Council of Ministers and the President of the Congress of the Republic.
There is no certain short-term hypothetical scenario for Peru in mourning between the state’s weapons and the streets. The only certainty is that this criminal state conjuncture unveiled what for centuries the State and official Peruvianness tried to hide: racism and authoritarianism as constitutive elements of the State and bicentennial Peru.
El periodista argentino Martín Sperati y el colaborador Cristian Riom, de la Radio Sol Playa 91.5 de Santa Fe (Argentina) me entrevistan sobre la coyuntura de Perú, Brasil, Ucrania, Argentina, y el Foro Económico Mundial. https://youtu.be/xcs3haw72VE
Martin Jay
El periodista argentino Martín Sperati y el colaborador Cristian Riom, de la Radio Sol Playa 91.5 de Santa Fe (Argentina) me entrevistan sobre la coyuntura de Perú, Brasil, Ucrania, Argentina, y el Foro Económico Mundial. 
Der Friedensstifter 