Freedom fries, Stars N Stripes cola, and Liberty Macs... It is obvious that these new "sanctions" against Russia are designed to tilt the playing field in favour of Team USA. Nothing to do with Russia being a bad boy. But the bully of the school yard has decided that should you even smile at the Ruskies, he will break your legs. Meanwhile you need to deal with the Russians to keep warm in winter, but the US bully can sell you its gassy marbles. There is plenty of cash to be made from dealing with Russia, but Team USA is prepared to destroy you if you do.

Nothing to do with morality, considering that the USA is far more corrupt than Russia, but with cash. If you don't play ball, the USA will boycott your Mercs and BMWs. Meanwhile you still have to buy the US crap...

 

It's time for Europe to tighten its butt and tell the USA: let's play fair or BUGGER OFF... This day will eventually come, but the sooner the better...

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – The United States always interfered in Russian elections, doing so especially aggressively in 2012, the same thing happens in all former USSR countries, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.

 

"[They did it] in 2000, and in 2012, this always happened. But especially aggressively in 2012. I will not go into details," Putin told US filmmaker Oliver Stone in the interview broadcast by the Showtime television network when asked whether the United States interfered in the 2012 elections.

According to the Russian president, the interference was carried out via diplomats among other ways.

"The US partners are aware of this, I told [former US State Secretary John] Kerry and [former US President Barack] Obama. It was hard to imagine for us that diplomatic workers could get involved in an electoral campaign inside of Russia so aggressively. They gathered opposition forces and financed them, went to opposition rallies," Putin said.

"The diplomatic service should task itself with other things, the diplomatic service should establish interstate relations. NGOs can do anything they want, even [the organizations] of any country of origin. But NGOs are frequently financed through a number of layers and structures either from the State Department or some other quasi-governmental sources. The same thing happens in former Soviet states, in eastern Europe, in other countries, in Africa, in Latin America," Putin added.

read more:

https://sputniknews.com/politics/201706161054681451-usa-always-interfere...

Liberal internationalists believe in both the self-determination of nations and the inviolability of states’ territorial integrity, in both human rights and state sovereignty, in both international integration and democratic accountability, and in both global leadership by a concert of democracies and representative international institutions that feature non-democratic members. Inevitably, then, liberals have been selective in the application of their principles, as has become painfully evident in recent decades.

Playing somewhat fast and loose with the rules, Western countries intervened in Yugoslavia and Iraq without UN sanction in 1999 and 2003 respectively, recognized Kosovo’s unilateral declaration of independence over Moscow’s objections in 2008, and used a mandate to protect civilians to force regime change in Libya in 2011. These moves have helped to harden Russia’s resolve to protect its national sovereignty and great-power status. And indeed, it is not coincidental that liberalism appears to be in crisis in the West at the same moment as the international order to which it gave birth has encountered a major roadblock.

Liberalism is by its very definition a universalizing ideology, resolved to promote democracy and human rights across the world. Having failed to remake the Middle East in its image and subsume Russia into its orbit, the liberal-international sphere of states appears no longer able to expand its borders in any significant fashion. This has produced a crisis of confidence for the West, which, since the dawn of the Age of Exploration more than five centuries ago, has believed that the rest of the world would one day come to resemble it.

This dual crisis of liberalism—domestic and international—brings with it at least two important lessons for the West.

First, functional repairs to liberal economic and political projects (e.g., the Eurozone) are necessary but insufficient remedies for what plagues the West today. Tinkering around the edges is not enough. What liberalism needs to succeed over the long term is a wholesale reconceptualization, a move away from its present hyper-materialist, consumerist character and toward a greater focus on human dignity, mutual obligations, and the common good. Liberals celebrating recent populist setbacks in France, Austria, and the Netherlands should keep this need for reform in mind.

And second, liberal states may have to prepare for a world featuring multiple overlapping international orders, rather than a single-tier liberal system. Further attempts by the West to impose its values on non-Western major powers stand only to strengthen anti-Western voices within those countries. A more cautious, realist approach is the most reliable way to transition peacefully toward a world in which the West may eventually no longer be ideologically or materially dominant.

read more:

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/welcome-to-the-post-libe...

 

Note: The Republicans and the Democrats in the USA are part of this "liberal" movement, even the NeoCons are part of this infiltration and infection of the rest of the world -- for profit. The present new sanctions on Russia are part of this continuing hypocrisy, only designed to sink Europe and Russia to the profit of the glorious (but decadent) USA. Nothing else. No morality in this process.

 

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has joined the chorus of criticism over a new US anti-Russia sanctions bill that would involve fines on EU companies contributing to joint pipeline projects, saying Washington has nothing to do with Europe’s energy policy.

The US Senate on Wednesday moved to expand the package of sanctions targeting Russian industries. The proposed bill, which turns the existing sanctions into law, also adds new restrictions, most notably aimed at oil and gas sectors, the privatization of state-owned assets and the threat of restrictions on Russian finances.

 

On Friday, Merkel joined Austria and France in criticizing the move, and expressed her disapproval with the new package of sanctions specifically targeting EU-Russia energy projects, such as Nord Stream 2, a Gazprom-run flagship pipeline being built to deliver Russian gas to European customers.

“The US Senate's decision raises exactly the same questions for her as it did for [Austrian Chancellor Christian] Kern and [German Foreign Minister Sigmar] Gabriel. It is, putting it mildly, a peculiar move by the US Senate," the chancellor’s spokesman, Steffen Seibert, told reporters. 

He stressed it was “strange” that European companies would be affected by the sanctions relating to the alleged Russian interference in the US elections.

“That must not happen,” the spokesperson said. “We generally reject sanctions with extra-territorial effects, meaning an impact on third countries,” he added.

The new anti-Russian sanctions are outlined in an amendment to a bill initially imposing sanctions against Iran. It was approved by the US Senate on Thursday by a majority of 98 to 2, but still requires approval by the House of Representatives and the signature of the US president.

Once the sanctions package becomes law, it will be extremely hard to lift, significantly limiting space for US-Russian reconciliation.

It also imposes penalties on companies cooperating with Russian oil and gas companies, possibly affecting BASF, Shell, Engie, OMV, Wintershall and Uniper taking part in the Nord Stream 2 project.

read more:

https://www.rt.com/news/392595-merkel-us-sanctions-russia/

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READ: The USA wants to sell gas to Europe and Russia's Nord Stream 2 is in the way...

 

From Pepe EscobarA tectonic geopolitical shift happened in Astana, Kazakhstan, only a few days ago, and yet barely a ripple registered in Atlanticist circles.

At the annual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), founded in 2001, both India and Pakistan were admitted as full members, alongside Russia, China and four Central Asian “stans” (Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan).

So now the SCO not only qualifies as the largest political organization – by area and population – in the world; it also unites four nuclear powers. The G-7 is irrelevant, as the latest summit in Taormina made it clear. The real action now, apart from the G-20, also lays in this alternative G-8.

Permanently derided in the West for a decade and a half as a mere talk shop, the SCO, slowly but surely, keeps advancing a set up that Chinese President Xi Jinping qualifies, in a subdued manner, as “a new type of international relations featuring win-win cooperation.” 

 

That’s the least one can say when you have China, India and Pakistan in the same group.

The SCO’s trademark, under the radar game is quite subtle. The initial emphasis, as we were entering the post-9/11 world, was to fight what the Chinese qualify as “the three evils” of terrorism, separatism and extremism. Beijing – and Moscow – from the beginning were thinking about the Taliban in Afghanistan, and their Central Asian connections, especially via the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU).

Now the SCO is actively warning about the security “deterioration” in Afghanistan and calling for all members to support the “peace and reconciliation” process. That’s code for the SCO from now on directly engaged in finding an “all-Asian” Afghan solution – with both India and Pakistan on board – that should transcend the failed Pentagon “remedy”; more troops.  

NATO, by the way, miserably lost its war in Afghanistan. The Taliban control at least 60% of the country – and counting. And adding supreme insult to predictable injury, the Islamic State Khorasan (ISK) – Daesh’s branch in Afghanistan – has just captured Tora Bora, where way back in late 2001 the Pentagon’s B-52s were bombing already-escaped Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri.   

Make no mistake; there will be SCO action in Afghanistan. And that will include bringing the Taliban to the negotiating table. China has taken over the rotating presidency of the SCO and will be keen to show practical results in the next summit in June 2018. 

Step on the gas, pay in yuan

The SCO has also steadily evolved in terms of economic cooperation. Last year Gu Xueming, head of the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation at the Ministry of Commerce, proposed a SCO economic think tank alliance, also tasked to study the set up of SCO free trade zones.

 

This spells out further economic integration – already ongoing for scores of small-and medium-sized businesses. The trend is inevitable, in parallel to the interpenetration of the New Silk Roads, a.k.a. Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the Russian-led Eurasia Economic Union (EEU).  

So no wonder at their bilateral meeting in Astana, Xi and President Putin once again exhorted the merging of BRI and EEU. And we’re not talking only about the BRI, EEU and SCO trio; that also concerns the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), the BRICS’s New Development Bank (NDB), the Chinese Silk Road Fund — a full array of politico-economic mechanisms.

Things are moving incredibly fast – on all fronts. At a recent “Future of Asia” conference in Tokyo, the supposedly rabid anti-Chinese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced, although subject to many conditions, that Japan is ready to cooperate with BRI, with its “potential to connect East and West as well as the diverse regions found in between.”  A possible China-Japan reset would add the definitive momentum to the BRI, EEU and SCO interpenetration.

Crucially, both China and Russia are also on the same page in terms of fast-tracking Iran’s admission as a full SCO member.

Now compare it with US Secretary of State “T.Rex” Tillerson calling for regime change in Iran.

As Eurasia integration inexorably moves in leaps and bounds, the contrast with the proverbially swampy Atlanticist arrogance could not be more glaring.

When Moscow decided its game-changing intervention in the Syria tragedy, no analyst in the West apart from Alastair Crooke identified how that was configuring a sort of SCO-style operation; true, Iran, Iraq, Syria and Hezbollah are not part of the SCO, but the way they coordinated with Russia spelled out a feasible alternative to unilateral NATO humanitarian imperialism and regime change-style adventures.

The “4+1” mechanism – Russia, Iran, Iraq, Syria and Hezbollah – quietly backed by China, was set up to fight all forms of Salafi-jihadi terrorism and at the same time to prevent regime change in Damascus, a NATO-GCC wet dream. 

 

Now with shambolic Trump foreign policy hardly coordinating any policy at all apart from harassing Iran, both Russia and China understand how Iranian membership of the SCO should be key. 

Beijing already understood the ultra high stakes ramifications via its relationship with Qatar – a key natural gas provider sooner or later to accept payment for energy in yuan.

Qatar’s quiet pivot towards Iran – the key reason that drove the cornered House of Saud absolutely bonkers – revolves around the common exploitation of the largest gas field in the world, North Dome/South Pars, which they share in the Persian Gulf.

It took a while for Doha to realize that after the “4+1” established facts on the ground a gas pipeline from Qatar to Turkey via Saudi Arabia and Syria for the European market will never happen. Ankara also knows it. But there might eventually be an Iran-Iraq-Syria pipeline – even with a possible extension to Turkey — with gas jointly provided by North Dome/South Pars.

That would revolutionize the entire energy equation in Southwest Asia; and a key casualty might be petrodollar hegemony, to which Saudi Arabia and the UAE duly abide.

Imagine Qatar/Iran selling their future Europe-bound gas in euros, not in US dollars, just like the Chinese will adamantly move to pay Qatar – and Saudi Arabia – in yuan for their energy supplies.

Make no mistake; the – inexorable – future spells out trading energy not in petrodollars but in yuan, which is convertible to gold. 

Long live the new Caliphate

It’s never enough to stress the importance of the Russia-China strategic partnership coordinating all their policies regarding Eurasia integration, including efforts by the usual suspects to thwart it.

 

During the first part of 2017, Moscow and Beijing’s working hypothesis was that the Trump administration was keen to engage Russia as a partner for new oil and gas projects in Eurasia. In a Kissingerian vein, suggested to Trump, the Russia-China strategic partnership would be weakened while Washington would increase pressure on Beijing in multiple fronts.

Well, that may not happen anytime soon – considering the pervasive, demented anti-Russia hysteria consuming the Beltway.

What does remain in place is the GWOT (global war on terror) corollary of Trump’s policy; to rollback – by all means necessary – increasing Iranian influence all across Southwest Asia. And that implies boosting the geopolitical power of the GCC – led by the noxious House of Saud. 

That would explain Trump’s enthusiastic twitter boost of the House of Saud’s anti-Qatar blitzkrieg – which doubles as a move against Iran. Beijing for its part is watching closely, and has identified it for what it is; an attempt to disturb the progress of the New Silk Roads. 

At the same time, Beijing and Moscow cannot help being amused by the glaring inconsistencies. The Pentagon does not seem inclined to annex the rest of Qatar; the Al Udeid air base and the HQ of Centcom are enough. Pentagon head “Mad Dog” Mattis was more than pleased to sell $12 billion in F-15s to “supporter of terrorism” Doha. Trump “supports” the House of Saud. Mattis “supports” Doha. Tillerson declines to take sides.

 

The GCC as we know it may be dead and buried – as well as the embryonic Arab NATO feted by Trump with that pathetic sword dance in Riyadh. And yet Moscow and Beijing – as well as Tehran – are fully aware how these setbacks will only exacerbate the Exceptionalistan environment, a.k.a. the swamp, a.k.a. the deep state, to double down, and continue to provoke havoc.

The Caliphate in the “Syraq” desert is now dead – especially if Russia confirms the Caliph himself has gone to meet his maker. Too bad – because a totally destabilized Syria would be perfect to destabilize Russia from the Caucasus to Central Asia; Russian intelligence has always been focused on those 900 km from Aleppo to Grozny.

Like Terminator, the US deep state will be back. An expanded wet dream remains to create the conditions for the destabilization of a vast stretch from the Levant to South Asia — with possible future terror waves expanding north to Russia and east to China. The target: the interpenetration of BRI, EEU and the SCO.

To compound it, the Pentagon will refuse to abandon Afghanistan – a bridgehead to wreaking havoc in Central Asia. What could possibly go wrong? After all, Daesh is now virtually positioned in Central Asia, not far from Xinjiang and the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) – a key node of BRI.  

Still, the Saudi anti-Qatar blitzkrieg – as much as it’s already unraveling – may in the medium term precipitate a monumental seismic shift, accelerating Iran’s as well as Turkey’s entry into the SCO; consolidating Doha’s pivot towards an entente with both Russia and Iran; and anticipating a serious blow to petrodollar hegemony. All this must have been discussed in detail in Astana at the SCO summit – mostly at the Putin-Xi bilateral.

 

As Exceptionalistan grows increasingly erratic, all key strategic decisions ahead rest with Xi-Putin – and they know it. What’s certain is that the SCO is bound to get involved deeper and deeper in protecting the key project of the young 21st century; Eurasia integration.  

The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Sputnik.

https://sputniknews.com/columnists/201706161054701807-west-cannot-smell-...

"New penalties against Moscow proposed by US lawmakers violate international law and officials in Brussels should consider countermeasures, the German economy minister said on Monday.

We consider this as being against international law, plain and simple,"Brigitte Zypries told the Funke Mediengruppe newspaper chain.

"Of course we don't want a trade war. But it is important the European Commission now looks into countermeasures,” she added.

According to the minister, “the Americans can not punish German companies because they operate economically in another country."

Last week, both chambers of the US Congress decided to impose new sanctions against Russia over its Crimea reunification and alleged meddling in US elections. The bill has still to be signed by US President Donald Trump. This is the first time Washington has made a move against Moscow without European consent.

The bill appears to target Russia’s Nord Stream-2 pipeline that will deliver natural gas from Russia to Germany. The proposed expansion would double the existing pipeline's capacity and make Germany EU's main energy hub.

The legislation seeks to introduce individual sanctions for contributing in Russian energy projects and targets major sectors of Russia’s economy, including defense, railway, and banking industries.

READ MORE: New US Russia sanctions ‘absolutely unacceptable,’ come at expense of EU jobs – Austrian chancellor

The new sanctions have been criticized by several officials in Europe, including the Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern and German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel.

Critics of the US government argue the sanctions could affect European energy security and serve America’s economic interests - in line with the "America First" policy of President Trump.

read more:

https://www.rt.com/business/398065-germany-us-eu-russia-sanctions/

In 2010, David Cameron and Nicolas Sarkozy decided to associate the projection forces of the United Kingdom and France [1]. By « projection forces », we should understand “ex-colonial troops”. The Lancaster House Treaty featured several appendices, one of which planned for a gigantic joint exercise called Southern Mistral. Several months later, it turned out that the exercise had been transformed into an effective mobilisation of the same units, at the same date, for a real war against Libya, under the name of Opération Harmattan (literal translation of Southern Mistral) [2].

At the time, this Franco-British initiative was piloted by Washington, in application of its strategy « leading from behind ». The troops of France and Britain were posted centre stage, while in the wings, Washington handed out their specific missions.

The Lancaster House Treaty was aimed at creating a legal framework for interventions such as the attack on Libya (which was still to come), and joining forces with an eye to economy and efficiency. This choice supposed a genuine revolution – a common foreign policy.

However, the impulse given by the Treaty and the expedition against Libya were progressively dissipated by the nervousness of public opinion and British diplomats, which followed the Iraqi Resistance to the Anglo-Saxon occupation [3]. So, as from 2004, the United Kingdom began to prepare a new « Arab revolt » as they had in 1915, under the name « Arab Spring » [4], then refused to bomb Damascus.

Currently, London is busy reorganising its Defence after Brexit, after Donald Trump refused to continue to manipulate Islamist terrorism, and after Russian implantation in Syria.

London first of all signed bilateral agreements with Denmark, Holland, Norway and the Baltic States, thereby setting up the framework for eventual ulterior actions. Then it began to reorganise the jihadist networks in the Middle East around Turkey and Qatar. It facilitated the military rapprochement of Turkey, Somalia, Sudan and Chad. Finally, it has now implemented a super « Entente cordiale » with France based on the Lancaster House Treaty,

While the Treaty negotiated by David Cameron and Nicolas Sarkozy may seem to have been no more than an opportunity to wage war on Libya, the restoration of the Treaty by Theresa May and Emmanuel Macron is the fruit of a carefully thought-out choice made for the long term [5]. This new stage was negotiated by President Macron’s mentor, Jean-Pierre Jouyet, the new French ambassador to London.

London and Paris are both seated at the UNO Security Council. They both have nuclear weapons. Together, they have a military budget which is 30% superior to that of Russia (but inferior to those of the United States and China).

 

Read more:

http://www.voltairenet.org/article199528.html

 

If you read properly this article in relation to the "history of Europe", you would see another attempt by the US to drive a wedge between France and Germany. This has been going on since after WWII, but especially since the General de Gaulle and Chancellor Adenauer signed a powerful Franco-Germanic agreement. With France away from NATO till silly stupid soddy Sarkozy came on the scene, the French understood the value of being independent from the US empire. The war against Libya changed all this. Hopefully, Macron will see that Sarkozy was a little twerp, that the Yankees have been using the "perfide Albion" to do their dirty work and that the UK should be dropped like a smelly sock, while Germany and France should get married. But Macron is an idiot as well...

Russia's Federation Council is looking to adopt counter-sanctions against the US, under which the country may ban exports of titanium components to aircraft giant Boeing, according to Russian Senator Sergey Ryabukhin.

"Among the rare earth metals that Russia supplies to the United States is titanium, which is necessary for the technological cycle of production of Boeing," Ryabukhin told RIA Novosti.

Russia could also ban the supply of RD-180 engines used by NASA and the Pentagon, the senator added.

“These rocket engines are used not only by NASA, but also by the Pentagon on their satellites. It means the US uses these rocket engines to launch their military satellites," he said.

 

Read more:

https://www.rt.com/business/424003-russia-will-stop-exporting-titanium/

 

Read from top...

Farmers to Get Billions in Aid to Ease Pain From Tariff Fallout

 

By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS and ANA SWANSON 2:49 PM ET

 

 

• Up to $12 billion in emergency aid to farmers, announced Tuesday by the Agriculture Department, would come through a direct assistance program.
• 
  
• The move is an indication that President Trump plans to move forward in escalating his tariff tit-for-tat around the world.

-------------------------------------------
Subsidies... hum... subsidies... Not only the US farmers have already got massive amount of subsidies, they are getting more... More... MORE... MORE...

As American economist Barry Eichengreen summarized: "It costs only a few cents for the Bureau of Engraving and Printing to produce a $100 bill, but other countries had to pony up $100 of actual goods in order to obtain one”. 
Read from top.

Gustave de Molinari (French: [də mɔlinari]; 3 March 1819 – 28 January 1912) was a political economist and classical liberal theorist born in Liège, in the Walloon region of Belgium, and was associated with French laissez-faire economists such as Frédéric Bastiat and Hippolyte Castille.

Living in Paris during the 1840s, Molinari participated with the Ligue pour la Liberté des Échanges (Free Trade League), based on the theories of Frédéric Bastiat. On his death bed in 1850, Bastiat described Molinari as the continuator of his works. In 1849, soon after The Revolutions of 1848 in France, Molinari published two works: an essay, "The Production of Security", and a book, Les Soirées de la Rue Saint-Lazare, describing how a market in justice and protection could advantageously replace the state.

During the 1850s, Molinari fled to Belgium to escape threats from France's Emperor Napoleon III. He returned to Paris during the 1860s to work for the influential newspaper, Le Journal des Débats, which he edited from 1871 to 1876. Molinari later edited the Journal des Économistes, the publication of the French Political Economy Society, from 1881 until 1909. In his 1899 book, The Society of Tomorrow, he proposed a federated system of collective security, and reiterated his support for private competing defense agencies.

Molinari's critique of the state sometimes resulted in him opposing causes and events which might seemingly be aligned with his overall critique of power and privilege. An example of this was the American Civil War, which Molinari believed to be far more about the trade interests of northern industrialists than about slavery (though he did not deny that abolitionism was a part of the picture). "In his last work, published a year before his death in 1912, Molinari never relented:[1]

The American Civil War had not been simply a humanitarian crusade to free the slaves. The war "ruined the conquered provinces", but the Northern plutocrats pulling the strings achieved their aim: the imposition of a vicious protectionism that led ultimately "to the regime of trusts and produced the billionaires."

Some anarcho-capitalists consider Molinari to be the first proponent of anarcho-capitalism.[1] In the preface to the 1977 English translation Murray Rothbard called "The Production of Security" the "first presentation anywhere in human history of what is now called anarcho-capitalism" though admitting that "Molinari did not use the terminology, and probably would have balked at the name." Austrian School economist Hans-Hermann Hoppe says that "the 1849 article 'The Production of Security' is probably the single most important contribution to the modern theory of anarcho-capitalism."[2] In the past, Molinari influenced some of the political thoughts of individualist anarchist Benjamin Tucker and the Liberty circle.[3]

The market anarchist Molinari Institute, directed by philosopher Roderick Long, is named after Molinari, whom it terms the "originator of the theory of Market Anarchism."[4]

 

Read more:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustave_de_Molinari

 

See also: http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/34307

 

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With global warming parching a lot of pastures in the UK and The Donald subsidizing the US farmers, while the Greeks are on fire, and while bottled water costs are due to plastics killing the wildlife in the oceans, it's time to avoid arnacho-capitalism like the plague. Brink back the brown paper bags... and ban advertising while having a REALITY CHECK.

 

See also:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-07-24/bitcoin-billionaire-brock-pierce-w...

German-based giant Siemens had spent considerable time courting the Iraqi government in order to land the $15-billion-worth contract for building power infrastructure in the war-torn country. It had been considered an odds-on favorite until Washington reportedly intervened and compelled Baghdad to choose US-based General Electric.

In an attempt to secure Siemens’ positions in Iraq, its CEO Joe Kaeser signed a memorandum of understanding with the country’s electricity minister Kasim al-Fahdawi during his undisclosed trip to Baghdad. The German conglomerate, rivaled by US-based General Electric, has proposed a comprehensive reconstruction framework program for Iraq, the German outlet Welt reports, citing Siemens’ statement. A company spokesman told the newspaper that its economic scope hadn’t been evaluated, but declined to comment on the company’s rivalry with General Electric over Iraqi projects.

Meanwhile, head of the Federation of German Industries (BDI) Joachim Lang has lashed out at the US for its interference in business competition for projects in Iraq, using leverage to promote the interests of American big business.

“To implement the America First doctrine in this way in the global competition of multinational companies is not acceptable,” he told the German outlet Welt.

According to him, sovereign states and companies must have the freedom to negotiate the best economic solutions, in line with the principle of fair competition. The Federation demanded a “level playing field” for competitors worldwide.

However, Lang admitted that nobody had the ability to forbid any country from politically flanking its business projects. At the same time, he pointed out that no single company can be granted preferences in a situation where rules which are considered valid for other businesses are not applied to one particular actor.

 

Read more:

https://sputniknews.com/business/201810211069077251-germany-us-iraq-powe...

 

"When your best friend steals your wife, your best bet to punish him is to go with the Russian prostitute which he hates because she makes better deals..." National Gustaphian proverb...

 

Read from top.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Danish counterpart, Jeppe Kofod, discussed the situation around Denmark's permit for the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline’s construction in the country's territorial waters when they met in New York in September.

"The Danish Energy Agency has granted a permit to Nord Stream 2 AG to construct a section of the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipelines on the Danish continental shelf southeast of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea", the agency said in a statement.

Denmark is now obligated to "allow the construction of transit pipelines with respect to resources and the environment and if necessary to assign the route where such pipelines should be laid”, according to the agency.

Nord Stream 2 AG, the operator of the Nord Stream 2 project, has laid more than 2,100 kilometres (1,300 miles) of the gas pipeline to date and will begin preparatory work and pipe laying near Denmark in the coming weeks, the company said in a statement.

“Preparatory work... as well as pipe laying will begin in the coming weeks... To date, more than 2,100 kilometres of two pipeline legs have already been laid. Pipe laying has been completed in the waters of Russia, Finland, and Sweden as well as being nearly complete in the waters of Germany. Work on both onshore sections is nearing completion", Nord Stream 2 AG said.

Denmark’s decision on Nord Stream 2 is good news for European consumers as it ensures the competitiveness of the European economy, the German Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations said.

"Additional gas supplies help us maintain stable energy prices during periods of declining domestic production in the EU and growing demand", the committee said in a statement.

 

Read more:

https://sputniknews.com/news/201910301077181531-denmark-approves-russias...

 

Read from top.

 

US President Donald Trump enacted hours earlier the $738 billion National Defence Authorization Act (NDAA) that includes sanctions against the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, Turkey and Syria along with a range of other measures.

US Department of Treasury said late on Friday that the sanctions envisaged by the NDAA have entered into force and demanded the immediate curtail of works on the Nord Stream 2 and TurkStream projects.

Earlier in the day, moments before Trump enacted the new budget for the Pentagon, the Swiss-based contractor - a partner of European gas pipeline project - Allseas announced the suspension of its "Nord Stream 2 pipelay activities".

The NDAA bill, that mainly designed to authorize the $738 billion 2020 budget for the Pentagon, calls for tough and mandatory restrictions on Nord Stream 2 and TurkStream pipelines, and bars military-to-military cooperation with Russia. The bill also sanctions Turkey over its acquisition of Russian S-400 air defence systems and prohibits the transfer of F-35 jets to Ankara.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced earlier in the day that Ankara would impose countersanctions in response to Washington’s proposed measures. Turkey has already threatened to close the Incirlik airbase, currently used by the US military.

DETAILS TO FOLLOW

 

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The USA does not have any international rights to place sanctions on these projects, except use their might of crazy bullies, like thugs in a schoolyard. These sanctions are purely imposed on economic reason to benefit the USA alone, no-one else. Tell them to piss off...

 

The managers of these projects should make sure that the US does not sabotage them... Say, a cargo ship "in distress" dragging a huge anchor that would damage the pipe on the sea bed — or some saboteurs getting cash to weaken a weld before the pipe is lowered down. 

Earlier US President Donald Trump enacted the $738 billion National Defence Authorization Act (NDAA), a military budget package for the coming year that includes sanctions against the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova commented on new US sanctions against the Nord Stream-2 and Turkish Stream pipelines, saying that the state, with its historically unprecedented debt, forbids others from developing their economies.

"A state with a national debt of $22 trillion forbids creditworthy countries from developing the real sector of their economies! The American ideology of life did not withstand global competition, which the US Treasury regularly confirms by issuing a new 'warrant for economic arrest'," Zakharova wrote on Facebook.

 

The US Treasury Department late on Friday issued an explanation, stating that US sanctions against the Nord Stream-2 and Turkish Stream pipelines took effect immediately and that the US was demanding construction companies to stop their work.

US President Donald Trump signed on Friday the $738 billion National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that includes sanctions against the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, Turkey and Syria along with a range of other measures.

The legislation calls for mandatory sanctions on Nord Stream 2 and TurkStream pipelines, and bars military-to-military cooperation with Russia. The bill also sanctions Turkey over its acquisition of Russian S-400 air defense systems and prohibits the transfer of F-35 jets to Ankara.

The new set of US sanctions will target companies and individuals involved in providing services on the pipeline and have their US visas revoked and financial assets in the US frozen. The bill also provides for a 30-day grace period for them to wind down their operations in the project.

The Nord Stream 2 is a joint venture between Gazprom and five European companies: France's Engie, Austria's OMV, the UK-Dutch Royal Dutch Shell, and Germany's Uniper and Wintershall. The 745-mile-long twin pipeline will carry up to 55 billion cubic meters (1.942 trillion cubic feet) of gas per year from Russia to Germany through the territorial waters or exclusive economic zones of Denmark, Finland, Germany, Russia and Sweden.

 

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Berlin has rejected a package of sweeping US sanctions meant to halt the construction of the German-Russian Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline in the Baltic Sea, denouncing it as interference in its domestic affairs.

Germany “has noticed with regret that the sanctions initiated by the US Congress against Nord Stream2 and Turkstream [pipelines] came into force after being signed by the US president,” deputy government spokesperson Ulrike Demmer tweeted on Saturday.

The federal government rejects such extraterritorial sanctions. They affect German and European companies and represent interference in our domestic affairs.

The sanctions are part of a 2020 defense spending bill President Donald Trump signed on Friday. They flag companies contributing to halt the construction of the $11 billion Nord Stream 2 pipeline which spans between Russia and Germany.

Under the legislation, US visas and American properties owned by those who continue will be revoked and frozen. Allseas, a Swiss-Dutch company laying underwater tubes for the pipeline off the Danish coast, already announced it is suspending operations in the area.

Berlin has been consistently opposed to the sanctions, with some politicians even calling for an in-kind response and a ban on imports of American liquefied natural gas to Germany.

 

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=3&v=Bg4UcemcHFg&feature=emb_logo

The EU should enact "climate tariffs" against the US in response to sanctions against the bloc for the construction of the deep sea gas pipeline Nord Stream 2, according to an economist at the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW).

Climate tariffs are necessary to prevent gas extracted through fracking, an ecologically harmful process, from being exported from the US to Germany and the EU, environmental economist Claudia Kemfert told Germany's Handelsblatt newspaper on Monday.

Kemfert, who leads the energy, transportation and environment department at DIW, characterized US sanctions against the EU as an "aggressive instrument in a fossil energy war." Both Russia and the US are using natural gas as a "political weapon," she said, adding that the intention behind the sanctions is to sell US gas to Germany and the EU at the highest possible cost.

The economist agreed that criticism of the gas pipeline connecting Germany and Russia through the Baltic Sea is justified, saying that it is "environmentally harmful, economically unnecessary and financially unprofitable."

But the US sanctions are "unacceptable" and Europe should stand up to them, she said. Russia has also announced retaliatory measures, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying "how and when it will be done remains a question of Russia's national interests."

Germany keeps its cool

In a response given Monday, German Coordinator of Trans-Atlantic Cooperation Peter Beyer said countertariffs were not the solution. Escalating the conflict would be inappropriate, the coordinator told public broadcaster Deutschlandfunk, saying it should instead be solved through political means.

 

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Washington has long opposed the Nord Stream 2 project, claiming it would increase Europe's dependency on Russian gas. The US slapped sanctions against firms directly involved in the pipeline's construction, with Senators subsequently introducing a bill potentially sanctioning companies for issuing insurance to vessels working on Nord Stream 2.

The Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline is practically completed, and the United States has no way of influencing the situation, reported Die Welt.

Despite Washington’s efforts to hamper the process, Moscow managed to circumvent restrictive measures imposed against the ambitious project, that is scheduled to carry up to 1.942 trillion cubic feet of gas per year from Russia to Germany through the territorial waters or exclusive economic zones of Denmark, Finland, Germany, Russia, and Sweden.

The German publication notes that the Akademik Cherskiy pipe-laying vessel owned by Gazprom has now been registered with the Samara Thermal Energy Property Fund (STIF), operating in Russia, according to the international registry of ships.

This allows the state-owned corporation to complete the gas pipeline, circumventing Washington’s restrictions.

All possible technical means are being used to complete the construction of Nord Stream 2, the economic and investment project is ready, said Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak has said in an interview with Handelsblatt newspaper.

 

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By Ted Galen Carpenter

 

Washington’s plans to torpedo Russia-Europe gas pipeline will blow up in its face...

 

The Biden team is proving no better than Trump, bullying and treating allies as incapable of making their own decisions.

 

U.S. leaders have exhibited unrelenting hostility to the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline from the moment construction began in 2011. The pipeline, running under the Baltic Sea, thereby linking Russia and Germany while bypassing the Baltic republics and Poland, is now close to completion. 

The Obama, Trump, and Biden administrations, however, all charged that the pipeline will deepen the already extensive dependence of Germany and other portions of democratic Europe on Russian energy supplies. That enhanced dependence, U.S. officials argue, will give Moscow geopolitical leverage to a dangerous extent over its western neighbors. Congress approved legislation in 2019 authorizing sanctions against companies involved in the project, and passed an even stronger measure in late 2020. 

It’s clear that the Biden administration’s policy regarding Nord Stream 2 does not deviate from the course its predecessors pursued. That stance should not come as much of a surprise. As vice president in 2016, Joe Biden bluntly described the project as a “bad deal” for Europe. On March 18, Secretary of State Antony Blinken issued a statement demanding that firms involved in the pipeline project immediately cease work. “As multiple U.S. administrations have made clear,” Blinken stated, “this pipeline is a Russian geopolitical project intended to divide Europe and weaken European energy security.”

Giving remarks as he met Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg at his first NATO visit Tuesday, Blinken said, “President Biden has been very clear, he believes the pipeline is a bad idea, bad for Europe, bad for the United States, ultimately it is in contradiction to the EU’s own security goals.” 

Washington’s policy reflects an astonishing degree of arrogance, and European resentment at such bullying behavior is building. The reaction of Rainer Seele, the CEO of the Austrian energy firm OMV, to Blinken’s March 18 statement was typical. “This project is of great importance for the security of supply of the European gas market, it is therefore Europe’s responsibility to decide,” Seele told Austrian newspaper Wiener Zeitung. He added: “We have had a deep transatlantic friendship with the USA for decades. And friends shouldn’t threaten each other.”

Unfortunately, there is very strong, bipartisan support among America’s political elite for a hardline policy. In 2017, Jeanne Shaheen, (D-N.H.), a key Democratic member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s subcommittee on European Affairs, contended that “Russia has a track record of weaponizing natural gas.” She warned that completion of Nord Stream 2 would “give Russia even more options for influencing and intimidating Europe, specifically Ukraine.”  The mention of Ukraine was not tangential or coincidental. Completion of Nord Stream 2 would deprive Kiev of lucrative transit fees for gas flowing through existing pipelines. For Ukraine’s partisans in the United States, such a development is considered intolerable.

Two years later, Shaheen co-sponsored a bill with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) to take substantive steps to block the project. She warned that the United States cannot simply look the other way “while the Kremlin builds this Trojan horse.”

As Cruz’s role indicated, Republicans have been at least as militant as Shaheen regarding the issue. In 2018, President Trump stated in his typically blunt fashion that the Nord Stream 2 pipeline was a “horrible thing” and warned that “it’s a tragedy” for Germany to allow billions of additional dollars to flow into Russia’s coffers. He also stressed that upon completion of the gas pipeline, Germany would get 60-70 percent of its energy from Russia.  

The harsh remarks were not simply a case of Trump being Trump. A similar hostility to the pipeline — and to Russia generally — has characterized the bipartisan support in Congress for punitive measures. Rep. Michael Conaway (R-Texas), a key sponsor of a resolution in 2018, candidly expressed the underlying assumption. “Russia has continually defied global norms, sovereign borders, and international law. We would be foolish to allow Vladimir Putin a stronger grip on our European allies and the global energy market.” 

Indeed, Republicans now appear to advocate an even more uncompromising approach than the Biden administration is adopting. Responding to a new State Department report in mid-February 2021, Sen. Jim Risch, (R-Idaho) the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, expressed his deep dissatisfaction at the decision “to forgo additional sanctions on other entities involved in its construction.” He even went so far as to allege that the report “is a gift to the Russians and their ongoing efforts to undermine European energy security, destabilize Ukraine, and facilitate corruption and malign influence throughout Europe.” 

Cruz has adopted an especially militant position. He put a hold on the nomination of William Burns as the head of the CIA, withdrawing it only after Blinken’s March 18 statement warning firms of U.S. sanctions if they continued work on Nord Stream 2. However, Cruz reiterated that he would continue to block confirmation of Wendy Sherman to be Blinken’s deputy, as well as future State Department nominees, “until the full sanctions mandated by Congress are in fact broadly imposed against the ships and companies critical to completing the pipeline.”

It’s apparent that the administration continues to be under pressure from some influential congressional Democrats as well. Senator Bob Menendez, (D-N.J.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said he was “encouraging” the administration to “accelerate” its efforts on the pipeline, noting the bipartisan support for additional sanctions. 

Although there is opposition in Europe to Nord Stream 2 (especially in Ukraine, Poland, and other East European countries), there is considerable backing for the project — and mounting resentment at U.S. tactics. The latter development is especially apparent in Germany. Former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder is the chairman of the board of the Nord Stream 2 consortium, reflecting the economic importance that members of Germany’s political and economic elite attach to the project. Angela Merkel’s government has maintained its commitment to Nord Stream 2 despite U.S. pressure, and other influential Germans have denounced calls in the United States for tough sanctions.  

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier defended the pipeline by saying that fuel sales were “one of the last bridges between Russia and Europe.” Other German officials point out that West Germany imported gas from the totalitarian Soviet Union during the Cold War era, and they contend that Moscow is more dependent on exporting gas than the other way around. The Federation of German Industries (BDI) warned that U.S. sanctions against companies participating in the Nord Stream 2 project create “serious stress” for the transatlantic partnership.  Foreign Minister Heiko Maas and others have accused the United States of infringing on European and German sovereignty, and argue that Europe can decide for itself about its sources of energy. Oliver Hermes, head of the parliamentary committee for Eastern Europe, said the U.S. threats marked “an unbelievable low” in the transatlantic relationship. Gerhard Schroeder even called for “counter sanctions” against the United States.

Washington needs to abandon its efforts to torpedo Nord Stream 2. Whether that pipeline is a good or bad idea from the standpoint of European interests is properly a decision for the Europeans to make. Uncle Sam must stop acting as an overbearing Big Brother treating Germany and other allies as incapable of making their own decisions on such matters. If exerting crude pressure to compel compliance with Washington’s preferences is what President Biden had in mind when he stated that “America is back” and pledged to restore U.S. “leadership” of the transatlantic alliance, important European allies, especially Germany, may come to resent the new administration as much as they did its predecessor. And they would have good reason to do so.

 

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WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The Biden administration will use all available tools to try and prevent the completion of Russia’s Nord Stream 2 gas-exporting pipeline, US State Department Principal Deputy Spokesperson Jalina Porter told reporters.

"Broadly speaking, the administration is committed to using all available tools... to stop the Nord Stream 2 pipeline from being completed... Our goal is to reinforce European energy security as well as to safeguard against any type of predatory behavior that Russia has demonstrated in its past actions," Porter said during a briefing.

Earlier on Wednesday, Bloomberg reported that the Biden administration is waiving new sanctions that it imposed on a company constructing the Nord Stream 2 pipeline due to national security reasons.

 US Lawmakers Agree to Push New Legislation to Sanction Nord Stream 2 Pipeline

 

Lawmakers in the US House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday agreed to work on legislation to impose sanctions on vessels and entities involved in the completion of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.

"I do look forward to working together on this, it is a very important issue," Republican Congressman August Pfluger said. "If it takes us all day, then I'd like us to spend all day on it or multiple days on this very important issue."

Pfluger made the comment while trying to introduce an amendment to the Crimea Annexation Non-Recognition Act that would impose sanctions on vessels and entities engaged in the construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. The congressman explained the potential sanctions would be imposed under the Protecting Europe's Energy Security Act.

 

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Why don't the USA try to stop the pipeline under the "Global Warming-No-To-Gas" Act? Oh I see, because the US wants the EU to BUY US GAS at triple the price on offer from Russia... Note: Crimea IS RUSSIAN. Full stop. Any act from the USA with Crimea-Annexation-Non-Recognition-Act in it is stupid. The US are stupid and bad liars...

 

FREE JULIAN ASSANGE TODAY @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

 

The Biden administration has waived sanctions on a company building a controversial gas pipeline between Russia and Germany.

The US also lifted sanctions on the executive - an ally of Russia's Vladimir Putin - who leads the firm behind the Nord Stream 2 project. 

The move came in a report on Russian sanctions delivered to Congress by the Department of State.

Critics say the pipeline is a major geopolitical prize for the Kremlin.

The project, which would take gas from the Russian Arctic under the Baltic Sea to Germany, is already more than 95% complete.

The Department of State report notes that Nord Stream 2 AG and its chief executive, Matthias Warnig, a former East German intelligence officer, engaged in sanctionable activity.

 

But it concludes that it is in the US national interest to waive the sanctions.

• Colonial Pipeline boss confirms $4.4m ransom paid

The Department of State also imposed sanctions on four Russian ships involved in the building of Nord Stream 2, though detractors said that would not be enough to stop the pipeline. 

President Joe Biden has said he opposes the $11bn (£7.8bn) project. His Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said during his confirmation hearing that he was "determined to do whatever we can to prevent that completion" of Nord Stream 2.

 

 

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See also: https://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/39826

 

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