#India’s #Kashmir #Crisis

Iran Might be About To Change Its Approach Towards India
By Andrew Korybko
Iran had hitherto allowed India to make a fool out of it without uttering even the faintest protest in response, yet the Islamic Republic’s previously servile attitude might be changing if two recent statements by its leadership are any indication of a new approach taking shape towards the South Asian state. Read more...

Hair-trigger Nuclear Alert over Kashmir
By Eric Margolis
Two of the world’s most important powers, India and Pakistan, are locked into an extremely dangerous confrontation over the bitterly disputed Himalayan mountain state of Kashmir. Both are nuclear armed. Read more...

Could The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Contribute to Resolving the Kashmir Crisis?

#KerchStrait #Incident: Preliminary to #US #NATO #War with #Russia?

Russia Deploys S-400 Missiles to Crimea in Military Showdown with Ukraine
By Zero Hedge
Predictably the crisis that began on Sunday between Russia and Ukraine in the Kerch Strait is quickly worsening as Russia has announced plans to deploy more of its advanced S-400 surface-to-air missile systems to Crimea. Read more...

Video: British Special Forces in Ukraine. Alleged Chemical Weapons and Black Ops Against Donbass?
By Vesti News
On November 21, 2018, a few days prior to the Kerch Strait Incident, the British Ministry of Defense confirmed that a new contingent of UK special forces were slated to be sent to Ukraine. Read more...

Drama in the Kerch Strait: Teasing the Russian Bear

Russia Extends its Control

Crisis in Ukraine: Russia Extends its Control over the Black Sea and Strategic Waterways

By Prof Michel Chossudovsky

The decision of  Crimea to join the Russian Federation has strategic and geopolitical implications.
The union of Crimea with Russia redefines both the geography as well as the geopolitical chessboard in the Black Sea basin.  

It constitutes a major setback for US-NATO, whose longstanding objective has been to integrate Ukraine into NATO with a view to undermining Russia, while extending Western military presence in the Black Sea basin.

With the March 18, 2014 Treaty signed between Russia and Crimea, the Russian Federation will extend its control over the Black Sea as well over the Sea of Azov, the West coastline of which borders on Eastern Ukraine and the Donesk region. (see map below) 

Under the agreement between Russia and Crimea announced by president Putin, two “constituent regions” of Crimea will join the Russian Federation: the “Republic of Crimea” and the “City of Sevastopol”. Both will have the status of “autonomous regions”.

The status of Sevastopol as an autonomous entity separate from Crimea is related to the location of Russia’s Naval base in Sevastopol.

Since the break-up of the Soviet Union, Russia retained its naval base in Sevastopol under a bilateral agreement with Ukraine. With the signing of the March 18th Treaty, that agreement is null and void. Sevastopol including the Russian naval base become part of an autonomous region within the Russian Federation. The naval base is no within Ukraine under a lease agreement. Moreover, Crimea’s territorial waters now belong to the Russian Federation.

Strategic Waterway: The Kerch Straits
Russia now formally controls a much larger portion of the Black Sea, which includes the entire coastline of the Crimean peninsula. The Eastern part of Crimea –including the Kerch straits– are now under Russia’s jurisdiction control.  On the Eastern side of the Kerch straits is Russia’s Krasnodar region and extending  southwards are the port cities of Novorossiysk and Sochi.

Novorossiysk is also strategic. It is Russia’s largest commercial port on the Black Sea, at the cross-roads of major oil and gas pipelines between the Black Sea and Caspian sea.


 
Historically, the Kerch straits have played a strategic role. They constitute a gateway from the Black Sea to Russia’s major waterways including the Don and the Volga.

Russia - Crimea - World War III - Venezuela - Ukraine - USA

Russia Sends Troops to Crimea

‘The Russian Navy confirmed it has deployed Marines to Sevastopol in Crimea. Troops deployments began over the weekend.
It also confirmed that a large landing ship, the Nikolay Filchenkov, from the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation, sent Marines based in Temryuk, Russia. The Filchenkov also delivered ten BTR-80 armored personnel carriers, according to the naval website.
The weekend airlifts using four Ilyushin Il-76 strategic aircraft out an airbase in near Moscow delivered personnel from the 45th Airborne Special Forces to Anapa on the Black Sea, according to the report. Six Soviet-designed medium twin-turbine MI-8 transport helicopters were also sent.’
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Russia May Be Preparing to Annex Crimea

‘According to Ukraine Liveblog Russian officials have arrived in Sevastopol on the Crimea peninsula and are preparing to issue passports.
The following translation appeared earlier today on the blog:
Russian State Duma deputies have arrived in Simferopol. The delegation is headed by Leonid Slutsky, head of the committee on the CIS. Russians promise to simply the issuance of passports to Crimeans.
Report summarizing their statements from Oleg Kryuchkov of censor.net.ua:’
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US has ‘neocon agenda’ in Ukraine, Russia: Analyst

‘The United States is pursuing a “neocon agenda” in Ukraine and Russia in order to weaken and destabilize the two countries, a political commentator says.
There is a “neocon effort to go after Russia because Russia did not support the war for Israel agenda against Israel’s enemies,” said James Morris, an editor for America-hijacked.com, an anti-Zionist blog.
“So the neocons would like to weaken Russia and that’s what we see happening in Ukraine,” Morris told Press TV on Monday.
“It’s a very dangerous situation” because the crisis in Ukraine could cause another world war, he added. “The neocons…. have been encouraging what’s been happening in Ukraine.”’
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Russia Fires First Retaliatory Salvo, May Limit Ukraine Food Imports

‘Russia represents over 25% of Ukraine’s exports and is the divided nation’s largest trade partner. As Ukraine remains deep in its self-described “pre-default” state, the economy languishes vainly in the hopes of a trade deal with ‘someone’ and a bailout from ‘someone’ else. However, the IMF’s first move to bail the nation out has now been met by a subtle punch to the country’s kidneys as Interfax reports that Russia threatens to limit food imports on the basis of “veterinary and phytosanitary risks.”‘
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Sleepwalking Again

On the 100th Anniversary of World War 1, the Western powers are again sleepwalking into destructive conflict. Hegemonic ambition has Washington interfering in the internal affairs of Ukraine, but developments seem to be moving beyond Washington’s control.
Regime change in Ukraine for a mere $5 billion dollars would be a bargain compared to the massive sums squandered in Iraq ($3,000 billion), Afghanistan ($3,000 billion), Somalia, and Libya, or the money Washington is wasting murdering people with drones in Pakistan and Yemen, or the money Washington has spent supporting al Qaeda in Syria, or the massive sums Washington has wasted surrounding Iran with 40 military bases and several fleets in the Persian Gulf in an effort to terrorize Iran into submission.
So far, in Washington’s attempt at regime change in Ukraine large numbers of Americans are not being killed and maimed. Only Ukrainians are dying, all the better for Washington as the deaths are blamed on the Ukrainian government that the US has targeted for overthrow.
The problem with Washington’s plot to overthrow the elected government of Ukraine and install its minions is twofold: The chosen US puppets have lost control of the protests to armed radical elements with historical links to nazism, and Russia regards an EU/NATO takeover of Ukraine as a strategic threat to Russian independence.
Read more …