jakojako777
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"Russia must once and for all decide if it is part of the Alliance’s security mission or a challenge to it. The invasion of Georgia was anti-freedom and NATO must resist such adventurism firmly."
Julian Lindley
French, a member of the Atlantic Council’s Strategic Advisors Group
Stratcon 2010: A Military Route to Freedom? | Atlantic Council
-------------------------------------------
"Germany Will Never Attack Russia": Joachim von Ribbentrop
"NATO will never attack Russia“ Rasmussen ( NATO boss)
Russia Today
December 17, 2009
NATO Secretary General Anders Rasmussen is in Moscow to seek greater assistance from Moscow for the military campaign in Afghanistan. His main argument is that the alliance does not consider Russia as an enemy.
Rasmussen expressed hope to have a common missile defense system with Russia by 2020.
"A united missile shield in the Euro-Atlantic area will not only protect us all against proliferation, but bind us together politically as well,"� he said in his speech before students at Moscow State University of International Relations. "NATO will never attack Russia, and we don't think Russia will attack us. We have stopped worrying about this and Russia should stop worrying about us as well"�.
On the other hand, Rasmussen also said NATO has no intention of compromising on principal issues.
"I would like to send a very clear message to Russian people. NATO is not directed against Russia. NATO is here to protect our people in our member states against the new threats of today and many of these threats are common threats for NATO states and Russia,"� Rasmussen pointed out at a news conference earlier on Thursday.
According to the NATO Secretary General, it is necessary that the Russia-NATO Council becomes an effective forum where the sides can discuss all issues openly. NATO is interested in boosting the partnership with Russia in fighting the drug trafficking in Afghanistan.
He has also mentioned that NATO is ready to discuss Russia's initiative on European security, adding, though, that he does not see the necessity of the new agreement as "we have enough documents on European security."�
?NATO will never attack Russia? ? Rasmussen - RT
------------------------------------------------------
NATO Forces To Train In Arctic Norway On Russian Border
Barents Observer
December 18, 2009
-From the early 1960's, Norway...refused allied forces to train in Norway. These restrictions were in force until 1995, when Norway decided to loosen up on the regulations, an article from the Norwegian Atlantic Committee reads.
NATO personnel from Great Britain and Germany will be training in Porsanger, Finnmark County, this winter.
Sometime in the period January 4 to March 18 2010 an exercise with allied forces will be conducted in the municipality of Porsanger in Norway's northernmost county Finnmark. This is part of a larger exercise that takes place in Troms and Nordland at the same time, the County Governor of Finnmark's web page reads.
There will be no large allied troops training in Finnmark this winter - the allied training center in Porsanger will be hosting some 50-100 British and 50 German soldiers, newspaper Sagat reports.
Norway has a tradition for limiting allied exercises in Finnmark, the border county to Russia.
....
From the early 1960's, Norway also refused allied forces to train in Norway. These restrictions were in force until 1995, when Norway decided to loosen up on the regulations, an article from the Norwegian Atlantic Committee reads.
NATO forces to train in Arctic Norway - BarentsObserver
----------------------------------------------------
Russia “puzzled” by UK MI6 chief’s Iraq accusations (Part 2)
MOSCOW. Dec 18 (Interfax) - The Russian Foreign Ministry has said it is perplexed over remarks recently made by John Sawers, chief of the UK Secret Intelligence Service, MI6, who accused Russia of "obstructing" a peaceful solution to the Iraqi conflict, which resulted in the armed invasion of Iraq by the U.S. and its allies.
"We are puzzled by this statement, to say the least," Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko told journalists on Friday.
Speaking at public hearings in London dedicated to an inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the start of the Iraq war, Sawers said that Russia was responsible for the failure of attempts to introduce so-called "smart sanctions" against the Saddam Hussein regime in 2001, which could have helped avoid an armed conflict.
"There is a good proverb in Russia: don‘t lay your own fault at someone else‘s door," Nesterenko said.
The so-called "smart sanctions" proposed by the UK in the summer of 2001 would not have led to any significant improvements in the catastrophic state of the Iraqi population, the Russian diplomat said.
In fact, those proposals were aimed at "immortalizing" the sanctions regime under the pretext that Iraq was allegedly continuing work on prohibited programs intended to develop weapons of mass destruction, he said.
"During the UN Security Council‘s debate on the Iraqi issue, we repeatedly insisted that the council could not act based on unverified information regarding the alleged presence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq while taking decisions on the introduction of new sanction-related measures," Nesterenko said.
Moscow said more than once that it did not have information reliably proving the presence of nuclear arms in Iraq, he said.
"Instead, Russia proposed solving this problem by sending UN inspectors to Iraq and making all decisions based on the results of their work. Moscow‘s opinion was ignored by the American and British governments. Our warnings regarding the inevitability of the severe consequences of the Iraq war, which was unleashed in violation of the UN Security Council‘s resolution, were not heard, either," the diplomat said.
Addressing Russia‘s economic interests that allegedly "ruined" a peaceful solution to the Iraqi problem, Nesterenko said: "We would like to ask you one question: what interests actually guided the allies in the coalition when they started that war in Iraq?"
Russia “puzzled” by UK MI6 chief’s Iraq accusations (Part 2) - Interfax
-------------------------------------------------------
Yanukovych leads in polls ahead of Ukrainian presidential election (pro Russian candidate)
Interfax Ukraine
December 17, 2009
Yanukovych leads in polls ahead of Ukrainian presidential election
[Which is why American political hit man John Tefft has been named ambassador.]
Recent poll results suggest that Party of Regions leader Viktor Yanukovych will win the presidential election in January in Ukraine with a sizeable margin against main rival Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.
The poll, which was conducted by Research & Branding Group between December 5-13, puts Sergiy Tigipko in third.
A total of 33.3% of Ukrainians said they would vote for Yanukovych in the first round of the presidential election; 16.6% gave their support to Tymoshenko, and 7.4% said they would vote for Tigipko.
The rating is 6.7% for Arseniy Yatseniuk, 4.1% for Volodymyr Lytvyn, 3.8% for Viktor Yuschenko and 3.4% for Petro Symonenko.
If a second round is held in the presidential election between Yanukovych and Tymoshenko, the poll suggests Yanukovych would surpass Tymoshenko by more than 16% of votes. A total of 46.7% of respondents said they would vote for Yanukovych, and 30% for Tymoshenko.
Another 13.2% of the respondents said they would have voted against all candidates in the second round.
Some 3.6% of the respondents said they would not take part in the election, and 6.5% found it difficult to answer the questions.
The Research & Branding Group polled voters in 24 regions across Ukraine and the Crimea. The margin of error is 1.8%.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Julian Lindley
French, a member of the Atlantic Council’s Strategic Advisors Group
Stratcon 2010: A Military Route to Freedom? | Atlantic Council
-------------------------------------------
"Germany Will Never Attack Russia": Joachim von Ribbentrop
"NATO will never attack Russia“ Rasmussen ( NATO boss)
Russia Today
December 17, 2009
NATO Secretary General Anders Rasmussen is in Moscow to seek greater assistance from Moscow for the military campaign in Afghanistan. His main argument is that the alliance does not consider Russia as an enemy.
Rasmussen expressed hope to have a common missile defense system with Russia by 2020.
"A united missile shield in the Euro-Atlantic area will not only protect us all against proliferation, but bind us together politically as well,"� he said in his speech before students at Moscow State University of International Relations. "NATO will never attack Russia, and we don't think Russia will attack us. We have stopped worrying about this and Russia should stop worrying about us as well"�.
On the other hand, Rasmussen also said NATO has no intention of compromising on principal issues.
"I would like to send a very clear message to Russian people. NATO is not directed against Russia. NATO is here to protect our people in our member states against the new threats of today and many of these threats are common threats for NATO states and Russia,"� Rasmussen pointed out at a news conference earlier on Thursday.
According to the NATO Secretary General, it is necessary that the Russia-NATO Council becomes an effective forum where the sides can discuss all issues openly. NATO is interested in boosting the partnership with Russia in fighting the drug trafficking in Afghanistan.
He has also mentioned that NATO is ready to discuss Russia's initiative on European security, adding, though, that he does not see the necessity of the new agreement as "we have enough documents on European security."�
?NATO will never attack Russia? ? Rasmussen - RT
------------------------------------------------------
NATO Forces To Train In Arctic Norway On Russian Border
Barents Observer
December 18, 2009
-From the early 1960's, Norway...refused allied forces to train in Norway. These restrictions were in force until 1995, when Norway decided to loosen up on the regulations, an article from the Norwegian Atlantic Committee reads.
NATO personnel from Great Britain and Germany will be training in Porsanger, Finnmark County, this winter.
Sometime in the period January 4 to March 18 2010 an exercise with allied forces will be conducted in the municipality of Porsanger in Norway's northernmost county Finnmark. This is part of a larger exercise that takes place in Troms and Nordland at the same time, the County Governor of Finnmark's web page reads.
There will be no large allied troops training in Finnmark this winter - the allied training center in Porsanger will be hosting some 50-100 British and 50 German soldiers, newspaper Sagat reports.
Norway has a tradition for limiting allied exercises in Finnmark, the border county to Russia.
....
From the early 1960's, Norway also refused allied forces to train in Norway. These restrictions were in force until 1995, when Norway decided to loosen up on the regulations, an article from the Norwegian Atlantic Committee reads.
NATO forces to train in Arctic Norway - BarentsObserver
----------------------------------------------------
Russia “puzzled” by UK MI6 chief’s Iraq accusations (Part 2)
MOSCOW. Dec 18 (Interfax) - The Russian Foreign Ministry has said it is perplexed over remarks recently made by John Sawers, chief of the UK Secret Intelligence Service, MI6, who accused Russia of "obstructing" a peaceful solution to the Iraqi conflict, which resulted in the armed invasion of Iraq by the U.S. and its allies.
"We are puzzled by this statement, to say the least," Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko told journalists on Friday.
Speaking at public hearings in London dedicated to an inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the start of the Iraq war, Sawers said that Russia was responsible for the failure of attempts to introduce so-called "smart sanctions" against the Saddam Hussein regime in 2001, which could have helped avoid an armed conflict.
"There is a good proverb in Russia: don‘t lay your own fault at someone else‘s door," Nesterenko said.
The so-called "smart sanctions" proposed by the UK in the summer of 2001 would not have led to any significant improvements in the catastrophic state of the Iraqi population, the Russian diplomat said.
In fact, those proposals were aimed at "immortalizing" the sanctions regime under the pretext that Iraq was allegedly continuing work on prohibited programs intended to develop weapons of mass destruction, he said.
"During the UN Security Council‘s debate on the Iraqi issue, we repeatedly insisted that the council could not act based on unverified information regarding the alleged presence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq while taking decisions on the introduction of new sanction-related measures," Nesterenko said.
Moscow said more than once that it did not have information reliably proving the presence of nuclear arms in Iraq, he said.
"Instead, Russia proposed solving this problem by sending UN inspectors to Iraq and making all decisions based on the results of their work. Moscow‘s opinion was ignored by the American and British governments. Our warnings regarding the inevitability of the severe consequences of the Iraq war, which was unleashed in violation of the UN Security Council‘s resolution, were not heard, either," the diplomat said.
Addressing Russia‘s economic interests that allegedly "ruined" a peaceful solution to the Iraqi problem, Nesterenko said: "We would like to ask you one question: what interests actually guided the allies in the coalition when they started that war in Iraq?"
Russia “puzzled” by UK MI6 chief’s Iraq accusations (Part 2) - Interfax
-------------------------------------------------------
Yanukovych leads in polls ahead of Ukrainian presidential election (pro Russian candidate)
Interfax Ukraine
December 17, 2009
Yanukovych leads in polls ahead of Ukrainian presidential election
[Which is why American political hit man John Tefft has been named ambassador.]
Recent poll results suggest that Party of Regions leader Viktor Yanukovych will win the presidential election in January in Ukraine with a sizeable margin against main rival Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.
The poll, which was conducted by Research & Branding Group between December 5-13, puts Sergiy Tigipko in third.
A total of 33.3% of Ukrainians said they would vote for Yanukovych in the first round of the presidential election; 16.6% gave their support to Tymoshenko, and 7.4% said they would vote for Tigipko.
The rating is 6.7% for Arseniy Yatseniuk, 4.1% for Volodymyr Lytvyn, 3.8% for Viktor Yuschenko and 3.4% for Petro Symonenko.
If a second round is held in the presidential election between Yanukovych and Tymoshenko, the poll suggests Yanukovych would surpass Tymoshenko by more than 16% of votes. A total of 46.7% of respondents said they would vote for Yanukovych, and 30% for Tymoshenko.
Another 13.2% of the respondents said they would have voted against all candidates in the second round.
Some 3.6% of the respondents said they would not take part in the election, and 6.5% found it difficult to answer the questions.
The Research & Branding Group polled voters in 24 regions across Ukraine and the Crimea. The margin of error is 1.8%.
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