Putin’s rating up more than 50% over 15 years — FOM pollster

According to the pollster, popular support of the president developed a steep uptrend following Crimea’s admission to Russia in 2014

MOSCOW, March 31. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s popularity rating since the moment he first took office in 2000 has been up more than 50%, with the strongest surge in popular support registered after the reunification of Crimea with Russia, the public opinion studies center FOM has found. The statistics were made public at a round table discussion at TASS timed to the 15th anniversary of Putin at the helm of power.

As the FOM’s chief, Alexander Oslon, has told TASS, the results were obtained on the basis of weekly polls held for the past fifteen years. The respondents were asked to say whom they would vote for if the presidential election were to be held the forthcoming Sunday.

Whereas during the presidential election campaign in 2000 Putin’s rating stood at 47%, on March 22, 2015 Putin would have collected the votes of 75% of Russians.

According to the FOM, popular support developed a steep uptrend following Crimea’s admission to Russia in 2014. At the moment the decision was made Putin’s rating stood at 50%. In the twelve months that followed Crimea’s admission to Russia the rating has been steady on the rise to have achieved 75% on March 22, 2015.

Source: ITAR-TASS 31-03-2015

The Western Bull Meter goes off the scale

29.03.2015

A day after Newsweek magazine published a piece claiming that Ukraine had been invaded by "little green men" sent by Putin "steel in his eyes", striding "purposefully through a field of corn" then followed by a bunch of Russophobic hysteria, now we have the Guardian newspaper, proposing to stop "Putin" "with guns". In a word, war.

The Guardian newspaper (link below), piece entitled "Putin must be stopped. And sometimes only guns can stop guns" is by one Timothy Garton Ash, Oxford University Professor who specializes in Central and Eastern Europe and the transformation from a social economic model to the boom-and-bust elitist "democratic" model we see today, where faceless professional politicians are elected because someone looks better on TV and then spend the next four years feathering their nests pandering to the whims of the lobbies which control Western policy.

The Guardian newspaper, the one which recently published a spoof autobiography of me when commenting on an op-ed piece after the Austrian PM made a jackass of himself without bothering to do any research (The Times, for example, took the trouble to ask me whether the biography in question was true, to which I replied it was written one drunken night in Moscow by a friend of mine after a bottle of vodka and five Baltika 12's each, both of us curled up giggling beside the computer).

So I made a mistake this week calling Newsweek magazine "Wacko rag of the week", for we now have The "Don't bother to do any research, just print it" Guardian and its Oxford University "Timothy Garton Ash" Professor, with a biggest pile of Russophobic, gung-ho and jingoistic bullshit I have read since Tony Blair's British Secret Services told us that Saddam Hussein was procuring "yellowcake uranium". From "Nigeria" (except he wasn't and Nigeria doesn't have any). Never mind, it's far enough away for Guardian readers to swallow it hook, line and sinker, and what the hell, it's in the newspaper so it must be true, eh what?

So here we have The "don't bother to do any research, just print it and what the hell" Guardian, with a piece from a "professor" at a supposedly reputable university claiming that the West should provide military support to Ukraine - guns - and that Putin "is the Slobodan Milošević of the former Soviet Union: as bad, but bigger" who "Behind a smokescreen of lies he has renewed his drive to carve out a puppet para-state in eastern Ukraine".

Moral of the story: Has Oxford University joined that clique of former institutions of excellence which will issue degrees like diplomas from a packet of soap if you pay tens of thousands of pounds for a degree and hundreds of thousands for a doctorate, to be taught by proponents of belligerent insolence, arrogance and ignorance of the caliber we have just read?

One supposes Garton Ash, or whatever he calls himself, has also not bothered to research that President Milosevic was kidnapped by NATO forces and detained illegally against any single precept of Yugoslav Federal or Serbian national law in the sovereign territory of the same, after spending years fighting against the terrorist organization KLA. I would wager that Garton Ash does not even know the name of that organization in Albanian nor why it is also called UCK. Except it isn't. For The "don't bother to do any research, just slap it on the page and what the heck" Guardian and Professor "shoot when you see the whites of their eyes" Garton Ash, Ushtria Çlirimiate e Kosovës is the Kosovo Liberation "Army" in Albanian, a terrorist force which trafficked in human organs, decapitated civilians, raped little girls and committed terrorist attacks against the police.

We can then only assume that by attacking Milošević, Garton "Shoot 'em in the whites of their eyes", "we'll sell you a degree" Ash and The "don't bother to do any research, sod it" Guardian, turn a blind eye to what his enemies were perpetrating, namely slicing the organs out of still living bodies in some cases, and raping little girls. I repeat, and raping little girls.

And now for Garton Ash and President Putin, and the accusations of the Russian President being a liar. That, in my book, is slanderous at the very least. And secondly, let us ask publicly and in the open to "Professor" Ash, to put up or to shut up. What "lies" is he referring to?

I repeat the question to Oxford "Pay us and we'll give you a degree" University Professor Timothy Garton Ash: What "lies" are you claiming President Putin said? And I repeat, PUT UP OR STFU!!

Is he referring to the "lies" about Saddam Hussein producing yellowcake uranium from Nigeria? Is he referring to the "lies" about Saddam Hussein's milk factories being anthrax facilities ready to bomb the West? Is he referring to the "lies" that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and posed an immediate threat to the USA and its Poodles, sorry, "allies"? Is he referring to the "lies" that Muammar al-Qathafi was bombing his own people? Is he referring to the "lies" that the Syrian Government was using chemical weapons (in areas crawling with its own troops)? Is he referring to the "lies" that Russian tanks and armored personnel carriers were rolling over the borders in their thousands? If so, where are the satellite photos, these days when a satellite can pick up a matchbox? If he referring to the "lies" that the Malaysian aircraft was shot down by Russians? 48 hours after that German crackpot murdered 149 people plus itself, we know everything and a year after the MH 17, nothing? How long does it take to doctor a black box, for flip's sake? Is he referring to the "lies" that the Crimea referendum was illegal and was carried out under threat of guns (which is a load of bullshit)?

So what "lies" is Professor Garton Ash of Oxford "My diploma is as worthless as a leaflet from a packet of soap powder" University, and The "print anything you like, don't actually bother to RESEARCH it" Guardian referring to?

And as for the military option, if Mr. Ash (pardon me but after what he wrote I would more easily call a pig "God" than a warmongering belligerent imperialist "Professor") is serious about confronting Russia with guns, then the option and the answer are here in three words: bring it on. Russian military aircraft are the best in the world, two bombing runs in the French Channel have the Royal Air Force scared sh*tless and if Argentina takes back the Malvinas, then the Royal Navy will have to ask the French for their aircraft carrier. Hoin, hoin, hoin, hoin, hoin, eh whatty what what?

As for NATO's ground forces, all they are good for is running screaming in Georgia after the West tried to start another war. And failed, as usual.

So let Mr. "Oink" Ash of Oxford "Gi'us a fiver" University and The "Bugger the research" Guardian next time come up with a piece along the lines of the West increasingly and criminally supporting terrorists to do their dirty work, arranging misfits and criminals from the fringes of the societies they are planning to destroy to install as their future puppets (before they run away with the billions they have been given of Western taxpayers' money), as their elected politicians gain millions from lobbies and to Hell with the people and any form of decency and morals.

And where, pray, is Mr. "Oink" Ash right now? Stirring up trouble in Minsk? Watch this space, ladies and gentlemen, watch this space.

Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey

Pravda.Ru

(timothy.hinchey@gmail.com)

*Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey has worked as a correspondent, journalist, deputy editor, editor, chief editor, director, project manager, executive director, partner and owner of printed and online daily, weekly, monthly and yearly publications, TV stations and media groups printed, aired and distributed in Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, East Timor, Guinea-Bissau, Portugal, Mozambique and São Tomé and Principe Isles; the Russian Foreign Ministry publication Dialog and the Cuban Foreign Ministry Official Publications. He has spent the last two decades in humanitarian projects, connecting communities, working to document and catalog disappearing languages, cultures, traditions, working to network with the LGBT communities helping to set up shelters for abused or frightened victims and as Media Partner with UN Women, working to foster the UN Women project to fight against gender violence and to strive for an end to sexism, racism and homophobia. He is also a Media Partner of Humane Society International, fighting for animal rights.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/feb/01/putin-stopped-ukraine-military-support-russian-propaganda?CMP=share_btn_fb

Source: English Pravda 30-03-2015

Poroshenko Still at Risk? US Could Hedge Bets on Its Choice of Oligarchs

While the majority of the internet media presume that the US had already made its choice of oligarchs in Ukraine and has opted to support the head of state, Petro Poroshenko, the German online newspaper Deutsche Wirtschafts Nachrichten believes that Washington might still change its mind and shift the balance of power in favor of Ihor Kolomoiskyi.

The newspaper says that it is still unclear whether the US is firmly behind President Poroshenko or if the Ukrainian head of state might be at risk, as Washington might gradually shift towards Kolomoiskyi and bet on him in its standoff with Russia.

The paper supposes that the US hardliners, including Assistant Secretary of State for Europe Victoria Nuland and Republican Senator John McCain, who are known for their harsh anti-Russia rhetoric, might choose Kolomoiskyi as a partner in their fight against Moscow.

Meanwhile, other media sources are confident that Washington has already made up its mind.

“The current stand-off between Ukrainian big business tycoon Ihor Kolomoiskyi, the [former] governor of the Dnipropetrovsk Region (one of the most important regions of the country) and President Petro Poroshenko was stopped only after the US embassy directly interfered to support the head of state. Poroshenko would not dare launch an open attack against Kolomoiskyi or, all the more, fire him without Washington’s say so,” says the Strategic Culture Foundation, an online journal.

“Sergey Leshchenko, a parliamentarian from the bloc of President Poroshenko who has studied in the United States as a grant-aided student, admitted that the new law, which allowed Naftogas, a state company (or the one that belongs to Poroshenko), to get control over Ukrneft to spite Kolomoisky, was adopted according to the instructions coming directly from Washington,” it adds.

The bloggers have taken up the topic.

“Kolomoisky ended up in an unenviable situation: the whole repression-punitive apparatus of the Kiev junta now stands against him. Meanwhile it is already publicly stated that Kolomoisky will not only lose a part of his property, but that he will also lose his punitive battalions,” logger under nickname Colonel Cassad. writes.

“In general, all of this looks like a huge gamble with very bad cards, where Kolomoisky will be fully defeated with a high probability, or he will be forced to accept a humiliating peace with a number of concessions for Poroshenko et al. His security resources are much weaker than the resources available to Poroshenko,” he adds.

“But will Poroshenko be satisfied by such a draw?” he questions. “It will depend on the kind of instructions he received from the State Department and the CIA with respect to the reconfiguration of the Ukrainian political and oligarchical playing field. There is little doubt that Kolomoisky will lose — the question is only in the magnitude of his loss. “
 

Sergei Leshchenko, an MP from the Petro Poroshenko Bloc, has written in his blog that the Ukrainian leaders had got a call from the US with instructions to support the president.

“Biden [US Vice President] called Yatsenyuk and his political party and asked to demonstrate the unity with the President Poroshenko in restraining Kolomoiskiy,” he wrote.

The blogger also suggested that Kolomoiskyi was dismissed following his insult of a Radio Svoboda journalist  

He used obscene language talking to the reporter. And Radio Svoboda, he said, exists thanks to taxes paid by American citizens. A portion of this money goes to Ukraine. Leshchenko was sure that the US government would not like it

Other Ukrainian media sources echo the above, saying that the US ambassador has also made it clear.

“Geoffrey Pyatt, the US ambassador in Kiev, met with Kolomoisky during the stand-off and said in a radio interview afterward that the Dnipropetrovsk governor realized 'the law of the jungle' no longer applied, and that state companies needed to be run as the law required,” Bloomberg says in its analysis of the situation on the ground.

Geoffrey Pyatt however denied that he played any role in dismissing Kolomoiskyi and called it a 'misinterpretation of facts" on his Twitter.

Bloomberg, however, adds that “nothing in Ukraine is clear-cut, though”.

"I don't rule out a stake on early elections, depending on what target is chosen — the parliament or the president," Bloomberg quotes Mustafa Nayyem, a legislator with Poroshenko's electoral bloc, as writing on Facebook.

Meanwhile, the agency says, Ukraine remains a strife-ridden no-man's land in the middle of Europe, struggling to define itself in terms others will understand, and getting bogged down in complex problems of its own design.

Source: Sputnik News 29-03-2015

Vladimir Putin addresses the Federal Security Service Board Meeting

Vladimir Putin took part in a Federal Security Service board meeting. Meeting participants summed up the results of the Federal Security Service operations in 2014 and set priority targets for 2015.

PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA VLADIMIR PUTIN: Good afternoon, colleagues.

We always attach great importance to the work of the key power agencies pertaining to national security. Today, within the framework of this expanded board meeting we will summarise the results of Federal Security Service operations in 2014 and set priority goals for the future.

I would like to begin by saying that, as you all know, the past year was not an easy one. The world situation has exacerbated. We witnessed growing tensions in the Middle East and a number of other areas of the world, while a state coup provoked civil war in Ukraine.

Russia is making significant efforts to reconcile the parties and normalise the situation. We have already received and continue receiving thousands, even hundreds of thousands of refugees and are doing all we can to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe.

However, our position, our independent policy and even attempts to help those in need, including in Ukraine and some other areas, are causing outright irritation on the part of those we traditionally call our colleagues and partners.

They are using their entire arsenal of means for the so-called deterrence of Russia: from attempts at political isolation and economic pressure to large-scale information war and special services operations. As it was recently stated quite openly: those who disagree will have their arms twisted periodically. However, this does not work with Russia; it never has and never will.

Meanwhile, NATO is developing its rapid deployment forces and building up its infrastructure near our borders. Attempts are being made to violate the existing nuclear parity, European and Asia-Pacific segments of the ABM system are being created at an increased pace.

I would like to remind you that the unilateral withdrawal by the United States from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty has toppled the very foundation of the modern international security system. Completely new systems are being developed capable of dealing a ‘lightning global blow’ and conducting operations in outer space.

However, it is obvious that nobody has ever managed to intimidate this country or put pressure on it, and nobody ever will. We have always had and always will have a proper response to all internal and external threats to national security.

Another point I would like to make is that the situation cannot remain like this forever. It will change, for the better I hope, including the situation around this country. However, it will not change for the better if we succumb and yield at every step. It will only change for the better if we become stronger.

Today I would like to thank you and your colleagues for your precise and coordinated work last year, for your immaculate implementation of the tasks and the courage you have demonstrated, for the reliable protection of Russia’s security and national interests.

Colleagues,

Your overall workload and responsibility will obviously grow this year. You are facing the challenge of enhancing efficiency in all areas of your activity. Combatting terrorism remains your most important task. A few positive trends have emerged in this area in the past few years.

There were 2.6 times fewer terrorist-related crimes in 2014 than in 2013. While if we look at the previous 5 years, their overall number went down 9-fold.

Such results have clearly been made possible through the concerted actions of the FSB, security and law enforcement agencies, coordinated by the National Anti-Terrorism Committee. We must reinforce the positive dynamics and consistently squeeze out the underground criminal groups.

This is not easy; the militants are fighting back and making attacks similar to the one that took place in Grozny last year. Statistical analysis shows that they still posses a significant amount of arms.

You are also aware of the fact that citizens of Russia and other CIS states are being trained at the so-called hot-spots, including within groups of the Islamic State on the territory of Syria and other countries. Later they may be used against us, against Russia and its neighbours.

It is therefore vitally important to take additional measures to destroy the terrorists’ international ties and resource bases and block their entry to and exit from Russia. They should not be able to move between regions or penetrate the new regions of the Russian Federation – Crimea and Sevastopol.

Your direct mission is to provide the highest possible level of anti-terrorist protection for the international events to be held in Russia this year. This is, first and foremost, celebrations of the 70^th anniversary of the Great Victory and the BRICS and SCO summits in Ufa.

In addition, we must step up measures aimed at preventing terrorism, radicalism and extremism, primarily among young people, migrants and underprivileged groups and more actively involve influential public and religious organisations in these efforts.

At the Interior Ministry board meeting in early March, I noted that last year the number of extremist crimes unfortunately went up by almost 15 percent. Obviously, we need to increase coordination between special services and law enforcement agencies in this area and use all the latest methods and equipment, including cutting edge information technology.

Counter-intelligence agencies worked efficiently and steadily last year. Their special operations resulted in the suspension of activity of 52 officers and 290 agents of foreign special services.

Today it is especially important to improve the protection of data that pertains to national secrets and to prevent information leaks regarding the development of our military organisation, mobilisation plans and defence and industrial technologies.

Western special services continue their attempts at using public, non-governmental and politicised organisations to pursue their own objectives, primarily to discredit the authorities and destabilise the internal situation in Russia. They are already planning their actions for the upcoming election campaigns of 2016-2018.

As I have said on numerous occasions, and will repeat again: we are ready for dialogue with the opposition, we will continue our partnership with the civic society in the broadest sense of the word. We always listen to constructive criticism of the authorities’ actions or the lack of such actions at any level.

Such dialogue and partnership are always useful, they are vital for any country, including ours. However, it is pointless entering into a discussion with those who are operating on orders from the outside in the interests of some other country rather than their own.

Therefore, we will continue paying attention to non-governmental organisations that have foreign funding sources; we will compare their stated goals with their actual activities and terminate any violations.

Colleagues,

Ensuring economic stability and combatting corruption remain among your priority areas. I would like to ask you to pay special attention to cases of misuse and embezzlement of budget funds, including those allocated for the state defence order.

You should cooperate closely with the Accounts Chamber, the Federal Financial Monitoring Service and other oversight agencies. You should be more active in revealing and thwarting shady deals on the Russian stock and currency markets that may lead to sharp exchange rate fluctuations and destabilise the financial system of the entire nation.

We must continue our efforts to support Russian companies abroad and to protect their interests. Economic competition is tough, as you know. Not all the competitors of Russian companies are willing to work honestly.
Common principles of trade, cooperation and investment are being violated. We see attempts to compromise the business reputation of Russian companies in any way possible. You have to respond to this without delay and competently, within your authority.

Serious tasks are facing the FSB Border Service. The border infrastructure needs to be improved along the entire perimeter of our borders, while traditionally complicated segments in the North Caucasus, Central Asia and the Russian Arctic shelf need to be strengthened.

The Russian-Ukrainian border requires our special attention, of course. The situation there is complicated: thousand of people are trying to escape from the extended armed conflict in southeast Ukraine and are crossing over to Russian territory, sometimes even without their basic documents.

It is important to continue ensuring the unhindered passage of refugees and movement of vehicles with humanitarian cargo. At the same time, we need to reveal those who voluntarily took part in punitive actions against peaceful residents, who are trying to cover their tracks or are planning crimes on the territory of the Russian Federation.

Next. The protection of national information resources should remain under special control. The number of cyberattacks on official websites and information systems of Russian authorities is not diminishing; about 74 million such attacks were curtailed last year alone.

Moreover, over 25,000 internet resources have been identified that carry illegal publications. More than 1,500 extremist websites have been shut down. We must continue efforts to rid the Russian cyberspace of illegal, criminal materials, more actively use modern technologies for this purpose and take part in creating an international information security system.

We are not speaking of limiting online freedom, far from it. We are speaking of ensuring safety, law and order, while strictly complying with appropriate Russian and international norms and standards, without preventing people from communicating online and posting legitimate, valid and correct information.

Colleagues,

In the past years, we have done much to improve material and technical support of the Federal Security Service. Salaries, pensions and social benefits for acting and retired personnel have grown significantly.

We have practically resolved the issue of permanent housing. In 2014 alone, 65 designated apartment buildings were commissioned (5,200 apartments). We are simultaneously working to increase the stock of service housing.

The state will continue providing the best service conditions for you, taking care of the families of those who were killed in the line of duty. We will certainly do everything necessary to ensure that all FSB units are equipped with the latest in armaments, technology and special gear.

At the same time, just like all the other agencies, you are facing the task of more rationally using state funding and other resources. You have to show maximum responsibility and concentration in resolving all the tasks facing you.

In conclusion, I would like to wish you success and new, visible results in your service that the country needs so much.

Thank you for your attention.

Source: The Vineyard of the Saker 27-03-2015