RT News - February 15th 2023 Late

BBC in India, tax avoidance: RT has received the exclusive comments from India's ruling BJP party while BBC offices are being raided in the country on suspicion of tax evasion, following a scandal over a documentary criticizing India's Prime Minister. Wednesday was the second day of raids on the BBC's offices. Runjun Sharma reports. (QS: Talking of taxes and not paying them, Britain has a record of tax avoidance in the ruling elite https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/apr/09/rishi-sunak-akshata-murty-accused-avoiding-millions-taxes-labour and https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/nadhim-zahawi-tax-hmrc-investigation-b2262565.html to name but two)
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Britain is desperate to ramp up it's arms production as according it's defence secretary its stockpiles have been depleted "as NATO was caught off guard by the conflict in Ukraine". Report and analysis from Rachel Marsden.
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Russian troops could encircle the city of Artyomovsk within the next two months. RT's Igor Zhdanov speaks to Russia's Wagner military group chief and his fighters, as they report further advances on the key city of Artyomovsk (also known as Bakhmut).
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Iran/China: As China pledges support for Tehran in protecting its sovereignty and resisting what it calls 'unilateralism and bullying' Washington urges Beijing to join US efforts to restrict and isolate Iran. (QS: listening to the arrogance of US as it tries to convince China to cooperate with it's ambitions against Iran, whilst simultaneously demonising China to the rest of the world is absolutely flabbergasting. How do they get away with it?) Uunfei Zhao of CGTN reports on the visit so far which seems to be going well, with mutually beneficial memorandums signed along with trade and security discussions.
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Israel/Palestine: Harsher conditions should be imposed on the murderers of Jews, according to Itamar Ben Gvir and he is also eager to ensure they don't get better conditions to live in, as more new prisons are built. Many Palestinians are held in Israel's prisons without charge.
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Syria, earthquake appeal. $400 million has been requested by Antonio Gueterres UN secretary general to United Nations as people struggle to survive after the deadly and devastating aftershocks of the earthquakes in Türkiye. Five million people are in desperate need of aid as a result of the quakes, it works out at about $80 each as they remain without homes or means of support. 8,000 people are now thought to have died as a result of the quakes in Syria. (QS - It's still extremely hard to get donations from the public to get to Syria. With many people eager to donate, including me, I would have thought this was the first place to start. Some of those C-17's which fly aimlessly across Britain's and Europe's skies could also take humanitarian aid to Syria and make themselves properly useful for a change). Nikki talks to Bradley Blankenship, as more $billions of "aid" is set to be given to Ukraine. Pres. Erdogan said Tuesday that 35,418 have died in Türkiye. It's much easier to donate to Türkiye than Syria for political reasons in this awful tragedy.
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Below, via RT website A) --- Armenia offers peace to Türkiye – FM
1) --- EU adds Russia to tax haven blacklist
2) --- Andrey Sushentsov: Here’s why Ukraine’s Zelensky wants a long war with Russia. Analysis
3) --- Zelensky decorates military unit with ‘Nazi’ title
4) --- Kiev accuses Russia of using spy balloons
5) --- More Nord Stream ‘bombshells’ to come – Seymour Hersh
6) --- Kiev's treatment of minorities to be investigated — Budapest

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15 Feb, 2023 19:46

A) --- Armenia offers peace to Türkiye – FM

Yerevan says it is ready to “normalize relations” with Ankara

Armenia is ready to restore peace in the region and fully normalize relations with Türkiye, its Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan said in Ankara on Wednesday. The two neighbors have struggled to define their relationship since Armenia declared independence in the 1990s.

“At this difficult time for Türkiye, I would like to reiterate our readiness to restore peace in the region, as well as to fully normalize relations with Türkiye in order to establish diplomatic relations,” Mirzoyan said after meeting with his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu.

Yerevan’s top diplomat was referring to last week’s catastrophic earthquakes, which have claimed over 41,000 lives, with many more feared dead under the rubble.

“I would like to express my condolences to those who died as a result of these earthquakes and a speedy recovery to the injured,” Mirzoyan added, according to TASS. “We survived the earthquake in 1988, and we really know the pain that Türkiye and its people are now experiencing. Such natural disasters are a tragedy for all mankind, and we need to show solidarity in order to fight humanitarian crises in such situations.”

While Türkiye recognized Armenia’s independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, the two neighbors never established diplomatic relations. A major bone of contention has been the disagreement on characterizing the mass murder of ethnic Armenians by the Ottoman Empire, with the Turkish republic rejecting the Armenian claim it was a genocide.

Ankara closed its border with Armenia in 1993, in solidarity with Azerbaijan in the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijan’s successful offensive against the Armenian-majority region in 2020 had Turkish military support.

A 2009 attempt to establish diplomatic relations resulted in normalization protocols, but the Turkish and Armenian legislatures never ratified them. With Moscow’s mediation, the two countries reopened normalization talks in December 2021.
https://www.rt.com/news/571541-armenia-turkiye-peace-normalization/
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14 Feb, 2023 16:03

1) --- EU adds Russia to tax haven blacklist

The bloc accused Moscow of failing to amend a ‘harmful’ preferential tax regime

Russia has been added to the EU’s list of “non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes,” the European Council announced on Tuesday. The bloc has accused Moscow of maintaining harmful tax practices.

According to a statement published on the Council’s website, Russian legislation introduced in 2022 failed to ease concerns over the alleged preferential tax treatment for international holding companies.

“In addition, dialogue with Russia on matters related to taxation came to a standstill following the Russian aggression against Ukraine,” the statement said.

Three more jurisdictions were added to the blacklist of tax havens alongside Russia for alleged non-compliance with international standards, including the British Virgin Islands, Costa Rica, and the Marshall Islands. The list now comprises 16 jurisdictions.

“We ask all listed countries to improve their legal framework and to work towards compliance with international standards in taxation,” said Swedish Finance Minister Elisabeth Svantesson.

The EU list of tax havens was first introduced in 2017 with the aim of tackling tax evasion and avoidance schemes. According to EU law, blacklisted countries face reputational damage and are forbidden to apply for aid from certain EU funds.

The bloc’s member states are also tasked with treating financial transactions with tax-registered individuals and firms from blacklisted countries with special scrutiny.

Moscow has yet to comment on the matter.
https://www.rt.com/business/571476-eu-russia-tax-haven-blacklist/
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15 Feb, 2023 14:10

2) --- Andrey Sushentsov: Here’s why Ukraine’s Zelensky wants a long war with Russia. Analysis.

The Ukrainian leader has shown no interest in seeking a peace deal with Moscow, and it’s all part of a big gamble
By Andrey Sushentsov, Valdai Club program director

It is unlikely that President Vladimir Zelensky expects to win militarily. But it seems that he genuinely believes that he will succeed in turning Ukraine into something like Israel - a paramilitary state living with a sense of constant military threat.

Ukraine doesn’t have the military or economic resources of its own to achieve victory, and the resources provided by the West will never be enough to inflict a final defeat on Russia. Zelensky's calculation is likely based on the belief that by offering Ukraine as a tool for NATO to use against Russia, he will constantly mobilize Western support and thereby ensure his own survival, and that of his associates.

In the worst-case scenario, as he sees it, Zelensky is probably counting on emigrating to the West with his closest associates, where they will advocate a continued policy of Russian containment. But does he care about the interests of ordinary people in Ukraine?

The unprecedented hardships of war that the country now faces could have been significantly reduced if Zelensky had been willing to settle the crisis diplomatically. Russia has repeatedly taken diplomatic initiatives to resolve this conflict. In the first phase, for example, negotiations took place in Belarus and Turkey. However, under the influence of the US and the UK, Kiev has set a course to prolong the conflict, banking on Western military assistance to achieve its goals.

As Ukraine's own military and economic resources have dried up, the country has become increasingly dependent on Western supplies, and has ultimately become a tool to fight Russia. Nevertheless, Kiev still has the opportunity to begin talks with Moscow.

Zelensky could take the initiative to negotiate a status quo that is still comfortable for Ukraine. Of course, as the Russian military campaign progresses, the situation will change in ways that are far from favorable to Kiev. And the solutions put forward by the Russian delegation at the beginning of the crisis will no longer be on the table. However, there is still the possibility of a sustainable peace, with reduced risks of escalation into Europe's biggest military conflict since the Second World War and a nuclear catastrophe.

Zelensky could still claim the laurels of a peacemaker who sacrificed some of his personal ambition in the name of saving Ukrainian lives and ensuring a peaceful future for his country.

A truce would alleviate the economic difficulties of Kiev’s supporters in the West, and thus generate some gratitude. Ukraine would also save a considerable amount of its military resources. Peace would obviously limit them, as deliveries would dry up, but those resources in situ would still be at the disposal of the Ukrainian government.

Yet, Zelensky’s government acts as if it sees no value in preserving Ukrainian statehood. The administration is squandering citizens’ lives and the economic fabric of the country in the belief that this sacrifice is necessary to gain some possible, rather indefinite, advantage in the future. Instead of acting as a peacemaker, as someone who is prepared to make sacrifices to save the lives of his people, Zelensky acts like a gambler, while feeding the population military propaganda.

The unprecedented military, political and economic support Ukraine is receiving from abroad essentially covers up all of the mistakes by Zelensky's government. A strategy which is based on the axiom "war will pay for everything". At home, the militarist line has allowed the president to establish a political dictatorship and persecute his opponents in all spheres of state life, including religion. As a result, he has secured an unprecedented concentration of power in his hands and, for the first time in Ukrainian history, silenced all centers of opposition.

Zelensky need not worry about Ukraine's economic well-being in the short term: the foreign economic aid being handed to the Ukrainian government will suffice. Meanwhile, Kiev is still actively betting that Russia's $300 billion in foreign currency reserves, frozen in the West, will fall into its hands. What would amount to state-piracy would also allow it use the money as it sees fit.

As a result, Zelensky expects that even if he is defeated and loses part of his territory, he will remain in power as the military leader the West needs for the new Ukraine, which will be the main anti-Russian outpost on NATO’s eastern borders. One that will be armed to the teeth, saturated with Western economic aid and that will provide its citizens with an acceptable standard of living.

I believe that Zelensky is genuinely convinced he will succeed in turning Ukraine into something like Israel, a paramilitary state in a hostile environment, and living with a sense of constant military threat. I do not exclude the possibility that even in the worst-case scenario, where there is a complete collapse of his government, Zelensky expects to find himself and a group of his closest associates in exile in the West. Once there, they will actively advocate a continued policy of containment and defeat of Russia. History shows that this prospect has every chance of materializing.
https://www.rt.com/russia/571525-zelensky-wants-long-war/
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15 Feb, 2023 12:26

3) --- Zelensky decorates military unit with ‘Nazi’ title

A Ukrainian mountain brigade will now be called ‘Edelweiss,’ a moniker recalling a German unit involved in mass atrocities during WWII

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has awarded one of the country's combat units an “honorary title” that harkens to a notorious Wehrmacht division that was involved in numerous war crimes during World War II.

In a presidential decree published on Tuesday, Zelensky granted the name ‘Edelweiss’ to the 10th Separate Mountain Assault Brigade due to “exemplary performance of assigned tasks during the protection of the territorial integrity and independence of Ukraine” amid Kiev’s conflict with Moscow.

The newly bestowed title bears similarity to the one used by Nazi Germany's 1st Mountain Division, which took part in the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 and raised a swastika flag on Mount Elbrus in a propaganda stunt during an advance into the Caucasus in 1942. The name ‘Edelweiss’ stuck because the chevrons on the unit’s uniform bore a depiction of the edelweiss flower.

The division’s history is besmirched by numerous war crimes. Among other atrocities, it was responsible for executing hundreds of partisans in Yugoslavia in July 1943. Two months later, Edelweiss also murdered more than 5,000 Italian soldiers who had surrendered to them on the Greek island of Cefalonia

The Ukrainian brigade that now bears the same name was formed in 2015 and for about a year incorporated the nationalist battalions ‘Aidar’ and ‘Donbass’. The unit has seen combat first against the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, and then against Russia after Moscow started its military operation in February 2022.

Zelensky has on numerous occasions found himself in hot water over Nazi-related controversies. Over the most recent weekend, he posted a photo to his Instagram account showing a Ukrainian soldier wearing the ‘totenkopf’ (death’s head) insignia, which is associated with the notorious 3rd SS Panzer Division, a unit infamous for committing war crimes during World War II.

Last May, he marked Victory Day over Nazi Germany by sharing an image showing a Ukrainian service member sporting the same symbol, prompting a public outcry. The photo was later removed.
https://www.rt.com/russia/571517-zelensky-brigade-nazi-title/
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15 Feb, 2023 20:17

4) --- Kiev accuses Russia of using spy balloons

At least six of the devices were detected above the Ukrainian capital, an air force spokesperson claimed

Air defense systems near Kiev allegedly detected and shot down as many as six air balloons believed to have been used by Russia, a spokesperson for the Ukrainian military claimed during a televised appearance on Wednesday.

According to Yuri Ignat, the balloons, which were detected flying above the Ukrainian capital, may have been equipped with reconnaissance equipment meant to identify and exhaust Kiev’s air defense systems.

Kiev city officials also announced on their Telegram channel that the balloons, which appear to have been propelled by the wind, may have been carrying corner reflectors and other intelligence equipment. They noted that a final determination of the intended use of these devices would be made after a study of the remains of the downed objects.

While Moscow has yet to comment on the incident, Ignat told a Ukrainian TV channel that the balloons may be a new tactic deployed by Russia to preserve its stocks of reconnaissance drones.

"Reconnaissance drones like the Orlan-10 are now being used more sparingly, and so they thought 'Why don't we use these balloons?' So now they are using them," the official said.

Earlier on Wednesday, air raid sirens were triggered throughout the Kiev region after unidentified flying objects were detected above the city. Shortly after the alert, explosions could be heard across the capital. City officials later stated that air defense systems detected several targets in the air and shot them down.
https://www.rt.com/russia/571543-ukraine-russian-baloons-kiev/
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15 Feb, 2023 16:34

5) --- More Nord Stream ‘bombshells’ to come – Seymour Hersh

The legendary reporter slammed the mainstream media for ignoring his story, which pinned the act of sabotage on the US

Journalist Seymour Hersh has promised to reveal more incriminating information linking the US to the demolition of the Nord Stream gas pipelines. President Joe Biden ordered the lines destroyed to prevent Germany from resuming the purchase of cheap Russian gas, he claimed.

In a post to his Substack page on Wednesday, Hersh slammed the mainstream media – singling out the New York Times and Washington Post – for refusing to “run a word” on the pipeline story, and for ignoring Russia and China’s calls for an international investigation.

Both papers, he said, published his exposés on the US military’s war crimes in Vietnam, but are now seemingly uninterested in “national security or matters of war and peace.”

Nord Stream 1 and 2, which connected Russia and Germany under the Baltic Sea, were damaged in a series of underwater explosions last September. Hersh, a Pulitzer-prize winning journalist, released a report last week blaming the US for the attack and detailing how the Biden administration and the CIA planned the operation. The White House dismissed the allegation as “utterly false and complete fiction.”

The article backed up Moscow’s repeated assertions that the US carried out the strike in order to prevent rapprochement between Russia and Germany, while making Berlin dependent on more expensive American liquefied natural gas.

Germany halted certification of Nord Stream 2 in the days before Russian troops entered Ukraine, and EU sanctions throttled the flow of gas through Nord Stream 1 since late summer by impeding vital repairs. However, Hersh told Germany’s Berliner Zeitung newspaper on Tuesday that the Biden administration feared Berlin would lift these sanctions and resume gas transit as temperatures dropped over the winter.

“The President of the United States would rather see Germany freeze than [see] Germany possibly stop supporting Ukraine,” he asserted.

“There may be more to learn about Joe Biden’s decision to prevent the German government from having second thoughts about the lack of cheap gas this winter,” Hersh wrote on Wednesday. “Stay tuned,” he said. “We are only on first base…”
https://www.rt.com/news/571532-new-nord-stream-report-hersh/
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15 Feb, 2023 18:54

6) --- Kiev's treatment of minorities to be investigated — Budapest

Ukraine has stripped the language rights of more than 150,000 Hungarians living on its territory

The Council of Europe will release a report this summer on Ukraine’s alleged discrimination against ethnic Hungarians and Romanians living on its territory, Hungary’s Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto announced on Wednesday. Hungarian inhabitants of the Transcarpathia region have lost the right to education in their language and have been forcibly drafted into Kiev’s military.

In a post on Facebook, Szijjarto said that the Council of Europe’s Venice Commission – which scrutinizes constitutional law and democratic reforms – will give its opinion on the matter in July.

“When war broke out next door, we decided not to mention the case of violations of rights against national communities,” Szijjarto wrote. “Unfortunately, in Ukraine, a new law was recently adopted, which further restricts minority rights.”

Szijjarto was referring to a law passed in December which mandated that the Ukrainian language be used in most aspects of daily and public life, including in schools. Previous language laws passed by Kiev were criticized by the Venice Commission for failing to safeguard minorities’ linguistic rights, and the latest legislation has been condemned by human rights organizations.

Around 156,000 ethnic Hungarians live in Ukraine, most of them in the region of Transcarpathia. Once a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, this region fell under Soviet control after World War II and remained in Kiev’s hands when the Ukrainian SSR became modern Ukraine after the fall of the USSR. Ukraine is also home to around 150,000 ethnic Romanians and more than 250,000 Moldovans, and Bucharest has joined Budapest in demanding that the language law be revised.

The Ukrainian government's forcible drafting of Transcarpathian Hungarians into military service has further inflamed tensions between Budapest and Kiev. As videos surfaced last month showing Ukrainian troops press-ganging recruits into service, Szijjarto condemned the “brutal” nature of the draft.

Should the Council of Europe fail to resolve Hungary’s grievances, Szijjarto wrote in a separate Facebook post that Budapest will take its case to the European Court of Human Rights – itself a body of the council – as a “last resort.”
https://www.rt.com/news/571538-hungary-ukraine-minority-europe/
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