Monday, June 23, 2014
Snowden's year in Russia: From airport hideout to mystery location
Leaked tape has Polish FM comparing ties with US to giving oral sex
The Polish Foreign Minister believes his country’s alliance with the US is worth nothing and compared his government’s stance to giving oral sex and receiving nothing in return, a Polish magazine said, citing a leaked recording of a private conversation.
Excerpts from the alleged exchange between FM Radoslaw Sikorski and Jacek Rostowski, an MP and former finance minister, were published Sunday by Wprost, which promised a full transcript and audio files later on Monday or Tuesday. The same magazine triggered a political storm in Poland this month by releasing a recording of a conversation between the head of Poland’s central bank and the interior minister, implying a link between the two violating the bank’s independence.
According to Wprost, Sikorski is skeptical about the reliance of Poland, one of the staunchest allies of Washington in Eastern Europe, on American protection.
“The Polish-American alliance is not worth anything. It’s even damaging, because it creates a false sense of security in Poland,” Sikorski allegedly said.
“Complete bullshit,” the tape purportedly records Sikorski as saying. “We will get a conflict with both Russians and Germans, and we’re going to think that everything is great, because we gave the Americans a blowjob. Suckers. Total suckers.”
Sikorski further blamed the nature of relations between Warsaw and Washington on the Polish mentality.
“The problem in Poland is that we have a very shallow pride and low self-esteem,” he allegedly said, decrying such a mindset as “Murzyńskość”, a racially-charged derogative term that could be translated as “thinking like a negro.” Sikorski suggested on Twitter the translation should be “negritude,” linking it to the anti-colonialism movement in Europe.
The Polish government declined to immediately comment on the new leak, saying it may do so after full transcripts are made available. It didn’t challenge the authenticity of the transcript, however.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Monday that the publications of leaks were aimed destabilizing the political situation in Poland. He said they would not force him into making any cabinet shuffles.
US Ambassador to Warsaw Stephen Mull declined comments as well, but said the US-Polish alliance was strong.
The Polish media are now speculating on who could have supplied Wprost with the recording, with many fingers pointing to Russian intelligence. They compare the leak to that of the conversation between US Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and the US Ambassador to Kiev, in which America’s top diplomat for Europe infamously used the f-word to describe the European Union.
Sikorski is a well-known critic of Russia and supporter of stronger ties with the US, although he grew more skeptical of Washington since the 2009 attempt to “reset” American relations with Russia, which involved review of the plan to deploy elements of NATO’s anti-ballistic missile defense system on Polish soil.
Lately the minister was vocally opposing Russia’s stance on the Ukrainian crisis and called for astronger presence of American troops in Poland.
He is also considered a strong candidate to succeed Catherine Ashton as the EU's foreign policy chief and was officially suggested for the position by Warsaw last month.
Ukraine railroad blown up, Russian train derailed (PHOTOS)
The railroad tracks in Ukraine’s Donetsk Region have been blown up as a freight train belonging to Russian Railways was passing by. Fourteen freight cars were derailed in what railroad staff believe was a planned explosion.
The blast happened Sunday evening, damaging the railroad tracks on a stretch between the Donetsk Region towns of Ilovaisk and Kuteinikovo, in eastern Ukraine, Russian Railways said in a statement.
The blast happened after the train passed a mined area. The blast was so strong that 14 cargo cars were derailed.
“We were moving from Ilovaisk to Martsevo [Rostov Region, Russia]. At the 1,168-kilometer mark, we heard a sharp clap similar to an explosion,” Maksim Ustinov, the train driver, told Life News. “When we stopped the train, we saw that the freight cars were derailed.”
According to Russian Railways, the locomotive crew of the North Caucasian railway was not affected in the accident.
Meanwhile, personnel from Russian Railways believe the blast was planned. The explosive device was apparently prepared for several days and it might have taken several hours to fix the bomb.
“During further inspection of the train I found some wires running from trees to the railway tracks, the explosion site was resembling a crater,” Ustinov said.
The tracks are now being repaired by Ukrainian Railways staff, while trains have been redirected.
In the meantime, another blast occurred on the Ilovajsk-Mospino stretch, in the Donetsk Region, Ukrainian Railways said in a statement. Three railway sleepers and several were damaged in the blast.
The circumstances of the incidents are being investigated, the Ukrainian company said.
The town of Ilovaisk is located 47 kilometers from the city of Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, where Kiev has launched a massive military operation. The troops are using heavy weaponry, airplanes, choppers and armored vehicles in the eastern regions of the country, in an effort to defeat anti-government forces demanding federalization. The vast majority (over 90 percent) of Donetsk and Lugansk regions’ populations voted for self-rule in May referendums.
The town of Ilovaisk is located 47 kilometers from the city of Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, where Kiev has launched a massive military operation. The troops are using heavy weaponry, airplanes, choppers and armored vehicles in the eastern regions of the country, in an effort to defeat anti-government forces demanding federalization. The vast majority (over 90 percent) of Donetsk and Lugansk regions’ populations voted for self-rule in May referendums.
According to the latest UN report, at least 356 people, including 257 civilians, have been killed in the violence since the beginning of the “anti-terrorist” military campaign in Ukraine’s eastern regions of Lugansk and Donetsk.
Kiev nationalists clash with police outside Orthodox monastery (PHOTOS, VIDEO)
Ukraine nationalists have clashed with police outside the citadel of the Orthodox Church in Kiev, the Pechersk Lavra, as the churchgoers and monks were about to hold a peace service praying for an end to violence in Ukraine.
According to various media reports up to 500 ultra-nationalists, representing the Right Sector and Ukraine's Patriots neo-nazi movements, clashed with around 100 policemen in an attempt to disrupt the Procession of the Cross at one of the centers of the Eastern Orthodox monasticism in Eastern Europe.
The procession was supposed to start at noon local time in the Holy Dormition Cathedral of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra and end up at the monument of the Unknown Soldier. Participants in the rally, mostly elderly, oppose Kiev's military operation in the Donetsk region.
Ultra-nationalists claimed that “separatists” were planning to use the event as a chance to gather and form a “Kiev's People Republic” and used a “few dozen grandmas” to disguise their plan.
After the armed ultra-nationalist crowd arrived at the gates of the convent, the Lavra was forced to shut fearing clashes.
“After the crowd of activists with baseball bats and hammers, some wearing bulletproof vests arrived at the Lavra, the entrance and exit to the shrine was closed. According to law enforcement, this was done to avoid clashes,” spokesman for Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Fr. Georgiy Kovalenko shared his account of the events surrounding the procession service on his Facebook page.
The clergy asked the angry mob – some of whom claimed they came to the monastery “to pray” – to lay down their arms. But when asked to cite a prayer, according to Kovalenko, they could not remember a single one.
Around 250 people, some wearing St. George’s ribbons, were forced to seek shelter and hold the procession inside the walls of the monastery, while around 100 law enforcement officers secured the premises. It is still unclear how many people were injured in the clashes outside the walls of the monastery.
Kiev Pechersk Lavra issued a statement after the incident saying that according to Appeal Holy Synod, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church “as always calls on all parties to the peaceful resolution of conflicts and enhanced prayer.” It reminded that the monastic life should not be disturbed or used for political purposes.
After the raid on the monastery around 60 nationalist activists staged a rally at the Russian embassy in Kiev, Russia's Press Atache Oleg Grishin said.
“The gathered are behaving aggressively. They are trying to break through the cordon of the consulate building, stoning representatives Ukrainian law enforcement agencies,” RBK quoted Grishin. “The situation is tense,” the diplomat added. No one was detained at the rally that lasted around two hours.
Also on Sunday, the nationalists vandalized a Kiev branch of Russia’s Sberbank pelting cobble stones and throwing firecrackers inside.
First in 6 years: Troubled US missile defense system hits test target
Israel strikes 9 military targets in Syria
Kerry: US ‘not responsible’ for crisis in Iraq, Libya
Tear gas, rubber bullets as ethnic Albanians clash with Kosovo police (PHOTOS)
Several people, including police officers, have been injured as ethnic Albanians clashed with security forces in the city of Mitrovica. Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets to stop protesters who were hurling stones and burning cars.
Twenty one people have reportedly been injured, including 13 police officers and two journalists.
Hundreds of Albanians protested over Serb plans to erect a “Peace Park” on the Mitrovica Bridge over the Ibar River that splits the town into Serbian and Albanian neighborhoods.
The bridge has been blocked by Serbs since 2011 until last Wednesday, when Serbs from northern Mitrovica removed barricades under an EU-brokered deal. However, shortly after large flower pots were still placed in the same spot to keep the bridge closed for traffic, but open for pedestrians.
The protest against the new blockade of the bridge was reportedly organized via social networks and was scheduled to start at 15:00 local time.
Clashes erupted when ethnic Albanian rioters started setting police cars on fire and hurling stones at security forces.
As violence escalated, the NATO-led KFOR and the EU mission EULEX soldiers were deployed to back-up police and prevent the unrest from spreading.
Journalists in Pristina reported two explosions, presumably caused by burning cars. According to local Tanjug news agency, one of the EULEX’s vehicles has also been burnt down.
Kosovo’s local police head Zeljko Bojic said that the situation was calm hours after the clashes that erupted at around 15:30 local time. Increased police presence will remain at the site during the night and until the next morning.
On Saturday, the mayor of southern Mitrovica, Agim Bahtiri, said that “patience came to an end” and that the new barricade on the bridge over the Ibar River disguised as a park must immediately be removed.
His statement came in response to the plans voiced by the mayor of the Serb part of Mitrovica, Goran Rakic, to construct the so-called "Peace Park" on the bridge.
Ethnic Serbs in the north of Kosovo are reluctant to integrate with Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority.
Serbia does not recognize Kosovo’s independence, declared in 2008. Last year Kosovo’s Parliamentapproved an EU-brokered agreement aimed at normalizing ties with neighboring Serbia.
The agreement was widely considered as a step toward Serbia’s entry into the EU as the conflict with Kosovo was its main obstacle to joining the bloc. Both Belgrade and Pristina agreed not to block each other's efforts to seek EU membership.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
