RT News - December 19th 2022

Kiev's bombardment of civilian only regions of Donetsk has continued on Sunday and overnight. At least one civilian is reported killed and several others wounded in a Ukrainian artillery attack on a hospital in the city of Donetsk. (QS : It's little wonder Ukraine is perpetually out of ammo - 2/3rds of it goes missing and the rest of it is used to bomb civilian cities. I can't remember a day since I've been posting these archives that civilians in cities or villages haven't been bombed and killed. It's far worse now than in the period of blockade and trench warfare waged by Kiev 2014 to February 2022 on Donbass. Not only is deliberate killing of civilians a war crime in itself, it's also really bad value for money for those of us who are forced to pay for it with no opt-out choices. Our western governments should be called out for knowingly allowing this to continue, especially in the light of Angela Merkel's revelations about the UN mandated Minsk protocols.)

Europe is gripped by a wave of protests over surging price inflation amid the energy crisis. That's as the EU's rejection of Russian gas imports has reportedly cost the bloc about one trillion dollars in losses.

The conflict between DRC and Rwanda's M23 continues despite peace negotiations. Paul Kagame says it's not his problem. Gen Sylvain Ekenge says Rwanda's forces and rebels are responsible for the massacres of the Tutsis and terrorism. Please catch up on previous posts on this channel

Ethnic Serbs protest en masse at a key checkpoint in Kosovo against what they call unprecedented oppression by regional authorities, while NATO peacekeepers step in to secure the area.

Salah Hamouri has been deported to France from Israel. In depth report.

In Tunisia less than 1 in 10 voters cast a vote in the election as opposition parties and trades unions conducted a Boycott

One of Pres. Zelensky's aides has confirmed Ukraine plotted to kill Russia’s Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov during a visit he made to the frontlines in Ukraine in April. Kiev hit the Russian battle headquarters visited by the Chief of General Staff, but Gerasimov had already left when the shelling took place.

World Cup: Argentina won ! France had some riots.
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Below: 1, Nato does Kosovo (some more)
2,3,4 Protests
5 EU and Serbia looks like ‘marriage starting with adultery’
6, 7 FTX / Update
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18 Dec, 2022 17:57

1) NATO announces military exercise in Kosovo

The drills come as the Western military bloc ramps up its presence in the province

NATO’s mission in Kosovo announced on Sunday that it will hold “tactical” military exercises in the coming days. The announcement came amid tensions between Kosovo’s Western-backed government and the province’s Serbian minority.

Kosovo Force (KFOR) “will conduct a regular military exercise near its base in Novo Selo,” the mission announced via its Twitter account. “The exercise aims to train KFOR units to guarantee freedom of movement in a crisis response situation & it will consist [of] a series of tactical simulations & logistic activities.”

“Freedom of movement” may be a reference to the removal of barricades, which Kosovo’s Serb minority erected around their communities earlier this month to protect against incursion by the majority-Albanian province’s security forces.

The barricades went up after Kosovo police arrested a Serb officer last week, accusing him of attacking one of their patrols. As tensions between Pristina and Belgrade flared, ethnic Albanian officials replaced their Serbian counterparts in North Mitrovica, the largest Serb-majority municipality in the north of Kosovo. Previously, all Serb List party members, who had enjoyed a landslide election victory, resigned from their posts in protest at Pristina’s now-defunct plan to outlaw Serbian license plates in Kosovo.

On Thursday, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic asked for KFOR’s permission to deploy up to 1,000 Serbian troops and police officers in Kosovo, as it is entitled to do under UN Security Council Resolution 1244. This resolution, which ended NATO’s bombing campaign on former Yugoslavia in 1999, allows Belgrade to send its military and police personnel to Kosovo in certain situations, including if the “peaceful and normal life” of its population there is threatened.

While KFOR has yet to respond to Vucic’s request, it told US state media on Friday that it is “currently evaluating” the proposal. Meanwhile, KFOR announced an expansion of its own deployment in northern Kosovo on Saturday.

Kosovo, which unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in 2008, has been occupied by NATO forces since 1999.
https://www.rt.com/news/568467-kfor-nato-exercise-kosovo/
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18 Dec, 2022 15:39

Major anti-NATO rally hits Paris streets

Protesters called for a review of France’s policies towards the US-led bloc and Moscow, and denounced anti-Russia sanctions

Crowds of protesters took to the streets of the French capital on Saturday to protest France’s policies towards Russia and the nation’s NATO membership. The large-scale rally was organized by the right-wing Les Patriotes (The Patriots) party, led by Florian Philippot, the former deputy head of Marine Le Pen’s National Rally.

Philippot has been organizing protests dubbed "the resistance" since autumn, demanding that France leave NATO and the EU, as well as criticizing President Emmanuel Macron’s economic and foreign policies. On Saturday, demonstrators were seen carrying banners and placards that read: "France must leave NATO," "Macron’s impeachment," and "Resistance!" They were also seen waving France’s national flag and chanting "Ursula, shut up!" – a reference to the EU Commission head Ursula von der Leyen.

The protests, in which Philippot himself took part, were triggered in particular by the high energy prices that have forced small businesses across France into closure, he explained to Ruptly video news agency. "We must stop the anti-Russia sanctions, because that does not serve peace there but brings misery here," he said.

Photos and videos published by the politician on social media showed a large crowd marching through the streets of central Paris. French officials have not commented on the rally and provided no official figures as to the number of demonstrators. The French media mostly ignored the event as well. According to the website of Les Patriotes, similar rallies were held in September and October.

The protest also occurs as neighboring Belgium saw a massive demonstration joined by over 16,000 people in Brussels earlier this week. Thousands took to the streets in the Belgian capital on Friday to demand a freeze on spiking energy prices, and better pay, amid high inflation in Belgium and the EU.

Gas and electricity prices have skyrocketed in Europe as the economic strain caused by Covid-19 was further aggravated by the fallout of EU sanctions on Moscow over the conflict in Ukraine. Russian energy supplies to the bloc were then further reduced amid the EU’s attempts to rid itself of Moscow’s energy imports altogether.
https://www.rt.com/news/568456-paris-anti-anto-rally/
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17 Dec, 2022 13:50

Thousands protest cost-of-living crisis in Belgium

The rally in Belgium's capital gathered some 16,500 people, according to the police

Thousands took to the streets in Brussels on Friday to demand a freeze on spiking energy prices, and better pay amid high inflation in Belgium and the EU.

Temperatures in the Belgian capital fell below zero Celsius on the day, but the rally still attracted more than 16,500 people, according to police.

The action was supported by leading trade unions, disrupting public services and transport systems in Brussels and elsewhere across the country. The capital’s airport said that some flights had to be canceled.

The unions believe that Belgian authorities should follow the example of neighboring France and cap energy prices. A joint statement declared that protests will continue until workers' demands are met.

"Thousands of people are sending a clear message to the government: things can’t go on like this," leader of the Workers’ Party of Belgium Hedebouw Raoul insisted.

Gas and electricity prices have surged in Europe as the economic strain caused by Covid-19 was further aggravated by the fallout of EU sanctions on Moscow over the conflict in Ukraine and the subsequent reduction of Russian energy supplies to the bloc.

Last month, Belgium’s headline inflation figure reached 10.63%, while consumer inflation within the euro zone as a whole stood at around 10%.

Last month, Belgium’s headline inflation figure reached 10.63%, while consumer inflation within the euro zone as a whole stood at around 10%.
https://www.rt.com/news/568423-brussels-belgium-rally-unions/
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Thousands rally in Rome against arming Ukraine

Trade unionists and leftists marched after the new government promised more arms for Kiev next year

Left-wing demonstrators took to the streets in Rome on Saturday, demanding higher wages and condemning the Italian government for renewing a decree allowing it to send weapons to Ukraine until 2024.

Organized by Italy’s USB trade union and backed by a number of leftist political factions, the protest saw thousands of people assemble at the Piazza della Repubblica and march behind a banner reading “guns down, wages up."

“The Meloni government is dragging us further and further into a spiral of war with unpredictable outcomes,” the USB wrote prior to the protest. “Italy is evidently a belligerent and active country in the conflict, despite the fact that the great majority of the population is against the war and the consequent sharp increase in military spending.”

Italy’s new prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, issued a decree on Thursday allowing her cabinet to continue sending weapons to Ukraine until the end of 2023 without seeking the formal approval of parliament. Her predecessor, Mario Draghi, was a staunch supporter of Kiev and lost power after a disagreement over arms shipments split the largest party in his coalition government, the Five Star Movement.

The Italian public is split too, with 49% opposing sending weapons to Kiev and 38% in favor, according to a poll taken by EuroWeek News last month. Additionally, 49% of Italians believe that Ukraine needs to make concessions to Russia in the ongoing conflict to speed up the peace process, while only 36% want Kiev to keep fighting.

Last month, another rally in Rome calling for a peace deal to end the Ukrainian conflict drew 100,000 people, organizers said.
https://www.rt.com/news/567650-italy-ukraine-weapons-protest/
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18 Dec, 2022 20:42

5) --- Relations between EU and Serbia look like ‘marriage starting with adultery’ – Russia

Brussels offers Belgrade “bright future” while “committing anti-Serbian provocations,” a Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said

The EU is betraying Serbia by offering the prospect of accession to Kosovo, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said.

A summit between the bloc and Western Balkan states early this month has been followed by a spike in tensions between Serbia and Kosovo, she wrote in a Telegram post on Sunday, suggesting that Brussels’ actions may have played a role in aggravating the situation.

At the summit in the Albanian capital of Tirana on December 6, Brussels stated that both Serbia and its breakaway region of Kosovo have a “European perspective.” A week later, Kosovo authorities arrested an ethnic Serbian former police officer, sparking protests among Kosovo Serbs.

As tensions were still running high on the streets of Kosovo cities, its prime minister, Albin Kurti, formally applied for EU membership, Zakharova noted, adding that “a political process has been launched.”

A similar prospect of joining NATO allegedly prompted the former Georgian president, Mikhail Saakashvili, to attack Abkhazia and South Ossetia, as well as Russian peacekeepers stationed there back in 2008, Zakharova said, calling it an “inspired impunity mechanism” on the part of the West.

The EU is leading Belgrade to a ‘bright future’ on one hand while committing anti-Serbian provocations with the other,” the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman claimed. “This is betrayal from the outset,” she added, comparing relations between Brussels and Belgrade to “a marriage that starts with adultery.”

NATO seized Kosovo from Serbia in 1999, following the bombing of the country. The EU and US continue to support the breakaway region’s independence, which was unilaterally declared by Kosovo in 2008. Serbia continues to view the region as part of its territory.

The most recent standoff between Belgrade and Pristina follows a major deployment of ethnic Albanian police officers in areas populated by ethnic Serb majorities. It followed the arrest of an ex-cop accused of attacking an ethnically Albanian patrol. The escalation came just weeks after the EU persuaded Pristina to back down from a plan to ban Serbian license plates.

Belgrade has accused the West of ignoring the grievances of Kosovo Serbs and noticing them only “when they are on the barricades,” while also calling on Kosovo Serbs to remain peaceful and not rise to provocation. The current Kosovo government insists it can only discuss full recognition with Belgrade, something Serbia has continued to refuse.
https://www.rt.com/russia/568471-brussels-belgrade-relations-marriage-adultery/
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18 Dec, 2022 20:37

6) --- US prosecutors investigating Democrats over FTX donations – NYT

Sam Bankman-Fried was the party’s second-largest contributor until his crypto empire dramatically collapsed

Prosecutors in New York are seeking information from Democrat politicians and organizations on donations from disgraced crypto tycoon Sam Bankman-Fried, the New York Times reported on Saturday. Before he was arrested and charged with fraud, Bankman-Fried donated over $70 million to Democratic causes.

The son of two long-time liberal activists, Bankman-Fried donated more than $70 million to Democratic campaigns and organizations in the last 18 months, a figure surpassed only by liberal megadonor George Soros. After his crypto exchange – FTX – filed for bankruptcy in November, it emerged that the company had been funneling customer money to his other trading firm, Alameda Research.

While Bankman-Fried has since been arrested and charged with fraud, money laundering, and violations of campaign finance laws, the politicians who benefited from his largesse have until now avoided legal scrutiny.

However, a law firm representing the party’s official campaign arms and its largest super PACs, as well as individual lawmakers like new House Speaker Hakeem Jeffries, recently received an email from prosecutors in New York, the newspaper reported. The prosecutors reportedly sought information on donations from Bankman-Fried and his colleagues and companies, the Times added, citing anonymous sources.

Two other sources told the paper that the same prosecutors reached out to other Democratic campaigns that took money linked to FTX, and to Republican campaigns that were reportedly funded by another FTX executive.

Jeffries is among a number of politicians who have since handed their donations from Bankman-Fried on to charity. Three prominent Democratic groups – the DNC and the party’s House and Senate Campaign Commissions – have opted to return more than $1 million in contributions, while the White House has refused to say whether President Joe Biden would return nearly $59,000 in donations by Bankman-Fried to his 2020 campaign.

Under Federal Election Commission regulations, political campaigns and committees are required to return donations that are later found to be illegal, even if the money has already been spent.

Bankman-Fried also faces separate fraud charges filed on Tuesday by the Securities and Exchange Commission, which says the former CEO bilked FTX investors out of nearly $2 billion.
https://www.rt.com/news/568472-sbf-ftx-democrat-donations/
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18 Nov, 2022 11:34

7) Is there a link between 'Aid to Ukraine,' the US Democratic Party and the suspicious collapse of the FTX Crypto exchange? (contributed by By Felix Livshitz)

We don't know exactly how much money was raised for Kiev, and how much of it reached its intended destination

Breaking news throughout the first half of November has been dominated by coverage of the sudden collapse of FTX, one of the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchanges.

The crash has shaken the crypto market, lost institutional investors billions – and individual customers millions – led to official investigations of FTX in several countries, and made some question whether the Bitcoin sphere might crash and burn outright, and perhaps cause wider problems for the financial system.

Some take the view that FTX was a fraud all along, ever since its launch in April 2019. If that’s the case, it has grave implications for the US Democratic Party and Ukrainian government, as the company’s corrupt activity may have been used to fund both, openly and secretly.

Where’s the money, Zelensky?
On March 14, FTX launched a new online portal for cryptocurrency donations, Aid for Ukraine, in partnership with Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation. Through this, crypto traders, both large and small, could donate bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, which FTX would convert into cash for the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense to spend on weapons and other war-related expenses.

Very rapidly, the fund claimed to have amassed “over” $60 million in donations. By April 14, it was reported that just over $45.15 million of that sum had been splurged on digital rifle scopes, thermal imagers, monoculars, rations, armor, helmets, military clothing, tactical backpacks, fuel, communication devices, laptops, drones, medical supplies, and a “worldwide anti-war media campaign.”

The same records show a further $10 million was spent over the next three months – leaving around $5 million in the bank, so to speak. An Aid for Ukraine social media post on November 15 said this sum was still held in reserve, and that $60 million remained of the total amount of donations received through the portal to date.

This seems very odd, particularly given that Ukraine was reported to have received $100 million in bitcoin donations, and then spent almost all of it, between February 24 and March 11 alone, before Aid for Ukraine’s establishment.

Are we to believe that – over the course of seven months, from the time the $60 million figure was first publicized to today – no further funds at all have been donated through Aid for Ukraine? Despite the entire crypto community having been able to do so, and being actively encouraged to do so that whole time?

Official investigations into FTX, and its founder and CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, have only just begun. However, it seems clear already that he secretly and illegally moved billions stored in the FTX exchange to its sister company Alameda Research, a quantitative trading firm that he also runs.

The gaping black hole Bankman-Fried’s sleight-of-hand created meant that, when customers sought to withdraw their money from the exchange, FTX didn’t have the funds to keep up with demand. It seems he was assisted in this underhand ploy by a “back-door” specially created for him in the company’s accounting, which meant sums could be moved into and out of the exchange off the books, and without auditors or FTX employees noticing.

Much of the money taken out of FTX by Bankman-Fried has disappeared completely. The US Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission are particularly looking at whether these stolen client deposits were used to prop up Alameda in any way, which was reportedly struggling financially.

There is, as yet, no sign though that these authorities are probing an obvious lead – Aid for Ukraine. Was money moved from FTX to Alameda, then channeled to Kiev to be spent on Western – mainly US – weapons, and indeed other activities that the government and its backers in Washington, London, and elsewhere in Europe and North America would prefer to be kept hidden?

Conversely, money raised beyond the initial $60 million total could’ve been funneled out of Aid for Ukraine by Bankman-Fried to enrich himself, or secretly spent for very different purposes – such as funding the US Democratic Party’s election campaigns.

The man behind
Bankman-Fried is a very well-connected figure indeed in US politics. Over the course of the 2020 presidential election cycle, he contributed $5.2 million to two super PACs supporting Joe Biden’s campaign, and was the overall second-largest individual donor to Biden that year.

Such extravagant spending appears trivial today. In 2021/22, he provided tens of millions to Democratic causes and candidates, becoming the party’s second-largest donor, behind only “spyless coup” specialist George Soros.

Bankman-Fried has boasted of meeting policymakers in Washington “every two or three weeks for the last year.” Over 2022, this has included multiple audiences with senior government officials and top Biden advisers at the White House. These meetings escalated in volume around the time that the Ukraine conflict began.

On March 7, exactly one week before Aid for Ukraine was launched, his brother Gabe Bankman-Fried – who directs his political operations – visited the White House along with Jenna Narayanan, a Democratic strategist who once worked for the Democracy Alliance, which has been called the “most powerful liberal donor club” in the US.

Bankman-Fried himself then visited the White House on numerous occasions in April and May, concurrent with him donating $865,000 to the Democratic National Committee.

In early June, mere days after his last recorded White House meet-and-greet, Bankman-Fried announced he would invest up to $1 billion in further funds between then and 2024 to guarantee Biden – or whoever might take his place – won the next presidential election.

These activities have been interpreted by many as an attempt by Bankman-Fried to ingratiate himself with politicians to further his commercial interests. It is certainly true that, at the same time, he and FTX high-rankers were attempting to influence US lawmakers on crypto regulation, to make the market more favorable for his company.

In this context, the promised $1 billion appears to be a dangled carrot, an implied promise of future financing if Bankman-Fried got his way. Accompanying him on some of these visits was Mark Wetjen, FTX head of policy and regulatory strategy, who previously served as commissioner on the Commodity Futures Trading Commission under President Barack Obama – but only some. Were the other meetings related to Ukraine?

If so, the $1 billion pledge may have reflected what Bankman-Fried thought could be secretly skimmed from Aid for Ukraine for Democratic Party purposes. It’s conspicuous that in mid-October, he completely disowned that enormous commitment, saying, “That was a dumb quote. I think my messaging was sloppy and inconsistent in some cases.”

***

In repudiating his $1 billion promise, Bankman-Fried also quietly added that he would stop giving any money at all to political causes. It was just days later that it was announced FTX was subject to investigation in Texas for allegedly selling unregistered securities. Jump to a few weeks later, and the company had filed for bankruptcy.

Bankman-Fried clearly said something he shouldn’t have back in June – whether he got carried away by all the positive press and high-level access his political donations were receiving and wrote a proverbial check in public he couldn’t privately cash, or his comments drew unwanted attention to how much money was actually flowing into Aid for Ukraine, we do not currently know. But the truth must out.

By Felix Livshitz
https://www.rt.com/news/566626-ftx-and-ukraine/
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