So Putin left the G20 Talks early... and why?

[reality]

kj,,,"have you ever..."


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_Air_Flight_655.....

..a very different situation..the inconvenient facts seem to get in the way of your good leftist "tall poppy syndrome" story
....but nothing about a veto..could you please supply the source of your information about a veto for verification..

[Im2Sexy4MyPants]

lots of ali snackbar lol







http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=216_1444848321

[reality]

well lets hope that Russia can improve on its last outing against Afghanistan ...that did not end well form Russia..but Putin has already shown that he loves killing so ..let the show begin

[reality]

"Dutch prosecutors have said that they expect to produce a dossier of evidence for charges of murder and possibly war crimes.
Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said her country wouldn't be "bullied" by Russia "in our pursuit of justice".

..Putin always denies his actions..even when it is obvious to everybody else...he is a dangerous sonofabitch

Russians dismiss MH17 report

By Roland Oliphant

5:00 AM Thursday Oct 15, 2015

Investigators say Soviet-era missile shot down plane while Moscow accuses team of ‘biased approach’.

At 4.20pm on July 17 last year, a Buk 9M38 anti-aircraft missile exploded feet from the port side of the cockpit of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, killing the three crew members on the flight deck instantly. For the other 290 or so other people on the plane, death was probably not so swift.

The results of a 15-month investigation led by the Dutch Safety Board into the shooting down of the passenger plane, which was en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, were released yesterday, telling the story of the tragedy of MH17 in unprecedented detail, including the missile used, from where it was fired, and how the aircraft broke up.

While the missile's impact killed some of the crew, passengers further back on the plane were likely to have been conscious for up to 90 seconds as the plane fell to earth.

The investigators unveiled a ghostly reconstruction of the plane to the journalists and family members of victims at a conference in Gilze-Rijen in the Netherlands.


Some of the nose, cockpit and business class of the Boeing 777 were rebuilt from fragments of the aircraft recovered from the crash scene.

Ukraine and Western nations have contended that the missile was fired by Russian-backed rebels, and while the report did not apportion blame, the findings indicated the plane was shot down by a Russian-built anti-aircraft missile fired from a 310sq km area south of the town of Snizhne, most of which was controlled by Moscow-backed separatists at the time. The findings also ruled out the claim that the aircraft was shot down by a Ukrainian fighter jet - a theory proposed by Russian defence officials and representatives of the Donetsk People's Republic, the breakaway state which controls the crash site.

Tjibbe Joustra, the Safety Board chairman, had stern words for the Ukrainian authorities, saying that they should have closed airspace over the war zone to civilian aircraft.

"There was sufficient reason for the Ukrainian authorities to close the air space above the eastern part of their country," Joustra said, adding that at least 16 Ukrainian military aircraft had been shot down in the area in the months before the MH17 disaster.

About 160 civilian aircraft passed over the area on the day MH17 was downed, the report found.

Video

Russian officials cast doubt on the findings, releasing their own report hours before the Dutch which claimed that an older kind of warhead had been used and that it had been fired from another position to the southwest.

The state-owned missile company that provided the Russian contribution to the launch site analysis in the Dutch report attempted on Tuesday to go back on its findings, saying the Safety Board was wrong about both the type of rocket used and from where it came.

Almaz Antey, which builds Buk missiles, said it had replicated the Dutch account of the crash by using a 9N314M Buk warhead to blow up the cockpit of a decommissioned aircraft in a controlled experiment on October 7. The company said the experiment had produced butterfly-shaped holes that were not seen on MH17's wreckage, and failed to produce the kind of damage inflicted on MH17's left engine.

The company said MH17 must have been downed by a 9M38 missile, an older model that Russia says it withdrew from service in 2011, but which Ukraine is still believed to use.

The Almaz Antey claims contradict both the Dutch findings, which found butterfly-shaped fragments throughout the wreckage as well as on bodies of the victims, and the company's original finding, made in a report released in June, which said the aircraft had probably been hit by precisely those kinds of fragments.

The Safety Board's report is a strictly technical air accident investigation and does not apportion blame or criminal responsibility.

A separate criminal investigation, led by the Dutch police and including detectives from Australia, Belgium, Malaysia and Ukraine, is due to report next year. Mark Rutte, the Dutch Prime Minister, called on Russia to co-operate fully. Dutch prosecutors have said that they expect to produce a dossier of evidence for charges of murder and possibly war crimes. Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said her country wouldn't be "bullied" by Russia "in our pursuit of justice".

A Kremlin spokesman criticised the investigation for overlooking evidence provided by Almaz Antey and other Russian experts. "There is an emphasis on not noticing curious facts that have come to light following experiments," said Dmitry Peskov. "This speaks of a tendentious and biased approach."

Video


Key findings
• A warhead launched by Buk surface-to-air missile downed flight MH17.

• Missile launched from 320sq km area in eastern Ukraine where Russian separatists were operating. No responsibility was apportioned.

• Missile hit the Boeing 777 on left side of cockpit, exploding less than 1m from cockpit and tearing off cockpit and front part of plane.

• Rest of the plane broke up in mid-air.

• Plane broke up over a 50km-wide area. Reconstruction hampered by difficulty recovering parts.

• Simulation of possible explosions brought them to conclusion.

• Fragments found in the cockpit such as aluminium and glass proved they perforated the jet from outside, also bits of explosive found on parts of cockpit, traces of paint linked to a missile carrying a warhead were also found and sounds picked up by cockpit microphones aided in deduction.

• Air space should have been restricted. On the day of the crash, 160 flights flew over the area but no one thought civil aviation was at risk.

- AAP

- Daily Telegraph UK

[reality]

..haha..and how long exactly have they been "examinin g" it already...

..good to see NATO send aircraft and ships to Turkey...the only thing Putin understands is force

Russia claims black box recorder proves downed jet did not enter Turkish airspace

Moments before the plane crashed.
ANADOLU AGENCY/GETTY IMAGES
Moments before the plane crashed.

Russian officials have invited British, Chinese and Indian diplomats to witness the opening of the black box of a Russian warplane downed in Turkey last month.

Turkey shot down the Russian Su-24 on a bombing mission in Syria on November 24 after it violated its airspace for 17 seconds. Russia insists that the plane never entered Turkish airspace.

The incident in which one pilot and a Russian marine of the rescue party were killed, strained the traditionally warm relations between Russia and Turkey, and Russia promptly slapped economic sanctions on Turkey.

Russian President Vladimir Putin was angered by the attack.
REUTERS
Russian President Vladimir Putin was angered by the attack.

Deputy Commander of the Russian Air Force Lieutenant General Sergei Dronov told reporters on Friday that Moscow has invited 14 countries to send their experts to examine the Su-24's black box, which was recovered by Russian and Syrian forces from the area in rebel-controlled northern Syria where the plane was shot down. Only British and Chinese experts have agreed to examine the data.

Russia has insisted that the data from the black box should prove Russia's assertion that the bomber didn't violate Turkish airspace.

Russian television on Friday aired an hour-long live broadcast from the lab as Russian engineers unsealed, then opened several layers of the data recorder with British and Chinese experts looking on.

Dronov said the data from the recorder will be released on Monday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday lashed out at Turkey for the downing, saying that it is now "practically impossible" to overcome tensions with Turkey.

Ad Feedback

NATO agrees to Turkish air defence package

NATO allies agreed on Friday to send aircraft and ships to Turkey to strengthen Ankara's air defences on its border with Syria, the alliance's chief said, a package that is partly designed to avoid any more shoot-downs of Russian planes.

Envoys to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation approved the plan and must now decide what military assets to send to Turkey, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said, stressing that it was a defensive measure.

"We have agreed on a package of assurance measures for Turkey in view of the volatile situation in the region," Stoltenberg said, although he avoided any reference to Russia's military involvement in Syria and its air incursions.

Planned summit between Russia's Putin and Turkey's Erdogan
 - Sydney Morning Herald

[reality]

...quick get your order in for your Putin perfume and  dont forget the Putin calender.....with a different pic of the rat for each month
....some commentators joked that it smelled more like sanctions, or, as one put it, “gunpowder, blood and oil.”
...nothing like having your own nice little socialist dictatorship


Vladimir Putin calendar with president in different pose each month goes on sale in Russia
A Putin-inspired perfume called Leaders Number One has also just got on sale as Russian enthusiasm for the President's image reaches new heights
      
The black bottle features Putin’s profile and the caption, “Inspired by Vladimir Putin” – strangely written in English, despite the Russian president’s distaste for the use of English in marketing. Photo: AFP
By Allison Quinn, Moscow10:46AM GMT 25 Dec 2015
Russians will get the chance to wake up to President Vladimir Putin's wise words and smiling face each day in 2016, thanks to a new calendar for sale in Russian bookshops.
In the calendar, aptly titled "All Year With the President of Russia," Putin is shown in a different pose each month, be it embracing a puppy, shirtless while fishing, or looking determined while working out.
Each monthly photograph is accompanied by a personal quote from the president, ranging from silly to serious.
“No one will ever get military superiority over Russia. Our army is contemporary, capable, and as they now say, polite, but formidable,” Putin says while decked out in military garb.
In another, while hugging a dog, he simply says “Dogs and I have very warm feelings for one another.”
It comes as a new scent inspired by the Russian President hit the shelves with his “soft but very firm” essence turned into a perfume.
The scent for men, called Leaders Number One, is now on sale in Moscow for 6,000 rubles, or about £57.
The black bottle features Putin’s profile and the caption, “Inspired by Vladimir Putin” – strangely written in English, despite the Russian president’s distaste for the use of English in marketing.

At a presentation of the scent at Moscow’s GUM department store on Thursday, the man behind the scent, Belarussian Vladislav Rekunov, described the scent as “warm, textured, rounded.”
“It is at once soft and, at the same time, firm,” Rekunov was cited as saying in Russian media.
A cult of personality has sprung up around the Russian president in recent years
The scent has been released only in limited quantity, with 2,000 bottles made and plans for a women’s version to be made next year.
Russian media cited one of Rekunov’s colleagues as saying the perfume makers had already received orders from China and Germany.
While Russian media described the scent as one reminiscent of the forest – with the smell of pines and fir cones – some commentators joked that it smelled more like sanctions, or, as one put it, “gunpowder, blood and oil.”
US President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin
Obama and Putin at Lough Erne in Enniskillen, 2013  Photo: AP
A cult of personality has sprung up around the Russian president in recent years, steadily gaining momentum as he incurred the wrath of the West with the annexation of Crimea in February 2014.
The president's portrait has also been plastered on T-shirts, mugs, and other souvenirs, and rap songs praising his manly demeanor have even been written and broadcast on Russian airwaves.
Soviet dictator Josef Stalin’s popularity has risen with a Stalin centre recently opened in the Russian city of Penza and Stalin calendars also on sale for 2016.
One such calendar, titled “Stalin: Victory Will Be Ours,” is available through various Russian online bookstores.
The publisher, Dignity, also publishes a quarterly journal intended for “state authorities at all levels,” including the Kremlin, according to a statement on its website.

[reality]

...well....thats a surprise


UK judge: Putin probably approved plan to poison ex-spy

5:12 AM Friday Jan 22, 2016

A UK judge believes Vladimir Putin (left) 'probably approved' Alexander Litvinenko's (right) killing. Photo: Getty Images /AP

Russian President Vladimir Putin probably approved a plan by Russia's FSB security service to kill a former agent-turned-Kremlin critic who died after drinking tea laced with radioactive poison, a British judge said in a strongly worded report that led Moscow to accuse Britain of a politically motivated attack.

Judge Robert Owen, who led a public inquiry into the 2006 killing of Alexander Litvinenko, said he was certain that two Russian men had given Litvinenko tea containing a fatal dose of polonium-210 during a meeting at a London hotel.

He said there was a "strong probability" that Russia's FSB, successor to the Soviet Union's KGB spy agency, directed the killing and that the operation was "probably approved" by Putin, then as now the president of Russia.

On his deathbed, Litvinenko accused Putin of ordering his killing, but this is the first public official statement linking the Russian president to the crime, and it sent a chilling jolt through U.K.-Russia relations.


Britain summoned the Russian ambassador for a dressing-down Thursday and imposed an asset freeze on the two main Russian suspects: Andrei Lugovoi, now a Russian lawmaker, and Dmitry Kovtun.

Moscow has always strongly denied being involved in Litvinenko's death, and Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zhakarova said the Russian government did not consider Owen's conclusions objective or impartial.

"There was one goal from the beginning: slander Russia and slander its officials," Zhakarova told journalists Thursday in Moscow. She repeated several times that the Litvinenko inquiry was neither public nor transparent, claiming it had turned into a "shadow puppet theater."

Litvinenko, a former FSB agent, fled to Britain in 2000 and became a vocal critic of Russia's security service and of Putin, whom he accused of links to organized crime. Owen said Litvinenko "was regarded as having betrayed the FSB" with his actions, and said "there were powerful motives for organizations and individuals within the Russian state" to kill him.

Marina Litvinenko, the spy's widow, said she was "very pleased that the words my husband spoke on his deathbed when he accused Mr. Putin have been proved by an English court."

She also called for tougher action, urging British Prime Minister David Cameron to expel Russian intelligence agents operating in Britain and impose economic sanctions and travel bans on Putin and other officials linked to what her lawyer, Ben Emmerson, called "a mini-act of nuclear terrorism on the streets of London."

"It's unthinkable that the prime minister would do nothing in the face of the damning findings," Marina Litvinenko told reporters.

Britain responded to the report with strong words - though its scope for strong action is limited.

U.K.-Russian relations have remained chilly since the killing of Litvinenko, who was granted British citizenship shortly before his death, and worsened with Russia's involvement in the separatist fighting in Ukraine. But the inquiry's report comes as the two countries are cautiously trying to work together against the Islamic State group in Syria, and neither wants a major new rift.

British Home Secretary Theresa May said the involvement of the Russian state was "a blatant and unacceptable breach of the most fundamental tenets of international law and civilized behavior" - but not a surprise. She announced asset freezes against suspects Lugovoi and Kovtun, and said Interpol had issued notices calling for their arrest if they traveled abroad. Russia refuses to extradite the two men.

Lugovoi is now a member of the Russian parliament, which means he is immune from prosecution in his country. In an interview Thursday with the Associated Press, he called the British investigation a "spectacle."

"I think that - yet again - Great Britain has shown that anything that involves their political interests, they'll make a top priority," he said. "These announcements from the British Parliament completely discredit the British legal system - completely - in the eyes of any sensible, normal person."

Lugovoi also claimed he would have liked to testify at the inquiry but "was not allowed." The judge said both Lugovoi and Kovtun declined to give evidence.

Kovtun, now described as a businessman, said the conclusions were based on "false evidence" presented in closed hearings.

"The crazy evidence is easily refuted," the Tass news agency reported him as saying.

Owen - a retired High Court judge appointed by the government to head a public inquiry into the slaying - heard from dozens of witnesses during months of public hearings last year and also saw secret British intelligence evidence.

Announcing his findings at London's Royal Courts of Justice, Owen said "there can be no doubt that Alexander Litvinenko was poisoned by Mr. Lugovoi and Mr. Kovtun" in the Pine Bar of London's luxury Millennium Hotel on Nov. 1, 2006. He died three weeks later of acute radiation syndrome.

In his 326-page report, Owen said based on the evidence he had seen, the operation to kill Litvinenko was "probably" approved by then-FSB head Nikolai Patrushev, now head of Putin's security council, and by Putin.

The judge laid out the overwhelming scientific evidence against Lugovoi and Kovtun, including a trail of radiation that stretched from the hotel teapot to the sink in Kovtun's room and even the Emirates stadium, where Lugovoi attended a soccer game.

He said the case for Russian state involvement was circumstantial but strong. Owen said Litvinenko had "personally targeted President Putin himself with highly personal public criticism," allied himself with Putin's opponents and was believed to be working for British intelligence.

Litvinenko himself said he was working for Britain's spy services, though British authorities have never confirmed it.

Owen said the method of killing, with radioactive poison, fit with the deaths of several other opponents of Putin and his government, and noted that Putin had "supported and protected" Lugovoi since the killing, even awarding him a medal for services to the nation.

While there was no direct proof, Owen said it was "likely" the FSB chief would have sought Putin's approval for an operation to kill Litvinenko.

- AP

[Im2Sexy4MyPants]

So judge is probably not sure who ordered it then

The killing probably was done by the CIA or MI5 or MI6 to discredit Putin 
was probably ordered by David Cameron or Obama

[reality]

..haha...well of course...I mean...what other possible conclusion could be drawn

[reality]

...Putin murdering innocent people again

Strikes on east Syrian town kill 63
 A girl carrying a baby inspects damage at a site hit by what activists said were airstrikes carried out by the Russian air force in the Syrian town of Douma.
BASSAM KHABIEH/Reuters
A girl carrying a baby inspects damage at a site hit by what activists said were airstrikes carried out by the Russian air force in the Syrian town of Douma.

At least 63 people, including nine children, have died in air strikes believed to be carried out by Russian warplanes on a town in eastern Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Sunday.

The raids on Khasham near the city of Deir al-Zor on Saturday were among a series of strikes that also hit two other town in the past 48 hours, killing scores of people.

Russian jets have been bombing around Deir al-Zor as Syrian pro-government forces clash with Islamic State fighters, who control most of the province. The group has besieged remaining government-held areas of the city since last March and last week launched new attacks.

Warplanes have also hit Islamic State's de facto capital of Raqqa over the past two days, killing at least 44 people in the city, the Observatory said, raising its toll from Saturday after many of the wounded died of their injuries.
Reuters
stuff

[Alicat]

I thought I heard a ....

[nitpicker1]

I thought I heard a ....

Nah. It was just one from a wee puppy that hasn't been housetrained yet. 

[reality]

..nah...he's a great guy


US accuses Vladimir Putin of corruption

By Roland Oliphant

12:49 PM Tuesday Jan 26, 2016

A US official as openly claimed that Russian President Vladimir Putin has embezzled state funds. Photo / AP

Businessman and politician Roman Abramovich gave Vladimir Putin a £25 million yacht in one of dozens of acquisitions through which the Russian president has amassed a vast covert fortune, it has been claimed.

A senior American official has openly accused Putin of corruption, nepotism, and direct embezzlement of state funds.

The US government has already imposed sanctions on Putin's aides, but it is thought to be the first time it has directly accused the president of corruption.

Putin's personal wealth has been the subject of speculation and claims of corruption for years, but little evidence has ever been produced to back up such allegations. Putin has dismissed claims about his wealth as "simply rubbish".

But a Panorama documentary the BBC broadcast this week detailed allegations that Putin has established a complex system of "training and practices" that allow him to "mask his actual wealth".


Details included Putin's acquisition of the 57m yacht Olympia. Dmitry Skarga, a former head of Russia's state shipping company Sovcomflot, said the boat was a gift from the oligarch owner of Chelsea Football Club, who transferred it to the president via an intermediary.

"It's a fact that Abramovich, through his employee, transferred a yacht to Putin," Skarga said. He also alleged that the yacht was maintained with state funds, even though it is Putin's personal property.

Adam Szubin, an official who oversees sanctions at the US Treasury, told the programme he believes Putin is corrupt and the US has been aware of this for "many, many years".

"We've seen him enriching his friends, his close allies, and marginalising those who he doesn't view as friends, using state assets. Whether that's Russia's energy wealth, whether it's other state contracts, he directs those to whom he believes will serve him and excludes those who don't. To me, that is a picture of corruption," Szubin said.

Abramovich was reputedly the first to recommend to former President Boris Yeltsin that Putin be his successor, in 1999. Abramovich would remain one of Putin's closest confidants; the president's biographer, Chris Hutchins, described the pair as having a relationship of father and favourite son.

Although Szubin did not put a figure on the size of Putin's fortune, he said the President's declared annual salary was "not an accurate statement of the man's wealth". In 2007 Stanislav Belkovsky, a Russian political commentator, claimed Putin had amassed $40 billion through stakes in three Russian energy companies. Last year, Bill Browder, a hedge fund manager and critic of Putin, claimed that the president was worth $200 billion - a sum that would make him by far the richest man in the world.

In 2014 the US stated that Putin had secret investments in the energy sector, but did not accuse him of corruption. Putin's spokesman has called these claims "complete trash".

The Kremlin told the BBC that the allegations did not require a response "as they are pure fiction".

Abramovich's lawyers called the claims about the yacht "unsubstantiated" and little more than a "rehash of speculation and rumours".

- Daily Telegraph UK

By Roland Oliphant EmailPrint

[nitpicker1]

Since Vladimir Putin began cementing his grip on Russia in the 1990s, many of his friends have grown famously rich.

Not so the president himself, say his supporters, who insist Putin is above the money grab that has marked his reign. His public financial disclosures depict a man of modest means. In April, Putin declared an income for 2014 of 7.65 million roubles ($119,000). He listed the ownership of two modest apartments and a share in a car parking garage.


Prime Minister John Key's salary will rise by 3.1 per cent to $448,569. Prime Minister John Key has had a $13,500 boost to his annual pay packet while ordinary MPs will be paid $6000 more, backdated to July. The changes take a back bencher's salary to $156,136 while Key's pay will jump to $448,569.Dec 14, 2015

Has our John got any rich friends?

[reality]

nit...."Since Vladimir Putin began cementing his grip on Russia in the 1990s, many of his friends have grown famously rich.

Not so the president himself, say his supporters, who insist Putin is above the money grab that has marked his reign. His public financial disclosures depict a man of modest means. In April, Putin declared an income for 2014 of 7.65 million roubles ($119,000). He listed the ownership of two modest apartments and a share in a car parking garage."

......are  those your own words or from another source?...if so, any chance of providing the source

[nitpicker1]

re mess 164

probably Reuters or Radio NZ news or CNN

or you could do what I have to do to verify the source of your stories.

[reality]

..mm..I t5hink you will find that usually I give the whole report, including the headline, date and news organisation...which makes it very easy to find

[nitpicker1]

..mm..I t5hink you will find that usually I give the whole report, including the headline, date and news organisation...which makes it very easy to find

And I normally give an abbreviated synopsis with it's URL in case ya don't want to read the whole damn lot.  I forgot to do that this time.

Abject apologies.

[Alicat]

..mm..I t5hink you will find that usually I give the whole report, including the headline, date and news organisation...which makes it very easy to find

Just when you think it's safe to flare the nostrils again ....

[reality]

nit..."And I normally give an abbreviated synopsis with it's URL in case ya don't want to read the whole damn lot.  I forgot to do that this time.

Abject apologies."

...no worries...just that sometimes I like to check the context....calliope just tried that trick in another thread...turned out that he/she missed out the facts that did not contribute to his/her m o

...it's similar to being frugal with the truth

[nitpicker1]

[reality]

...Putin decides he needs to sell Russian assets to raise money for bombing more children in Syria


Russia selling - but who is buying?

By Ben Wright

11:21 AM Saturday Feb 6, 2016

Putin sell-off likely to be a flop, writes Ben Wright

Investment bankers are tearing their hair out. There have been plenty of fallow periods since the credit crunch, but the start of this year must rank among the most barren of them all.

The huge price swings in a range of asset classes around the world have made it next to impossible to float companies on stock markets, price debt issuance or complete mergers and acquisitions.

There wasn't a single initial public offering in the US in the whole of January. The last time that happened was in September 2011 at the height of the European sovereign debt crisis.

READ MORE:
• Russian economy has worst year since global financial crisis
• As Russian food prices spike higher, some winners emerge


In many ways, this is worse.

September can often be a quietish month as people trickle back from their summer holidays. Bankers rely on a busy January to start their years off with a bang. But last month was horrifically bad in virtually every market, product and geography, says one senior capital markets banker.

Why? Bankers need flat markets to get their deals away. If prices are plunging, buyers start worrying that they're going to get stiffed; if they're soaring, sellers get cold feet. But helpful equanimity has been conspicuous by its absence so far this year. Markets have either been falling aggressively or rallying hard.

It is against this backdrop that Vladimir Putin has summoned the heads of a number of Russian state-owned assets to discuss privatisation plans. Good luck with that, Mr President.

It is understandable that desperate times might cause Putin to consider desperate measures. The plunging oil price is really beginning to bite. Saudi Arabia is considering huge cuts to government largesse. Last month, the kingdom's deputy crown prince, Muhammad bin Salman, said he was considering an IPO of Saudi Aramco, the world's biggest (and most secretive) oil company.

There wasn't a single initial public offering in the United States in the whole of January.
Prince Muhammad said such a listing would bolster the Saudi stock market, bring transparency to the company and drive out corruption. All of which might well be true. But the privatisation of the company, which owns eight of its own jets, would also raise a huge amount of much-needed cash. This fact cannot be incidental.

Other Gulf countries are raiding their sovereign wealth funds to prop up ailing economies. Malaysia's state development fund, which is in the grips of a financial scandal, is attempting to sell off property developments. Drip-drip disposals have depleted the assets of Kazakhstan's sovereign fund by over a sixth since August 2014.

There is a worrying feedback loop at work here. The slowdown in the Chinese economy has put big dents in the finances of many developing nations, especially those that produce commodities. Their governments are now desperately trying to raise cash by selling assets, which, almost by definition, have been badly hit by the slowdown in China and consequent market rout.

Just look at the companies Putin is thinking of privatising: Rosneft, Bashneft, Alrosa, VTB, Sovcomflot, Aeroflot and the Russian Railways. What do those companies do? Rosneft and Bashneft are both oil companies; Alrosa is a diamond miner; VTB is a bank; Sovocomflot builds ships; Aeroflot is an airline; and the Russian Railways does what it says on the tin. These are not the hottest sectors in the world right now.

There might, in theory, be buyers for those transport assets (although, having flown on Aeroflot, I'm personally sceptical), but the others operate in exactly the areas that are most at risk from the potential slowdown in the global economy. Emerging market governments and sovereign wealth funds have become "forced sellers" looking at selling off the family silver right at the bottom of the market.

This has very real implications for investors of all stripes. For years now, global sovereign wealth funds have been using their vast stashes of petrodollars to buy assets -- from US bonds to London property -- around the world. Sovereign wealth funds owned 9 per cent of all global equities and bonds last year, according to Capital Economics. Now they've switched from buying to selling. JP Morgan has predicted that sovereign wealth funds could try and offload up to US$80 billion of equities this year alone. Gulp.

But, while many commodity-producing economies are feeling the pain, some are in a worse position than others. Putin may want to sell Russian state-owned companies to raise money. But who, pray, will buy them? There are, broadly speaking, four possible routes to market. These companies could be sold to a small number of rich Russians, a large number of not so rich Russians, international investors or international companies.

Memories of the botched privatisations of the early 1990s, where Russian assets were sold on the cheap to a small number of soon-to-be oligarchs, still linger. But the country doesn't have the large pools of funds -- in the form of pension schemes and insurance companies -- either. Foreign investors will naturally be put off by European Union and US sanctions against Russia and the notorious disdain with which minority shareholders can be treated there.

As one senior investment banker says, if a large Russian company came to him and said it wanted to raise billions of dollars from the international markets this year, he would have to say it couldn't be done. There just aren't many willing buyers of Russian assets in the world right now. And with the markets in their current tizz? Forget it, Mr Putin.

- Daily Telegraph UK

[reality]

..yup..most of the killing and displacement of people is being caused by Putin 


Syria conflict: Russia strikes 'undermining peace talks'
5 February 2016

Western powers accuse Russia of targeting opponents of the Syrian government, while Moscow says it is battling terrorists
Syria's war


Syria: The story of the conflict

Russian air strikes in Syria are "undermining" efforts to find a political solution to the war, Nato's secretary general has said.

Jens Stoltenberg said the raids were mainly targeting the Syrian opposition.

Moscow insists it is battling "terrorism".

This week, fledgling peace talks were suspended as Syrian government forces, backed by the Russian military, launched a fresh offensive against rebels in Aleppo.

Thousands of civilians are reported to be fleeing Syria's largest city.
Who's to blame for peace talks' suspension?
Displaced Syrians struggles to survive
The story of the conflict

"The intense Russian air strikes mainly targeting opposition groups in Syria are undermining the efforts to find a political solution to the conflict," Mr Stoltenberg said.
He said the air strikes posed a particular problem for Nato member Turkey, which is already embroiled in a row with Russia after Turkey shot down a Russian jet it accused of violating its airspace.

Increased Russian activity "creates risks and heightens tensions and is of course a challenge for Nato", Mr Stoltenberg said.
On Thursday, Turkey warned up to 70,000 people might be heading to its border from Aleppo, but on Friday a BBC correspondent at the border town of Kilis saw no indication yet of large numbers of refugees.
Separately, the United Nations said at least 15,000 people had fled Aleppo.
UK, Russian and US-led air strikes
The Syrian government is reported to have made further gains on the ground on Friday, recapturing the town of Ratyan, north of Aleppo.
Earlier in the week, it claimed a major victory by breaking the rebel siege of two towns in Aleppo province, severing an opposition supply line from Turkey to Aleppo city.
A rebel commander fighting under the Free Syrian Army told Reuters the northern countryside in Aleppo province was "totally encircled, and the humanitarian situation is very difficult".
"It feels like a siege of Aleppo is about to begin," said a spokesman for aid group Mercy Corpsm David Evans, who said the main humanitarian route was cut off.
Since 2012, Aleppo has been divided into rebel and government-held areas. Before the conflict it was a key commercial centre and home to over two million people.

Meanwhile Turkey has dismissed Russian claims that it was planning to invade Syria.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called the accusation "laughable", according to state media.

What is the Syria conflict?

Why is there a war in Syria?
Anti-government protests developed into a civil war that, four years on, has ground to a stalemate, with the Assad government, the so-called Islamic State group, an array of Syrian rebels and Kurdish fighters all holding territory.

Who is fighting whom?
Government forces concentrated in Damascus and the centre and west of Syria are fighting the jihadists of Islamic State and al-Nusra Front, as well as less numerous so-called "moderate" rebel groups, which are strongest in the north and east. These groups are also battling each other.

What's the human cost?
More than 250,000 Syrians have been killed and a million injured. Some 11 million others have been forced from their homes, of whom four million have fled abroad - including growing numbers who are making the dangerous journey to Europe.

How has the world reacted?
Iran, Russia and Lebanon's Hezbollah movement are propping up the Alawite-led Assad government, while Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar back the more moderate Sunni-dominated opposition, along with the US, UK and France. Hezbollah and Iran are believed to have troops and officers on the ground, while a Western-led coalition and Russia are carrying out air strikes.
bbc

[reality]

....spot the demented leftie  Putin  supporting  reporters...they say..

" As in Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin's intervention has stopped a decisive geopolitical shift."

...REALLY...I thought it was called peoples democratic rights...but of course Putin does not take deomocratic rights into account...he's  just bombing kids in Syria in an attempt to keep the despot Assad in power and keep democracy out of the region...so he can use corruption to control the sheeple.....even our beloved NZ Herald cant be trusted when it comes to printing leftist propaganda



Up to 70,000 heading to border ground zero

By Louisa Loveluck, Peter Foster, Hiba Dlewati

5:00 AM Monday Feb 8, 2016


Up to 70,000 Syrians are heading for Turkey, threatening to send a new wave of refugees into Europe as Syria's civil war intensifies.

The latest exodus came as Syrian regime forces advanced on the strategically vital opposition stronghold of Aleppo, closing in on a major victory with the help of sustained Russian air strikes on rebel positions.

With about 35,000 new refugees already gathering at Syria's Bab al-Salam crossing with Turkey, European foreign ministers and officials held emergency talks in Amsterdam with their Turkish counterparts to draw up a plan to deal with the crisis.

Jean Asselborn, Luxembourg's Foreign Minister, warned of the "very real prospect that there will be another huge influx of refugees", precipitated by what he called "indiscriminate" Russian bombing around Aleppo.

However, Turkey has resisted EU pressure to open the border-crossing for the refugees.


The Bab al-Salam crossing has remained open until now and has been a key entry point for foreign fighters flocking to join the war.

Suleyman Tapsiz, the Governor of the Kilis border province, said a wave of at least 70,000 refugees was "a possibility" as the noose tightened around Aleppo, where around 350,000 rebels and civilians are trapped.

New arrivals are being accommodated "in eight camps on the Syrian side of the border," Tapsiz said, adding that in Turkey's view there was "no need for now" to transfer them to Turkey which has already absorbed more than two million refugees.

Johannes Hahn, a European commissioner, warned Turkey that it needed to cut dramatically the number of refugees reaching Greece within weeks or the pressure for more border closures and fences will grow.

Frustrated that refugees continue to stream into Greece despite a $5 billion deal between Ankara and Brussels to slow the flows, Hahn said Turkey must show results by the time EU leaders meet this month.

At the border, standing in the pouring rain, 29-year-old Ali begged guards to allow his disabled mother to cross to safety. He said he had lost a seventh member of his family to the bitter war that morning.

Mahmoud, his cousin, died after picking up what he thought was a toy. It was cluster bomb.


Checkpoints and fences are keeping out tens of thousands of refugees fleeing bombardment in northern Syria. The border is ground zero for Syria's refugee crisis.

Many of the 35,000 people camped at the crossing were among the poorest in Syria, having held out through five years of bitter civil war without the funds to escape. Last week, they were left with no choice as forces loyal to Bashar al-Assad cut the rebels' arterial supply line into Aleppo. Yesterday many of northern Syria's remaining rebel-held areas were emptying of civilians. At the crossing point refugees now shelter in scrubland, where night-time temperatures drop below freezing.

The regime assault unfolding on the Syrian side of the border has the potential to change the course of the five-year war, and the men gathered in the border town of Kilis know it. Faces are weary, all eyes trained on the border gates and, beyond.

Taking full control of Aleppo, Syria's largest city before the civil war erupted five years ago, would be a huge strategic prize for Assad's Government. Opposition forces still in east Aleppo have been without power, fuel, water and food for weeks. Aid workers now fear the city could soon fall under a full government siege.

Mevlut Cavusoglu, the Turkish Foreign Minister, said his country would keep its "open border policy" for refugees, but did not indicate when Syrians at the frontier could cross. According to health workers, Turkish control of the border was stricter than ever last week. Even cancer patients, previously subject to a waiver, had been stopped.

Last week, Turkish authorities shot a 12-year-old girl in the head as she crossed over with her family.

Amnesty International called on the authorities to reopen its border, saying Ankara "must not close its doors to people in desperate need of safety".

Russian air strikes,

along with offensives from regime troops and their Iranian and Hizbollah allies have helped tip the balance in favour of an emboldened Assad.

Western donors have pledged £7.5 billion to alleviate Syria's refugee crisis with Britain promising that a million more Syrian children would receive an education in neighbouring countries by the end of next year. Planned reforms are also intended to open up a million jobs for refugees and local people. But the donors' focus on creating better lives for those leaving Syria underscore the fact few believe this war will end any time soon.

Battle may be beginning of the end for Syria's rebels and any hopes for peace
The defeats being suffered by rebel forces across northern Syria and most recently around Aleppo are crushing.

If the rebels are defeated in the country's largest city it could even be the beginning of the end for them, at least as a force able to hold large areas.

The consequences for the Middle East and even Europe would be enormous too: this is the part of Syria that has seen millions flee into Turkey, and then beyond. It is hard to see them returning soon.

But for whom is it a victory? Not, by all accounts, President Bashar al-Assad's forces. Doctors operating in opposition-area hospitals say a large number of "regime" captives being brought in are Afghans, and even Iraqis - members of Shia militias press-ganged into service by Iran, whose generals are directing operations.

Tehran, then, is one winner: Syria is another unstable but strategically significant country into which, like Lebanon, it can insert proxy forces to represent its interests. But it has come at a high price: another Iranian general was killed last week, believed to be the fifth casualty of such rank. Many more Iranian foot soldiers have died, plus thousands of militiamen from Shia communities.

The country that has been most crucial for victory has been Russia. Opposition activists and rebel commanders say, the hundreds of air strikes on rebel positions along the supply routes north of Aleppo were overwhelming. As in Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin's intervention has stopped a decisive geopolitical shift.

As in Ukraine, neither Putin nor anyone else seems to have much idea of what happens next. It seems unlikely that even with Russian and Iranian support Assad can re-establish a peaceful rule over his country. But what it took diplomatically for Russia to achieve this breakthrough means that a peace deal looks impossible.

For weeks, John Kerry, United States Secretary of State, travelled around the region, persuading the opposition to come to Geneva to take part in a Russian-sponsored "peace process".

In doing so, he divided the rebels and forced the "moderates" to take on the local al-Qaeda affiliate, Jabhat al-Nusra, which was excluded from negotiations.

That created a split in the ranks of Ahrar al-Sham, the most powerful Islamist militia in northern Syria - some members sided with Jabhat al-Nusra and some with the "peace party".

The agreement of the rebels to come to Geneva was an apparent triumph for Kerry, securing both talks and persuading rebels to take a stand against al-Qaeda. It was in fact a set-up: the minute the opposition arrived, the Russian bombing of Aleppo started, and the "moderate" opposition, its Western and Gulf backers, and Kerry himself were humiliated.

For those determined to see an end to Assad, the jihadists are now the best option. Those who wish a continuation of his rule have Russia and Iran. For everyone else, there is flight and the ever-less welcoming option of Europe's beaches.

- Additional reporting: Richard Spencer

By Louisa Loveluck, Peter Foster, Hiba Dlewati EmailPrint

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