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WATCH: Russian amb. to UK presser on eve of allied strikes on Damascus 13/04/18

Ruptly broadcast of the presser held by Russian Ambassador to the United Kingdom Alexander Yakovenko on Friday, April 13 regarding the alleged Skripal poisoning and the alleged chemical weapon attack on Douma. Worth watching for the video comparison of Tony Blair, lying about WMDs in 2003 to promote war in Iraq, and proclaiming his support for war in Syria in 2108, based on the lies about the certitude of Russian culpability promulgated by the current UK govt.

The statement took place the day after the release of the report by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which backed the U.K.’s assessment that a military-grade nerve agent was used to poison former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury.
The US/UK/French air strikes took place the night of 13-14 April, just hours after thi​s


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vexarb
vexarb
Apr 21, 2018 5:02 AM

Mailman here. Update 16th April, from German TV Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen, reported in SyrPer:
karlof1
Major German media saying Douma attack “is most likely staged”,
https://twitter.com/ZDFheute/status/987393352495542273
+8
Takuto
Slowly, German state media seem to shift. A few weeks ago, they had a documentation about the freemasons and their influence on central banks etc. on state TV.
+2
[After the ball is over / After the music dies / Many a rose lies faded / Withered by treacherous lies /.

Lost For Words
Lost For Words
Apr 20, 2018 2:39 PM

Both Guardian and Independent are running stories that claim there remain “hotspots” of nerve agent contamination in Salisbury.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/apr/20/salisbury-is-safe-despite-likely-novichok-hotspots-officials-say
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/salisbury-nerve-agent-novichok-sergei-skripal-latest-russia-yulia-defra-a8313366.html
The Guardian reports;
Ian Boyd, the chief scientific adviser at Defra, told one critic: “You are underplaying the toxicity of this chemical. You’re also underplaying how the chemical has been spread.“It [the novichok] does not degrade as fast as you think it does … You can assume that it is not much different now from the day it was distributed.
However, I understand Sergey Lavrov suggested that Novochok A234 is highly reactive and volatile. Off Guardian covered this previously.
https://off-guardian.org/2018/04/17/spiez-laboratory-the-skripal-case-and-the-opcw/
These two differing accounts of the nerve agent’s properties appear contradictory. That is unless there was a substantial volume of Novochok A234 dispersed in Salisbury (more than a millilitre?) and then subsequently spread about. It is hard to imagine more than a millilitre of liquid soaking a door handle without it looking obviously suspicious. My understanding of the toxicity of Novochok A234 is that a millilitre would be enough to kill around 500 people, so it seems unlikely more than a millilitre would need to have been deployed for an assassination (if that narrative is genuine).
Can anyone think how we could obtain a definitive description of the chemicals reactiveness and volatility? That would be a good indicator on who is telling the truth about the incident.

Mulga Mumblebrain
Mulga Mumblebrain
Apr 21, 2018 3:30 AM
Reply to  Lost For Words

This is such transparent garbage that you almost have to admire the chutzpah. A ‘trail’ (shades of Litvinenko) all across Salisbury, from touching a door-knob? Places to be shut-off for ‘de-contamination’ for nine months? And they expect people to buy this shite? Why not organise a flash-mob to crash these sites and roll about naked in them, to show just what filthy, lying, hate-mongering insanity this is. When you look at May’s twisted, nasty, nerve-wracked visage, and think that the creature that dwells therein sees the salvation of her vicious political career lies in driving for thermo-nuclear war, a feeling far beyond despair grabs you by the vitals. Two billion years of evolution to produce THAT?!?!

falcemartello
falcemartello
Apr 20, 2018 3:55 AM

Rinse ,Lather ,Repeat.
Goebels “Tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it and the people will believe you”
All western legacy media are reporting the same lies . Scandelous the way the legacy media and all broad sheet media in the west as a fait en-compli that Assad has gassed its people and that Putin himself poisened the Skripals in Salsibury. Lavarov in two recent interviews one with the Bombastic Bullshit Corporation Hardtalk where Lavrov the Armenian slavic smooth toungue just puts the interviewer to shame . Then on Russian interview relays the Swiss lab report n the samples recieved via OCPW staing that the real nerve agent which was found along with the so called NOVOCHOK was BZ which was patented by Pax-american FUKUS countries. <. But hell honesty does not wash well in the Orwellian reality we are living in the west.

kweladave
kweladave
Apr 19, 2018 6:04 PM

The ambassador is very impressive – excellent communicator. Shame about audio quality of journos’ questions.

kweladave
kweladave
Apr 19, 2018 6:08 PM
Reply to  kweladave

According to ‘Moon of Alabama’ the OPCW’s arrival in Douma is delayed because of security concerns.

tomiejones
tomiejones
Apr 19, 2018 3:59 PM

Reblogged this on circusbuoy.

Dave Massingham
Dave Massingham
Apr 19, 2018 8:23 AM

I always lament that some of the brilliant foreign football players in the Premier League,
cannot play for England.
It’s also a pity this guy can’t be our Foreign Secretary-
I’ve watched him on RT here in Thailand, and he’s magic.
Johnson has always been a clown, now a dangerous clown.
And May should be hung, drawn and quartered for appointing him…

vexarb
vexarb
Apr 19, 2018 5:58 AM

AMN report by Andrew Illingworth:
Syrian Army finds two intact US cruise missiles that failed to detonate, hands them over to Russian military

bevin
bevin
Apr 18, 2018 11:42 PM

This excellent analysis by a Russian scholar reinforces the sense that civilisation has shifted eastwards as has the Ugly American, now a Londoner working in the media.

bevin
bevin
Apr 18, 2018 11:42 PM
Reply to  bevin
bevin
bevin
Apr 18, 2018 11:45 PM
Reply to  bevin

And for a US minority viewpoint, the marvelous Freedom Rider Margaret Kimberley:
https://blackagendareport.com/freedom-rider-syria-and-press-propaganda

Hugh O'Neill
Hugh O'Neill
Apr 18, 2018 11:25 PM

I agree with James Bate’s assessment of Ambassador Yakovenko above, though I watched the presentation over breakfast so missed a few points. However, a few points leapt out at me:
1. Beautiful fireplace behind…
2. The Ambassador was impeccably polite, fair, dignified, humorous, and very well informed. His communication skills and logic were impeccable – compared with US and British equivalents. Of course, it is always easier to believe someone whom you instinctively like, but his comfort in his own skin seemed to indicate an assurance in the truth. We know instinctively when we are being lied to: as (Groucho) Marx said, if you can fake honesty and sincerity, you’ve got it licked.
3. When did we last hear a Russian politician quote from the Book of Ecclesiastes? And what a quote!
4. To continue in the biblical mode: Blessed are the Peace Makers.

bill
bill
Apr 19, 2018 3:00 AM
Reply to  Hugh O'Neill

so now ive got to watch it all Hugh to find this quote from Ecclesiastes a favorite of mine lol

james bate
james bate
Apr 18, 2018 10:51 PM

What a star, listened to his presentation while cooking and ended up hearing the lot. Was struck by how casual , unprepared and downright amateurish most of the journos were, i suppose as there’s no way any of this is going to be reported they only sent interns, shameful.

JudyJ
JudyJ
Apr 18, 2018 11:36 PM
Reply to  james bate

I agree. I liked his opening line about doing his best not to smile – a barbed reference to the criticism he incurred previously for not taking the anti Russian (Skripal) accusations seriously. I wasn’t impressed with Libby Wiener haughtily asking for his explanation as to “why Russia vetoed the [US] proposal at the UN for an inspection of the site of the chemical weapons attack in Douma.” She clearly hadn’t even bothered to research how the UNSC discussions went and who proposed what and why each proposal was vetoed. Mr Yakovenko had to explain it in detail. I got the distinct impression she probably didn’t even know that the OPCW were on their way to Syria at the invitation of the Syrians and Russians.

Mulga Mumblebrain
Mulga Mumblebrain
Apr 19, 2018 10:28 AM
Reply to  james bate

Those weren’t ‘interns’. The entire Western fakestream media comprises ignorant, boorish, moronic, Groupthinking thugs, acceptable as stooges to the likes of Murdoch.

Peter C
Peter C
Apr 19, 2018 11:14 AM

I have come to the conclusion that the majority of ‘journalists’ today are actually State Operatives. That conclusion is supported by the shameful lack of proper investigative journalism in regards to anything that the State deems important, the soft-ball questioning of Government spokespeople, the way interviewers seem to wilfully avoid asking the obvious, searching questions and concentrate on trivial points, the way that more and more content is exactly the same and presented in exactly the same way across the media, the way that many things that should be of real concern are simply ignored.

Mulga Mumblebrain
Mulga Mumblebrain
Apr 20, 2018 12:25 AM
Reply to  Peter C

Yes-the mysteriously suddenly deceased German Udo Ulfkotte, said as much, then had a heart attack, at 56. The revelations of CIA control decades ago are surely still relevant.The sheer viciousness of the bias screams at you from every Imperial propaganda broadcast. This morning the local ABC had two reports on Australian ships ‘confronted’ by China in the South CHINA Sea where we engage in provocations on orders from our US Masters. The first said the encounter was ‘…polite but robust..’, then, JUST FIVE MINUTES LATER, the encounter was simply ‘..robust’. So in five minutes some propaganda droog had determined that the ‘Yellow Peril’ must not be described as ‘polite’. I very much doubt that Western societies can sink much lower into the slime of malignant group hysteria, hate-mongering and lying hypocrisy, but I will not be surprised if that is wrong.

Mulga Mumblebrain
Mulga Mumblebrain
Apr 22, 2018 12:45 AM

And I was reminded by one commenter on RT, of course, that Carl Bernstein of Watergate notoriety, published a 25,000 word expose of CIA control of the US fakestream media, and the cover-up of this reality by the Church Committee, in 1977.