New EU sanctions on Russia imminent

[webfact]

Ukraine crisis: New EU sanctions hit Russia on Friday

(BBC) -- New EU sanctions against Russia will take effect on Friday, blocking loans for five big state banks and curbing EU business with oil and defence firms.

The aim is to keep pressure on Russia over its role in the Ukraine crisis. But the measures could be eased or lifted if a ceasefire in Ukraine holds.

Russia says it is preparing a response. One top Russian official said cars imported from the EU could be targeted.

Nato says Russia still has about 1,000 heavily armed troops in east Ukraine.

US President Barack Obama said his country would join the EU in imposing tougher sanctions on Russia, targeting the defence, finance and energy sectors. He said he would provide details on Friday.

The EU and US accuse the Kremlin of directly helping pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine's Donetsk and Luhansk regions by sending regular soldiers across the border, along with sophisticated weapons including tanks. Moscow denies the allegations.

Full story: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-29154488


-- BBC 2014-09-12

[Publicus]

The West Is About To Cut Off Russian Oil Exploration In The Arctic

Council of Foreign Relations

The United States and European Union have made plans to halt oil exploration in Russia by some of the world's biggest oil majors, according to Reuters sources. New sanctions are expected to be announced tomorrow.

The move would stop billions of dollars in planned oil exploration from companies in the Russian arctic.

While the country remains one of the biggest oil producers, its existing oilfields are considered to be in decline, making the Arctic exploration critical to its future as a leading energy supplier.

Read more: http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/russias-arctic-oil-exploration-threatened-by-fresh-western-sanctions-1464980?utm_medium=social#ixzz3D4O43tdF

From Bloomberg: "Once the EU implemented the new ban on sharing energy technology and services, the U.S. would follow suit with a similar package, including barring the export of U.S. gear and expertise for the specialized exploration that the Russians are unequipped to pursue on their own, the U.S. officials said."

Jason Bordoff, former energy adviser to President Barack Obama and founding director of the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University in New York, told Bloomberg that the sanctions "would be a very big deal."

I would add that the Nato countries, all but two of which are in Europe, don't seem too concerned about Putin more or less reducing energy supplies come October or so when the climate there gets particularly nasty. Or his trying to extort higher prices from his EU buyers.

Nor do all of the Nato allies seem too concerned about Russia demanding payment in rules for Russian oil or gas -- or maybe in gold.

Russia just doesn't have the technology it needs to drill for anything. Putin and his state-corporate boyz get the technology from the West. Needed capital too. The West -- that would be those same Nato countries Putin is spitting at -- are the only people that have both the technology and the capital resources Russia must have for its economy to survive.

Those same Nato countries Putin is verbally throwing nuclear weapons at.

Russia is isolating itself in its own region and is watching world opinion turn against it and against the rest of the self-aggrandizing Brics. Russia is quickly becoming little more than a gas station for China while simultaneously shut out from the EU.

Edited by Publicus for spacing.

Edited September 12, 2014 by Publicus

[umbanda]

Wonderful! Big opportunity for other countries's companies get the jobs!! Enjoy the loss US!!

[Naam]

Official Honorary Sub-Expert 3rd Class

"sub and 3rd" class applies indeed!

[Matej]

I have to say I'm nicely surprised how the European union, a very complicated system of 28 democratic states, cooperates together,

also I like to see that EU and USA are not corporate states, but democratic, using right forums for discussion/decision about these extremely important things and that's parliament and congress.

This is fourth set of sanctions against Putin's regime.

It's evident it has a huge negative impact on Russian economy, which will lead to Putin's unpopularity ... the throne is going to tremble, soon.

Edited September 15, 2014 by Matej

[konying]

And in the mean time Russia is considering to stop trading in US$.

Some EU countries have already expressed opposition to this as EU banking is the one that will suffer due to huge amounts of business and money they stand to lose.

Sadly US is putting pressure on EU and EU is caving.

Now sit back and watch , next few years would be interesting , especially when banks stop to lend to US and countries dropping US$ as trading currency.

By the way , funny enough EU has put breaks on taking /accepting Ukraine into EU

[Matej]

And in the mean time Russia is considering to stop trading in US$.

Some EU countries have already expressed opposition to this as EU banking is the one that will suffer due to huge amounts of business and money they stand to lose.

Sadly US is putting pressure on EU and EU is caving.

Now sit back and watch , next few years would be interesting , especially when banks stop to lend to US and countries dropping US$ as trading currency.

By the way , funny enough EU has put breaks on taking /accepting Ukraine into EU

Sadly US is putting pressure on EU and EU is caving.

The European union imposed fourth set of sanctions before the United states did.

By the way, funny enough EU has put breaks on taking /accepting Ukraine into EU.

There was/is no contract about taking Ukraine to European union, it was trade contract only ... and breaks put Ukraine not EU.

We will see how Ukraine decide after elections, which will tale place next month.

[konying]

And in the mean time Russia is considering to stop trading in US$.

Some EU countries have already expressed opposition to this as EU banking is the one that will suffer due to huge amounts of business and money they stand to lose.

Sadly US is putting pressure on EU and EU is caving.

Now sit back and watch , next few years would be interesting , especially when banks stop to lend to US and countries dropping US$ as trading currency.

By the way , funny enough EU has put breaks on taking /accepting Ukraine into EU

Sadly US is putting pressure on EU and EU is caving.

The European union imposed fourth set of sanctions before the United states did.

By the way, funny enough EU has put breaks on taking /accepting Ukraine into EU.

There was/is no contract about taking Ukraine to European union, it was trade contract only ... and breaks put Ukraine not EU.

We will see how Ukraine decide after elections, which will tale place next month.

Who do you think controls EU and its banking system?

In case you confused, US fined German and French bank not too long ago

[Matej]

And in the mean time Russia is considering to stop trading in US$.

Some EU countries have already expressed opposition to this as EU banking is the one that will suffer due to huge amounts of business and money they stand to lose.

Sadly US is putting pressure on EU and EU is caving.

Now sit back and watch , next few years would be interesting , especially when banks stop to lend to US and countries dropping US$ as trading currency.

By the way , funny enough EU has put breaks on taking /accepting Ukraine into EU

Sadly US is putting pressure on EU and EU is caving.

The European union imposed fourth set of sanctions before the United states did.

By the way, funny enough EU has put breaks on taking /accepting Ukraine into EU.

There was/is no contract about taking Ukraine to European union, it was trade contract only ... and breaks put Ukraine not EU.

We will see how Ukraine decide after elections, which will tale place next month.

Who do you think controls EU and its banking system?

In case you confused, US fined German and French bank not too long ago

Who do you think controls EU and its banking system?

In every European country someone else, but in general, the best answer would be, the bankers themselves, ECB, and maestro Dhragi of course, don't forget about law frame ...

[Publicus]

And in the mean time Russia is considering to stop trading in US$.

Some EU countries have already expressed opposition to this as EU banking is the one that will suffer due to huge amounts of business and money they stand to lose.

Sadly US is putting pressure on EU and EU is caving.

Now sit back and watch , next few years would be interesting , especially when banks stop to lend to US and countries dropping US$ as trading currency.

By the way , funny enough EU has put breaks on taking /accepting Ukraine into EU

Russia and U.S. trade is negligible to each country in dollar terms. It's the sophisticated energy high technology Russia needs from the U.S. to extract the resources that Russia won't get.

The EU is very strong in this Putin matter as I discussed in my post above.

What countries? No other country or group of countries even approach the deep and broad capital markets of the United States after which comes the capital markets of the EU. Russia's capital markets are small, lack rule of law, are corrupt, controlled by the state, are not quantified and are anyway insignificant, as is also the case concerning China's capital markets which are even worse off than Russia.

Predicting and predicting that the world is very soon before too long any time now sometime again in the near future going to stop trading in USD$ and stop using USD$ long ago did become tiresome and boring to hear. Yet the motor mouths who yap out this crap continue to do it. The Brics new development bank planned to come online in five years (if ever) on capitalization of only $100 billion will deal in USD$.

When Gazprom last month announced it would be "accepting" rubles instead of USD$ most global markets yawned and the markets that didn't yawn chuckled. Traders said openly and plainly the markets don't care what Russia does with its currency. Russia's currency is meaningless in global capital markets. Russia is a puny economy based on a dying industry of fossil fuels and its currency has no global or regional impact on anything anywhere at any time.

The fact is the world is watching Putin and Russia and the world says no, absolutely no to both.

[Naam]

i admire eggsburts who use the expression "USD$", are able to watch global markets yawn and chuckle and consider gold, diamonds, iron ore, nickel, aluminium and rare minerals (called "rare earths" by other eggsburts) "fossile fuels".

[konying]

And in the mean time Russia is considering to stop trading in US$.

Some EU countries have already expressed opposition to this as EU banking is the one that will suffer due to huge amounts of business and money they stand to lose.

Sadly US is putting pressure on EU and EU is caving.

Now sit back and watch , next few years would be interesting , especially when banks stop to lend to US and countries dropping US$ as trading currency.

By the way , funny enough EU has put breaks on taking /accepting Ukraine into EU

Russia and U.S. trade is negligible to each country in dollar terms. It's the sophisticated energy high technology Russia needs from the U.S. to extract the resources that Russia won't get.

The EU is very strong in this Putin matter as I discussed in my post above.

What countries? No other country or group of countries even approach the deep and broad capital markets of the United States after which comes the capital markets of the EU. Russia's capital markets are small, lack rule of law, are corrupt, controlled by the state, are not quantified and are anyway insignificant, as is also the case concerning China's capital markets which are even worse off than Russia.

Predicting and predicting that the world is very soon before too long any time now sometime again in the near future going to stop trading in USD$ and stop using USD$ long ago did become tiresome and boring to hear. Yet the motor mouths who yap out this crap continue to do it. The Brics new development bank planned to come online in five years (if ever) on capitalization of only $100 billion will deal in USD$.

When Gazprom last month announced it would be "accepting" rubles instead of USD$ most global markets yawned and the markets that didn't yawn chuckled. Traders said openly and plainly the markets don't care what Russia does with its currency. Russia's currency is meaningless in global capital markets. Russia is a puny economy based on a dying industry of fossil fuels and its currency has no global or regional impact on anything anywhere at any time.

The fact is the world is watching Putin and Russia and the world says no, absolutely no to both.

Russia does nor need anything from US , if anything other way around.

Russia makes titanium for boeing, russia makes nuclear parts for rocket fuel and is pretty much the only one who does it.

You are correct in saying trade between Russia and US is minimal and hence why US could not care less, and EU either too slow or too stupid to realize that.

Russia does hold a healthy sum of US$ in reserves and trading in US$ does not have to solely rely on trade with US, it's a domino effect, one of the reasons US went into Iraq, by the way. Saddam wanted to trade in euro to be "friendly" with EU, but your sources would not tell you that.

Another rather very major fact to mention.

US is supposedly there to help democracy and freedom and so is EU, well any reason why there has not been a single word of condemnation regarding over 3000 civilians being killed by Ukrainian Army?

Any reason why not a single word of condemnation from the West regarding Ukrainian army targeting civilian locations, schools and hospitals?

Any reason why not much of worry about over 300 000 refuges?

By the way, do you know how USD became world trading currency? and why?

Edited September 16, 2014 by konying

[Publicus]

And in the mean time Russia is considering to stop trading in US$.

Some EU countries have already expressed opposition to this as EU banking is the one that will suffer due to huge amounts of business and money they stand to lose.

Sadly US is putting pressure on EU and EU is caving.

Now sit back and watch , next few years would be interesting , especially when banks stop to lend to US and countries dropping US$ as trading currency.

By the way , funny enough EU has put breaks on taking /accepting Ukraine into EU

Russia and U.S. trade is negligible to each country in dollar terms. It's the sophisticated energy high technology Russia needs from the U.S. to extract the resources that Russia won't get.

The EU is very strong in this Putin matter as I discussed in my post above.

What countries? No other country or group of countries even approach the deep and broad capital markets of the United States after which comes the capital markets of the EU. Russia's capital markets are small, lack rule of law, are corrupt, controlled by the state, are not quantified and are anyway insignificant, as is also the case concerning China's capital markets which are even worse off than Russia.

Predicting and predicting that the world is very soon before too long any time now sometime again in the near future going to stop trading in USD$ and stop using USD$ long ago did become tiresome and boring to hear. Yet the motor mouths who yap out this crap continue to do it. The Brics new development bank planned to come online in five years (if ever) on capitalization of only $100 billion will deal in USD$.

When Gazprom last month announced it would be "accepting" rubles instead of USD$ most global markets yawned and the markets that didn't yawn chuckled. Traders said openly and plainly the markets don't care what Russia does with its currency. Russia's currency is meaningless in global capital markets. Russia is a puny economy based on a dying industry of fossil fuels and its currency has no global or regional impact on anything anywhere at any time.

The fact is the world is watching Putin and Russia and the world says no, absolutely no to both.

Russia does nor need anything from US , if anything other way around.

Russia makes titanium for boeing, russia makes nuclear parts for rocket fuel and is pretty much the only one who does it.

You are correct in saying trade between Russia and US is minimal and hence why US could not care less, and EU either too slow or too stupid to realize that.

Russia does hold a healthy sum of US$ in reserves and trading in US$ does not have to solely rely on trade with US, it's a domino effect, one of the reasons US went into Iraq, by the way. Saddam wanted to trade in euro to be "friendly" with EU, but your sources would not tell you that.

Another rather very major fact to mention.

US is supposedly there to help democracy and freedom and so is EU, well any reason why there has not been a single word of condemnation regarding over 3000 civilians being killed by Ukrainian Army?

Any reason why not a single word of condemnation from the West regarding Ukrainian army targeting civilian locations, schools and hospitals?

Any reason why not much of worry about over 300 000 refuges?

By the way, do you know how USD became world trading currency? and why?

By the way, do you know how USD became world trading currency? and why?

Let's hear it

And while you're at it why the bankrupt West deploys new measures to start war with a massively nuclear armed Russia led by a RasPutin wild man..

You conspiracy guys are whack-a-mole.

You present some obscure concoction and it gets shot down.

So you come up with another oblique angle of it. It gets shot down.

Then you guys come back again with yet another wild take on it, of it.

You guys pose your own off the wall questions for which you somehow miraculously have your own bizarre answers, unknown to anyone else.

Whack a mole entirely, completely, through and through. Again and again.

Give it a rest, man.

.....Fat chance eh.....

[fvw53]

Ukraine has wasted its future the last 20 years...

But let us not forget the most important problem :

With the annexation of Crimea it is very obvious that Russia has thrown the Budapest Memorandums out of the window ...the last time borders of Europe were changed this way was with the annexation of the Sudetenland by Hitler who thought nobody would stop him to go further. (Hitler also wanted to be the "protector" of all German speakers ...and Putin is showing the same inclination to all Russian speakers)

On December 5, 1994 the leaders of Ukraine, Russia, Britain and the United States signed a memorandum to remove nuclear weapons in Ukraine.
They all signed six agreements for Ukraine of which the first was :
1. The Russian Federation, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United States of America reaffirm their commitment to Ukraine, in accordance with the principles of the Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, to respect the independence and sovereignty and the existing borders of Ukraine.

The European leaders know their history and therefore ignoring what Russia is doing in Ukraine cannot be an option.

Edited September 17, 2014 by metisdead
Font reset to default forum font.

[h90]

I have to say I'm nicely surprised how the European union, a very complicated system of 28 democratic states, cooperates together,

also I like to see that EU and USA are not corporate states, but democratic, using right forums for discussion/decision about these extremely important things and that's parliament and congress.

This is fourth set of sanctions against Putin's regime.

It's evident it has a huge negative impact on Russian economy, which will lead to Putin's unpopularity ... the throne is going to tremble, soon.

Democratic? I don't know a single person in my country who thinks the sanctions are justified. Putins regime? Putin is elected and far more popular in Russia than any of the western leaders in their countries.

The big winner of the sanction will be China. Biggest looser the European industry/farmers.

[h90]

_{Ukraine has wasted its future the last 20 years...}

_{But let us not forget the most important problem :}

_{With the annexation of Crimea it is very obvious that Russia has thrown the Budapest Memorandums out of the window ...the last time borders of Europe were changed this way was with the annexation of the Sudetenland by Hitler who thought nobody would stop him to go further. (Hitler also wanted to be the "protector" of all German speakers ...and Putin is showing the same inclination to all Russian speakers)}

_{On December 5, 1994 the leaders of Ukraine, Russia, Britain and the United States signed a memorandum to remove nuclear weapons in Ukraine.}

They all signed six agreements for Ukraine of which the first was :

1. The Russian Federation, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United States of America reaffirm their commitment to Ukraine, in accordance with the principles of the Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, to respect the independence and sovereignty and the existing borders of Ukraine.

_{The European leaders know their history and therefore ignoring what Russia is doing in Ukraine cannot be an option.}

And what do you say about the fact, that the Ukraine coup government wanted to ban Russian language?

What about the 85% of the Crimea people voted to leave Ukraine (so not only the Russians on the Crimea wanted to go away). If Scotland vote for independence will Englands army (with additional right wing Hooligan units) invade them or will England let them go?

While the Crimea thing wasn't a great solution, what other choices were there for Russia?

[BATHIK]

I read somewhere that Russia consumes 60% of European car output. They can stop importing cars for a few years and survive but what will happen to German auto industry?

All this "You stop buying stuff from us!" strategy is against fundamental premises of western economies - they need to constantly expand just to survive and justify taking more debt.

EU proponents didn't do very well in elections earlier this year, did they? I can't imagine these sanctions are making EU leadership any more popular.

[Matej]

I have to say I'm nicely surprised how the European union, a very complicated system of 28 democratic states, cooperates together,

also I like to see that EU and USA are not corporate states, but democratic, using right forums for discussion/decision about these extremely important things and that's parliament and congress.

This is fourth set of sanctions against Putin's regime.

It's evident it has a huge negative impact on Russian economy, which will lead to Putin's unpopularity ... the throne is going to tremble, soon.

Democratic? I don't know a single person in my country who thinks the sanctions are justified. Putins regime? Putin is elected and far more popular in Russia than any of the western leaders in their countries.

The big winner of the sanction will be China. Biggest looser the European industry/farmers.

I don't know a single person in my country who thinks the sanctions are justified.

Maybe you should ask someone else.

The big winner of the sanction will be China. Biggest looser the European industry/farmers.

NO. The big winner IS China. The biggest loser IS Russia ...

Look at last contracts between Russia and China. Russia is so weakening itself that it will become a satellite of China.

[Matej]

The main aim of Russian propaganda and scumming about Ukraine(not only) is not to convince ordinary westerners that the Kremlin is right. Not at all.

Kremlin showed its true colors many times, everyone knows ...

The main aim is planting seeds of doubt; to doubt veracity of western media, politicians, analysts, democratic institutions, values ... create atmosphere that everyone is lying, which leads to opinion that it is not worth searching for truth, because no one really knows it ... this feeling is creating space for second floor of lies, where TASS, Russia Today, RIA Novosti ... operate. The essential lie on second floor is: this is not the conflict of values, it's geopolitical conflict!!! Conflict about who will control Ukraine. Story: we are all the same, the West or Russia it doesn't matter. there is no democracy, no freedom in this, but only power and economics(money, profit).

And from this base are coming common scums about Ukraine crisis, for example: fascism, USA behind the scene ... many others.

One more thing, the best answer to conspiracy theorists is laugh, mockery and sarcasm

Edited September 17, 2014 by Matej

[BATHIK]

The main aim is planting seeds of doubt; to doubt veracity of western media, politicians, analysts, democratic institutions, values

Chomsky must have been a KGB agent all along then.

One more thing, the best answer to conspiracy theorists is laugh, mockery and sarcasm

And what do you expect to achieve by this? Being thought of as a dick?

[Matej]

Structuralism, a child of Marxism - anti empirical theory, denying real world, highlighting theory and instead of accepting facts, preferring interpretations and ideas.

Noam Chomsky(natural aspects of language are superficial, speech and language are set by hidden structures of linguistics principles), Claude Levi-Strauss(social structures cannot be seen with our naked eyes, or by empirical observation, but they exist ... These structures influence our minds, what is seem to be free will is only reflection of these structures. OR: History if not sequence of random events, but recognizable formula, governed by knowable laws), Jacques Lacan(determinism of human behavior based on mimics, signals is possible ... free will is an illusion) and many others ...

Noam Chomsky is an old dinosaur, remnant of marxist false ideas about hidden social structures ...

Today, no one takes him seriously, despite some social utopists and anarchists.

His linguistic theories were refuted by scientific community.

He belongs to the same category like Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung.

[BATHIK]

Noam Chomsky is an old dinosaur, remnant of marxist false ideas about hidden social structures ...

Today, no one takes him seriously, despite some social utopists and anarchists.

His linguistic theories were refuted by scientific community.

So says you in your zealous push to diminish one of the intellectual titans of the 20th century.

A few years ago a couple of dudes wrote a book criticizing Chomsky. Among the reviews there's this: "The Anti-Chomsky Reader is mired in a thick haze of loathing and hard-right ideology, short on verifiable facts and long on ideologically-steeped assertions"

One of the positive reviews reveals the mindset of Chomsky's critics: "It [the book] provides a penetrating coverage of the disgraceful career of a disgraceful but very influential man, who has so far avoided a criticism as thoroughgoing as this."

Some of the stuff he said is controversial, sure, but most of it is just brilliant, there's no denying it.

[Loptr]

One more thing, the best answer to conspiracy theorists is laugh, mockery and sarcasm

And what do you expect to achieve by this? Being thought of as a dick?

For some, ignorance is bliss, along with quoting the party line and placing faith in the MSM... The irony is that detailed information surrounding most controversial topics is available for anyone to research and draw their own conclusions... It's the ignorant that refuse to accept the possibility that the party line is a false narrative, then mock those that question said party line, even in the face of proof... Personally, I find solace in the bleating of the sheep that dare not question their masters... I am not alone as trust in western media is at an all-time low...

http://www.gallup.com/poll/176042/trust-mass-media-returns-time-low.aspx

The notion that the US and EU have "isolated" Russia is laughable at best... Russia is the largest nation on earth and covers 11 time zones... It is rich in natural resources, which the Dragon of Asia is more than happy to purchase... They have a leader with a backbone that won't back down to western nonsense... New trade alliances and support from the BRICS will carry Russia through the EU / US sanctions... Whereas the EU economy was collapsing before the sanctions were imposed, now without the commodities exports to Russia, they are in worse shape... Protests are beginning in the EU already about the sanctions and implications... 50,000 jobs lost in Germany already... Plus it is going to be a long, cold winter in the EU when Russia's O&G exports are cut to the EU and no, EU reserves will not last the winter... The Munchkins in Brussels are bending over and taking it in the keister from the US, which will finish off the EU economically, which is exactly what uncle sugar wants, as $$$ fleeing the EU will wind up in US Treasuries as a safe haven, further perpetuating US hegemony... If you want the real picture, just check sovereign debt levels of the players... Russia is at 15% of GBP and what is it in the west? lol...

Sanctions imposed on Russia will only hasten the BRICS nations fleeing trade denominated in USD... There are $30 Trillion USD's sloshing around internationally in central banks being used to settle trade agreements... What do you think happens to the USD when countries start settling trade agreements in Yuan or some other medium? They all come home... The gate is open and the horse has bolted, it's only a matter of time...

It is well documented how this mess started in Ukraine and Syria, and it all goes back to O&G, Syrian distribution pipelines and the unholy alliance between Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Israel and the US... What is at stake is US hegemony (imperialism) and the Petrodollar standard... But of course I'm just a conspiracy theorist... Do your own homework...

[Matej]

Noam Chomsky's popularity is not based on his erudition, but on his American Solipsism
His work and books are not cited by any serious, peer-reviewed scientific journals ...
His handling of facts lie in its cumulation, regardless of its correctness and context
This man is unable to understand that in the world are many sources of evil, injustice, poverty ... which are not caused by American capitalism and imperialism.

This paranoia, Solipsism, caused that his philosophy shifted from standard left wing(until early sixties) to extreme left wing(anarchism, libertarian socialism ...), which led to his famous quotes and statements about Vietnam War, defending of Slobodan Milosevic, denying atrocities of Pol Pot's regime and many others ... WTC, Israeli-Palestinian conflict ...

By the way, I don't understand why did you come up with Noam Chomsky, in my comment/opinion #19 I was talking about mainstream Putin's mass media and your reaction was Noam Chomsky, man with marginal opinions, far from common western opinion.

Edited September 18, 2014 by Matej

[BATHIK]

His work and books are not cited by any serious, peer-reviewed scientific journals ...

Yeah?

"..according to a recent [2001] survey by the Institute for Scientific Information, only Marx, Lenin, Shakespeare, Aristotle, the Bible, Plato, and Freud are cited more often in academic journals than Chomsky, who edges out Hegel and Cicero." - source

Russians weren't the first to "doubt veracity of western media, politicians, analysts, democratic institutions, values" and they are certainly not the only ones.

[Publicus]

One more thing, the best answer to conspiracy theorists is laugh, mockery and sarcasm

And what do you expect to achieve by this? Being thought of as a dick?

For some, ignorance is bliss, along with quoting the party line and placing faith in the MSM... The irony is that detailed information surrounding most controversial topics is available for anyone to research and draw their own conclusions... It's the ignorant that refuse to accept the possibility that the party line is a false narrative, then mock those that question said party line, even in the face of proof... Personally, I find solace in the bleating of the sheep that dare not question their masters... I am not alone as trust in western media is at an all-time low...

http://www.gallup.com/poll/176042/trust-mass-media-returns-time-low.aspx

The notion that the US and EU have "isolated" Russia is laughable at best... Russia is the largest nation on earth and covers 11 time zones... It is rich in natural resources, which the Dragon of Asia is more than happy to purchase... They have a leader with a backbone that won't back down to western nonsense... New trade alliances and support from the BRICS will carry Russia through the EU / US sanctions... Whereas the EU economy was collapsing before the sanctions were imposed, now without the commodities exports to Russia, they are in worse shape... Protests are beginning in the EU already about the sanctions and implications... 50,000 jobs lost in Germany already... Plus it is going to be a long, cold winter in the EU when Russia's O&G exports are cut to the EU and no, EU reserves will not last the winter... The Munchkins in Brussels are bending over and taking it in the keister from the US, which will finish off the EU economically, which is exactly what uncle sugar wants, as $$$ fleeing the EU will wind up in US Treasuries as a safe haven, further perpetuating US hegemony... If you want the real picture, just check sovereign debt levels of the players... Russia is at 15% of GBP and what is it in the west? lol...

Sanctions imposed on Russia will only hasten the BRICS nations fleeing trade denominated in USD... There are $30 Trillion USD's sloshing around internationally in central banks being used to settle trade agreements... What do you think happens to the USD when countries start settling trade agreements in Yuan or some other medium? They all come home... The gate is open and the horse has bolted, it's only a matter of time...

It is well documented how this mess started in Ukraine and Syria, and it all goes back to O&G, Syrian distribution pipelines and the unholy alliance between Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Israel and the US... What is at stake is US hegemony (imperialism) and the Petrodollar standard... But of course I'm just a conspiracy theorist... Do your own homework...

Speaking of whack a mole.....

No other country or group of countries even approach the deep and broad capital markets of the United States after which comes the capital markets of the EU. Russia's capital markets are sufficient for Russia. They however lack the rule of law, are corrupt, controlled by the state, are not quantified and are anyway insignificant, as is also the case concerning China's capital markets which are even worse off than Russia.

Predicting and predicting that the world is very soon before too long any time now sometime again in the near future going to stop trading in USD$ and stop using USD$ long ago did become tiresome and boring to hear. Yet the motor mouths who yap this crap continue to do it. It doesn't stop them that the Brics new development bank planned to come online in five years (if ever) on capitalization of only $100 billion will deal in USD$.

When Gazprom last month announced it would be "accepting" rubles instead of USD$ most global markets yawned and the markets that didn't yawn chuckled. Traders said openly and plainly the markets don't care what Russia does with its currency. Russia's currency is meaningless in global capital markets. Russia has a shadowy and shady economy based on a dying industry of fossil fuels and its currency has no global or regional impact on anything anywhere at any time.

The fact is the ruble is fast becoming a rubble.....

Ruble plummets as Russia takes hit from sanctions

September 16, 2014

By Anna Arutunyan, Special for USA TODAY

A plummeting ruble, rising prices and mounting economic worries are hitting Russia in the wake of a new round of sanctions imposed by the United States and the European Union over Moscow's intervention in eastern Ukraine.

Russia's ruble traded at 38.8 against the dollar on Tuesday, setting a new historic low. The Russian currency has now fallen as much as 19% since the start of the year.

"Due to isolation from credit markets, there is a lot of buying on the domestic market," said Alexander Golovtsov, head researcher at UralSib Asset Management. That is driving up the value of the dollar and euro. "To compensate for the effects of this isolation, Russia would need about $150 billion."

http://www.hispanicbusiness.com/2014/9/16/ruble_plummets_as_russia_takes_hit.htm

Good thing for Russia they have 500 billion in USD$ in their forex reserve.

And it starts to look like they will need every last one of 'em.

It's already minus $150 billion, which leaves $350 billion and counting.

USD$ that Russia must use to keep itself afloat.

Edited September 18, 2014 by Publicus

[Matej]

Ratification of Ukraine–EU Association Agreement suggests that Vladimir Putin's effort to stop transformation of Ukraine is unrealistic.

[BATHIK]

Germany has a committee that monitors quality of public broadcasts done by a consortium called ARD. Their verdict - "fragmentary", "biased", "poor" and "one-sided", and there's a list of specific topics and examples. It includes everything - coverage of Ukr-EU association agreement, referendum in Crimea, attitudes of locals in Donbass towards Kiev, Russian invasion - the whole western narrative, it all has been skewed.

Google translate

[Publicus]

The cynicism of Putin and his people who need to claim nothing is to believed serves only their pernicious purposes, which are to undermine the rule of law and the stability of international law and order.

Those who say there aren't any facts on the ground and that everything we hear and see is invalid are in fact boldly calculating nihilists.

They seek to discourage pursuit of facts, reality, any semblance of truth.

So it can be expected Putin and his people will deny the facts reported here and will summarily and arbitrarily dismiss the MSM that present the reality. The entire strategy of Putin and the Putin people is to deny reality because reality works unrelentingly against them.

Serving Russian soldiers on leave fighting Ukrainian troops alongside rebels, pro-Russian separatist leader says Alexander Zakharchenko says among his rebels are fighting serving Russian soldiers, Russian state television reports, as US ambassador in Kiev says Russia is directly involved in east Ukraine

Alexander Zakharchenko says Russian soldiers took leave from their posts to fight with the rebels Photo: PA

By Agencies

East Ukrainian pro-Russian separatist leader Alexander Zakharchenko said 3-4,000 serving Russian soldiers, on leave from their posts, are fighting Ukrainian troops alongside the rebels, Russian state television reported.

"Among us are fighting serving soldiers, who would rather take their vacation not on a beach but with us, among brothers, who are fighting for their freedom," said Mr Zakharchenko in an interview posted on Vesti.ru, the website of a Russian state television station.

His comments come after Germany's Angela Merkel told Russian President Vladimir Putin by phone that reports of a new Russian military incursion into Ukrainian territory had to be cleared up, a spokesman for the chancellor said in a statement

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/angela-merkel/11060559/Serving-Russian-soldiers-on-leave-fighting-Ukrainian-troops-alongside-rebels-pro-Russian-separatist-leader-says.html

[BATHIK]

If it was "Russian army" they wouldn't be "soldiers on leave".

Volunteers, mercenaries - call them whatever, but they are not following Russian command orders and they do not have all kinds of support and protection extended to soldiers on duty - precisely the components that would make them into "Russian army" as opposed to "men with guns".