Novice spy gear. Cash. A recruitment letter. Bad wigs.

That’s what Russia’s Federal Security Service said an American accused of being a spy was carrying when he allegedly tried to recruit a Russian agent for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. The Russian counterintelligence bureau now wants the man, identified as Ryan Christopher Fogle, expelled from the country, declaring him a “persona non grata.”

Fogle was detained on Monday wearing a blond wig, Russian authorities said. They also said he had large sums of euros, a Boy Scouts-style compass, three pairs of glasses, a flashlight, a map of Moscow and a typed contract offering $ 100,000 for future spy work.

“This is a down-payment from someone who is very impressed with your professionalism and who would greatly appreciate your cooperation in the future,” the letter, published by Russian news sites, reads. “Your security means a lot to us. This is why we chose this way of contacting you. We will continue to make sure our correspondent sic remains safe and secret.”

The letter concludes: “We look forward to working with you in the nearest future. Your friends.”

According to Russian officials, Fogle was a career agent whose cover was his role as third secretary of the political department of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. Photos published by the Russia Today website showed a man, presumed to be Fogle, in a blue-checkered shirt, baseball cap and blond wig pinned facedown to the ground. He was then was shown handcuffed inside an FSS office—without the wig. Another photograph shows a table covered with Fogle’s purported spy gear.

“The detainee was brought in the reception office of the Federal Security Service and after necessary procedures was handed over to the official representatives of the U.S. Embassy,” the bureau said in a statement. “Recently American intelligence has made multiple attempts to recruit employees of Russian law enforcement organs and special agencies, which have been detected and monitored by Russian FSB counterintelligence.”

The U.S. Embassy has yet to comment on the report.

According to The New York Times, Russia’s Foreign Ministry summoned U.S. Ambassador Michael McFaul to appear on Wednesday to respond to the espionage allegation.

The ambassador, Reuters noted, was holding a live Q&A session (“#AskMcfaul”) on Twitter when news of the apparent arrest broke.

When was asked to comment on Fogle, McFaul wrote “No” in Russian.

Link

Novice spy gear. Cash. A recruitment letter. Bad wigs.

That’s what Russia’s Federal Security Service said an American accused of being a spy was carrying when he allegedly tried to recruit a Russian agent for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. The Russian counterintelligence bureau now wants the man, identified as Ryan Christopher Fogle, expelled from the country, declaring him a “persona non grata.”

Fogle was detained on Monday wearing a blond wig, Russian authorities said. They also said he had large sums of euros, a Boy Scouts-style compass, three pairs of glasses, a flashlight, a map of Moscow and a typed contract offering $ 100,000 for future spy work.

“This is a down-payment from someone who is very impressed with your professionalism and who would greatly appreciate your cooperation in the future,” the letter, published by Russian news sites, reads. “Your security means a lot to us. This is why we chose this way of contacting you. We will continue to make sure our correspondent sic remains safe and secret.”

The letter concludes: “We look forward to working with you in the nearest future. Your friends.”

According to Russian officials, Fogle was a career agent whose cover was his role as third secretary of the political department of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. Photos published by the Russia Today website showed a man, presumed to be Fogle, in a blue-checkered shirt, baseball cap and blond wig pinned facedown to the ground. He was then was shown handcuffed inside an FSS office—without the wig. Another photograph shows a table covered with Fogle’s purported spy gear.

“The detainee was brought in the reception office of the Federal Security Service and after necessary procedures was handed over to the official representatives of the U.S. Embassy,” the bureau said in a statement. “Recently American intelligence has made multiple attempts to recruit employees of Russian law enforcement organs and special agencies, which have been detected and monitored by Russian FSB counterintelligence.”

The U.S. Embassy has yet to comment on the report.

According to The New York Times, Russia’s Foreign Ministry summoned U.S. Ambassador Michael McFaul to appear on Wednesday to respond to the espionage allegation.

The ambassador, Reuters noted, was holding a live Q&A session (“#AskMcfaul”) on Twitter when news of the apparent arrest broke.

When was asked to comment on Fogle, McFaul wrote “No” in Russian.

Link

Kerry couldn’t set Moscow River on fire
By M K Bhadrakumar

The foreplay of Russian-American high-level exchanges can be very revealing. This time too the two sides indulged in some robust shadow play in the run-up to the overnight “working visit” of the United States Secretary of State John Kerry to Moscow on Tuesday.

Kerry’s talks produced a significant result with Washington and Moscow agreeing on a “road map” for the resolution of the Syrian crisis. Part of the reason why the perception of a “breakthrough” formed almost instantaneously is because Kerry’s visit took place against a backdrop of dark forebodings.

The Israeli attacks on Syria with which, to put it mildly, Washington acquiesced, provided a strange “curtain-raiser” to Kerry’s talks in Moscow. Indeed, Moscow was furious and President Vladimir Putin phoned up Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (who was in Shanghai) and according to Debka, gave him a “dressing down”, warning him of serious consequences if any such rash things were to be repeated.

Again, knowing full well that Syria would figure at the top of Kerry’s agenda in Moscow, on Monday the US senate’s foreign relations committee took up a draft bill proposing American military help for the Syrian rebel fighters It was no doubt a barely-disguised pressure tactic threatening Moscow that unless it compromised on Syria, Obama would arm the anti-regime fighters.

Low expectations
Finally, while on a “working visit”, Kerry should have kept himself to government business, but he was to hold a meeting with Russian civil society activists in the embassy residence in Moscow, knowing full well the sensitivities in the Kremlin.

Least of all, it was a tasteless decision diplomatically to have hosted Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvilli in Washington just before Kerry left on his Russia visit. Kerry and Saakashvilli probably go back a long way, but the Georgian is a red rag for the Kremlin bull, and Putin has not cared to hide a visceral contempt toward him for having drawn Russian blood.

Suffice to say, Moscow was not exactly in a euphoric mood when Kerry landed at Vnukovo airport on his first visit to Russia as the US’s top diplomat. He found himself cooling his heels in the airport lounge in Vnukovo for 30 minutes because, his hosts explained, there was a traffic jam in downtown Moscow due to a military parade.

Thereafter, Kerry’s previously scheduled appointment at the Kremlin was itself delayed by three hours; the reason given was that Putin was taking a cabinet meeting, which somehow got extended.

To be sure, the timing was more than a coincidence that even as Kerry arrived on Russian soil, Moscow authorities raided the offices of three more NGOs and alleged that they have illegally received “considerable sums of money from foreign sources, first of all from US sources”. The US-based organizations which have been incriminated include high-flyers such as the George Soros Foundation and the National Endowment for Democracy.

In sum, both Washington and Moscow seemed to have resigned already by Tuesday morning to a low expectation from Kerry’s visit. Indeed, the thorny topics that separate them such as the Syrian situation, the Iran nuclear problem or the anti-missile defense system do not easily lend to reconciliation.

Moscow is yet to reply to a letter from President Barack Obama, which was handed over to Putin by the visiting National Security Advisor Thomas Donilon last month. The letter reportedly contained Obama’s proposals on strategic nuclear disarmament, but Moscow links the subject with progress on the discussions over the US’ anti-missile defense program.

Meanwhile, interestingly, two Russian Bear H nuclear capable bombers were spotted on April 28 and 29 flying into the US military’s Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone and Alaska’s North Slope region on the Arctic and Chukchi Seas where a strategic missile defense radar is located.

This was the fifth such incident since last June of Russian strategic bombers flying against supersensitive US military establishments, which used to be a cold-war era occurrence.

Who are the parties?
All things taken into account, Kerry came under pressure to show that his talks in Moscow were indeed fruitful. He took pains at the joint press conference with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, to display a significant breakthrough on Syria – while Lavrov let him do the talking. Lavrov said,
Russia and US will work to bring the Assad regime and the opposition together for talks aimed at finding a political solution to the crisis. We have also agreed to hold an international conference in late May to build on a transition plan set out last year in Geneva. Russia and US confirmed their intention to respect Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
While Kerry exuded optimism that the Syrian opposition is prepared to sit with the Assad regime and has already adopted an approach that is “inclusive and democratic”, Lavrov said he would suspend judgment for the present.

As for Syria’s territorial integrity, Moscow will factor in that the US needs to not only walk the talk but also bully its regional to roll back their huge financial, material and financial support to the Syrian opposition fighters.

At one point Kerry could only barely hold back from repeating Washington’s call for regime change in Syria. He said:
Our position has been that it’s impossible for me as an individual to understand how Syria could possibly be governed in the future by the man who has committed the things that we know have taken place. But that’s not – I’m not going to decide that tonight. And I’m not going to decide that in the end. Because the Geneva communique says that the transitional government has to be chosen by mutual consent by the parties. Who are the parties? The parties are the current regime and the opposition.
Lavrov, however, held his ground that the Syrian regime simply cannot be excluded from the political dialogue. He said:
The Syrian people is not an abstract notion, it is not the regime alone, it is not the opposition, which has lived abroad for years, alone, it is the entire nation. A major part of the population is afraid that the regime might be overturned. They are afraid that those who are fighting against the regime might take an upper hand and Syria will become a country ruled by extremists.
Again, Kerry somewhat fudged the date of the conference and qualified that “as soon as is practical, possibly and hopefully by the end of this month, we will convene – seek to convene an international conference as a follow-on to last summer’s Geneva conference.”

Deafening silence
Equally, when asked to comment on the US draft law mooted on the Hill on Monday regarding arms supplies to Syrian rebels, Kerry declined to answer directly. Moscow, for sure, will make a careful note of Kerry’s ambivalence.

The US officials sought to create the impression that Kerry hoped to “push Putin on Syria” through two new angles, namely, US threats to arm the Syrian opposition and the evidence of Syrian government use of chemical weapons.

This was a lousy diplomatic tactic and probably boomeranged, given that Putin hates to be seen buckling under American pressure. In the event, the US shifted its position on the core issue; namely, its demand that the Assad regime should quit as a prelude to any dialogue.

On the other hand, a new challenge now arises for both sides. For Moscow, it becomes important to hold Kerry to his word as regards the imperative of an inclusive political dialogue that includes the government.

For Washington, on the contrary, there lies the challenge of persuading the rulers of its Saudi, Qatari and Turkish allies into accepting that Assad is a legitimate participant in the Syrian dialogue, no matter their intense antipathy toward him.

What probably strengthens the US hand is that the European allies are “very satisfied” with the US-Russia agreement that “the solution of the Syrian conflict lies in a comprehensive political settlement.”

But then, there is a deafening silence in Riyadh, Doha and Qatar about the “breakthrough” achieved in Kerry’s Moscow talks.

On balance, Russian cannot but estimate that the Obama administration and Kerry, in particular, is under enormous pressure from congress, influential sections of the US strategic community, and indeed America’s Persian Gulf allies and Israel – as well as from within the foreign-policy establishment itself – to “do something” about Syria.

But the Obama administration is also acutely conscious that the American public disfavors US involvement in a new round of war after a decade of conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan, which took the lives of 6,000 US service members.

Moscow perceives Kerry to be an amenable interlocutor. The leading Russian political thinker Sergei Karaganov recently pointed out that Kerry’s predecessor, Hillary Clinton, was preachy about “moral values” and ended up irritating many Russian officials.

Thus, the Russian side could have gone a bit out of the way to strengthen Kerry’s hands at this juncture. But then, it was, arguably, a bit too much to expect, given that for both Russia and for the US, key interests are involved and the policies on major global issues would ultimately prevail.

Kerry himself set a somewhat low benchmark for his visit assessing beforehand that it would lead to a full-fledged “healthy” dialogue between the US and Russia. That is happening with Putin slated to meet Obama next month on the sidelines of the Group of Eight summit in Northern Ireland.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MID-01-090513.html

Lavrov: Moscow will be Supplying Syria with Weapons Based on Signed Contracts. Screw you, Jewnato.

http://sana.sy/eng/22/2013/04/30/479927.htm
Apr 30, 2013

MOSCOW, (SANA)- Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, said that Moscow has never tried to hide supplying Syria with weapons according to previously signed contracts.
Russia Today website quoted Lavrov as asserting, in an interview with the British Foreign Policy Magazine, that any country has the right to possess defensive means that are not prohibited by any international treaty.
” These contracts are mostly connected with supplying the Syrian government with anti-air defence systems,” he said, adding that it is quite clear that Syria needs defensive means as the threats are not virtual but quite realistic.”
“Any country has the right to possess defensive means that are not banned by any international treaty therefore we don’t violate any treaty,” Lavrov said.
He called for further concentration on the other side with taking into consideration the information on arming the opposition with offensive weapons which had been smuggled from Libya, including the portable missile systems which are considered as very dangerous weapons.
The Russian Foreign Minister said:” We should take these information into consideration, particularly following the statements of the leaders of the ‘Free Army’ that the aircrafts including the civil ones and the airports will be licit goals,” noting that “It is very dangerous.”
Lavrov reiterated Russia’s call for stopping violence and launching a non-preconditioned dialogue, pointing to some positive changes in the stances of the powers which were rejecting dialogue.
He asserted that this possible change occurred not only in the stances of Washington, Paris and the capitals of other European countries but also in the stance of the Arab countries which have become say things that they didn’t say before, particularly that dialogue should be launched.
H. Zain / Ghossoun

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Chinese President Xi Jinping warned against foreign interference in the affairs of other nations during a speech in Moscow on Saturday, sending a signal to the West and echoing a message often repeated by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Permanent U.N. Security Council members with veto power, Russia and China have frequently teamed up diplomatically to blunt the influence of the United States and its NATO allies and have blocked three draft resolutions on Syria.

“We must respect the right of each country in the world to independently choose its path of development and oppose interference in the internal affairs of other countries,” Xi told students at an international relations school.

He spoke a day after meeting Putin on his first foreign trip since becoming president, a choice both said underscored a “strategic partnership” between Russia and China. In the Kremlin, he told Putin: “you and I are good friends.”

Xi told Russian students on Saturday: “Strong Chinese-Russian relations … not only answer to our interests but also serve as an important, reliable guarantee of an international strategic balance and peace.”

Putin, who began a six-year term last May, has often criticized foreign interference in sovereign states.

Russia and China have resisted Western calls to pressure Syrian President Bashar al-Assad over the two-year-old civil conflict that has killed more than 70,000 people.

They both criticized the NATO bombing that helped rebels overthrow Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 and stood together in the Security Council in votes on the Iranian and North Korean nuclear programs.

Both China and Russia have bristled at U.S. and European criticism of their human rights records.

Putin said in a foreign policy decree issued at the start of his new term that Russia would counter attempts to use human rights as a pretext for interference, and his government has cracked down on foreign-funded non-governmental organizations.

FRIENDSHIP AND FEAR

Xi told Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev his visit had “surpassed my expectations” and said he had chosen Russia as his first foreign destination as president to “show the special importance of our relations.”

Despite the warm words, Moscow is concerned that its far more populous, faster-growing neighbor could pose a threat, something that has not made for easy deals between the world’s biggest energy producer, Russia, and its biggest consumer, China.

Xi’s visit produced an agreement for Russian state giant Rosneft to gradually treble oil supplies to China, but the sides are still short of a deal on the supply of pipeline gas to China, thwarted for years over prices.

Viktor Yaskov, a student who attended Xi’s address, said the Chinese leader made “a good impression”, but expressed fears about the neighbor. “We’re worried about Chinese economic expansion,” he said.

Xi arrived in Moscow with glamorous first lady Peng Liyuan, prompting speculation about whether Putin’s wife Lyudmila – last seen at a state event last May – would make an appearance.

That did not happen, and Peng kept a low profile after her first steps off the airplane caused an Internet sensation in China.

After Russia, Xi will visit Tanzania, the Republic of Congo and South Africa, where he and Putin are expected to meet again at a summit of the BRICS group of emerging economies next week.

(Additional reporting by Megan Davies; Writing by Steve Gutterman; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

Link

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Moscow to start evacuating Russians from Syria
By BASSEM MROUE and VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV | Associated Press – 1 hr 16 mins ago.. .
..

BEIRUT (AP) — Russia said Monday it is sending two planes to Lebanon to start evacuating its citizens from Syria, the strongest sign yet that President Bashar Assad’s most important international ally has serious doubts about his ability to cling to power.

The Russian announcement came as anti-government activists reported violence around the country, including air raids on the town of Beit Sahm near Damascus International Airport, just south of the capital.

Russian officials said about 100 of the tens of thousands of Russian nationals in the country will be taken out overland to Lebanon and flown home from there, presumably because renewed fighting near the airport in Damascus has made it too dangerous for the foreigners to use that route out of the Syrian capital.

Assad has dismissed calls that he step down. He has proposed a national reconciliation conference, elections and a new constitution, but the opposition insists he play no role in a resolution to the conflict. The U.N. says more than 60,000 people have died in the civil war since March 2011.

Russia has been Assad’s main ally since the conflict began, using its veto power in the U.N. Security Council to shield Damascus from international sanctions.

Russia recently started to distance itself from the Syrian ruler, signaling that it is resigned to him losing power. Russian President Vladimir Putin said last month that he understands Syria needs change and that he was not protecting Assad.

Russian officials say the evacuation of thousands of its citizens from Syria — many of them Russian women married to Syrians — could be by both air and sea.

A squadron of Russian Navy ships currently is in the Mediterranean for a planned exercise near Syrian shores later this month. Military officials earlier said that the exercise will simulate marines landing and taking people on board from the shore.

Earlier this month, Lakhdar Brahimi, who is the joint U.N.-Arab League envoy for Syria, said that Russia seemed as determined as the United States to end Syria’s civil war, but that he didn’t expect a political solution to emerge anytime soon.

The Arab League chief said Monday that Brahimi’s mission had not yielded even a “flicker of hope.”

In Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Nabil Elaraby proposed that the heads of state gathered there at an economic summit call for an immediate meeting of the U.N. Security Council. He suggested the security council adopt a resolution calling for a cease-fire in Syria and establish a monitoring force to ensure compliance.

Syria’s defense minister said Monday that the army would keep chasing rebels all over the country “until it achieves victory and thwarts the conspiracy that Syria is being subjected to.”

Gen. Fahd Jassem al-Freij’s comments came as activists reported air raids and shelling around the nation.

Monday’s fighting included a helicopter raid in the northeastern town of Tabqa that killed eight people, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The Observatory also reported a car bombing in the Damascus neighborhood of Dummar and said another car bomb exploded late Monday in central Syria, killing at least 30 pro-government gunmen in Salamiyeh.

In addition, the group said there were clashes in the town of Ras al-Ayn near the border with Turkey between fighters from the Kurdish Democratic Union Party, or PYD, which leans in favor of Syria’s government and anti-government rebels, who entered the town in November.

Tensions have flared between Syria and Turkey after shells fired from Syria landed on the Turkish side of the border. As a result, Germany, the Netherlands and the United States decided to send two batteries of Patriot air defense missiles each to protect Turkey, their NATO ally.

On Monday, German soldiers unloaded trucks carrying the missile systems at the port of Iskenderun, while another ship, carrying the Dutch shipment, waited its turn anchored at the harbor.

The U.N. said that there are an estimated 4 million people were in urgent need of humanitarian assistance in Syria, including at least 2 million who are internally displaced. With harsh winter conditions, people are facing heavy rains and sub-zero temperatures, often without adequate food, shelter, water or access to medical care.

The McClatchy news organization published a report on Monday, supporting activists’ claim that Syrian forces have been targeting bakeries. According to data compiled by the news organization, government forces attacked bread lines and bakeries at least 80 times last year, causing hundreds of casualties and in most cases destroying the bakeries.

The Syrian government, meantime, blamed a rebel attack on a key power line for a blackout that hit Damascus and much of the country’s south overnight, leaving residents cold and in the dark amid a fuel crisis that has stranded many at home.

The Syrian capital’s 2.5 million residents have grown used to frequent power cuts as the country’s conflict has damaged infrastructure and sapped the government’s finances. But some said Monday that the overnight outage was the first to darken the entire capital since the conflict began.

The blackout hit residents especially hard because of rampant fuel shortages and below-freezing temperatures.

“We covered ourselves from the cold in blankets because there was no diesel or electricity for the heaters,” said retired teacher Mariam Ghassan, 60. “We changed our whole lives to get organized for power cuts, but now we have no idea when the power will come or go.”

By midday Monday, power had returned to more than half of the capital, and Electricity Minister Imad Khamis said authorities were working to restore it in other areas.

http://news.yahoo.com/moscow-start-evacuating-russians-syria-181157107.html

..

Moscow to start evacuating Russians from Syria
By BASSEM MROUE and VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV | Associated Press – 1 hr 16 mins ago.. .
..

BEIRUT (AP) — Russia said Monday it is sending two planes to Lebanon to start evacuating its citizens from Syria, the strongest sign yet that President Bashar Assad’s most important international ally has serious doubts about his ability to cling to power.

The Russian announcement came as anti-government activists reported violence around the country, including air raids on the town of Beit Sahm near Damascus International Airport, just south of the capital.

Russian officials said about 100 of the tens of thousands of Russian nationals in the country will be taken out overland to Lebanon and flown home from there, presumably because renewed fighting near the airport in Damascus has made it too dangerous for the foreigners to use that route out of the Syrian capital.

Assad has dismissed calls that he step down. He has proposed a national reconciliation conference, elections and a new constitution, but the opposition insists he play no role in a resolution to the conflict. The U.N. says more than 60,000 people have died in the civil war since March 2011.

Russia has been Assad’s main ally since the conflict began, using its veto power in the U.N. Security Council to shield Damascus from international sanctions.

Russia recently started to distance itself from the Syrian ruler, signaling that it is resigned to him losing power. Russian President Vladimir Putin said last month that he understands Syria needs change and that he was not protecting Assad.

Russian officials say the evacuation of thousands of its citizens from Syria — many of them Russian women married to Syrians — could be by both air and sea.

A squadron of Russian Navy ships currently is in the Mediterranean for a planned exercise near Syrian shores later this month. Military officials earlier said that the exercise will simulate marines landing and taking people on board from the shore.

Earlier this month, Lakhdar Brahimi, who is the joint U.N.-Arab League envoy for Syria, said that Russia seemed as determined as the United States to end Syria’s civil war, but that he didn’t expect a political solution to emerge anytime soon.

The Arab League chief said Monday that Brahimi’s mission had not yielded even a “flicker of hope.”

In Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Nabil Elaraby proposed that the heads of state gathered there at an economic summit call for an immediate meeting of the U.N. Security Council. He suggested the security council adopt a resolution calling for a cease-fire in Syria and establish a monitoring force to ensure compliance.

Syria’s defense minister said Monday that the army would keep chasing rebels all over the country “until it achieves victory and thwarts the conspiracy that Syria is being subjected to.”

Gen. Fahd Jassem al-Freij’s comments came as activists reported air raids and shelling around the nation.

Monday’s fighting included a helicopter raid in the northeastern town of Tabqa that killed eight people, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The Observatory also reported a car bombing in the Damascus neighborhood of Dummar and said another car bomb exploded late Monday in central Syria, killing at least 30 pro-government gunmen in Salamiyeh.

In addition, the group said there were clashes in the town of Ras al-Ayn near the border with Turkey between fighters from the Kurdish Democratic Union Party, or PYD, which leans in favor of Syria’s government and anti-government rebels, who entered the town in November.

Tensions have flared between Syria and Turkey after shells fired from Syria landed on the Turkish side of the border. As a result, Germany, the Netherlands and the United States decided to send two batteries of Patriot air defense missiles each to protect Turkey, their NATO ally.

On Monday, German soldiers unloaded trucks carrying the missile systems at the port of Iskenderun, while another ship, carrying the Dutch shipment, waited its turn anchored at the harbor.

The U.N. said that there are an estimated 4 million people were in urgent need of humanitarian assistance in Syria, including at least 2 million who are internally displaced. With harsh winter conditions, people are facing heavy rains and sub-zero temperatures, often without adequate food, shelter, water or access to medical care.

The McClatchy news organization published a report on Monday, supporting activists’ claim that Syrian forces have been targeting bakeries. According to data compiled by the news organization, government forces attacked bread lines and bakeries at least 80 times last year, causing hundreds of casualties and in most cases destroying the bakeries.

The Syrian government, meantime, blamed a rebel attack on a key power line for a blackout that hit Damascus and much of the country’s south overnight, leaving residents cold and in the dark amid a fuel crisis that has stranded many at home.

The Syrian capital’s 2.5 million residents have grown used to frequent power cuts as the country’s conflict has damaged infrastructure and sapped the government’s finances. But some said Monday that the overnight outage was the first to darken the entire capital since the conflict began.

The blackout hit residents especially hard because of rampant fuel shortages and below-freezing temperatures.

“We covered ourselves from the cold in blankets because there was no diesel or electricity for the heaters,” said retired teacher Mariam Ghassan, 60. “We changed our whole lives to get organized for power cuts, but now we have no idea when the power will come or go.”

By midday Monday, power had returned to more than half of the capital, and Electricity Minister Imad Khamis said authorities were working to restore it in other areas.

http://news.yahoo.com/moscow-start-evacuating-russians-syria-181157107.html

Moscow, Beijing reconnect as reset with US fizzles

Published: 09 January, 2013, 15:52

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin (L) shakes hands with China’s Premier Wen Jiabao (AFP Photo/Takuro Yabe)

Russia and China, which share many of the same international concerns, are looking to fortify their strategic partnership.

­At a time when the neighboring countries are beginning to feel the heat of the US military, it seems only natural that Moscow and Beijing are beginning to plant the seeds of a long-term strategic relationship.

Xi Jinping, the secretary-general of the Chinese Communist Party, underlined his country’s commitment to a Russian partnership when he noted that he and President Vladimir Putin “came to the unanimous conclusion” that a “comprehensive strategic partnership” between Moscow and Beijing remains the “top priority of their foreign policy.”

The comments were made on Tuesday during a visit to Beijing by Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolay Patrushev, who is participating in the eighth round of Russian-Chinese consultations on strategic security.

Xi Jingping, 59, who was sworn as the highest-ranking Communist official in November, echoed the sentiments of the Russian president, who noted at his recent Q&A session with international media that Russo-Chinese relations “have become one of the most important factors in the (realm of) international affairs.”

Given the geopolitical realities of the region, it should come as no surprise that Moscow and Beijing are looking to forge a strategic partnership.

Whereas China, traditionally an isolationist country that shuns bilateral alliances, rarely reveals its political hand, Russia made a leap of faith when it attempted to forge a so-called reset in relations with Washington. Today, the reset is in shambles, while many in Moscow accuse Washington of allowing the partnership to deteriorate.

Indeed, much of the blame for the Russia-US fallout is due to Washington’s plans to place a missile defense shield in Eastern Europe, just miles from the Russian border. NATO, originally declaring its intention to cooperate with Russia on the project, remains intransigent, while even refusing to provide Moscow with a legal guarantee that the system will never be aimed at Russian territory.

Moscow rightly warned its Western partners that without Russia’s participation in the system the strategic balance would be upset and there would be another arms race. Still, US and NATO officials have been reluctant to bring Russia on board, and this refusal has played havoc with Moscow’s and Washington’s efforts to nurture a reset between the former Cold War enemies.

In fact, given the current stalemate, the reset itself seems to have been merely a ploy to win Russia’s trust at the same time that a threatening military technology was being introduced courtesy of the Obama administration.

Meanwhile, China, which recently celebrated the launch of its first aircraft carrier (the US Navy already has six carriers assigned to the Pacific), is witnessing a growing US naval presence in the Pacific.

The US military brass announced in June that up to 60 per cent of the Navy’s fleet will be deployed to the Pacific by 2020.

At the same time, Moscow and Beijing hold similar positions on a variety of other international issues, including the situation in Syria, where militants are attempting to force President Bashar Assad from power. Russian and Chinese diplomats have called for a general ceasefire followed by negotiations, whereas the United States has thrown its weight behind the opposition.

“Moscow and Beijing both hold similar positions on the global hotspots, including in Syria, North Korea, Afghanistan and Iran,” Evgeny Bazhanov, president of the Diplomatic Academy of Russia’s Foreign Ministry, told RT in an earlier interview. “They are also both deeply suspicious of the US missile defense system.”

Finally, the China-Russia relationship is motivated by other factors aside from their increasing wariness of American geopolitical intentions.

For example, considering China’s exploding economy, Beijing requires a reliable flow of oil and gas. Russia, meanwhile, welcomes the opportunity to diversify its ample supply of natural resources.

Interstate consultations on strategic issues between Russia and China were launched in 2005.

http://rt.com/politics/russia-china-patrushev-security-military-616/

Moscow, Beijing reconnect as reset with US fizzles

Published: 09 January, 2013, 15:52

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin (L) shakes hands with China’s Premier Wen Jiabao (AFP Photo/Takuro Yabe)

Russia and China, which share many of the same international concerns, are looking to fortify their strategic partnership.

­At a time when the neighboring countries are beginning to feel the heat of the US military, it seems only natural that Moscow and Beijing are beginning to plant the seeds of a long-term strategic relationship.

Xi Jinping, the secretary-general of the Chinese Communist Party, underlined his country’s commitment to a Russian partnership when he noted that he and President Vladimir Putin “came to the unanimous conclusion” that a “comprehensive strategic partnership” between Moscow and Beijing remains the “top priority of their foreign policy.”

The comments were made on Tuesday during a visit to Beijing by Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolay Patrushev, who is participating in the eighth round of Russian-Chinese consultations on strategic security.

Xi Jingping, 59, who was sworn as the highest-ranking Communist official in November, echoed the sentiments of the Russian president, who noted at his recent Q&A session with international media that Russo-Chinese relations “have become one of the most important factors in the (realm of) international affairs.”

Given the geopolitical realities of the region, it should come as no surprise that Moscow and Beijing are looking to forge a strategic partnership.

Whereas China, traditionally an isolationist country that shuns bilateral alliances, rarely reveals its political hand, Russia made a leap of faith when it attempted to forge a so-called reset in relations with Washington. Today, the reset is in shambles, while many in Moscow accuse Washington of allowing the partnership to deteriorate.

Indeed, much of the blame for the Russia-US fallout is due to Washington’s plans to place a missile defense shield in Eastern Europe, just miles from the Russian border. NATO, originally declaring its intention to cooperate with Russia on the project, remains intransigent, while even refusing to provide Moscow with a legal guarantee that the system will never be aimed at Russian territory.

Moscow rightly warned its Western partners that without Russia’s participation in the system the strategic balance would be upset and there would be another arms race. Still, US and NATO officials have been reluctant to bring Russia on board, and this refusal has played havoc with Moscow’s and Washington’s efforts to nurture a reset between the former Cold War enemies.

In fact, given the current stalemate, the reset itself seems to have been merely a ploy to win Russia’s trust at the same time that a threatening military technology was being introduced courtesy of the Obama administration.

Meanwhile, China, which recently celebrated the launch of its first aircraft carrier (the US Navy already has six carriers assigned to the Pacific), is witnessing a growing US naval presence in the Pacific.

The US military brass announced in June that up to 60 per cent of the Navy’s fleet will be deployed to the Pacific by 2020.

At the same time, Moscow and Beijing hold similar positions on a variety of other international issues, including the situation in Syria, where militants are attempting to force President Bashar Assad from power. Russian and Chinese diplomats have called for a general ceasefire followed by negotiations, whereas the United States has thrown its weight behind the opposition.

“Moscow and Beijing both hold similar positions on the global hotspots, including in Syria, North Korea, Afghanistan and Iran,” Evgeny Bazhanov, president of the Diplomatic Academy of Russia’s Foreign Ministry, told RT in an earlier interview. “They are also both deeply suspicious of the US missile defense system.”

Finally, the China-Russia relationship is motivated by other factors aside from their increasing wariness of American geopolitical intentions.

For example, considering China’s exploding economy, Beijing requires a reliable flow of oil and gas. Russia, meanwhile, welcomes the opportunity to diversify its ample supply of natural resources.

Interstate consultations on strategic issues between Russia and China were launched in 2005.

http://rt.com/politics/russia-china-patrushev-security-military-616/