Notes on a night of terror in Palestine

Notes on a night of terror in Palestine

                       

Caco Schmitt

Traduzido por  John Catalinotto

Edité par  Fausto Giudice

I

It is two a.m. during the night from Sunday to Monday in Ramallah, provisional capital of Palestine. I am awakened by the sounds of fighting and quarrelling. Strange. For 12 nights I slept in this elegant neighbourhood hotel and never heard noises at night. There are few guests, and no one has ever arrived drunk, speaking loudly. I sit on the bed, facing the door and with my back to the window.

The noises grow louder, with sounds of objects broken, screams. I think: It's them! A loud bang confirms it. The door is broken down and four Israeli army soldiers enter the room screaming and with machine guns and rifles pointed at me. I raise my hands, close my eyes and remain still for endless seconds. They scream words in a language unintelligible to me, with the tip of their rifle touching my chest. I think: They will kill me! But I don't hear any shooting.

I open my eyes and start talking out loud: Brazil (with an American accent), Brazil! Brazil! The shouting stops, but the guns are still pointed. I realize what's going down. In front of me are two soldiers in masks, armed to the teeth. At the foot of the bed, another soldier; behind, the fourth masked soldier with his rifle pokes my back. With the door open I can see in the fourth floor corridor a dozen soldiers, dogs, sledgehammers breaking doors, men being torn from their rooms.

Brazil, Brazil, Brazil... Here comes a fifth soldier, I notice that his mask is different, he has a scary skull sticker, he holds a dog, he also wears a gas mask stickered with a human skull. He comes out, the guns keep pointing, sledgehammers breaking everything, until a sixth soldier appears, a short one, and asks me in a butchered Portuguese: "What are you doing here?" I answer: "I'm a Brazilian journalist, we're filming Palestine." He faces me, orders me to put on some clothes -- I was just in my underwear -- which I do quickly and sit back on the bed.

II

The tip of the machine gun pokes my back hard several times, I don't turn around. The short guy without a mask signals me to get up, which I do without breathing so as not to look like I'm reacting. Two of them start pushing me with the tip of their rifles. The four apartments in my wing of the hotel, two on each side of the corridor, are being turned inside out by soldiers, walls and upholstery broken, shouts, masks and dogs. I get to the elevator, they poke me in the back and send me down the stairs, which I walk down accompanied by two masked soldiers.

While I walk down the stairs, I think of everything I saw in the 12 days we were in occupied Palestine to shoot scenes for the documentary "A Palestina Brasilaira (The Brazilian Palestine)," by director and scriptwriter Omar Luiz de Barros Filho, produced by CenaUm Produções. To enter Israel, on October 26, 2016, was extremely difficult, starting with our landing at Ben Gurion airport, which is between Tel Aviv (20km) and Ramallah (50km).

Interrogations at the customs counter, suspicion, a tense atmosphere. A member of our team tried to take a selfie and an Israeli soldier came over to interrogate them.  From the airport to Ramallah, the first sign of the military occupation: two checkpoints, but we passed freely; the search in these places is only done for those coming from Palestine. In the vicinity of Ramallah, the first big shock: walls built by Israel and a mega checkpoint controlling entries and exits. The Palestinian who needs to go to Tel Aviv, and wants to use this road, must wait hours in lines at the checkpoints and many are forced to return. To drive by car on this and other roads controlled by the Israeli army is only for those with yellow plates on their vehicles.

Our team, even though we used a rented car with yellow license plate, was blocked when we tried to leave Ramallah to get to Ben Gurion airport when returning to Brazil. The soldier claimed there was a lot of luggage and we should go through another checkpoint.

III

It was harder to get out of Israel than it was to get in. We took another road, a long, unnecessary detour to one of the access checkpoints to Jerusalem. A new checkpoint, questions and then we headed towards the airport. At the entrance to Ben Gurion Airport was another big checkpoint, with a search, explanations, again presenting passports, tickets, etc. Whew! We arrived at the boarding lobby. We are free!

A deception. Near the check-in counters, the worst of all, were soldiers and agents of Mossad, the secret service created in 1949, one year after the establishment of the state of Israel. Heavier, more aggressive interrogations, explanations, labels separating our bags for special checking. Of course, we had already been identified at our entry into Israel and in the filming of each conflict we witnessed, and especially at the time of the hotel invasion, two days before our return.

But the departure from Israel did not end at this unprecedented checkpoint inside an airport, ten meters from the check-in counter. After the tickets were issued, we were taken to a basement, where special machines checked our hand luggage. Soldiers and an old Mossad agent sat and watched. This gentleman was intrigued by our electric lighting reflector, which when it was not being operated turned into a round circle the size of a family pizza. New explanations, it could be plastic explosive. We decided to leave our work tool with them ...

We moved on to the boarding area. A new delay. Because he was carrying a camera in his hand, one of the photo directors of the team was forced into a separate line, searched, forced to stay in a kind of X-ray, a mysterious and dangerous cabin. After leaving the cabin, he wanted to continue his journey, but was forced to remain in "quarantine" for 20 minutes so as not to expose the airport staff to radiation. We almost missed the flight, but the plane waited on the runway, an airport employee took us running to the gate at the boarding bridge. But the camera was held up on suspicion of containing explosives and has not been returned to date. A valuable loss. Until never again, as long as the illegal occupation of Palestine and apartheid continue.

IV

At each stair step to the hotel reception on the ground floor, escorted by two armed and masked soldiers, without knowing where they were taking me, I thought about each movement we made on Palestinian territory, to do our work visiting families of Palestinians who emigrated to Brazil and Brazilians who came here in search of their roots. We traveled the territory from north to south. We went to Nablus, in the north; Jericho, on the border with Jordan and close to the Dead Sea; in the center, Jerusalem and Bethlehem; and, to the south, Al Khalil, also known as Hebron. For a few days we faced intensely what the Palestinian people experience all the time.

Most of the Palestinians stay in their villages, small towns, close to each other; from time to time they go to Ramallah, or to the larger cities. It is always complicated to travel through a territory occupied by the military. Checkpoints, unpredictable reactions of arrogant and nervous Israeli soldiers, delays, assaults, shootings, gas bombs and unjustified arrests are the norm. Even on Fridays, when thousands are going to Jerusalem, to pray at the sacred Al Aqsa mosque, controlled by soldiers at the gates to the old city, at the access to the mosque, each and every movement is under the watch of helicopters.

On the second day of filming, we left early for Kafr Ni'ma, land of protagonists of the documentary. Next door is the Palestinian village of Bil'in. Less than one kilometer from Bil'in, there is an enormous Jewish settlement, the Kiriat-Sefer, with dozens of tall buildings, protected by a gigantic wall. A body foreign to the landscape of low mountains, olive trees and houses at most two stories high. In the half of the territory that belongs to the Palestinians by decision of the famous and not respected UN Partition Plan for Palestine in 1947, Israel invaded and built several "settlements" like this one that are actually illegal cities in Palestinian lands. After recording walls and checkpoints for the film, this was the first time Israeli forces launched gas bombs against the demonstrators and the film crew.

V

Friday in Palestine is the day to protest the military occupation. We accompanied a protest, with the presence of activists from several countries, in front of the gate of the great wall. The army launched tear gas bombs with a deadly effect. Everyone ran. Then, the soldiers remained in a shooting position until the demonstrators returned to the starting point of the march, some 400 meters from the wall.

I remember the confrontation that took place when we left Ramallah for Jerusalem, at the Kalandia checkpoint, an old refugee camp that became a working-class neighborhood. We filmed the lines of Arabs passing by on foot to enter the gate of the checkpoint, and then return to the bus ahead. And we filmed the entrance and exit of cars. As we approached the gates, two soldiers pointed rifles at us. Later, we started filming the pedestrians and a megaphone voice screamed from the top of a control tower: "What's happening there?" The fourth time, the sentence was accompanied by threats that we did not understand, but which - we played it safe - forced our withdrawal.

Filming in occupied Palestinian territory is dangerous. If you raise the camera and point the soldiers can shoot and claim that your camera could be a firearm. Everything has to be done very carefully. And this within the Palestinian territory recognized by the UN, and that on the maps (not all) appears as West Bank or Israel.

VI

One time we took Highway 60, with two lanes and well paved, towards Jerusalem and Bethlehem. For a distance of 10 km only Arab cars with white plates circulated. On this road, we passed a very different kind of checkpoint.  With an observation tower, an Israeli flag and soldiers, it does not regularly stop the cars, but when they decide it is necessary, they quickly set up a barrier to prevent vehicles from circulating.

Drones and satellites are used to watch everything that moves. Throughout Palestinian territory there are these kinds of installations ready to block any movement. In any corner you can see dirigible balloons with cameras that watch everything, helicopters on patrol, observation towers. All this is relatively far from the Gaza Strip.

In the comings and goings of the cities and villages we visited, including the capital Ramallah, we always passed through checkpoints, with armed soldiers on watch (scared, they feel afraid). In the vicinity of villages and towns known to resist the occupation, the Israeli army's observation and control towers control all movement on the highways. When we went to film the mountains in some of these areas, we were observed by soldiers. At each step a soldier. Sometimes they block the secondary access to the villages with concrete blocks, to prevent vehicles from passing through and concentrate the observation on the main access to the village. We felt this pressure during the two weeks we were in Palestine; it is constant and growing. The Palestinian people have felt this same pressure for over 80 years.

VII

When I reached the hotel lobby, brought there from my room by soldiers, and saw a group of Palestinian hotel staff, all sitting on chairs and armchairs that formed a horseshoe, I was relieved. It meant I would first go through a screening, not taken immediately to some uncertain place. Among the people arrested in the hall were the director of the film, Omar Luiz de Barros Filho, and the director of photography Ivo Czamanski. They were seated, quiet, looking worried like everyone else in the room. Guarding the group were some 15 Israeli soldiers, while many others ran up and down stairs, some carrying sledgehammers, others with electric saws and all with weapons.

Our passports were taken and each of us was photographed, filmed and interrogated. As I had already talked to the short guy in the room, they only had two or three questions for me. I could see that there were soldiers from the army, plainclothes policemen and Mossad agents, including the one in charge of the operation, a gray-haired man with a rat face. Inside the hotel, I believe, 40 men took part in this operation, whose objective no one could figure out. Were they trying to intimidate us, to pick up the filmed material? - after all, we had several contacts with the military and they followed every step of our team near checkpoints, walls, in the protests. In that case they were stymied, because the day before a Palestinian-Brazilian friend brought to Brazil all our main digital files, with everything we had recorded before with our two cameras.

VIII

I started to mentally relive our two trips to Jerusalem. On Friday, we filmed the movement around the Al Aqsa Mosque during the holy day in the holy city for Muslims, Christians and Jews. At Al Aqsa, there were more than 300,000 Muslims, plus wide-eyed Israeli soldiers, helicopters, guarded gates, all there after passing through and being identified and searched at the checkpoints surrounding the city. On Sunday, November 6, 2016, a few hours before the invasion at the hotel, on our second visit to Jerusalem, we had had another serious incident with the Israeli army. After filming the city, we intended to return to the Al Aqsa mosque, where Muslim religious figures expected us. On the road indicated by the producer, a Palestinian-Brazilian, we were all barred and sent along another access route. We went until we bumped into a checkpoint inside one of the old city corridors. Because our producer and interpreter was of Palestinian origin, the police sent him back, saying that he was not going through there. Although we identified ourselves as journalists, we were detained for over an hour. We tried to give up entering and told them we just wanted to return to where we had been, but the police still stopped us. In other words, they refused to let us go until they found out what we were doing there. Director Omar Luiz de Barros Filho was then taken to a police barracks, where he was subjected to further questioning.

That's how he was forced to sign a commitment written in Hebrew that prohibited interviews or using lights and any use of sound recorders. Only that way were we released from the blockade, and we entered the square where the Wailing Wall is. From there we kept going, through the streets, towards the mosque. There, the Israeli police once again forbade us to go beyond their control. We remain in debt to our spectators, as we could film nothing from inside Al Aqsa, taking only general shots taken from a tourist terminal.

IX 

While I considered all the possibilities of how this military operation might end, I remained calm because all the material filmed up to that moment was safe, kept in the house of friends. And I was even calmer when I saw the fourth member of the team coming down the stairs, the director of photography Juliano Ambrosini, escorted by two armed soldiers, and joining the group of detainees in the lobby.

My concern grew when I imagined what our fate would be. One of those in charge of the operation said, in English, that everything was almost over, the operation would end soon. But the back-and-forth of soldiers continued, much of it determined by bombs that exploded outside the hotel. Then we learned that the Israeli troops' movement caught the attention of the inhabitants of Ramallah, and many Palestinians came to the vicinity of the hotel to protest. The army dropped bombs to intimidate and drive the masses away.

Shortly before, on the streets of the city, the Palestinian resistance threw homemade bombs at the Israeli armored vehicles that still surrounded the hotel where we were staying. After all, an army from another country was carrying out an illegal military operation, a night invasion, almost in the center of the Palestinian capital. Minutes later, the same officer entered the lobby again and said the great sentence of the night: "No panic, no panic." How could we not feel panicky? If the conflict got worse with the Palestinians in the street: shots would be fired. If someone in the room moved and the gesture was interpreted as a response: shots would be fired. Just the thought of stray bullets and uncontrolled actions of soldiers, a common occurrence in Palestine, surrounded the room with panic. Until later, finally, the big boss said they were retreating... A feeling of relief invaded the room, soon aborted with the entrance to the Mossad's rat-faced gray man. "Video, video." New butterflies in the belly. They wanted our footage, I thought, but luckily, it was the footage from the hotel security cameras. They grabbed the computers and started leaving. For a few minutes, everyone sat there, nervous. Until the first one stood up and started protesting. I went up to the room and started collecting the pieces of clothing scattered across the bed and the floor. The safe was open, but nothing was taken. In our director's room up to the ceiling line an axe had smashed the wall. I looked at the cell phone, over five hours since it started, day almost dawning...

Four hours after the night of terror, we headed for Al Khalil (Hebron), a city inhabited uninterruptedly for over five thousand years. Our last location to film in Palestine. On the way, the realization that there were more Israeli army armored vehicles in the streets and on the roads. On the way, we crossed several roads and saw many vehicles stopped in observation position. There was a feeling that something serious was about to happen in the territory and, because of this, increased vigilance. When we arrived in Al Khalil, we had to make the return under observation of two military vehicles, attentive to any maneuver.

Hebron is a special case. According to the Palestinian Administration's public relations on the spot, there are two thousand Israeli soldiers watching the region. They have created areas where only Jews enter or where only Palestinians circulate. All because of the Ibrahimi mosque, which houses the tomb of the patriarchs of the three religions of Muslims, Jews and Christians. In order to film, we had to pass, at great cost and thanks to pressure from the Historical City administrator, through an obscure checkpoint buried in the corridors of the public market, which gives access to the main door of the mosque. Anyone who wishes to pray at the mosque is forced to pass through it. All around, soldiers police the area.

After the mosque, we went to Fawar refugee camp, one of the oldest in Palestine, where we recorded scenes and testimonies while two helicopters flew over the area. In this last location of the filming, we saw the summary of the whole situation in Palestine: people who were forced to leave their homes, who have lived for decades surrounded, isolated and guarded within their own land. I thought, after the night of anguish in our hotel, that it is the Palestinians who still resist in refugee camps and live in surrounded cities that live, to this day, a long night of terror!

The documentary A Palestina Brasileira (The Brazilian Palestine) (feature film, 78 minutes) was presented by cable TV Canal Curta!, in Brazil, in January 2018. So far, the film has been selected by the following film festivals and screenings:

Al Ard Doc Film Festival, Cagliari, Sardinia; Arab Film Festival in Tübingen and Stuttgart, Germany; Aasha International Film Festival, Mumbai, India; Festival Internacional de Cinema Documental-A Video Reporter, Catalonia; DO PÃO-International Documentary Film Festival, Albergaria-a-Velha, Portugal; Cine de América International Film Festival, Pachuca, Mexico; Lift-Off Sessions, London; Festival Internacional de Cine Latino Árabe (LatinArab), Buenos Aires; Mostra Semana Árabe de Brasília, Brazil; Festival de Gramado, Brazil; Mostra Mundo Árabe de Cinema, São Paulo.

The film is included in the pre-selection of the International Documentary Awards TRT, from Ankara, Turkey. Brazilian Palestine was also selected for the Addis International Film Festival, from Ethiopia, and the International Black Film Festival, from São Paulo, Brazil.

However, the film was later removed from the official programming of both events as a result of pressures from "hidden forces" opposed to the film. In the same vein, the Brazilian cable TV channel Curta!, a partner in the film making stage, asked Cena Um Produções to remove the name of the channel from the documentary credits, as it disagreed with the directors' position on the Palestinian cause and the Israeli occupation.

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Turkey’s Erdogan will not win the war in Syria, USA will fail too

Recent events in Idlib showed that Recep Erdogan found himself  isolated in Syria. Turkish analysts predict his defeat not only in Syria, but also in Libya.

Erdogan will not even be able to set Russia against USA

The President of Turkey has quarreled with all major players in Syria in four years after attempted coup in Turkey. He has quarreled with Russia, the United States and the Arab world. Erdogan's few foreign partners, for example, Qatar, do not give him any strategic advantages.

Turkey's warlike policy against Washington plays against Erdogan too: he accused Washington of preparing a military coup in 2016 and harboring its leaders. To spite the USA, Turkey purchased S-400 air defense systems from Russia, although there was no military need in that.

Erdogan did not win any sympathy in Washington when Turkey attacked the Kurds during Operation Peace Spring. The United States thus lost support "on the ground" in the Syrian conflict. Therefore, after the escalation of the conflict, Ankara will not even be able to set Russia and the USA against each other in Syria.

Pentagon chief Mark Esper said Wednesday that the Trump administration was not considering resuming military participation in the Syrian civil war amid intensified hostilities in Idlib province. Esper said a limited 600-strong US mission remains focused on destroying the remnants of the Islamic State.*

Russia: One should end the war and mop up Idlib.

On Friday night, Russian Ambassador to the UN Vitaly Nebenzya explained to the international community that "the only long-term solution to the Idlib problem and the whole of Syria will be the final and irrevocable expulsion of terrorists from the Arab Republic.

Earlier, Nebenzya promised that Russia would continue to support the Syrian government in the fight against terrorists, while the US would not succeed in forcing Moscow to negotiate with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham* militants in Idlib. He emphasized that in resolving humanitarian issues, the UN works closely with the government of Bashar al-Assad, while Erdogan's position is not to recognize Assad, but to destroy the country through the hands of the Islamists.

Erdogan will not win the war in Syria

An increasing number of Turkish analysts, including former supporters of Erdogan, believe that his current actions will, to a large extent, if not completely, harm him and Turkey in the first place. They also fear that the "Syrian Syndrome" will spread to Libya, where the Turkish army also began suffering losses.

Semih Idiz cited the views of a few Turkish experts in an article for Al-Monitor.

Political observer Fikret Bila believes that this is a war that Erdogan cannot win. The analyst claims that the main goal of Turkey in Syria is to overthrow the Assad regime and ensure the participation of the votes of radical Islamists in the governance of the country. Bila does not believe that such goals are attainable.

"A victory over the Syrian army, which Russia supports ... is not possible," writes Bila in a column for independent news portal T24.

Fehmi Koru, another columnist, who used to support Erdogan and the ruling Justice and Development Party, is also pessimistic about Erdogan's chances for success. Referring to Ankara's scramble between Washington and Moscow, Koru doubts that any results that could be considered a "victory" for Turkey would be obtained with such an approach.

"I'm afraid that the policy that Turkey has been pursuing in Syria since 2011 ... will lead to failure," Koru wrote on his personal blog.

The war in Syria is not a war for the independence of Turkey

Political columnist Murat Yetkin emphasized that Erdogan exaggerates when he identifies Ankara's participation in the Syrian war with Turkey's struggle for independence in 1919-1922.

"No offense, but President Erdogan incorrectly sees that the war for independence, which was waged by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk and his friends for the liberation of the Motherland and the establishment of the Republic, is identical to what is happening in Syria and Idlib," Yetkin wrote on his blog.

According to him, Erdogan's approach to the operation in Syria is also problematic, because it involves military operations on the territory of another country, which puts international legal issues in compliance with the rules established by the United Nations.

The people of Turkey do not approve of the war in Syria

Former Turkish ambassadors Ali Tuigan and Yusuf Buluk emphasized in their jointly written  article that the complete lack of national approval was the most striking shortcoming of Erdogan's policy in Syria.

According to them, "at this critical moment, the people of Turkey have the right to know exactly which of their interests will be pursued, what reasons will be put forward, what tools will be used and at what cost."

"The time has come for the Turkish government to go down to Earth and see the reality on the ground," the authors emphasized and recommended Turkey should withdraw troops from Idlib and return to the diplomatic path of negotiations.

*terrorist groups, banned in Russia

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Turkey wants NATO to stop Syrian army and Russia in Idlib

As many as 33 Turkish troops were killed as a result of the airstrike in Idlib province conducted by the Syrian Air Force, Anadolu news agency reports. Earlier, 29 victims of the Syria air strike were reported. The US supports Turkey in the Syrian conflict and believes that NATO should help Ankara stop the Syrian regime and Russia.

According to the Daily Sabah, Turkey destroyed a convoy of Syrian troops in the east of Idlib. According to the publication, the troops that were on the M-5 international highway came under fire.

Thirty-two Turkish soldiers were wounded and hospitalized. All of them are in stable condition.

Spokespeople for the Russian Defense Ministry said that the Turkish military, who came under  fire of the Syrian troops on February 27, were among advancing militants. As noted, the Turkish military, according to the provided coordinates of their whereabouts, should not have come under fire of the Syrian forces. Aviation of the Russian Aerospace Forces did not strike the area of ​​the Syrian settlement of Behun, where Turkish soldiers were also killed.

Thus, according to available information, at least 34 Turkish citizens were killed in Syria on Tursday, February 27. According to social media, however, the number of victims exceeds 100.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan held a meeting on security issues. Afterwards, Ankara carried out retaliatory strikes. Major Turkish Internet providers restricted access to Twitter, Facebook and Instagram on Thursday night. However, no official statements about the blockage of those services were made. It is believed that the services were blocked to stop the dissemination of sensitive information about the course of military operations.

Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay said that the Syrian authorities would have to pay for the death of Turkish troops in the Syrian province of Idlib. "The head of the terrorist state (Syrian President Bashar - ed.) Assad, who will go down in history as a war criminal, and employees of his regime will pay a high price for this treacherous attack," said the vice president.

The Turkish Ministry of Defense reported a massive attack on the positions of the Syrian army. "As a result of the operation of combat aircraft, drones and artillery, more than 200 targets and objects of the [Syrian] regime were subjected to intensive attacks. Five helicopters, 23 tanks, ten armored vehicles were destroyed," Hulusi Akar, the head of the department said.

The minister pointed out that 309 troops of the Syrian army were neutralized, while the attacks of the Turkish Armed Forces in Idlib would continue in accordance with the plan.

Syria attacks NATO in Idlib

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu had a telephone conversation with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. The Turkish authorities will hold consultations with NATO on the situation in Idlib on Friday morning.

Turkish officials believe that NATO was attacked in Syria because Turkey is a NATO member. Turkey expects NATO to take certain steps for the no-fly zone.

Ankara and Brussels had repeatedly discussed the possibility of coordinated action in Idlib. In addition, Turkey was considering deploying US-made Patriot anti-aircraft missile systems at its border with Syria. However, Washington has not made a decision on this subject.

US officials believe that Washington should help Turkey stop both the Syrian regime and Russia. US Ambassador to NATO Kay Bailey Hutchison set out a hope that the Turkish President would see who Turkey's reliable ally is.

"They see what Russia is, they see what is being done now," she said.

On Friday night, when the news about casualties among the Turkish military became public, US Republican Senator Lindsay Graham called on US President Donald Trump to create a no-fly zone over Syria's Idlib.

"The world is sitting on its hands and watching the destruction of Idlib by Assad, Iran, and the Russians," Graham said.

Two days earlier, General Tod Wolters, head of the US European Command, said that cooperation against Russia was a long-term interest for both the United States and Turkey. According to the general, Turkey's role in countering Russia was fundamentally important.

Last Wednesday, Erdogan said at a meeting of the parliamentary faction of the ruling party that Ankara had no intention to make concessions on Idlib and would continue increasing its military presence in the Syrian province.

"The supporters of Bashar al-Assad must definitely retreat beyond the line of contact defined by the Sochi accords. The time given to Assad is running out," he noted.

The crisis in Idlib escalated in early February, when 14 Turkish citizens were killed in one week as a result of the actions of the Syrian army in Idlib. Recep Tayyip Erdogan blamed not only Damascus, but also Moscow. He demanded that Russia should stop the offensive of the Syrian pro-government forces in Idlib.

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Coronavirus makes global economy utterly unstable, like never before

The outbreak of coronavirus in Italy forced Paramount film company to suspend the filming of  "Mission Impossible VII" in Venice. According to the plan, actor Tom Cruise was supposed to spend three weeks in Italy for shooting.

"Out of an abundance of caution for the safety and well-being of our cast and crew, and efforts of the local Venetian government to halt public gatherings in response to the threat of coronavirus, we are altering the production plan for our three week shoot in Venice, the scheduled first leg of an extensive production for 'Mission: Impossible 7,'" Paramount said in a statement.

Meanwhile, economic markets seasaw against the background of coronavirus news. On Monday, February 24, the Dow Jones Industrial stock index dropped by more than 1000 points against the outbreak of the disease in Italy and South Korea (the latter has already recorded more than 1,200 cases of the infection) for the third time in the history of US markets. On Tuesday, February 25, Dow Jones declined by 3.2 percent as the spread of the virus in Iran exacerbated investor concerns. Thus, over the past four days, the stock index of major companies has lost 2,267 points and is now at eight percent lower in comparison with recent record levels.

• The S&P 500, which tracks a wider range of quoted shares, fell by three percent, which is already lower than the all-time low by seven percent.
• Nasdaq Composite, the index of high-tech companies, dropped by 2.8 percent (i.e., the current figure is almost 9% below the all-time low).

If the Dow continues to move down and decreases by ten percent, this will mark the official correction in stock markets - brokers and their clients will launch an even more massive sale of revalued assets in an effort to resell them.

The correction in the American stock market cannot but affect other global markets - London, Tokyo and others will not wait. The correction will inevitably affect Russian companies. "Total sale" on the Russian market is not going to happen, but the price of the share of the companies, the products of which are usually in demand in vulnerable markets (the Chinese market in the first place) will decrease significantly, because their revenues will obviously fall.

USA expects Covid-19 to strike hard, really hard

All this is happening as the market is already considering a high probability for the US Federal Reserve to lower the rate. Fed Vice Chair Richard Clarida noted on February 25 that the central bank was closely monitoring the spread of the coronavirus infection and its impact on the economy, but it was premature to talk about consequences. Nevertheless, the representative of the Federal Reserve assured that the reaction would follow immediately if any factors become a threat to the forecast of economic growth in the United States. On February 24, 14 cases of the coronavirus infection were reported in the country.

The decline in oil prices continues as well.

1. On Tuesday, Brent lost 2.4 percent, having reached the price of $54.95 per barrel.
2. West Texas Intermediate crude fell in price by three percent to $49.9.
3. On February 25, the Russian Urals was trading at 53.55 dollars per barrel, having lost almost ten percent in one month (on January 27 it was traded at $57.15).

According to the IMF forecast, the global economy will grow by 3.3 percent this year, which will be 2.9 percent higher than last year's growth. However, as IMF Chair Kristalina Georgieva said at a meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors of G20 countries on February 24, such an increase in growth was vulnerable to unforeseen circumstances: the pandemic may affect the final result.

"COVID-19 is a stark reminder of how a fragile recovery could be threatened by unforeseen events," she said.

Kristalina Georgieva emphasized that even in the event of an effective response to the disease from the countries of the world, it is impossible to completely avoid the impact of the pandemic: the coronavirus will reduce global growth by 0.1 percent, and the Chinese economy will grow this year by no more than 5.6 percent.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) estimated potential losses to the airline industry at $29.3 billion this year. For the first time in ten years, the number of passengers has fallen.

• Jaguar Land Rover warned that the stock of auto parts for the assembly of cars at British factories was close to exhaustion, while the Chinese factories, where they are manufactured remain closed.
• Apple Corporation announced a drop in demand for its products and revised its revenue forecast. The company also suffers from the shortage of parts due to production problems in China).

Coronavirus from China's Wuhan remains a factor that makes the current state of affairs in the  world utterly unpredictable and uncertain. The Chinese economy alone provides for more than 18 percent of global GDP. It is difficult to predict what the spread of the pandemic and even partial economic paralysis of other countries, including the developed ones, may lead to.

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Russia pats Poland on the back for glorifying Nazism

The Russian Foreign Ministry raised eyebrows again with its position to encourage Russophobia and distort historical truth. This time, spokespeople for the ministry expressed their approval for the visit of Polish officials to Smolensk.

Moscow will provide relevant assistance to the Polish delegation upon its arrival to Smolensk and Katyn, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced on February 26. The delegation is to arrive from Warsaw on April 10.

On February 15, Polish Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz sent a note to the Russian Foreign Ministry through the Polish Embassy in Moscow requesting support for the arrangement of the state visit of the Polish delegation on April 10 to Smolensk and Katyn. Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki is to take part in the trip.

Voices were heard from Poland saying that Russia may not help in organizing the event because the relationship between Moscow and Warsaw leaves much to be desired. Similar opinions were voiced in Russia. Indeed, the Russian-Polish relationship has never been worse.

For Poland, the USSR is a supporter of the Third Reich and occupant state

Mateusz Morawiecki wrote an article in which he called the Soviet Union a "supporter" of Nazi Germany. He specified that the Soviet occupation, which cost Poland millions of lives, continued for another 45 years after the end of the war.

Maria Zakharova, an official spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, said that Morawiecki's remarks about Auschwitz death camp, which, as the Polish official wrote, could have been liberated six months earlier, even though it was indeed liberated by the Red Army,  were beyond good and evil.

In late December 2019, Vladimir Putin, responding to attempts by the Poles to revise the causes and results of World War II, said, among other things, that WWII did not erupt because of the "collaboration of Nazism and totalitarianism" with the conclusion of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, but after the Munich Pact of 1938 , as a result of which Poland participated in the division of Czechoslovakia.

Putin said that he had documents proving that the Polish ambassador to the Third Reich, Józef Lipski, shared the Nazi views on Jews. The President of Russia called Lipski "a scumbag and an anti-Semitic pig" because he "fully solidified with Hitler in his anti-Jewish, anti-Semitic sentiment and promised to erect a monument to Hitler in Warsaw for tormenting the Jews.

"Similarly, the people who were negotiating with Hitler are now destroying monuments to Red Army soldiers who freed Europe and the Europeans from Nazism," Putin then added.

It would seem that Putin's position to defend the historical truth in dealing with the Poles is obvious and clear.

However, it appears that it does not even occur to the Russian Foreign Ministry that someone in Poland may think badly about the Russians.

According to wiadomosci.onet.pl website, "the Russian Foreign Ministry cannot even imagine that someone in Poland might think that there might be some obstacles in Russia."

As an RMF correspondent found out, "The Kremlin rejects the suspicion that it could in some way create obstacles to arrange the visit of representatives of the Polish authorities and relatives of victims for the 10th anniversary of the Smolensk disaster and the 80th anniversary of the Katyn massacre," a message posted on the website of the radio station says.

Such a view surprised not only the Poles, but also the author of this article.

There are truly omnivorous people working at the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Not only do they encourage the visit of a person, who represents Poland's mean propaganda to distort the historical truth, but they can not even "imagine" a situation when that person could be barred from entering Russia!

Of course, it's easier to utter formidable and accusatory words, and then act to please outright bastards.

Russian Foreign Ministry encourages Russophobia

Earlier, in September last year, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov did not have the guts to cancel his trip to the meeting of the UN General Assembly in New York after the USA denied visas to ten members of the Russian delegation without explanation.

Since then, no one in the United States intends to change their views, but Moscow still tries to find truth at biased courts of the West.

Lavrov also played a decisive role in recognizing the legitimacy of the regime of Petro Poroshenko. As Lavrov said, he was acting at the request of Berlin and Paris, but not in the interests of the Russian population of Donbass. The minister ignored the fact that by the end of 2014 Germany and France had already displayed extremely defiant behavior towards Russia because of the "Crimean spring."

It just so happens that through the actions of the Foreign Ministry, Russia stabilized the Ukrainian regime that had come to power as a result of the coup.

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Do we face a phenomenon called state terrorism?

Do we face a phenomenon called state terrorism?

The first attempts to provide a definition of terrorist acts go back to the Geneva Convention of 1937 (UN, 1972).

The 1937 Geneva Convention for the first time defined the concept of terrorist acts as follows:

"Criminal measures against a state for the purpose of terrorizing individuals and groups or at community level" (Article I, paragraph I, UN, 1972).

In addition to the UN legal mechanisms, it has issued numerous declarations, resolutions and reports on the prohibition and suppression of terrorism.

According to international documents, there are generally three conditions for a behavior to be considered a terrorist:

1-      There would be the possibilities of killing or at least severe bodily harm. In European law, even operations that cause financial loss without risking lives are considered to be terrorist operations.

2-      Made by a person or organization with a design and with coordination and specific purpose. 

3-      The purpose is to create terror among individuals, groups, and people of a particular country.

In recent years, however, the favorable and profitable treatment in the subject of terrorism has led public opinion to think that some governments are setting up terrorist groups to wage proxy wars in their own interests or convince and support the already existed terrorist groups for their own interests.

Here are some examples as follows:

In recent days and weeks, the issue of assassination of Haj Qassem Soleimani on Iraqi soil by a foreign government has been the subject of domestic and foreign media debate. Here mentioning some points are important. First, the US government has invaded Iraqi sovereignty and militarily attacked on an official from another country who had authorized to attend. This is while that after the formal end of the Iraqi occupation in 2008, the United States entered into a security agreement with the Iraqi government entitled "Agreement between the United States of America and the republic of Iraq on the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq and organizing their activity during their temporary presence in Iraq" (abbreviated as SOFA). Subject to Article 5, Paragraph 2, of this agreement, the United States shall recognize the sovereignty of Iraq at any time by requesting the United States to withdraw from its territory. But it officially violates this rule and proudly accepts the responsibility for this terrorist act and in fact declares a public war against the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Also, beside Haj Qassem Soleimani, one of the most prominent figures in the fight against terrorism, especially ISIS, was Abu Mahdi al-Mohandes, who was also the deputy chief of Iraq's Hashdo shaaby forces, testified in the attack. While, both of the mentioned figures and also the organization under their command, the Iraqi Quds fore and the Hashed al-Shaabi are on the list of US terrorist individuals or organizations. The question here is the Hashed al shaabi (all-Hashed al-Shaabi) organization, also known as the Iraqi mobilization, set up in 2014 and by the order of the religious authority to expel ISIS from Iraqi territory (after the capture of Mosul by ISIS) and was recognized in the Iraqi parliament on November 26, 2016 and is currently part of the Iraqi Armed Forces and is under the command of Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, how can be attacked by a foreign country under different pretexts? Isn't this a violation of the sovereignty of Iraq and a deliberate government terrorism and a favorable and profitable treatment of terrorism?         

We go back for a few years.

On September 22, 2018 simultaneous with holding the Iranian Armed Forces parade, on an armed terrorist operation, several parade participants in the city of Ahwaz including several children, were martyred and separatists called al-Ahwazi took the responsibility of it.

The leaders of the terrorist group are based in Sweden, the Netherlands and Denmark. Habib Farajullah Cheab, deputy head of the al-Ahwazi terrorist group residing in Sweden, repost the tweet of Habib Jabr (head of the al-Ahwazieh terrorist group) in connection with the September 22 incident in Ahwaz. The message is: "targeting of the Revolutionary Guards in a military parade in Ahwaz by the national resistance of Ahwaz was in the context of self-defense and anti-terrorist militias in international level." 

Also, in April 1, 2018, he published a tweet with video of the attack on the headquarters of the Revolutionary Guards in Ahvaz. "The inscriptions of Najm al-Satte the Ahwazi National Resistance targeted the Revolutionary Guards headquarter in Ahwaz."

on January 5, 2018, another tweet quoted the group as attacking a garrison in Mahshahr and Shadegan, saying: "the Ahwazi National Resistance has targeted the Javadolaemeh the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps garrison and garrison of Malek Ashtar garrison in the Abudy area of the Shadegan county."

Whilst, under international conventions of the fighting against terrorism, countries are obliged to take effective measures in this regard.

For example, in accordance with UN Security Council Resolution 1373, funds and other financial assets or economic resources of persons who committed a terrorist act or intend to do so, without any delay should be immediately blocked. This applies also to entities that are owned or operated by these entities, and to individuals and institutions that work on behalf of or under the guidance of such persons. Paragraph 2 (c) of the resolution also states: "Governments have no right to provide a secure base for the investment, planning, support or commission of terrorist acts." It further states in paragraph f that " Governments shall provide assistance with criminal investigations or criminal trial procedures related to investment or support for terrorist acts, including assistance in gathering evidence necessary for the trial. " Paragraph 3 of the same resolution emphasized ensuring that the granting of refugee status is not abused by the members.

Support for terrorist groups

Despite the group's admission of terrorist acts against a country, we still see these people backed by governments that claim to fight terrorism and freely pursue their activities. There is a claim that why a group that officially carries out terrorist operations is supported by some governments and even refuses to cooperate in bringing them to the courts.

But the United States accuse a group which formed for combating ISIS in its homelands and consider as a legal group, as a supporter of terrorism and committing terrorist acts and put it in the list of terrorist groups. Known a person as the hero of the fight against ISIS in the world who exiles ISIS out of the region, who is legally present at the request of Syria and Iraq on the territory of these countries to fight terrorism, as a terrorist and put him in the list of terrorist groups, and finally kills him cowardly.

The terrorist group of MEK is another example that most of the victims of terror in Iran have been killed by this group. This group, which was in the list of European terrorist organizations until 2009 and in the US list of terrorist organizations until 2012, to the testimony of many experts with the heavy costs of lobbying, and for the benefit of the US interests and their use against Iran, it goes out of the list. The group however, has a sectarian approach, with a rich record of terrorist operations and financial corruptions. The assassination of American advisors in Iran, the assassination of more than 12000 Iranians, including Iranian officials, cooperation with Saddam in invading Iran and betraying their own country, the suppression of the Iraqi Kurds, attacking on the Iranian embassies and ambassadors in different countries... all are just part of the crimes of this terrorist cult.

One day the US invades Iranian soil with the excuse of releasing its hostages, and another day it supports the terrorists who murdered innocent Iranians and its military advisers.

The military activities of Western governments, especially the United States in various countries, show that the fight against terrorism is a repeated excuse and a justification for attacking various countries and interfering in the affairs of the rich countries in terms of mineral resources. This dual behavior can be described as "the modern colonization in the new century".  

Photo: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrorism

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USA determined to beat Russia in AI arms systems

US military study ethical principles of the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in armaments. According to experts, these methods should be responsible, proportionate, understandable, reliable and manageable.

As a rule, all fears are based on the assumption that weapons built with the use of artificial intelligence may get out of human control and jeopardize the existence of civilization. Nevertheless, it is believed that the adoption of AI into army service can ensure victory in the wars of the future. That is why the main rivals - the USA, Russia and China - are engaged in the development of combat terminator robots, various intelligent platforms and arms systems.

Russian humanoid robot Fyodor learns how to fire a gun

AI as a weapon of the future

US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper once said:

"The United States, together with our allies and partners, must accelerate the adoption of AI and lead in its national security applications to maintain our strategic position, prevail on future battlefields, and safeguard the rules-based international order,"

This is exactly what other countries have been talking about recently too - AI should always be under the full control of man.

Back in 2018, Russian President Vladimir Putin explained:

"Today in the military, as elsewhere, we see an emphasis being put on the introduction of artificial intelligence and robotics. Our specialists should give priority to these areas."

Nikolai Patrushev, the Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, called on the world community to "develop mechanisms for regulating the development of modern technologies, including artificial intelligence" due to the threat of mass destruction.

Federica Mogherini, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, stated that the world was entering the era, in which drones can independently search for a target and kill without human intervention. Artificial intelligence can make decisions about life and death without direct control from humans, she said.

The Americans became preoccupied with the ethics of AI after the reports about US aerial vehicles attacking and killing civilians in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. It remains unknown whether it was IA or a real person, who made the decision to carry out those attacks. This year, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) demonstrated a test of the capabilities of the neural network in aerial combat.

It was noted that employees of the Georgia Institute of Technology and representatives of seven companies took part in the test:

•     Aurora Flight Sciences
•     EpiSCI
•     Heron systems
•     Lockheed Martin
•     Perspecta labs
•     physicsAI
•     Soartech

The research is in full swing ...

In Russia, however, the topic of AI arms systems receives a new development. Yuri Slyusar, the head of the United Aircraft Corporation, said, for example, that the fifth-generation Su-57 fighter, which was created in the Russian Federation, could be attributed to AI, as the aircraft solves many tasks automatically without human help. Russia also develops an AI-based target recognition system: AI will find application in reconnaissance, control and high-precision weapon systems.

The Americans spend enormous amounts of money to be pioneers in the field. The country that will be the first to reap the fruit of AI will have a decisive advantage on the battlefield for many years to come. As John Shanahan, the Director of the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center at the US Department of Defense said, Washington needs to worry about this before Moscow and Beijing do.

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Vladislav Surkov, grey cardinal of the Kremlin, flushes Ukraine down the toilet

Vladislav Surkov, former assistant to President of Russia, whom Vladimir Putin dismissed on February 18, gave his first interview after his resignation.

According to Surkov, who gave an interview to Actual Comments website, he has no plans to return to public service, although he still wants to stay in politics. It is worthy of note that Vladislav Surkov was in charge of Russia's policies in relation to Ukraine as he was staying in his office as assistant to president.

Surkov claimed that his resignation took place at his own request.

"I did it myself, it was my own wish," he said.

The decision to resign, he said, was associated with a change in the situation around Ukraine.

"The context has changed, let's put it this way," Surkov noted, having refuted allegations about the reshuffling of president's apparatus. According to him, Moscow's policy in the Donbass does not change.

According to Surkov, he realized that he was alien in the system back in 2013. "Of course, I created this system, but I was never part of it. This is not a problem of the system - this is my problem. I feel alienated. I just simply can't do something longer than five years," he said.

"I'm interested in working in the genre of counter-realism, when you need to act against reality, to change or remake it," Putin's former assistant said.

"For political reasons, I am Russian. For political preferences, I am a Putinist. Partly heretical," he said.

Speaking about Russia's relations with Ukraine, which he had been curating during the past few years, Surkov said that building them is possible only through "coercion to fraternity." "Coercion to fraternal relationship is the only method that has historically proven its effectiveness as far as Ukraine is concerned. I don't think that there will be something else invented," he added.

Ukraine is a mess. There is no Ukraine

"There is no Ukraine. There is Ukrainianship - a specific disorder of minds, which was taken to the extremes through the passion for ethnography. There is a mess instead of a state. There is borsch, Bandera, bandura, but there is no nation. There is no Ukraine ... I, strangely enough, ... think that there is no Ukraine yet. It will appear over time. However, what kind of Ukraine it will be, within what borders it will exist, and how many Ukraines there will be - these questions remain open. Russia will have to take part in the solution of these questions this way or another," said Surkov.

When asked about his impressions of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, Surkov replied: "He's not a red neck. In any case, in Paris everyone took him for president ... He has this unusual lightness in his thoughts."

Speaking about his future, Surkov said that he has no "big business" to do yet, so he intends to "practice small political forms."

"I'll go and see what's on the market. I am not up for grabs with my s and political toxicity. On the contrary, when I appear, potential business partners run away. The more interesting the task." Surkov said about his new place of work.

Putin to reset his presidential term

Vladislav Surkov did not san anything sensational in his interview. He explained this with "corporate ethics": "Always say what you think; never say what you know," he said.

However, he did spoke about a possibility to reset Putin's presidential term in connection with the upcoming vote for amendments to the Constitution of the Russian Federation. According to Surkov, if the amendments are approved, the powers of the president will be specified. "Legal logic will lead to the need to restart the countdown of the presidential term. It will be a different institution of presidency that will be released from restrictions of the current presidency, he said.

The Kremlin quickly reacted to those remarks of Vladislav Surkov.

"Not that long ago, Mr. Surkov has become a citizen of the Russian Federation, an individual, who does not work either in the presidential administration or in any other institution. Therefore, this is an opinion of a Russian, although he is a very competent and authoritative person among politicians and political scientists," Putin's official spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

On February 18, 2020, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree to dismiss Vladislav Surkov from the post of Assistant to the President of the Russian Federation. Decree entered into force the same day.

The sphere of Russia's policies in relation to Ukraine was entrusted to deputy head of the presidential administration, Dmitry Kozak.

Surkov expressed "words of gratitude" to President Vladimir Putin, "for allowing me to work for him for 20 years and to the best of my ability to participate in his great deeds."

Surkov came to the presidential administration even before Putin - in 1999, when Boris Yeltsin was the head of state.

Surkov had long been in charge of issues of domestic politics. He had authored the concept of so-called "sovereign democracy", which marked a U-turn from the construction of democratic institutions in the style of Western states. Russia thus started searching for its own path of development.

Surkov is considered to be one of the founders and ideologists of the ruling United Russia party, one of the architects of pro-Kremlin youth movements "Walking Together" and "Ours", one of the initiators of the abolition of direct gubernatorial elections.

Surkov was long considered one of the most influential Russian officials, he was called the "gray cardinal of the Kremlin."

At the end of 2011, after protests caused by the results of State Duma elections, Surkov moved to the government as deputy prime minister. In 2013, he returned to the Kremlin and became Putin's assistant for issues of socio-economic cooperation with CIS states, Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Reportedly, Surkov covertly served as Putin's special representative in Ukraine during Euromaidan riots and repeatedly traveled to Kiev in early 2014. After the outbreak of the war in the Donbass, Surkov became responsible for the settlement of the conflict in southeastern Ukraine.

Surkov had repeatedly expressed his sympathy for armed groups in eastern Ukraine and their leaders. When the head of the DPR, Alexander Zakharchenko, was killed in an explosion, he called him "brother", "tough guy" and "real hero."

In February of 2019, Surkov published an article, in which he called the political model in Russia an effective means of survival and glorification of the Russian nation for the next 100 years.

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Coronavirus spreads from Italy to Croatia, Switzerland and Austria

Croatia became the first country in the Balkans, where a case of coronavirus Covid-19 infection was reported, Croatian television and radio company HRT said, citing Croatia's Minister of Health Vili Beros.

According to the minister, the infected man, a resident of the Croatian capital city of Zagreb, visited Milan, Italy.

"This disease is similar to flu. No higher incidence or complications are expected. Health authorities are ready to do everything to ensure the safety of our people," the official said.

On Tuesday, it also became known that two cases of coronavirus infection were confirmed in Austria in the federal land of Tyrol, ORF reports. Both patients are 24 year-old Italians who live in the city of Innsbruck. Both men sought medical help themselves, complaining of fever; the two men were currently isolated in a clinic in Innsbruck.

Coronavirus infection was also confirmed in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland, according to Swiss news portal Blick. This is the first case of coronavirus infection in this country. The patient is a 70-year-old Swiss man, who was about to be discharged from a hospital in Lugano, when a positive result came. About 300 people have been tested in Switzerland so far, but none of them proved to be infected with the new virus.

Italy infected with coronavirus most among EU states

Italy remains the first country in the European Union in terms of the number of coronavirus infections. Seven people died, more than 230 are infected. All the deceased are people over 70 years old. Six victims of the disease lived in Lombardy, where the largest number of cases was reported - over 170. One person died in the Veneto region. People were infected in Emilia-Romagna, Piedmont and Lazio provinces.

Eleven settlements, where a total of more than 50,000 people reside, were isolated. They form a "red zone" which is closed for entry and exit because of the risk for the virus to spread. In Milan, the main cathedral of the city of Duomo was closed on Monday. La Scala opera house canceled performances, football matches were postponed.

The World Health Organization has not yet regarded the situation as a pandemic - the uncontrolled spread of the virus around the world. According to WHO, it is only an epidemic in separate countries. However, WHO Director-General Tedros Adan Gebreyesus urged the international community to prepare for a possible pandemic.

Health ministers of Italy, Slovenia, Austria, Switzerland, France and Germany are meeting on February 25 to discuss and coordinate actions to prevent the spread of the disease.

According to most recent reports, the number of coronavirus infections in the world has exceeded 80,000. The virus has claimed the lives of more than 2,700 people.

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Trump to strangle Venezuela with most stringent imperialist sanctions

US President Donald Trump said that Washington could take new restrictive measures in connection with the crisis in Venezuela. Speaking at a news conference following his visit to India, Donald Trump said that further sanctions against Venezuela could be possible.

"You will be see something on that in the not too distant future ...There could be very serious sanctions," Trump said at a press conference in New Delhi, when asked whether he would allow Indian companies to purchase Venezuelan oil from third parties and whether new sanctions would be imposed on Venezuela.

"You are gonna see in a little while. You're asking a question right in the middle of us doing something," Trump added, when asked to share more details.

According to Trump, Washington is unhappy with what is happening in Venezuela. According to him, the South American republic used to be the "richest state" of the region, but now citizens of Venezuela suffer from food shortages.

On February 18, the US administration imposed sanctions on Rosneft Trading S. A. and its President Didier Casimiro in connection with the sale of oil from Venezuela. Blacklisting means freezing assets in the United States and prohibiting US citizens or companies from doing business with sanctioned companies or individuals. Washington gave 90 days to complete transactions with Rosneft Trading.

Venezuela dies from hyperinflation and malaria

Venezuela has the world's largest proven oil reserves. This could be the country's key to prosperity if it were not for the populist policies of President Nicolas Maduro and his predecessor, Hugo Chavez, who undermined market institutions. The authorities of Venezuela blame external forces, including "American imperialism," for all the calamities that have been tormenting the country for years.

The Bolivarian Republic has been experiencing a serious socio-economic crisis during the recent years. The crisis caused the national currency to collapse. The country suffers from hyperinflation and a shortage of goods. In the spring of 2019, the collapse of the national health system was reported. Due to the lack of drugs and vaccines, many dangerous diseases such as measles, diphtheria, tuberculosis, malaria are spreading rapidly. Child mortality in Venezuela increases too.

• Many children suffer from undernourishment.
• According to UN estimates, more than 4 million people have left the country (approximately every eighth resident).

The political situation in Venezuela escalated after opposition leader Juan Guaidó, whose appointment to the post of parliament speaker two days earlier was canceled by the Supreme Court of Venezuela, declared himself acting president of the country on January 23, 2019. The United States recognized him as the interim head of state. The countries of the Lima Group (with the exception of Mexico), the Organization of American States and several European countries joined the USA in the recognition of Guaido.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro called the events in Veenzuela an attempted coup. Russia, Belarus, Bolivia, Iran, China, Cuba, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Syria and Turkey spoke in Maduro's support.

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Dmitry Yazov, last Marshall of the USSR, dies at 95

Dmitry Yazov, the last marshal of the Soviet Union, Dmitry Yazov, died in Moscow after a serious and prolonged illness at the age of 95, the Ministry of Defense said.

"The funeral will most likely take place in three days - on February 28. Dmitry Yazov will be buried at the Federal Military Memorial Cemetery near Moscow," said Nikolai Deryabin, the chief of the Club of Military Comanders said.

In connection with Dmitry Yazov's death, a commission will be established at the Ministry of Defense to arrange the funeral. The commission will most likely be headed by the Defense Ninister himself or one of his deputies. During the funeral, Yazov will be given all military honors.

Dmitry Yazov received the rank of the Marshal of the Soviet Union in 1990 and became the last military commander to whom the rank was awarded. He was also a veteran of the Great Patriotic War and the last Minister of Defense of the USSR (he served as the Defense Minister of the USSR in 1987-1991).

Dmitry Yazov was born in 1924 in the Omsk region. In 1941, at the age of 17, he joined the Red Army and was trained at the Moscow Red Banner Infantry School. He started serving at the front in 1942. By the end of the war, he was the platoon commander, was wounded twice, participated in battles near Leningrad and in the offensive in the Baltic.

• After the war, in 1956, Yazov graduated from the Frunze Military Academy. During the Cold War years, Yazov became a regiment commander.
• In 1962, during the Caribbean crisis, his regiment was deployed in Cuba to show resistance to the potential invasion of the US Army.
• In 1967, he graduated from the Military Academy of the General Staff, served in Transbaikalia, and since 1973 he commanded the 4th Army.
• In 1979, he became the commander of the troops of the Central Group of Forces in Czechoslovakia.
• During the outbreak of the war in Afghanistan, he commanded the troops of the Central Asian Military District in 1980-1984. In 1984, he headed the Far Eastern Military District.

In 1987, Dmitry Yazov became the Minister of Defense of the Soviet Union with the rank of the army general. In 1990, Mikhail Gorbachev awarded him the rank of Marshal. In 1991, Dmitry Yazov joined the putsch of the State Emergency Committee and ordered to bring tanks into Moscow. After that, he was dismissed and arrested. He was released from custody only in 1993 together with other members of the State Emergency Committee and was amnestied by the State Duma in 1994.

After his resignation, Yazov served as an adviser and inspector general at the Ministry of Defense. On February 4, 2020, he was awarded the Order of Merit to the Fatherland (3rd degree).

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Bernie Sanders - a political gargoyle and a guttersnipe

Bernie Sanders - a political gargoyle and a guttersnipe

Wannabe Presidential failure Bernie Sanders is the embodiment of a foul-mouthed guttersnipe, an inconsequential political gargoyle sniping from the rooftops.

Sheer insolence

Just two days ago, Presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders displayed a shocking degree of insolence to someone whose boots he is not even fit to look at, namely Vladimir Putin, who Sanders called an "autocratic thug" and warned Russia to stay out of American elections.

What, this bullshit again? Is Sanders admitting the story that last time around seventeen Russians were smarter than three hundred million Americans? While that is probably true, nay, one Russian is smarter than three hundred million Americans, the reason why Donald Trump won the last election is because he campaigned in the right states, was seen as someone straight and honest, who appealed to the American working class and who concentrated on themes which rang a bell with the American electorate, namely jobs and concentrating on America First. His opponent, Hillary Clinton, did not strike a chord with anyone, and was seen as someone or something devious, untrustworthy, sly and slimy, however deserved or not.

The political gargoyle

And now, ladies and gentlemen, look what the wind has blown in. The political gargoyle and failure, Bernie Sanders who tries to gain points by insulting the Russian President and by making puerile insinuations about Russia wishing to interfere with American democracy.

This is a clear sign of his own ineptidude and is a clear indication of the reasons why he is never going to get anywhere near the Presidency. It is also a symptom of sheer, unadulterated idiocy. Everyone knows, apart from Mr, Sanders obviously, that American democracy is a sham. The President does not rule the country, the President is the visible pawn in a political-economic game to satisfy the people's desire for transparency. Who or what rules the roost behind the scenes are the invisible lobbies, the military-industrial complex which spreads its tentacles far and wide, through the Presidency, like an unwelcome octopus. It is called the BARFFS (Banking, Arms,  EneRgy, Finance, Food, PharmaceuticalS lobbies)

If Mr. Sanders is so much in love with democracy, he would perhaps like to reflect upon whether the citizens of foreign lands would like to vote on the continued presence of American military bases blighting the map across the globe. Most people in countries where US bases are kept hate their guts. Especially the Japanese, whose women and girls around these bases suffer the horrific consequences, namely serial rape. Why, speaking about American democracy, maybe Mr. Sanders would like to tell us what happened in the prison of Abu Ghraib in Iraq, which the US Armed Forces turned into a study in psychiatric-sexual disorders, or maybe he would like to tell us what goes on in the torture and concentration camp of Guantanamo Bay. Then let him tell us about American democracy.

Putin is elected President, Sanders is not

As far as Vladimir Putin is concerned, the main difference is that the Russian President is elected by his people time and time and time and time and time and time and time and time again. This is not because he is an "autocratic thug" but rather because the people like him and believe he is the right man in the right place at the right time. The other difference is that Vladimir Putin can place in his CV the word "President".

So by calling the Russian President an "autocratic thug", Mister Bernie Sanders is calling the Russian people idiots, is insulting the Russian nation by insinuating that its people are ruled over by someone undesirable, and is casting aspertions as to Russia's institutions. Like, who the hell does he think he is?

I will tell you who he is. He is a rude, arrogant, self-important, insolent, carping, sniping failure of a guttersnipe, a clone of Obama the Obomber who ruined Libya, sent the African country with the highest Human Development Index back to Medieval times, who personifies the reason why the Democrats will never win an election in the USA in foreseeable history.

Putin is respected

In contrast, Vladimir Putin is respected not only in his own country but around the world. Vladimir Putin's Russia fights terrorists, hunts them down and exterminates them, while Bernie Sanders' USA does what? Arms them, aids them, cavorts with them, wines and dines them on Capitol Hill and unleashes them to perpetrate their barbaric and horrific acts.

Finally, Sanders and armchair socialism. Socialism, true socialism, is about providing excellent public services for free. Free water, free electricity, free gas, free schooling, free healthcare, free dental care, free food, free drinks, free public transportation, zero homelessless, zero unemployment, safety on the street, security of the State. This iswhat the Soviet Union provided not only in its fifteen Republics but also in other continents having freed countries from the yoke of imperialist tyranny. Sanders, the Socialist Bernie Sanders can only think about these things in his dreams, mark my words, he will not deliver a single item in the list.

 The difference between Sanders and a gargoyle is that one spouts water from the top of buildings near the rooftop. The other? He spouts Bull.

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The new art of war

Translating into Italian the work of the Russian political scientist Leonid Savin Couching & conflicts was for me an experience that aroused mixed emotions. If on the one hand, in fact, you must necessarily face similar works to enrich the baggage of your knowledge and ability to understand the world around us, on the other hand, you exposes yourself to the risk, far from being merely potential, of the disenchantment in finding yourself deceived by those you trusted: this is what happened to me, when the miserable events of Italian politics mixed in August 2019 with my efforts to translate the chapter dedicated to the Ukrainian Maidan.

Couching & conflicts deals with the theory concerning the "new art of war", which is also the title of the Italian edition [1]: not only information and disinformation as they are generally understood but also, among other things, the set of methods by which a country can be affected economically and socially through the manipulation of its economy on international markets, so as to favor a change of government (or "regime", just to use a word that makes so much bad anti-demokrats...). From these manipulations to the sadly known colored revolutions, perhaps followed by an external military intervention, the step may not be really immediate but still remains tragic: Libya docet, the Latins would say, and so also Syria even if right against the lions of Damascus the mechanism has jammed, showing its inevitable limits.

Savin's book

Reading and translating Savin's book I got the idea that the great puppeteers of our time, the United States of America dully stuck in their illusion of still living in an exquisitely unipolar world, succeeded in the crazy and visionary task to turn the generic ideas about war of Sun Tzu into a field operating manual. The world of Sun Tzu is two-dimensional, as are all agricultural and technological ones: in it, there is no Air Force that can be deployed against the enemy nor are possible any reconnaissance in the skies of an enemy country to gather valuable information or disturb its communications. In such a world, there are not even computers, Internet and computer networks that have allowed the diffusion of a different type of networks, the social ones, which today find wide application in the context we are talking about.

Sun Tzu believed that the best warrior is the one who wins a battle without having to fight it for real. But this belief, which today has become so well established in certain cirlces that it even generated concepts such as that of neocortical warfare, came from a person who had still fought with the sword in his hand and therefore knew the war not only by hearsay but also in the stench of spilled blood, in mutilations and infected wounds, in cries of anger and despair, in men who get dirty by fear and terror.

Sun Tzu

Sun Tzu tried to win without going to the open fight but did not refuse the need to wield weapons and place himself at the head of an army.

The Americans who, to bring down governments that they dislike because they do not obey their wishes, make a casual use of some social theories (gender and identity policies) and some war practices (the use of Islamic militants soaked in hatred religious as infantry that can be sacrificed on the ground) inevitably end up paying the price for their wicked choices when their society and the whole West increasingly show signs of an evident moral, human and material decline, which suggests more a Sodom and Gomorrah type end than a bright future of peace and prosperity.

I can only share Savin's wish that his book could be a "toolbox" for all those who really want to understand the changes of our time and maybe equip themselves with those useful tools not only to resist but also to reverse the destructive process or at least soothe it in part.

It was therefore a pleasure to find in the small but brave publishing house Idrovolanti Edizioni [2] and in its accountable for publishing, Daniele Dell'Orco, a sensitive shore to these hopes: what follows is my brief interview with Dell'Orco both on nature of Idrovolante Edizioni both on the reason that allowed the publication of the Italian edition [3] of Savin's book. Inevitably, Italy is also mentioned.

Q) Why a publishing house like Idrovolante Edizioni? Are you targeting any specific audience?

A) The name refers to a historical era, that of the first half of the twentieth century, in which Italy was at the forefront in the world in the development of aeronautical technologies but above all produced an unprecedented quantity of pilots and adventurers during the course of the history. Many of them, defying logic, risked their life (and in many cases lost it) for the sole purpose of experiencing uncommon emotions and making fun of the laws of gravity. The seaplanes built in Italy, commanded by the great Italian flyers, became known all over the world and gave our country a prestige probably without equal. And in the contemporary slumber, today's Italians are not aware of how exhilarating the idea that their grandparents and great-grandparents were basically ante litteram astronauts. In line with the name and its mission, first ethical and then editorial, Idrovolante Edizioni is aimed at those who consider themselves the custodians of the legacy of those characters who made us great, or simply to those who consider immaterial and solidity of spirit as a vocation.

Q) Why did you want to publish Leonid Savin's essay?

A) Geopolitics is a macro area that in Italy is perceived as far from the needs of people's daily lives. In reality it is the battlefield, diplomatic but sometimes also practical, in which many of the fates of the "common man" are decided without his being aware of it. Leonid Savin, a fine geopolitical analyst from a world that is in many ways obscure and demonized, such as the Russian one, offers ideas for a better understanding of many of those 2.0 conflicts taking place all over the world.

Q) Looking at Italy, do you think that the events that happened in our country in recent years are to be placed in an area of ​​"colored revolution"? If so, cui prodest?

A) Talking about a colored revolution would presuppose a movement destined to subvert an order of an often authoritarian nature. This is not the case with Italy, a country in which, however, popular sentiment has never translated into a movement in the streets and indeed has not even managed to translate into government representation. The experience of the yellow-green government, in fact, has failed and also in a hurry precisely because of the many "compromises" with the power that two parties such as the Northern League and the 5Stars Movement, already difficult to combine each other, found themselves forced to do by subverting in their populist narrative. It is no coincidence that the M5S is rapidly losing consensus while remaining in government and therefore still finding itself forced to change its connotations, while the League is managing to assert itself according to the opposition.

Q) What does it mean to be sovereign in Italy today and where is it possible to find a political response to sovereign requests and demands?

A) The concept of sovereignty is a re-edition in a contemporary key of patriotism, which in turn is used to sweeten the erroneously negative heritage that is hidden in the word nationalism. In reality, if from a philosophical-political point of view, sovereignism can take on meaning due to the transfer of sovereignty to which Italy has met with its entry into the European Union and the adoption of the Euro, from the point of view of politological view is related to a malpractice typical of our country where political class, or rather a part of the political class, is elected by the Italian people, swears on the Italian Constitution, occupies the chairs of the Italian institutions but politically acts against the needs and lacks of the Italian people. If in fact the sovereign demands, starting from the use of the term, are typical of the right-wing parties, almost everywhere at European and world level tend to adopt political measures functional to the well-being of their own people, including social democratic, liberal and progressive forces. The examples that come to my mind are those of Merkel and Macron, moderate and pro-European in theory but ultra-nationalist in practice, or even Trump himself, often considered an example of a sovereign leader but capable of adopting less nationalist and more "workfare" political measures of the Democrat Obama.

Q) What is "Nazione Futura" [Future Country] and why should it be part of your political project?

A) Nazione Futura is a cultural and metapolitical container, it does not have a political character of its own and therefore does not provide for a "political project". It is a reference "for" politics, if anything. From the point of view of cultural, social and metapolitical promotion, it is present in over 40 Italian cities and organizes national and international events and initiatives, placing politicians, intellectuals, conservative-oriented professionals and local connotations around a table, going sometimes to replace and sometimes to support the work of traditional parties. The added value of Nazione Futura is that it connotes itself as a reference in the typical debates of the political agenda without having a party-like logic and without being an integral part of a party. It therefore makes use of a priceless faculty, namely that of being able to speak with anyone, support the right demands of anyone, and freely confront anyone.

Q) How do you see the future of our country in the medium and long term?

A) Our country is experiencing a moment of strong political, economic and anthropological decline. Something that we could define as cyclical, which throughout history has affected more or less vehemently all societies. However, the responses that came from politics are insufficient, and indeed they have accelerated this process and in some cases even gone along with it. Despite the difficulties that come from afar, politics would have, or should have, the tools to be able to manage the moment with courageous and forward-looking choices, perhaps even unpopular, but which in the medium-long term may prove useful to the country and even bring it to a position of strength. I give an example: the economic and financial condition of a country is the first instrument of sovereignty. Without economic stability, which must be created by politics, a State ends up at the mercy of others. Is there a public debt management problem? The answers must come from politics. Is there a problem of European constraints? Politics re-discuss them. Is there an employment problem? Politics studies adequate solutions to stimulate free initiative instead of proposing welfare choices and continue to harass VAT numbers. Politics can and must rediscover this role, otherwise it would be worthwhile to elect a bankruptcy trustee as prime minister.

[1] https://ift.tt/2PeBlIv

[2] https://ift.tt/2V82PDr

[3] https://ift.tt/2T1B2lv

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Costantino Ceoldo - Pravda freelance

Photo: By Vasily Vereshchagin - CD-ROM "Государственная Третьяковская галерея". Издание 2-е; Допол. Издательство: AlexSoft, 2004, Public Domain, https://ift.tt/2SMttzX

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Belarus and Russia: Biting the hand that feeds you

The talks of the representatives of Russia and Belarus regarding the issue of oil supplies have not yielded any specific results yet. Belarus does not want to make payments within the framework of the Russian tax maneuver, nor is it ready for bonus payments to Russian oil companies, which in essence are not bonus payments, but rather a minimal profit for Russian corporations.

Later, however, the Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko said that the President of Russia offered to preserve 2019 financial conditions for oil supplies.

Of course, Alexander Lukashenko does not want to achieve any political agreements within the framework of closer integration with Russia in accordance with the Unified State Treaty. Experts note that Belarus is "on the balance sheet" of Russia: its economy is unprofitable, and the country's debt amounted to $2.1 billion and reached $38.676 billion in 2019.

Belarus exports as much as 80 percent of its goods to Russia. For its part, Russia invested about  $106 billion in the economy of Belarus in ten years, which made up from 11 to 27 percent of Belarusian GDP. The neighbors received $48.4 billion of profit from Russia through duty-free oil sales and natural gas discounts.

Russia suggests certain political changes. In order to reduce the size of the debt, Lukashenko will need to carry out economic reforms and make political changes.

Of course, this is the last thing that Belarusian President Lukashenko wants. Therefore, he tries to make Russia look like a state that intends to violate sovereignty of Belarus. To demonstrate the idea in practice, Belarus has recently purchased a batch of Norwegian oil.

What do 80,000 tons mean for a large East European country? Moreover, oil from Norway is more expensive for Belarus. Interestingly, the Republic of Belarus maintains a close contact with the Konrad Adenauer Foundation and the Hunter Biden Foundation.

Belarus wants to go West and East and the same time

Belarus, being Russia's neighbor, evinces too much interest in contacts with NATO. According to Vladimir Trukhan, a member of the working group on the creation of a regional group of forces of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus, the interest has grown so much that Minsk handed over plans for joint Russia-Belarus Zapad-2017 military exercises to the NATO command.

One can also recall the fact that Belarus has never recognized the independence of the state of South Ossetia. Additionally, a large amount of Belarusian diesel fuel made from Russian oil is shipped to Ukraine. Ukrainian Armed Forces use this fuel to attack the People's Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk.

There is also such thing as Belarusian nationalism and revision of history. At the same time, in accordance with the law "On Appeals of Citizens and Legal Entities", Belarusian officials are not supposed to answer inquiries in Russian.

Telegram channel "Trykatage" asked readers a question about a change of power in Belarus.

The answers were distributed as follows:

•     The power in Belarus will be replaced as a result of a palace coup - 35% of respondents believe so.
•     22%, on the contrary, believe that Lukashenko is forever and there will be no end to his rule.
•     17% believe that Belarus will change as a result of a street revolution.
•     17% are sure that the change of power in Belarus will occur as a result of integration with the Russian Federation.
•     Successive transfer of power (12%).
•     Voluntary resignation of the president (10%).
•     Military coup (9%).

As for cooperation with the West, no one harbors any special illusions on the matter. Even in the event of a break up with Russia, Belarus is not seen as a strategic rival to the United States.

Suffice it to recall Pentagon's recent exercises that simulated a war with Russia: the USA nuked Belarus a few times "just in case".

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Russian Air Force strikes Turkish troops in Idlib

Turkish forces and Syrian opposition troops launched a military operation on Thursday, February 20, in Syria's southeastern Idlib province against the army of Bashar al-Assad, local media reported. The offensive targets the positions of the Syrian troops, which liberated eastern regions of Idlib in February. Turkish troops support the artillery offensive of anti-government forces. The Russian aviation struck the attackers.

After a fierce battle, the Syrian opposition units, with the support of the Turkish troops, seized the village of Nairab from the Syrian forces. This settlement is located on M4 motorway, about ten kilometers southeast of the provincial capital, the city of the same name, Idlib. The offensive also targets the city of Saraqib, which was captured by the Syrian troops on February 5.

According to the information received, a tank and an armored vehicle of the Syrian troops were destroyed, another tank was captured during the offensive.

The Russian military reported that the Turkish armed forces supported the attack of the militants to the southeast of Idlib, "which allowed terrorists to break through the defenses of the Syrian army."

Representatives of the Center for Reconciliation of the Warring Parties of the Russian Ministry of Defense in Syria pointed out that four Syrian soldiers were wounded in the shelling.

Russian bomber aircraft in northern Syria "destroyed militants' armored vehicles", as the latter were conducting an attack with the support of the Turkish forces.

"In order to prevent the illegal armed groups from moving deeper into Syrian territory, at the request of the Syrian command, the Su-24 aircraft of the Russian Air Force struck the terrorists," a representative of the center said.

According to the source, the support of the aviation "allowed the Syrian troops to successfully repel all attacks."

"One tank, six infantry fighting vehicles and five pickup trucks with large-caliber weapons of militants were destroyed."

The Turkish Ministry of Defense announced that two of its military men were killed as a result of the air strike in Idlib province. Another five Turkish soldiers were injured. The Turkish military claim that the Syrian army lost 50 troops, five tanks, two armored personnel carriers and a howitzer during the operation.

The ministry did not specify the aircraft of which country struck that blow. According to Turkish media, the attacks were carried out by the Syrian air force.

Turkey requests missile support from USA

Turkey asked the United States to deploy two Patriot anti-aircraft missile systems in the south of Syria to contain the actions of Russian and Syrian forces in the Syrian province of Idlib, Bloomberg reports citing an unnamed senior representative of Ankara.

The source explained that if Patriot systems could be deployed in the Turkish province of Hatay, Ankara could use F-16 fighters against Syrian government forces in Idlib. The Turkish representative said that Turkey expressed the idea with the Patriot air defense system last week to US Special Representative for Syria James Jeffrey during his visit to Turkey.

At the same time, from the point of view of Ankara, the request for the deployment of Patriot systems does not imply any reciprocal concessions on Turkey's part. The US Embassy in Turkey declined to comment on this information.

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