By Tom Parfitt, Moscow
5:10PM BST 13 Jul 2012
The Alaed's previous attempt to convey the Mi-25 gunships to the regime of of President Bashar al-Assad under a Curaçao flag caused anger in London and Washington. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the aircraft would be used to kill innocent civilians.
The ship's new destination is unclear but maritime data show it was travelling south off Norway on Thursday and is due in Baltiysk on the Baltic coast of Kaliningrad, Russia's exclave between Poland and Lithuania, on July 17.
A spokesman for Femco, the Russian company which owns the cargo vessel, said on Friday that it would arrive in St Petersburg two days later and may then head to the Russian Far East....
Besides trying to get helicopters into Syria, Russia has signed an agreement for Assad for his oil. Russia is carrying on relations with Syria as if nothing is happening in the country. Madeline Albright stated the USA should pull into the Syrian port. That isn't possible unless the USA wants to confront Russia.
The bill passed by the House nearly doesn't matter, except, for a symbolic gesture. The delivery to Afghanistan of 21 Mi-17s already occurred. So, there isn't any other contracts pending this would effect.
It isn't as though the action by the House isn't admirable, it just isn't causing that much impression on the company.
It isn't as though the action by the House isn't admirable, it just isn't causing that much impression on the company.
JULY 20, 2012 06:25
U.S. lawmakers passed a bill on Thursday (click here) breaking contracts between the Pentagon and Russian state-run arms exporter Rosoboronexport, which they claim is “arming the oppressive Syrian regime,” the House of Representatives said on its website, the Russian news agency Novosti reports. The bill, introduced by Democrat Congressman Jim Moran (VA), was passed by an overwhelming 407-5 vote and was attached to the 2013 U.S. military budget, according to the House of Representatives’ statement. The passage of the bill came several hours after Russia and China vetoed for the third time a UN Security Council resolution on Syria authorizing non-military sanctions against President Bashar al-Assad’s regime if it fails to withdraw heavy weapons and troops from urban areas within 10 days....
In an article from RIA Novosti, (the state newspaper) Russia is viewed as being backed into a corner and an embarrassment to the peace initiative.
Russia Caught Off Guard on Syria as Annan Leaves – Analysts (click here)
MOSCOW, August 3 (RIA Novosti, Alexey Eremenko)
...Annan’s decision to step down, voiced on Thursday, spells a diplomatic loss for Russia, which never managed to implement a proactive policy on Syria, experts said on Friday.
“We were chronically late on Syria,” said Vladimir Akhmedov of the Institute of Oriental Studies at the Russian Academy of Sciences. “Now we’ve backed ourselves into a corner.”...
Strategic Overshot
Russia would wait for appointment of a new UN envoy on Syria and continue its push for negotiations between Assad and his enemies, said Leonid Kalashnikov of the Foreign Relations Committee of the Russian State Duma.
“I just hope it would not be a partisan person, because that will cause parties to retire into their respective shells,” said Kalashnikov, a member of the Communist Party.
Akhmedov agreed, saying that Russia will wait and see how the situation in Syria develops. He added it was time for “intricate secret diplomacy” as well as economic action, such as helping the three million Syrians who do not receive enough food at the moment.
But foreign policy expert Alexei Malashenko was more skeptical. “I have no idea how we are going to save face over this,” he said....
Russia and China have to come to terms with the fact Assad is committing genocide against the Sunnis within the country. He is killing without inhibition to whom he is killing including women and children. He is treating everyone in Syria as his enemy. He has no governance of the country anymore, he is simply killing on a daily basis.
Russia is putting itself in the middle of these killing fields and permitting Assad his agenda.
Russia and China have to come to terms with the fact Assad is committing genocide against the Sunnis within the country. He is killing without inhibition to whom he is killing including women and children. He is treating everyone in Syria as his enemy. He has no governance of the country anymore, he is simply killing on a daily basis.
Russia is putting itself in the middle of these killing fields and permitting Assad his agenda.
