Turkey shoots down Russian jet (1 Viewer)

[mr roboto]

Wait why is that a thing?

 

[SaintsInDome2006]

Obama: Russian Sanctions Can Be Lifted After Minsk Implemented -- No Mention Of Crimea
21:14 (GMT)
Many world leaders are in Paris as part of an international meeting on combating global climate change. At the meeting, US President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin met on the sidelines to discuss several issues, from Syria and ISIS to Ukraine. We've analyzed the readouts of the conversation, released by both the Kremlin and the White House, as it pertains to Syria -- the hot issue at the moment. Read that here:......
But buried in these statements might be an important detail about the state of negotiations concerning Ukraine.

Here is the US statement - The last sentence:
President Obama also emphasized the important of working towards a diplomatic solution to the crisis in eastern Ukraine through the full implementation of Russia's obligations under the Minsk agreements, noting that if Minsk is fully implemented, sanctions can be rolled back.

The first Minsk agreement was signed in September 2014, the second in February 2015. Both agreements were designed to end the fighting in the Donbass and bring about a permanent peace.

While it's clear that Russia has consistently violated these agreements and used the ceasefire to press its military advantage in eastern Ukraine, almost all of the sanctions against Russia went into place before even the first Minsk agreement was signed. Sanctions imposed by the US and European Union very specifically targeted Russia for the illegal annexation of Crimea AND for Russian interference in eastern Ukraine, and many of the sanctions were put in place after Russia's annexation of Crimea but before the conflict began in the Donbass.

Despite the fact that tensions are building between Russia and Ukraine, largely over Crimea at the moment, Crimea was not mentioned in the readouts put forth by either the White House nor the Kremlin.

http://www.interpretermag.com/ukraine-live-day-651-mariupol-and-krasnoarmeysk-votes-marred-by-some-irregularities-and-one-gross-violation/#11284

- Maybe Putin causes so much trouble the Ukraine sanctions just ...go away.

Again: $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

 

[Rove!]

Meanwhile, the US officially sanctioned a Russian billionaire and pal of Putin for .... wait for it...... selling oil to ISIS. Last week:

U.S. sanctions Russian, Syrian businessmen

Treasury Department says they are assisting Assad regime

WASHINGTON (CNN) -

The United States on Wednesday sanctioned a Russian businessman and Syrian oil middleman for their roles assisting the Assad regime.

Altogether, the Treasury took action against four individuals and six entities for their support for the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his regime's continuing violence against the Syrian population.

"The Syrian government is responsible for widespread brutality and violence against its own people," Adam J. Szubin, acting under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in a written statement making the announcement. "The United States will continue targeting the finances of all those enabling Assad to continue inflicting violence on the Syrian people."

In particular, Treasury said it had designated George Haswani, a Syrian businessman, for his role of facilitating the purchase of petroleum by the Assad regime from ISIS.

The move comes at the same time the United States and its allies in the coalition have conducted a massive barrage of airstrikes against oil trucks in Syria and other parts of the oil-producing apparatus in an effort to choke of a critical part of ISIS' revenue.

The Treasury also designated Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, a Russian businessman linked to financial transactions involving Mudalal Khuri, a longtime associate of the Assad regime who has represented some of Assad's financial interests in Russia.

A Russian bank and other individuals and companies actively working with the Syrian government were also designated by the U.S. government Wednesday.

The actions taken by Treasury freeze all of the assets inside the United States held by those sanctioned and prohibit any American from conducting transactions with them.

http://www.ktxs.com/news/politics/us-sanctions-russians-syrians-assisting-assad/36657734

Why do I have the feeling this is at the bottom of all this?

That businessman is quite a character...

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-us-has-sanctioned-kirsan-ilyumzhinov-2015-11

 

[Rohn Jambo]

Meanwhile, the US officially sanctioned a Russian billionaire and pal of Putin for .... wait for it...... selling oil to ISIS. Last week:

U.S. sanctions Russian, Syrian businessmen

Treasury Department says they are assisting Assad regime

WASHINGTON (CNN) -

The United States on Wednesday sanctioned a Russian businessman and Syrian oil middleman for their roles assisting the Assad regime.

Altogether, the Treasury took action against four individuals and six entities for their support for the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his regime's continuing violence against the Syrian population.

"The Syrian government is responsible for widespread brutality and violence against its own people," Adam J. Szubin, acting under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in a written statement making the announcement. "The United States will continue targeting the finances of all those enabling Assad to continue inflicting violence on the Syrian people."

In particular, Treasury said it had designated George Haswani, a Syrian businessman, for his role of facilitating the purchase of petroleum by the Assad regime from ISIS.

The move comes at the same time the United States and its allies in the coalition have conducted a massive barrage of airstrikes against oil trucks in Syria and other parts of the oil-producing apparatus in an effort to choke of a critical part of ISIS' revenue.The Treasury also designated Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, a Russian businessman linked to financial transactions involving Mudalal Khuri, a longtime associate of the Assad regime who has represented some of Assad's financial interests in Russia.A Russian bank and other individuals and companies actively working with the Syrian government were also designated by the U.S. government Wednesday.

The actions taken by Treasury freeze all of the assets inside the United States held by those sanctioned and prohibit any American from conducting transactions with them.

http://www.ktxs.com/news/politics/us-sanctions-russians-syrians-assisting-assad/36657734Why do I have the feeling this is at the bottom of all this?

That businessman is quite a character...http://www.businessinsider.com/the-us-has-sanctioned-kirsan-ilyumzhinov-2015-11

I like how everyone is putting the stuff that have been eating at them out in the open.

 

[Rohn Jambo]

Russia claims to have more proof ISIS oil routed through Turkey, Erdogan says hell resign if its true.

Can Putin get it done?

https://www.rt.com/news/324045-putin-erdogan-su-downing/

Erdoğan challanges Putin to resign if he can't prove Turkey buys oil from Daesh

Ooo...

http://www.dailysabah.com/politics/2015/11/30/erdogan-challanges-putin-to-resign-if-he-cant-prove-turkey-buys-oil-from-daesh

 

[jonessed]

Russia claims to have more proof ISIS oil routed through Turkey, Erdogan says hell resign if its true.

Can Putin get it done?https://www.rt.com/news/324045-putin-erdogan-su-downing/

Erdoğan challanges Putin to resign if he can't prove Turkey buys oil from Daesh

Ooo...http://www.dailysabah.com/politics/2015/11/30/erdogan-challanges-putin-to-resign-if-he-cant-prove-turkey-buys-oil-from-daesh

He said he would resign if it was proven Turkey purchased oil from ISIS. I assume he's referring to the government here.

 

[Rove!]

Here's s story on the gas pipeline conflicts that some believe are driving the policy

http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/us-russia-gas-pipeline-war-syria-could-destabilise-putin-103505758

 

[SaintsInDome2006]

Here's s story on the gas pipeline conflicts that some believe are driving the policy

http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/us-russia-gas-pipeline-war-syria-could-destabilise-putin-103505758

Russia’s intervention in Syria is Vladimir Putin’s geopolitical trump card, heading off the imminent defeat of Syrian president Bashir al-Assad’s regime under multiple Western-backed rebel forces.

His goal was explained this October in Foreign Affairs, the distinguished journal of Washington DC’s Council on Foreign Relations.

“Most of the foreign belligerents in the war in Syria are gas-exporting countries with interests in one of the two competing pipeline projects that seek to cross Syrian territory to deliver either Qatari or Iranian gas to Europe,” wrote Professor Mitchell Orenstein of the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University.

I had reported on the competing gas pipeline plans for the Guardian in 2013. Two years later, Foreign Affairs is finally catching up.

As Orenstein explained, “in 2009, Qatar proposed to build a pipeline to send its gas northwest via Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Syria to Turkey… However, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad refused to sign the plan; Russia, which did not want to see its position in European gas markets undermined, put him under intense pressure not to”.

Russia’s Gazprom sells 80 per cent of its gas to Europe. So in 2010, Russia put its weight behind “an alternative Iran-Iraq-Syria pipeline that would pump Iranian gas from the same field out via Syrian ports such as Latakia and under the Mediterranean.” The project would allow Moscow “to control gas imports to Europe from Iran, the Caspian Sea region, and Central Asia.”

Good piece and important. - This has been a long game. The US started developing alternative oil and gas lines out of the Tenghiz and Caspian Sea region after the USSR breakup.

 

[SaintsInDome2006]

Anshel Pfeffer ‏@AnshelPfeffer

Anshel Pfeffer Retweeted Charles Lister

Major news if RuAF lost 2 helicopters near where the Su-24 was shot down

Charles Lister ‏@Charles_Lister

Reports that 2 helicopters flying over Jebel al-Turkman (tail numbers “927" & “930”) have been lost. Opposition claims to have downed them.

tecnofogo ‏@tecnofogo 1h1 hour ago

@AnshelPfeffer @Charles_Lister theres a video on liveleak. Helicopter destroyed with US TOW missile

 

[SaintsInDome2006]

Russia’s NATO envoy: "By ‘covering’ Turkey politically, NATO took responsibility for downing of Russian Su-24".

http://www.mfs-theothernews.com/2015/12/russias-nato-envoy-by-covering-turkey.html

- The key here is this is linked via Russia Today. When RT, Sputnik and Tass say stuff on this issue, they're basically just sending out messages for Putin.

 

[[icon]]

Anshel Pfeffer ‏@AnshelPfeffer

Anshel Pfeffer Retweeted Charles Lister

Major news if RuAF lost 2 helicopters near where the Su-24 was shot down

Charles Lister ‏@Charles_Lister

Reports that 2 helicopters flying over Jebel al-Turkman (tail numbers “927" & “930”) have been lost. Opposition claims to have downed them.

tecnofogo ‏@tecnofogo 1h1 hour ago

@AnshelPfeffer @Charles_Lister theres a video on liveleak. Helicopter destroyed with US TOW missile

Im sure Putin won't notice at all that it's US-supplied missiles downing his aircraft.

 

[SaintsInDome2006]

Things are still happening:

JuVi ‏@SciteCito

The Game Just Changed: Russia Allies With Kurds to Push Turkey out of Syria - http://go.shr.lc/1Po2Quo via @RussiaInsider

The Game Just Changed: Russia Allies With Kurds to Push Turkey out of SyriaRussia's military response to Turkey's “stab in the back” has arrived

Moscow isn't likely to bomb Turkish military facilities, but it has other ways of undermining Ankara's presence in Syria: Russia is now aiding Kurdish rebels — a group that has been labeled as “terrorists” by Turkey.

The Syrian Kurdish forces (YPG) are considered extremely valuable in the fight against ISIS. They have previously received support from the United States, although western cooperation with the group has been limited in order to avoid ruffling Erdogan's feathers. But for Russia, upsetting Erdogan is not really an “issue”.

In layman's terms, this new alliance could be a fatal blow to Turkey's geopolitical aspirations in Syria (not to mention Russia's de facto no fly zone, thanks largely to a little friend called “the S-400”):

The YPG has still not pushed west of the Euphrates, but along with its allies, and with the help of Russian strikes, the SDF are threatening Turkey-backed opposition groups in another key border crossing, Kilis, west of Jarablous.

Losing control of the northern countryside of Aleppo would be a setback for the opposition. Turkey, too, would lose influence.

But Russian President Vladimir Putin seems to be eyeing an even bigger victory. He called on the Assad government and the political wing of the YPG to unite. This has still not happened - at least not officially.

But Syrian Kurdish officials have said they are ready to work with anyone fighting ISIL, and anyone who works for a united, secular and democratic Syria.

Such an alliance would change the battlefield and the balance of power on the ground.

Turkey is in a heck of a pickle: The legendary Syria-Turkey ISIS oil train is being vaporized by Russian bombers; Ankara can't support its “moderate” rebels with air strikes because of the ever-looming S-400; And now Russia is giving direct air support to an anti-Turkish group that could actually push Turkish-backed forces out of Syria for good.

...

http://russia-insider.com/en/game-just-changed-russia-aligns-kurdish-fighters-take-down-turkey/ri11549?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=socialnetwork

So the scorecard now is Russia has allied with 1. Syria/Assad, 2. Iran, 3. Iraq (somewhat), 4. Kurds.

 

[SaintsInDome2006]

Russia hits back at Turkey by changing Syria 'game' Moscow's retaliation after Turkey downed its military jet could tie Ankara's hands in Syria.Russia is striking back after a "stab in the back by an accomplice to terrorists" by changing the "game" in Syria.

Moscow's retaliation is not just about severing economic and diplomatic ties. It is pursuing a policy that could tie Turkey's hands in Syria.

Ankara never received international backing for a safe zone across its border, but Russia has now ruled that out.

The deployment of S-400 anti-air missiles means Russia has effectively imposed a no-fly zone over Syria.

And now, Moscow seems to be moving closer to a group that has been the US-led coalition's main ground force in Syria - a group which Turkey, itself a member of that coalition, calls "terrorists".

The Syrian Kurdish forces (YPG) is a US-backed Kurdish group that has pushed the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) back from areas along the border with Turkey.

In an attempt to change the solely "Kurdish face" of anti-ISIL ground troops, it aligned with some Arab brigades to form "the Syria Democratic Forces" (SDF).

No doubt a further strengthened YPG will anger Turkey, which has long feared that Kurdish autonomy in northern Syria would stir up similar sentiments among its own Kurdish population.

The SDF are now engaged in a fierce battle with Turkey-backed opposition factions in what is considered to be an important corner of Syria - the northern countryside of Aleppo.
To be more specific: the area west of the Euphrates River, which Turkey calls a red line.

The SDF captured some opposition-controlled towns close to the Turkish border of Kilis - known in Syria as Bab al-Salameh, an important lifeline for rebel groups.

Russian air strikes have been targeting the area for days now.

US guarantees

Control there would allow the YPG to link predominantly Kurdish villages in the north, like Afrin, to areas under its administration from the town of Kobane to the Iraqi border.

To do this, the YPG must first take control of Jarablous, an ISIL-controlled town along Turkey's border.

There was talk of a US-backed Syrian Kurd offensive in Jarablous in the summer. That never happened, as Turkey threatened a cross-border operation.

Ankara apparently got the guarantees it wanted from the US.

The Kurds won't advance in the Aleppo region, and in return the coalition would be given access to Turkey's Incirlik air base from where it can launch raids against ISIL.

Days before the Russian plane was shot down, the US said it would start an operation with Turkey to finish securing the northern Syrian border area to cut off the remaining ISIL lifeline. Since then, there has been no talk about this military operation.

Bigger picture

The rules may now have changed. The YPG has still not pushed west of the Euphrates, but along with its allies, and with the help of Russian strikes, the SDF are threatening Turkey-backed opposition groups in another key border crossing, Kilis, west of Jarablous.

Losing control of the northern countryside of Aleppo would be a setback for the opposition. Turkey, too, would lose influence.

But Russian President Vladimir Putin seems to be eyeing an even bigger victory. He called on the Assad government and the political wing of the YPG to unite. This has still not happened - at least not officially.

But Syrian Kurdish officials have said they are ready to work with anyone fighting ISIL, and anyone who works for a united, secular and democratic Syria.

Such an alliance would change the battlefield and the balance of power on the ground.

http://www.aljazeera.com/blogs/europe/2015/11/russia-hits-turkey-changing-syria-game-151129172933416.html

 

[SaintsInDome2006]

Official: Bomb caused explosion near Istanbul subway stationANKARA, Turkey (AP) — A local mayor in Istanbul says an explosion on a highway overpass near a subway station was caused by a bomb.

Atilla Aydiner, the mayor for Istanbul's Bayrampasa district, also said five people were wounded in the explosion on Tuesday.

Earlier, Istanbul's governor said one person was slightly injured in the blast.

http://bigstory.ap.org/2e72d4684d3a4abfa857039d278097d3

 

[SaintsInDome2006]

Breaking News ‏@NewsOnTheMin

BREAKING: Russian Defense Ministry says one of its warships had to fire warning shots at Turkish vessel in Aegean Sea to avoid collision.