Ahh, where would we be without wholehearted Russian support for French presidential statements.. ‘Once NATO recovers, we’ll be there’: Russian FM Lavrov jokes about Macron’s ‘brain-dead NATO’ diagnosis https://www.rt.com/news/472929-lavrov-macron-nato-comment/ French President Emmanuel Macron was the perfect man to diagnose NATO as being ‘brain-dead’, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov quipped, saying Moscow is ready for the bloc’s recovery from all ailments. “I wouldn’t want to drag myself into a discussion about the medical side of this issue,” Lavrov told reporters, at an arms control event in Moscow on Friday. He added, sarcastically: “If Macron had felt that the diagnosis he made [of NATO] was so evident – he had all the right to state it. He knows NATO better than me, since he represents a nation which is a member of the alliance.” Lavrov noted that Russia remains interested in building mutually-beneficial relations with the US-led bloc, which would be based on an equal footing. "So, once NATO ‘recovers’, we’ll be right there." The Kremlin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that the trans-Atlantic military alliance was designed for confrontation since its inception. He, too, quipped about Macron’s take on NATO's current state of affairs. “Whether NATO is alive or dead, and which of its parts are comatose – that’s not for us to decide. We’re not pathologists.” The French president had previously argued that NATO is undergoing its “brain death” due to the lack of coordination and understanding among its members. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg took offense at Macron’s unkind choice of words, saying that he had exaggerated the bloc’s internal struggle. Just as well we have the glorious USSA to Do The Right Thing (C)(MUFFA) on the world stage, like "protecting" Syria's oil fields (a number of links in original): Three Deep State Confessions On Syria https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/three-deep-state-confessions-syria https://libertarianinstitute.org/blog/three-deep-state-confessions-on-syria/ First, all the way back in 2005 — more than a half decade before the war began — CNN’s Christiane Amanpour told Assad to his face that regime change is coming. Thankfully this was in a televised and archived interview, now for posterity to behold. Amanpour, it must be remembered, was married to former US Assistant Secretary of State James Rubin (until 2018), who further advised both President Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Washington was "actively looking for a new Syrian leader" looong before the civil war in Syria began pic.twitter.com/3wOrtl29Od — In the NOW (@IntheNow_tweet) November 1, 2019 "Mr. President you know the rhetoric of regime change is headed towards you from the United States... They're granting visas and visits to Syrian opposition politicians," Amanpour told Assad in a 2005 CNN interview. Next, a surprisingly blunt assessment of where Washington currently stands after eight years of the failed push to oust Assad and influence the final outcome of the war, from the very man who was among the early architects of America’s covert “arm the jihadists to topple the dictator” campaign. Myself and others long ago documented how former Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford worked with and funded a Free Syrian Army commander who led ISIS suicide bombers into the battlefield in 2013. How is it that Robert Ford, one of the architects of the Islamist insurgency in #Syria and a man who tirelessly campaigned for the Al-Qaeda tied Ahrar Al-Sham to replace the Assad government, is now being so realistic and actually talking sense? (Interview Oct 10, 2019) pic.twitter.com/0ZWrndjbWK — Walid (@walid970721) November 6, 2019 ... On Sat, Dec 23, 2017 at 09:43:01AM +1100, Zenaan Harkness wrote:

Oh how we love a good troll. And All the better when it's a troll stating a fact. And on the international stage, Sergei "Yolo" Lavrov is a troll on a roll, at the top of his game (+ with a number of other Russkie public figures to be frank) - a great time in history for the comedy connoisseur.

** Watch Russian FM Call British FM a Liar To His Face - He's Absolutely Right (Video) https://russia-insider.us9.list-manage.com/track/click?u=fa2faf7034c3c3c413cb3652f&id=5e5c8c60a4&e=5110f4b440 ------------------------------------------------------------ by Michael Bateman on Fri, Dec 22, 2017 Oh what a tangled web we weave, when at first we practice to deceive ... Lavrov is on a roll here. Three weeks ago he, correctly, called US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley a liar, albeit, not to her face. Watch Boris Johnson bumble through this embarrassing exchange with Lavrov in Moscow yesterday.

** Trump Opens up US Arms Sales to Kiev, Escalates War in East Ukraine, and Ensures More Russian Aid for Rebels https://russia-insider.us9.list-manage.com/track/click?u=fa2faf7034c3c3c413cb3652f&id=70eb104c29&e=5110f4b440 ------------------------------------------------------------ by Daniel Larison on Fri, Dec 22, 2017 Trump is pressing ahead with the foolish option of arming Ukraine: The Trump administration has approved the first ever U.S. commercial sale of lethal defensive weapons to Ukraine, in a clear break from the de facto U.S. ban on arms sales that dates back to the Obama administration.

** Iran Is on a Roll - the Deep State Is Definitely Planning a Major Attack https://russia-insider.us9.list-manage.com/track/click?u=fa2faf7034c3c3c413cb3652f&id=745f947e92&e=5110f4b440 ------------------------------------------------------------ by (Fash the Nation)Tom Shackleford on Fri, Dec 22, 2017 Primer on Iran Iran is a nation with a long and proud history, dating back to the Persian empire. It is about the size of Western Europe and has a population in excess of 80 million. Iran also has the 3rd largest reserves of conventional (cheaply extracted) oil in the world and the 2nd largest natural gas reserves. Iran is clearly a force to be reckoned with. As such, it considers itself the protector of Shi’a Muslims, who often live under extreme Sunni repression throughout the region. No amount of US pressure has succeeded in halting the “protector” policy.