Belarus' Soviet-era economy still propped up by Moscow

Belarus has one of the lowest poverty rates in Europe, but economic growth is anemic due to archaic state-run industries and the ending of Russian energy subsidies. Its biggest political crisis is even more of a threat.

Belarus is often described as having the last Soviet-era economy. A strong state-owned industrial and agriculture sector, inherited from the USSR, has allowed the country to almost eradicate poverty.

According to World Bank figures, between 2000 and 2013 the poverty rate fell from 60 to just 5%, compared with an average of 14% for Europe and the Central Asian region. It may not be wealthy, but income inequality in Belarus is lower than in Russia and Ukraine.

"This economic model is, however, outdated and inefficient," economist Klaus-Jürgen Gern from the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, told DW. He stresses that deep reforms are required to modernize the world's 72nd-largest economy and further improve living standards. At the same time, he doubts whether a major remodeling would occur under President Alexander Lukashenko's leadership.

 

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was "without doubt" poisoned by Novichok nerve agent, the German Government says.

Key points:

• Vladimir Putin critic Alexei Navalny fell seriously ill on August 20 during a flight from Siberia to Moscow
• Russian doctors initially said there was no evidence of poisoning, but German tests say he was poisoned
• Mr Navalny remains in an induced coma in a Berlin hospital

Toxicology tests of blood samples from Mr Navalny conducted at a German military laboratory produced "unequivocal evidence" that he was poisoned with Novichok, senior government spokesman Steffen Seibert said.

The Government said that testing by a German military laboratory showed "proof without doubt of a chemical nerve agent from the Novichok group".

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Russia must answer "difficult questions" about the attack.

"This is disturbing information about the attempted murder through poisoning against a leading Russian opposition figure," Ms Merkel said.

"Someone tried to silence him and in the name of the whole German Government I condemn that in the strongest terms."

A Kremlin spokesman said Russia wants a full exchange of data from Germany and is currently unable to give a proper response to the claims.

Mr Navalny, 44, fell ill on a flight from Siberia to Moscow on August 20 and has been treated at Berlin's Charite hospital after being airlifted from a hospital in the Siberian city of Omsk.

Mr Seibert said Mr Navalny's wife Yulia and the attending doctors had been informed of the test results.

 

 

Read more:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-09-03/putin-critic-navalny-poisoned-with-novichok-german-government/12623700

 

Read from top.

 

So, it wasn't the tea?... The Cup? The doorknob?

 

Navalny Novichok Poisoning: The (Very Unlikely) Story So Far

“Maybe the Russians failed on purpose because they want to scare us.”

 

Kit Knightly

 

For those of you who haven’t been following the news – Russian politician (or “opposition figure”, as he is universally referred to in the Western press) Alexei Navalny was taken ill two weeks ago. It is now being reported he was “poisoned” with “novichok”.

Here’s a quick rundown of the official story as it currently stands (bearing in mind that, as with most “official stories” it will likely be subject to instant, contradictory and retroactive changes in the coming weeks):

• Alexei Navalny has never held any elected office, his political party doesn’t have a single MP in the Duma, and he polls at roughly 2% support with the Russian people.
• Despite this, and in the middle of an alleged “pandemic”, Vladimir Putin deems the man a threat and orders him killed.
• The State apparatus responsible for unnecessary and seemingly arbitrary acts of political murder decide to use novichok to poison him.
• This decision is taken in spite of the facts that a)Novichok totally and utterly failed to work in their alleged murder of the Skripals and b) It has already been widely publicly associated with Russia.
• Rather unsurprisingly, the novichok which didn’t kill its alleged target last time, doesn’t kill its alleged target this time either.
• Compounding their poor decision making, the Russians not only perform an emergency landing and take Navalny straight to a hospital for medical care.
• Despite Navalny being helpless and comatose in a Russian hospital, the powerful state-backed assassination team make no further attempts on his life.
• In fact, seemingly determined to under no circumstances successfully kill their intended victim, the Russian government, allow him to leave the country and get medical help from one of the countries which previously accused them of using novichok.
• To absolutely no one’s surprise, the Germans claim to have detected novichok in Navalny’s system.
• Vladimir Putin and the Russian government are immediately blamed for the attempted murder.

If all this seems unlikely to you, don’t worry Luke Harding is here to explain it all.

He doesn’t have any evidence, of course. Instead we get sentences like this one [our emphasis]:

Over the past decade Moscow has produced and stockpiled small quantities, western intelligence agencies believe.

However, never let it be said that Luke isn’t aware of the contradictions in his story:

One other unresolved question is why Moscow granted permission for Navalny to be treated abroad, knowing that sooner or later the novichok inside his body would be detected. 

But he has an answer for this:

The logical conclusion: Moscow wants the world to know.

You see, Putin wants everyone to know he did it, so he’s making it obvious. And the Kremlin’s denials are being done with “a wink and smile”.This must be some new meaning of the word “logical” I wasn’t previously aware of. 

One wonders what the Russians would have done if the novichok had worked as intended, and killed Navalny before he could get to a hospital. 

They couldn’t send him to Berlin then, so who announces the novichok was there? Do they do it themselves?

Oh well, at least now people will have something to talk about that isn’t the rapidly crumbling Covid narrative.

 

Read more:

https://off-guardian.org/2020/09/02/navalny-novichok-poisoning-the-very-unlikely-story-so-far/

 

 

Read from top. Still no signs of the Skripals.... See also: 

in god we trust, all others pay with credit cards — or with their own life...

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, in a traditional speech to MGIMO students, denied claims that Russia is not investigating the suspected poisoning of opponent Alexei Navalny. On September 1, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, in a back-to-school speech to first-year students of the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO), commented on the demands investigation into the alleged poisoning of Alexei Navalny.

"You know, we are currently being demanded by the doctors at Omsk Hospital to present their medical opinions immediately, to investigate the fact that Navalny has fallen into a coma. Remember: he spent a little over 24 hours in Omsk, and all of our Western colleagues made noise asking why there was no information. And there you have it, he's been in Germany for a week now. German doctors do not provide any information either. [note only today we're told Navalny has been poisoned with Novichok]... So more time is needed. But for some reason nobody demands anything from them, nobody judges them for their attempts to hide the truth, ”Sergei Lavrov said. "We are accused of not investigating this situation," continues the minister. “It’s not true. From the outset of this case, the Russian Interior Ministry launched preliminary investigations, and the full investigation can begin once it is established what happened. And — I say this once again  — at the moment it is not clear, "said the Russian Foreign Minister. 

Russian opponent Alexei Navalny was admitted on August 20 in intensive care in a hospital in Omsk after a discomfort in a plane that was to bring him back to Moscow from Tomsk, in Siberia. He stayed there for two days before being evacuated to Germany, his entourage believing that he had been poisoned. But Russian authorities have warned against "hasty wording" about a potential poisoning of its citizen.

Learn more about RT France: https://francais.rt.com/international/78408-affaire-navalny-on-nous-accu...

So far, as we can assess, no-one else died from the "poison"...

On Wednesday, Chancellor Angela Merkel said that Germany was treating the Navalny case as "attempted murder by poisoning," and was waiting for Russia to explain its position and provide answers.

A call between Warsaw and Berlin was intercepted, showing that German Chancellor Merkel's statements about Alexei Navalny were false, President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, claimed during a meeting with Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin in Minsk on Thursday. 

A Telegram channel Pul Pervogo shared a video showing Lukashenko during the meeting with Mishustin. The Belarusian president can be heard saying that the call which Minsk had intercepted proves that Merkel's statements were false and Navalny was not poisoned. 

 

Read more:

https://sputniknews.com/world/202009031080355349-Lukashenko-Claims-Intercept-of-Warsaw-Berlin-Call-Shows-Merkel-Made-False-Statements-About-Navalny/

 

See also: 

Alexei Navalny: Germany urges EU action over Novichok poisoning

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-54010741

Read from top.

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is in a coma in a Berlin hospital, and Germany has revealed he was poisoned by a Novichok nerve agent.

He was taken ill on board a return flight from Siberia to Moscow and the plane made an emergency landing in Omsk. Two days later Russian officials were persuaded to let him be airlifted to Germany.

BBC Russian has pieced together the story of how flight attendants and medics fought to save his life over the skies of Siberia. This is the dramatic two-hour timeline of that perilous journey.
See more:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-54012278

Read from top. Please note that everyone who came in contact with Navalny could have been contaminated with NOVICHOK... Read from top, especially: "with doubt"....

 

Russian narcologist Yevgeny Kovalev commented on the method of finding Novichok poison in Aleksei Navalny's samples.

 

The head of the Institute of Toxicology at the Helmholtz Center in Munich, Martin Goettlicher, explained to t-online.de how Bundeswehr experts found Novichok poison in the samples of Russian opposition activist Aleksei Navalny. According to him, "this is difficult, but possible."

Novichok suppresses an important enzyme known as cholinesterase. This enzyme can be isolated from the body, and one can use a highly sensitive mass spectrometer to determine if there are any remnants of the active ingredient on it. This is a common and accurate method, and it may have proved to be successful now, Goettlicher said.

According to him, chemical warfare agents, such as Novichok, are designed in a way that they enter the body very easily: through skin, air or gastrointestinal tract.

Navalny, as it appears received the poison a few hours, maybe even a few minutes before he lost consciousness, the toxicologist said.

Novichok identification technology failed to be validated

Russian narcologist Yevgeny Kovalyov told Pravda.Ru that the techniques to detect chemicals have become supersensitive nowadays. For example, if one stays on the Moscow Ring Road for 5-6 hours, one can find both polonium and thallium in the samples afterwards.

 

In addition, the method of determination and the sensitivity of methods are of great importance, the expert continued. He explained that the technique for detecting Novichok through the link with cholinesterase is not publicly available, therefore it is not considered either approved or validated.

"Somewhere in Cyprus, in an ordinary laboratory, with the presence of certain instruments, I could reproduce this method. I have a spectrometer, I have basic reagents. I should be able to reproduce this method in Brazil, and in Russia, and anywhere - identically," said Evgeny Kovalev.

"All the talking is worthless until they publish the details of the technique used," he added.

Cockroach and Novichok poisons leave the same mark

Secondly, according to the specialist, "we still need to make sure that the molecule is the right one or not, and if we are talking about a technique, then one needs to know what concentration of these molecules is effective."

For example, in London, Chinese athletes were caught on clenbuterol, but it was found out later that they had eaten clenbuterol-containing poultry before, Yevgeny Kovalev said.

"The bottom line is that low concentrations do not affect the result, that is, the athletes were recognized clean," he added.

"There may also be similar substances. For example, when they exterminate cockroaches, they use organophosphates. Most of them are reversibly inhibited into cholinesterase, but, nevertheless, some are irreversible. If one extracts motor neurons from the spine, it may turn out that I may have the same substance in my body as the politician has," continued Evgeny Kovalev.

According to him, many toxicology clinics in the West, may have developed secret methods to identify Novichok poison after the Skripal case. If this is the case, then one needs to explain whether the dose of the poison was lethal or "incapacitating." Nothing like that was said in the case of Navalny poisoning.

Commenting on the assumption from the German toxicologist, who said that Navalny was given poison shortly before he fainted, Yevgeny Kovalev noted that this is still an "open question."

"For example, they could have rubbed his boarding ticket with the toxin. Another option is the belt that we use to fasten ourselves when on the plane. The buckle has a place that only a passenger touches and no one else - they could have rubbed that place too," the doctor suggested.

Aleksei Navalny was hospitalized on August 20 in Omsk after he became ill on the plane on the way from Tomsk to Moscow. Based on the results of the examinations, Russian doctors concluded that Navalny had a metabolic disorder, which caused a sharp drop in blood sugar and an attack of pancreatitis. According to the Russian doctors, no poisons were found in Navalny's blood and urine samples.

However, it was announced on September 2 that German specialists identified Novichok nerve agent in Navalny's samples.

Navalny poisoning case is fabricated similarly to Skripal's

On January 7th, 2020, a research article was published:The researchers at the US chemical and biological warfare laboratory; The US Army Combat Capabilities and Development Command Chemical Biological Center, Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD, 21010-5424, USA; have synthesized by IN-HOUSE methods the Novichok class nerve gases A230, A232 and A234!!!

Now the Germans claim, Mr. Aleksei Navalny was poisoned (like the Scripals saga in Salisbury, UK) by Novichok nerve gas. This is based on their "research" results from the NATO Bundeswehr military laboratory: Institute fur Pharmacologie und Toxicologie der Bundeswehr,Neuherberg strasse 11, D-80937, Munchen, GERMANY.

In fact, there is only this 1 Germany military laboratory, which produces EXTREMELY ULTRAHIGH PURITY Novichok (Russian VX = VR in their article. Russian VX =Novichok), the purity is over 99.999 percent.

They tested IN VIVO these nerve gas agents in swines!

Georg Reiter: In vitro and in vivo toxicological studies of V nerve agents: Molecular and stereoselective aspects.

This NATO chemical warfare laboratory would have extremely easily sabotaged Mr. Navalny's samples with traces of Novichok gasor traces of Novichok gas reaction residues. This Navalny case seems to be AGAIN a fabricated attack against Russia, by exactly the same methods as in the Scripals saga. Also the Canadian chemical warfare laboratory is involved together with the Germans in this reseach.

Just click the Affiliation +EXPAND button in the Georg Reiter´s article, just below the researchers names. Then you get the working addresses of these researchers. Then you get also: Kendal Weatherby: Defence Research & Development Canada-Suffield, P.O.Box 4000 Stn maln,Medicine Hat, Alberta T1A 8K6 CANADA.

Here we have 3 NATO countries with 3 chemical warfare laboratories working with Novichok-class nerve gases.

 

 

Читайте больше на https://www.pravdareport.com/world/144922-navalny_novichok/

Nato has called for Russia to disclose its Novichok nerve agent programme to international monitors, following the poisoning of activist Alexei Navalny.

Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said members were united in condemning the "horrific" attack.

He added there was "proof beyond doubt" that a Novichok nerve agent was used against Mr Navalny.

But Russia has dismissed the diagnosis given by doctors in Germany, where he is being treated.

Speaking after an emergency Nato meeting, Mr Stoltenberg said the Kremlin "must fully co-operate with the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons on an impartial international investigation".

"We also call on Russia to provide complete disclosure of the Novichok programme to the OPCW," he added.

Read more:https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-53979820


Read from top.


Please note:

This NATO chemical warfare laboratory would have extremely easily sabotaged Mr. Navalny's samples with traces of Novichok gas or traces of Novichok gas reaction residues. This Navalny case seems to be AGAIN a fabricated attack against Russia, by exactly the same methods as in the Skripals saga. Also the Canadian chemical warfare laboratory is involved together with the Germans in this research.

Just click the Affiliation +EXPAND button in the Georg Reiter´s article, just below the researchers names. Then you get the working addresses of these researchers. Then you get also: Kendal Weatherby: Defence Research & Development Canada-Suffield, P.O.Box 4000 Stn maln,Medicine Hat, Alberta T1A 8K6 CANADA.

Here we have 3 NATO countries with 3 chemical warfare laboratories working with Novichok-class nerve gases.

 

 

Читайте больше на https://www.pravdareport.com/world/144922-navalny_novichok/

 

 

Cockroach [spray] and Novichok poisons leave the same mark...

 

Read from top.

 

 

PS: One could wonder why would the Russians let the Germans "inspect" the poisoning of Navalny. The only conclusion here is that of an old trick. YOU KNOW THE ANSWER TO THE PROBLEM. The Russian doctors are sure of their diagnosis: Navalny WASN'T POISONED BY NOVICHOK. You let your nemesis to investigate the problem and they come up with a predictable inference. You know they are lying, but in order to explain themselves they reveal titbits on how they construct their lies and why... The Russian secret services may know by now that NATO has been behind the whole Navalny saga to embarrass the Russians once more. NATO fell in its own trap by Navalny being transferred to the German hospital. The public and the media will see nothing of the sorts, but the important factor is those who know the secret are fully aware of the deception., and how far those involved are prepared to go.

 

Gusnote: the translation of the Pravda article had a few spelling errors...

US President Donald Trump says his administration have not yet seen any proof that Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was poisoned by state forces.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg earlier condemned the “appalling assassination attempt” on Mr Navalny and called on Moscow to answer questions about the poisoning to international investigators.

However, at a White House news conference on Friday (local time), Mr Trump declined to accept the assessment that the Russian opposition leader was attacked with a nerve agent.

“I don’t know exactly what happened,” he said.

“I think it’s sad, it’s tragic, it’s terrible, it shouldn’t happen. We haven’t had any proof yet, but I will take a look.

“It is interesting that everybody’s always mentioning Russia, and I don’t mind you mentioning Russia.

“We’ll take a look at the numbers and the documents, because we’re going to be sent a lot of documents over the next few days.”

 

Read more:

https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/world/us-news/2020/09/05/trump-nato-alexei-navalny/

A ton of documents from the German hospital won't be worth the paper they could be printed on, nor the screen-time should these come as virtual files. Should Trump get documents from the Russians, or read this YD line of comment from top, he could become wiser about the situation.

 

In this case, a lot of proofs can be "manufactured" around medical and technical jargon plus "irrefutable" statistics found in the hospital dustbins. The main event here is as to why "Navalny got poisoned (or not)" and who would profit from such. The answer is clear that Putin takes the blame once more, in a profitable Russophobic exercise for the West. Putin and his cabinet are not that dumb, as to give freebies for the West to hit them on the head. 

 

Read from top.

Ho, how come I can make this outrageous claim? As mentioned above, we need to ask the question of who is going to benefit from Navalny's "poisoning" (which ISN'T and CAN'T BE NOVICHOK). As mentioned in comments above, Putin will only get brickbats either doing it or not doing it... So, who is going to benefit?

 

I give you a clue:

 

Germany Debates Halting Contentious Russian Pipeline Project

Leading politicians in Germany from all mainstream parties are demanding that construction on the natural gas pipeline Nord Stream 2 be suspended as a result of the poisoning of Alexei Navalny. But Merkel's government is so far resisting such calls.

 

Read more:

https://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/germany-debates-halting-contentious-russian-pipeline-project-

 

Read from top.

 

Merkel would know shit but she cannot state it as such. So she will push on with the project as she should, until the next proof-less "poisoning" or murder or nasty event of someone else with "Russian ties" will start to bother the friends of the Lady...

 

Arresting the construction of the pipeline is the name of the game for the USA... ANYTHING WILL DO! If Navalny wasn't poisoned by the CIA, he would have been by an other secret organisation under instructions from the Pentagon, etc... Wiv me?

 

You know the drill...

 

 

 

From Chris Floyd...

 

Operation Condor: the illegal state network that terrorised South America (Guardian)

Even an otherwise excellent, thorough, damning article on the ghastly horrors of Operation Condor has to paint US involvement in its Nazi-level atrocities in the very best light. The reason the US funded, armed, trained and protected the torture-lords of  murderous rightwing dictatorships was, we're told here, is because poor little American leaders were traumatized by the Cuban Missile Crisis and felt "existentially threatened" by any "leftist" (i.e., non-rightwing) movements in South America.

It was only out of this quaking fear that successive bipartisan US administrations backed the overthrow of free, democratically elected, non-aligned governments across South and Central America, and happily, eagerly participated in a hideous network of murder, torture, kidnapping & trafficking of children. It was only because the most powerful nation in the history of the world, with bristling nukes ringed around the borders of all its adversaries, which was dropping more bombs on one tiny nation that had been used in all of WWII, which was ensconced in riches and economic power beyond anything ever seen in history, was scared that it would be utterly destroyed ("existential threat") unless innocent human beings were thrown out of helicopters into the sea by unaccountable tyrants.

Nothing at all about the documented fact that the US greatly preferred murderous dictatorships south of its border to any free government that even attempted mild reforms of rapacious and unjust economic systems that had looted their people for the benefit of local oligarchs and, above all, US corporations. Forget the “threat” of Cuba-style socialism: even the very notion of mixed economies, modest land reforms, modest social programs along the lines of those of FDR – all of this was to be wiped out in favor of bloated killers and their cronies keeping the loot flowing to the gilded corporate boards back in poor, little, existentially threatened America. And that’s what happened, from the American-backed coup in Guatemala in the 1950s to the Obama administration’s approval of the oligarch coup in Honduras in 2010, which has plunged that nation into a hellhole of gangs and government goons brutalizing the people.

It's the same old story. Even trenchant criticisms of US policy must be couched in terms of benign, mitigating circumstances – as in Ken Burns' Vietnam series, which assures us that all of the US-inflicted horrors in a war that left millions dead were due to "good intentions gone awry." It's remarkable, really: malign intent can be (and is) imputed to every other nation, whose governments are seen as ruthlessly and amorally pursuing the interest of their ruling elites; but the US always, always, acts only out of pure intentions or understandable motives – although sometimes, tragically, our decent, upright elites are sometimes led by their own good intentions into a bit of a mess, through no fault of their own. Yet somehow, they always continue to prosper, no matter how big the "mess" – while millions of innocent people around the world (and today, increasingly, in the US itself) pay the price.

 

*

ADDENDUM
Again, overall, it's a very good story in detailing the suffering of innocent people under the operation, and it does note that the US was fully aware of all the atrocities being inflicted, and that many of the torturers were trained by the US at the infamous "School of the Americas." But even here, it is quick to emphasize that Operation Condor "was not a US-led operation." No, it was led by dictators like Pinochet who had been installed and maintained in authoritarian power with US support for years on end. But yes, it's true that the US, with admirable magniminity, did allow its satraps to act on their own initiative sometimes – not in anything that might ameliorate the suffering of ordinary people, mind you, but if America's pet dicators wanted to set up a transnational network of murder, torture and child trafficking, that was just fine with Washington ... which, as noted, gave weapons, training, money and full support to the operation, but didn't lead it, oh, my word, no.

But on a separate note and a different issue, the article makes reference to little-known fact that could have great relevance for us today. It's this passage:

 

"Shortly before I travelled to Chile in March, startling news emerged about a Swiss company that had, for decades, supplied cryptography machines to military, police and spy agencies around the world. The company, the Washington Post revealed, had been secretly owned by the CIA and West Germany’s BND intelligence service. Any messages sent via its cryptography machines could, unbeknownst to the users, be read by the US and West Germany. Among the company’s clients were the regimes in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Peru and Uruguay. As the Washington Post put it, the CIA 'was, in effect, supplying rigged communications gear to some of South America’s most brutal regimes and, as a result, in [a] unique position to know the extent of their atrocities'."

 

Knowing this, any idea that intelligence agencies are not doing the same thing today with web-based cryptography services seems very fanciful.

 

 

Read the headline of this comment... "Navalny, poisoned by the CIA..." 95 % chances...