Академик Ларин – руководитель Центра азиатско-тихоокеанских исследований Института истории, археологии и этнографии народов Дальнего Востока ДВО РАН отмечает, что итоги визита обязательно назовут важными и прорывными, что основы стратегического партнёрства между нашими странами требуют сегодня переосмысления, совершенствования и наполнения новым содержанием, адекватным вызовам времени.

Political wisdom, desire for peace consolidate China-Russia ties
By Victor Larin

The ongoing visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to Russia is by far one of the most discussed events in the Russian media these days. People expect something unusual from it, draw parallels, and make forecasts, mainly in a positive way. Two topics are the most discussed.

The first is the date of the visit. Experts highlight and highly appreciate the fact that Xi’s trip to Moscow is his first foreign visit after his re-election to the presidency of the People’s Republic of China. This fact is unambiguously interpreted as a designation of the highest level and quality of bilateral relations. Parallels are drawn with Xi’s trip to Moscow in March 2013, which exactly coincides in dates with the current visit, and conclusions are drawn about traditions and symbols in Chinese politics and Russian-Chinese relations.

A second aspect follows the first one: What will this new summit bring? Diplomats managed to maintain a sense of intrigue. Whatever decisions are made, they will definitely be called important and breakthrough. Knowledgeable people recall the statements of Chinese leaders made a year ago that there is no limit in Russian-Chinese relations. And many wonder how far these boundaries will be moved.

Obviously, it’s not about symbolism, although it does matter. There are serious issues that can and should be solved at the highest level only. They concern both bilateral relations and issues of global and regional politics, cooperation and competition, security, and trust.

We will find out what documents will be signed and what decisions will be made very soon. I would like to talk about expectations, what we would like to see at the end of the visit, and what objective reality requires.

A few facts need to be ascertained as a background.

First, crisis phenomena in world affairs (pandemic, political turbulence, and economic instability) have led to the strengthening of political and expansion of economic exchanges between Russia and China. The trade turnover between the two countries has grown significantly over the past two years and continues to grow, primarily due to successful cooperation in the energy sector.

Second, not economic interests, but political wisdom and the desire for peace and stability along the long border are the basis of the strategic partnership between our countries. These foundations require rethinking, improvement, and filling with new content that is adequate to the challenges of the time.

Third, the situation throughout the world has become significantly more complicated for both Russia and China. It requires qualitatively new assessments and non-standard solutions. These assessments and decisions will be fateful, the cost of a mistake is exceptionally high, and therefore they require common brainstorming, a clear vision of perspective, mutual agreement, trust, and determination. In the 10 years since March 2013, China, Russia, and the world have changed dramatically. China has formed and is actively promoting its own global development agenda. Russia is embroiled in a direct confrontation with the West and has tested its strength.

Fourth, reaching a new level of relations is possible with the synchronization of actions in the field of bilateral relations and foreign policy. Economic cooperation between Russia and China should reach a new level based on industrial cooperation, advanced technologies, breakthrough scientific solutions, social stability, and ideological security.

It also means that it is time to break down bottlenecks and solve problems that have long been talked about and that have not been solved in any way: the development of industrial cooperation, an increase in investment, the modernization of border infrastructure, and much more. The time has come not only to state the importance of solving these problems, but also to create appropriate mechanisms for this, not so much bureaucratic, which are already plentiful, but legal, financial, and technological.

I would like to see the same breakthrough in global politics. A United Front for Peace, Freedom, and Democracy, uniting all countries, peoples, movements, international organizations, and public figures led by China and Russia are needed now. I hope Хi’s visit to Moscow is not just a visit of the leader of one state to another. It’s much more than that.

The author is an Academician and principal researcher at the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Western policymakers rely on experts to help determine the course of international relations. Or, at least we assume Washington politicians are consulting somebody. Since the think tanks seem to reflect (or construct) what’s going on, it seems natural to assume there is some uniformity of purpose. And where Russia’s president is concerned, it’s uniformly apparent that somebody(s) wants the public to believe Vladimir Putin wants something bad for other peoples and nations. Just to check my memory, I used a Google refined search to see how many times the public has been told what Vladimir is really after.
I began with a timeframe of 2011 until the end of 2015. Up first in the results I found Brookings experts saying Putin wanted to «pull Europeans away from the United States», and to divide and to create a new “Yalta” agreement of borderlines between the U.S. and Russia influence. Then there was “BEYOND CRIMEA: What Vladimir Putin Really Wants”, a semi-scholarly paper by Jeffrey Gedmin telling future foreign service trainees how the Russian leader was set on conquest. Of course, Gedmen is the former president of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, so I guess we know how his bills get paid.
A year before these prophetic strokes of predictive genius, the Atlantic ran a piece entitled, you guessed it, «What Putin Wants» a la 2014. In this one, a former speechwriter for President George W. Bush, David Frum comes to the conclusion that «So long as Putin retains power, Russia can never evolve into a normal state». And with this the essence of all «Putin wants and needs» inquiry is revealed. It’s all about definitions. Russia is not normal, according to the thinkers Washington is relying on. Or, Washington employs a lot of «thinking» in order to prove Russia is not normal!
I could go on, indefinitely since there are limitless pages of search results telling us what Russia’s leader is allegedly after. The Washington Post, the Daily Beast, Politico, the New Yorker, BBC, NBC, Slate, NPR, RAND, and etc, etc, etc. If it’s bad for us… But just for fun I created a similar search for 2016 to 2019, and guess what? The same media outlets recreated the headlines on Putin’s desires. The Atlantic led off with «What Putin Wants» followed (in the search) by the New York Times asking «What Does Putin Really Want?», and the rest followed suit in a weird redux somebody decided appealed to American readers. The funny thing is, all the prophecies say the same thing, which should make intelligent people wonder «why all the journalistic/analytical mind reading?»
Fortunately, there are still voices of moderation, experts who seem to at least understand the Russia position on things. Take this «What Putin Wants» analysis for Foreign Policy by Dmitri Trenin, who’s the Director of the Carnegie Moscow Center, the other day. Trenin, who’s a former colonel of Russian military intelligence, and who served for 21 years in the Soviet Army and Russian ground forces, surely knows the positioning here, even if his tilt is naturally with the Carnegie funders. The essence of his report is correct, for once, in assessing that what Putin is after is stopping NATO’s advance. The rest of the report is of no consequence, but Putin seeking to protect Russia’s frontiers is the point.
Vladimir Putin and the Russian people want to live in peace, and to prosper from their legacy resources, ingenuity, and hard work. That’s it. The Russians do not want to have their country chopped up into manageable little territories as was the case with Yugoslavia. Russians have a national identity they would prefer remained intact. And the Russian president, put in power by rich oligarchs or the deeply prideful Russian gatekeepers, or both, is doing the Russian nation’s bidding. End of story. NATO moving onto the doorstep of Moscow reminds every Russian of the lead up to the Nazis’ Operation Barbarossa, or to WWI, or even Napoleon’s ill-fated escapades. After all, what is the ultimate purpose of expanding NATO? What’s the mission for the average American in Utah who cannot find Europe on a labeled globe? Who and what is served?
Maybe we should be asking the pertinent question «What Does America Want?»
Phil Butler,
is a policy investigator and analyst, a political scientist and expert on Eastern Europe, he’s an author of the recent bestseller «Putin’s Praetorians» and other books. He writes exclusively for the online magazine «New Eastern Outlook».

On Feb. 1, 2021, Acting Director Andrey Khaustov of the Russian Federation’s Marine Rescue Service (MRS) and the U.S. Coast Guard’s deputy commandant for operations, Vice Adm. Scott Buschman, signed the 2020 update to the Joint Contingency Plan (JCP), a bilateral agreement focused on preparing for and responding to transboundary maritime pollution incidents.

The updated JCP promotes a coordinated system for planning, preparing and responding to pollutant substance incidents in the waters between the U.S. and Russia. The U.S. and Russian Federation have shared a cooperative bilateral agreement on transboundary marine pollution preparedness and response in this area since 1989. The newest JCP revision requires joint planning and transboundary exercise efforts to be coordinated by a Joint Planning Group led by Coast Guard District 17, and is guided by a non-binding two-year work plan. In addition, the updated JCP creates the new International Coordinating Officer role to help facilitate the critical sharing of information during coordinated response efforts.

“This is an important agreement between the U.S and the Russian Federation that ensures coordination between respective authorities and actively promotes the protection of our shared interests in these environmentally and culturally significant trans-boundary waters,” Buschman said. “We look forward to continuing our necessary and productive relationship with the Marine Rescue Service and the opportunity to conduct joint training and exercises in the near future in order to ensure the protection of our nations’ critical natural resources.”

The shared maritime boundary between the U.S. and Russia in the Bering and Chukchi seas has notoriously poor weather conditions and limited resources to respond to pollution incidents. This plan primarily addresses international collaboration matters and as such is meant to augment each country’s national response system as well as state, regional, and local plans. In the United States, the operational aspects of the plan fall under the responsibility of the U.S. Coast Guard’s 17th District Commander and Sector Anchorage.

hotel-okura-vladivostok

Hotel Okura Vladivostok will be located near the Golden Bridge, a popular tourist attraction from which visitors can enjoy beautiful views of the Zolotoy Rog, a sheltered horn-shaped bay on the Sea of Japan, and the surrounding scenery. It will offer 221 guest rooms each about 40 square meters in size, including 31 suite rooms. There will be a restaurant serving Japanese cuisine featuring a sushi counter and private dining rooms, as well as a teppanyaki restaurant and an all-day dining restaurant. The hotel will additionally offer a large banquet hall, an executive lounge and spa facilities.

Vladivostok, an important commercial port on the Pacific Ocean, is just a 2.5 hour flight from Tokyo. With its exotic landscape, the city is famous for being Russia’s gateway to Eurasia yet relatively close to Japan. Surrounded by the sea on three sides, it is a hub for railway, ocean and aviation traffic as well as the eastern starting point of the world-famous Trans-Siberian Railway.

Toshihiro Ogita, President, Okura Nikko Hotel Management Co., Ltd., commented, “Russia is a promising market and Vladivostok is a symbol of the economic cooperation between Japan and Russia. We are very pleased that Hotel Okura was selected to operate a hotel in the city, and it is a great honor for us to help provide a bridge between our two countries. We will offer the Okura’s signature hospitality, which is sure to satisfy the hotel’s guests and make it a favorite of local people as well as Russian and overseas visitors to the city.”

Since August 2017, Japanese citizens have been able to visit the Russian coastal region that includes Vladivostok with just an electronic visa. As a result, the number of visitors from Japan rose to more than 20,000 in 2018, and in 2019, visitor numbers were on the rise with 1.7 times or 35,000 more visitors than in 2018. Vladivostok is an important city in the development of the Russian Far East, which President Putin has made a key element of the country’s overall development. Following former Japanese Prime Minister Abe’s sharing of his proposed plan for economic cooperation between Russia and Japan with Russia’s President Putin in 2016, various business initiatives are underway in both countries.
Overview of Hotel Okura Vladivostok
Location ： Korabelnaya Naberezhnaya 10, Vladivostok
Total floor space above ground ： around 39,000 square meters
Layout ： 16 floors
Number of guest rooms ： 221
Access ：

about 38km from Vladivostok International Airport; about 70 minutes by car or train.

This presumption was being put under considerable strain before COVID-19. Where once a single wage earner could buy and keep a home for their family, now two full-time incomes aren’t enough to enable people to own their own homes in the cities where they can earn that much. Employers are resorting ever more to temporary workers or zero hours and at will contracts because they can’t afford to pay pensions or benefits, and the inexorable march of a “free market” only free for a chosen few has eroded many of the certainties a prospering economy is supposed to provide.

COVID-19 has changed the game further. It was bad enough that politicians from the same parties that created an “us and them” attitude were now exploiting the problems of the same people they themselves had excluded as unworthy. Now those same politicians are wrecking economies with lockdowns – which may be necessary for health reasons (or not) but are rather an attempt to ensure that no one can have a future, unless the few that can provide one toe the political line.

Yes Sir, No Sir

Russians might know what I am talking about. Didn’t they once have a revolution to get rid of the same thing?
The problem with the Tsarist system wasn’t that it was cruel, unjust or corrupt. If it had been, the Soviet Union would not have fitted the same description, and rejoiced in doing so, only the beneficiaries changing.

The Russian autocracy rested on understandings rather than laws. When you have rule of law, your point of reference is not what somebody thinks or wants, but a written text, passed by a competent governing authority, which is binding on everyone. Things are done on the basis of these laws rather than what someone above us happens to think or want at a given time – if they don’t like the law, they have to change it, following the proper procedure.

When everything is done via understandings, people act on the basis of what they think those above them want, regardless of what the law says. This can and does change from day to day, depending on all kinds of factors. As many modern refugees have found, today the government may like you because you say the right thing, but tomorrow that thing may not be what a new strategic partner likes to hear, so you are suddenly an enemy of the state.

Such a system is designed to create instability and dependence. When your life depends on keeping the right side of what the authorities want, you constantly have to kowtow to those authorities, determining their wishes and obeying them. You have no rights, no recourse, no redress, even if you have courts and tribunals and police. All you can do is obey, because if you don’t, everything you have can be taken away at any moment.

This is why the Tsarist system became so reviled, and why modern Russians didn’t bring it back when the Evil Empire finally fell, unlike in many other situations when a regime is toppled by popular pressure. Deep down, everyone wants democracy and rule of law, however they feel this is expressed – theocratic regimes in the Middle East, like the Communists of old, are seen as offering those very same things by their supporters

COVID-19 has created a situation where everyone’s livelihood depends on what regulations the government is going to impose on a given day. One day your employer can function, the next they can’t, because someone above you made a decision without consulting you.

All you can do to secure your immediate future is try and work out what the government is going to do next, and show what a good person you are by jumping the right way and applauding it. Your employment rights, history with the company, skills and experience are irrelevant.

This is the polar opposite of government by the people, for the people. This is why a global pandemic is being used as the means of introducing it. “It isn’t us, it’s the virus.” Just like it is the fault of the poor and immigrants, those with the least ability to influence the economy, which created the problems which deter people from rising up against such nonsense.

Freedom at One End

When the internet came along, it was considered by many as a way of bucking the system. You could now create your own future by offering your skills directly, at your own price, rather than what your company chose to pay you.

You could live in some remote spot and still earn a working wage by reaching new customers your employer didn’t have. However the dream online jobs, as found on Craigslist or some freelancer sites, remain few and far between.

Yes, it is possible to run online businesses. But any prospective customer does not have an entirely online existence, so you are just as much dependent on the same economic realities as ever, online or not.

However flexible work, based on what you do best, based on your own schedule, remains an attractive idea. Consequently it is being increasingly offered as a cover for exploitation. “Work for us with all the advantages of being a freelancer, working from home, and you can do other work when we don’t need you.” Not when all your customers are in the same position you can’t – they can’t buy anything you have to offer when their own existences are as precarious as your own.

Often the employers offload everything onto the worker, no longer obliged to provide them with benefits, a set schedule or regular payment. As a short term “gig employee,” you are even responsible for all taxes and other governmental contributions, and these are still levied on the basis that everyone has a regular set income, as they always have been.

Wages are being driving down by creating expendable jobs, and you can become redundant based on ratings received on online mobile applications, like uber drivers. Everything is on demand, on an as-needed basis, when the driver of those needs, the ability to pay for them, is no longer there with the same predictability.

The gig economy, far from freeing people to dip in and out as needed, is worse than wage slavery. You do not know when or if you are getting paid, or if you even have work, or what rates you will be offered or can charge.

Naturally, and it is described, “This new economy promises to wring out the waste and excess capacity that the old economy left in its wake and it presents enormous opportunities for those who seek a more sustainable, equitable, and diverse future”. But where does that leave the majority? Those of us who may not have benefited, or don’t know how to access this utopian dream to the fullest?

Bucked by the Same System

For some, the gig economy is a benefit. A correspondent of mine in the Republic of Georgia recently shared how the gig economy works for him.

“I never really knew about the ‘gig economy’ until very recently. A friend of mine enlightened me, and I realised I had been working gigs for a while, short jobs with quick pay, temp jobs or covering for someone. These past few months I have had a lot of these, but I didn’t realise it was becoming a thing.

“Only yesterday I lost one job and gained another. In Tbilisi, the saying ‘As one door closes another one opens’ really rings true, at least in my experience.

“People often ask me ‘What are you doing here?’ Why are you here? Why are you not in China or Russia where the big bucks are? Well they don’t get it, they don’t understand. I was where the big bucks are but was I happy?? Hell, no!!!

“Getting up at 6am for a 7am class (and this was in school, not online folks) is really not my style. The country I am referring to is Vietnam, I was there for almost 2 years doing gig work for a teachers agency all around Vietnam. But because I was on short contracts for each place, it was difficult to start any relationships. I was living in a small town on the coast of Vietnam; the beach was just 5 minutes’ walk away. But I was deeply unhappy and lonely there, even though I was on a good wage.

“So now I’m Tbilisi, Georgia for the pandemic. I love where I am. It was my ambition to live and work here, and I’ll stay here till I drop because I love it. As for the gig work, as a native speaker from London, England, being an English teacher works to my advantage. It’s not just about where you are from – I have GCSE’S, a BA HONS and a TEFL, so it’s not as if I’m under-qualified, which many teachers here maybe are.

“I think the gig economy is a good thing that I can rely on. There will always be students, so there will always be gigs and I don’t see them as a bad thing.”

Maybe so. But what does teaching English in Georgia actually mean? Training people who want a better life to do whatever someone else thinks they need to get that life.

If the political orientation of Georgia changes, not only will there be fewer English students, but those who have already bitten that bullet will be ostracised, and the other countries they hope to go to won’t want them because they will associate their country with its new orientation. This has happened again and again – think Belarus or Ukraine. Rather than being an antidote to the negative aspects of the gig economy, teaching EFL only hastens their consumption of everything in their path.

I’m not Moving

This problem is recognised, but imperfectly. As soon as someone tries to address it, the latest Covid news is released and everything falls flat.

In California in the November elections, the elected officials said Uber and Lyft ridesharing drivers should be treated as employees, but these corporations put a referendum on the ballot to undo it and it passed. It appears the main reason the initiative failed was that the companies threatened to leave the state if the measure was passed – and everyone was scared that other employers might follow the same lead, including their own.

In a Zoom and other interviews in early November, Chairman of the US Federal Reserve Jerome Powell stated that the coronavirus has probably forever changed the economy. Two examples of such changes he mentioned were that people will increasingly work from home, which will change many things of which we are aware and also things we are currently unaware of, and that there might be a “permanent unemployed class” because many jobs have been either lost or “re-engineered” because of COVID.

Powell feared for this “permanent unemployed class,” both in terms of their own economic survival and the social upheavals their presence may cause in the future. This is a reality already experienced in many once-prosperous industrial cities in the Western world, where local versions of Reaganomics destroyed whole communities forty years ago, and no one wants to replace the old industries because the people in them are regarded as “bad”, “unproductive” or “unskilled” because they were trained to work in jobs no longer there.

With more and more younger people not being able to work (because of no work being available) and not being able to attend university (because of cost), the additional layer of unemployed workers (because of COVID) is causing real social and economic upheaval. There have been pandemics and economic collapses before. But never before has there been a change from regular to irregular work as the main driver of an economy – because everyone has avoided it, no country being able to prosper that way.

Seth Ferris,
investigative journalist and political scientist, expert on Middle Eastern affairs, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”

I’ve done media analysis before on the propagandizing against Vladimir Putin and Russia many times over the last 5 or 6 years. Most recently, in an NEO article entitled “Vladimir Putin Wants You to Do Your Own Thinking – That’s All,” I brought to the forefront the New York Times’ relentless harping on Putin’s alleged intentions. But a July 28th The Daily Signal story proves there are more idiots west of Russia’s borders still willing to believe anybody but Putin knows what Putin wants. Get this lead from Daniel Davis:

“Military aggression is no surprise coming from Russia—it’s what Russia’s been doing for generations. But Americans might be surprised to learn the motivations behind that aggression. What’s going through Putin’s mind when he invades Crimea and wages war in eastern Ukraine?”

Davis uses this to lead into an interview with Nolan Peterson, The Daily Signal’s alleged foreign correspondent. Before I go too far in describing Peterson, maybe the reader can get the gist from his answer to Daniel Davis’ first question about Russians’ opinions on the Trump-Russia investigation. Peterson comes up with this genius evaluation of Russian opinion:

“Well, I think that you know, one thing we should understand about the Russian government is that they fundamentally see their country in a conflict with ours.”

No! You don’t say, Nolan. How on Earth could Russian leadership ever see America’s interests conflicting with Russia’s? As if NATO creeping up on Moscow, 50 tons of economic sanctions, constant military drills, and a trillion-dollar media war against Putin was not evidence enough. Read and/or listen to these bobbing heads yourself, I know there’s a chuckle in it for you. My issue is not with political and ideological retardation, but with the fact that almost 3 million people tune in for this nonsense every month. And you thought UFO lizard people and Chupacabra fantasy take the tabloid cake.

This Paterson fellow actually believes the conflict in Ukraine is not resolved because the Kyiv junta dug in with trenches outside the Donbass region like the French and British in World War I. Really, I am not kidding. These fools think Russia actually invaded Ukraine and got stopped by Petro Poroshenko’s hapless UKROPS. Sorry, I said I would get off the numbskull Putin experts.

Let me say this about most of the “Putin experts” I read from on a daily basis. Nine of ten are either CIA spooks, military jarheads, paid hacks who are the recipients of think tank grants, or people vested in business that depends on conflict with Russia – or some combination thereof. In Peterson’s case, he’s touted as a former Air Force special ops pilot who got a McCormick Foundation fellowship. I’ll say this for the Ukraine embedded adventurer above most other Putin haters – he’s at least got a commendable physical record in triathlons and such. It’s too bad that even stalwart Americans fall into playing the fiddle for the liberal world order – but they do.

Looking at the McCormick Foundation, this non-profit sticks out like a sore thumb because of the foundation’s background with the military-industrial network. David L. Grange, a retired United States Army Major General, was the foundation’s president from 2005–2009, a poster boy for the Arab Spring clandestine operations in Libya versus Muammar el-Qaddafi. I’ve no space here for digging into Grange’s ties to Hillary Clinton and his Osprey Global Solutions military contracting business, but we all know American wars equal profit.

At the other end of the ludicrous spectrum, right-wing Trump evangelists conjure up notions that somehow Vladimir Putin made puppets out of the Hillary Clinton mob. No, I am not kidding. Read this story at American Greatness (yes there is such a media outlet). “Putin’s Patsies” attempts to appease American redneck Russophobes while at the tame time letting President Donald Trump be the superhero of renewed American vigor. Author Ned Ryan tries to weld the metal of Russia’s president to the flammable pink marshmallows of liberal America. Let me quote for you here:

“It’s becoming increasingly clear that the dossier, just as I opined on Fox News back in January of 2018, is a Russian misinformation campaign meant to destabilize the United States and part of a wider effort by Putin to destabilize western democracies.”

-Drumroll-

To summarize here. Wasn’t it Franciscan friar William of Ockham (Occam’s Razor) who said: “The simplest solution is most likely the right one?” I mean, what if Vladimir Putin was just worrying about the problems of Russia and making geopolitical contingencies for whoever won the U.S. presidential elections of 2016? Given the fact that Trump only really beat Clinton on a technicality, do either of of the numbskull theories presented in my report make sense? Is it more likely that Putin would be lying awake all night long scheming in some 4-way-split comedy right out of a Peter Sellers Pink Panther movie? Or, do you think the smartest politician in the world was just waiting to see America implode all by itself?

Sometimes I try to imagine what it’s like to be Vladimir Putin. I get these visions of his right-hand man Dmitry Peskov provoking laughs and looks each morning at an 8 AM briefing. In my Kremlin fantasy moments, I see the dapper salt and pepper mustached Peskov laying the morning reports on Putin’s leather-topped desk as he utters; “Don’t look now sir, they finally figured out what you want.” I’ll leave you to imagine the look on the Russian leader’s face after that. And I bet I am closer to knowing that some think tank bozo in Washington.

Phil Butler, is a policy investigator and analyst, a political scientist and expert on Eastern Europe, he’s an author of the recent bestseller “Putin’s Praetorians” and other books. He writes exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook.”

USA Midwest Waterlogged

According to the latest May 20 report of the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) of the US Department of Agriculture, corn and soybean crops are well behind the planting growth levels normal this time of the planting season. They report that only 49% of all planned corn acreage in the US has been planted compared with 78% at this time a year ago. Of that only 19% has yet emerged from the ground compared to 47% in May 2018. In terms of soybeans, barely 19% of crops have yet been planted compared with 53% a year before. Rice acreage planted is down to 73% compared to 92% a year ago in the six US rice-growing states. Of course, should weather dramatically improve the final harvest numbers could improve. It is simply too early to predict.

The USA is by a wide margin the world largest soybean producer with 34 percent of the world’s soybean production and 42% of world exports prior to the China trade battles. The US is also the world largest corn or maize producer, almost double China, the number two. A serious harvest failure in these two crops could significantly affect world food prices, leaving aside the unfortunate fact that almost all US soybeans and corn are GMO crops. They are mainly used in animal feed.

A major factor in the disruption of the US Midwest growing season is the fact that the past 12 months have seen the greatest precipitation levels since the US Government began keeping statistics in 1895, according to the US NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information. Record snowfall followed by abnormally heavy rains are the reason.

Noteworthy is the fact that a strong Pacific El Niño was in play during 2015-16 and a new El Niño has been confirmed this past winter, somewhat earlier than normal. Precisely how that affected the current weather is not yet clear. El Niño is the periodic warming of the equatorial eastern and central Pacific Ocean.

Connected with solar activity, not manmade factors, it can shift global weather patterns over a period of months, bringing the possibility of more warm, cold, wet or dry weather in parts of the world. They occur in cycles every several years, usually every two to seven years, and it is notable that there is a confirmed, if relatively weak El Nino which is expected to reach peak this month of May. The NOAA in April estimated that the current El Niño conditions are likely to continue through the Northern Hemisphere for spring 2019 (~80% chance) and summer (~60% chance).

Australia and Philippines Severe Drought

While the Midwest USA farm-belt is waterlogged, other regions of the globe suffer drought, most notably, Australia, a major grain producer. For the first time since 2007 Australia is being forced to import wheat, mainly from Canada. Last year drought caused a 20% crop harvest reduction. The Government has issued a bulk import permit to deal with the situation. Current wheat harvest estimates are for only 16 million metric tons, half of what it was two seasons ago. Australia is in recent years the number five world wheat export nation.

Adding to the shortfall of grains, The Philippines is experiencing a major drought since February 2018, which is devastating the current rice crop. Although the country is not one of the world top rice producers—India, Thailand, Vietnam and Pakistan comprise a total of some 70% all rice export—it has significant political impact on the troubled country.

Another country being hit by severe drought is North Korea. There rainfall so far this year is lowest since 1982. State media reports that a “severe drought has been lingering in all parts” of the country. The average precipitation since January is only 42.3% of the average annual precipitation of 5 inches. This comes as the country experiences significant food shortages. While data is likely politicized, effect of international sanctions do not help.

While these significant shortfalls are still not grounds for declaring global emergency, notably they take place at the same time the Peoples’ Republic of China is in the midst of the worst infestation of deadly African Swine Fever across the entire China pig population. USDA estimates that as many as 200 million pigs must be slaughtered this year if the contagion is to be at all contained. China is the world’s largest pig producer by far with some 700 million. As if this were not bad enough, the country is being hit by a plague of Fall Armyworms which could devastate crops such as corn or soybeans across China.

This all does not take into account the various warzones around the world from Yemen to Syria to the Congo where agriculture production has been devastated as a casualty of war.

Russia as New Grain Power?

These current crop difficulties or possible major harvest shortfalls could be a major advantage to Russia, the country which, since imposition of US and EU sanctions in 2014, has emerged in the past three years to become the world’s largest wheat exporter, far surpassing both Canada and the United States. This current 2019/2020 harvest year, Russia is estimated to export a record 49.4 million tons of wheat, some 10% above a year ago. Last year Russia accounted for 21% of total world wheat exports compared with around 14% for the USA and about the same for Canada.

Western sanctions on Russia have had the interesting effect of forcing the government to take measures to become self-sufficient in food production. The Government banned GMO plantings or imports in 2016, and enjoys some of the most productive black earth soils on the planet. At least in the short term, Russia stands well suited to step in to address the various harvest shortfalls in the world grain markets.

While it is unlikely that it will be asked to sell grain to the US, were that to happen, it would be a major historic irony. During the Soviet harvest failures of the early 1970’s it was Secretary of State Henry Kissinger who orchestrated, with the complicity of Cargill and the grain cartel, sale of tons of grain to the USSR at enormously inflated prices in what came to be called the Great Grain Robbery, sending grain prices in the Chicago commodity exchanges to 125 year highs. Combined with the 1973-74 OPEC 400% oil price shock, one in which the sneaky diplomacy of the same Kissinger played a central role, food and oil were responsible for the great inflation of the 1970’s, not the wage demands of American or European workers as we were told.

F. William Engdahl is strategic risk consultant and lecturer, he holds a degree in politics from Princeton University and is a best-selling author on oil and geopolitics, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook.”

https://journal-neo.org/2019/05/31/do-we-face-a-global-food-disaster/

Cocktails with Cleopatra?

What kind of beer did the Pharaohs drink? In ancient times, beer was an important ingredient in people’s daily diet. Great powers were attributed to beer in the ancient world, particularly for religious worship and healing properties. The pottery used to produce beer in antiquity served as the basis for this new research. The research was led by Dr. Ronen Hazan and Dr. Michael Klutstein, microbiologists from the School of Dental Medicine at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI). They examined the colonies of yeast that formed and settled in the pottery’s nano-pores. Ultimately, they were able to resurrect this yeast to create a high-quality beer…that’s approximately 5,000 years old, информирует «Тихоокеанская Россия», ТоРосс.

Many cooks were invited into this’beer kitchen to isolate the yeast specimens from the ancient debris and to create a beer with it. First the scientists reached out to vintners at Kadma Winery. This winery still produces wine in clay vessels, proving that yeast may be safely removed from pottery, even if it had lain dormant in the sun for years.

The yeast was then photographed by Dr. Tziona Ben-Gedalya at Ariel University’s Eastern R&D Center. Following her initial examination, the team reached out to archaeologists Dr. Yitzhak Paz from the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAI), Professor Aren Maeir at Bar Ilan University and Professors Yuval Gadot and Oded Lipschits from Tel Aviv University. These archaeologists gave them shards of pottery that had been used as beer and mead (honey wine) jugs back in ancient times—and miraculously, still had yeast specimens stuck inside. These jars date back to the reign of Egyptian Pharaoh Narmer (roughly 3000 BCE), to Aramean King Hazael (800 BCE) and to Prophet Nehemiah (400 BCE) who, according to the bible, governed Judea under Persian rule.

The researchers, with the help of HUJI student Tzemach Aouizerat, cleaned and sequenced the full genome of each yeast specimen and turned them over to Dr. Amir Szitenberg at the Dead Sea-Arava Science Center for analysis. Szitenberg found that these 5,000-year yeast cultures are similar to those used in traditional African brews, such as the Ethiopian honey wine tej, and to modern beer yeast.

Now it was time to recreate the ancient brew. Local Israeli beer expert Itai Gutman helped the scientists make the beer and the brew was sampled by Ariel University’s Dr. Elyashiv Drori, as well as by certified tasters from the International Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP), under the direction of brewer and Biratenu owner Shmuel Nakai. The testers gave the beer a thumbs up, deeming it high-quality and safe for consumption.

Dr. Ronen Hazan, Hebrew University-Hadassah School of Dental Medicine: «The greatest wonder here is that the yeast colonies survived within the vessel for thousands of years—just waiting to be excavated and grown. This ancient yeast allowed us to create beer that lets us know what ancient Philistine and Egyptian beer tasted like. By the way, the beer isn’t bad. Aside from the gimmick of drinking beer from the time of King Pharaoh, this research is extremely important to the field of experimental archaeology—a field that seeks to reconstruct the past. Our research offers new tools to examine ancient methods, and enables us to taste the flavors of the past.»

Dr. Yitzchak Paz, Israel Antiquities Authority: «We are talking about a real breakthrough here. This is the first time we succeeded in producing ancient alcohol from ancient yeast. In other words, from the original substances from which alcohol was produced. This has never been done before.»

Prof. Yuval Gadot, Tel Aviv University’s Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Cultures: «We dug at Ramat Rachel, the largest Persian site in the Judaean kingdom, and found a large concentration of jugs with the letters J, H, D — Yahud — written on them. In a royal site like Ramat Rachel it makes sense that alcohol would be consumed at the home of the Persian governor.»

Prof. Aren Maeir, Bar-Ilan University’s Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology: «These findings paint a portrait that supports the biblical image of drunken Philistines.»

Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.

The Prelude to Invasion

Using rampant inflation and food scarcity that now grips much of Venezuela as an altruistic cause of friction with the US, the Trump administration has engaged in a full-scale insurgency in the same way the Obama administration helped create ISIS and the Syria catastrophe. Few analysts point out the truth of Maduro’s Venezuela, and the real reasons thousands have fled to neighboring countries. The most recent assault on the Maduro administration, what Venezuela’s president called an attack by the “imperialist United States,” an energy blackout has now fueled more unrest. After Maduro addressed his nation and the world saying:

“The United States’ imperialist government ordered this attack,” Maduro claimed in his 35-minute speech, only his second significant intervention since the crisis began last week. They came with a strategy of war of the kind that only these criminals – who have been to war and have destroyed the people of Iraq, of Libya, of Afghanistan and of Syria – think up.”

Maduro has been fighting for political survival since January when Juan Guaidó, the opposition leader battling to topple Maduro, declared himself Venezuela’s legitimate leader and was swiftly recognized by the US, Britain, and other allied nations. Now Guaidó has proclaimed Venezuela has “collapsed,” and is calling for “outside intervention,” which I believe will come within days. First and foremost, Juan Guaidó is a US puppet trained and positioned for the regime change Trump needs to take place in oil-rich Venezuela.

I am not the only one predicting this Latin American Spring (my term) Washington has cooked up. Journalist and author Max Blumenthal, as well as Cuban-American journalist Rick Sanchez both, say Juan Guaido’s “real constituency is in Washington” and that he’s at the forefront of a years-long destabilization campaign orchestrated by the US. At The Guardian, Oscar Guardiola-Rivera, who teaches human rights and philosophy at Birkbeck College, University of London called the election of Juan Guaidó a “coup” orchestrated by the Trump administration. But none of these analysts go so far as to explain why the US is so determined to control Venezuela. While oil riches is mentioned, and sanctions pointed to as causes of the country’s current strife, nobody recognizes how desperate the US is to get at this resource. Make no mistake, it is the United States’ addiction to cheap gas, food, and energy that is the cause of every political crisis on Earth. Read on to find out the truth.

The United States and the Anglo-European alliance is desperate. The leadership that has allowed America to consume 25% of all the available resources on the planet these last 70 years is in a fix. Venezuela and the rest of Latin America can help postpone what Matt Savinar described as the end of civilization as we know it. And while I do not totally agree with all of Savinar’s doomsday theories, the basis of his arguments are sound. The Saudi’s reached the peak of their oil production over a decade ago. They are currently on the hunt for reserves outside their own national boundaries, and they are shipping more heavy sour crude to the United States and worldwide than ever before.

The US Forting Up

The embargoes on Venezuela include the slashing of their shipments of heavy sour crude to the biggest oil refinery in North America, the 630,000-bpd Motiva facility in Port Arthur, Texas, which is controlled by Saudi Aramco. The main job at this facility, before the Venezuela sanctions, was to supply Americans with cheap gas from supplies outside the fracking craziness US presidents gave the okay to in recent years. I won’t get into the pitfalls of hydraulic fracking here, except to point out the costs per barrel and to the environment. At the end of the day, successive US administrations have been strangling Venezuela’s people by putting a chokehold on the country’s top export. Back in the early 2000’s, before all-out regime change was tried in the 2002 coup attempt, which was tied to the Bush presidency, Venezuela was exporting 50 million barrels a month to the US. As of 2018 this figure has dropped below 18 million barrels a month. And CNN is reporting that President Nicolas Maduro is hurting his people! If the average citizen knew who was really to blame, Trump’s coming proxy war would be much tougher to pull off.

This story says the Saudi’s are cutting the production of these heavy grades in order to prop up the price of the sulfur-laden grades. However, the real reason for their cuts is because they simply do not have the capacity to match Venezuela and Iran shipments in the wake of US sanctions. Oil Price would like the world to believe oil has never been better, but the bubble is about to burst unless the US can keep gas cheap and postpone the inevitable. This paragraph from Matt Savinar’s controversial book “The Oil Age Is Over : What to Expect as the World Runs Out of Cheap Oil, 2005-2050,” frames part of my argument here:

“In our current world, it is the precondition for all other resources, including alternative ones. To illustrate: as of the summer of 2004, a barrel of oil costs about $45, which is 80 percent more than the “ideal” price of about $25 per barrel. It would cost in the range of $100-$250 to get the amount of energy in that barrel of oil from renewable sources.155 This means an energy company won’t be motivated to aggressively pursue renewable energy until the cost of oil doubles, triples, or quadruples from its already dangerously high price. At that point it will be too late: our economy will be completely devastated.”

Now, we can argue from now on as to whether or not this theory applies to the situation today, but the eventuality of Savin’s argument cannot be disputed. No, billions of human beings will probably not die of hunger when oil production slips into decline (which it already has). However, regardless of your views on the origin of oil, we all can agree that we’re witnessing a delaying game by the big energy men who control Trump and other leaders. With regard to Venezuela’s current predicament, Savinar framed it best with:

“So-called “non-conventional” oil, such as the oil sands found in Canada and Venezuela, is incapable of replacing conventional oil…”

However, even though these “non-conventional” products cannot replace light oil in the future, they do provide a cushion so that Donald Trump does not have to hit the panic button.

Take a look at the author’s contention George W. Bush’s energy advisors, energy investment banker Matthew Simmon said an oil disaster was already underway almost two decades ago. Think about this for a moment. And guess what? Back in 2004, Simmons explained that in order for demand to be appropriately controlled, the price of oil would have to reach 182 dollars per barrel. As of this writing Brent Crude is at 66 dollars per barrel, or about one-third the price/demand control Bush’s advisors suggested to maintain order. Now factor in the revelation from WikiLeaks that Saudi reserves were probably overstated by 40% back in 2011. The cable revealed the prognosis from Dr. Sadad al-Husseini, former Executive Vice President for Exploration and Production at Saudi Aramco. No, I am not making any of this up. Trump is preparing for an Alamo last stand for America in my book.

Putin as Mad Max

In this section I am visualizing the movie Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, and hearing the Tina Turner hit with the punch line – “We don’t need another hero…” Now let’s discuss Vladimir Putin and the “Russia factor” for a moment. What will the net effect of the western alliance’s economic war waged against Putin and Russia be? This is actually the only question that matters. In order to understand what Mr. Putin has done, one has to consider for the sake of argument that there is such a thing as “peak oil.” Once we agree here, understanding how Vladimir Putin is by far the greatest leader of his homeland ever, it is much easier to grasp. Before you shake your head in objection, consider what happens to Russians if the world is put in shock once the Saudis and the Americans run out of gas! Two or three or even five hundred million Russians will be able to carry on industrially, agriculturally, and sustainable energy-wise with the reserves Russia currently has. The rest of the world, the other seven or eight billion tied to Middle East crude will not. Think on this, and then plug in Ukraine, Georgia, Syria, all the economic strategy, the propaganda, and the real war waged on Putin. All the Russian president has to do now is bolster his nation’s defenses to wait for the coming Armageddon.

I’ve wondered for years why the liberal world order chose “now” as the right time to move to take over the rest of the world. The answer was simple, as you can see. The implications are staggering too. The reason I am sure that the Trump administration will intervene in Venezuela is because they have to. Most people reading this will not be aware of a February 2004 Pentagon report on global climate change to then President Bush. In that document, U.S. strategists not only warned of impending climate change, but American generals suggested nuclear war would ensue once the world slipped into anarchy as nations attempt to secure food, water, and energy supplies. The report went on:

“An imminent scenario of catastrophic climate change is plausible and would challenge US national security in ways that should be considered immediately.”

This was 15 years ago right after Bush, and Britain’s Blair invaded Iraq to secure those oil fields. Please don’t take my word here, read for yourself from The Guardian story from 2004, or the Pentagon report from 2003. The report will also help many of you understand why Donald Trump’s administration is so vehement to build a border wall cordoning off Central and Latin America. This is a subject for a follow-up report, but imagine the chaos that will boil over from these Latin countries once the oil disaster and climate change really take hold. Another doomsday prediction! I know. I am truly sorry for the people of Venezuela, for the majority of Americans just want your oil – let’s just be clear. I am American, and I want you to know about the minority of us who would try and save your country. I hope I am wrong on the Trump invasion to come. Unfortunately, we have this from Reuters:

HAVANA (Reuters) – Cuba said on Thursday the United States was moving special forces closer to Venezuela as part of a covert plan to intervene in the chaotic South American country using the pretext of a humanitarian crisis.

Phil Butler, is a policy investigator and analyst, a political scientist and expert on Eastern Europe, he’s an author of the recent bestseller “Putin’s Praetorians” and other books. He writes exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook.”

https://www.journal-neo.org/2019/03/21/vladimir-putin-as-mad-max-and-the-impending-oil-disaster/

Trigonopterus yoda is one of more than 100 new species of insect discovered and formally names in the thriving rainforest.

Meanwhile, a group of three species were named after Asterix, Obelix and Idefix — the main characters in the French comics series The Adventures of Asterix.

Naturally, Trigonopterus obelix is larger and more roundish than his two ‘friends’.

Other curious names include T. artemis and T. satyrus, named after two Greek mythological characters: Artemis, the goddess of hunting and nature and Satyr, a male nature spirit inhabiting remote localities.

Three others have been named after the famous scientists Charles Darwin, father of the theory of evolution, and DNA pioneers, Francis Crick and James Watson.

The small stature of the beetles made identification difficult.

Distinguishing the animals apart and knowing whether a new species had been discovered or not included DNA sequencing.

Coming up with novel names for such a large number was almost as taxing as finding them.

In 2016 a weevil discovered by members of the same team in Papua New Guinea was given the name of Star Wars’ Chewbacca.

This was in reference to the insect’s characteristically dense scales reminiscent of Chewie’s hairiness.

They are among 103 new species of the creepy crawlies that have been found in the remote rainforests of Sulawesi.

They are all members of a tiny family of weevils known as Trigonopterus — measuring just a few millimetres long.

Only a single member had been identified on the idyllic paradise since 1885 but the island is renowned for its enigmatic fauna.

This includes the deer-pig (babirusa) and the midget buffalo. But small insects have remained largely unexplored.

Lead author Dr Alexander Riedel, of the Natural History Museum Karlsruhe, Germany, said: ‘We had found hundreds of species on the neighboring islands of New Guinea, Borneo and Java — why should Sulawesi with its lush habitats remain an empty space?’

The island is covered by lowland rainforests, although much of this has been cleared.

The researchers, whose findings are published in the journal ZooKeys, say there may be more of beetles needing to be discovered and named.

Raden Pramesa Narakusumo, curator of beetles at the Indonesian Research Centre for Biology, said: ‘Our survey is not yet complete and possibly we have just scratched the surface.

‘Sulawesi is geologically complex and many areas have never been searched for these small beetles.’

It goes without saying that Washington played no small part in influencing this decision, as the Japanese national budget is going to take a major hit by trying to stomach an abrupt increase in military spendings. There’s little rationale behind Tokyo making such a step on its own, as it is highly provocative, which means that it’s going to have a negative impact on Japan’s relations with its immediate neighbors. After all, there was no real threats that Japan had to face in the immediate future. Moreover, lately the geopolitical landscape of East Asia has been undergoing a number of positive changes due to the peace initiatives that are being advanced by Russia, and both Koreas that have significantly reduced the level of bilateral tensions recently. Additionally, one shouldn’t forget that that the backbone of Tokyo’s defense potential are the American troops deployed across Japan, since there’s no way it could withstand a shooting war with Russia or China on its own. Further more, even ten years down the road, after spending hundreds of billions of dollars, the Japanese armed forces will still be no match to the military potential of North Korea, let alone other states. However, the sitting US president has been busy peddling new contracts for the US military contractors in his discussions with representatives of US satellite states, arguing that the so-called client status must come at a price.

Is it of any surprise then that Japan’s National Defense Program Guideline (NDPG) put particular emphasis on antagonizing both China and Russia. Unsurprisingly, this document explicitly states that the Japan-US alliance continues to be the cornerstone of Japan’s national security, which means that Tokyo is committed to support Washington in its strategic competition with China and Russia, since the latter two “attempt to alter global and regional order.” (sic)

Therefore, upon closer examination of the guidelines adopted by Abe’s government on December 18, it becomes clear that Tokyo is planing to drastically increase the volume of weapons and military equipment it buys from the US under the pretext of a somewhat difficult geopolitical situation in the region. While the only goal that it will be able to achieve through that is the strengthening of the US military potential, which means that Shinzo Abe will carry on providing unconditional support to the Pentagon in the Asia-Pacific.

For instance, NDPG stipulates that Japan must convert its Izumo-class helicopter destroyers into carriers, capable of launching F-35B stealth fighters. But before those works even start the government has to acquire a total of eighteen F-35B with vertical takeoff capabilities to deploy them aboard the first modified carrier. This means that Japan’s Maritime Self-Defense Forces (MSDF) are now going to acquire offensive capabilities, which means that they can be eventually deployed to the South China, Indian Ocean or even the Mediterranean Sea to support yet another US-led aggression against another sovereign state.

As of today, MSDF operates two Izumo-class helicopter destroyers that can be more accurately descrbied as helicopter carriers: the lead ship of the same name Izumo (DDH-183) entered service in 2015, with her sister ship Kaga (DDH-184) arriving two years later in 2017. According to Jane’s Defense Weekly, Japan plans to replace 99 outdated F-15J multi-role fighters with brand new F-35A fighter jets, on top of 42 jets that Tokyo has already ordered in the US.

In addition, the new guidelines state that over the next decade Japan will field two batteries of American anti-missile systems Aegis Ashore. It’s believed that one of them is going to be deployed in the northern prefecture of Akita by 2023, while the other one is going to be stationed in the south-western prefecture of Yamaguchi. Yet, the deployment phase can be significantly accelerated. According to the Pentagon’s Defense and Security Cooperation Agency, at the end of January, the US state Department approved the sale of two Aegis batteries to Japan, with the estimated price of the deal exceeding 2.1 billion dollars.

Japan’s Self-Defense Forces are also going to increase their military potential in such areas as space warfare, cyber and electronic operations. In essence, Japan is going to work with the United States in close cooperation to allow the latter achieve dominance in those areas that Washington perceives as most advanced.

Tokyo’s defense guidelines put a particular emphasis on the progress that China has recently made in space exploration, which, according to the logics of the planners behind this document, means that Beijing is going to acquire anti-satellite capabilities in the foreseeable future. To counter this alleged threat, Tokyo is going to create a space force, following the example of the US that has announced its plans to create space armed forces a long while ago.

It is noteworthy that, after this latest revision of the Japanese national defense strategy, Shinzo Abe is going to kick start covert militarization of Japan, building the momentum after the revision of the Japanese Constitution of 2015, which significantly expanded the scope of operations that the Japan Self-Defense Forces were allowed to conduct. This also means that Washington will increase its military capabilities across the region without spending a single penny.

The rapid transformation that Japan undergoes these days clearly reflects the views of a certain group of ruling elites in Japan that are convinced that no one can serve two masters. That is why, while choosing between the so-called US-led international order and good standing with its immediate neighbors, Japan prefers to choose the former, while facing a chill in its relationships with both Russia and China. Of course, when steps a state takes are so drastic they cannot possibly affect peace initiatives in a positive manner. This means that the future of inter-Korean negotiations and the peaceful settlement between Moscow and Tokyo are starting to look bleak once again.

Jean Périer is an independent researcher and analyst and a renowned expert on the Near and Middle East, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook“

https://journal-neo.org/2019/02/16/does-the-covert-militarization-of-japan-serve-its-national-interests-well/

In the northern hemisphere, the pole of cold is believed to be located in Tomtor in Yakutia’s Oymyakon. In February 1933, temperatures were documented at minus 67.7 degrees Celsius. Temperatures there average around minus 61 degrees in January. The settlement is some 1,000km from Yakutsk, the driving time is about 16 hours including rest stops.

«We know about the high interest from tourists and the local authorities, and thus we can begin commercial flights on L-410 to Tomtor in March already,» the press service quoted the company’s Director General Semen Vinokurov as saying. «We still need to go into certain details and to set reasonable fares.»

If the demand is high enough, the company could serve two flights a week, the press service added. The region’s Head Mikhail Zakharov hopes more tourists would come to the region if they can take direct flights. «Many have to refuse [from tours] because there isn’t a flight there,» he said.

Polar Airlines, the company said, serves about 40% of regional routes. Every year, it transports more than 120,000 passengers and more than 2,000 tonnes of cargoes and mail; it assists medical aviation in rescuing more than 2,000 people.

Originally Published in TASS

It has been revealed that four Internet pages contain information on the sale of these rare birds without permission documentation, the statement reads. According to prosecutors, the blocked websites have afforded a chance to buy owls for anyone who feels like it.

Eagle owls are red-listed birds. The species is protected by the state as highly valued.

Originally Published in Rapsinews

Gazprom has reached agreements with export agencies, which are ready to provide guarantees for US$7 billion, and talks with banks are ongoing, Ivannikov said.

This year, Gazprom won’t need funds for the Amur gas processing plant because its financing needs have been covered by bridge loans, the manager noted.

Gazprom is currently holding talks with 27 banks for financing for next year. The Russian gas giant plans to raise US$14 billion for the Amur gas processing plant, including US$7 billion in guarantees from export agencies, Russian media quoted Ivannikov as saying.

Once in full operation, the Amur Gas Processing Plant will be Russia’s largest and the world’s second largest natural gas processing facility, according to Gazprom. The plant is designed to be a crucial link along the Power of Siberia gas pipeline with which Gazprom plans to begin delivering gas to China in December 2019.

Construction at the Amur gas processing plant started back in 2015. As of the end of December 2018, the progress on the gas processing plant’s construction was at 24 percent, according to Alexey Miller, the chairman of Gazprom’s Management Committee.

The Amur gas processing plant will have a design capacity of 42 billion cubic meters of gas per year. The plant is planned to have six production lines, and the first two lines are currently scheduled for commissioning in 2021. The Amur gas processing plant will also host the largest helium production facility in the world, according to the Russian gas giant.

Originally Published in Oilprice