MOSCOW, March 5 (Xinhua) — Russian presidential candidate and incumbent Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has won about 64 percent of the votes after over 95 percent of ballots was counted early on Monday, official figures from the Central Election Commission (CEC) showed. The latest official counts posted on the CEC website showed that Putin has kept the leading position with 64.28 percent of the votes, enough to avoid a second round, while none of the other four candidates have garnered more than 20 percent of the votes. Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov pocketed 17.14 percent of the votes, while independent candidate Mikhail Prokhorov gained 7.42 percent. About 6.25 percent of the votes went to Liberal Democratic leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky and 3.80 percent for A Just Russia leader Sergei Mironov. Some 64 percent of the 109 million eligible voters cast their ballots in the presidential election on Sunday. Earlier, the tearful Putin had declared victory after exit poll results showed he would win 58.3 percent of the votes.
Category: Head Stories
March 1, 2012 – In the spirit of recognizing mobs of terrorists as legitimate national governments before a sovereign nation’s true leadership is murdered by US-led NATO operations, as was the case in Libya, the Western media is already decrying Russia’s upcoming elections as “rigged” before they’ve even taken place. Leading the preemptive media coverage is Foreign Policy (FP) magazine featuring an article by Freedom House president David Kramer and Freedom House vice president, Christopher Walker. The FP piece titled, “The Kremlin’s Big Gamble: Can Vladimir Putin’s simulated democracy survive another rigged election?” in title alone already implies that the elections, which polls have long indicated Putin is overwhelmingly expected to win, will be “rigged.” This in and of itself is “rigged” coverage – reporting conclusions to events that have yet to unfold. Kramer’s piece is particularly ironic, because the first round of “rigged election” calls were made last December by “activists” funded by the US State Department through the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), of which Freedom House is a subsidiary.
In my previous articles I have discussed some of the key foreign challenges that Russia now faces. This subject deserves a more detailed discussion and not just because foreign policy is part and parcel of any government strategy. External challenges and the changing world around us are compelling us to make decisions that have implications for the economy, our culture, the budget and for investment. Russia is part of the greater world whether we are talking about the economy, media coverage or cultural development. We do not wish to and cannot isolate ourselves. We hope that our openness will result in a higher standard of living for Russia plus a more diverse culture and a general level of trust, something that is becoming increasingly scarce.
Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and now Syria had peace and calm until Washington intervened belligerently. Strategies and tactics vary. Objectives are consistent. They involve replacing independent regimes with pro-Western ones by any means, including war. Three unwinnable ones rage. Nonetheless, Obama plans more. Syria’s target one. For the past year, US-instigated violence ravaged parts of the country. Thousands have been killed, many others injured. Syria’s gripped by fear. Heavily armed killer gangs rage out of control, and direct foreign intervention looms. More on that below. Assad’s wrongly blamed. The blame game targets victims, not villains. As a result, ongoing conflict continues.
The spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea on Wednesday gave the following answer as regards questions raised by KCNA concerning the result of the latest DPRK-U.S. high-level talks: Delegations of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) and the United States of America (U.S.) met in Beijing, China on 23rd and 24th of February for the third round of the high-level talks between the DPRK and the U.S. The U.S. reaffirmed that it no longer has hostile intent toward the DPRK and that it is prepared to take steps to improve the bilateral relations in the spirit of mutual respect for sovereignty and equality. The U.S. also agreed to take steps to increase people-to-people exchanges, including in the areas of culture, education, and sports.
Much has been spun in recent weeks to indicate that as a result of collapsing trade, Iran’s economy is in shambles and that the financial embargo hoisted upon the country by the insolvent, pardon, developed world is working. We had a totally different perspective on things “A Very Different Take On The “Iran Barters Gold For Food” Story” in which we essentially said that Iran, with the complicity of major trading partners like China, India and Russia is preparing to phase out the petrodollar: a move which would be impossible if key bilateral trade partners would not agree to it.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has acknowledged that Al Qaeda and other organizations on the US “terror list” are supporting the Syrian opposition. Clinton said: “We have a very dangerous set of actors in the region, al-Qaida [sic], Hamas, and those who are on our terrorist list, to be sure, supporting – claiming to support the opposition [in Syria].” [1] (Click here to watch video) Yet at the same time, in the above BBC interview the US Secretary of State repeats the threadbare Western claim that the situation in Syria is one of a defenceless population coming under “relentless attack” from Syrian government forces. There is ample evidence that teams of snipers who have been killing civilians over the past year in Syria belong to the terrorist formations to which Clinton is referring to.
Syria’s Interior Minister has announced that 89 per cent of those who took part in the referendum have voted in favor of a new constitution. The new law puts an end to five decades of one-party rule among other reforms put forward by President Assad. Interior Minister Ibrahim al-Shaar announced the results of the referendum at a press conference on Monday. According to the minister, out of 14,580,000 Syrians eligible to vote some 8,376,000, or about 57 per cent, actually came to the polling stations and voted, RT’s Maria Finoshina reports from Damascus. Al-Shaar said that the opposition groups tried to hamper the vote in some troubled areas like Homs and Idlib. Armed rebels did not allow some people to get to the polling stations he said.
According to Major General Luo Yuan, member of the Academy of Military Sciences of the People’s Republic of China, the US ultimatum to Syria has backfired on Washington. He has urged Moscow and Beijing to join forces to ward off any further imperial expansion by the United States. People’s Daily Online: Is the Marxist-leninist outlook on war outdated? What role should the UN play in dealing with problems concerning international wars? Major general Luo Yuan: There have been several wars recently in the world, including the war in Iraq, the war in Afghanistan and the war in Libya. They not only caused large-scale humanitarian disasters but also triggered battles between the warlords. We should reflect on that. In my opinion, the Marxist-leninist outlook on war is not outdated and there are just and unjust wars. Mao Zedong once said, “There are two kinds of wars in history: just ones and unjust ones. All wars that promote progress are just and those that block progress are unjust. We communists oppose all unjust wars but don’t oppose just wars.” Nowadays, it seems that the UN doesn’t have a say in the launching of wars. Some hegemonic powers can attack any country they want and in whatever way they like. They can create an excuse even if there is no excuse to launch a war. They can launch a war as they please and no one is there to question if the war is right or wrong. Obviously, unjust wars are not condemned. In today’s international relations, the law of the jungle dominates.
Russia, China warn against foreign intervention in Syria. Russia and China believe that foreign intervention in Syria will lead to unpredictable consequences. Russian and Chinese Foreign Ministers Sergei Lavrov and Yang Jiechi made this statement during a telephone conversation on Thursday. The two leaders urged the Syrian parties to put an immediate end to violence and ‘launch’ a dialogue without any preconditions. Sergei Lavrov and Yang Jiechi outlined steps in the direction of this goal, a Russian foreign ministry report says. Russia and China have blocked two Security Council resolutions that pave the way to foreign interference in Syria’s domestic affairs. Syria became a scene of bloody clashes nearly one year ago. According to the UN, more than 5,000 people have been killed in Syria since then.