Näytetään tekstit, joissa on tunniste John Ratcliffe. Näytä kaikki tekstit
Näytetään tekstit, joissa on tunniste John Ratcliffe. Näytä kaikki tekstit

keskiviikko 2. syyskuuta 2026

Putin on freezing negotiations with Ukraine, the visit of the head of the CIA

-
















































About the visit of CIA head John Ratcliffe to Moscow
  • Contacts between representatives of intelligence services there is always, there have always been.
  • Even during the Cold War.
  • We are in favor of any negotiations being filled with specific content.
  • If anyone wants to contribute to the negotiations that are now actually frozen, we are not against the expansion of participants.
  • We are in favour of the negotiations being filled with specific content.
  • There are close people we trust — these are Trump's people.
  • They try to fill our work with content. The President trusts them.
  • Without this, no negotiations can be conducted. Both Kushner and Whitkoff are welcome guests.

SCO condemns attacks and sanctions on Iran, attacks on Palestine

  • The SCO condemned “military strikes on the territory of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which have resulted in numerous civilian casualties and significant damage to the country’s economy”.
  • The US-Israel attacks on Iran “violate the principles and norms of international law and the UN Charter and create serious risks to international peace, security and stability”.


T=
1788332902 / Human Date UTC: Wednesday, 2 September 2026 at 07:08:22


___


Peace
09/02/2026, 00:00 


«Zelensky’s threats to airlines —this is an application for state terrorism»
Putin on freezing negotiations with Ukraine, the visit of the head of the CIA and a new mobilization


Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke at the final press conference of the SCO summit in Bishkek. He admitted that negotiations with Ukraine were virtually frozen, called Vladimir Zelensky’s latest statements «an application for terrorism», explained the decree on measures to protect critical infrastructure and commented on rumors about a new wave of mobilization. 

The main statements of Mr. Putin — in the selection «Kommersant».




Russian President Vladimir Putin, Photo: Dmitry Azarov/Kommersant

About the activities of the SCO

  • The attractiveness of the SCO is that everything is decided at the level of consensus, no one imposes anything on anyone.
  • The expansion of the SCO depends on the decision of the permanent members of the organization, this you need to do it slowly.
  • Russia advocates for the SCO to be an open organization and for the number of members to increase.

About the visit of CIA head John Ratcliffe to Moscow

  • Contacts between representatives of intelligence services there is always, there have always been. Even during the Cold War. We are in favor of any negotiations being filled with specific content.
  • If anyone wants to contribute to the negotiations that are now actually frozen, we are not against the expansion of participants. We are in favour of the negotiations being filled with specific content.
  • There are close people we trust — these are Trump's people. They try to fill our work with content. The President trusts them. Without this, no negotiations can be conducted. Both Kushner and Whitkoff are welcome guests.

About the progress of SVO

  • We want to end the war and achieve lasting peace.
  • Rumors of a new mobilization after the State Duma elections — this is bullshit. This is an information attack on Russia.
  • I receive information about the progress of the SVO from different departments, the picture is quite objective.
  • The exact timing of the turning point at the front cannot be predicted: the war is too unpredictable. Combat operations — are always losses, it is always a tragedy and always new challenges.
  • The Russian military in the SVO zone, despite everything, is not just advancing, they are increasing their pace. I have no doubt that the enemy will crumble.
  • During that night, a large number of UAVs tried to attack Moscow and St. Petersburg, trying to hit three refineries. Drones remain one of the main challenges on land, in the air and at sea. The Russian military is coping with it.
  • Liberation of Donbass it's going as planned, in August alone, 270 sq. km and 15 settlements of the DPR came under the control of the Russian Armed Forces. There are already street battles in Dobropolye, this is an important logistics center. The city of Svyatogorsk came under the control of the Russian Armed Forces.
  • On the eastern bank of the Krasnooskol reservoir, a group of the Ukrainian Armed Forces numbering about 5 thousand people is blocked.
  • In the Kharkov region, the encirclement of another group has been completed, this will allow the LBS to be moved 20 km from the border.
  • The Russian army has 12 km left to reach the ring road in Sumy. Russian troops are working to create a security zone in the border areas of the Sumy and Kharkov regions.
  • RF Armed Forces instructions have been given to launch massive retaliatory strikes on the energy infrastructure of Ukraine.
  • Any military installations in Ukraine — our legitimate target, British, whatever.

About attacks on refineries and ships

  • Russia still needs to repair it 10% of damaged refineries.
  • The total damage from the Ukrainian campaign against civil shipping in the Black and Azov Seas amounted to about 1% of GDP. This is not critical.
  • In 40 days, about 100 ships were damaged and some were killed.

On Zelensky's statement about the «de facto closure» of Russian skies to civil aviation

  • I have not heard such statements, but if they were made out loud — this state terrorism claim.
  • Flight safety will be ensured. If, God forbid, such tragedies happen, we will find something to answer.
  • Kyiv asks for the resumption of negotiations, asks for personal meetings, but does not negotiate with terrorists.
  • Russia is receiving exotic proposals from Ukraine for a settlement, according to the principle «let’s eat yours, and then each his own».
  • No one is putting incorrect pressure on Russia regarding the settlement in Ukraine.
  • We are we don't apply it blows to the leadership of Ukraine. We need some negotiators.

On the decree on measures to protect critical infrastructure

  • In the decree on measures to protect critical infrastructure there is no talk of nationalization.
  • Until the thunder strikes, the man will not cross himself. The enemy caused damage because the refineries were not protected. Companies say these are the responsibilities of law enforcement. When we talked, they realized that they needed to get involved. Three refineries were hit, but failed — they are protected.
  • We all need to work together, the decree is aimed at joining forces.

About his metaphor with killer whales and polar bears

  • The killer whale — is a terrible but intelligent predator, and the West — is the shark of imperialism.
  • If someone tries to drag us down the food chain, eat us, devour us, they may get hit in the teeth.

About relations with Armenia

  • The current situation in relations with Armenia began with problems around Karabakh, but Yerevan itself recognized this region as part of Azerbaijan.
  • If Yerevan decides to move towards the EU, this is its sovereign decision, but it is impossible to be both there and in the EAEU at the same time.
  • Nikol Pashinyan was invited to Moscow to discuss with him the country’s aspirations to join the European Union.
  • Armenia receives large preferences from working within the EAEU; we are talking not only about energy prices.
  • If Armenia believes that it does not need it russian base in Gyumri, we will leave even tomorrow, but is Armenia ready for this?
  • Let Armenia talk about its goals, we agreed to conduct a dialogue in a calm manner.

About relations with Germany

  • Germany's allegations following the Leipzig drone incident are linked to domestic political processes.
  • Businesses are closing, jobs are closing. It is not clear why all this is being done. This can be explained by one thing — confrontation with aggressive Russia. Where is the evidence?
  • Chancellor Friedrich Merz does not enjoy the trust of his citizens: he does not defend national interests, but trades them.

Advertising — continued below

On relations with Japan

  • I was not surprised by Tokyo’s position on my visit to the Kuril Islands, but in general I was surprised by Japan’s attitude towards Russia.
  • Tokyo «out of nowhere» began to deteriorate relations with Moscow step by step. Russia regrets this.
  • The deterioration of relations between Moscow and Tokyo is entirely on the conscience of the Japanese government.

Anna Tokareva
https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/8923667?max=&nav_id=chapter1

____

 


SCO slams attacks, sanctions on Iran: Key takeaways from Bishkek summit

The SCO started in 1996 and accounts for 43 percent of the world’s population and  23 percent of the global economy.


Leaders, including Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Iran President Masoud Pezeshkian, Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, China President Xi Jinping, Kyrgyzstan President Sadyr Japarov, Russia President Vladimir Putin, Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Tajikistan President Emomali Rakhmon and Uzbekistan President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, pose for a photo prior to the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Bishkek [Vyacheslav Prokofyev/AFP]


1 Sep 2026


Leaders of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) have signed a joint statement condemning the US and Israel’s war on Iran and Western sanctions on some of their members, after a two-day summit in Kyrgyzstan’s capital, Bishkek.

The joint statement, called the “Bishkek Declaration”, was signed by Chinese President Xi Jinping, his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, among other leaders of SCO member nations.

The SCO consists of Russia, China, India, Pakistan, Iran, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and the Kyrgyz Republic.

Here are key takeaways from the summit:



SCO condemns attacks and sanctions on Iran, attacks on Palestine

The SCO condemned “military strikes on the territory of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which have resulted in numerous civilian casualties and significant damage to the country’s economy”.

They said that the US-Israel attacks on Iran “violate the principles and norms of international law and the UN Charter and create serious risks to international peace, security and stability”.

“Member States express their sincere condolences to the people and Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran on the tragic death of Supreme Leader Seyyed Ali Khamenei, and to the families of the victims,” the declaration added.

SCO members also reaffirmed “their support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Islamic Republic of Iran and advocate a resolution to the conflict solely through political and diplomatic means.”

The declaration also mentioned that Israel’s attacks on Palestine had destabilised West Asia.

“Member States note that the only possible way to ensure peace and stability in the Middle East is a comprehensive and just settlement of the Palestinian question,” the declaration said.

Without specifying US sanctions on Iran and on countries doing business with Iran, and Western sanctions on Russia due to its war on Ukraine, SCO members also said in their declaration that they are opposed to any “unilateral coercive measures” that go against the rules of the UN and World Trade Organization and could have a “negative impact on the global economy.”

SCO backs Iran’s NPT rights

The grouping’s leaders also backed Iran’s rights as a member of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

Apart from the US, Russia, China, the United Kingdom and France, other NPT signatories cannot build nuclear weapons. But they have the right to a peaceful nuclear programme. They can build civilian nuclear reactors, and use nuclear technology for research and medicine.

Though the US has long accused Iran of secretly harbouring the ambition of building nuclear bombs, Iran has consistently denied those accusations, insisting it is only interested in a peaceful programme. It is on that basis that the US and Iran struck their 2015 nuclear deal – Iran agreed to limit uranium enrichment to 3 percent, which is enough for civilian reactors, but well below the levels of enrichment needed for a nuclear bomb.

But the US under President Donald Trump first bombed Iran in 2025 and then – alongside Israel – launched the war on Iran in February 2026, arguing that the military action was aimed at stopping Iran from building a nuclear weapon.

Then, Trump insisted that Iran would need to completely surrender its nuclear programme – including domestic uranium enrichment. Iran has rejected that demand, pointing out that it would mean foregoing its NPT rights.

The SCO on Tuesday upheld the position of Iran, itself an SCO member.

SCO members emphasised “their inalienable right” to develop research, produce and use atomic energy “for peaceful purposes and to pursue equitable, sustainable, and mutually beneficial international cooperation in this area without discrimination.” They said that any measures which restrict this right are “contrary to international law.”


https://youtu.be/qoBQuuFl7WQ?si=rqgqvotsIGqxl5HE 

SCO Summit 2024: Putin and Xi to strengthen ties, counter the US
3.7.2024 #XiJinping #Putin #Russia
The 24th annual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) is underway in Astana, Kazakhstan.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoBQuuFl7WQ


__



https://youtu.be/9iwCLOibhXw?si=DUhbI2SU1brNjC-A

16 hours ago. #putin #pezeshkian #scosummit

Russian President Vladimir Putin just held a high-stakes bilateral meeting with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on the sidelines of the SCO Summit in Bishkek. The optics and message were unmistakable. What You Need to Know: Putin and Pezeshkian met face-to-face during the 2026 SCO Summit in Kyrgyzstan.
Putin publicly expressed Russia’s solidarity with the Iranian people
Both sides discussed expanding economic, political, and strategic cooperation.
The meeting comes amid ongoing global tensions and Western pressure on both nations.
This bilateral adds significant weight to the broader SCO gathering of major non-Western powers This encounter signals continued alignment between Moscow and Tehran at a critical geopolitical moment.

#putin, #pezeshkian, #scosummit, #russiairan, #geopolitics, #bishkek, #worldnews

In this Times Now World News report, we break down the this topic:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iwCLOibhXw

___
eof


torstai 16. lokakuuta 2025

Overthrow: Trump Authorizes CIA Covert Ops Targeting Venezuela's Maduro

 

Now we know why warmonger Trump so swiftly ramped up the US military profile against Venezuela.  https://stateofthenation.info/?p=36127


___


Overthrow: Trump Authorizes CIA Covert Ops Targeting Venezuela's Maduro

Tyler Durden's Photo
by Tyler Durden


Wednesday, Oct 15, 2025 - 11:40 PM


It is easy to imagine that there's been CIA infiltration into Maduro's Venezuela for a long time, but covert operations there are now becoming an "open secret" - as fresh Wednesday reporting in the New York Times indicates. "The Trump administration has secretly authorized the C.I.A. to conduct covert action in Venezuela, according to U.S. officials, stepping up a campaign against Nicolás Maduro, the country's authoritarian leader," the Times writes.

Already the Pentagon has been engaged in what could be interpreted as more overt acts of war in regional waters - the targeting of boats off Venezuela accused of being engaged in narco-smuggling operations. Clearly anti-Maduro operations are picking tempo, and ratcheting the temperature.

Trump's CIA Director John Ratcliffe, via LA Times/AP

At this point after five instances of drone attacks on these boats, at least 27 people have died. The Trump administration has alleged the drug traffickers are operating with the blessing and oversight of socialist strongman Nicolas Maduro, which Caracas vehemently rejects.

The US military has further maintained a significant military build-up in the Caribbean, including some 10,000 troops, over several weeks. According to more details from the new NY Times report:

The authorization is the latest step in the Trump administration’s intensifying pressure campaign against Venezuela. For weeks, the U.S. military has been targeting boats off the Venezuelan coast it says are transporting drugs, killing 27 people. American officials have been clear, privately, that the end goal is to drive Mr. Maduro from power.

The new authority would allow the C.I.A. to carry out lethal operations in Venezuela and conduct a range of operations in the Caribbean.


But the below part is somewhat surprising and alarming, given the unpredictable and dangerous implications of the CIA acting "unilaterally":

The agency would be able to take covert action against Mr. Maduro or his government either unilaterally or in conjunction with a larger military operation. It is not known whether the C.I.A. is planning any operations in Venezuela or if the authorities are meant as a contingency.

But the development comes as the U.S. military is planning its own possible escalation, drawing up options for President Trump to consider, including strikes inside Venezuela.


What is the end-goal here?
 

Many observers have speculated that it is nothing short of regime change in the Latin American nation known for having the world's largest proven oil reserves, estimated at over 300 billion barrels.


The NYT actually provides a blunt answer in agreement with the regime change assessment:

The Trump administration’s strategy on Venezuela, developed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, with help from John Ratcliffe, the C.I.A. director, aims to oust Mr. Maduro from power.

Mr. Ratcliffe has said little about what his agency is doing in Venezuela. But he has promised that the C.I.A. under his leadership would become more aggressive. During his confirmation hearing, Mr. Ratcliffe said he would make the C.I.A. less averse to risk and more willing to conduct covert action when ordered by the president, “going places no one else can go and doing things no one else can do.”


F-16s reportedly scramble from Venezuela's El Libertador Air Base in response to US B-52 bombers nearby

VENEZUELA scrambles F-16s

content="2025-10-15T20:54:27+03:00"

Responds to US B-52 bombers nearby
F-16s reportedly scramble from El Libertador Air Base in Arabia

https://dzen.ru/a/aO_f0JgSQgX1EyHS

And yet it must be remembered that Trump has constantly touted himself as the "peace" president who solves wars and doesn't start them.

But now, as the NY Times says, there is a highly classified presidential finding which seems to authorize government overthrow in Caracas.

President Trump at the start of this month formally notified Congress this week that the US was entering a "non-international armed conflict" with drug cartels. Trump's rationale for the attacks on drug boats in his memo to Congress stated that the cartels are "non-state armed groups" whose actions smuggling drugs "constitute an armed attack against the United States"

https://x.com/manolo_realengo/status/1978484932159983684


In particular the administration has essentially declared war on the Tren de Aragua cartel, and says it is cooperating with the Maduro government, which Caracas has rejected, and so the presence of the cartel's members in the US is a "predatory incursion" by a foreign nation. In this way he's trying to cast this as an 'America First' policy, and yet if bombs start falling on yet another foreign country which has not militarily attacked the United States, few Americans are likely going to buy it.

_
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/trump-authorizes-cia-engage-covert-ops-targeting-venezuelas-maduro-nyt



__ 

Trump Administration Authorizes Covert C.I.A. Action in Venezuela

The development comes as the U.S. military is drawing up options for President Trump to consider, including possible strikes inside the country. 

Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela’s authoritarian leader, in Caracas last month. American officials have been clear, privately, that the Trump administration aims to drive Mr. Maduro from power.Credit...Adriana Loureiro Fernandez for The New York Times
The Trump administration has secretly authorized the C.I.A. to conduct covert action in Venezuela, according to U.S. officials, stepping up a campaign against Nicolás Maduro, the country’s authoritarian leader.

The authorization is the latest step in the Trump administration’s intensifying pressure campaign against Venezuela. For weeks, the U.S. military has been targeting boats off the Venezuelan coast it says are transporting drugs, killing 27 people. American officials have been clear, privately, that the end goal is to drive Mr. Maduro from power.

The new authority would allow the C.I.A. to carry out lethal operations in Venezuela and conduct a range of operations in the Caribbean.

The agency would be able to take covert action against Mr. Maduro or his government either unilaterally or in conjunction with a larger military operation. It is not known whether the C.I.A. is planning any operations in Venezuela or if the authorities are meant as a contingency.

But the development comes as the U.S. military is planning its own possible escalation, drawing up options for President Trump to consider, including strikes inside Venezuela.

The scale of the military buildup in the region is substantial: There are currently 10,000 U.S. troops there, most of them at bases in Puerto Rico, but also a contingent of Marines on amphibious assault ships. In all, the Navy has eight surface warships and a submarine in the Caribbean.

The new authorities, known in intelligence jargon as a presidential finding, were described by multiple U.S. officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the highly classified document.

Mr. Trump ordered an end to diplomatic talks with the Maduro government this month as he grew frustrated with the Venezuelan leader’s failure to accede to U.S. demands to give up power voluntarily and the continued insistence by officials that they had no part in drug trafficking.

The C.I.A. has long had authority to work with governments in Latin America on security matters and intelligence sharing. That has allowed the agency to work with Mexican officials to target drug cartels. But those authorizations do not allow the agency to carry out direct lethal operations.

The Trump administration’s strategy on Venezuela, developed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, with help from John Ratcliffe, the C.I.A. director, aims to oust Mr. Maduro from power.

Mr. Ratcliffe has said little about what his agency is doing in Venezuela. But he has promised that the C.I.A. under his leadership would become more aggressive. During his confirmation hearing, Mr. Ratcliffe said he would make the C.I.A. less averse to risk and more willing to conduct covert action when ordered by the president, “going places no one else can go and doing things no one else can do.”


Image from NYT
A street market in Caracas, the Venezuelan capital. John Ratcliffe, the C.I.A. director, has said little about what his agency is doing in the country.Credit...Adriana Loureiro Fernandez for The New York Times
The White House and the C.I.A. declined to comment.

The United States has offered $50 million for information leading to Mr. Maduro’s arrest and conviction on U.S. drug trafficking charges.

Mr. Rubio, who also serves as Mr. Trump’s national security adviser, has called Mr. Maduro illegitimate, and the Trump administration describes him as a “narcoterrorist.”

Mr. Maduro blocked the government that was democratically elected last year from taking power. But the Trump administration’s accusations that he has profited from the narcotics trade and that his country is a major producer of drugs for the United States have been debated.

The administration has asserted in legal filings that Mr. Maduro controls a criminal gang, Tren de Aragua. But an assessment by U.S. intelligence agencies contradicts that conclusion.

While the Trump administration has publicly offered relatively thin legal justifications for its campaign, Mr. Trump told Congress that he decided the United States was in an armed conflict with drug cartels it views as terrorist organizations. In the congressional notice late last month, the Trump administration said the cartels smuggling drugs were “nonstate armed groups” whose actions “constitute an armed attack against the United States.”

White House findings authorizing covert action are closely guarded secrets. They are often reauthorized from administration to administration, and their precise language is rarely made public. They also constitute one of the rawest uses of executive authority.

Select members of Congress are briefed on the authorizations, but lawmakers cannot make them public, and conducting oversight of possible covert actions is difficult.

While U.S. military operations, like the strikes against boats purportedly carrying drugs from Venezuelan territory, are generally made public, C.I.A. covert actions are typically kept secret.

Some, however, like the C.I.A. operation in which Navy SEALs killed Osama bin Laden in 2011
, are quickly made public.





Left: CIA Resource Tim Osman, sc. "Osama bin Laden" died of kidney failure in 
December 13, 2001.
Right: Barry Soetoro, sc. "BARACK OBAMA" CONCLUSIVELY OUTED AS CIA CREATION.


The agency has been stepping up its work on counternarcotics for years. Gina Haspel, Mr. Trump’s second C.I.A. director during his first administration, devoted more resources to drug hunting in Mexico and Latin America. Under William J. Burns, the Biden administration’s director, the C.I.A. began flying drones over Mexico, hunting for fentanyl labs, operations that Mr. Ratcliffe expanded.

The covert finding is in some ways a natural evolution of those antidrug efforts. But the C.I.A.’s history of covert action in Latin America and the Caribbean is mixed at best.

In 1954, the agency orchestrated a coup that overthrew President Jacobo Árbenz of Guatemala, ushering in decades of instability. The C.I.A.-backed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in 1961 ended in disaster, and the agency repeatedly tried to assassinate Fidel Castro. That same year, however, the C.I.A. supplied weapons to dissidents who assassinated Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina, the authoritarian leader of the Dominican Republic.

The agency also had its hands in a 1964 coup in Brazil, the death of Che Guevara and other machinations in Bolivia, a 1973 coup in Chile, and the contra fight against the leftist Sandinista government of Nicaragua in the 1980s.


Julian E. Barnes covers the U.S. intelligence agencies and international security matters for The Times. He has written about security issues for more than two decades.

Tyler Pager is a White House correspondent for The Times, covering President Trump and his administration.
See more on: National Intelligence Estimates, U.S. Politics, Nicolás Maduro, Donald Trump, John Ratcliffe


_
https://web.archive.org/web/20251015180508/https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/15/us/politics/trump-covert-cia-action-venezuela.html


__

eof
__
Free-Counters