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Russian PM: "The U.S. Just Declared Full-Scale Trade War On Russia"

Several hours after President Trump officially signed the new Russian sanctions into law - despite his reservations and his statement that while he favors "tough measures to punish and deter aggressive and destabilizing behavior by Iran, North Korea, and Russia, this legislation is significantly flawed" - Russia responded when moments ago Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said on his FaceBook page that any hopes of improving Russian relations with the new US administration are dead, that the Trump administration demonstrated complete impotence by transferring executive power to Congress "in the most humiliating manner", and most notably, that the US just declared a full-scale trade war on Russia.
From Medvedev's facebook page ...

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Sanctions, smoke and mirrors from a kindergarten on LSD
Saker
July 31, 2017 169 Comments

The latest US sanctions and the Russian retaliatory response have resulted in a torrent of speculations in the official media and the blogosphere – everybody is trying to make sense of a situation which appears to make no sense at all. Why in the world would the US Senate adopt new sanctions against Russia when Russia has done absolutely nothing to provoke such a vote? Except for Rand Paul and Bernie Sanders, every single US Senator voted in favor of these sanctions. Why?! This is even more baffling when you consider that the single biggest effect of these sanctions will be to trigger a rift, and possibly even counter-sanctions, between the US and the EU. What is absolutely clear is that these sanctions will have exactly zero effect on Russia and I don’t think anybody is seriously expecting the Russians to change anything at all in their policies. And yet, every Senator except Paul and Sanders voted for this. Does that make any sense to you? ...

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:

Why in the world would the US Senate adopt new sanctions against Russia when Russia has done absolutely nothing to provoke such a vote? Except for Rand Paul and Bernie Sanders, every single US Senator voted in favor of these sanctions. Why?!

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You didn't find evidence, but Congress found enough hearsay to force Trump to quietly sign legislation Wednesday that imposes new limits on his ability to lift sanctions against Russia. Trump said that parts of the measure are unconstitutional but that he was signing it for the "sake of national unity."- SECOND

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White House Says Russia’s Hackers Are Too Good to Be Caught but NSA Partner Called Them “Morons”
https://theintercept.com/2017/08/02/white-house-says-russias-hackers-a
re-too-good-to-be-caught-but-nsa-partner-called-them-morons/

The hackers behind the dump of Democratic Party emails in the midst of last year’s presidential race left apparent evidence of their identity — a breadcrumb trail winding from the stolen files back to the Russian government, according to assessments from the U.S. intelligence community. Some of this evidence was there from the beginning, embedded inside the first documents to hit the web, raising a niggling question: Why would diabolically skilled Russian operatives operate so sloppily?- SECOND/ The Intercept

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(c) Modification of directive 2 with respect to the energy sector of the Russian Federation economy.—Not later than 60 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of the Treasury shall modify Directive 2 (as amended), dated September 12, 2014, issued by the Office of Foreign Assets Control under Executive Order No. 13662, or any successor directive (which shall be effective beginning on the date that is 60 days after the date of such modification), to ensure that the directive prohibits the conduct by United States persons or persons within the United States of all transactions in, provision of financing for, and other dealings in new debt of longer than 60 days maturity of persons determined to be subject to the directive, their property, or their interests in property.

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:

If you've been following the gas pipeline story ... and I know you haven't because you've been busy with phantom evidence about "RUSSIA!" .... EU anti-monopoly rules require that pipeline construction not be owned by the gas provider. So the Nord Stream 2 pipeline to Germany and Austria, is half owned by Uniper, Wintershall, Shell , OMV and Engie, and half owned by Gazprom.

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Imperial Folly Brings Russia And Germany Together
-Pepe Escobar

The Empire of Whiners simply can't get enough when it comes to huff, puff and pout as the Empire of Sanctions.

With an Orwellian 99% majority that would delight the Kim dynasty in North Korea, the "representative democracy" Capitol Hill has bulldozed its latest House/Senate sanctions package, aimed mostly at Russia, but also targeting Iran and North Korea.

The White House's announcement - late Friday afternoon in the middle of summer - that President Trump has approved and will sign the bill was literally buried in the news cycle amidst the proverbial 24/7 Russia-gate related hysteria.

Trump will be required to justify to Congress, in writing, any initiative to ease sanctions on Russia. And Congress is entitled to launch an automatic review of any such initiative.

Translation; the death knell of any possibility for the White House to reset relations with Russia. Congress in fact is just ratifying the ongoing Russia demonization campaign orchestrated by the neocon and neoliberalcon deep state/War Party establishment.

Economic war has been declared against Russia for at least three years now. The difference is this latest package also declares economic war against Europe, especially Germany.

That centers on the energy front, by demonizing the implementation of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline and forcing the EU to buy US natural gas.

Make no mistake; the EU leadership will counterpunch. Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission (EC), put it mildly when he said, "America first cannot mean that Europe's interests come last."

On the Russia front, what the Empire of Sanctions faces does not even qualify as a hollow victory. Kommersant has reported that Moscow, among other actions, will retaliate by banning all American IT companies and all US agricultural products from the Russian market, as well as exporting titanium to Boeing (30% of which comes from Russia).

On the Russia-China strategic partnership front, trying to restrict Russia-EU energy deals will only allow more currency swaps between the ruble and the yuan; a key plank of the post-US dollar multipolar world.

And then there's the possible, major game-changer; the German front.
The Fools on the Hill

Even without considering the stellar historical record of Washington not only meddling but bombing and regime-changing vast swathes of the planet — from Iraq and Libya to the current threats against Iran, Venezuela and North Korea — the Russia-gate hysteria about meddling in the 2016 US presidential election is a non-story, by now thoroughly debunked.

The heart of the matter is, once again, energy wars.

According to a Middle East-based US energy source not hostage to the Beltway consensus, "the message in these sanctions is the EU has no future unless it buys US natural gas to cut out Russia. To deny Russia the natural gas market of the EU was the goal behind the just lost war in Syria to put the Qatar-Saudi Arabia-Syria-Turkey-EU pipeline in and the opening to Iran for an Iran-Iraq-Syria-Turkey-EU pipeline. None of these plans worked."

The source adds as evidence the 2014 oil price war against Russia, orchestrated by "the dumping of Gulf States' surplus oil or reserve capacity on the world market. Since this has failed to bring Russia to its knees, the destruction of the Russian natural gas market in the EU has become a national priority for the United States."

As it stands, 30% of all EU oil and natural gas imports come from Russia. In parallel, the Russia-China energy partnership is being progressively enhanced. Russia is already geared to increase oil and gas exports to China and Asia as a whole.

The leadership in Berlin is now convinced that Washington is jeopardizing Germany's energy diversification/energy security via the sanctions war. Russian natural gas and oil is secured by overland routes and is not dependent on the oceans, which, as the energy source stresses, "are no longer under United States control. If Russia in response to United States belligerency drops an Iron Curtain over Europe, and redirects all its natural gas and oil exports to China and Asia, Europe will be utterly dependent on largely insecure sources of natural gas and oil such as the Middle East and Africa."

And that bring us to the "nuclear" possibility in the horizon; a Germany-Russia alignment in a Reinsurance Treaty, as first established by Bismarck. CIA-related US Think Tankland is now actively discussing the possibility.

Another US business/political source, also a practitioner of thinking outside the (Beltway) box, stresses, "this is what it's all about. That is the true goal of Russia, and the United States has fallen into the trap. The United States has had enough of Germany and what it considers dumping of German products on the United States through rigged currency. They are now threatening Germany with sanctions, and there is nothing Germany can do with the EU on their back facing vetoes from Poland, who is giving them trouble once again. The fools in Congress are really going after Germany, and throwing Germany in the arms of Russia."
The US as the New Carthage

A possible Germany-Russia alliance, as I've written before, rounds up the China/Russia/Germany entente capable of reorganizing the entire Eurasian land mass.

The Russia-China strategic partnership is extremely attractive to German business, as it smoothes access via the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). According to the business/political source,

"the US is at war with China and Russia (but not Trump, our President) and Germany is having second thoughts about being nuclear cannon fodder for the US.

I have discussed this in Germany, and they are thinking of renewing the Reinsurance Treaty with Russia.

No one trusts this US Congress; it is considered a lunatic asylum. Merkel may be asked to leave for the leadership of the UN, and then the treaty would be signed. It will shake the world and end any thought of the United States being a global power, which it isn't anymore."

The source adds, half in jest, "we think that Brzezinski died under the pressure of the realization that this was coming and that all his hatred of Russia and his life work to destroy them was becoming utterly undone."

So, in a sense, it's "welcome to the 1930s all over again and the rise of nationalism in Europe. This time Germany will not make the mistakes of 1914 and 1941 but will stand against their traditional Anglo-Saxon enemies. The United States has truly become today's Carthage and the disorder in Congress reflects the same stupidity of Carthage facing Rome. Legislators undermined their genius Hannibal as they are undermining the greatest president of the United States since Andrew Jackson. As Sophocles wrote in 'Antigone', 'God first makes mad those he wishes to destroy.' This Congress is mad."

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:

THUGR, JONESING FOR WWIII
All those guns 1kiki, are pointed towards your beloved Russia. All those cyber capabilities, pointed right at Russia. Thanks Putin, and get ready to duck.
I'll accept your apology any time, THUGR. But I know you're not man enough to give me one

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You asked why the updated sanctions against Russia. It is because what some of us here have been saying about Russia is True. They are just beginning to see the push back. There's more to come. What you have been posting is fake news.

In your signature you ask for an apology from me,

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Originally posted by THGRRI:
Yeah that's going to hurt. Russia has an economy the size of Italy.

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:

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Originally posted by THGRRI:
Yeah that's going to hurt. Russia has an economy the size of Italy.

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Then what is the MSM so afraid of?

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You keep asking why is this one or that one so afraid of Russia. The response is always the same. They and we are not. Russia's like a child throwing a tantrum because nobody wants to play with them anymore. We've decided enough is enough. So were're giving them a smack. Like a child, they and you are winning about it.

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Yeah that's going to hurt. Russia has an economy the size of Italy.- THUGR]

Then what is the MSM so afraid of? - SIGNY

You keep asking why is this one or that one so afraid of Russia. The response is always the same. They and we are not. Russia's like a child throwing a tantrum because nobody wants to play with them anymore. We've decided enough is enough. So were're giving them a smack. Like a child, they and you are winning about it.- THUGR

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