Minutes to midnight: US cuts bilateral contact with RussiaOctober 03, 2016
Following Russia's decree to end their joint nuclear deweaponization program with the US, the US State Department announced Monday that Washington has suspended bilateral contact with Moscow.
(VERO BEACH, FL) America has “suspended” bilateral contacts with Russia over the Syrian crisis, the US State Department said.
US officials had threatened for a week to withdraw from the Syrian peace process, after the latest ceasefire negotiated by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Secretary of State John Kerry collapsed amid bloody fighting.
While contacts between US and Russian military to “deconflict” encounters between their aircraft in Syrian skies will continue, the US is withdrawing personnel that was dispatched for the purpose of setting up the Joint Implementation Center (JIC) for the ceasefire, agencies reported citing the State Department.
There is "nothing more for the US and Russia to talk about" in Syria, White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters on Monday.
Washington has dragged its feet on setting up the JIC, however, with State Department spokesman John Kirby telling reporters on September 16 that its establishment was contingent on humanitarian aid reaching Aleppo, while the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Joseph Dunford, told lawmakers the US had “no intention of having an intelligence-sharing agreement with the Russians.”
The JIC is located in Geneva, Switzerland.
On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin suspended Moscow’s participation in a program for disposing of plutoniumfrom decommissioned nuclear warheads, citing “the radical change in the environment, a threat to strategic stability posed by the hostile actions of the US against Russia, and the inability of the US to deliver on the obligation to dispose of excessive weapons plutonium under international treaties.”
The White House called the decision “disappointing.”
Putin hits US back: Nuclear disposal SUSPENDEDOctober 03, 2016
Russian President Vladimir Putin has suspended the weapons-grade plutonium disposal agreement with the US in response to “unfriendly” acts by Washington toward Moscow.
Kremlin spokesman: Putin had signed a decree suspending the 2010 agreement under which each side committed to destroy tonnes of weapons-grade material because Washington had not been implementing it and because of current tensions in relations.
Preamble to the decree: Deal signed in 2000 being suspended due to “the emergence of a threat to strategic stability and as a result of unfriendly actions by the United States of America towards the Russian Federation.”
Continued: Washington had failed "to ensure the implementation of its obligations to utilize surplus weapons-grade plutonium".
The 2010 agreement was signed by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and then U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Deal called on each side to dispose of 34 tonnes of plutonium by burning in nuclear reactors.
Clinton at the time: Enough material to make almost 17,000 nuclear weapons.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov: "For quite a long time, Russia had been implementing it (the agreement) unilaterally.”
"Now, taking into account this tension (in relations) in general ... the Russian side considers it impossible for the current state of things to last any longer."
Project originally estimated at a total of $5.7 billion.
(MOSCOW, RUSSIA) Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday suspended an agreement with the United States for disposal of weapons-grade plutonium because of "unfriendly" acts by Washington, the Kremlin said.
A Kremlin spokesman said Putin had signed a decree suspending the 2010 agreement under which each side committed to destroy tonnes of weapons-grade material because Washington had not been implementing it and because of current tensions in relations.
The two former Cold War adversaries are at loggerheads over a raft of issues including Ukraine and the western fueled conflict in Syria.
The deal, signed in 2000 but which did not come into force until 2010, was being suspended due to "the emergence of a threat to strategic stability and as a result of unfriendly actions by the United States of America towards the Russian Federation", the preamble to the decree said.
It also said that Washington had failed "to ensure the implementation of its obligations to utilize surplus weapons-grade plutonium".
The 2010 agreement, signed by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and then-U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, called on each side to dispose of 34 tonnes of plutonium by burning in nuclear reactors.
Clinton said at the time that that was enough material to make almost 17,000 nuclear weapons. Both sides then viewed the deal as a sign of increased cooperation between the two former adversaries toward a joint goal of nuclear non-proliferation.
"For quite a long time, Russia had been implementing it (the agreement) unilaterally," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a conference call with journalists on Monday.
"Now, taking into account this tension (in relations) in general ... the Russian side considers it impossible for the current state of things to last any longer."
Ties between Moscow and Washington plunged to freezing point over Crimea and Russian support for separatists in eastern Ukraine after western backed protests in Kiev toppled the Ukraine’s sovereign leader, President Viktor Yanukovich.
Washington led a campaign to impose Western economic sanctions on Russia for accepting Crimea’s annexation and providing military support to the newly formed state.
Relations soured further last year when Russia deployed its warplanes to an air base in Syria to provide support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's troops fighting ISIS and other western backed terror groups.
The rift has widened in recent weeks, with Moscow accusing Washington of not delivering on its promise to separate units of moderate Syrian opposition from "terrorists".
Huge cost overruns have also long been another threat to the project originally estimated at a total of $5.7 billion.
Russia Launches Massive Civil Defense Drill in Response to USOctober 03, 2016
All-Russian civil defense drill involving federal and regional executive authorities, local governments and organizations ‘Organization of civil defense during large natural and man-caused disasters in the Russian Federation’ will start tomorrow morning in all constituent territories of Russia.
(TRUNEWS Vero Beach, FL) - The main goal of the national drill is to practice organization of management during civil defense events and emergency and fire management, to check preparedness of management bodies and forces of civil defense on all levels to respond to natural and man-made disasters and to take civil defense measures.
What does Russia know that we don't?
Read More: Minutes to midnight: US cuts bilateral contact with Russia
It will be a three-stage drill that will take four days:
Stage I: organization of civil defense actions
The stage is going to practice notification and gathering of senior officials of federal and regional executive authorities, local governments and civil defense forces, deployment of civil defense management system on all levels, readying civil defense communication and notification system. After the National Crisis Management Center have brought the management signals, all management bodies, state authorities, forces and facilities on duty and people will be notified through notification systems available.
Stage II: Planning and organization of civil defense actions. Deploying a team of civil defense forces and facilities designed to respond to large disasters and fires.
The stage plans to practice deployment a mobile interagency multi-functional team of civil defense forces and facilities in each federal district in order to carry our rescue and other urgent operations, civil defense actions and to deploy special civil defense units in constituent territories; putting rescue military units, divisions of the federal fire service, rescue units on standby. The stage provides for the team to be reinforced, activation of backup control centers and practicing collecting and exchanging information in the field of civil defense.
Stage III: Organization of actions of civil defense management bodies and forces for response to large disasters and fires.
The stage will deal with the use of the civil defense team to respond to large disasters and fires, setting up aerial and mobile control centers, revising of routes for save evacuation of people, organization of vital services; taking off fire and rescue units of the federal fire service to put out fires and conduct rescue operations at potentially dangerous facilities, including closed administrative territorial entities.
The Emergencies Ministry of Russia will manage the all-Russian civil defence drill from October 4th through the 7th.
More than 40 million people, more than 200,000 resuce and recovery specialists, and more than 50,000 units of equipment will be involved into the drill.
Federal executive authorities, heads of regions, local governing bodies and organizations will also participate in the drill.
Personnel and equipment of the Emergencies Ministry will be fully engaged. Also participating will be paramilitary mine rescue divisions, units of the State Small Vessel Inspectorate, as well as the State Fire Service of the Emergencies Ministry.
Non-staff rescue and recovery units will also participate in the civil defence drill. The drill is designed to check relevance of current plans for different scenarios, and determine preparedness of all personnel and equipment for action.
Information and gathering of the senior personnel of ministries and agencies, executive authorities of the regions of the Russian Federation and local governments will be carried out.
Evacuation, issuing of personal protection equipment, and deployment of sanitation station will be managed. Additionally, all protective equipment will be brought to readiness.
Systems for emergency information of the population are going to be checked upon agreement with regional and municipal authorities.
Quality of medical services will be checked in medical institutions under jurisdiction of the Emergencies Ministry. Rescuers in cooperation with other services will train to mitigate different emergency situations, including natural, as well as man-made disasters in order to improve the efficiency of approaches used to protect the population and territories.
Fulfillment of these tasks will allow increasing level of preparedness of the population, senior management and civil defence forces for action during large scale emergency situations occurring in peace time.
Read the whole story on Emercon of Russia, the emergency response magazine serving the Russian Federation -
http://en.mchs.ru/mass_media/news/item/32915549/ Now watch this: Ukraine, Russia, WW3, part 1 part 2
