PLATINUM BUSINESS MAGAZINE - ISSUE 29 - SURREY

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The Big Story behaviour” towards Moscow could have “nuclear” implications. Dmitry Kiselyov, who was appointed by Putin to head the country’s government-owned news agency, made the warning on a recent edition of his flagship current affairs programme Vesti Nedeli (News of the Week).Relations between the two countries hit a new low on Friday after Washington accused Moscow of war crimes following a sustained bombardment of the besieged Syrian city of Aleppo, where at least 250,000 people are still living in the rebelheld east of the city. Mr Kiselyov said there had been a “radical change” in the relationship between Russia and the US in recent weeks, the BBC reports. “The loud talk in Washington of a ‘Plan B’ for Syria. Everyone understands what this means: direct military force in Syria,” he said. During Monday’s programme a Russian Defence Ministry spokesman also warned US

Administration staff, politicians and public sector workers have been ordered to take their children out of foreign schools immediately and return home to the Motherland.

And now we arrive at the political structure of the world in 2016 and one can only admire, through gritted teeth, Putin’s remarkable progress in transforming a country that was on its knees into the belligerent superpower we see before us. And this is where the real terror begins, as Putin sees himself as the saviour of the Russian Federation, and this moral justification is all he needs to assume the mantle of the worlds policeman. Having an opponent in the White House with absolutely no appetite for aggression and who set uncrossable red lines within the Syrian nightmare just served as an invitation to Putin to cross every one of them. When there were no repercussions from the US, he was emboldened and swept into the country as its ‘saviour.’ This also afforded Russia a base of operations in the Mediterranean - one that the West will surely live to regret. He then invaded Ukraine and took Crimea and the West blustered and made grand statements, but did absolutely nothing about it. Now Putin had a

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Baltic sea base. Again, Putin was emboldened, and his intention to reunite the old Soviet Union took a giant leap forward. But who is there to stop him? The US, at present, will not and the European Union couldn’t run a whelk stall, so he is free to do whatever he wishes. This is a situation as dangerous as any we have seen in human history. Russia have total control of the air space above Syria and, in response to the US bluster of closing Syrian airspace, they have placed S-300 anti-aircraft missiles in the area and vowed to shoot down any US jets. Three war ships are currently sitting in the Mediterranean armed to the teeth with Malachite cruise missiles along with the Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier. They have just moved Iskander-M missiles, capable of carrying nuclear warheads, into Kalingrad on the Polish border. A Russian news presenter, dubbed the “Kremlin’s chief propagandist”, has warned the United States that any “impudent

bombers not to target the Syrian army. “We’ll shoot them down,” commented Mr Kiselyov. In the past he has boasted that Russia was the only single country “genuinely capable of turning the USA into radioactive ash” and claimed last year: “In Syria, America stands on the side of the terrorist caliphate.”The German Foreign Minister claimed that mounting tensions between the US and Russia have led to a global political situation which is “more dangerous” than the Cold War. As if all this were not bad enough, Putin has ramped up the rhetoric and the possibility that he is ready to go to war. Putin has issued an emergency decree that all officials urgently repatriate any family members living abroad amid fears the world is about to be plunged into a new global conflict. According to reports, the Russian leader has told diplomats of all ranks to “bring relatives home to the Motherland”. Administration staff, politicians and public sector workers


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