Critical Observer

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<b style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 19.2px;"><i style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Bundestag members break ranks and visit Moscow to talk business.</span></span></i></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">German politicians, despite sanctions, try not to break off the thread of dialogue with Moscow. Representatives from all parties headed by the chairman of the Bundestag Committee on Economics visited Moscow to discuss gas business. After the initiative of their colleagues, Berlin reacted with condemnation and stressed that it was not a visit by an official delegation.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">What is happening shows that the EU anti-Russian front begins to fall apart, according to the outlet of the German correspondent Oliver Mayer-Ruth.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Red Square. Great St. Basil's Cathedral. Kremlin. It is true: in the Russian capital, has many attractions, and it's definitely worth a visit. In principle, this can be done against the background of political tension between East and West, bilateral sanctions and a cold style of communication, says ARD / Das Erste, in the lead article for InoTV.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Since everything has changed, diplomatic, tourism has become subject to its own rules. Now, a group of deputies of the Bundestag traveled to Russia to prevent the break off of Russian-German economic relations. However, against the background of the general political situation, Moscow has almost become for them the Forbidden City.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The Russian parliament. Duma. When it comes to business with the Russians, the influential chairman of the Committee on Economy and Energy Bundestag Peter Ramsauer, apparently, is not afraid to make contact. He pays no attention to the sanctions. For Ramsauer next speaker on political and economic issues of all the parties of the Bundestag. The delegation met with members of the Duma to discuss the promotion of the Russian-German gas business.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">"We are all familiar with the problems of economic sanctions. But, in my opinion, because of this you can never break off the thread of the political dialogue ", - says the chairman of the Committee on Economy and Energy of the German Bundestag, Peter Ramsauer.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Back in Berlin, is a deep belief not shared by all. The president of the Bundestag Norbert Lammert, skeptical about the trip to the politicians in Moscow, which is connected, apparently, with the anti-Russian sanctions. In a written address to the Ramsauer he emphasizes:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">"Exceptionally, in order to clarify the situation, I would like to point out that in any case we need to avoid giving the impression that we are talking about an official delegation of the German Bundestag."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Ramsauer is not much worried. He justifies his actions, referring to the vice-chancellor. Two weeks ago, the head of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, Sigmar Gabriel, was also in Moscow for a personal meeting with Vladimir Putin and said that sanctions will be phased out when the conditions will be performed in Minsk agreements.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Apparently, he did it all without the consent of Brussels and the German Chancellery.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">This is similar to what was done by the head of Siemens, Joe Kaeser. Shortly after joining the Crimea to Russia in the spring of 2014, he ignored the plans for the adoption of anti-Russian sanctions, and pointedly met with Putin in Moscow.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Chairman of the Bundestag, Ramsauer wrote that the German government will not cover the cost of this trip. Ramsauer says he knows nothing about the position of Lammert.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">"That was the first time I heard about it. I thoroughly discussed this with the President of Parliament and my friend Norbert Lammert ", - he said.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Action anti-Russian sanctions will last at least until the end of January, but the front is falling apart now.</span></div>
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EU's ANTI-RUSSIAN PROPAGANDA IS NOW FALLING APART

Bundestag members break ranks and visit Moscow to talk business. German politicians, despite sanctions, try not to break off the threa...

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The fact that the United States is accusing China of cyberattacks and is threatening it with sanctions is a sure sign the Americans get increasingly fearful over the Chinese technological boom, say Russian experts. Some note that after whistleblower Edward Snowden’s revelations the United States has no moral right whatsoever to accuse anyone of spying in the cyber space. Should the US dare impose sanctions, China will imminently fight back.<br />
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The United States is considering the possibility of sanctions against individuals and companies in China and Russia that launch cyberattacks against the United States, Reuters said on Tuesday quoting anonymous official US sources. The Washington Post on Monday mentioned the possibility of "unprecedented" sanctions against Chinese companies and individuals involved.<br />
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US officials say, though, that a final decision regarding sanctions has not been made yet, and it is highly improbable before China’s leader Xi Jinping pays a visit to the US.<br />
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Of late, the United States ever more often accused China of hacking attacks against the websites of US companies and offices. China has systematically dismissed all of these charges. Russian officials, too, have repeatedly denied US claims Moscow was responsible for engineering acts of cyber sabotage against US resources.<br />
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"Debates over the possibility of sanctions are a political reaction, and not a technological one," the head of the school of oriental studies at the Higher School of Economics, Aleksey Maslov, is quoted as saying by the Svobodnaya Pressa (Free Press) portal. "Real protection from cyberattacks is found exclusively in the realm of technological solutions."<br />
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Washington has just made a decision to put pressures on Beijing, using cyberattacks as a pretext, he believes. "The United States finds the Chinese technological boom scaring. It’s not the expansion of Chinese mobile phone and computer brands that makes the US fearful, but the powerful Chinese industrial complexes capable of making breakthroughs in IT technologies as such. The United States once regarded China as a major market, if not the only one, for selling its products. But the Chinese IT boom has pushed US companies into the background. In attempts to retain technological leadership the United States might try to put a brake on Chinese technologies - to introduce sanctions.<br />
"The US stance looks absurd, because that country is a recognized champion of cyber spying," the senior research fellow at the Centre of Analysis and Technologies, Vasily Kashin, has told TASS. "After Snowden’s revelations, which provide clear evidence the United States itself indulges in this type of activity to a far greater scale than any other country, has no grounds to accuse others of gathering information through computer networks."<br />
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In all likelihood an angry response from China will follow virtually in due time.<br />
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"The Chinese will fight back very harshly. Should the Americans dare hit any specific Chinese company, for instance, in the IT sector, China’s response may be disproportionately tough. China may curtail the purchases of US industrial equipment or, say, civilian aircraft. It can do so without declaring any sanctions at all."<br />
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This problem, Kashin believes, may spoil bilateral relations.<br />
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"But neither side is interested in starting a row before Xi’s visit to China. The issue will most probably be raised during the summit visit. If no agreement is forged, the parties may "exchange punches" a short while after the visit.<br />
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by Lyudmila ALEXANDROVA of TASS News Agency

US China sanctions may entail harsh retaliation

The fact that the United States is accusing China of cyberattacks and is threatening it with sanctions is a sure sign the Americans get i...

Read Article »