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Russia

For Russia, It's Washington Still Playing Cold War Politics

Kerry has been talking tough
Kerry has been talking tough
Kirill Belyaninov and Galina Dudina

MOSCOW — The U.S. government seems to believe that Russia has already established “complete operational control of the Crimean Peninsula.”

American intelligence sources have cited no fewer than 6,000 Russian soldiers who were used to achieve this goal. (In a press conference Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin denied his country’s troops were currently occupying Crimea, or that Moscow had any plans to annex it.)

A U.S. State Department representative confirmed that Washington has been given the authority to act against Russia by all members of the “Group of Seven” — G8 minus Russia — and all of the members of NATO.

President Barack Obama, Secretary of State John Kerry and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel held a series of telephone conversations last weekend with European leaders aimed at getting their support for pressure against Russia. The result was a joint announcement by all of the G7 members and the leaders of the European Union announcing that they would stop preparations for the summer G8 summit that had been planned in Sochi.

The only person who spoke out against a possible exclusion of Russia from the G8 was German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who followed up on Chancellor Angela Merkel's proposal of creating an investigation of the Crimean situation under the aegis of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

Anticipating the Kremlin’s reaction to what is being seen here as an ultimatum, the U.S. has moved quickly from words to actions. Washington canceled the visit of an American trade delegation to Moscow and refused to accept a trade delegation from Moscow that was supposed to discuss an energy partnership. On Tuesday, Washington also indicated plans for a $1 billion economic aid package for the new government in Kiev, as Kerry said that Russia was "creating pretext" for an invasion of Ukraine.

Incredibly moving visit to Shrine of the Fallen.Courageous,proud people.We stand w/ Ukrainians for self-determination pic.twitter.com/N6klo1LanK

— John Kerry (@JohnKerry) March 4, 2014

In addition, Congress is expected to vote on expanding the so-called “Magnitsky List,” a U.S. black list of sorts, to include any Russian officials who participated in the decision for military intervention in Ukraine. “Now we’re re-evaluating all agreements on economic and trade partnerships with Russia,” said the State Department representative, adding that all of the NATO countries were prepared to implement visa and economic sanctions.

In solidarity with the United States, 28 countries released a statement condemning Russia’s actions in Ukraine and calling on Russia to “reduce the tension level.” The European Union went one step further and threatened to freeze negotiations regarding the simplification of the visa regime between Russia and the European Union.

But for the moment, these threats of sanctions are little more than an annoyance for Moscow. The Russian Foreign Ministry called the West’s decision to stop preparations for the G8 in Sochi “politically counterproductive” and “not motivated by anything.” They also had harsh words for John Kerry and his threats of excluding Russia from the G8 and starting economic sanctions on Russia.

“The Secretary of State is operating as if it were the Cold War, and trying to punish not those who had perpetrated a coup d’étatin Kiev but the Russian Federation.”

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Society

Big Brother For The People: India's CCTV Strategy For Cracking Down On Police Abuse

"There is nothing fashionable about installing so many cameras in and outside one’s house," says a lawyer from a Muslim community. And yet, doing this has helped members of the community prove unfair police action against them.

A woman is walking in the distance while a person holds a military-style gun close up

Survellance and tight security at the Lal Chowk area in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, India on October 4, 2022

Sukanya Shantha

MUMBAI — When sleuths of the National Investigating Agency suddenly descended on human rights defender and school teacher Abdul Wahid Shaikh’s house on October 11, he knew exactly what he needed to do next.

He had been monitoring the three CCTVs that are installed on the front and the rear of his house — a chawl in Vikhroli, a densely populated area in suburban Mumbai. The cameras told him that a group of men and women — some dressed in Mumbai police’s uniform and a few in civil clothes — had converged outside his house. Some of them were armed and few others with batons were aggressively banging at the door asking him to immediately let them in.

This was not the first time that the police had landed at his place at 5 am.

When the policemen discovered the CCTV cameras outside his house, they began hitting it with their batons, destroying one of them mounted right over the door. This action was captured by the adjacent CCTV camera. Shaikh, holed up in his house with his wife and two children, kept pleading with the police to stop destroying his property and simply show them an official notice.

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