America A 'Tinderbox' - Major Financial Crisis Brewing, 'There's Something Terribly Wrong In The U.S.

Industry Insider Warns: America Is A Tinderbox And Multiple Matches Could Set It On Fire: “We’ve Obviously Got A Major Financial Crisis Brewing”

Over the last month we’ve seen financial markets around the world rattled. Just this past week a bank that is considered to be one of the pillars of the global financial system was revealed to be in dire straights and so deep in debt that it is likely insolvent. Billionaires that include legendary investor Warren Buffet have existed broader stocks and are now sitting on the sidelines waiting for the next leg down. And even U.S. Presidential candidate Donald Trump, in a debate with rival Hillary Clinton, warned that a single misstep by America’s central bank could lead to a devastating crash.

In the following interview K92 Mining President Bryan Slusarchuk echoes these sentiments and explains that a confluence of economic, financial, monetary and geo-political events have left us in a position that is significantly more dangerous than at any time in recent history.

We’ve obviously got a major financial crisis brewing… And people are now putting Deutsche Bank in the same sentence as Lehman Brothers… People are starting to realize that we might be in trouble like we were in 2008. However, the central bankers and the big national governments don’t have the same ammunition now that they had then to deal with the financial crisis…

At the same time we’ve got a confluence of negative events… Not only are things downright scary in terms of the financial crisis that’s on our doorstep, but we’ve also got these huge geo-political tensions all over the world… Everyday you look at a different headline as to a deepening mistrust between the U.S. and Russia… You’ve got the North Korean situation… you’ve got the quagmire that is the middle east… and you’ve got domestic terrorism in all sorts of countries that 20 years ago it would have been unthinkable… It’s a difficult situation out there.

‘The truth is, there’s something terribly wrong with this country'

While, the USA is not in the midst of a full blown tyranny YET, the globalists are intent on destroying the last refuge of true freedom and capitalism on this planet, the United States of America. The globalists are attacking our economy, our schools, our churches and our society itself. They have their eyes on the biggest prize of all and they will stop at nothing to have it.

Our military is in tatters and our troops are worn out from 15 years of fighting endless, unwinnable wars. The military’s senior leaders with any bravado are long gone, replaced by politically correct mannequins in Class A uniforms.

We the People are being ridden roughshod over by a global elite intent on stealing our money, raiding our bank and investment accounts and controlling us with a worldwide corporate technocracy.

This certainly isn’t the America we all grew up in; the America of jobs and stability and normality.  In fact, Americans under 40 have no conception what life was like in America when it was booming and more importantly, when most of its leaders were patriots.

Yesterday, the President of the United States, in full cooperation with the lackeys in Congress (minus Ted Cruz) turned over the full custody of the Internet from the US Chamber of Commerce and ICann to the United Nations. Now, the Chinese, the Russians and the other villains on the planet will eventually have control over what is seen and not seen. It is simply a catastrophe of infinite proportions.

The Russians and the Chinese are licking their chops. They knew that politicians like Paul ‘TPP’ Ryan were never coming to America’s rescue. Why would they ever do anything to stop the globalist gravy train?

The rule of law, in a nation that was once and truly a nation of laws, has been trampled and defecated on by government officials who will go down in history as the enemies of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

Every day, more evidence leaks out which implicates Mr. Comey as the leader of a conspiracy to sabotage the FBI investigation of Hillary Clinton and to ensure, with Loretta Lynch’s blessing, that Hillary never comes within 1,000 miles of an indictment. Mr. Comey grew angry last week and accused Congressman Trey Gowdy of inferring that the FBI’s men and women were weasels.

No, Mr. Comey, the people that work for you in the FBI are not weasels. You, sir, are a weasel; a sellout, a Quisling of the highest grade and order. You are, in essence a disgrace not only to the FBI, the rule of law, but to this nation and every FBI agent who has given their lives in service to this great country.

The corruption running through the veins of this Republic is nearly astounding and disgusting. The rule of law has been abandoned for the rule of money. Like some age old Biblical tale, America is becoming a modern day Sodom and Gomorrah of total greed and corruption.

The globalists have no party loyalty. Their devotion is not to ideology, but to power and money and maintaining it all costs. Today, the Daily Mail reported that not only is George W. Bush’s daughter, Barbara, voting for Hillary Clinton, but she was seen in Paris, at a Hillary fundraiser, partying with Hillary’s all-around gopher, probable lover and foreign intelligence officer, Huma Abedin.

To the global elite, there is no left or right, Democrat or Republican. There is only money and their insane desire to take all of it and deny the average person a decent life.

The world is teetering on the edge of another massive stock market collapse. The globalists have created a debt bubble of astronomical proportions that has been delayed from bursting by every monetary scheme imaginable. The day is coming when the bubble is going to implode and with it whatever is left of an ailing US economy.

No matter what lies the government spoon feeds Americans, there are nearly 100 million Americans who are out of work, have given up looking for work, or are only marginally employed. One in five American households has no one working. Nearly 49 million Americans live in poverty.

Meanwhile, illegals pour into the country across our Southern border. They steal US jobs, lower wages and stretch the emergency health care system to a breaking point.

On America’s streets today, nearly every third car has a rideshare sticker, denoting that the driver is working part time or full time for a rideshare service and most likely, because they have no other means to sustain themselves. Ebay is saturated with millions of items being unloaded by Americans hoping to get enough money for food or medicine.

As the average American watches their country slide into the ocean like a sinking ship, as the average American watches the middle class be eliminated entirely, as the average American knows there’s something terribly wrong in this country, the global elite lick their chops in ecstasy.

The globalists shipped out American jobs and American companies. Lousy trade deals have created a mammoth trade deficit for the sole reason that America cannot export as many items as it imports.

Who profits from the average Americans demise, the globalists do? For the fleecing of America to continue, for the money to keep flowing in their pockets, for the corrupt politicians and bureaucrats and ‘national security experts’ to all stay on the payroll, one person must be elected to office.

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Wikileaks Confirms Announcement And Information Dump Coming Tuesday

"October Surprise" Is Back - Wikileaks' Assange Confirms Tuesday Video Appearance

After canceling a planned announcement from the balcony of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London (due to security concerns), Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is now planning to appear via video link Tuesday morning at Wikileak’s tenth anniversary celebration in Berlin.

As HeatSt.com reports, Wikileaks used its Facebook page to confirm that Assange would speak at the event, which takes place at 3am Eastern time.

Sources close to the event tell Heat Street that Assange may be planning to release some new information his organization has obtained about the U.S. Democratic Party. But Heat Street has yet to receive independent confirmation that Assange plans to dump information specifically on Hillary Clinton.

The news that Assange plans to appear (remotely) in Berlin comes after Wikileaks abruptly canceled a much-anticipated announcement in London that was to be made from the balcony of London’s Ecuadorian Embassy, where Assange has sought sanctuary for years. The cancelation was first reported by NBC News. According to NBC’s Jesse Rodriguez, the announcement was canceled due to “security concerns”.

There had been widespread anticipating that Tuesday’s announcement might have been Assange’s long-promised document dump on Hillary Clinton.

WikiLeaksTuesday Announcement

Update: WikiLeaks reports that the Tuesday announcement will still take place as scheduled. However, instead of having Julian Assange give his announcement on the balcony of the embassy, the announcement will take place via a video conference which will air at a Berlin press conference. The press conference is slated to take place on Tuesday morning.

Assange has long claimed that he has more information on Hillary Clinton and that he would release it during a time that would be most damaging to the Democrat presidential candidate. The October Surprise was touted as one that could significantly damage Clinton’s chances at the presidency. The Blaze reports that Assange has made numerous claims about his Hillary Clinton documents, noting that he has more information that would prove damning to Clinton but that he wanted to release it at the best possible time. In an interview with Megyn Kelly, Assange said he believed the new data dump on Clinton would be “significant” if it caught on in the media.

“I think it’s significant. It depends on how it catches fire in the public and in the media. I don’t want to scoop ourselves. [But they are] different types of documents from different types of institutions that are associated with the election campaign, some quite unexpected angles that are … quite interesting, some even entertaining.”

U.S. - Russia On The Brink Of Military Showdown In Syria

US, Russia on brink of military showdown in Syria

There is a sense in Washington and Moscow alike that a military showdown between the US and Russia is inevitable – direct this time, not through proxies, like the downing of a Russian warplane by Turkish jets last year. When the big powers are in direct confrontation, minor players step aside and run for cover.

When President Barack Obama Friday, Sept. 30 attended the funeral in Jerusalem of the Israeli leader Shimon Peres, he must have realized he was only 514km as the crow flies from Aleppo, the raging crux of the escalating big-power conflict.

The moment after the ceremonies ended the president and his party, including Secretary of State John Kerry and his security adviser Susan Rice, made haste to head back to Washington to navigate the crisis.

The first step toward a direct showdown was taken by the United States.

By now, it is no secret in Moscow, or indeed in any Middle East capital, that the American A-10 air strike of Sept. 17 against a Syrian military position at Jebel Tudar in the Deir ez-Zour region of eastern Syria was intentional, not accidental, as originally claimed. Scores of Syrian soldiers died in the attack.

The fact that President Obama instituted a secret inquiry to discover which link in the American chain of command ordered the attack pointed to his suspicion that a high-up in the Pentagon or possibly the CIA, had ordered the air strike, in order to sabotage the US-Russian military cooperation deal in Syria, which Secretary Kerry obtained after long and arduous toil.

The concessions he made to Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov in those negotiations, especially his consent for extensive sharing of intelligence, were found totally unacceptable in the US Defense Department, its military and intelligence community.

The Russian-Syrian reprisal came two days after the A-10 strike. On Sept. 19, an emergency aid convoy was obliterated on its way to the desperate population of Aleppo. Moscow and Damascus denied responsibility for the deadly bombardment, but no other air force was present in the sky over the embattled city.

On the ground, meanwhile, an unbridled onslaught on rebel-held eastern Aleppo was launched Wednesday by the Russians, Syria, Hizballah and pro-Iranian Shiite militias under the command of Iranian Revolutionary Guards officers.

The fall of Aleppo, Syria’s second city after Damascus, would give Bashar Assad his most resounding victory in the nearly six-year civil war against his regime.

On Sept. 29, Kerry threatened Moscow that “the United States would suspend plans to coordinate anti-Islamic State counter-terrorism efforts if Moscow does not stop attacking Aleppo.”

Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov answered with a sneering: “Once again there was a certain emotional breakdown yesterday against the backdrop of the Obama administration’s unwillingness to fulfill its part of the agreements.”

This was a strong hint of the knowledge in the Kremlin that someone in the US administration was holding out against the implementation in full of the cooperation deal agreed upon and was therefore responsible for its breakdown.
The United States is left with two options:

Either stand idly by in the face of the Russian-Syrian-Iranian onslaught on Aleppo, or shelve the coordination arrangements for US and Russian air operations in Syria, with the inevitable risk of a clash in the air space of Syria or over the eastern Mediterranean.

Russia Kills 30 US, Israeli, British Officers Believed To Be Assisting ISIS

As part of an ongoing offensive against militant-held sectors of Aleppo, Russian warships hit a military operations center near the city, killing 30 Israeli, US, Saudi, and British officers who were allegedly offering support and intelligence to ISIS militants in Syria. The strike came following a failed ceasefire in the embattled country, which was ultimately derailed after being violated multiple times by US-backed militant groups, the US, and Israel. Russia’s Sputnik news agency reported the incident citing a battlefield source in Aleppo and other reports confirmed the attack. According to sources, Russian warships fired three Caliber missiles at the operations room, where the officers were gathered, in the Dar Ezza region of Western Aleppo. Fars news agency reported that the Syrian army, with Russian support, has been making great advances in wrestling Aleppo from ISIS and militant hands.

Were the foreign officers helping ISIS after all? It has been confirmed from various reports, including the militants themselves, that foreign governments are training, supplying, and managing radical “opposition” groups in Syria with the ultimate aim of deposing the Assad regime.

In a recent interview with a well-known German journalist, an al-Nusra Front commander supported these claims. He claimed that al-Nusra, a “rebel” group that is linked to both Al-Qaeda and ISIS, were directly supported by the US and that they had received tanks and other heavy weaponry from the US and Saudis via Libya and Turkey. He also said that the commanders of ISIS are led by Western intelligence.

The commander also stated that foreign officers and experts from the US, Israel, and Turkey were inside Aleppo giving militant groups, including ISIS, support and intelligence. 

 Were these same “experts” the targets of the Russian strike? Considering that US lives were lost at the hands of the Russian military, it’s very telling that the Western media has refused to cover this story.

Even though the corporate media loves to blame Russia whenever possible, their failure to cover the deaths of US military officers by a Russian missile strike strongly implies that the US and the other foreign officers killed in Aleppo were doing something that the US government does not want to be made public.

The Russian airstrike may also have been a covert response to a US-led coalition airstrike less than two weeks ago that “accidentally” killed 62 and wounded over 100 Syrian soldiers. ISIS attacked within 7 minutes of the strike, implying that the terrorist group knew of the airstrike in advance. This “accident” ultimately revived claims of US-covert support for ISIS with Syrian General Command calling it “conclusive evidence” of US duplicity. Tensions further escalated following the bombing of a UN aid convoy in rebel-held territory in Aleppo, which the US quickly blamed on Russia despite mounting evidence that the bombing was the work of a US Hellfire drone. Now, US-Russian diplomatic relations regarding Syria are in tatters and the US is expected to end it for good in the coming days. Was this recent Russian strike the real reason for the end of diplomatic cooperation?

Syria’s Heroic Fight Against Western Imperialism

It is hard to imagine a more resilient, more heroic nation than Syria!

With only 17 million inhabitants (according to the 2014 estimate), Syria is now facing the mightiest coalition on Earth – a coalition that consists of virtually all traditional Western colonialist and neo-colonialist nations.

It is also facing some of the cruelest and deadliest inventions of the West – the extremist and murderous post- and pseudo-Islamic groupings, similar to those that were already unleashed against the Soviet Union during the war in Afghanistan.

Syria’s “political opposition” was created, then groomed and financed by the United States and Europe, in the style of “Color Revolutions”, as has happened in all other socialist countries that the West has been trying to destabilize and return under its deadly rule. Millions of Syrian people have been, during the last six deadly years, terrorized, slaughtered and intimidated by jihadi cadres, implanted by the West and its regional allies: Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qatar, Israel and others.

It is a terrible and uneven fight! Some of the greatest historical cities on Earth, like Aleppo and Palmira, now lie in ruins and ashes. What the European Christian crusaders failed to fully destroy, is now collapsing under the imperialist onslaught. Like everywhere else on Earth, everything that dares to struggle against Western colonialism is being consistently devastated and burned. Almost everyone who resists is mercilessly slaughtered. Hundreds of thousands of Syrian people have already lost their lives. And with each new day, the awful count is rising.

Facebook, Twitter, Western Media Attempt to Reassert Monopoly Over “Truth”

In a surreal and stunning example of 21st century propaganda and censorship, Google has cobbled together a coalition it is calling “First Draft” to tackle what it calls “misinformation online.” 

First Draft’s “founding partners” include News Corporation’s (parent company of Fox News) Storyful and NATO think tank Atlantic Council’s “Bellingcat” blog, headed by formally unemployed social worker Eliot Higgins who now fashions himself as a weapons expert and geopolitical analyst despite no formal training, practical real-world experience or track record of honest, unbiased reporting. In fact, between News Corporation and Bellingcat alone, Google’s First Draft appears to be itself a paragon of, and nexus for “misinformation online.” 

Google too, having for years now worked closely with the US State Department, faces its own conflicts of interest in “social newsgathering and verification.” In fact, Google has admittedly been involved in engineering intentional deceptions aimed specifically to skew public perception, including doctoring its maps and Google Earth in real-time amid conflicts in favor of US-backed militant groups and through the development of applications designed to psychologically target the Syrian government into capitulating before US-backed militant groups.

The UK Independent in its article, “Google planned to help Syrian rebels bring down Assad regime, leaked Hillary Clinton emails claim,” would report that:

An interactive tool created by Google was designed to encourage Syrian rebels and help bring down the Assad regime, Hillary Clinton’s leaked emails have reportedly revealed.

By tracking and mapping defections within the Syrian leadership, it was reportedly designed to encourage more people to defect and ‘give confidence’ to the rebel opposition.

Presidential debate questions being RIGGED by globalist-run 'Open Debate Coalition' that's 100% in the pocket of Hillary

 As this new story from The Atlantic tells us, the 2nd presidential debate will try something new and and ordinary Americans like you and I will be able to submit questions that Trump or Clinton might have to answer if they get enough 'up votes' from other 'ordinary Americans' like you and I. Only problem is, we already have 100% proof that the questions are being fixed in the favor of Clinton with questions that quickly became the highest voted being deleted by the website.

We shouldn't be surprised however. The Open Debate Coalition that is running this 'something new' was formed by globalists back in 2008 and their leadership board and many of those giving testimonials about the organization looks like a who's who of war criminals and the 'Hitlery Clinton fan club'.

Earlier this morning after visiting their website and being delightfully surprised to find that the two highest voted questions both surrounded the deaths of the four Americans who died because of Clinton in Benghazi as well a tough question about Clinton's deleted emails. A visit only 2 hours later found both of those questions completely deleted by the Open Debate Coalition despite their about page stating: The Open Debate Coalition (hopes) to make debates more representative of the will of the people.

While the Open Debate Coalition has responded to ANP and stated that the questions that were deleted didn't follow the guidelines that they had set up, a visit to their website finds them continually deleting what might be very tough questions for hitlery. Besides, who's the Open Debate Coalition to decide what's most important to you?

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Things To Come: Power

Power « Terry James

[Another worthwhile read from Terry James. Below is just a sample of this article]

Power is the one thing for which the global elitists lust. It has been that way since Nimrod first thought to establish one-world order on the plains of Shinar those millennia ago. The constant, incessant drive since the time God intervened and scattered the would-be globalist government architects at Babel has continued to be construction of humanistic world order under the absolute authority of a small number of power brokers.

Daniel the prophet and John the revelator both saw the same composite beast coming out of the sea of humanity at the very end of history. Each vision represented a single-governing, global entity. Daniel, in particular, saw that the monster was the composite of great world empires of the past.

I say that to me this is especially troubling because Bible prophecy clearly presents that a beastly composite, world order will one day come to pass, if but for a short time. National autonomy and sovereignty will therefore have to at some point diminish and ultimately vanish.

Those of us who want to see America and other nations maintaining–or I should say returning–the international order to like it has been in the recent past seem on the wrong side of Bible prophecy. The globalists seem on the winning side, in that sense.

The die is cast, as Shakespeare would put it. The new world order is coming. It’s just a matter of when. Will it come during this presidential election cycle?

No Fly Zone Imposed By U.S. Would Lead To War With Russia, Leaked Kerry Comments Prove U.S. Involvement In Syria 'From Onset', Russia Gaining Clout In Middle East

Top US General: Hillary’s No Fly Zone Strategy Would ‘Require’ War With Russia

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joseph Dunford warned Congress that the implementation of a No Fly Zone, a centerpiece of Hillary’s foreign policy strategy, would result in World War III.

During testimony before the Senate Committee on Armed Services last week General Joseph Dunford rang the alarm over a policy shift that is gaining more traction within the halls of Washington following the collapse of the ceasefire brokered by the United States and Russia in Syria saying that it could result in a major international war which he was not prepared to advocate on behalf of.

Senator Roger Wicker (R-MS) asked about Hillary Clinton’s proposal for a no fly zone in Syria in response to allegations that Russia and Syria have intensified their aerial bombardment of rebel-held East Aleppo since the collapse of the ceasefire.

"What about the option of controlling the airspace so that barrel bombs cannot be dropped? What do you think of that option?" asked Wicker.

"Right now, Senator, for us to control all of the airspace in Syria would require us to go to war against Syria and Russia. That is a pretty fundamental decision that certainly I’m not going to make," said the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff suggesting the policy was too hawkish even for military leaders.

Despite the ramifications of the policy, Hillary Clinton has argued in favor of a no fly zone throughout her presidency starting in October 2015 just days after Russia began a bombing campaign aimed at maintaining the stability of the Syrian government.

"I personally would be advocating now for a no fly zone and humanitarian corridors to try to stop the carnage on the ground and from the air, to try to provide some way to take stock of what’s happening, to try to stem the flow of refugees," said Clinton in an interview with NBC’s Boston affiliate at the time.

The former Secretary of State, who has a well-known hawkish position towards regime change and matters related to Russia, has continued to advocate this position which has gained traction in recent weeks among top US diplomats.

‘Leaked Kerry comments prove US involvement in Syrian crisis from onset’

Closed-door comments by US Secretary of State John Kerry reveal much about US involvement in Syrian crisis, Dr. Jamal Wakeem, professor of history and international relations at Lebanese University in Beirut, told RT.

The New York Times acquired the taped conversation between the US Secretary of State and two dozen Syrian civilians from education, rescue, and medical groups working in rebel-held areas, during a meeting on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.

The leaked recording reveals how angry John Kerry really is about being unable to topple President Bashar Assad by military means.

“I've argued for use of force. I stood up. I’m the guy who stood up and announced we’re going to attack Assad because of the weapons, and then you know things evolved into a different process,” the Secretary of State said in the tape.

He told the civilians that “you have nobody more frustrated than we are (the US)” that the Syrian issue is now being solved diplomatically.

Kerry also warned the Syrians, who sounded clearly unhappy with Washington’s contribution, that attempts to intervene militarily or provide more support to the rebels by the US may have a reverse effect.

“The problem is that, you know, you get, quote, ‘enforcers’ in there and then everybody ups the ante, right? Russia puts in more, Iran puts in more; Hezbollah is there more and Nusra is more; and Saudi Arabia and Turkey put all their surrogate money in, and you all are destroyed,” the diplomat explained.

RT: What do you think this conversation shows?

Jamal Wakeem: I believe that this proves that the US was involved in the Syrian crisis since its onset and that it was collaborating with the so-called insurgents in order to topple the Syrian regime. In addition, it proves also that the Syrian crisis had its regional and international dimension since the beginning and it wasn’t a revolution against an illegitimate regime, as the West claimed at one point.

In addition, I believe that it also proves that the Obama administration didn’t give priority to peaceful and political solution for the Syrian crisis. But it used this as an alternative to its inability to use force when it was confronted by a steadfast position by Russia who refused to be dragged into another trick by the US similar to what happened in Libya and topple the Syrian regime. I believe that the Russians are aware of the fact that the war in Syria is a war by proxy directed against them and against their ally China. It is part of a bigger plan by the US to block Eurasia from having access to the maritime trade roots. In addition, I believe there was a mentioning of the presence of the representatives of the NGOs operating in insurgent territories. And this proves also that the US was using these NGOs as a tool of soft power in order to topple the Syrian regime.

Shia fighters join Assad's troops to prepare for final assault on Aleppo

Syrian rebels and civilians in the besieged eastern half of Aleppo are bracing for an onslaught ground assault by Syrian regime forces and their Shia fighter allies which could once and for all end the opposition’s resistance in the city. 

US officials said they were seeing signs that thousands of troops from across the Shia world -  including Syrian regime soldiers, Iranian Revolutionary Guards, Hizbollah fighters, Iraqi militiamen and Afghan mercenaries - were massing for a final assault on Aleppo. 

The warning came as largest hospital on the rebel side of the city was put out of service after being hit by barrel bombs on Saturday amid a dramatically intensified Russian and Syrian regime bombardment of Aleppo.

As US-led diplomatic efforts to broker a truce continued to stall, Moscow warned Washington against intervening militarily against the Assad regime, saying that American strikes against Damascus would have “terrible, tectonic consequences”. 

The assault force gathering outside Aleppo is reported to be made up of 10,000 troops and their goal is to finally recapture the rebel-held east of the city and bring an end its four-years of defiance against Bashar al-Assad and his regime.   

If Aleppo did fall back into the control of the Syrian regime it would be potentially the single biggest turning point in six years of fighting and a major defeat for rebel forces.   

Russia Asked to Intervene in Libya: Gaining Clout in Middle East

Libya's military leader Khalifa Haftar, the commander of the Libyan National Army loyal to the Tobruk-based House of Representatives (HoR), has requested Russia to end its arms embargo on Libya and begin supplying weapons and military equipment to eastern Libyan forces.

According to Russian newspaper Izvestia, Abdel Basset Badri, Haftar’s special representative who also serves as Libya's ambassador to Saudi Arabia, visited Moscow on September 27 to deliver the request addressed to both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.

Mr. Badri held talks with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov, Russian newspaper Izvestia reported, citing a diplomatic source familiar with the situation.

The agenda included the prospects for lifting the embargo on arms supplies, including warplanes. More importantly, General Haftar asked Russia to start an anti-Islamist military operation in Libya similar to the one in Syria.

The toppling of long-term leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 led to a power vacuum and instability in Libya, with no authority in full control. The country is divided between two governments: the HoR in the east of the country and the Gov­ernment of National Accord (GNA), which moved to Tripoli in March 2016 and set up its headquarters in a heavily-guarded naval base.

The most important thing is that it is Russia - not the US, France or any other Western state involved in the Libya conflict - that the Libyan military leader has asked for help. Libyans remember well the NATO intervention of 2011 and don’t trust the West, especially in view of its failure to achieve any positive results in Syria. Russia’s operation in that country has changed the political landscape and strengthened Moscow’s standing among the region’s powers. The collapse of the recent Russia-US agreement on Syria and the following tragedy in Aleppo confirms the fact. Besides, unlike the US, Russia enjoys a good relationship with Egypt and good working relations with the UAE – the countries that back General Haftar.

The request to help and intervene in Libya testifies to the fact that Russia’s clout is growing in the Middle East, while the West is displaying unwillingness to play a responsible role in the region. The operation in Syria was followed by a host of tangible Middle East policy successes. Russia has special relationship with Iran, Turkey, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Israel and the Persian Gulf states. King Salman of Saudi Arabia is planning a trip to Moscow soon. Russia is strongly back in the region with its clout growing by leaps and bounds, while the US appears to have lost its way in the regional maze of overlapping problems and complexities.