Former Putin’s aide Mikhail Lesin died of blunt head trauma - Washington Post
http://tass.ru/en/politics/861557
Lesin died on November 6, 2016 at the Dupont Circle in the center of the US capital at the age of 57. The police found nothing suspicious at the scene then.
The death of Russia’s former Russian Press Minister Mikhail Lesin in the US capital last November was caused by blunt force trauma to the head, The Washington Post reported on Thursday with reference to a statement by the US capital’s medical examiner office.
"A former aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin who was found dead in a Dupont Circle hotel room in November died of blunt force trauma to the head, the D.C. Medical Examiner’s Office said on Thursday," the newspaper wrote.
Mikhail Lesin "also suffered injuries to his neck, body and upper and lower extremities, the medical examiner said in a statement. The manner of death is undetermined, according to the statement," the article says.
According to The Washington Post, "Lesin’s body was found before noon in a room at the Dupont Circle Hotel in the 1500 block of New Hampshire Avenue NW. It is in the Doyle hotel chain. Authorities on Thursday released no other information about the mysterious death of the prominent political figure who once served as a press minister and executive of Gazprom-Media, the state-run holding company that controls much of the Russian press."
Moscow is waiting for explanations and official data from Washington
Moscow is waiting for explanations and official data from Washington concerning the investigation into the death of Lesin.
"The Russian Embassy to the United States has repeatedly sent through diplomatic channels inquiries about the progress of investigation into the death of Russia’s citizen. The US side has not provided to us any substantive information," Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova wrote today on her Facebook page on Friday.
"We are awaiting the related clarifications from Washington and the official data on the progress of the investigation. If the information published by the media today is confirmed, then Russia’s competent authorities will send a request to the US side for international legal assistance," she wrote.
Lesin died on November 6, 2016 at the Dupont Circle in the center of the US capital at the age of 57. The police found nothing suspicious at the scene then. The former minister’s friends in Moscow said that he was ill in recent years, underwent several operations, and, according to preliminary data, the cause of his death was a heart attack.
Lesin held the post of Russia’s Minister for the Press, TV and Radio Broadcasting and Mass Communications between July 1999 and February 2004. In 2013-2014 he was the CEO and Chairman of the Board of Gazprom-Media Holding.
US spy drones turning country into police state: Ex-Senate candidate
http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2016/03/10/455008/Mark-Dankof
A new Pentagon report justifying the deployment of military spy drones over the US is further evidence that the country is developing into a “domestic police state,” a former US Senate candidate says.
“The federal government of the United States is increasingly deciding to use the American military in ways that are a violation of the constitutional traditions of this country,” said Mark Dankof, who is also a broadcaster and pastor in San Antonio, Texas.
“It’s very clear that the average American citizen can and will be subjected to things that are completely unconstitutional, warrantless spying, warrantless break-ins, political profiling of people who are loyal dissenters and peaceful Americans,” Dankof told Press TV on Thursday.
Dankof said the US is moving toward becoming a “police state” similar to Israel. Israel has played a major role in assisting US law enforcement departments to increase their domestic surveillance activities, he added.
The US Defense Department has deployed drones several times to spy over American soil over the past decade, according to a new report obtained by USA Today under the Freedom of Information Act.
The Pentagon has publicly posted at least a partial list of the drone missions that have flown in non-military airspace over the United States, USA Today reported on Wednesday.
Use of spy drones over the United States became public in 2013 when former FBI director Robert Mueller testified before Congress that the agency employed spy drones during investigations on rare occasions.
Russian diplomat: Abuse, deaths in prison custody on the rise in US
http://tass.ru/en/politics/861509
According to the Human Rights Watch report 2015, the number of prisoners in the United States stood at 2.37 million people, more than in any other country of the world, Konstantin Dolgov said.
Incidents of prisoner abuse and deaths of inmates are on the rise in US prisons, Russian Foreign Ministry’s ombudsman told Tass on Thursday.
"According to a report for 2015 from the nongovernmental organization Human Rights Watch, the number of prisoners in the United States stood at 2.37 million people, more than in any other country of the world," said Konstantin Dolgov, ministry’s Commissioner for Human Rights, Democracy and Rule of Law.
"According to US Federal Bureau of Prisons’ Director Charles Samuels, there have been on the average 40% more than projected inmates in prisons over the past ten years. Fifteen penitentiary facilities in the US are 100% overcrowded," Dolgov added.
The problem of solitary imprisonment and absence of medical help
The problem of solitary imprisonment still remains unresolved. According to Human Rights Watch, about 100,000 inmates of federal prisons and prisons in states are kept in full isolation," he went on.
"Long isolation leads to serious health problems. Often, as a results of staying in single confinement cells, inmates self-harm themselves gravely or commit suicides," he said.
[...] He also drew attention to incidents of sexual abuse of inmates by personnel, as well as noted problems with access to medical help.
"Medical personnel of correctional facilities ignore chronical diseases that inmates suffer," Dolgov said, also noting undue medical treatment of inmates with mental derangement, in some cases leading to a sharp deterioration of health or deaths.
ISIL top commander ‘not dead’ after US strike in Syria
http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2016/03/10/454847/shishani-us-takfiri-daesh-airstrike-syria
Despite US defense officials’ assessments that Omar al-Shishani, a high-ranking commander of the Takfiri Daesh group in Syria, “likely died” in a US airstrike, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the militant has survived the attack.
"He's not dead," Rami Abdel Rahman, the director of the UK-based organization, told AFP Wednesday.
American officials, speaking to various media outlets and news agencies on condition of anonymity, said Tuesday that the top Takfiri commander had been targeted in an airstrike near the town of al-Shaddadi, situated in the south of the Hasakah province in northeastern Syria, on Friday.
One official went even further, saying, he was “likely dead.”
The director of the pro-opposition monitoring group rejected the allegations, saying the militant, was “seriously injured” and taken to a hospital in ISIL’s de facto capital, Raqqah.
"He was taken from the province of Hasakah to a hospital in Raqqah province where he was treated by a jihadist doctor of European origin," he said.
In September 2014, the US Treasury Department added Shishani along with 10 other militants to the list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists.
On Tuesday, Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook referred to Shishani as "a battle-tested leader with experience who had led ISIL (IS) fighters in numerous engagements in Iraq and Syria."
The US State Department has placed a $5 million reward on the Daesh commander’s head.
Georgian roots Known for his signature red beard, Shishani is said to have once been a member of an elite Georgian military unit.
The terrorist, whose name was originally Tarkhan Tayumurazovich Batirashvili, was born in Georgia in 1986.
Also known as Omar the Chechen, he was reportedly fighting alongside the Georgian armed forces during the country’s short war against Russia in 2008.
Georgia reacted to initial reports about his death, saying it was in tough with the United States authorities over the matter.
"Information about his death was released this morning, but there is still no official confirmation. We are actively maintaining contacts with the American government, and we were told this morning about the probability of Batirashvili's death, yet, I repeat that this is just a probability," Georgian Defense Minister Tinatin Khidasheli told reporters in the capital Tbilisi on Wednesday.
From 2007 to 2010, Batirashvili was a contract serviceman of the Georgian army during war in South Ossetia, according to Georgian media.
He was dismissed due to falling ill with tuberculosis, and detained later over storing weapons.
After being released on parole in 2012 over his disease, he joined the Takfir ranks in Syria.
Perfect plan of the West is to plunder natural wealth of dismembered Russia
http://www.pravdareport.com/world/americas/09-03-2016/133754-west_russia-0/
US President Barack Obama may put up the question of establishing the tribunal for war crimes in Syria at the UN.
The extraordinary tribunal is said to punish Russia and its allies for bombing civilians in Syria. Congressman from New Jersey, Republican Christopher Smith, submitted the draft of the adequate joint resolution from US Congress, even though the US has no evidence to prove that the Russian Air Force in Syria is bombing civilians, Lifenews said Wednesday.
Russian political scientists said that it was yet another attempt of the United States of America to put pressure on Russia against the backdrop of Russia's successful offensive (with the support of the Syrian army) against the Islamic State terrorist group (the organization is banned in Russia).
According to Smith's document, the vast majority of civilians were killed by the Syrian government and its allies, particularly Russia, Iran and Hezbollah. The US thus accuses Russia of bombing civilian targets, including hospitals, schools and markets in Syria.
The congressman claims that Russia continues military operations in Syria in violation of the UN Security Council resolution from 18 December 2015, in accordance with which all parties to the conflict should immediately cease all attacks against civilians and civilian objects.
The document from US Congress also calls upon other countries to report war crimes, detain criminals accused of genocide in Syria and deliver them to the new "Tribunal for Syria."
Political analyst Alexander Shatilov believes that the probability to set up the "Syrian tribunal" is very small.
The West wants to dismember Russia for transnational corporations
"This tribunal will not be established, as it requires a certain consensus from UN members. Russia, as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, will block the idea, using the right of veto. Should the tribunal be created without the consent of Russia, it will work on the principle of the tribunal for the former Yugoslavia that was judging only the Serbs, turning a blind eye to the crimes committed by Croats and Bosnians, thus playing the role of an oppressive instrument in the hands of the United States," the scientist said.
Lithuania blacklists Russian TV crew over ‘threat to national security’
http://tass.ru/en/world/861353
Lithuania’s authorities have put a group of Russian journalists on a blacklist over their potential threat to the republic’s national security, the state security department of Lithuania said on Thursday.
The crew of the All-Russia State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company (VGTRK) has been included in the list of "undesired persons," a spokesman said. "It is has not been expelled from the country yet, however this will happen soon."
The Rossiya 1 TV channel’s press service said Lithuania’s authorities announced the decision on Thursday to expel VGTRK correspondent Pavel Zarubin and the TV crew that worked with him in Lithuania’s capital Vilnius.
"The official reason for deportation is the possible threat to Lithuania’s national security," the press service of the TV channel, part of VGTRK, confirmed. The correspondents wanted to interview Russian citizens who take part in the two-day Free Russia Forum that opened in Vilnius on March 9, it said.
The event, attended by members of the non-system opposition, including Garry Kasparov, will focus on scenarios of political and social and economic development of Russia.
"Neither he nor other members of the TV crew were allowed to attend the event of the so-called non-system opposition. Now Pavel Zarubin is expelled from the country," the TV channel said.
Under the law, the TV crew members have 48 hours to leave the country, but the migration service stressed that Russian journalists need to fly back to Moscow on the first flight from Vilnius.
Moscow expects OSCE response to expulsion of Russian journalist from France
http://tass.ru/en/politics/858004
Russian columnist Stanislav Byshok was detained at Paris Charles De Gaulle Airport on February 17 and sent out of France at the request of Lithuania.
Moscow expects a response from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to the expulsion of Russian columnist Stanislav Byshok from France at the request of Lithuania, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Friday.
"An extremely unpleasant incident with the detention and expulsion at the initiative of Lithuania of Russian citizen Stanislav Byshok that occurred on February 17 at Paris Charles De Gaulle Airport indicates that the unacceptable practices of persecution of dissidents in Lithuania go beyond this Baltic state and are imposed on its European partners," Zakharova noted.
"The Russian national arrived in the French capital at the invitation of the Independent Journalists Association for Peace to take part in the international conference Freedom of the Press amid International Instability and Terrorist Threats," she said. "As a result of another provocation by Vilnius freedom of speech and free expression of alternative opinion was again severely restricted."
The Lithuanian authorities’ actions who decided to restrict the freedom of movement of an independent Russian columnist who, according to his own words, has never been to Lithuania, "have a purely political motivation." "In this context, one cannot but recall a similar case when Finnish border guards had to detain Russian political scientist Sergei Mikheev and prevent him from entering the country. It turned out that Lithuania had banned him from entering the Schengen area," Zakharova said.
"The desire to stifle an alternative point of view is becoming an obsession for the Lithuanian authorities," she said. "We expect a principled assessment of the incident from the relevant international organizations and experts, including OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatovic."
