Venezuela to Buy More Russian T-72 Tanks

Caracas and Moscow have agreed on the purchase of additional 100 T-72 main battle tanks by Venezuela as part of a $4-bln loan secured by the oil-rich Latin American country in 2011 to buy Russian weaponry, Russia’s Kommersant newspaper said on Wednesday.

Russia completed in March the delivery of 92 modernized T-72B1V MBTs, the Smerch multiple-launch rocket systems and other military equipment to Venezuela under a separate $2.2-bln loan secured by Chavez' government in 2010.

Venezuela is a leading importer of Russian arms. Between 2005 and 2007, Caracas signed $4 billion worth of arms deals with Russia to buy Sukhoi fighter jets, combat helicopters, and small arms.

Mongolia: Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Sandwiched between China and Russia, Mongolia has long faced the dilemma of which neighbor to look to for economic and political support. However, since the fall of the Communist regime, Mongolia has pursued a ‘third neighbor’ policy that aims diversify its investment and trade relations beyond China and Russia. Since then, Mongolia has boosted ties with the United States, Canada, the European Union (Germany and the UK in particular) as well as South Korea and Japan. Beyond the economic realm, Mongolia has also contributed to UN peacekeeping missions, deployed troops to Iraq, and conducted joint military exercises with a host of states. In May 2012, Mongolia attended the 2012 NATO summit in Chicago under auspices of the Individual and Cooperation Program.

Mongolia also participates in regional initiatives such as the ASEAN Regional Forum. The country also holds observer status within the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and is actively seeking membership of organizations like the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC). Yet regional initiatives or cooperation with NATO do not provide Mongolia with any concrete security guarantees. Regional cooperation across East Asia – which is mainly focused on the economic realm – does not in its current form alter the balance of power politics still dominant in the region’s security dynamics. And while globalization may diminish the significance of physical distance, Northeast Asia’s economic and security dynamics ensure that Ulan Bator needs to maintain stable relations with its two powerful neighbors.

German court rules religious circumcision on boys an assault

BERLIN — Circumcising young boys on religious grounds amounts to grievous bodily harm, a German court ruled Tuesday in a landmark decision that the Jewish community said trampled on parents' religious rights.

The regional court in Cologne, western Germany, ruled that the "fundamental right of the child to bodily integrity outweighed the fundamental rights of the parents", a judgement that is expected to set a legal precedent.

"The religious freedom of the parents and their right to educate their child would not be unacceptably compromised, if they were obliged to wait until the child could himself decide to be circumcised," the court added.

The case was brought against a doctor in Cologne who had circumcised a four-year-old Muslim boy on his parents' wishes.

A few days after the operation, his parents took him to hospital as he was bleeding heavily. Prosecutors then charged the doctor with grievous bodily harm.
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The head of the Central Committee of Jews, Dieter Graumann, said the ruling was "an unprecedented and dramatic intervention in the right of religious communities to self-determination."

The judgement was an "outrageous and insensitive act. Circumcision of newborn boys is a fixed part of the Jewish religion and has been practiced worldwide for centuries," added Graumann.

Putin, Peres unveil Netanya memorial honoring Red Army

The tragedies and triumphs of the Soviet experience during World War II were remembered at the unveiling of a monument dedicated to the Red Army in Netanya on Monday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who began a tour of the country on Monday, and President Shimon Peres both attended the ceremony. They spoke of the crucial part the USSR played in defeating Nazi Germany.

“This is an opportunity to thank the Red Army,” said Peres. “Had it not defeated the Nazi beast then it is doubtful we would be standing here today. In World War II the Soviet Union prevented the world from surrendering.”

Putin, who spoke after Peres, expressed his gratitude to the president for his speech.

“What I just heard has warmed my feelings toward the Jewish people and especially toward Israel,” he said.
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The Victory Monument, as it is officially called, was a joint initiative of Israel and Russia implemented by a committee with members from both countries. It has two parts The first is a tunnellike passage made of black concrete symbolizing the hardships and sacrifices of the war. It leads to the second part, an open space overlooking the sea where two giants wings made of white marble have been erected.

More than half a million Jews fought in the Red Army in WWII against the Nazis; 120,000 were killed.

Washington Arms Bahrain, Denounces Russia For Arming Syria

http://www.forbes.com/sites/dougbandow/2012/06/18/

It wasn’t that long ago when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Syrian President Bashar Assad was a force for reform.  Now she is outraged that Russia is allegedly backing Assad with weapons.  At the same time, the U.S. is arming the government of Bahrain, which oppresses its Shia majority.Duplicity and hypocrisy may be inevitable in diplomacy.  However, ostentatious duplicity and hypocrisy are not.  Sanctimoniously denouncing Moscow for behaving like Washington tarnishes America’s image abroad.

Syria is a horrid tragedy, an incipient civil war as the majority of people attempts to oust a family 

dictatorship.  Unlike Libya, however, a substantial segment of the population either supports 

Assad or opposes a revolution which could result in a vengeful, violent spree against ethnic and 

religious minorities.  No outcome looks good and there is little Washington can do to prevent more

 violence.

Kremlin Aide: Putin, Obama Meeting 'Constructive'

MOSCOW, June 22 (RIA Novosti)

“Putin invited Obama to visit Russia; Obama invited Putin. They agreed to keep in contact by phone,” Ushakov said, refuting media reports that painted the meeting between the two leaders as difficult and rigid.

In fact, the media treated the meeting as virtually the centerpiece of the G20 summit, he said.

“A number of U.S. pundits drew the hasty conclusion that the talks had been difficult, but this was based solely on the facial expressions and body language of the two leaders during the short time when the press was present," Ushakov said.

"But I would say that the meeting was constructive and frank, it showed the desire of both leaders to strengthen bilateral strategic cooperation. The atmosphere was very cordial.”

He noticed that the meeting lasted more than two hours instead of the planned hour and 15 minutes.

Syria Shoots Down Turkish Warplane, Fraying Ties Further

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Turkey announced Friday that Syrian forces had shot down a Turkish warplane with two crew members over the Mediterranean, a potentially ominous turn for the worse in relations already frayed because of Turkey’s support for Syrian rebels fighting to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad.
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The measured wording of the announcement suggested that Turkey had not yet concluded that the Syrian action was provocative, and it acknowledged that Syrian rescue teams were cooperating in trying to locate the aircraft and crew. But the statement also left open the possibility that Turkey, a NATO member, would respond militarily, an outcome that could further complicate and widen the Syrian conflict.
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The Syrian Defense Ministry said later in a statement carried by the official Syrian Arab News Agency that its antiaircraft gunners had hit an unidentified aircraft flying at “very low altitude and at high speed” over Syria’s territorial waters less than a mile offshore, causing it to crash into the sea near the village of Om al-Tuyour. The statement said it was later found that the aircraft was a “Turkish military plane that entered Syrian airspace and was dealt with according to laws observed in such cases.”

Mr. Erdogan is one of the most strident critics of Syria’s sharp repression of its antigovernment uprising, now in its 16th month. Turkey has allowed more than 32,000 Syrian refugees to seek sanctuary and has permitted Syria’s opposition forces and dissidents in exile to organize and funnel supplies from Turkey over the 550-mile border with Syria.
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Russia’s Interfax news service reported Friday that Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov of Russia said that relations with the Americans are complicated by “the American mentality, the thought one has instilled since one’s childhood — we are No. 1 in the world and we are infallible.”