Russia-EU relationship

PapaDragon wrote:

flamming_python wrote:...These Sputnik News propaganda cartoons are the lamest ever

A good cartoon is one which uses subtlety and metaphors

During Cold War one side was making cartoons with subtlety and metaphors

Other side was making cartoons which were getting the job done

Only one of those two sides exists today

Actually I'm a fan of the British cartoons and was referring to them

Yup they got their cartoon-game on and are still around

Russia's political cartoons are shit and hence don't get any job done

European media whining about Russia getting influence among its citizenry.

https://www.euronews.com/2021/04/23/in-europe-information-is-a-battleground-and-russia-is-winning-view

What did they think was going to happen after a decade of parroting the lies from across the Atlantic to their audience in this age of alternative media? One new term that they coined now is the 'Mystification of Russia'. That amuses me greatly as I find it half correct, while I perceive a lot of desperation behind its use.

https://www.rt.com/russia/524149-regime-change-brussels-propaganda-channel/

Seems the Europeans never lost their colonial itch. The great hypocrisy and unanswered paradox of western political thought is the conflict between their praising of "democracy" and "self-determination" and their real world actions that nullify any democratic choice they don't find acceptable. They behave very much as the neo-imperialists they are at heart. How is it that the choice of the Russian voters (democracy) will not be recognized as legitimate by an outside political body - be it the EU parliament or the US congress? The same question can be asked of US voters who voted for Trump - legitimate under the constitutional system in place in the USA. The elite and their "deep state" acted immediately to delegitimize that choice via the false "Russia-gate" narrative. The truth of course is the governing powers have nothing but contempt for "democracy' other than as window dressing.

RT: Sanctions against Russia just aren't working, says French President Macron, calling for dialogue & review of EU's stance on Moscow

Asked by reporters as to how the EU can put forward its political objectives in cases like that of the jailing of Russian opposition figure Alexey Navalny, Macron pushed back, asking. "What would you like us to do? Do we start an armed conflict? Do we completely cut off relations? Do we go further with sanctions – but where to?"

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has struck a similar note. Speaking on the same day, she defended collaboration over the Russian-backed Nord Stream 2 pipeline and set out the goal of improving bilateral relations. "You can have different opinions and still talk and meet," she said. "Diplomacy only has a chance if you talk to one another."

Well it only took them almost fifteen years.

My starting point of reference is 2007 when Putin's patience with the West finally broke at the Munich security conference that year, which was followed on que by Georgia's emboldened offensive against the break-away republics.

The successful safeguarding and adaptation of the Russian economy, industry and financial sectors to the realities of concerted Western attempts at containment and subjugation is testament to Putin's skilful management. Even though he may be criticized for initially being naive to the West's true agenda, or for being merely reactionary, the fact is that he works to transform Russia into an strong, independent, self-sufficient fortress that has forced its challengers back to the drawing board.

The French pharma industry failed totally with regards to the vaccines and few people talk about it.
The Italians tried to license Sputnik and the Central Powers that be hinder them at every turn.

This is all a huge game to funnel money into mRNA research and production.
Notice how even China and India can make vaccines for COVID-19 out of inactivated cells but France supposedly failed. With two separate attempts from what I understand.
Yet the inactivated vaccines, the technology the industry has used to make vaccines for at least a century are derided as shit and mRNA is supposed to be the bee's knees.
We are expected to believe a vaccine which has the whole virus capsule is less effective at granting immunity than a vaccine which only delivers this spike protein.

The green paty developed from the anti-war movement in the late 70´s/early 80´s. Back then they were a threat to the peace loving, democracy spreading regime in Washington, which means the CIA and others did all they could to bring them under control.

During cold war years left-wing parties were pro-russian/soviet or at least anti-american. Now its the opposite. Leftist parties are extreme pro-european, pro-atlantist and right wing to far right ones like National Front or Lega Nord are pro-russian and euroscepticist

The EU has renewed the sanctions against Crimea within the strategy approved in 2014, which does not recognize the peninsula’s reunification with Russia, the Council of the EU said in a statement published on Monday in Brussels.

The statement notes that the sanctions have been prolonged until June 23, 2022.

https://tass.com/world/1305219

The EU is a phantom at this point

Too many contradictions on everything

France and Germany want to build relations with Russia and China and get involved in the whole Eurasia transit corridor among other things - such as energy, technology, space and other areas

Instead the US via elites installed by it in Eastern Europe is forcing France, Germany, Italy and others to pay for Eastern Europe instead

'We will build the wall, and they will pay for it'
- sums up the logic

Russia blasts France’s discriminatory remarks on COVID-19 vaccines - diplomat, 11.07.2021.

Earlier on Sunday, Beaune voiced regret that Greece allowed passengers inoculated with vaccines produced in Russia and China to enter its soil.

MOSCOW, July 11. /TASS/. Moscow condemns Paris for the discriminatory remarks made by French Minister of State for European Affairs Clement Beaune on Russian and Chinese COVID-19 vaccines, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova wrote on her Telegram channel on Sunday.

Earlier on Sunday, Beaune voiced regret that Greece allowed passengers inoculated with vaccines produced in Russia and China to enter its soil.

"We condemn France for such discriminatory remarks of its high-ranking representative, which revive in Europe the spirit of neo-Nazi segregation," Zakharova wrote.

According to the diplomat, given that this is not the first such remark by the French Foreign Affairs Ministry, this is not Beaune’s personal opinion but the country’s political stance. Zakharova also emphasized that the French Foreign Affairs Ministry has no right to dictate to the countries which vaccines to use.

Such remarks also show that France "feels sorry as it has failed to develop its own vaccine." "The efforts by a French company, which tried so hard, but was unable [to do this] have failed. We feel sorry for France’s failure. Clement Beaune could have fairly said: France was unable to produce its own vaccine, we envy everyone has managed to do this, we were tasked with using propaganda methods to counter the success of those states, which have demonstrated to the world the achievements of their science," she stressed.

Zakharova also pointed out that Marie Paule Kieny, who heads France’s committee on the COVID-19 vaccine, considers Russia’s Sputnik V to be effective. "She is not a propagandist like Clement Beaune, she is a virologist - the research director at the French Institute of Health and Medical Research INSERM," the diplomat said.

https://tass.com/world/1312789

Sputnik V vaccine has very low rate of severe side effects in people over 60 – San Marino study, 11.07.2021.

Most people aged over 60 who have received the Russian-made Sputnik V vaccine have only experienced mild or moderate side effects, a study in San Marino has found.

A tiny independent enclave state of around 34,000, surrounded by Italian territory, San Marino began using the Russian-made vaccine in February. A study looking into adverse events following immunization (AEFIs) has appeared in the online publication EClinicalMedicine, which is run by the peer-reviewed medical journal the Lancet.

A team of researchers surveyed 2,558 people aged 18 to 89 who had received at least one dose of Sputnik V, with the mean age of the recipients at 66±14 years.

The survey was conducted between March 4 and April 8. More than 75% of participants had at least one underlying medical condition, such as hypertension, heart problems, or obesity.

The preliminary analysis of [the Sputnik V] vaccine safety suggests a higher or equal tolerability profile – especially in the 60+ age group – as compared with other widely adopted Covid-19 vaccines.

The authors wrote that the majority of participants reported mild and moderate symptoms, with 53.3% experiencing side effects after the first dose. Overall, only 2.1% reported severe symptoms. Out of people aged 60 to 89, the reported rate of severe symptoms was even lower – 0.8%.

The most frequently reported symptoms after the first dose were weakness (23.8%), headache (18.5%), joint pain (16.5%), chills (16.5%), muscle pain (16%), fever (11.9%), and malaise (11.8%).

Out of 1,288 people who received the second dose, 66.8% reported having felt side effects similar to those that appeared after the first dose.

The researchers said the results of the San Marino study confirmed the findings of Sputnik V’s phase III clinical trial, published in the Lancet in February. During the trial, the vaccine demonstrated an overall 91.6% efficacy across different age groups, and a 100% efficacy against moderate and severe cases of Covid-19.

San Marino passed its goal of complete immunization in over 70% of its vaccinable population in May. Since the country is not a member of the EU, it did not have to follow the European Medicines Agency, which is yet to approve the use of Sputnik V in Europe. The country also used the Pfizer vaccine in its campaign.

The small nation was “the first country in Europe to defeat Covid and lift restrictions thanks to inclusion of Sputnik V vaccine in the national portfolio,” Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of the state-run Russian Direct Investment Fund, which funded the development of Sputnik V, said.

“Lack of political bias in decision making helped San Marino choose the Russian vaccine, which has proven itself as one of the best in the world in terms of both safety and efficacy,” Dmitriev added.

https://www.rt.com/news/528931-san-marino-sputnik-study/

Paris goes on a crusade, by Gevorg Mirzayan for Russian RT News. 12.07.2021.

France is becoming a real European vaccine hawk. But will this help Paris to earn respect among Europeans?

French government secretary of state for European affairs Clement Beaune continues his crusade against Russian and Chinese vaccines. At first, he said that decent European countries should not be vaccinated with these drugs, and now the Greek authorities are attacking, who dared to let tourists vaccinated with the "wrong" vaccines into their territory. “I am sorry that Greece did this. I would also like to note that Greece, whose control system has shown some unreliability in recent weeks, has systematically tightened checks at the entrance to the country, ”said Mr. Beaune.

No, we are all adults and we understand everything.

We understand that Europe is not going to admit the Russian (and Chinese) vaccine to its market in the near future for economic reasons. After all, this is billions and billions of dollars in revenue for local pharmaceutical companies, which naturally have their own lobbyists in European and European Union organizations. Lobbyists who now protect not so much the health and lives of EU citizens as the wallets of their employers.

We understand that Europe is not going to admit the Russian vaccine to its market for political reasons. Local propagandists have spent too much effort and money in order to demonize Russia, to draw from Putin the real Sauron, dreaming of conquering the free peoples of Middle-earth. And then it turns out that Moscow is becoming the savior of the European Union from the coronavirus.

We even understand that Europe is not going to allow the Russian vaccine into its market for bureaucratic reasons. The process of full-fledged certification of non-Western drugs in the EU is really too complicated and confusing, and none of the European officials (people acting strictly according to the rules) will speed up the process. Especially now, when the vaccine deficit in the EU has decreased.

In principle, we ourselves do not particularly want to supply our vaccine to the European market. The domestic population has finally understood that it is necessary to be vaccinated, as a result of which 700 thousand vaccinations are made a day throughout the country, and it is not surprising that in a number of cities there is a serious shortage of vaccines.

However, all this does not mean that Moscow should tolerate the rudeness of a French official. If he simply said that the Russian vaccine is not certified, so while it cannot be injected, there would be no questions for him. Instead, Mr. Beaune openly expresses doubts about the quality of the Russian drug, after this quality was confirmed not by politicians, but by leading scientists, including in the framework of peer-reviewed articles in leading Western scientific journals The Lancet and Nature.

Mr. Beaune openly criticizes Greece for accepting tourists vaccinated by Sputnik V, after the European Union, through its Ambassador to Russia, Markus Ederer, offered Moscow virtually partial mutual recognition of vaccines (that is, it will still be impossible to sell Sputnik V in the EU , but the Russians vaccinated with it will be deprived of the need to comply with some of the coronavirus restrictions when traveling across the EU).

Has Mr. Beaune gone mad or is taking too much on himself?

According to the representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova, the problem is no longer so much in Mr. Bon, as in Paris. “This is not the first such unacceptable statement of the French Foreign Ministry, it is not about the personal opinion of an amateur, but about the country's political position. So, we will talk in a different way. We condemn France for such discriminatory statements by its high-ranking official, which revive the spirit of neo-Nazi segregation in Europe. It is not the French Foreign Ministry to dictate to countries and peoples what vaccines to vaccinate, ”Zakharova said.

She believes that the actions of Paris are explained by banal envy. “Obviously, the French foreign ministry is offended for their power, which has failed to develop its own vaccine. The efforts of the French company, which tried very hard, but failed, failed. We sympathize with France's failure. One could honestly say to Clement Bon: France was unable to produce its vaccine, we envy everyone who could, we have been tasked with propaganda methods to counteract the success of countries that have demonstrated the achievements of their science to the world, ”says Maria Zakharova.

But this is not the only insult. Resentment and awareness of weakness. France is no longer a country that, together with Germany, manages the affairs of the European Union: it was pushed back under Hollande, and Macron is unable to take the place of manager again. Even worse, Joseph Biden, who came to power in the United States, almost openly bets on Berlin, and within the framework of this rate he is even ready to make concessions to Angela Merkel (in particular, on Nord Stream 2). In this situation, the French desperately need some kind of pan-European leadership project, a topic that they can exploit and, on the wave of which, once again ascend to the European political Olympus. It is possible that part of the French elite saw such a project in the vaccine issue. Paris began to openly position itself as a country advocating the total protection of European citizens.

Yes, sometimes this leads to serious excesses - not only in relation to the Russian Federation, but also in relation to the EU member states (the other day Clement Bon initiated a scandal with Spain when he suggested that the French should not go to the Iberian Peninsula on vacation due to a sharp increase in the number of sick people. there). But the French authorities do not retreat from their path. Paris, in their opinion, is worth such a mass.

https://russian.rt.com/opinion/884611-mirzayan-franciya-rossiya-vakcina-koronavirus

EU challenges Russia at WTO over import substitution policy, by Daria Petlaeva for France Sputniknews. 27.07.2021.

The WTO on Monday published the EU's official request to open consultations with Russia to challenge certain Russian measures deemed by Brussels "discriminatory towards foreign producers". Moscow claims that its trade policy complies with international standards.

The World Trade Organization (WTO) issued a statement on Monday 26 July regarding the EU's request to open consultations with Russia under the dispute settlement system. Indeed, certain measures forming part of the Russian import substitution programme, which Brussels considers "discriminatory towards foreign producers", are attracting the attention of European economies.

"The EU alleges that the measures relating to the activities of certain state-related entities, as well as the laws and regulations governing these activities, are incompatible with various provisions of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) of 1994, the General Agreement on Trade in Services and Russia's Protocol of Accession to the WTO," the note from the international organization states.

Import substitutions by Moscow

In a statement dated 19 July, the EU explains the reasoning behind its request: since 2015, Russia has intensified its import substitution policy, some measures of which "seem incompatible with WTO law".

Brussels evokes three particular ones.

First, the EU considers the process of evaluating bids to be discriminatory because, unlike foreign producers or service providers, Russians receive a discount of 15% (and up to 30% for some products) from certain entities linked to the Russian state.

Secondly, Russian companies wishing to purchase certain foreign engineering products need permission from the Russian Import Substitution Commission. This authorization is only necessary in case of purchases from foreign manufacturers.

Thirdly, the EU challenges Russian requirements for national supply quotas. More concretely, the requirement that up to 90% of almost 250 products, including vehicles, machinery, medical devices and textile products, must be of Russian origin.

A significant loss of earnings

Thus, for European companies, the loss of earnings in Russian public tenders is significant: in 2019, the value of those published by Russian state-owned enterprises amounted to about 290 billion euros, equivalent to 21% of Russia's GDP, the EU document states.

"Blurred perspectives"

For Moscow, the EU's request is unlikely to succeed. When interviewed by Sputnik, Boris Titov, a Russian businessman and ombudsman for entrepreneurs to the Kremlin, said that restrictions on public tenders and foreign producers were provided for by the initial agreements between Russia and the WTO.

"In general, such a restriction is implicit in the current WTO Charter. Therefore, the prospects of the EU trial are unclear, "he said, explaining that only restrictions on the purchase of foreign products by" non-state customers " were contrary to WTO standards.

A request for consultations at WTO

The request for consultations represents, according to the WTO website, the formal starting point for the dispute settlement procedure within the organization. Consultations provide an opportunity for parties to consider the matter and find a satisfactory solution without proceeding. If they have not resolved the dispute after 60 days, the complainant can request that the issue be submitted to the jurisdictional process of a panel, it is specified.

The settlement of trade disputes-a process in which one member believes that another member is in breach of a WTO agreement or undertaking within the framework of the organization - is one of the main activities of the WTO.

Yandex Translate

https://fr.sputniknews.com/economie/202107271045929387-lue-sinsurge-aupres-de-lomc-concernant-la-politique-russe-de-substitution-des-importations/