Israeli Troops Close Palestinian TV Station

TEL AVIV, February 29 (RIA Novosti)

Israeli troops raided and closed on Wednesday a private Palestinian television station, al-Watan TV, located in the city of Ramallah in the West Bank, Anna Ukolova, a spokeswoman for the Israeli Army, said.
“We have warned the company several times about illegal broadcasting but they did not react. The company is pirate since it used prohibited broadcasting frequencies,” she said.
Sources in the Palestinian company said they never got any warnings and the Wednesday raid came unexpectedly. They also denounced the act and called it a violation of media freedoms.
The staff of the TV station enrolls about 35 people and it was the leading channel broadcasting in the Palestinian Authority that covers 38 percent of the West Bank.

full article

Belarus, EU Spat Unlikely to Affect Moscow-Minsk Relations

MOSCOW, February 29 (RIA Novosti)

EU sanctions in regard to Belarus will not affect the integration processes underway between Moscow and Minsk, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday.
The EU announced on Monday that it had blacklisted another 21 Belarusian officials over their alleged involvement in the ongoing crackdown on the country’s opposition. Belarus, in response, advised the head of the EU delegation to Belarus, Ambassador Maira Mora, and Polish Ambassador Leszek Szerepka, to leave Minsk.
“First of all, I hope that the EU and Belarus will normalize their relations. But it will definitely not affect our [Russian and Belarusian] integration processes,” Putin said.
More than 200 people were already on the blacklist, including President Alexander Lukashenko, two of his sons, and most of the country's top leadership. They have been banned from entering the EU and their European assets have been frozen.
“These are relations of a political nature between the European Union and Belarus,” Putin said, adding that he does not see a threat to the Customs Union, which includes Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan.
In November, the Russian, Belarusian and Kazakh presidents signed a declaration on Eurasian economic integration, a roadmap of integration processes aimed at creating the Eurasian Economic Union, which will be based on the Customs Union and common economic space among the three countries.

full article

Putin Promises Better Life for All in Election Pitch

MOSCOW, February 29 (RIA Novosti)

Improving the quality of life of ordinary citizens throughout Russia outside Moscow must be a priority, Russian Prime Minister and presidential candidate Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday at a meeting with supporters.
“That is a different Russia. That's what we should look at with all our attention,” Putin said at a meeting with campaign leaders and members of the All-Russia People’s Front, his new election campaign vehicle.
“So the level and quality of life for people wherever they live in the country could be worthy,” he added.
Putin repeated his previous claim that the authorities do not plan to raise the retirement age, but gave assurance that suitable conditions would be created for those who want to earn a higher pension by working later in life.
“We have no plans to increase the retirement age. We must create conditions for the people who want to work beyond retirement age, who want to retain a good income and create additional conditions in order to earn a large pension,” Putin said.
Social support, he said, will be more targeted and more effective. “The overall level of pensions will also increase. We won’t allow retirees to end up below the poverty line,” he added.
“In the future, pensions should reach the conventional pan-European coefficient, the so-called replacement rate, 40 percent of the average wage,” he said.
The prime minister also spoke against imposing any restrictions on media and in favor of electing people according to their professional qualities instead of ethnicity or religious beliefs.
“We will not be able to form a stable situation in society without effective and free media. This is an obvious fact. This has always been like this and in our times, when the society is open, for instance to internet, it is senseless to restrict something in media,” he said.
“We must also elect people, particularly in the executive bodies, not in line with their ethnicity or religious beliefs, but according to their personal and professional qualities,” Putin added.
Putin paid a surprise visit to the southern Russian city of Astrakhan on Tuesday, where an apartment complex partially collapsed after a household gas explosion. The prime minister goes to the polls on Sunday as one of five candidates for the presidency. The winner will serve a six-year term.
Putin also used the occasion to reiterate his call for the introduction of criminal responsibility for violation of registration rules by migrants.

full article

Putin Warns of ‘Sacrificial Killing’

MOSCOW, February 29 (RIA Novosti)

The opposition may stage provocations, including “bumping off” some high-profile figure and blaming it on the authorities, Russian Prime Minister and presidential hopeful Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday.
Such methods and tactics are known very well, he said during a meeting with his election campaign representatives and ruling party activists ahead of the March 4 presidential polls.
“They look for so-called sacrificial victims among some conspicuous figures. They will ‘bump him off,’ I beg your pardon, and will then blame the authorities for that.”
Street protests should be expected, but they will produce no result, Putin said, earlier warning the opposition to submit to the majority’s opinion.
“The minority has no right to impose its opinion on the majority,” he said.
Putin claimed he knew the opposition was making preparations to stuff ballot boxes and use video clips to discredit the presidential polls.

full article

Southeast Libya ... and even more green lions ...

Foreign rebels in Syria

Syrian army has captured more than 1,500 people during the capture of the rebel bastion in the quarter of Bab Amr in Homs.
Most of the militants were foreigners.
Among them are a dozen Frenchmen demanded for himself the status of prisoners of war. They called their names, rank and military units to which they are seconded. One of them is a colonel in the service context of the management of external security.

France has requested assistance from the Russian Federation to negotiate with Syria for the release of prisoners of war. However, the Western media continues to tell lies about what the West is no interference in the sovereign affairs of Syria/

All Syrian opposition it's creature of WEST and USA it's new agression like in Lybia.



full article here

Shambles: 'Syrian voters non-people for the West'