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Received by NSD/FARA Registration Unit 10/14/2022 2:59:17 PM

Received by NSD/FARA Registration Unit 10/14/2022 2:59:17 PM

10/12/22 Wednesday

This material is distributed by Ghebi LLC on behalf of Federal State Unitary Enterprise
Rossiya Segodnya International Information Agency, and additional information is on file
with the Department of Justice, Washington, District of Columbia.

Western Experts Warned for Years that Adding Ukraine to NATO Was a Bad Idea
By - Fantine Gardinier

Longread
When Russia presented its security red lines and proposals for respecting them and
deescalating the situation in Eastern Europe in late 2021 and early 2022, US leaders dismissed
them out of hand as “non-starters.” However, their own experts had been warning for decades
about the risks of such maneuvers, including trying to add Ukraine to NATO.
On February 24, Russia responded to a rapidly collapsing situation in eastern Ukraine by
launching a special operation to end the Ukrainian assault on the Russian-speaking Donbass
region and end the possibility that Kiev might enter the NATO alliance. Such a situation would
bring NATO weaponry right up to Russia’s borders, and turn the former Soviet republic into a
staging ground for an assault on the Russian heartland.
While Western leaders have cast this as an unprovoked attack, in fact, their own leading
diplomats and geopolitical thinkers had been warning for years of the dangers of expanding
NATO eastward, most of all of trying to include Ukraine in the anti-Russian alliance. We have
collected a few choice examples of this ignored wisdom.
Jack F. Matlock, Jr.
A former ambassador to the Soviet Union and to socialist Czechoslovakia, Matlock was called
upon to testify before the US Senate in 1997 as part of a discussion on the eastward expansion
of NATO. Aside from the former German Democratic Republic (GDR), which formed part of a
reunited Germany in 1990, the alliance of Western capitalist powers did not yet include any
former Soviet allies or republics. Matlock warned that doing so “may well go down in history as
the most profound strategic blunder made since the end of the Cold War.”
“Far from improving the security of the United States, its Allies, and the nations that wish to
enter the Alliance, it could well encourage a chain of events that could produce the most serious
security threat to this nation since the Soviet Union collapsed,” Matlock said.
“Adding members to NATO will do nothing to protect us from the real threat I have described,”
he later said, referring to the possibility that a weapon of mass destruction from the leftover
Soviet arsenal might fall into the hands of a rogue actor. “But it does convey to the Russian
nation, and particularly their military, that we still consider Russia at least a potential enemy,
unsuited for the same security guarantees and the same degree of cooperation that countries in
Central and Eastern Europe are being offered.”
US President Bill Clinton’s Secretary of Defense from 1994 until 1997, Perry so opposed a rapid
eastward expansion of NATO that he considered resigning over the proposal. Speaking at a
forum hosted by The Guardian in 2016. Perry said that “in the early years I have to say that the
United States deserves much of the blame” for the growing hostility between Washington and
Moscow.

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“Our first action that really set us off in a bad direction was when NATO started to expand,
bringing in eastern European nations, some of them bordering Russia. At that time we were
working closely with Russia and they were beginning to get used to the idea that NATO could be
a friend rather than an enemy ... but they were very uncomfortable about having NATO right up
on their border and they made a strong appeal for us not to go ahead with that.”
Perry said his view was strongly opposed by some in the Clinton administration. “Basically the
people I was arguing with when I tried to put the Russian point... the response that I got was
really: ‘Who cares what they think? They’re a third-rate power.’ And of course, that point of view
got across to the Russians as well. That was when we started sliding down that path.”
George F. Kennan
The former US ambassador to the Soviet Union and architect of the US' Cold War policy of
“containment” against communism, George. F. Kennan knew that there were limits to which the
West could press Russian interests before it would respond decisively.
"I think it is the beginning of a new cold war," Kennan told journalist Thomas Friedman for the
New York Times in 1998, amid the finalization of a massive eastward expansion of NATO to
include the former Soviet allies of Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic.
"I think the Russians will gradually react quite adversely and it will affect their policies. I think it is
a tragic mistake. There was no reason for this whatsoever. No one was threatening anybody
else. This expansion would make the Founding Fathers of this country turn over in their graves.
We have signed up to protect a whole series of countries, even though we have neither the
resources nor the intention to do so in any serious way. [NATO expansion] was simply a
light-hearted action by a Senate that has no real interest in foreign affairs."
'It shows so little understanding of Russian history and Soviet history,” he added. “Of course,
there is going to be a bad reaction from Russia, and then [the NATO expanders] will say that we
always told you that is how the Russians are - but this is just wrong."
Henry Kissinger
Among the most eminent of US diplomats, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger made
many of his most infamous political deals based on his theory of “triangulation,” or playing the
USSR and China off one another. This required a keen perception of both nations’ interests and
concerns, what could be bargained away and what could not.
Writing in the Washington Post on March 5, 2014, a week after the US-backed coup in Kiev
brought a far-right nationalist group to power, the elder statesman warned that “the West must
understand that, to Russia, Ukraine can never be just a foreign country.”
“Russian history began in what was called Kievan Rus. The Russian religion spread from there.
Ukraine has been part of Russia for centuries, and their histories were intertwined before then.
Some of the most important battles for Russian freedom, starting with the Battle of Poltava in
1709, were fought on Ukrainian soil. The Black Sea Fleet - Russia’s means of projecting power
in the Mediterranean - is based by a long-term lease in Sevastopol, in Crimea. Even such famed
dissidents as Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Joseph Brodsky insisted that Ukraine was an integral
part of Russian history and, indeed, of Russia.”
He went on to say that “Ukraine should not join NATO, a position I took seven years ago when it
last came up.” Kissinger has reiterated that point throughout the present crisis, including most
recently last month.
John Mearsheimer

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In 2015, the eminent American political scientist John Mearsheimer, who is not known for his
anti-Kiev bent (he once advocated for Ukraine to keep its nuclear weapons it inherited from the
USSR), blasted Western policy toward Ukraine, saying it was leading Kiev “down the primrose
path, and the end result is that Ukraine is going to get wrecked.”
Instead, he said, “neutralizing Ukraine and then building it up economically” was the best policy
for stability.
“What we’re encouraging is for the Ukrainians to play tough with the Russians. We’re
encouraging the Ukrainians to think that they will ultimately become part of the West, 'because
we will ultimately defeat Putin and we will ultimately get our way. Time is on our side.’ And of
course, the Ukrainians are playing along with this. The Ukrainians are almost totally unwilling to
compromise with the Russians, and instead, want to pursue a hardline policy. As I said before, if
they do that, the end result is the country’s going to be wrecked. What we’re doing is, in fact,
encouraging that outcome ... It would be in our interest to bury this crisis as quickly as
possible.”
Noam Chomsky
The leftist critic, political scientist and scholar Noam Chomsky gave similar warnings in 2015,
telling Democracy Now! that "the idea that Ukraine might join a Western military alliance would
be quite unacceptable to any Russian leader" and that Ukraine's desire to join NATO "is not
protecting Ukraine, it is threatening Ukraine with major war."
“There’s a background we have to think about,” he said. “The Russians have a case and you
have to understand the case ... The background begins with the fall of the Soviet Union in 1989,
1990. There were negotiations between President [George H.W.] Bush, [Secretary of State]
James Baker, and [Soviet President] Mikhail Gorbachev about how to deal with the issues that
arose at the time.”
“A crucial question is ‘what happens to NATO?’ Now, NATO had been advertised since its
beginning as necessary to ‘protect Western Europe from the Russian hordes.’ Ok, no more
Russian hordes, so what happens to NATO? Well, we know what happened to NATO. But the
crucial issue is this: Gorbachev agreed to allow a unified Germany to join NATO, a hostile
military alliance. It’s a pretty remarkable concession if you think about the history of the
preceding half-century ... but there was a quid pro quo: that NATO would not move ‘one inch to
the east.’”
That, he noted, didn’t happen. Instead, NATO expanded up to Russia’s western border in 1999,
and even more so in 2004.
William Burns
The current head of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), William Burns also served as
deputy secretary of state for political affairs and as the US ambassador to Russia. In his 2019
memoir “The Back Channel,’’Burns recalls a memo he wrote in 1995 while serving as counselor
for political affairs at the US embassy in Moscow.
“Hostility to early NATO expansion is almost universally felt across the domestic political
spectrum here,” Burns wrote at the time.
In another memo, he wrote in 2008 to then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that "Ukrainian
entry into NATO is the brightest of all redlines for the Russian elite (not just Putin).”
“In more than two and a half years of conversations with key Russian players, from
knuckle-draggers in the dark recesses of the Kremlin to Putin’s sharpest liberal critics, I have yet

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to find anyone who views Ukraine in NATO as anything other than a direct challenge to Russian
interests,” Burns noted.
Somehow that wisdom didn’t make its way to the rest of the Biden administration.

This material is distributed by Ghebi LLC on behalf of Federal State Unitary Enterprise
Rossiya Segodnya International Information Agency, and additional information is on file
with the Department of Justice, Washington, District of Columbia.

NASA Plans Another Attempt at First Artemis I Flight in November
By - Fantine Gardinier

After postponing its new moon rocket’s inaugural test flight several times, the US space agency
NASA is prepared to try again, this time early on the morning of November 14.
The Space Launch System’s (SLS) test flight was originally slated to happen on August 29, but
a faulty engine sensor went off and the launch was canceled. Another attempt on September 3
was also canceled after a significant hydrogen leak was found.
In the time since, NASA has been able to inspect the rocket thoroughly, especially after
wheeling it into the massive Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida,
where NASA spacecraft are assembled for the launch pad. The 4.3-mile trek was made to
protect the rocket from Hurricane Ian, a powerful storm that ravaged central Florida late last
month.
“Inspections and analyses over the previous week have confirmed minimal work is required to
prepare the rocket and spacecraft to roll out to Launch Pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center in
Florida following the roll-back due to Hurricane Ian,” NASA said in a Wednesday blog post.
“Teams will perform standard maintenance to repair minor damage to the foam and cork on the
thermal protection system and recharge or replace batteries on the rocket, several secondary
payloads, and the flight termination system,” it added. “The agency plans to roll the rocket back
to the launch pad as early as Friday, Nov. 4.”
The November 14 launch window is 67 minutes long, and NASA has also requested backup
windows on November 16 and November 19. If successful, the rocket will deploy the Orion
spacecraft, which will orbit Earth for roughly 25.5 days before splashing back down in the Pacific
Ocean. The flight will not be crewed.
The SLS will be used for the Artemis missions, NASA’s first manned lunar missions in half a
century. If Artemis I is successful, the Artemis II will take a manned flight around the Moon
without landing on it, and Artemis III will land on the Moon itself. That mission, expected to come
in 2025, will be the first time since 1972 that humans will walk on Earth’s only natural satellite.
China has also developed plans for manned flights to the Moon, having begun exploring it with a
series of new spacecraft and rovers in recent years.
The Moon is believed to hold valuable scientific information about the formation of the Earth and
the early solar system, as well as a treasure trove of rare minerals. Any future missions to Mars
or other parts of the solar system are also likely to launch from a lunar base.

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Trump’s Former ‘Fixer’ Michael Cohen Says He’d Fear for His Safety With 45 Back in Office
By - Fantine Gardinier

Many have speculated that former US President Donald Trump will seek a return to office in
2024 after losing his 2020 reelection campaign. However, while he’s rallied his base in support
of myriad candidates in state and local races, the real estate mogul has kept his future political
plans ambiguous.
Michael Cohen, the onetime “fixer” for Trump who later turned against his former boss and
helped the FBI, told The Hill recently that he would fear for his safety if Trump ever returned to
power.
“Yeah, I am,” Cohen said when The Hill’s “In the Know” asked him if he would worry about his
well-being if Trump ever returned to office.
“Actually, I’m worried for your safety, too,” he added, “and everybody else in America.”
“My fear is that you’re going to see like what you see in Russia right now,” Cohen continued. “All
of these individuals flying out of windows or mysterious deaths of suicide. Donald has a very
long list of - we’ll call it an enemies list - and I’m certain that I am definitively on it.”
Cohen once served as Trump’s “fixer,” handling his inconvenient legal problems, including
attempting to keep porn star Stormy Daniels quiet about an alleged affair she had with Trump in
the 2000s. Cohen’s payment, allegedly made without Trump’s knowledge, was later discovered
by the FBI as it looked for potential connections between Trump’s campaign and the Russian
government.
He struck a deal with the FBI in 2018 to plead guilty to nine federal crimes, including tax fraud,
bank fraud, lying to Congress, and campaign finance violations, and spent three years in federal
custody and house arrest. He later cooperated with Congressional investigations into Trump’s
business dealings, and denounced his former boss as a “racist” and a “cheat.”
Cohen told the Hill that he thought one of the myriad legal cases being brought against Trump is
likely to eventually get the real estate mogul jailed, now that he has lost the immunity of his
office, including the recent FBI raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. The federal law enforcement
agency carried out hundreds of classified files kept in boxes in a storage closet in an August
search and seizure, which reportedly included information on a foreign power’s nuclear
weapons arsenal.
“I believe that the indictments should be - because it’s the low hanging fruit - for tax evasion,”
Cohen said. “I call that my ‘Al Capone theory’: They couldn’t get him on murder, racketeering,
extortion. So instead they got him on tax evasion. The same thing that they can get Donald on,
not to mention Tish James’s case will financially destroy him.”
Interestingly, in an interview with the Washington Post a day prior, Cohen said he didn’t expect
Trump to become president in 2024, as many have speculated might happen.
“I also don’t believe that Donald is actually going to run in 2024. Because I believe that he
knows that he cannot win and that, even if he did choose to run, that he will face opposition for
the Republican nomination,” Cohen told the Post.

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“He also knows very well, statistically, that he cannot win the general election. He’s lost those
independents now, based upon Roe v. Wade, climate, student relief, etc. So what he’ll do is he
will seek to remain relevant in the party by becoming a power broker and believing that
whichever nominee he backs and endorses will owe him a duty of loyalty so that, in the event
that his day of reckoning comes, they will terminate or pardon him from the plethora of litigation
and consequences that currently plagues him,” he predicted.
Another of Trump’s former associates, his former attorney general, William Barr, predicted much
the same last month.
Both of Cohen’s interviews were given in connection with the release of his second book,
“Revenge: How Donald Trump Weaponized the US Department of Justice Against His Critics,”
which hit shelves on Tuesday.

This material is distributed by Ghebi LLC on behalf of Federal State Unitary Enterprise
Rossiya Segodnya International Information Agency, and additional information is on file
with the Department of Justice, Washington, District of Columbia.

North Korea Announces Successful Test of Two Long-Range Cruise Missiles
By - Fantine Gardinier

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) announced on Thursday it had carried out
two more missile tests, its latest in a slew of such tests in previous weeks.
According to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), the test involvedtwo long-range cruise
missiles that flew for "10,234 seconds [170.6 minutes] along an oval and pattern-8 flight orbits in
the sky above the West Sea of Korea and clearly hit the target 2,000 km away.”
It added that the tests were done to enhance the "combat efficiency and might" of the country’s
missile program.
“Expressing great satisfaction over the result of the test-fire, the respected [DPRK leader]
Comrade Kim Jong Un highly appreciated the high reaction capabilities of our nuclear combat
forces which proved again their full preparedness for actual war to bring the enemies under their
control at a blow through the unconditional, mobile, precise and powerful counterstrike by any
weapon system,” the KCNA report said.
Pyongyang has carried out seven other rounds of missile tests in the last two weeks, most of
which involved ballistic missiles. The socialist state said it was going through a series of nuclear
alert drills in response to joint drills by the United States and South Korea that rehearsed an
armed confrontation with the DPRK.
North Korea has been at war with South Korea and the US since 1950, when Washington
inserted itself into a civil war between a US-backed government in the south and a rival
Soviet-backed one in the north. That war saw much of both Koreas destroyed and more than
two million Koreans killed, but only ended in a ceasefire and not a permanent peace treaty. A
demilitarized zone separates the two Koreas, and 28,000 US troops have garrisoned the South
against potential DPRK attack.
The US has protested that the DPRK’s missile tests are provocative and destabilizing, as are its
entire ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programs. Pyongyang says it needs such weapons

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to guarantee its safety from US attack in the absence of a permanent peace on the Korean
peninsula.
Unlike ballistic missiles, the United Nations has not sanctioned the DPRKfor developing cruise
missiles.

Angela Lansbury Dies at 96, ‘Murder She Wrote’ Star Rescued Her Family From Charles
Manson
By - Mary Manley

Dame Angela Lansbury, the award-winning actress, died at the age of 96 on Tuesday. Lansbury
was a London-born actress who moved to the United States during the onset of World War II.
She debuted in the 1944 film “Gaslight” and became a household name playing a novelist in the
1984 television drama show “Murder, She Wrote”.
Lansbury died on Tuesday, just five days shy of her 97th birthday, in her Los Angeles home at
1:30 AM. Her children said in a statement that she died “peacefully in her sleep.” The actress is
remembered for her various roles on screen and on stage, including the character of Nellie
Lovett in the 1979 musical “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street,” for which she
won a Tony. Over the course of her career spanning eight decades, Lansbury won six Golden
Globes, five Tonys and a Laurence Olivier Award.
But the actress lived quite a dramatic life off screen as well. Twice in her life she was made to
flee a country she called home. In 1940, she moved to the United States in order to escape the
Blitz. Then in the 1960s, Lansbury's teenage daughter Deidre Shaw became a cult member of
the Charles Manson “family."
Manson, who died in 2017 at the California State Prison, Corcoran (COR), was a criminal and
musician who led a cult called the “Manson Family” during the late 1960s. In 1971, he was
convicted on seven counts of first-degree murder, including the murder of actress Sharon Tate.
"There were factions up in the hills above Malibu that were dedicated to deadly pursuits. It pains
me to say it but, at one stage, Deidre was in with a crowd led by Charles Manson. She was one
of many youngsters who knew him — and they were fascinated. He was an extraordinary
character, charismatic in many ways, no question about it," said Lansbury in a 2014 interview
with the Daily Mail, adding that both her daughter and her son, Anthony, had been using drugs
at the time.
"Certainly, I have no doubt we would have lost one or both of our two if they hadn't been
removed to a completely different milieu," she said in the interview. "It started with cannabis but
moved on to heroin.”
In an effort to rescue her daughter from the sway of Manson, and to distance her children from
the influences of Los Angeles, California in the late 1960s, she packed up her family and moved
them to County Cork, Ireland in 1970. The actress told the Daily Mail that she chose Ireland
because it was the birthplace of her mother and her children “wouldn’t be exposed to any more
bad influences.”

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"Anthony pulled right out of his bad habits quite quickly. It took Deidre... a little longer but she
finally got married and she and her husband now live in Los Angeles, where they run their own
Italian restaurant," the actress said in the 2014 interview.
"Peter and I had no idea what had been going on. But then we had no experience of drugs. We
didn't know the significance of finding a pipe in a drawer. Why would we? And when we did, we
didn't know how to help them. Nor were there any experts back then who could offer advice to
the parents of kids from good families who were using, and sometimes overdosing on, drugs. It
was like an epidemic,” the actress said.
The iconic actress’ family wrote in a statement on Tuesday that she is survived by her three
children Anthony, 70, Deirdre, and David, Lansbury’s stepson. She is also survived by three
grandchildren and five great-grandchildren, as well as her brother, the film and television
producer Edgar Lansbury.

Kanye Accused of Hate Speech on LeBron James’ Talk Show and Gets Pulled
By - Mary Manley

American basketball player LeBron James was forced to pull an episode from his talk show after
his interviewee Kanye West exhibited “hate speech and extremely dangerous stereotypes,”
according to James’ business partner Maverick Carter.
Carter, who runs a production company called SpringHill Company alongside James, said they
will be pulling the latest episode of their show “The Shop: Uninterrupted,” which was supposed
to feature West—the controversial rapper and fashion designer who came under fire for his
“White Lives Matter” t-shirt last week—after the rapper doubled down on “hate speech” during
the interview.
"Yesterday we taped an episode of The Shop with Kanye West. Kanye was booked weeks ago
and, after talking to Kanye directly the day before we taped, I believed he was capable of a
respectful discussion and he was ready to address all his recent comments," Carter told People
on Wednesday.
"Unfortunately, he used The Shop to reiterate more hate speech and extremely dangerous
stereotypes. We have made the decision not to air this episode or any of Kanye's remarks," he
added. "While The Shop embraces thoughtful discourse and differing opinions, we have zero
tolerance for hate speech of any kind and will never allow our channels to be used to promote
hate."
"I take full responsibility for believing Kanye wanted a different conversation and apologize to
our guests and crew. Hate speech should never have an audience,” said Carter. James was not
present during the filming of the episode.

On Saturday night, the 45-year-old rapper had one of his Tweets removed because it violated
the social media platform’s rules. In the since-deleted Tweet, West said he was going “death

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con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE” (he most likely mean “defcon”) and added that Black people are
“actually” Jewish.
“You guys have toyed with me and tried to black ball anyone whoever opposes your agenda,”
West wrote.
West then had his Instagram account restricted after he posted a screenshot of a text he sent to
Sean “Diddy” Combs, in which he wrote: “Ima use you as an example to show the Jewish
people that told you to call me that no one can threaten or influence me.” In the caption of the
Instagram post West wrote: “Jesus is Jews.”
The American Jewish Committee (AJC) advocacy group then posted a video to Instagram
blasting West for using antisemitic stereotypes and for alleging that Combs is “controlled” by
Jewish people.
On Tuesday, leaked footage also revealed that West made a series of antisemitic comments
during his interview with Fox News’ Tucker Carlson, in which he doubled down on his “White
Lives Matter” shirt he wore for Paris Fashion Week.

This material is distributed by Ghebi LLC on behalf of Federal State Unitary Enterprise
Rossiya Segodnya International Information Agency, and additional information is on file
with the Department of Justice, Washington, District of Columbia.

US Jury Orders Alex Jones to Pay $965Mln to Victims of Sandy Hook School Shooting
By - Mary Manley

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - A US jury in the state of Connecticut on Wednesday ordered
Infowars host and creator Alex Jones to pay $965 million to the families of several victims of the
Sandy Hook School shooting in connection to a defamation case over his claims that the
massacre was a hoax.
Jones in a live online broadcast during the jury's reading of the verdict laughed and said the
victims would not be getting any of the money he was ordered to pay.
The "InfoWars" host was found guilty of defaming 15 plaintiffs who family members of the 2012
Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting during which 28 people died, 20 of which were
between the ages of six and seven years old. Jones had made claims in his far-right radio show
that the shooting didn't happen, and that grieving parents were "actors" who were hired in a
gun-control conspiracy.
The plaintiffs included family members of the shooting victims, as well as a Federal Bureau of
Investigation agent who was one of the first people to respond to the scene.
Though the plaintiffs were awarded millions of dollars by a Texas jury, one parent named Robbie
Parker said he was proud that through the defamation trial they were able to "simply tell the
truth." Parker lost his 6-year-old daughter Emilie in the Sandy Hook shooting. The jury awarded
Parker, who had to move across the country to escape abuse and harassment following the
shooting, $120 million.
"It would come in these waves,” Parker said of the harassment, which included rape and death
threats, following Jones' accusation that he and his family were 'crisis actors.' “It was almost like
I knew when Alex Jones said something, because we would get a huge wave of stuff.”

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Mark Barden, the father of a slain seven-year-old child, added that conspiracy theorists urinated
on the grave of his dead child, and threatened to dig up the coffin.
Jones, who will have to find some way to cough up nearly $1 billion in damages to the plaintiffs,
decided to use the same tactic which landed him in court in the first place: conspiracy theories.
Jones mocked the trial, calling it a "kangaroo court" and claimed the trial was a Democratic-run
conspiracy making an effort to silence him.
“I’ve already said ‘I’m sorry’ hundreds of times, and I’m done saying I’m sorry,” he told the jury.
Jones alleged he cannot pay damages over $2 million as his lawyers will work to try and reduce
the damages. An economist testified that Jones and his company InfoWars, which increased its
revenue after it began making Sandy Hook shooting conspiracy theories, is worth about $270
million.

Nearly 500 Pilot Whales Found Dead on New Zealand Beaches
By - Mary Manley

The whales had beached themselves, officials said, after having their location systems confused
by sloping sandy beaches while hunting. "They rely on their echolocation and yet it doesn't tell
them that they are running out of water,” said one official. "They come closer and closer to shore
and become disoriented.”
Around 477 pilot whales were found dead after they had beached themselves on New Zealand’s
remote Chatham Islands. The Department of Conservation stated that nearly half of the whales
had beached themselves on Friday at Tupuangi Beach, and the other half had beached
themselves on Monday at Waihere Bay.
The Department of Conservation said that the whales’ deaths were “natural occurrences” but
that the situation is “still sad and difficult for those helping.” According to Daren Grover, the
general manager of a nonprofit group which helps to rescue whales, none of the whales could
be refloated—a process in which conservationists keep whales cool and wet on land before
carrying them back to the ocean using tarpaulins or large floating platforms—because there was
a shark presence in the water.
Whales which were not already dead had to be euthanized as a result.
Mass pilot whale strandings are common in New Zealand, and while scientists aren’t entirely
sure what causes the whales to beach themselves, they believe that the animals' echolocation
can draw them closer to hunting grounds, but fails to tell them when they are running out of
water.
"They come closer and closer to shore and become disoriented. The tide can then drop from
below them and before they know it, they're stranded on the beach,” said Grover. Pilot whales
are also social animals, so they may strand themselves collectively as a result of coming to the
call of an injured friend.

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Just two weeks ago, another 200 pilot whales died after stranding themselves on Australia’s
island state of Tasmania. Rescuers were able to save at least 32 pilot whales from the mass
stranding.
"Nature is a great recycler and all the energy stored within the bodies of all the whales will be
returned to nature quite quickly," said Grover, who explained that the whale carcasses will not
be buried or brought out to sea, but will be left to decompose instead.

This material is distributed by Ghebi LLC on behalf of Federal State Unitary Enterprise
Rossiya Segodnya International Information Agency, and additional information is on file
with the Department of Justice, Washington, District of Columbia.

Biden’s Saudi Heartbreak - Cartoon
By - Ted Rail

"There’s going to be some consequences for what they’ve done with Russia," Biden said of
Saudi Arabia in an interview with CNN on Tuesday. “I’m not going to get into what I’d consider
and what I have in mind. But there will be — there will be consequences.”
United States President Joe Biden issued a warning against Saudi Arabia on Tuesday,
threatening “consequences” after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries
(OPEC) announced that they would be cutting oil production by 2 million barrels a day. The cut
will likely spike gas prices, which could in turn prompt a sharp poll dive for the Biden
administration, as political analysts have seen a strong correlation between inflation and the
White House’s approval ratings.
“At a time when maintaining global supply of energy is of paramount importance, this
development will have the most negative impact on lower- and middle-income countries that are
already reeling from elevated energy prices,” said the Biden administration, who called OPEC’s
cut “shortsighted.” The White House has not yet revealed any specifics about the
“consequences” the president alluded to.
The pullback from OPEC will be the largest cut since the start of the pandemic, and spells
disaster for Democrats ahead of midterm elections. Biden was successful in getting gas prices
to fall to under $4 a gallon in August and even acted as a watchdog against gas companies in
the wake of Hurricane Ian. But with OPEC cutting supply, chief commodities analyst for Capital
Economics Caroline Bain warns that gas and oil prices will “end the year a little higher.”

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JPMorgan Chase Cuts Off Ye West, Here Are The Three Worst Criminals Banks Have Worked
With
By - Ian DeMartino

Received by NSD/FARA Registration Unit 10/14/2022 2:59:17 PM

Received by NSD/FARA Registration Unit 10/14/2022 2:59:17 PM

According to a screenshot posted by conservative firebrand Candace Owens, Ye West, formerly
known as Kanye West, has been banned from using JPMorgan Chase bank and will have to
remove his funds held by Yeezy, LLC and its affiliated accounts by November 21.
It is unclear why the bank decided to end its relationship with West and Yeezy, LLC. Another
individual was named in the letter but their identity is unknown because Owens blocked it out to
“protect their privacy.”
Ye has been at the center of several political controversies. He ran an unsuccessful presidential
campaign in 2020 and has been friendly with Donald Trump in recent years, often sporting a
Make America Great Again hat in photos. More recently, he wore a “White Lives Matter” shirt to
the Paris Fashion Week and suggested on Fox News’ Tucker Carlson's show that executives at
clothing outlet the Gap may have known about the Uvalde Texas elementary school shooting
before it happened.
Despite West’s views oftentimes crossing over into the certifiably insane category, the
blacklisting from banks for political or societal views, regardless of how distasteful and crazy
those views may be, sets a terrible precedent for financial freedom and freedom of speech.
It is true that banks can decide who they work with. However, they typically limit or shut down
accounts they suspect of criminal activities, either through actions using the bank (money
laundering) or if they are depositing money obtained through illegal activities.
At least, that is how it is supposed to work, but banks around the world have shown a
willingness, even eagerness, to work with the most unscrupulous criminals on the planet, ones
who have done far worse than promote lunatic conspiracy theories.
But before we get into individuals banks have been caught working with, it is worth pointing out
that according to the FinCEN data leak. JPMorgan Chase, along with other bank giants like
HSBC, Deutsche Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, and Bank of New York Mellon, moved illicit
cash for people and companies they suspected to be criminal, even after they reported them to
financial authorities.
The banks were using a strategy known as “defensive reporting.” Knowing that financial
regulators are overwhelmed by thousands of suspicious activity reports (SARs), they simply
reported suspicious accounts and then continued working with them, figuring action from
financial regulators would not be forthcoming. If their activities were discovered, they could
claim they did all they could by submitting the SAR.
About half of the time, the banks had no information about the entities performing the
transactions and they continued to process the transaction, and they continued to do so, even
after being fined by US authorities for failing to end flows of illicit money.
All told, from 1997 to 2017, the banks moved more than $2 trillion from accounts they deemed
suspicious. JPMorgan Chase’s transactions accounted for $514 billion of that figure, and they
transferred money for companies tied to the theft of public funds from Venezuela, Malaysia and
Ukraine. Those transfers included illicit payments from former Ukrainian officials to Donald
Trump’s former campaign manager Paul J. Manafort Jr., who was later convicted of multiple
felonies, including two counts of bank fraud and one count of failing to disclose a foreign bank
account.
But who else have major global banks worked with?
1) HSBC: Mexican and Colombian Cartels, Including ‘El Chapo’

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According to court documents. HSBC admitted to failing to set up an effective anti-money
laundering program, particularly with “certain customers” in Mexico. This led to the bank
laundering at least $881 million in drug trafficking proceeds from the Sinaloa Cartel in Mexico
and the Norte del Valle Cartel in Colombia. Until his second arrest in 2016 and subsequent
extradition to the United States, the infamous Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman was the leader of the
Sinaloa Cartel. More than 79,000 people have disappeared in Mexico since 2006, primarily due
to cartel activities. Wachovia, now a part of Wells Fargo, was also accused of dealing with
cartels in Mexico. They settled out of court.
2) Deutsche Bank: Jeffery Epstein
In 2020, Deutsche Bank was fined $150 million for its relationship with pedophile ring-runner
Jeffery Epstein. Despite the fact that Epstein was already a convicted, registered sex offender,
he managed to transact millions of dollars through the global bank. Deutsche Bank failed to
monitor the transactions despite being aware of Epstein’s history. Epstein died, an event ruled
as a suicide by authorities, in a federal jail cell while awaiting trial for child sex trafficking and
conspiracy to commit child sex trafficking charges. Earlier this year, his associate Ghislaine
Maxwell was found guilty of helping Epstein find girls to traffic; she was sentenced to 20 years in
prison.
3) JPMorgan Chase: Nazis and the Third Reich
JPMorgan and Chase Bank didn’t merge until 2000, butthat hardly matters for the purposes of
this article because both took actions during World War II to aid the German government’s war
efforts and persecution of Jews. In the leadup and early days of the war, the German
government issued Ruckwanderer Marks to American citizens of German descent. They were
used to allow Nazi sympathizers to purchase German Marks at a discounted rate using dollars.
These marks were taken from people, mainly Jews, who fled Germany as Hitler rose to power
and antisemitism ran rampant in the country. Chase Bank facilitated those transactions and
received commission on them. In addition, after President Franklin D. Roosevelt froze German
assets in the country, Chase continued to work with the Nazi government and sent their assets
to Germany through South America.
After France fell to Germany, JPMorgan and Chase Bank continued to operate in occupied
France, and they even froze the accounts of Jews in its Paris branch during the war.
Despite knowing of these events thanks to a post-war congressional hearing that was not made
public until 2004, Chase did not admit to working with the Nazis until 2000, more than fifty years
after the hearings.
Nazis, pedophiles, and cartels have had their activities facilitated by global banks, but an
eccentric rapper with distasteful views is apparently a bridge too far for JPMorgan Chase.

The IMF Says ‘The Worst is Yet to Come,’ Warns 2023 Will ‘Feel Like a Recession
By - Ian DeMartino

Received by NSD/FARA Registration Unit 10/14/2022 2:59:17 PM

The International Monetary Fund recommends central banks and monetary policymakers
proceed with caution, and promote stability.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has cut its global growth forecast for 2023, saying that
the “worst is yet to come” economically.
“Overall, this year’s shocks will re-open economic wounds that were only partially healed
post-pandemic,” the IMF’s forecast predicted. “In short, the worst is yet to come and, for many
people, 2023 will feel like a recession.”
The three largest economies, China, the United States, and the Eurozone will continue to stall
next year, according to IMF predictions. They expect the economy in the United States to grow
only 1% in 2023, while the Eurozone will slow to 0.5% growth. China will do relatively well, with
4.4% growth, but that is still a drop from their previous predictions. China’s 2000 to 2021
average growth was over 8%. In China, the IMF blames a weakening real estate market and
continued COVID-19 lockdowns.
The IMF also blames rapidly rising prices, particularly in food and energy. That effect is
especially pronounced in the Eurozone due to the situation in Ukraine. They expect it will cause
“serious” hardships, especially for the poor. But they also said prices are rising in other
industries as well. The IMF expects global inflation to peak at 9.5% before slowing to a still high
4.1% by 2024.
For emerging markets, the IMF sees the strong dollar as a driving cause, a trend that they think
may continue as investors look for stable assets if the global financial market continues to
deteriorate. They suggest that monetary leaders in those countries increase their foreign
currency holdings and save them for “when financial conditions really worsen.”
“As the global economy is headed for stormy waters, now is the time for emerging market
policymakers to batten down the hatches,” the IMF suggests.
The IMF also looked at other possibilities, outside of its main forecast. If certain events unfold
differently than the IMF expects, the global economic situation could be far worse. The IMF
estimates that there is a 25% chance that global growth could be lower than the historically low
2% and a 10 to 15% chance that it will go as low as 1.1%.
The US Federal Reserve and other central banks have been attempting to fight inflation by
raising interest rates. The IMF cautions that tightening too much could cause the global
economy to stagnate but that not doing it enough could cause inflation to continue to rise, which
will make it more difficult to rein in later.
They also caution against having monetary and fiscal policies that are at odds with each other.
That would mean lessening spending as well as raising interest rates. They believe that is
necessary to stop the cost-of-living crisis that is continuing to worsen.

The IMF Says ‘The Worst is Yet to Come,’ Warns 2023 Will ‘Feel Like a Recession
By - Ian DeMartino

Received by NSD/FARA Registration Unit 10/14/2022 2:59:17 PM

World Bank to Disburse Another $530Mln to Ukraine By End of October - Malpass

WASHINGTON, October 13 (Sputnik) - The World Band will disburse another $530 million to
Ukraine by the end of October, World Bank President David Malpass said on Thursday.

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“We've disbursed so far $11 billion to the Ukrainian government. And there will be another $530
million by the end of this month,” Malpass told reporters.

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US Consumer Prices Overshoot Estimates Again in Sept, Toughening Inflation Fight

WASHINGTON, October 13 (Sputnik) - US consumer prices rose by 0.4% in September,
growing double to economists’ estimates and four times higher than in August, according to
Labor Department data on Thursday that suggested a toughening inflation fight for the Federal
Reserve.
Economists polled by US media had forecast the Consumer Price Index, or CPI, to grow by just
0.2% last month versus the August rate of 0.1 %.
The Labor Department, however, said for the year, the CPI contracted modestly during the 12
months to September, growing by 8.2% from 8.3% during the year to August. The Fed has
struggled to contain inflation for more than a year, with the annual CPI remaining not too far
from a 40-year peak of 9.1% in June.

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with the Department of Justice, Washington, District of Columbia.

Russian Ambassador Antonov Visits Russia's Bout in US Prison
(Adds details, background in paras 5-7)
WASHINGTON, October 13 (Sputnik) - Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly
Antonov said he visited Russian businessman Viktor Bout, who is serving a 25-year prison term
in the United States.
"We were met at the prison very well, the Americans were polite and gave us an opportunity for
holding a meeting for more than 1.5 hours," Antonov told journalists after the visit on
Wednesday.
Antonov shared that Bout is energetic, understands the situation, and really wants to return to
the homeland.
"He misses his family, his mother and worries about what's going on in Russia as well as how
the special military operation is proceeding," Antonov said.
Antonov also said the embassy will do its utmost for his fast return home, and Bout is looking
forward to Moscow's decision on that.
The Ambassador also pointed out that any talks regarding a possible prisoner swap between
Russia and the United States are ongoing via specially set channels.
Bout was arrested in Thailand on a US request in 2008 as a result of an operation of US
security services and handed over to the United States. He is serving his term in a US prison on
charges of conspiracy to murder US citizens and financially support terrorism. Bout has denied
all accusations.

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IMF Announces New Resilience Trust to Help Vulnerable Countries Meet Long-Term Challenges

WASHINGTON, October 13 (Sputnik) - The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has launched a
new Resilience and Sustainability Trust to support vulnerable countries meet their long-term
challenges, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said.
“I am delighted to announce that the new Resilience and Sustainability Trust (RST) has become
operational. Today, I notified the Executive Board that with our fundraising to date, the RST is
ready to start lending operations,” Georgieva said in a statement on Wednesday.
Georgieva explained that the RST is the first IMF tool to provide long-term affordable financing
for supporting countries in such issues like climate change and pandemics, and to help maintain
longer-term economic and financial stability.
Australia, Canada, China, Germany, Japan and Spain provided a total of $20 billion in their first
contributions to the RST.
“This first round of RST resources represents just over half of the total of current RST pledges of
SDR 29 billion (US$ 37 billion) from 13 countries. Further contributions are expected to become
effective in early 2023 once countries have completed their domestic procedures, ensuring the
RST is in a strong position to meet demand for RSF arrangements in the coming years,”
Georgieva said.
Additional countries are expected to join the initiative overtime, Georgieva added.

Antonov Assured Bout Embassy to Do Utmost to Ensure His Return to Russia

WASHINGTON, October 13 (Sputnik) - Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly
Antonov during a prison visit assured Russian businessman Viktor Bout, who is serving a
25-year sentence in a US jail, that the embassy will do its utmost for his fast return home, and
Bout is looking forward to Moscow's decision on that.
"I have assured Viktor Anatolyevich Bout that the Embassy will be doing everything for him,
providing support and will do utmost for his fast return home," Antonov told journalists on
Wednesday. "He looks forward to Moscow's decision on that."
Antonov spoke after he visited Bout at the US prison earlier in the day. Antonov said Bout is in
good physical shape.
"The main goal of the visit was to show our support, Russia's support to Bout," Antonov said.
The Ambassador also pointed out that any talks regarding a possible prisoner swap between
Russia and the United States are ongoing via specially set channels.

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UNGAAdopts Resolution Rejecting Referenda in DNR, LNR, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia
(Update adds US reaction in paras 4-6, edits throughout)
UNITED NATIONS, October 13 (Sputnik) - The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA)
adopted a resolution condemning Russia for the referenda held in four formerly Ukrainian
regions: Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.
A total of 143 countries voted in favor of the resolution, five opposed it and 35 others abstained
from voting.
Russia attempted to hold the vote through a "secret ballot" in order to decrease the possibility of
Western pressure influencing the votes of other countries. However, the assembly rejected the
idea.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a statement after the resolution was adopted said the
UNGA’s vote serves as a reminder that the majority of nations stand with Ukraine in defense of
the UN Charter.
"By adopting this resolution, the assembled nations made clear: they will not tolerate an attempt
by any UN Member State to seize land by force. The vote delivers a resounding rebuke to
Russia for its aggression against Ukraine," Blinken also said.
The United States will continue working with partners across the globe to support Ukraine,
Blinken added.

Russian Ambassador Antonov Visited Russia's Bout in US Prison - Embassy

WASHINGTON, October 13 (Sputnik) - Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly
Antonov said he visited Russian businessman Viktor Bout, who is serving a 25-year prison term
in the United States.
"We were met at the prison very well, the Americans were polite and gave us an opportunity for
holding a meeting for more than 1.5 hours," Antonov told journalists after the visit on
Wednesday.
Antonov shared that Bout is energetic, understands the situation, and really wants to return to
the homeland.
"He misses his family, his mother and worries about what's going on in Russia as well as how
the special military operation is proceeding," Antonov said.

Received by NSD/FARA Registration Unit 10/14/2022 2:59:17 PM

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