UK Labourites in Russia Spring 1917...and the Jews

In the spring of 1917, a delegation of the British Labour movement set out for Russia.

The background:

And on Jews, in their report:

Source.

Here they are:

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Facts on the Ground

CNN speaks with Fareed [Zakaria]about the latest developments in Ukraine...

Before we get into the bigger picture questions, what is your reaction to the news about armed troops, maybe they are Russian, in two airports in the Crimea region? And also, as one correspondent was saying, even surrounding peacefully a TV station?It seems very unlikely that Russia has no hand in this “border patrol.” It's possible they are not Russian, actual Russian official troops. They may be some kind of paramilitary...But the Russian intelligence services have been active in Ukraine ever since the breakup between of the Soviet Union and the independence of Ukraine. You have to assume that what they are trying to do is create facts on the ground – take over the key areas, which are the airport and government buildings. And then you have some kind of autonomous local government that is trying to act in a way that creates facts on the ground that Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, cannot do very much about.

That was  February 28th, 2014 at 06:32 PM ET.

At March 1, 2014 -- Updated 1605 GMT we read:

Russia's upper house of parliament voted unanimously Saturday to approve sending Russian military forces into Ukraine, amid mounting tensions in the country's Crimea region.
The vote followed a request from Russian President Vladimir Putin for approval to send Russian troops into Crimea to normalize the political situation there.Due to the "extraordinary situation in Ukraine," Putin said, there are threats to the lives of Russian citizens and Russian military personnel based in the southern Crimean region.
Ukraine's new government condemned the move.

And news about someone very inimical to Israel:

U.N. special adviser Robert Serry, sent to Ukraine to assess the situation, said he had not been able to get to Crimea and would instead go to Switzerland to brief U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Sunday.

As for the United States:

U.S. President Barack Obama has warned Russia against any military intervention in Ukraine after the country's new leaders accused Moscow of deploying forces in the Crimea region..."We are now deeply concerned by reports of military movements taken by the Russian Federation inside of Ukraine," Obama told reporters in Washington.

Can Israel trust the United States under Obama toi "have Israel's back"?

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The State Department's Language Problem

Remember that I seemingly caught out the State Department for not knowing Polish? (here)

Well, they don't know Russian either:-

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, in greeting Sergey V. Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, presented him with a red plastic button emblazoned with the English word “reset” and the Russian word “peregruzka.”

The gift was a play on Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s call in Munich last month for the two countries to “press the reset button” on their relationship.

“We worked hard to get the right Russian word,” Mrs. Clinton said, handing the button to Mr. Lavrov. “Do you think we got it?”

“You got it wrong,” he replied, explaining that the Americans had come up with the Russian word for overcharged.

“We won’t let you do that to us,” she said quickly, with a full-throated laugh.

Pretty stupid if you ask me.


And there's this there:

Russia has signed a contract to supply Iran with long-range S-300 missiles, which experts say Tehran could use to defend its nuclear facilities from an American or Israeli strike. The missiles have not been delivered, but it is not clear whether that is a gesture to the Obama administration.

Mr. Lavrov did not clear things up, saying that Russia’s arms sales to Iran were fully legal, but that Moscow understood that the issue stirred uneasiness in the United States and Israel.

I Hope This Is True

The federal agency overseeing Russia's military exports on Friday denied reports that the country is planning to deliver a powerful new anti-aircraft missile system to Iran.

Iran's defense minister had said earlier this week that Russia was preparing to equip Iran with the S-300 missile system, which would dramatically increase the country's ability to repel an attack.

But Russia's Federal Military-Technical Cooperation Service denied the claim in a brief statement.

"The question of deliveries of S-300 systems to Iran, which has now arisen in the mass media, is not currently taking place, is not being considered and is not being discussed at this time with the Iranian side," said the agency, known by its Russian initials, FSVTS.

Source

I'd hate for Israel to have to go to war with Russia, too.