Definitely, Putin makes it sound as if Stalin and his pogroms never existed and Von Ribbentrop didn’t offer Poland on a plate.

This is one splendid parade.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CKJEpfawCI

They know pathos.

[Daphne – They celebrate victory over Nazi Germany, but they killed millions more of their own citizens than Hitler ever did. I suppose it’s the ‘taghna f’taghna’ mentality: if Russian rulers kill Russian citizens, that’s fine, but don’t let anybody else try it.]

It has to be seen what happens to the South route pipeline.

Italy could be in a rush to order a number of offshore regasifer/storage units as of this week.

Meantime works on the other pipeline, stretching from Azerbaijan , through Turkey and onto Puglia may be accelerated, completion brought forward to 2016.

Muscat challenged the leader of the opposition to provide a date for gas pipeline. As they say, one week is a long time in politics.

http://www.jamestown.org/uploads/media/Conference_Report_-_Azerbaijan_and_the_Southern_Gas_Corridor_-_FINAL_web_version.pdf

Muscat cannot remain isolated on a point of principle, or better, his inherent xenophobic populism. Malta has extensive territorial waters and the availability of EU funding to connect the island to the continent, thanks to his predecessor’s foresight.

Just look at this paragraph taken from the Q&A section at the end.

‘….Question from Veaceslav Pituscan:

It seems that the key answer to the current situation for the countries
remaining outside the TAP project is the interconnectors. Can you comment on the current situation and
future prospects to put this system in place so that gas from Italy or Greece can get to Moldova via the
interconnector, which we started to build now between Moldova and Romania?

Christian Burgsmüller:

Certainly, there is a European program called the European Connector Facility
that helped with the financing of those projects. It is probably the biggest European infrastructure
program on energy, and the goal is to have no energy islands in the European Union by the year 2015.
These are individual projects that get evaluated as they are submitted and then EU financing is made
available for them. But the big dates we have are 2014 for the completion of the internal European energy
market and 2015 for the elimination of the last energy island in the EU…..’

I think Muscat needs to be sat down and asked gently what it is he really wants to do. The scepticism to the strategy outlined above, evident last Friday could well be his downfall and our loss.

“The great Vladimir Putin is the greatest leader since U.S President John F. Kennedy and he may achieve what Kennedy was trying to achieve. It is time the Livery of the City of London was decapitated! All denounce your Western tyrant leaders controlled by New Venice (Britain) and lets move this world out of the clutches of the evil merchants from hell.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDLwu4E35us

Most of them seem to end up in a very bad way soon after they receive the honour or not so soon.

I honestly think it should be scrapped for the recipients’ sake.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-26637296

And CNN’s breaking news is that:

“Ukraine’s military in Crimea authorized to use weapons “to preserve life of Ukrainian soldiers,” defense ministry says. ”

Hope Joseph Muscat is in contact with Valentina Matviyenko about this, asking her that Russia should uphold international law and keep its hands off Crimea.

The secret service asking banks to provide info when he’d been appointed over four months ago.

And a government denoting EU law to be foreign interference. Where that leaves our military is anyone’s guess. I suppose who gives a damn.

http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/news/national/37048/top_security_clearance_given_four_years_after_promotion_due_to_eu_directive_