HAARETZ.com

Russia reassured Israel on Sunday that it stands by its commitment not to supply Iran with advanced S-300 anti-aircraft missiles despite an Iranian lawmaker’s statement that the system “is being delivered to Iran.”

“You will be the first to know about any progress or change in the matter of the missiles,” Pyotr Stegny, the Russian ambassador to Israel, told top Israeli officials.

Stegny said Russia was not planning to advance the missile deal and had not yet begun to deliver the missiles. “We are adhering to the agreements we reached during Prime Minister Olmert’s visit to Moscow.” Russia made its initial commitment regarding this matter to Israel during Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s October visit.

But Russia’s RIA news agency last week quoted “confidential sources” as saying that Russia was fulfilling terms of an S-300 contract with Iran, and the official news agency of Iran, IRNA, reported on Sunday that Russia was supplying it with the missiles.

If this is the case, and the missiles are used to defend Iran’s nuclear facilities, attacking them would be made more difficult.

“After a few years of talks with Russia … the S-300 system is now being delivered to Iran,” IRNA quoted Email Kosari, deputy head of parliament’s Foreign Affairs and National Security Committee, as saying. “The delivery of this system is a display of good relations between Iran and Russia, which cannot be harmed by Israel,” Kosari apparently said, adding the S-300 system would be used to defend Iran’s borders.

The S-300 missile system is considered one of the most sophisticated anti-aircraft systems in the world. It includes a mobile missile launcher that fires at a rate of one missile every three to five seconds. The missiles can hit aircraft at a maximum height of about 30 kilometers, and at a distance of 150 kilometers.

I do not trust Russia. The Russian government is cash strapped and they need the money.

Hat Tip: Hot Air Headlines

OPEC has decided to cut production of 2,000,000 million barrels of oil per day.

Russia will also cut production of 320,000 barrels of oil per day.

The price of oil per barrel is expected to increase in January, but will fall back to its current price level.

The price of oil is currently at $44.91 and may rise during today’s trading.

Breaking News…

Developing….

UPDATE 1: breitbart.com

The OPEC oil cartel agreed on Wednesday to a record output cut of two million barrels a day, the Saudi Arabian oil minister said, with non-member producers also ready to slash 600,000 barrels.

“There is a consensus on a cut of two million barrels a day,” Saudi Arabian Oil Minister Ali al-Nuaimi told reporters as a meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries got underway here.

The OPEC cut from headline output of 27.3 million barrels per day, which would be the biggest reduction ever, could be complemented by combined reductions from non-OPEC members Russia and Azerbaijan of 600,000 barrels a day.

Together these moves would take 2.6 million barrels of oil off the market.

The OPEC cut amounts to about seven percent of the cartel’s production.

OPEC ministers called the meeting here to take action against a steady slide in oil prices, which are now 70 percent off their highs of 147 dollars a barrel in July, as demand dries up in recession-hit industrialised consuming nations.

Time to drill in ANWR!

Oh, wait.

Bloomberg.com

Russia denied its troops fired on a motorcade carrying Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili and his Polish counterpart near the breakaway region of South Ossetia.

“There was no shooting from our positions or from the position of the South Ossetia troops,” Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters late yesterday in Peru’s capital, Lima.

As the presidents’ vehicles approached a checkpoint outside the disputed South Ossetian town of Akhalgori, gunshots were fired, she said. No one was injured in the shooting and the motorcade headed back to the Georgian capital, Tbilisi.

The entire incident was a “provocation,” said Lavrov, who was in Lima for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.

“When the president is being invited for some celebration in Tbilisi and they put him in a car and take him to a different state, this is a true provocation,” he said.

Russia is full of crap.

Let us call this what it really was - an assassination attempt on the lives of Polish President, Lech Kaczyński, and Georgian President, Mikheil Saakashvili.

Hat Tip: Hot Air

DEBKAfile

Terror suspected in Aeroflot crash which killed all 88 people aboard

DEBKAfile’s counter-terror sources report from Moscow that three Jewish families, two Habad students and a Russian general were among the 88 passengers and crew killed in the Aeroflot Boeing 737 crash at Perm, Siberia, Saturday, Sept. 13. The plane was in flight from Moscow.

Russian authorities report the plane’s sudden disappearance off the radar at the moment cockpit communications shut off indicate the craft may have exploded in mid-air. They suspect terrorism as the cause of the crash because -

1. At least five passengers bought tickets but did not turn up for the flight. Security officials are trying to locate their addresses and sifting through the wreckage spread over a large area for possible unaccompanied luggage.

2. One of the passengers has been identified as Gen. Gennadiy Troshev, who was esteemed as a Russian hero for quelling the Chechen rebellion and believed to be targeted for death.

3. Our sources name one of the Jewish - or possibly Israeli - families aboard the doomed flight. They have been named as Ephraim Nakhumov, 35, his wife Golda, 24, and their two children, Ilya, aged 7, and Eva, aged four. Their place of residence is sought.

So, the suspect list includes Chechen rebels, Al Qaeda, or any other Muslim extremist groups. Hopefully, authorities will be able to gather some clues from the luggage and make some arrests. Of course, the warmhearted kindness of the terrorists is expressed by the slaying of the children on board. The same respect should be returned by shooting the terrorists on sight if they are found.

DEBKAfile Special Report

September 5, 2008, 12:58 PM (GMT+02:00)

The Russian raid was disclosed by UPI chief editor Arnaud de Borchgrave, who is also on the Washington Times staff, and picked up by the Iranian Fars news agency. The Russian raid of two Georgian airfields, which Tbilisi had allowed Israel to use for a potential strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities, followed the Georgian offensive against South Ossetia on Aug. 7.

DEBKAfile’s intelligence sources report that flying from S. Georgia over the Caspian Sea to Iran would sharply trim the distance to be spanned by Israeli fighter-bombers, reducing flying time to 3.5 hours. More…

cnn.com

Dramatic video from CNN!

This video was recorded on Sunday and aired yesterday on Turkish television. All the journalists in the video went back into Georgia yesterday. The journalist shot in the head, miraculously, does not have any life-threatening wounds.

UPDATE 1: If the CNN video above does not show…

…the video is now on .

breitbart.tv

According to Ynet: “I tried to get into the car and run, but the soldier pushed me and then he fired a round which nearly hit my foot, it actually hit the tip of my sandal.”

Breaking News…

Developing…

UDPATE 1: It looks like the video is breaking over the internet, but by Scoop This calculations, Hot Air has had the video posted for almost 3 hours now.

The Israeli journalists were robbed at gunpoint by Russian soldiers. The car was stolen, then returned 20 minutes later. Also, Hot Air is reporting that the Russian soldier was drunk!

Read the amazing story of Tzur Sheizaf, the Israeli journalist nearly shot, on Ynet News.

Hat Tip: Hot Air

UPDATE 2: I just checked around and it looks like the videos of both the Israeli journalist and the Georgian journalist being shot at broke at the same time around the conservative blogosphere. Some conservative outlets had the “Israeli journalist” video, while others had the “Georgian journalist” video.

Check out the Scoop This previous entry: Georgian TV Reporter Shot By Russian Sniper!

Wow! Tamara Urushadze is lucky that the sniper mostly missed his shot and it’s just a flesh wound on her left arm. Also, at least it was not a head shot, because four more bullets passed by her! Tamara was reporting live when she was shot in the city of Gori, which is now known as “sniper’s alley”. After finishing her live report, Tamara was taken to the hospital.

Read more about this story at This Is London.

Little Green Footballs

Several news organizations have reported that the Russian military is now within minutes of the Georgian capital of Tbilisi.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is giving a press briefing…

Breaking News…

Developing…

UPDATE 1: Earlier today, President Bush warned Russia that “the U.S. would stand behind its ally Georgia and warned Russia that it must respect the ‘territorial integrity’ of (Georgia).” By advancing forward towards Tbilisi, the Russians have effectively violated the truce designed to end the six-day war. There are also reports of gunmen targeting children and another report claiming that pro-U.S. Ukraine is next on Russia’s hit list.

UPDATE 2: Say Anything Blog is reporting that President Bush has ordered the U.S. military to provide humanitarian aid to the Georgian people. Two C-17 cargo jet planes are heading to Tbilisi, Georgia’s capital city. The value of the aid is estimated at $1.28 million.

breitbart.tv

This video was just posted through the AP Wire.

The video shows a Russian convoy of troops that were engaged in an intense firefight with Georgian soldiers at a bridge in Achabet, South Ossetia on Monday.