WASHINGTON’S VASSALS

MATTHEW EHRET—In hindsight, we can observe the growth of the media empire under the control of Plahotniuc and the vast investments into “democracy building” by the National Endowment of Democracy to get a sense of the causal hand behind these events, though at the time the culprits never came to light. One thing is clear: The American State Department’s hand pervaded this story as Ambassador Chaudhry (connected closely to Victoria Nuland according to Wikileaks emails), was a major power broker and brags that his work in carrying out Moldovan democracy reforms during this time was the most rewarding experience of his career. In the wake of this attempted coup, three pro-western opposition parties created the Alliance for European Integration winning 53 seats and pushing out the Communist Party from power.

RT COM—After more than a decade of fomenting conflict in Syria and calling for the removal of Syrian President Bashar Assad, the US envoy to the country has declared that Assad can be allowed to remain in power. The US has also imposed a new round of severe sanctions all but certain to cripple Syria’s reconstruction efforts. Rick Sanchez discuses Washington’s bombshell policy reversal before Investigative journalist Ben Swann joins with the details.

ALAN MACLEOD—Apparently unaware he was confessing to a capital offense, Jordan Goudreau appeared on a Venezuelan show from his home in Florida, insisting that the mission was “still ongoing, absolutely,” even as his employees were being overpowered by disgruntled lobstermen. “These guys want to fight!” he added. Goudreau also shared an eight-page document signed by Juan Guaidó, where the self-declared “interim president” promised to pay him $212 million to overthrow Maduro, seemingly oblivious to how bad it made them both look.

The State Department offers US$15 million bounties for Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro. Regardless of the human costs that the economic blockade causes the Venezuelan people, the U.S. Attorney General William Barr Thursday announced that his country will designate Venezuela as a state sponsoring terrorism.

MATTHEW EHRET—After 33 Turkish troops were killed in a Syrian army offensive on February 27 amidst the current Russia-backed campaign to liberate Idlib, Erdogan responded by laying the blame entirely on Russia and Syria – successfully avoiding all mention of the uncomfortable fact that Turkey has been protecting radical terror networks not only in Idlib but across Syria as a whole for years. During this time, Islamist forces within Turkey favorable to Assad’s overthrow have been attempting to play a complex game of geopolitics for which they are totally unqualified.