Obama signed a document on the threat from space. “Last New Year's greetings from Barack Obama's team. Saving Obamacare and Planned Parenthood

Three weeks before leaving the presidency of the United States, Barack Obama announced the introduction of new, unprecedentedly tough sanctions against Russia. Six people and five departments, including the FSB and the GRU, were blacklisted for Moscow's alleged involvement in cyberattacks on American servers. In addition, 35 Russian diplomats will be expelled from the United States in response to the “unacceptable persecution” of their American colleagues by Russian police and intelligence services. Experts note: towards the end of his tenure in the White House, President Obama decided to “express his true attitude towards a number of his long-term interlocutors on the world stage,” and also to make the task as difficult as possible for President-elect Donald Trump. It will now be even more difficult for his team to establish relations with Moscow. The Kremlin and the Russian Foreign Ministry reacted extremely harshly to the news from Washington, calling the actions of the Obama administration “an absolutely unpredictable manifestation of aggression” and promising “adequate countermeasures.”

Hackers answered

The media reported that the United States was preparing new sanctions against Russia back in mid-December. This week information appeared that the package of “response measures” is at the stage of final approval of details. Finally on Thursday The White house reported on a number of measures against the Russian Federation and its citizens.

Thus, the Barack Obama administration carried out its threats to respond to what allegedly took place during the presidential election. election campaign Russian interference in the electoral process. The new blacklist included five departments - including the FSB of the Russian Federation and the GRU of the General Staff of the Russian Federation, as well as six people. Among them are the head of the GRU, Igor Korobov, and other high-ranking employees of this special service: Igor Kostyukov, Vladimir Alekseev, Sergei Gizunov. In addition, the list included two Russian hackers - Evgeny Bogachev (his pseudonyms Lastik, lucky12345, Monstr, Pollingsoon and Slavik are mentioned), as well as Alexey Belan (Abyr Valgov, Abyrvaig, Abyrvalg, Anthony Anthony, Fedyunya, M4G, Mag, Mage, Magg, Moy.Yawik, Mrmagister). The latter, in particular, has long been wanted by the FBI for infiltrating the servers of three large American e-commerce companies and stealing customer data between January 2012 and April 2013. The FBI promises $100 thousand for information about him.

Let us recall that the first accusations against Russia were made after the server of the Democratic National Committee was hacked in the spring. The White House accused Russian hackers, allegedly working for the Russian leadership, of involvement in this. At the same time, as Kommersant previously wrote, no irrefutable evidence of this thesis was ever presented.

At the height of the scandal, American officials also reported that they suspected hackers from the Russian Federation in attacks on the servers of the Republican National Committee and even the Pentagon. The attack on the military department was announced by the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JSC) of the US armed forces, Martin Dempsey. In an interview with CBS News, he said that in August 2015, hackers penetrated an unclassified system Email KNSH, for some time gaining access to the passwords and electronic signatures of Mr. Dempsey and other military leaders.

In Moscow, such accusations have been repeatedly called speculation. “We need to either stop talking about this, or finally provide some evidence. Otherwise, it looks very obscene,” said, in particular, on December 16, the press secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov. And on Wednesday official representative Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova noted: “The outgoing US administration does not give up hope of finally having time to do something else bad for relations with Russia, which it has already brought down. With the help of clearly inspired leaks in the American media, they are again trying to scare us with the expansion of anti-Russian sanctions, measures of a “diplomatic nature” and even sabotage against our computer systems. Moreover, they want to cynically present this last New Year’s greeting from Barack Obama’s team, which is already preparing for eviction from the White House, as a reaction to some “cyber attacks from Moscow.”

PIR Center Consultant Oleg Demidov explained: “Obama’s decision today sets a precedent for the use of a new sanctions mechanism for the United States to protect national interests in the field of cybersecurity. We are talking about the decree “On the seizure of property of persons involved in serious illegal actions in cyberspace” dated April 1, 2015. The decree gives US authorities the right to impose sanctions (including freezing of assets) on companies and individuals, involved in cyber attacks that disrupt the functioning of US critical infrastructure and key computer networks and systems. Sanctions may also apply to individuals and companies that have misappropriated funds or economic resources, trade secrets, personal data and financial information of US companies and organizations - or used these assets stolen during a cyber attack by a third party, knowing about the method of their appropriation. This last point is especially important as it represents a potential deterrent to systematic cyber attacks and theft. intellectual property American companies."

According to Oleg Demidov, “initially the decree was written “for the People’s Republic of China,” but the matter has not yet come to its use - in September 2015, Washington and Beijing managed to agree on joint work on the problem of state cyber attacks and cyber espionage, after which the activity of “Chinese state “hackers” went into decline for some time.” No such agreements were reached with Russia.

“In the current climate of an imminent change of presidential administration in Washington, there is a possibility that the new owner of the White House will suspend or cancel the decree. However, in a broader and long-term sense, the consequences of today’s decision are irreversible - the mechanism of “sanctions for cyber attacks” has moved from a latent to an active tool of US foreign policy. And the same Trump, even if this mechanism is blocked in relation to the Russian Federation, will easily be able to use it against the PRC next year - the mechanism itself is convenient and can be easily redirected against any other state,” notes Oleg Demidov.

Not very diplomatic behavior

The US authorities did not limit themselves to expanding the blacklist. They also declared 35 Russian diplomats persona non grata - those whose activities, as the State Department noted, “do not correspond to their diplomatic or consular status.” The names of the people are not disclosed. They were given 72 hours to get ready.

In addition, the State Department also informed Moscow that employees of Russian diplomatic missions will be denied access to two Russian-owned facilities - in Maryland and New York. We are talking about embassy dachas.

Explaining the measures taken, American diplomats note: this is a response to “Russian interference in the US elections, as well as the systematic harassment of American diplomats abroad, cases of which have become more frequent over the past four years and have increased significantly over the past 12 months.” In particular, the State Department notes, this means “deliberate detention by police, physical violence, publication in live state television personal information about our (American - Ed.) employees, which puts them at risk.”

Earlier, the media wrote about one of the incidents, at the center of which was an unnamed US Embassy employee. According to the American side, a certain “FSB officer” was the first to attack the diplomat, breaking his shoulder. At the same time, the Russian Foreign Ministry reported that an employee of the American diplomatic mission worked for the CIA and was the first to hit a Russian policeman who asked him to show his identification card.

In addition, the State Department continues, “the Russian government is impeding diplomatic activity, which is expressed, among other things, in the following actions: the forced closure of 28 “American corners” where cultural events and English classes were conducted; blocking efforts to begin construction of a new, more secure building for the American Consulate General in St. Petersburg; denial of requests to enhance perimeter security of a current outdated building in St. Petersburg.”

"Today's actions send a clear message that such behavior will not be tolerated and will have consequences," the document released by the State Department said. At the same time, President Barack Obama noted that the announced initiatives are “not the entire response to Russian aggressive actions.” “We will continue to take a range of actions in those places and at times that we deem appropriate. Some measures will not be announced publicly,” Mr. Obama explained, as quoted in a White House statement.

“It is clear that the same number of diplomats will be expelled from Russia”

“At the end of his presidency, Barack Obama was finally able to express his true attitude towards a number of his long-term interlocutors on the world stage,” said Head of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy of the Russian Federation Fyodor Lukyanov.- First, there was an unprecedented decision not to block an anti-Israeli resolution in the UN Security Council. This is the fruit of Obama's long-term hostility to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Now there is a diplomatic war with Russia in the style of the 70s. He was clearly hurting, but previously the President of the United States did not want, could not, or did not dare to express all this.” According to the interlocutor, one of the goals of such a drastic step is to “make it difficult for the next administration to establish relations with Moscow”: “Trump and his Secretary of State will have to start from an even lower point than the day before. After all, it is clear that the same number of diplomats will be expelled from Russia and mirror sanctions will be announced against some of them.”

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova noted the day before: “If Washington really takes new hostile steps, they will receive an answer. This also applies to any actions against Russian diplomatic missions in the United States, which will immediately ricochet towards American diplomats in Russia.” After the introduction of sanctions, she spoke on her Facebook page extremely emotionally: “We have been talking about this for several years in a row: the people who lived in the White House for eight years are not the Administration, they are a group of foreign policy losers, embittered and narrow-minded. Today Obama officially admitted this. The most amazing thing is that, having failed to write any achievements in the history of the presidency international arena, Nobel laureate managed to put a fat blot instead of an elegant point.” Mrs. Zakharova wrote that “today America, the American people were humiliated by their own president.” And that “the whole world, from the stalls to the gallery, is witnessing a crushing blow to the prestige of America and its leadership inflicted by Barack Obama and his illiterate foreign policy team.” And that “no enemy of the United States could do worse.” “On Friday there will be official statements, countermeasures and much more,” added Maria Zakharova.

The first reaction from the Kremlin was also harsh. “Such actions of such a destructive, destructive nature for bilateral relations are taken by the administration, which will leave in three weeks. This looks like an absolutely unpredictable manifestation of aggression,” Dmitry Peskov told reporters. He recalled the words of Russian President Vladimir Putin about potential aggressors, said at a large press conference: “He, however, did not count the United States among such potential aggressors, but now we are seeing concrete manifestations.” Mr. Peskov also promised that the introduction of new sanctions will not go unanswered.

Pavel Tarasenko, Elena Chernenko

Close Guantanamo

One of Obama's first orders as president was to close the notorious Guantanamo Bay prison by the end of 2009. Obama repeatedly stated his intention to liquidate the camp in Cuba in his election speeches: “I have repeatedly said that I intend to close Guantanamo, and I will definitely do it.” The prisoners were planned to be transported to other countries, including the States. However, this peace-loving initiative was opposed by Congress. As a result, things are still there.

“Here there was pharisaism of the Obama administration, which declared one thing and did another, did not make very great efforts to resolve this issue,” the chief commented on the situation in an interview with RT Researcher Institute of the USA and Canada Vladimir Vasiliev. - If he (Obama. - RT) really wanted to close the prison somehow, he could have issued an executive order.”

• Reuters

Nobel in advance

At the dawn of his first presidential term, in October 2009, Obama became a laureate Nobel Prize world - for his contribution to “working for a world without nuclear weapons” and creating a “new international climate.” Obama worked on this Nobel advance for the entire eight years he was in power, but the result was disappointing: the withdrawal of troops from Iraq and Afghanistan did not lead to the desired end to the war on international terrorism. On the contrary, the Islamic State, created largely thanks to US policy, came to the fore; a wave of coups swept across the East - the so-called Arab Spring, which led to the invasion of Libya and the war in Syria. As a result, the situation in the Near and Middle East got out of control.

Leave to come back

Conclusion American troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, Obama announced even at the stage of the struggle for the presidency. In 2010, he announced the end of hostilities in Iraq. And after a year the last American soldier left Iraq, leaving the country in ruins and on the brink of civil war.

“The attempt to withdraw troops from Iraq led this country to almost collapse and the emergence of the Islamic State; it was urgently necessary to resume military assistance and strengthen the American contingent,” Yuri Rogulev, director of the Franklin Roosevelt Foundation for the Study of the United States (MSU), told RT.

The states had to return: now the US Air Force is bombing IS positions in Iraq, which has become one of the springboards international terrorism in the Middle East.

In 2014, the end of the US combat mission in Afghanistan was announced. However, a complete withdrawal of troops did not happen, and one should not expect it in the near future either.

The Americans and their NATO allies made direct military intervention in the civil conflict in Libya. As a result, the leader of the Jamahiriya, Muammar Gaddafi, was brutally killed, and the country was plunged into the abyss of a civil war, from which it cannot escape to this day. Obama called the invasion of Libya the worst mistake of his eight years in office.

“Obama agreed to participate in the operation in Libya, which led to the defeat of this country, in fact, to the fact that military operations are still ongoing there,” Rogulev believes. — In addition, he acted quite cynically in relation to his former allies, in particular in relation to Mubarak, suddenly supporting the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt*, as well as the entire “Arab Spring”, as a result of which extremist forces began to come to power in these countries."

Terrorist #1

On Obama's orders, the leader of the Al-Qaeda terrorist group, Osama bin Laden, was killed in Abbottabad, Pakistan, in 2011. However, the operation itself and the hasty elimination of terrorist number one still raise a lot of questions. “Justice has been served,” Obama told Americans about bin Laden’s death.

What does Obama have to do with it?

Al-Qaeda has been replaced by the Islamic State. In June 2014, terrorists declared the creation of a caliphate and captured a significant part of the territory of Iraq and Syria. In August, an international coalition led by the United States was created, which began bombing Islamist positions in Iraq and then in Syria.

“Despite the fact that Obama said in September 2014 that the United States would fight the Islamic State, we can say that behind the scenes his administration contributed to the emergence of the Islamic State,” noted Vladimir Vasiliev. — Let us remember the accusations that were made at one time by Trump that Obama and Hillary Clinton were sponsors of the Islamic State. Stimulating radical Islamism may have been an important part of American strategy in the Middle East."

• American military base in Iraq
• Reuters

The “reset” policy taken by Washington promised positive changes in relations between the United States and Russia. And at first everything went well: during his first visit to Moscow, Obama signed the START-3 treaty (on measures to reduce and limit strategic offensive weapons). But soon the political wind blew in the other direction. The deterioration of bilateral ties was greatly facilitated by the situation in Ukraine and the active participation of the United States in inciting a civil conflict in this country.

The "reboot" was very simple. It was that at that time Russian President Dmitry Medvedev would go for a second term, and Vladimir Putin would leave the political arena,” Vasiliev explained. “As soon as the Americans realized that they had miscalculated, a gradual deterioration of Russian-American relations began, which the Obama administration ends today on the note of “Cold War No. 2.”

Nuclear deal with a smell

Obama can take credit for the nuclear deal with Iran, which has been negotiated for more than a decade. As a result, Iran abandoned its nuclear program in exchange for partial lifting of sanctions. True, the deal spoiled US relations with Israel, and Donald Trump called it a disgrace for the United States and intends to annul Obama’s achievement.

“Relations with Israel deteriorated after the United States, along with Russia, the EU and China, accepted the deal on the Iranian nuclear program,” Vasiliev said. “The policy here was not only to avoid a major war with Iran, but also to weaken the position of Israel, which was categorically against it. In addition, Republicans opposed the deal. This is a half-hearted success for Obama, because in America it is customary to talk about bipartisan agreement.”

Historical visit, symbolic achievements

Obama became the first US president in almost 90 years to visit Cuba. The restoration of relations with Liberty Island was a landmark event for the 44th President of the United States.

“Obama needed some symbolic achievements,” Vasiliev emphasized. “After all, the fact that diplomatic relations have been restored after 55 years is an achievement.” Although, perhaps, there was a personal element behind this, he himself needed to go down in history, to make some kind of breakthrough.”

Big hopes

Obama's policy towards the EU led the Old World to a crisis and strengthened the position of the right in Europe. The influx of migrants caused by the destabilization of the situation in the Middle East has weakened the European Union and noticeably cooled the attitude of its residents towards the United States. A striking example That's why Brexit. Great Britain made its choice despite the admonitions of Obama, who specially came to Foggy Albion to dissuade the British from leaving the EU. Partly a consequence of the American strategy of weakening the European Union was the freezing of negotiations on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. Things did not go well for Obama in another part of the world: the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which he so desired, which was supposed to make the United States the economic leader of the region, also hung in the air.

• Reuters

For internal use

In domestic policy, Obama was more successful. Here he even managed to fulfill a number of his election promises. Obama came to power in the wake of the financial crisis and managed to bring the US economy out of its doldrums. True, he paid a considerable price for this.

During the Democrat's tenure in office, the national debt has almost doubled and now stands at more than 105% of GDP, or $19.95 trillion. By the end of his presidency, this figure could exceed $20 trillion. None of Obama’s predecessors were able to “achieve” such a result.

During the time that Democrats controlled both houses of Congress, Obama carried out reforms in the health care sector and Wall Street reform. After Republicans gained a "blocking political stake" in Congress, the Obama administration's reform efforts fizzled out. All that remained was to talk about the exceptionalism of the American nation.

Be healthy

Obama promised universal health insurance to Americans, including those who had not previously had access to this service. And he kept his promise. Health care reform, informally known as Obamacare, has become Obama's most prominent initiative. At the same time, it also caused dissatisfaction, as it led to a deterioration in insurance conditions for many citizens and an additional burden for small companies. There is a suspicion that Obamacare will not last long with Trump in office.

“As for Obamacare, the problem of its “dismantling” will begin,” Vasiliev said. “There are two strategies here: the first is to simply cancel it, and the second is to cancel it, but replace it with something.”

Anti-crisis manager

A number of experts call Obama an anti-crisis manager. He himself believes that he saved the United States from the second Great Depression. In 2009, Obama signed a law to provide assistance to the American economy in the amount of $787 billion. Then the symbol of the crisis was Detroit - the automobile capital of the United States became the largest bankrupt city in the history of the country, its debt exceeded $18.5 billion.

• Manufacturing in Detroit
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Same-sex marriage

The Obama administration was marked by the legalization of same-sex marriage. The corresponding verdict that same-sex marriage does not contradict the American Constitution was issued by Supreme Court USA. Thus, same-sex marriage was given green light countrywide.

Migrants are illegal

But migrants were less fortunate. All of Obama's attempts to carry out immigration reform ran into a wall of misunderstanding on the part of Congress. The President unsuccessfully called for reform of immigration legislation. Not finding understanding among the congressmen, he decided to act independently. But his decree banning the expulsion of illegal immigrants whose children were citizens of the country or had a residence permit was blocked by the Supreme Court.

“Immigration reform is also a manifestation of the crisis of American statehood. When the country largely began to live according to Obama’s decrees, there was a serious violation, perhaps even of the American Constitution itself,” Vasiliev commented on Obama’s initiative.

Race issue

The first African American to become president of the United States was going to rid the country of racist prejudice. But this did not happen. Under Obama, acts of violence against black people by the police became demonstrative, and the protest movement of “black” America intensified.

“The arrival of the first black president could not but lead to increased racial contradictions in society,” Vasiliev explained. — America is tolerant only to a certain level. Still, there are concerns that national ethnic minorities may play an increasing role in American politics, sharply intensified racial tendencies, xenophobia, and chauvinism. Today, racial divisions remain very acute in America. In the United States, by and large, they don’t know how to solve this problem.”

When there is no agreement among comrades

Obama promised to reconcile Democrats and Republicans and end petty disputes between the parties. “We will turn around the terrible partisan politics in Washington so that Democrats and Republicans can work together for the good of Americans,” Obama said during the 2008 campaign. The result of his labors could be seen in the last presidential elections.

Lord of climate

As a presidential candidate, Obama advocated for caring for environment and promised to use emissions tax revenue to reinvest in clean energy. He repeatedly introduced similar bills into Congress, but both chambers successfully blocked them. Obama had to make a lot of efforts to “push through” environmental initiatives.

“Everything related to climate change will most likely be canceled by the Trump administration,” Vasiliev summed up the disappointing conclusion. “Obama’s initiatives will not go down in history; they will be seen as an element of noble intentions from which nothing much came of.”

Scandals and terrorist attacks

The black page of Obama's reign was the terrorist attack on April 15, 2013 at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. As a result, three people were killed and 264 were injured. This was the first terrorist attack on US soil since September 11, 2001. It was committed with the participation of brothers Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev. Russia warned the United States three times about the danger that young people could pose, but the information from Russian intelligence services was ignored by the American side.

In June 2013, a scandal broke out involving former CIA and NSA employee Edward Snowden. He provided The Washington Post and The Guardian with data on mass surveillance by US and British intelligence agencies of Internet users, as well as politicians and officials. Snowden fled the United States and asked for asylum in Russia.

Hillary Clinton became involved in the scandal with the leak of state secrets: the FBI accused the former Secretary of State of conducting business correspondence through a personal email. Probably, this also cost her the presidency and tangentially hit the reputation of Obama himself.

The last high-profile scandal during the Obama administration broke out quite recently. According to the American leader, Russian hackers could influence the outcome presidential elections in USA.

* "Islamic State" (IS), "Muslim Brotherhood", "Al-Qaeda" - terrorist organizations, banned in Russia.

First Lady Michelle Obama on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. “Silver fox” is a popular designation in American slang for an intelligent and attractive man over 50, and a “lame duck” in the United States is traditionally called a president whose term as head of state is nearing completion, but he is no longer running for re-election He may or may not want to. Judging by the latest orders of Barack Obama as President of the United States, he tried to do everything to remain in history as a “silver fox” and not a “lame duck.” TASS selected the key decrees of the outgoing head of the White House, which the administration of the 45th US President Donald Trump will have to deal with.

Extension of sanctions

Just a week before leaving office, Barack Obama extended sanctions against Russia for a year. "Government Actions and Policies Russian Federation", according to Obama, "continue to pose an unusual and extreme threat to national security and US foreign policy." “Therefore, I have decided that it is necessary to continue the (sanctions) state of emergency in accordance with Executive Order 13660 regarding Ukraine,” the president noted. The sanctions were supposed to expire in March of this year, but now this will not happen before 2018. The further fate of anti-Russian sanctions depends on the actions of Donald Trump, who this week did not rule out lifting sanctions measures in exchange for a reduction in Russian nuclear weapons.

Sanctions were extended not only against Russia, but also against a number of other countries. On Friday, January 13, Obama decided to maintain a number of sanctions measures imposed by Washington against Iran and Libya, and also left in place restrictions against officials in Zimbabwe and Venezuela. In addition, the existing economic sanctions against Cuba - we are talking about restrictions arising from the US Trading with the Enemy Act of 1917. In effect, the decision means a one-year extension of the Cuban embargo, a blockade that Obama promised to ease. To be fair, we note that it was under Obama that the United States restored diplomatic relations with Cuba and has already softened a number of restrictions relating, in particular, to such industries as tourism, transport, insurance, communications, and the financial sector.

New migration policy towards Cuba

Another important Obama decree is related to Cuba, canceling the so-called dry-foot-wet-foot policy, which allowed Cubans who arrived in the country without a visa to obtain a residence permit. Under a law passed under President Bill Clinton, Cuban citizens who reached the United States could remain in the country permanently after one year, while migrants intercepted at sea were returned back to Liberty Island. Since January 2017, individuals “attempting to enter the United States and not in need of humanitarian aid, will be subject to deportation." The same decree prohibits Cuban doctors working in third countries from entering American territory.

Previously, the Cuban authorities themselves emphasized that the “dry and wet feet” rule, as well as the program to lure Cuban doctors, “are incompatible with the current bilateral context, impede the normalization of migration relations between Havana and Washington and create problems for other countries.” Therefore, Obama's decision to cancel this migration policy was assessed positively in Havana. But the Cuban migrants themselves, who are already in the United States but still have not received residence permits, condemned the president’s actions, saying that he “killed their dream.”

Middle East settlement

Obama, winner of the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize, failed to become a peacemaker for the Middle East and, moreover, fell out with his only ally in the region, Israel. His latest attempt to promote peace in the region was his refusal to veto a UN resolution prohibiting Israel from continuing settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territories. Since 1980, the US has consistently vetoed resolutions on Israeli settlements, but this time it abstained from voting. Security experts close to Obama said Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu had only himself to blame for the resolution, as he had been repeatedly warned that the settlement-building push could jeopardize a future peace deal with Palestine.

The US decision to abstain from voting at the UN has turned Obama into a target of criticism from Republicans and also split the Democratic camp. President-elect Donald Trump blamed Obama for destroying relations with Israel and promised to restore them after his inauguration. Trump did not specify exactly what he intends to do. "We'll see what happens after January 20, okay? I think you'll be impressed," the president-elect promised.

Pardon decrees

During his eight years in office, Obama commuted the sentences of 1,385 US citizens, the largest number in the country's history. However, Obama issued a record low number of pardon decrees (that is, decrees that completely drop all charges and fully restore the civil rights of a previously convicted person): only 212. Since the end of the last century, only two presidents have issued fewer pardons: George H. W. Bush and George H.W. Jr. When Obama first came to the White House, the presidential administration was considering about 800 requests for clemency. During the presidency, another 3.4 thousand people filed petitions for pardon. Of these, 1.6 thousand received an official refusal, another 500 cases were simply “dismissed” without any consideration. Thus, Obama will leave behind about 2 thousand requests for pardon - this is far from an anti-record, but such an indicator cannot be called a success.

Against this background, the decree commuting the sentence of Chelsea Manning (formerly Bradley Manning), a WikiLeaks informant arrested in Kuwait in 2010 on charges of espionage and theft of government property, stands out. He managed to transfer to WikiLeaks more than 700 thousand military and diplomatic documents, as well as video files revealing the secrets of the US military operation in Iraq in 2009–2010. The list of those pardoned by the president also included former high-ranking US General James Cartwright, who admitted to leaking data about US and Israeli sabotage against Iran's nuclear program. However, “informant number one” - former American intelligence officer Edward Snowden - was never pardoned, although the White House does not rule out that this could happen during Obama’s remaining time.

Transfer of Guantanamo Bay prisoners

Obama, even before coming to power, promised to close the Guantanamo Bay special prison, but never did so. On January 3, the White House announced that before the end of the president's term, several prisoners of the American special prison in Cuba would be transferred from there to other places. It was assumed that at least a third of the 55 prisoners would leave the prison. In total, 22 people were eligible for transfer, of which 10 were temporarily placed in Oman, another four were taken to Saudi Arabia. On this occasion, Trump expressed the opinion that the transfer of prisoners from Guantanamo should be stopped, since it is “extremely dangerous people who should not be allowed to return to the battlefield again."

However, the outgoing president should be given credit for at least reducing the number of prisoners: in 2009, when he ordered the closure of Guantanamo, there were 242 people there. Obama could have completed his job, but Congress did not: parliamentarians blocked the opportunity to transfer from Guantanamo those prisoners who do not have permission to be transferred. Journalists highlight only three scenarios for resolving this dilemma: 1) Congress can reverse its decision (which is unlikely, since it is controlled by Republicans who support the operation of a special prison); 2) Obama can exercise his constitutional right to make security exceptions and force the Secretary of Defense to allow prisoner transfers; 3) Obama may leave the Guantanamo problem to future President Trump, but in this case the prison will continue to operate and will likely begin to accept new prisoners.

Stopping surveillance of Muslims

In one of his statements, Donald Trump called for surveillance of mosques and people professing Islam as a means of combating terrorism. Trump’s alleged plans to create a database of all Muslims in the United States (which the president-elect has already managed to disavow) were also widely discussed in the media and social networks. The Obama administration appears to have taken notice of Trump's Islamophobic sentiments and responded by canceling the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System (NSEERS) program. .

NSEERS, sometimes referred to simply as the "Special Program", consisted of registering and monitoring US visa holders - students, workers and tourists. However, in essence, under the guise of NSEERS, surveillance was carried out on Muslims and Arabs coming to the United States. This program was launched by the administration of President George W. Bush a year after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and operated for almost ten years. Most of NSEERS was repealed in 2011, but it has not been repealed entirely, raising fears that it will be revived by President Trump. Obama's order of December 22, 2016 finally buried NSEERS, blocking the new president's ability to take advantage of this program.

Drilling ban in the Arctic

With a number of his decrees, Obama put a spoke in the wheels of not only the future presidential administration, but also the Republican Party. One example is the ban on the development of most US-owned shelf areas in the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans. According to a statement by the current American administration, this step, taken in coordination with Canadian authorities, will “protect the Arctic ecosystem.” This decision may be changed by the next US administration led by Donald Trump, but this issue will most likely have to be resolved through the courts, which could take years. Republicans took the ban on Arctic drilling with hostility, accusing Obama of “abuse of power” and undermining the country’s “energy power.”

New national monuments

Another “injection” of Obama against the Republicans is the declaration of about 670 hectares of land in the states of Utah and Nevada as a protected area. Now there will be two new national monuments: Bears Ears and Gold Butte. The purpose of this order is not only to protect lands sacred to the Indians from possible oil and gas extraction, but also to preserve wildlife, as well as archaeologically significant places. Republicans who were counting on the development of these lands criticized Obama's actions and promised to reverse the decision, but, as in the case of the ban on development in the Arctic, this will be extremely difficult.

Saving Obamacare and Planned Parenthood

Over the past few years, a number of red (that is, Republican-controlled) states have tried to defund Planned Parenthood because it provides abortion services. In mid-December last year, Obama issued a special order that prohibits such actions by states. The law obliges the provision of federal funds to all qualified medical institutions dealing with issues of contraception, fertility, sexually transmitted infections, genital cancer, and so on. Thus, Planned Parenthood will not be able to remain without federal funding, which is a great success for both Obama and the Democrats in general.

The same cannot be said about health care and patient protection reform in the United States, better known as Obamacare. In recent months, Obama and his team have tried to save it by promoting special health insurance kiosks (previously, you could only join the program through a website). As a result, 6.4 million people joined Obamacare over the past year, and in total the program covers 11.54 million Americans. However, the future of Obamacare looks bleaker than ever. Repealing this initiative was one of Trump's main campaign promises, and it appears he will keep that promise. Last week, the US Senate passed a resolution to begin the process of repealing Obamacare. Republicans, the main opponents of the initiative, believe that the program has caused an overall increase in health care costs and negative changes in the insurance market, including the withdrawal of some companies from it.

Obamacare implies compulsory insurance for all residents of the country and the introduction of government subsidies for low-income citizens of the country. What will it be like? new program, unknown: According to Donald Trump, it will provide all Americans with health insurance for “a lot less money.” Be that as it may, Obamacare is Obama's favorite brainchild and his main pride, so the cancellation of this initiative would be perhaps the biggest blow to the 44th President of the United States and his legacy.

Arthur Gromov

Donald Trump's ally, former US Congress Speaker Newt Gingrich noted that after the inauguration, the president-elect can cancel 60% or even 70% of the decrees adopted by Barack Obama. Gingrich called the current leader's latest executive orders "desperate madness" and compared them to "a doll that has been let out of air and continues to deflate and deflate." He also noted that with the help of “political flexibility” and “smart lawyers” from his team, Trump will be able to cancel even those Obama orders that are not subject to review by law. According to experts, after taking office, Trump will first eliminate the ObamaCare health care law, which has suffered a complete fiasco, reduce government spending on color revolutions abroad, squeeze Clinton and Obama supporters out of Congress, and cancel personal sanctions previously imposed against Russian citizens.

“It seems to me that he will try to establish contact with some representatives of the Democratic Party, which may surprise Republicans, but these actions will help Trump increase the number of his supporters in the White House and the Senate,” the former speaker suggested.

In one of his last decrees, on December 20, Obama indefinitely banned the sale of new permits for drilling oil and gas wells on the shelves of the Arctic and Atlantic oceans. It follows from the decree that decisions of the head of state can be revised no more than once every five years. It turns out that Trump, who previously promised to weaken regulation in the industry, will now be able to implement this idea only if he is re-elected for a second term. Trump will officially take office on January 20, 2017.

According to political scientist and Americanist Sergei Sudakov, first of all, after Trump officially becomes President of the United States, he will begin to eliminate the ObamaCare health care law. “This is a whole series of laws adopted by Obama in order, on the one hand, to reduce the cost of health insurance for citizens, and on the other, to make insurance companies rich, because insurance payments in the United States have become extremely difficult to obtain. That is why Americans began to joke that the ObamaCare law remained only on paper, and everything that the president did this direction, all his decisions and bills were valid only on paper,” the political scientist explained to Profile.

The expert suggests that the next stage in Trump’s activities will be countering sanctions. If the future head of the United States can lift personal bans personally, then he no longer has the right to lift sectoral sanctions. “The fact is that only Congress has such a right, but that’s why Trump’s team has lawyers, to find a way to reach an agreement with members of Congress. I believe that Gingrich is precisely saying that Trump will use a non-classical tool to fight Congress and the Senate called “we give you money, and you give us votes,” but on the contrary, he will give a good message, as if hinting that he will find first-class lawyers who will come up with ways to catch congressmen. Trump seems to be asking them to read between the lines, not excluding elements of blackmail against certain members of Congress, because lobbying can only be defeated by threats, and not through legislation. Without a doubt, there is a law that only Congress can repeal, and no lawyers can challenge it, but in court they can do a lot. For example, provide the judiciary with evidence and facts confirming the connection of specific congressmen with the gun lobby, who through personal interaction have earned billions of dollars from this. And then the congressmen will be asked the question: “Which side are you on? Either you are in prison after the publication of these data, or you vote as Trump needs?”, the political scientist explained.

Sudakov believes that, having dealt with Congress, Trump will definitely begin to reduce government spending on “color revolutions”, because all these payments, as the expert emphasized, will not be canceled with Obama’s departure. “Closed budgets and payments that will be used to bribe other countries, organize a huge number of all kinds of provocations, finance public organizations and foundations to restore democracy and maintain a liberal society - hundreds of billions of dollars are spent on all this. In order to stop this, Trump will again need good lawyers who will tell him how to properly redraw the budget so that America stops spending huge amounts of money, which goes into emptiness and does not bring any profit to the country.” Since the “peaceful process” of transferring power from the current head of state to his successor did not happen, Sudakov believes that in the future Trump will fight everything that affects Obama’s personal interests. “Now he is trying to do as many nasty things as possible to Trump - he is actively signing those laws that he promised not to sign and is using all his forces to make the first time of his rule as worse as possible. Trump understands this very well, and, being at the same time a very vindictive person, the first thing after taking office he will most likely throw out of Congress all the lobbyists who were brought to the helm by Clinton and Obama. Moreover, Trump will not have any problems doing this as president,” the expert believes.

According to the political scientist, Obama is now actively taking advantage of the fact that the cards regarding Trump’s planned future policies were partially revealed during his election campaign. “It was quite expected that in his convulsions Obama would begin to do nasty things to the best of his ability. As soon as Trump declares his intentions, Obama soon begins to pass laws with the situation exactly the opposite. After Obama's powers are removed, he, like former president, immunity will remain, but his entourage (lobbyists and advisers) will not have such a bonus, and everyone who now opposes Trump will later very much regret it,” the expert emphasized.

The United States is gradually losing leverage over Russia through Europe, Sudakov believes. But now, according to the expert, Trump is primarily concerned about relations with China, and not with Europe. “Relations in general towards Russia in European countries is changing a lot. In order for the United States to continue to exert strong pressure on Russia, it is necessary that at least ten people like Angela Merkel rule in each country, but the fact is that Angela Merkel is no longer the same. Although Trump won’t care much about Europe now. America's main interest today is Asia. Trump will have to resolve problematic relations with China, which is taking away a huge labor market from the United States. All American production in the States is gradually dying, because cheaper production is located in China, and there is no production in the States. The main threat to the United States is that if America falls out with China, then 80% of Chinese products will disappear from American shelves, leaving them half empty,” he added.

In September 2016, the Barack Obama Administration proposed funding research to create a half-human, half-animal creature from the taxes of American citizens.

Federal government National Institute The NIH has announced a proposal to change ethical restrictions on federally funded research that would produce animal-human hybrids called chimeras. By injecting human stem cells into animal embryos, scientists can create such hybrids.

The goal is supposedly to use such chimeras in the study of human diseases. In particular, NIH Assistant Director for Science Carrie D. Wolinetz told the Washington Times: “These types of human-animal organisms have enormous potential for disease modeling, drug testing and perhaps even organ transplants down the line.” "

Researchers say they can breed sheep, pigs and cows with human hearts, kidneys, livers, pancreases and other organs for transplantation into humans.

William Saletan, a Washington Post journalist, explained in his article "Creating Human Animals": "The more you humanize animals, the better they serve their purpose as laboratory models for humanity...the future of medicine."

Proponents of the study say federal tax funding is needed to advance science in treating uniquely Middle Eastern diseases such as diabetes, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

They add that for decades, scientists have been transplanting human tissue into animals, such as implanting human tumors into mice, to conduct experiments on the effectiveness of drugs to treat cancer.

Is it any wonder that today most of the world’s population has been quietly done in this way. Only now have scientists decided to lift the veil of secrecy, but, not knowing about such activities, people silently allowed such chimeras into their lives. And now - while critics object, they say, the creation of chimeras is inhumane, unethical and immoral. But what will happen in 10 years?

Scientists make concessions: they introduce a ban on the use of monkeys, a ban on the crossing of animal sperm and human eggs, and on the crossing of animals with the participation of human sperm and eggs, which can lead to the creation of human babies inside animals.

But all this has been carried out for more than a hundred years without the knowledge of humanity. This is evidenced by the inhuman dynamics of population growth in a number of Asian and African countries.

Dr. Stuart Newman, a biologist at New York Medical College, condemned such experiments as a “Pandora's box”: “This is very shaky ground, which, in my opinion, is harmful to our sense of humanity. Pigs with fully human brains, humans with animal brains that could be used for research or organs - who knows? I don’t think we can say: since it’s possible, let’s do it.”

Doesn’t the behavior of “refugees” in Europe resemble the result of similar experiments? Or do you think that this didn’t happen just yesterday? “We were also told that no one wants to create human-animal hybrids. However, now this is exactly what is required. Anyone who doesn’t see the dishonesty here simply doesn’t want to open their eyes,” Dr. Robert George McCormick, a professor of jurisprudence at Princeton University and a former member of the President’s Council on Bioethics, commented on the initiative in an interview with LifeSiteNews.

Catholic Medical Association (KMA) President Dr. Lester Ruppersberger told LifeSiteNews: “Non-humanized animals are a valuable resource for medicine, but there are compelling moral reasons to refrain from using biotechnology to create chimeras or hybrid organisms that are partially humanized.” . Preventing harm to humans is our moral responsibility. As for the official position, the KMA is against any research into chimeras or hybrids and technology that fundamentally alters human nature as created by God."

Dr. Ruppersberger also explained: “The CMA believes that the moral line clearly separates human from non-human animal life. This boundary is determined not only by cognitive, physical or genetic criteria. This boundary was set by God when He created humanity in His image and likeness.”

Human animals could start coming off the assembly line early next year.

But already in 2000 they discussed the creation of a pig-man. These creatures are 3% pigs and 97% human. The law does not yet recognize such organisms as humans. But even 70 years ago, Europeans kept Mongoloids, Negroids and Caucasoids in zoos. And now it’s hard to even imagine.

Peter Mountford, chief executive of Australian stem cell research company Stem Cell Sciences, which is collaborating with US firm Biotransplant to create two pig-men, admitted the creatures could already be placed in a woman's uterus to "become a new species of human" " And then they settled Europe and America?