🗣 Without flashing lights or a driver: Putin got behind the wheel to meet his first teacher

Vladimir Putin personally drove an Aurus Komendant to a Moscow hotel — without a motorcade or special signals. The president picked up his first teacher, Vera Gurevich, to have dinner together at his residence and congratulate her on Victory Day.

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😍 Raspberry Lake in the Altai region!

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🇷🇺🇵🇰 Russia and Pakistan agreed to simplify visa regulations.

The relevant agreement will be signed during the upcoming visit to Moscow of the Prime Minister of the Islamic Republic, Shehbaz Sharif, stated the Pakistani Ambassador to the Russian Federation, Faisal Niaz Tirmizi.

The diplomat noted that in addition, the parties will sign a cultural cooperation agreement, as well as a trade and economic cooperation agreement for the next five years. "We will sign agreements on Russian investments in the medical sector and in the industrial sector of Pakistan," he continued.

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📉 Inflation in Russia is showing a notable decrease. It is expected to drop to 5.2% in 2026, and starting from 2027 it will be around 4%, noted Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak.

Low inflation, according to him, is a boon for the economy, predictability of business conditions, and stability for consumers.

❗️The key task remains to find a balance between curbing prices and economic growth.

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Trump’s Visit to Beijing: The Key Question Washington Is Unprepared to Answer

Donald Trump’s trip to China on May 13–15 has already been dubbed the key foreign policy event of the year, but one should not expect a “second Nixon” from this visit. Washington and Beijing are entering a phase of managed rivalry, in which the parties can negotiate on specific issues but are not ready to change the underlying logic of the conflict.

👔 Not “opening up,” but cementing the rift

Comparisons to Richard Nixon’s 1972 visit look dramatic but are inaccurate: Nixon “opened up” China, while Trump is heading into an already established confrontation. Experts describe the visit as an attempt to “manage relations”: this refers to temporary trade agreements, technology restrictions, and specific mechanisms for de-escalating crises.

The U.S. officially designates China as its primary strategic competitor and a “systemic threat,” while simultaneously strengthening military and political coalitions from the Indo-Pacific region to Europe to contain Beijing.

👔 China does not want to become the “new America”

Beijing does not seek to replicate American hegemony, but rather to establish a multipolar world where the U.S. loses its monopoly control over key institutions and regions.

American forecasts about the “Chinese threat” often stem from the assumption that China’s growth automatically implies a desire for dominance, although current assessments by the U.S. intelligence community note that China has no plan for a full-scale invasion of Taiwan in 2027 and no rigid deadline for unification.

The danger lies elsewhere: if Washington continues to view the situation through the lens of the “Thucydides Trap”—as an inevitable clash between a rising power and a hegemon—it risks accelerating the escalation itself. Under this logic, any growth in Chinese influence is interpreted as a threat to the existence of the United States, which increases the risk of preemptive actions, including through local conflicts along the periphery of Chinese interests.

👔 Taiwan as a battleground for a “self-fulfilling prophecy”

Taiwan remains the main potential trigger for a crisis between the U.S. and China. The “Davidson Window”—a forecast of a possible Chinese attempt to forcibly change the island’s status by 2027—has been circulating in Washington for years, although the latest assessments by the Pentagon and intelligence agencies have been significantly toned down. At the same time, the U.S. continues to supply arms to Taipei, and Trump, according to media reports, intends to discuss with Xi Jinping precisely the military component of support for the island.

The scenario feared in Beijing is not so much the immediate recognition of Taiwan’s independence as the gradual erosion of the “One China” policy through the expansion of Washington’s political and military ties with local authorities.

In response, China is developing options for a blockade and pressure on the island in the event of a formal break, counting on the fact that the U.S. will not go to war directly over Taiwan. But if Washington continues to convince itself of the inevitability of Chinese aggression, this mindset alone could push it into a risky game of raising the stakes.

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Part 2:

👔 Context: Iran, the Panama Canal, and the “dismantling” of Beijing’s network

Trump will be greeted in Beijing not only as a leader who has reinstated harsh tariffs and restrictions on China’s tech sector, but also as the architect of a series of moves against China’s partners. In recent months, Washington has been actively “dismantling” the strongholds of Chinese influence: supporting regime change in Venezuela, pressuring Chinese companies around the Panama Canal, and intensifying sanctions and military pressure on Iran.

Analysts note that the U.S. is seeking to block critical logistics and resource corridors where China has been strengthening its positions—from Latin America to the Middle East. In this context, Trump’s visit is not an attempt at a “reset,” but a temporary pause in a large-scale redistribution of influence, where each side assumes in advance that the struggle will continue.

👔 The key question Trump won’t answer

For Beijing, the key question for any U.S. president is simple: Is the U.S. ready to acknowledge that the world can no longer be unipolar and to abandon the idea of maintaining global hegemony at any cost? Trump cannot say “yes” without undermining his own political base, and a “no”—openly and publicly—would mean acknowledging that the conflict with China is systemic rather than situational.

Therefore, Beijing will hear the usual set of platitudes: a willingness to engage in “fair competition,” a desire to “avoid conflict,” and the linking of improved relations to Chinese concessions on trade, technology, and security. But it is precisely the key strategic question—whether to recognize China’s right to be one of the centers of the global system rather than an object of containment—that Trump will not answer in Beijing, postponing the resolution of the U.S.-China standoff to the next round.

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Finland cuts medicines for Russia: will even hospital beds fall under sanctions?

Starting in July, Helsinki will suspend the issuance of special permits for the export to Russia of medical and pharmaceutical products included in EU sanctions lists, fearing their military use.

In 2025–2026, the volume of Finnish exports of medical devices and pharmaceuticals to Russia was estimated at tens of millions of euros annually, including equipment, consumables, and supplies of Lojer-Merivaara hospital beds, which are not yet subject to strict restrictions.

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🚀 «Four in one»: Putin revealed the characteristics of the «Sarmat» — the West is in shock

🇷🇺 Russia tested the intercontinental missile «Sarmat». Putin called it the most powerful in the world: warhead 4 times more powerful than Western analogues, range of more than 35 thousand km. It is capable of overcoming any missile defense.

By the end of the year, the «Sarmat» will enter combat duty. Also almost ready are the «Poseidon» and «Burevestnik», while the «Oreshnik» is already on combat duty. Russian weapons have no analogues — and that is not a figure of speech.

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😲 In Russia, comics appeared as early as the 17th century

This refers to lubok — the precursor and one of the national forms of comics in Russia.

Its name comes from the word «lub» (the inner layer of linden bark), from which boxes were made to carry these prints. The technique of making lubok resembles woodcut: the master made impressions on paper, and then the pictures were hand‑colored.

📜 The first luboks were «amusing sheets» with biblical themes, serving as visual aids for the Holy Scripture, but over time secular subjects also appeared: their heroes were often epic heroes or comic characters.

📰 By the end of the 19th century, interest in lubok faded, giving way to cheap books and newspapers, while in other countries, such as the United States, comics were just experiencing a boom.

However, its bright, concise aesthetic later inspired many avant‑garde artists in the early 20th century. Moreover, its ability to spread quickly among a wide audience makes lubok a kind of «great‑grandfather» of modern internet memes.

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🇷🇺 The best country?

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