🇸🇾 MINORITIES IN IMMINENT DANGER AS SECURITY DETERIORATES IN #SYRIA: Footage shows settlements are being captured by gangs.

Local residents appeal to the new #HTS authorities directly, where they learn that the militants who enter their towns have no direct connection to Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS, formerly al-Nusra.)

The situation in the city of #Talkalakh in the Tartus province (on the border with Lebanon, Eastern Syria) is indicative - the city is being looted by militants of a certain Abu #Suleiman, from the "Talkalakh Martyrs' Battalion" group (also former "War Minister of ISIL during Iraq War.)

The city's Alawite* population is reportedly being shot, while the rest are simply robbed. The group calls itself an "HTS detachment."

HTS headquarters denies this & advises people take defense into their own hands, since HTS forces are "too stretched to ensure the safety of all Syrians." Just as well you have a "free Syria for all" now that Assad is toppled!

*Alawites, whose faith is an offshoot of Shia Islam, make up around 10% of Syria's population, which is majority Sunni.

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🇷🇺🇺🇦 EPIC FOOTAGE AS "POLITE MEN"* STORM UNKNOWN TRENCH: Brave Russian soldiers (in snow camouflage) from the rifle battalion of the 68th Guards Tank Regiment use grenades & improvised explosive devices (IEDs) to destroy a Ukrainian Armed Forces fortification in #Kurakhovo, Donetsk Republic (ex-Ukraine) then storm it on foot! #Guts #Balls

*Polite men is a relic of "polite green men" that was popularized as a term in 2014, when Crimea peacefully transitioned to Russia. Not a single bullet was fired, but people naturally noticed many men in uniform quietly overseeing order...

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🇷🇺 PUTIN READY TO COMPROMISE, BUT NOT AT COST OF RUSSIAN INTERESTS: He gives an epic history lesson, in his typical, knowledgeable style:

Let us recall the 19th century.
After the so-called Crimean War in 1855-1856, when a number of restrictions were imposed on Russia. Many people in the West wrote & said that Russia should react to some injustices in the world...

"Russia does not notice, it is isolated," all this was blamed on Russia. At that time, the Chancellor of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent a dispatch to all our diplomatic representatives in Europe, where it was written how to react to such statements.

There were famous words there: "Russia does not get angry, Russia concentrates." And gradually, as Russia concentrated, it regained all its rights in the Black Sea, strengthened itself, and so on & so forth.

Some historians call the Crimean War the "Zero" World War (because of many parties involved.) Then there was the First World War & the Second World War.

In this "Zero" World War (for Crimea), almost all European countries took part in the war against Russia. In spite of this, the situation then changed its appearance. There was a period of the First World War, when the countries that fought against us
turned out to be allies.

The fact is that everything  changes - only the interests of Russia and its people remain unchanged.

If we see that the situation is changing in such a way
that there are opportunities & prospects to build relations with other countries, we are ready for this.

The question is not about us, but about them. And never in violation of the interests of the Russian Federation.

We went through a period in modern history, when our previous generations of politicians, in my opinion, went to the destruction of our own country in the hope that Russia would become part of the so-called "civilized world."

And this civilized world only needed this, because as soon as Russia's potential shrank, it weakened & they began to finish it off. Instead of making it an equal partner & participant of this civilized world. Unfortunately, this is how the world works, at least today.

If we are going to build relations
with someone, we will build them only on the basis of the interests of the Russian state.

We are ready to look for these compromises, but without harming our interests - Putin.


Clearly, this is not his, or Russia's first rodeo!

Putin First @IntelRepublic