Same story, new angle
The Russian Defence Ministry publishes footage of artillery strikes on Ukrainian positions in the Zaporozhye region - according to its data 11 armoured vehicles were destroyed.
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Abandoned Ukrainian Saxon. People of older age may remember that type of a vehicle in another country and different circumstances.

Replacement of European companies in the Russian market by Indian companies is increasing, Vladimir L Pribytkin, the bank’s founder and chairman told ET in an interview over the phone. “That is why the trade share of Indian companies on our market is definitely going to expand each month, if not each week.”

The bank, based in the second largest Russian city, St Petersburg, is working actively towards rupee transactions to support this growing trade, he said.

Once Russia starts doing trade in Rupees, or in other currencies, it may not return to dollar-ruble, Pribytkin said, citing also that USD/EUR international settlements were getting more complex for Russian banks.
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“Pam-pum-pum! Bang bang! Ta-ta-ta-ta"

Unique training methods according to NATO standards!
American instructors teach Ukrainians how to fight without ammunition, scaring the enemy with a shout.

🔈 (Please turn the sound on🤣😂😆)

"Ukrainian fighters, led by experienced foreigners, are training a surprise encounter and withdrawal at a training centre in the suburbs of Kyiv".
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An interesting report by the Indian TV channel WION on the progress of testing the new nationally built Indian aircraft carrier Vikrant at sea.
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Dear subscribers, we are very glad to welcome new people here. 🙏 You may join our chat, that will make it easier to access all comments and discussions in one place, not just the one you are commenting on. The most interesting and important issues are being discussed only there. For advanced audience only.

White House officials revealed earlier this week that newly declassified US intelligence indicates that Iran is expected to supply Russia with "hundreds" of drones for use in the war in Ukraine, with Iran preparing to begin training Russian forces on how to operate them as early as late July.

Can be a great idea! Good for Russia, good for Iran 👍
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MOSCOW, July 16 - RIA Novosti. The House of Representatives of the US Congress approved an amendment exempting India from sanctions for the purchase of C-400 (S-400) anti-aircraft missile systems (SAM) from Russia, writes the Turkish edition of Haber7.
“If the bill is approved in the Senate and US President Joe Biden, then restrictions against New Delhi will not apply,” the publication says.
This decision caused a negative reaction in Turkey. According to Erkan Talu, the author of the article, Washington has demonstrated a policy of "double standards", since such restrictions were introduced against Ankara under similar circumstances.
"The amendments were approved in order to keep India on its side in opposition to China," the observer concluded.
Earlier, the Pentagon said that India's purchase of the C-400 is a violation of the restrictions imposed on the purchase of Russian weapons. Experts believe that Washington changed its mind because of the expected retaliatory sanctions from New Delhi, which could seriously affect US interests.
Russia and Turkey signed a contract for the C-400 regimental kit in 2017, and deliveries of air defence systems to the Turkish side were completed in the summer and autumn of 2019. The deal caused a crisis in Turkey's relations with the United States: Washington demanded in return to purchase American Patriot systems, threatening to delay or even cancel the sale of the latest F-35 fighter jets to Turkey, as well as impose sanctions in accordance with CAATSA.
Ankara is not going to abandon the C-400. Moreover, the Turkish president said at the end of August that he had no doubts about buying a second regiment of C-400 anti-aircraft missile systems from Russia. Later, despite pressure from the United States, Erdogan said that the deal with Russia had already been made and would not be revised.
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Long but very interesting!👍💤
How Russia and China destroyed Sri Lanka‼️
by Dmitry Kosyrev for RIA Novosti

Well, you knew that Russia is to blame here too. This "Russian aggression" could lead to Sri Lanka being swept by mass protests, said US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken. This, however, is quite old news, from last week, but there is something both newer and more serious.

That is a claim that it is China, who has caught a beautiful island in the Indian Ocean in a debt trap for some reason — this is the main topic of all today's Western comments on the turbulent events taking place there.

And now, when it turned out that there were the Chinese and us (Russians) who had destroyed an innocent distant state, we, in Russia, became really interested in everything that was happening there. And not just for the sake of idle curiosity, but because this story is turning from a purely local, regional drama into a kind of “crisis-resolution” model, which can still play out in any part of the world.
Of course, our expert's standard reaction to the pogroms in Colombo boils down to the formula: "It must have been the Americans who staged another revolution, as they did in Pakistan before, in order to wrest these two countries from Chinese influence." But no Americans are needed to revolt the people in a country where there is no gasoline, and there is no money to import it, but there are debts that are definitely impossible to pay.
The model by which the crisis developed is well known. Borrowed money in one situation, but you have to pay back in another. The pandemic reduced the flow of tourists (that is, foreign currency) to Sri Lanka to almost zero, debts and their servicing instantly became unbearable from heavy, there was no money to buy fertilizers and wheat, and then another payment on a Chinese loan arrived. And although any revolutions with massive pogroms of government buildings and other idiocy only make the situation worse, it is still clear that any nation would almost certainly have done something similar in such a situation.

But let's look at what is called the buzzword "narrative" - that is, what Western (aka global) propaganda should say and what the whole world should believe. Narrative is a hard route from "who is to blame" to "what to do". By the way, the other day the head of EU diplomacy, Josep Borrell, complained about life, saying that the "global battle of narratives" over Ukraine is "in full swing", and the West's position on this issue is still not predominant. Everything said correctly. But what about the narratives of the Sri Lankan story?
Since China is called the main villain, it defends itself with the help of figures and facts. The first and simplest fact is that the Sri Lankan government made 47% of its loans in international financial markets, and only 10% of the debt must be given to China. So much India and so on. That is, the trap of the island is clearly of Western manufacture.
There is another peculiarity of the situation: the debts of the island, those held by the Westerners, were partially resold to "vulture funds", this is something like the collectors of the financial world. As a result, the burden became heavier.
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(Continuation from above ⬆️)
Further - more interesting, from the series "Do not stir up a snake's nest." The British research office "Justice for Debtors", after all these conversations, began to understand - it is not just in Sri Lanka, but also similarly in Africa. Western creditors take interest from Africans exactly twice as much as the Chinese. Moreover, the history of Sri Lanka repeats itself: 35%t of the debts of Africans are held by Western creditors with their unsustainable interest rates, and only 12% by the Chinese (with completely different interest rates).
Then even more fun. In May of this year, the same "narrative" about the "Chinese debt trap" moved to a high level - the finance ministers of the Western General Staff, the "Group of Seven" called on China to release the world from this very trap. China responded and reminded that only in 2020, but within the framework of the decisions of the G20, they eased the debt burden of developing countries by $2.1 billion. And they asked the question: what and to whom did you make it easier?
That is, there was a serious conversation about the fact that there are two categories of lending to the developing world: Western ("vultures") and Chinese (investors). Actually, China is not fond of purely financial games at all. They build, and the results of these construction projects give different countries a chance to earn. Money is given for very specific projects, and this is not at all the same as hooking on debts.

In particular, in Sri Lanka, these are two huge projects - the ports of Colombo and Kambatota. If not for the global economic collapse of 2020-2021, they would already be working and generating income.

And now the crisis in Sri Lanka, coupled with desperate talk about Chinese predators with their "debt trap" have led to an excellent result: if not the whole world, then professional business circles have received a complete picture of why the West is losing influence, and the non-West is in the lead. with China is building it up. By the way, one more figure: last year, the Chinese all over the world distributed such projects-related loans worth $145.19 billion, that is, 9.2 percent more than the previous year. Can you see how the emissaries from Beijing were chasing borrowers with a debt trap while they are achieving such results?

As for the future fate of Sri Lanka's Chinese partner, there are many options. If the people smash the capital, then the coming to power of pro-Western temporary workers with the complete Ukrainization of the island is not excluded. But, most likely, normal power will still appear there. An interesting lesson lies ahead: the development of the correct model of behaviour in such a situation. China, India (a neighbour of Sri Lanka), Russia (a possible supplier of oil and gas, if they pay), and others can become participants in this. This model can be useful for many countries - among the candidates are Argentina, Zimbabwe and others in a similar situation.
And then it will become much clearer who in our world has the capabilities and brains to lead it out of the current (just beginning) crisis.
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MOSCOW, July 16 - RIA Novosti. Many Americans, including representatives of the scientific community, share Vladimir Putin's opinion about the historical unity of Russia and Ukraine, former US Ambassador to Moscow Michael McFaul said in an interview with Ukrainska Pravda.
"There are a lot of people in the US who share some of Putin's statements about Ukraine: 'Russians, Ukrainians, they're all the same, aren't they? Their languages are basically the same, aren't they?" <...> Even scientists and professors reason in such categories," he said.
And some experts remember that both Russia and Ukraine trace their history from a single Ancient Russian state, McFaul added.
According to the former ambassador, these are all myths that need to be dispelled. To do this, he believes, Washington, together with Kyiv, must implement a certain program, with the help of which they will teach the world a new history of Ukraine, beneficial to the West.😡
In addition, a more active campaign is needed to promote this information, and the United States should invest more in both Ukrainian and American media, McFaul is sure.
That is an Info-War for modifying the past...
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From the report of the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation on the progress of the special military operation on the territory of Ukraine, as of 13.00 July 17, 2022

High-precision long-range air-based missiles have destroyed 1 depot in one of the buildings of an industrial entity in Odessa that stored Harpoon anti-ship missiles delivered to Ukraine by NATO countries.

High-precision ground-based armament has destroyed 1 launching and 1 reloading vehicle of U.S.-manufactured HIMARS multiple rocket-launching system (MRLS) deployed near Krasnoarmeysk (Donetsk People's Republic).

Within counter-battery warfare, 1 MRLS platoon, 9 Giantsint-B artillery howitzer and D-30 gun plattoons near Verkhnekamenskoye, Serebryanka, Bondarnoye, Dronovka and Zvanovka (Donetsk People's Republic), as well as artillery units at their firing positions in 107 areas.

A rifle company of 58th Battalion from 104th Separate Territorial Defence Brigade operationally subordinated to the commander of 108th Battalion from 10th Mountain Assault Brigade that operated near Verkhnekamentskoye (Donetsk People's Republic) completely abandoned its positions and withdrew towards unknown destination.

When we recently published several "long-reads" we were not sure, that our subscribers would find time to read them. We were wrong - many people have read the article and asked a lot of questions in our chat, which we tried to answer within the limits of our competency. We believe, that another very relevant "long-read" is appropriate, especially given a number of newly arrived subscribers from India. So be prepared for "The story of how Indian Ukraine lost its East" by social scientist and journalist Dmitrii Kosirev, who was reading lections in Indian Universities. ⬇️

The story of how Indian Ukraine lost its East
Dmitrii Kosirev for RIA

It was in Delhi. Fifteen years ago, I gave a lecture at the Nehru University and ran into a problem - Indian students were tired of understanding the disputes between Russia and Ukraine, then only verbal. And why on earth would they know all the intricacies of the problem, especially historical ones: some kind of Ukraine, something far away, somewhere in the depths of this Europe of yours ...
And then I said one simple phrase: "You see, Ukraine is our Pakistan." Here the people perked up, instantly understood everything and began to ask questions.

So: even today Ukraine remains "our Pakistan", only it is Pakistan in 1971, when there was a war. A terrible war, India, the USA and the USSR also participated in the conflict. I don’t have round dates that for some reason must serve as a starting point for such conversations for you - 1971 does not rhyme with 2022, and in July 1971 that war was in a suspended stage before a real explosion. But even without any dates, today is the time to remember that story, because the coincidences here would reach the point of ridiculousness if it were not about military operations.

So, the first coincidence: the ideologists of the territories that broke away from India in 1947 (with the active participation of the British leaving the former colony) built the concept of this nation that had never existed before from scratch on a simple idea: "Pakistan is not India." That is, at first the idea was that this is a Muslim India, unlike Hindu, but there was a problem in the form of millions and millions of Muslims in India, today there are more of them than in Pakistan. The ideologists were left with a rejection of everything Indian in general, further complicated by the territorial problem - Kashmir - and others.

And here's your second coincidence. Pakistan was then divided into East and West (the territory of India lay between them). And they weren't on the best of terms with each other. In particular, because a real, broad Pakistani had to speak the official language - Urdu, native to part of the population of western Pakistan. In the East lived ["vatniki" / "quilted jackets" - that's how "true Ukrainians" call Russian speaking population] - second-class people who spoke Bengali. And this, by the way, was the language of Rabindranath Tagore and other world-famous geniuses. By the way, there were demonstrations about the language in East Pakistan at that time, which were shot.
Naturally, people there were at least not very happy with the nagging from Westerners with constant underfunding and began to create their own political parties and structures, first generally defending the interests of the region, and then raising the question of the independence of such, of their own state.
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(continued from ⬆️)
Coincidence three: and then, in the spring of 1971, West Pakistan organized a punitive action in East Pakistan (it was called not "friendship trains" [like Ukrainian nationalists travelling to Odessa to suppress Russian population], but Operation "Searchlight"). It is believed that up to ten thousand died, and then the account went to hundreds of thousands of civilians. Ten million refugees have fled to neighbouring India, not to mention the 30 million displaced inside the eastern part of the country.
Here there is a slight difference. "Separatist structures", that is, the government of the rebels in the East, was formed not on its own territory, but on the other side of the border, in Indian Calcutta. But really, what's the difference. But now the difference will be big: India, which helped the Bengal brothers with all its might, did not wait eight years, but attacked Pakistan in December 1971 both in the east and in the west. The fighting lasted two weeks - until the capitulation of the punitive army in the eastern part. From which, fortunately, the Westerners did not demand suicide in the form of a continuation of hostilities.
In general, the Indians are, of course, peaceful, but if you make them angry, they will hit you so that you won’t get up.
And the fourth coincidence is quite remarkable. The main ally of Pakistan (that is, in fact, its Western elite) was the United States. The main allies of East Pakistan were India and the USSR. Our [Soviet] fleet then blocked the American ships in the Indian Ocean - and so they stood against each other. And just the other day I met a man who carried Soviet weapons for East Pakistan on those same ships.
How did that story end? East Pakistan is no more, since that very 1971 it has become the Republic of Bangladesh.

Here, of course, there are no direct parallels with the East and South of present-day Ukraine. Bengalis did not queue for Indian passports in the same way as residents of Kherson, Zaporozhye and other territories queue for the Russian ones. The Bengal political structures, supported by India and the USSR, decided in advance that their goal was their own statehood. Well, any nation decides for itself how and within what boundaries to live.
By the way, there is another, earlier historical precedent of the universally recognized right of the people to own their land and decide its fate. This is the Suez conflict of 1956, at first also a war, but then the London conference, at which the question was decided, by what right do the Egyptians want to nationalize the Suez Canal, which was built with the money of the colonial masters? At the Suez Conference, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the USSR Dmitry Shepilov stated our position: the canal was built by the hands of the Egyptians on Egyptian soil, therefore it should belong to them. And so it happened. This was a good international precedent for the situation when Crimea actually unanimously decided that not only would its inhabitants continue to live in Russia (of course, with Russian passports), but their land with other property on it would also go there.
By the way, as a result of that story, British Prime Minister Anthony Eden resigned, and the country finally ceased to be considered a superpower. Coincidence with 2022? I don't think so.
History teaches a lot, including calmness in the midst of hysterical hate campaigns. Do they tell you that "it's impossible" and "it never happened"? Actually, it was. And will be.

translated by #TransFormator
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The destruction of HIMARS, according to RIA Novosti.

The consequences of a strike from the HIMARS MLRS on Alchevsk (Luhansk Peoples Republick). Target - civilian infrastructure, the buss station. The Ukrainian nationalists are ready to spend crazy resources to kill the civilian population.

A full package of this MLRS costs under one million dollars, and they are ready to pay so much, to harm people as much as possible.

Though, to pay for them will future generations of Ukraine, if there will be one.
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