Vladimir Putin presented the military with an amulet icon during his visit to the Luhansk and Kherson regions.

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For the #US Elite,  #Europe is actually seen as an enemy, due to being the main competitor to the US for high value goods.

#Education systems are generally at least close the US.

Ability to create a productive high-value #workforce is equal/close to the US.

Societal structures are often better than the US:

• #crime rates are lower,
• #health systems generally better especially for poor,
• quality of daily life is equal/superior to the US.

Europe is a threat to the US way of business.

In the post-#WW2 period, maybe for 30/40 years afterward, this wasn't generally true. The US had many advantages, both social and economic from not having been a theater of war.

But they squandered it all in the pursuit of increased corporate profits.

This has been true  for decades now.

And all the things I listed above are about to change, due to the US-financed #proxy war in #Ukraine

Much of the above will also soon apply to #China, particularly the economic and educational comments

video source: @ putingers_cat

MOSCOW, 18 April. /TASS/. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu expressed confidence in strengthening and expanding military cooperation between Russia and the People's Republic of China in the spirit of unbreakable friendship. He stated this on Tuesday during talks with his Chinese counterpart Li Shanfu in Moscow. Read the article 👈

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U.S. eavesdropped on U.N. secretary general, leaks reveal

The leaked documents reveal the United States gathered intelligence on U.N. Secretary General António Guterres, shedding light on his interactions with top U.N. officials and world leaders
The Washington Post
...
The reports on Guterres appear to contain the secretary general’s personal conversations with aides regarding diplomatic encounters. They indicate that the United States relied on spying powers granted under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to gather the intercepts.
...
Another document reported that following Guterres’ March 8 private meeting with Zelensky and a joint news conference, the secretary general reported to his spokesman, Stéphane Dujarric, that he was “really pissed off” about a surprise public ceremony in honor of International Women’s Day during the visit.
...
Aides later said Zelensky had sprung the event — which included the presentation of medals to uniformed soldiers — on Guterres without warning and later posted photographs and videos of the event that implied the secretary general was congratulating military personnel on one side of the Russia-Ukraine war.
...
The document says only that Guterres “emphasized that he made a point of not smiling the entire time.”

Guterres told Dujarric that he went to Ukraine to help, but the Ukrainians “do everything to liquidate us,” according to the apparently intercepted conversation in the report.

Dujarric said Friday in an interview with The Post that Guterres “was indeed unpleasantly surprised that a medal ceremony was added, without consultation, at the end of his very productive meeting in Kyiv with Ukrainian leaders. However, he denies categorically using the term ‘liquidate.’”

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Ukraine’s Longest Day
The first 24 hours of the expected counteroffensive will likely be decisive.

The first 24 hours of Ukraine’s much anticipated counteroffensive may be the longest day for the Ukrainian Armed Forces. As German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel said to an aide before the expected Allied invasion of Normandy in 1944: “The first 24 hours of the invasion will be decisive. … For the Allies, as well as Germany, it will be the longest day”—a statement immortalized by the blockbuster Hollywood film about the Normandy landings, The Longest Day. Rommel knew that the initial phase of an attack often shapes the character of the subsequent fight, decides victory or defeat, and determines the strategic impact of an offensive.
...
Whatever happens on Ukraine’s D-Day, it will not be easy for Ukrainian forces to avoid the war’s character as one of attrition, even if they are large, well-prepared, and well-equipped.
...
It will be very difficult for Ukraine to achieve sufficient fire superiority to quickly destroy these layered defenses, and it will be similarly hard to concentrate enough troops to quickly seize Russian positions. (A successful offensive usually requires the attacker to substantially outnumber the defender.) Gaining momentum under heavy Russian fire will be especially difficult given the need to overcome the layered defenses: Clearing a lane of land mines for tanks and other vehicles to traverse, clearing the dragon’s teeth, and breaching the ditches all require specialized equipment and skills. The more likely avenue to success is for the Ukrainians to force the Russians to abandon their defensive positions without much of a fight—perhaps by triggering a panic that their positions got flanked and are now in danger of being cut off and encircled. That might be accomplished by finding a spot in Russian defenses where the layers are weaker, significantly attriting Russian forces with localized and temporary fire superiority, and advancing into the defenders’ rear. This may be the only realistic option for Ukrainians to achieve a quick and deep strategic breakthrough.

#TransFormatorBuzzes : 💤
The article is, generally, about nothing... Providing here several extracts from it in order just to show how well-informed those Western "experts" are.
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Read the complete version here ⬇️⬇️⬇️

Turkish Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu:

Minister Soylu had a meeting with young people at Topkapı Social Facilities in Fatih, Istanbul. Making a speech here, Soylu said that the West is trying to impose culture and habits like rain and snow on the whole world, and that it is trying to create a uniform human being and that this aim was persuaded by a structure that uses brutal capitalism.

"One of the biggest dangers of the world is cultural terrorism and we are faced with a cultural terrorism. Family structure, morality, big or small, every country's civilization, its history, our religion, We are facing a cultural terrorism aimed at destroying our beliefs, traditions, customs, what our mothers and fathers taught us." — he said.

"We have seen the paint of Europe and America fall off."

'EUROPE IS THE MULE IN AMERICA'S CONVOY'

"There is no such thing as Europe. America exists. Europe is the train in the convoy of the United States. It does not have any special features," Soylu said, adding that European leaders are constantly being discredited, the population is getting older, they will have difficulties in economic production and they will continue to have difficulties.

Soylu said that America continues to lose credibility and the whole world hates America, that Europe is America's pawn in Africa, that all African states hate the states that exploit them and turn to their local languages.

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Read the complete automated translation here ⬇️⬇️⬇️

What's Behind Ukraine's Latest Fight With Europe?
Newsweek

A growing number of Eastern European countries are moving to ban Ukrainian agricultural imports, citing concerns that importing the foreign goods could weaken their own economies. Three nations—Slovakia, Poland and Hungary—have initiated such a ban, and others could soon follow despite international backlash.
...
Throughout 2022, Ukraine's gross domestic product (GPD) fell 30 percent.

On Tuesday, Bulgaria and Romania signaled they could become the next countries to ban Ukraine's agricultural imports, threatening to add even more pressure to Ukraine's economy as it seeks to rebound from the economic downturn.

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Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov: everyone is well aware of the ability of the United States to deceive at any moment

CARACAS, April 19 — RIA Novosti. Everyone is well aware that the United States can deceive at any moment, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at a press conference following talks with Venezuelan Foreign Minister Ivan Gil Pinto.

Since the end of last year, the United States began to ease sanctions pressure on Venezuela by allowing the American company Chevron to extract and refine oil in cooperation with the Venezuelan PdVSA, as well as supply their products to the American market.

“I want to emphasize that everyone knows very well that the United States can cheat at any moment, and much more often they cheat than they keep their own promises, their own proposals,” Lavrov said.

So the minister answered the question of journalists that the United States hinted at the possibility of lifting sanctions from Venezuela, but then threatened with even more pressure if Caracas did not negotiate with the opposition.

"This is their country, this is their hydrocarbons, this is their economy, which is subject to the strongest illegal sanctions. They must decide for themselves how to continue working, how to continue developing their state," Lavrov said about Venezuela.

The Venezuelan opposition at the end of 2022 voted for the liquidation of the "interim government" of Juan Guaido, and he himself left the post of speaker of the opposition parliament. Opposition leaders called the dissolution of the interim government overdue, as the structure has weakened and is not fulfilling its tasks.

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Putin met with a sanctioned Xi Jinping aide, a middle finger to the US that could help Russia's invasion of Ukraine
Insider
...
Analysts believe that China's President Xi Jinping sees the Ukraine war as an opportunity to dent the global power of the US, China's chief geopolitical rival and Ukraine's most important ally in resisting Russian aggression.

"The visit of China's defense minister with Vladimir Putin in Moscow is just the latest moment in a flurry of Russia-China coordination to jointly confront the democracies in Europe and Asia in their attempt to dismantle the rules-based order," Jonathan Ward, founder of the Atlas Organization,

#TransFormatorBuzzes : 💤
It is really funny to watch how seriously Americans are taking their sanctions and "rules". As if Putin should respect the fact that the Chinese general is under American sanctions... Who cares. Only people with big international business can worry, but there were very few of them nearby.
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The bear occupied an abandoned house in a village in Kamchatka: a video was published on social networks where he lies on the porch with a peaceful look.

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Energy experts, market observers and politicians agree: The Nord Stream explosions had dramatic consequences for the energy market, the environment and international law. Germany is actually the most directly affected — but the German Foreign Minister of all places sees it differently.
Exxpress
Baerbock's reasoning word after word:

“We have the Nord Stream 1 line and the Nord Stream 2 line. Before the Russian War, the Nord Stream 1 line was used. The controversy was over the Nord Stream 2 line. That said, you just said that the attack would have caused global turmoil. This is not true because no gas has flowed through the Nord Stream 2 line, especially because after the outbreak of the Russian war of aggression, the Russian side also further reduced gas supplies. That means: This attack had no global impact at all."

Baerbock's claim makes you listen. It is correct: the attacks had no direct impact on the gas supply, since the lines were not used for gas import at the time. However, gas was in the pipelines — as everyone knows who remembered the recordings of the three gas leaks. The consequences were massive — not just for the environment.
The price of natural gas rose immediately by 14 percent as a result of the three leaks on the European market. The price of the TTF futures contract for Dutch natural gas for delivery in October jumped 14 percent to 212 euros for a megawatt hour. The contract for the January date 2023 rose by a good eleven percent to just under 234 euros. The TTF contract is the guideline for the price level on the European natural gas market.

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Read the complete automated translation here

Can We Please Stop Comparing Russia’s Economy to Italy’s?
The comparison is not only wrong; it also betrays Western policymakers’ blindness to material realities.
The National Interest
...
If Russia’s economy were as small and unimpressive as the statistics suggest, how could it withstand the sanctions imposed upon it? Why has President Joe Biden’s declaration that “the Russian economy will be cut in half” failed to materialize? Did not French finance minister Bruno Le Maire tell a French radio station that the West’s goal was to “cause the collapse of the Russian economy” and bring Moscow to heel? How does a nation with an economy purportedly the size of Italy manage to exert such global influence, to the point where U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen recently stated that Western sanctions are themselves putting U.S. dollar hegemony at risk?
...
This skewed perspective has left us unprepared for a world in which tangible goods are once again of vital importance, as evidenced by our struggles in the face of the war in Ukraine. The conflict has “exposed a worrisome lack of production capacity in the United States.” In Europe, the United Kingdom has noted that “it will take 10 years to replace weapon stocks gifted to Ukraine and rebuild British weapon numbers to an acceptable level.” The EU, for its part, now cut off from cheap Russian energy, faces the terrifying possible prospect of rapid deindustrialization.

It is high time that we admit how much we severely underestimate the relative size and power of rival economies, including and especially Russia’s.

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Read the complete version here ⬇️⬇️⬇️

Marines shot down a Su-25 attack aircraft over Ugledar

The attack aircraft was destroyed by an air defence sniper of the 155th brigade of the [V] grouping with the call sign "Predator" using the "Igla" MANPADS.

In the video, the crash site of a combat aircraft and a flaring fire.
Translated from RVvoenkor

Russia unveils secretive weapon to target SpaceX’s Starlink in Ukraine

Russia’s quest to sabotage Ukrainian forces’ internet access by targeting the Starlink satellite operations that billionaire Elon Musk has provided to Kyiv since the war’s earliest days appears to be more advanced than previously known, according to a classified U.S. intelligence report obtained by The Washington Post.

Moscow has experimented for months with its Tobol electronic warfare systems in a bid to disrupt Starlink’s transmissions in Ukraine, the top-secret assessment, which has not been previously disclosed, contends.

The document, among a cache of sensitive materials leaked online through the messaging platform Discord, dates to March and does not indicate whether any of Russia’s tests have been successful.

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Read the full story here.⬇️⬇️⬇️

What was it?

On the evening of April 19, a bright flash of unknown origin was seen in the sky over Kiev and the region.

Local media reported explosions in the sky. A few minutes after reports of UFOs in the region announced an air raid alert.

“Don't worry about UFOs. This is our air defence,” Andriy Yermak, the head of Zelensky’s administration, hastened to reassure the Ukrainians, and at the same time, just in case, attribute points to himself in his Telegram channel.

But a little later, without explanation, he deleted this message.

The following version appeared: “A flash in the sky over Kiev is the result of a NASA space satellite falling to Earth.” So decided the head of the Kyiv city military administration Sergei Popko.

“In order to avoid casualties from debris falling to the ground, an air raid alert was announced. Air defence did not work,” he said.

But bad luck — NASA denied rumours about the fall of a US satellite in the sky over Kiev, since the object of the American agency is still in orbit.

"We're tracking a NASA satellite called RHESSI, which currently remains in orbit."

In the meantime, a video from a car is gaining views on the Web, the driver of which, after a bright flash in the night sky, confusedly asks "What was it? Must be a UFO."

The main centre for special control at the Ukrainian space agency said there was a "high-energy acoustic event"

This event is probably associated with the entry of a cosmic body into the dense layers of the atmosphere, it was vaguely explained in an organization that allegedly monitors the seismic, radiation conditions and geophysical phenomena.

According to them, the estimated location of the epicentre of the explosion is in the Kyiv region, the rest of the information is being specified.

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⚡️NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg arrived in Kiev.

From Ukrainian sources
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The United States stopped flights of Global Hawk drones over the Black Sea after the incident near the Crimea

MOSCOW, April 20 — RIA Novosti. The United States has completely stopped flying its Global Hawk strategic drones over the Black Sea after the incident with the Reaper drone, according to data from the Flightradar24 portal, analysed by RIA Novosti.
According to information on Flightradar24, from March 21 to April 20, Global Hawk drones performed only three flights from an air base in Sicily, but all of them took place within the borders of Romanian airspace at a distance of more than 400 kilometres from Crimea, that is, outside the range of the drone’s radar station, which is capable of receiving radar images of the terrain at a maximum range of up to 200 kilometres.
An informed source confirmed to RIA Novosti that the last time an American Global Hawk strategic drone flew over the Black Sea opposite Crimea was on March 21.

"After the incident with the American Reaper drone, which fell into the waters of the Black Sea on March 14, only two more Global Hawk flights were performed over the Black Sea — on March 17 and March 21 — both at a distance of no closer than 140 kilometres from the southern coast of Crimea," he said. According to the interlocutor of the agency, the American command considered the further continuation of flights in this area inappropriate.

“On the one hand, at such a range, the amount of information received by the UAV is sharply reduced, on the other hand, after March 14, the American side was in danger of losing such a device, and the Global Hawk is several times more expensive than the Reaper and is saturated with the most advanced equipment,” he explained.

The RQ-4 Global Hawk is a strategic drone of the largest class. Its wingspan is up to 40 meters, depending on the version. The take-off weight of the device exceeds 14 tons, the maximum ceiling of the drone is up to 20 kilometres. The Global Hawk can stay in the air for up to 36 hours and fly over 22,000 kilometres. The drone is equipped with various reconnaissance equipment, including radar, optical-location system and infrared sensors.

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Translated from Dmitrii Medvedev's channel

There are new ones willing to help our enemies. South Korean President Yun Sok-yeol said that, in principle, this state is ready to supply weapons to the Kyiv regime.
Moreover, until recently, the South Koreans ardently assured that the possibility of supplying lethal weapons to Kyiv was completely ruled out.

I wonder what the inhabitants of this country will say when they see the latest designs.
Russian weapons from their closest neighbours — our partners from the DPRK?

What is called
Quid pro quo…

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South Korea does not supply weapons to Kyiv for the sake of stability in relations with Russia, according to the Yonhap news agency, citing a source in the office of the President of the Republic of Korea.

On Wednesday, South Korean President Yoon Seok-yeol suggested that if a situation arises in Ukraine that “the international community cannot tolerate”, it would be difficult for Seoul to insist on providing only humanitarian or financial support to Kiev. Thus, for the first time, he admitted the possibility of military assistance to the Zelensky regime. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov expressed regret over the unfriendly position of Seoul and recalled that arms supplies to Kyiv would mean South Korea's involvement in the conflict.

“There is no such law in the legislation of South Korea that would prohibit the provision of weapons to another warring country. There is also no clause in the instructions of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that does not allow the provision of military assistance to a third country in a difficult situation. We do not do this because at the same time that South Korea is actively supporting the international community to protect the freedom of the citizens of Ukraine, we must manage relations with Russia in a stable way,” explained an official in the presidential administration.
According to him, "the Russian authorities are commenting on something that has not happened yet."

“But you can look at it from the opposite side, what we do in the future will depend on Russia,” the agency’s interlocutor added.

Earlier, after the statement of the President of South Korea and the possible supply of weapons, his administration clarified that the government's position on military support to Ukraine remains unchanged, and the president's statements are of a "hypothetical" nature.

Moscow last year sent a note to NATO countries because of the supply of weapons to the Kyiv authorities. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov noted that any cargo with military equipment for Ukraine would become a legitimate target for the Russian army. According to him, the United States and the alliance are directly involved in the conflict - not only by transferring weapons, but also by training personnel in the UK, Germany, Italy and other countries.

Translated from RusVesna
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South Korea to lend 500,000 rounds of artillery shells to US -report

SEOUL, April 12 (Reuters) — South Korea has reached an agreement to lend the United States 500,000 rounds of 155mm artillery shells that could give Washington greater flexibility to supply Ukraine with ammunition, a South Korean newspaper reported on Wednesday.

The DongA Ilbo newspaper cited unidentified government sources as saying South Korea decided to "lend" the ammunition instead of selling, to minimise the possibility of South Korean shells being used in the Ukraine conflict.

South Korea's defence ministry said the allies have been exploring ways to support Ukraine but declined to confirm specific discussions.

The U.S. State Department did not immediately offer comment.

The report came after leaked highly classified U.S. military documents highlighted South Korea's difficulties dealing with pressure from Western allies to help with the supply of military aid to Ukraine.

South Korea, a key U.S. ally and major producer of artillery ammunition, says it cannot provide lethal weapons to Ukraine, citing its own security situation amid evolving nuclear and missile threats from North Korea.

The newspaper said the shells would be used primarily by the United States to fill its stockpile.

Having bought 100,000 such shells last year, the U.S. government had asked to buy the same amount or more in February, but the South Korean government sought another way to supply the ammunition.

"We've opted to significantly increase the volume of shells but take the rental method, after exploring how to respond to the request of the blood ally in good faith while sticking to the government principle of not providing lethal weapons to Ukraine," one source was quoted as saying.

The article did not provide details on the workings of the "rental method".

Both Seoul and Washington have confirmed they were negotiating an artillery supply deal, but there has been no official word on whether an agreement was finalised. The newspaper said the agreement was reached last month.

Foreign Minister Park Jin told reporters that he could not confirm the newspaper report, but added that the government position against providing lethal aid to Ukraine remained unchanged.

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It is simple, South Korea is renting ammunition to the US, so that they can send their own to Ukraine...
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"Rosenergoatom" informed about the fate of American fuel and technology at the Zaporozhye NPP

Stocks of nuclear fuel produced by Westinghouse at the Zaporizhzhya NPP (ZNPP) will last for four years, it is planned to completely replace it with Russian fuel. Renat Karchaa, adviser to the head of the Rosenergoatom concern, spoke about this.

“Theoretically, the current reserves of American fuel are about four years. But its replacement with Russian will begin much earlier. We do not need American fuel, nor do we need their technology. We have them. And we, however, are far from being alone, we consider them the best in the world,” Karchaa told Interfax, commenting on the US demands for the use of American technologies at the ZNPP.

The representative of Rosenergoatom explained that the American requirements dealt with the calculation of the thermal-hydraulic regimes of the core and justification of the safety of the planned loadings. This was done by the Kharkov Center for the Design of Cores, which is under the control of Ukraine.

“At the Zaporizhzhia NPP, only an “additional calculation” of individual indicators was carried out, which did not require mastery of the entire technology. The station does not have any relevant software products or relevant technological documentation,” the source said.

He believes that all American concerns about intellectual property are groundless, because Russia absolutely does not need it.

In his opinion, the sudden resonant reaction is based on “dirty politics and business”, the purpose of which is psychological and reputational pressure on the Russian side.

Earlier, CNN reported that the US Department of Energy, in a letter dated March 17, 2023, warned Rosatom about the presence at ZNPP of “nuclear technical data of American origin subject to US government export controls.” The document states that access by unauthorized persons to US technology subject to export control violates US law.


Translated from RusVesna

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