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A Travelogue of Electoral Donbass

Par : AHH

Donetsk, Avdeyevka, Mariupol – on the Road in Electoral Donbass

By Pepe Escobar at Sputnik.

They have waited 10 long, suffering years to vote in this election. And vote they did, in massive numbers, certifying a landslide reelection for the political leader who brought them back to Mother Russia. VVP may now be widely referred to as Mr. 87%. In Donetsk, turnout was even higher: 88,17%. And no less than 95% voted for him.

To follow the Russian electoral process at work in Donbass was a humbling – and illuminating – experience. Graphically, in front of us, the full weight of the collective West’s relentless denigration campaign was instantly gobbled up by the rich black soil of Novorossiya. The impeccable organization, the full transparency of the voting, the enthusiasm by polling station workers and voters alike punctuated the historical gravity of the political moment: at the same time everything was enveloped in an impalpable feeling of silent jubilation.

This was of course a referendum. Donbass represents a microcosm of the solid internal cohesion of Russian citizens around the policies of Team Putin – while at the same time sharing a feeling experienced by the overwhelming majority of the Global South. VVP’s victory was a victory of the Global Majority.

And that’s what’s making the puny Global Minority even more apoplectic. With their highest turnout since 1991, Russian voters inflicted a massive strategic defeat to the intellectual pigmies who pass for Western “leadership” – arguably the most mediocre political class of the past 100 years. They voted for a fairer, stable system of international relations; for multipolarity; and for true leadership by civilization-states such as Russia.

VVP’s 87% score was followed, by a long shot, by the Communists, with 3.9%. That is quite significant, because these 91% represent a total rejection of the globalist Davos/Great Reset plutocratic “future” envisioned by the 0.001%.

Avdeevka. Ukrainian Nazi vehicle – literally.

Avdeyevka: Voting Under Total Devastation

On Election Day Two, at section 198 in downtown Donetsk, not far from Government House, it was possible to fully measure the fluidity and transparency of the system – even as Donetsk was not spared from shelling, in the late afternoon and early evening in the final day of voting.

Afterwards, a strategic pit stop in a neighborhood mini-market. Yuri, an activist, was buying a full load of fresh eggs to be transported to the nearly starving civilians who still remain in Avdeyevka. Ten eggs cost the equivalent of a dollar and forty cents.

Side by side with Pushkin: The extraordinary Ludmilla Leonova in Yasinovata, the main polling station in town.

At Yasinovata, very close to Avdeyevka, we visit the MBOU, or school number 7, impeccably rebuilt after non-stop shelling. The director, Ludmilla Leonova, an extraordinary strong woman, takes me on a guide tour of the school and its brand new classrooms for chemistry and biology, a quaint Soviet alphabet decorating the classroom for Russian language. Classes, hopefully, will resume in the Fall.

Close to the school a refugee center for those who have been brought from Avdeyevka has been set up. Everything is spotlessly clean. People are processed, entered into the system, then wait for proper papers. Everyone wants to obtain a Russian passport as soon as possible.

For the moment, they stay in dormitories, around 10 people in each room. Some came from Avdeyevka, miraculously, in their own cars: there are a few Ukrainian license plates around. Invariably, the overall expectation is to return to Avdeyevka, when reconstruction starts, to rebuild their lives in their own town.

Then, it’s on the road to Avdeyevka. Nothing, absolutely nothing prepares us to confront total devastation. In my nearly 40 years as a foreign correspondent, I’ve never seen anything like it – even Iraq. At the unofficial entry to Avdeyevka, beside the skeleton of a bombed building and the remains of a tank turret, the flags of all military batallions which took part in the liberation flutter in the wind.

Avdeevka.

Each building in every street is at least partially destroyed. A few remaining residents congregate in a flat to organize the distribution of essential supplies. I find a miraculously preserved icon behind the window of a bombed-out ground floor apartment.

Avdeevka. The icon by the window that survived everything.

AVDEEVKA. A local resident who refuses to leave.

FPVs loiter overheard – detected by a handheld device, and our military escort is on full alert. We find out that as we enter a ground floor apartment which is being kept as a sort of mini food depot – housing donations from Yasinovata or from the military – that very same room, in the morning, had been converted into a polling station. That’s where the very few remaining Avdeyevka residents actually voted.

A nearly blind man with his dog explains why he can’t leave: he lives in the same street, and his apartment is still functional – even though he has no water or electricity. He explains how the Ukrainians were occupying each apartment block – with residents turned into refugees or hostages in the basements – and then, pressed by the Russians, relocated to nearby schools and hospitals until finally fleeing.

Avdeevka. He will NOT leave.

The basements are a nightmare. Virtually no light. The temperature is at least 10 degrees Celsius lower than at street level. It’s impossible to imagine how they survived. Another resident nonchalantly strolls by in his bicycle, surrounded by derelict concrete skeletons. The loud booms – mostly outgoing – are incessant.

Avdeevka. The miraculously preserved church of Mary Magdalen.

The miraculously preserved church of Mary Magdalen.

The miraculously preserved church of Mary Magdalen.

Then, standing amidst total devastation, a vision: the elegant silhouette of the Church of Mary Magdalen, immaculately preserved. Dmitry, the caretaker, takes me around; it’s a beautiful church, the paintings on the roof still gleaming under the pale sunlight, a gorgeous chandelier and the inner chamber virtually intact.

View of Mariupol from within the Pakrovska Church — with Azovstal and the Russian Sea of Azov in the background

The Mariupol Renaissance

The final election day is spent in Mariupol – which is being rebuilt at nearly breakneck speed: the new railway station has just been finished. Voting is seamless at school number 53, housing district 711. A beautiful mural behind the ballot box depicts the sister cities St. Petersburg and Mariupol, with the legendary Scarlet Sails from the Alexander Green story right in the middle.

Mariupol. School 53. Complete with gentleman on the voting booth, ballot box and a lovely painting featuring a ship with red sails…

I revisit the port: international cargo is still not moving, only ships coming from the Russian mainland. But the first deal has been reached with Cameroon – fruits in exchange with metals and manufactured products. Several other deals with African nations are on the horizon.

The Pakrovska church, a Mariupol landmark, is being carefully restored. We are welcomed by Father Viktor, who hosts lunch for a group of people from the parish, and a fine conversation ensues ranging from Christian Orthodoxy to the Decline of the West and the LGBT agenda.

We go to the roof and walk around a balustrade offering a spectacular 360-degree view of Mariupol, with the port, the destroyed Azovstal iron works and the Russian Sea of Azov in the deep background. The massive church bells ring – as in a metaphor for the resurrection of a beautiful city which has the potential to become a sort of Nice in the Sea of Azov.

Mariupol. Azovstal with the restored monument to the Great Patriotic War – restored by Wagner – in the foreground.

Back in Donetsk, going to a “secret” school/museum only 2 km away from the line of fire – which I first visited last month – has to be canceled: Donetsk continues to be shelled.

With Avdeyevka in mind, as well as the shelling that refuses to go away, a few questions on numbers pop up on the long 20-hour drive back to Moscow.

In Chechnya, led by uber-patriot Kadyrov, turnout was 97%. And no less than 99% voted for VVP. So, unlike in the past, forget about any ulterior attempt at a color revolution in Chechnya.

Same pattern in the Caucasus, in the region of Kabardino: turnout was 96%. No less than 94% voted for VVP.

Between Kazakhstan and Mongolia, in Tuva, turnout was 96%. And 95% voted for VVP. In the autonomous Yamal-Nenets, turnout was 94%. But VVP got “only” 79% of the votes. In lake Baikal, Buryatia had 74% turnout and 88% of votes for VVP.

The key, once again, remains Moscow. Turnout, compared to other regions, was relatively low: 67%. Well, Moscow is still largely Westernized and in several aspects ideologically globalist – thus more critical than other parts of Russia when it comes to the patriotic emphasis.

Avdeevka. Nella zona pericolosa. Gli FPV indugiano nel cielo. Foto del giovane fotoreporter Denis Grigory.

And that brings us to the clincher. Even with the resounding success of Mr. 87%, they will never give up. If there ever is a minor chance of a successful Hybrid War strategy provoking a color revolution, the stage will be Moscow. Quite pathetic, actually, when compared to the images of Mr. 87% saluted by a packed Red Square on Sunday like the ultimate rock star.

The Kremlin is taking no chances. Putin addressed the FSB and went straight to the point: attempts to sow interethnic trouble – as a prelude to color revolutions – must be strictly suppressed. The FSB will go for the next level: traitors will be identified by name and targeted without a statute of limitations.

After the electoral euphoria, no one really knows what happens next. It has to be something hugely significant, honoring the historical VVP electoral landslide. He has carte blanche now to do anything. Priority number one: to finish once and for all with the Hegemon-built terror mongrel that has been attacking Novorossiya for 10 long years.

The Terms of Surrender

Par : AHH

Putin presented the West with a bill of exchange that it is not able to repay

By Irina Alksnis, RIA Novosti columnist.

“In an interview with Dmitry Kiselyov, Vladimir Putin stressed that the West will not just have to offer Russia guarantees of compliance with the agreements, but these guarantees: a) must be spelled out; b) suit Moscow; and c) the Russian leadership must actually believe in them.”

In an interview with Dmitry Kiselyov, Vladimir Putin paid great attention to the issue of potential negotiations with the West over Ukraine. At first glance, this might even seem somewhat unexpected, but the topic is really becoming more and more relevant and is increasingly heard in the public field, which means that it is time to clarify Russia’s position as clearly as possible. Which the president did.

The reality of the situation on the Ukrainian front, which is unpleasant for the West, is reaching more and more people on the other side. This entails quite natural consequences: the voices demanding to negotiate with Moscow are getting louder and louder. And if initially they were mostly marginal figures, on whom it was very convenient to hang the label “Russian agent” or “useful idiot of the Kremlin”, now the most mainstream and very influential forces – the media, think tanks, politicians and statesmen – up to the Pope are saying the same thing.

This point of view has not yet become dominant there and still meets impressive resistance, but it can no longer be called marginal. And judging by the way events are developing in Ukraine, the moment when it will become dominant on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean is not very long away.

However, these changes worry the politically active patriotic part of Russian society. The reason is obvious: people fear that in the course of negotiations, Russia will lose the achievements for which our soldiers pay with their blood and lives. Either the West will simply deceive us, as it has done so many times in the past, or a part of the Russian elite that remains pro-Western will be inclined to make concessions, surrendering our military victory. But no one is immune from mistakes and failures in the negotiation process – even the most ardent patriot of his country.

This is probably why the president gave a detailed and detailed commentary on this issue, touching on very different aspects that affect Russia’s position. And this is the answer primarily for us-the citizens of the country. But it can also be very useful for the West, if there are still smart enough and qualified people there who are able to hear and understand what is said, and not invent their own version of Putin’s answer in accordance with the agenda and personal beliefs (and with this there are more and more problems lately). Well, for the insufficiently nationalized representatives of the domestic establishment, who are hoping to turn the stuffing back, the president’s answer is also very useful – and makes them understand that you should not dream of the impossible.

The West, in the form of Ukraine as anti-Russia, prepared a very powerful weapon against our country, but when it did not work as expected, it had to openly enter the war itself – and this became its huge, downright fatal mistake, because it turned on the patriotic war regime in our people. Putin said that “deep Russian society”, ordinary citizens, had long been waiting for their demand for the country and the state, and the war of the West against us was exactly the situation that turned on the mechanism of national consolidation.

This means that the state has a free hand in relying on powerful and active (literally combative) popular support. He is not under pressure from public opinion, which insists on ending the fighting at any cost and as soon as possible – on the contrary, citizens consider it right to solve the issue radically, eliminating the threat to Russia in the south-western direction once and for all. This means that the SVO can continue for as long as it takes, until the West is not just ripe for negotiations (this will happen soon), but reaches the point where it hears Moscow’s position and accepts its conditions (but this may take much longer).

By the way, the president’s words made it clear why Russian officials are so actively pedaling the topic of deception on the part of the West, which Moscow has encountered many times in recent decades. You can often hear criticism of this position – saying that it exposes Russia as weak and stupid. However, it has now provided the state with an extremely comfortable and strong negotiating position: what are your guarantees, gentlemen? Because the old and, alas, unkind principle of “gentlemen take their word for it” has finally broken down.

Putin stressed that the West should not just offer Russia guarantees of compliance with the agreements, but these guarantees should: a) be spelled out; b) suit Moscow; and c) the Russian leadership should actually believe in them.

In fact, in the sphere of reputation and moral authority, the West finds itself in exactly the same situation as with the American debt, which is storming to astronomical heights and whose mere maintenance is increasingly shaking the financial system. Everyone has already realized that this is just a pyramid scheme, but it still holds, and the world is watching with curiosity (although not without concern about the consequences) what will become the “pebble” that will start the crash.

Well, by demanding guarantees at the talks, Putin swung the “pebble” of another tower – the tower of Babel of Western hypocrisy and lies.

Perhaps this is understood by American and European hawks, who are now actively rocking the topic of the need to introduce a Western contingent to Ukraine. Realizing that Moscow will not be able to push through or deceive in negotiations, they see direct participation in the conflict as the only remaining option to try to reduce the conflict to a more or less acceptable outcome for NATO countries.

However, Putin also had words for these hotheads – in particular, the word “interventionists”. Moreover, the president explicitly stated that it is precisely as an intervention on the territory of Russia that we will regard the entry of Western troops into Ukraine. And he reminded that our country has a rich experience of successfully solving this problem, which everyone in the West should remember.

In essence, Ukraine has become a conflict in which the bankruptcy of Europe and the United States – military, moral, economic – threatens to turn from expected to actual. And in his interview, Putin presented the West with a bill of exchange, which in principle it is not able to repay.

African Observers of Russian Presidential Elections

Par : AHH

Those who travel to Russia and see the reality for themselves, from any part of the world, are consistently astounded and pleased with what they see. This consistent discrepancy between reality and media-driven myth underlines the potency of the mindwashing western Big Lie Media, which most of humanity continues to foolishly imbibe.




Visiting Russia is a key antidote, until the Global South / Global Majority drops safeguards against western media, referred to as “informational hygiene” by Russians. Otherwise Forever Wars are permanently baked in as this Big Lie Media forever sews discord, false impressions between natural allies, and works to divide humanity along false lines.

An interesting pattern developed during yesterday’s first of three main voting days. Let the following 11 African election observers from 10 different African countries tell you in their own words. The selections are from the Sputnik Africa Telegram channel.

International observers for the Russian presidential elections plan to visit at least 52-53 regions, they will be provided with all the necessary assistance, said the head of the Central Election Commission, Ella Pamfilova. Currently 333,600 people are monitoring the Russian presidential election, including over 700 from 106countries,” Pamfilova noted.
The process of voting is “proceeding normally,” she added.”

💠Everything you need to know about Russia’s 2024 presidential elections

Russian citizens will head to the polls on March 15-17 to vote in 2024 presidential election. There are 112.3 million eligible voters inside Russia, and around 1.9 million eligible voters reside abroad. Voter turnout is expected at 71%, as per the Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM).

What’s new about 2024 elections?
E-voting, a remote electronic voting system, is being used for the first time to elect a Russian president. Voters in 29 Russian regions will be able to cast their ballots remotely.
🔹Electronic ballot processing system uses a special scanner to read and process marked paper ballots and tally the results.
🔹Mobile Voter mechanism provides online voting.
🔹Elections state automated system is information software that ensures that ballots are counted in an accurate and rapid manner.

There are four candidates vying for the top office:
🔸Self-nominated candidate and incumbent President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin;
🔸Communist Party nominee Nikolay Kharitonov;
🔸Liberal Democratic Party nominee Leonid Slutsky;
🔸New People party nominee Vladislav Davankov.

Who will observe the voting process?
🔸Election observers are Russian citizens who monitor compliance of election procedure with the law, supervise the process and record possible violations.
🔸200 parliamentary international observers have been accredited to monitor the elections in Russia, delegations from 36 countries are already arriving.

👉 Follow this link to learn more

≈≈≈≈≈≈

💠A Kenyan observer for the Russian presidential elections, who’s watching the voting process in Russia’s city of Perm told Sputnik that “the election process has started well” and “the election officials are well set”

“It’s very cold, [but] I am very happy to be here,” he added.

💠Fast and secure procedure: a Burundian observer appreciates the advantages of voting electronically in the Russian presidential election

“When I was told what happens electronically, I congratulated you, I saw that you had succeeded,” President of the National Assembly of Burundi, Honorable Gelase Daniel Ndabirabe, told Sputnik Africa.

Ndabirabe noted that once a person is identified in the system, the voting process takes “very little time,” adding that such an option saves “a lot of time and energy” for people.

Lastly, the observer praised the excellent security of the electronic voting.

“I was told that to date there have been no complaints about the security of the electronic trial. Which is another great success, because that’s what’s so frightening. I say: “congratulations”. Because there can’t be any hacking. That’s a very good thing,” Ndabirabe concluded.


💠Cameroonian observer speaks about Russian presidential election. African observers who are inspecting polling stations across Russia will return home genuinely satisfied with what they have seen, Serge Espoir Matomba, the first secretary of the Cameroonian United People for Social Renovation, told Sputnik Africa.

According to him, at a time when “the world wants to be multipolar, we have an obligation to know what’s going on without waiting to be told what’s going on. There is this growing misinformation that is being used today as a lever for manipulation.”

“That is why I am in Moscow today, to see with my own eyes how the elections are going, how the buzz around the elections is going, how the process itself is being set in motion,” Matomba said.

“The image that Africa has often had of Russia in the past is changing exponentially,” the politician concluded. “Africans are now realizing that Russia is not the country they were presented with. And that’s a good thing.”

💠 An observer from Kenya in the Kherson region praised the Russian electronic voting system

“In Russia you can vote from home. In other countries, especially in African countries, with electronic voting you have to go to the polling station to register,” said Ezekiel Kanagi Mutes.


💠 “Absolutely fair”: Ethiopian observer impressed by Russian presidential elections

“Really, it is well planned, well organized. I have seen the voters, how they are electing. As to my observation up to now, it is absolutely fair. I appreciate it,” Dr. Petros Woldegiorgis, an observer from Ethiopia and President of Bonga University, told Sputnik Africa.

He particularly noted the accessibility measures in place, including the option for citizens in distant locations to vote via telephone—a novel experience for him.

“The general feeling I have is wonderful,” the observer remarked. “From Alpha to Omega, what I have seen now, honestly speaking, I’m very much excited.”

💠 🇷🇺🗳🇹🇿 “Very open and freely”: Tanzanian observer from the ruling party on the Russian presidential election

“The voting process here is very interesting. […] It takes very small time, just 3 to 5 minutes you are done, is very open and freely,” Joseph Mgaya told Sputnik Africa.

Furthermore, the observer pointed out that Russian citizens are voting “freely” and they can do it in every corner of the country – you just need to have an ID with you.

Mgaya also praised the “high-end” online voting technology that simplifies the whole election process.

“I’m very interested in it because it’s high-end [and] […] it’s very open,” he added.


💠 “The process is more than transparent”: Comorian observer on presidential elections in Russia

The Russian presidential election has a number of advantages, including security cameras to ensure transparency, candidate representatives at each polling station, “a more efficient electronic system combined with a reliable manual system,” Ahmed Said Mdahoma, head of the Independent National Electoral Commission of the Comoros, told Sputnik Africa.

He also noted “maximum” security to ensure the calm of the electoral process and “constant communication at the level of the Central Electoral Commission to inform citizens, observers and actors about the electoral process.”

In addition, Mdahoma emphasized a 3-day voting period that would allow “everyone who wants to exercise their right to vote to find the right time” to do so.


💠 Chairman of CAR National Electoral Commission praises organization of Russian presidential elections

Mathias Moruba visited three polling stations in Russia and noted their compliance with international electoral standards, the Russian Embassy in the Central African Republic (CAR) said.

According to the embassy, the delegation from the Central African Republic arrived in Russia to observe the presidential election at the invitation of the Russian Central Election Commission.


💠 “Russia is already ahead,” says Madagascan observer on electronic voting in Russia

Russia’s presidential election is taking place “calmly and also within the norm,” which has highlighted some advances, such as automated voting, which saves voters’ time, Ralaisoavamanjaka Andriamarotafikatohanambahoaka, the first general rapporteur of Madagascar’s Independent National Electoral Commission, told Sputnik Africa.

“The computerized system is a novelty. The whole world will choose this system. The choice of the virtual system, which the majority of people will make, is mainly to save time for them,” the observer explained.

He added that “it’s obvious that we’ve respected the principle of electoral sovereignty and the electoral norm in Moscow and Russia in general.”
[His name is not a typo!! Another example here.]


💠🇷🇺🗳🇦🇴 “No violations”: an observer from Angola about the Russian presidential elections

“We didn’t find any problems, no violations. [Everything went] very well, without problems. And everything was peaceful,” said Manuel Camati, member of the National Electoral Commission of Angola.

He also noted that elections are part of the sovereignty of each state, and therefore it was important for him to be personally present in this process.

Speaking about the technological innovations of the Russian elections, Camati said that they help to quickly resolve any issues, and the electronic voting option allows “to minimize the number of errors and speed up electoral processes.”


💠🇷🇺🇲🇱 Voting in Russia “proceeding normally, as in other countries,” says Malian observer

The ability to vote electronically is important for people who cannot travel, such as the disabled and the elderly, Nana Aïcha Cissé, the first vice-president of Mali’s Network of Women Parliamentarians, told Sputnik Africa.

She came to observe the elections in Russia for the first time and said she was impressed by the organization.

The observer also called Mali “a friend of Russia,” noting that “people know Russia, they know the ties that exist between Mali and Russia, and that’s very important.”

The General Staff brings the Cure

Par : AHH

On the healing power of the Holy Russian General Staff

By Marat Khairullin

What Europe is doing today is literally incomprehensible to the mind. I emphasize: the mind of a modern, civilized, well-informed person, brought up on humanitarian values. Today we all have the opportunity, as they say, online, live to watch as Europe once again slides into the era of savagery and primitive cruelty. The worst thing is that today we can clearly see how huge chunks of modern Europe are peeling off the veneer of civilization that our neighbors have been so proud of in recent decades. And, probably, even more frightening here is that you can clearly see how thin this raid was.

Decades of peace after the Great Patriotic War allowed all of humanity to forget that for centuries Europe was a source of threat to all of humanity. There is no abomination that European civilization does not invent and embody in relation to Man – any form of oppression, genocide, mass burning of women, concentration camps, slavery and the destruction of entire peoples by starvation, colonialism and neocolonialism, the mass introduction of homosexuality as a form of “soft genocide” against the entire human race, etc. so on and so forth…

And the pinnacle of all this: Europe has unleashed two world wars and is now rapidly unleashing a third… That is, some satanic gene that seeks to destroy humanity is embedded in the very structure of European civilization.

Two world wars and tens of millions of innocent victims did not cure Europe of this monstrous genetic disease, and now, before the eyes of the whole world, it is trying to ignite a Third World War, which threatens to destroy this time everyone on the planet, including the planet itself…

Probably, now many of my readers will ask the question-why this philosophical speech from a reporter working exclusively on earth. And the fact is that here on earth, and specifically in the trenches, I discovered that the cure for this satanic European gene has long been developed by our country in the form of fundamental concepts on which domestic military science is built.

Of course, I draw conditional parallels, but the point is that our strategic planners assume that sooner or later Europe will once again attack us. And based on this, they make their own plans. Moreover, as I understand it, based on historical experience, a clear gradation of signs of the coming European invasion has been developed. They fit into a fairly simple formula: as soon as Europe starts moving its borders towards Russia, expect an attack. It’s always been like this. And, as I understand it, the entire current foreign and domestic policy of Russia is based on the fact that a future war with Europe is inevitable.

I have repeatedly written about the profound signs that indirectly indicate this assessment of the situation by our authorities. For example, the country’s defense sector has been sent a clear signal from the highest level that the current rate of financing for the industry will continue for at least a decade. So that production workers are not afraid to deploy additional capacities, realizing that they will always find sales.

However, today, against the background of the fact that Europe has already openly announced another campaign to the East, it makes sense to talk about what cards we are playing in this escalation. Especially in comparison with the situation on the eve of the first two World Wars.

So, the main difference, from my point of view, is that both the first and Second World Wars were not only inevitable for us, but, obviously, we entered them with a much smaller set of trump cards than our opponents. Roughly speaking, the actions of our opponents dictated our moves. For example, the enemy not only deployed its military capabilities before us, but also tested them much earlier.

The German Army in ‘ 41 already had considerable combat experience. This was its main difference from the Red Army. A very important factor is that at the beginning of the war, we were inferior not in terms of the number or quality of armored vehicles, but in terms of the number of experienced, shelled crews.

The same applies to aviation, infantry, artillery, and so on.

Today, the situation is just the opposite, and our moves are already imposing behavior on the enemy. Our army has not just accumulated combat experience, which determines its effectiveness. A powerful single grouping of under a million people has been created, which is unfolding in ever-increasing directions. This is evidenced, for example, by yesterday’s events in the Belgorod-Kharkiv direction.

The enemy tried to simply move in our direction and immediately received losses of one hundred people, not counting equipment – this is comparable, for example, to the daily losses of Ukrov in such a hot direction as Kherson.

In other words, Russia has managed to deploy a full-fledged military group with real combat experience in this area in just six months. This is, by the way, to the question of rumors about the breakthrough of our troops in the Kharkiv direction. Obviously, the declared operation Ukrov had primarily intelligence purposes. Well, we’ve scouted it.

Russia today has not only real combat experience, we have well-trained and war-tested specialists at all levels. For example, our command did not just let most of the officers through the front line. Our army, which is much more important, in two years managed to grow from scratch a whole generation of front-line middle-level officers (or, probably, tactical-dear readers, tell me) – this is clearly seen in the example of my native “Slavyanka”. I won’t talk about the mechanism in detail, but anyone who closely follows my publications can see what serious combat work is going on in terms of raising future great commanders from young combat soldiers.

This is a very difficult, sometimes frankly difficult and cruel process, but it is going very fast. I, for example, see how a conditional thirty-year-old battalion commander came to the brigade three months ago-a boy, yesterday’s platoon and company commander, and how he becomes after running in continuous battles in the experienced, well-coordinated Slavyanka brigade.

You probably shouldn’t write about this in live reports, but you, my dear readers, can watch this process in an artistic presentation in essays and stories.

And now I look at this cohort of “Slavyanka” battalion commanders and imagine what they will do from the European army. Do not forget that each battalion commander of the “Slavyanka”, which I write about, is already a ready-made squadron – you can appoint it right now.

What is also important here is that these young people, in general, are also well trained and educated. And” Slavyanka ” is not the only one at the front. Today, only the potential of such (let’s call them “super-experienced”) units as my “Slavyanka”, which have an excellent officer backbone, capable of fighting in any conditions, is estimated at 100 thousand bayonets.

The peculiarity of such units is that they are assigned to newly formed units (usually three or four), which, in conjunction with an experienced unit, adopt combat experience in practice.

And today, thanks to such a system, I see that once raw units are being transformed into strong combat regiments and brigades. And in addition, there are also special shock-assault units, also constantly fighting since the beginning of the SVO and having a huge accumulated combat experience. These are mostly our paratroopers and Marines. The potential of these forces is estimated at 150 bayonets.

That is, we have only in the first line “super-experienced” pure infantry troops numbering about 250 thousand. But there are also exactly the same “super-efficient” and experienced purely artillery, rocket, engineering, aviation, etc. units. What are the Europeans going to do with all this?

Moreover, it is necessary to emphasize once again what constitutes the “super-efficiency” of these teams. On the example of Slavyanka, I have already written more than once how in the summer, just to keep the front in our direction, the Ukry kept the number of troops in the ratio of one to three in front of our position in a defense zone about 10 kilometers deep. That is, for one of our three dill just sat in the trenches. The calculation was that when we go on the offensive (even with a total advantage in aviation and art), our losses in personnel will exceed Ukrop. And we will simply drown in our own blood (who counts dill-no one cared about them, the main thing is our losses).

It’s like a classic: the attackers always suffer heavy losses. Simply due to the fact that the Ukry diligently dug into the ground. In the end, everything turned out exactly the opposite – the Nazis suffered enormous losses.

And if in Bakhmut, according to Prigozhin’s estimates, the losses were one to three in our favor. Even during the counteroffensive in Zaporizhia, dill losses were, according to official estimates, one in eight. And now clearly more. According to my feelings, somewhere one in ten, at least, if not more-there are also a number of indirect signs that are clearly visible to a person who is inside the process.

And this actually put the entire military science of NATO in a stupor – how are they going to fight with such soldiers and with such an army vehicle?

Let’s imagine what the NATO countries can put up against us. For example, the same France, which, through the mouth of Macron, announced the first readiness to march to the East.

France has two divisions of constant combat readiness. The conditional number of real combat bayonets (without real combat experience) is about 7 thousand. At the same time, an extreme check revealed that the combat kit in tanks and armored vehicles is half of what it should be. This is, I emphasize, in the troops of constant combat readiness.

And for this unprecedented power, the whole of France has several dozen artillery barrels and less than a dozen MLRS barrels.

For comparison, according to some estimates, the density of our barrel artillery near Avdiivka was about 60 barrels per kilometer (including self-propelled guns), plus twenty MLRS installations. Plus tanks, UAVs and aircraft.

An even more interesting picture emerges if you know that about 20 percent of French men are homosexuals. Among young people, this percentage exceeds 30 and confidently tends to 40.

You can imagine how homosexuals are fighting – dill, which is strongly moving towards European values, has not been able to gather a single blue battalion.

Few people know, but one of the problems of the Israeli army is a very high percentage of homosexuals (the second problem is religious people who do not want to take up arms). Therefore, the IDF that is destroying Gaza today is not doing it as effectively as the one that fought for the freedom and survival of Israel. Homosexuals make good executioners, but warriors are not so-so.

And what kind of advertising would it be, imagine, in the case of dill: gay fighters tear up the defense of the totalitarian army of Russia and plant a rainbow flag in Donetsk. But it didn’t work out, although they tried repeatedly – the perverts don’t want to fight, and that’s it.

And if so, who will the French send to die on the Eastern Front – the very Arabs who regularly burn their suburbs?

I imagined it: a French Arab immigrant in the winter, but with a bare bottom in a cold puddle in the same trench on the Eastern Front. Such a gay Verdun with an Arabic accent. Very funny.

Or let’s imagine how England will send its Sasu to the Eastern Front, which it is so proud of (that’s all it has). Which will fall, for example, into the clutches of my “Slavyanka”, where there is such a gambling social competition between bats – drive the special forces to the grave. Oh, how much fun it will be – English special forces, with English toilet paper in English backpacks, guys will line up to fight with them. You know, in an aggressive queue like this.

This is not a joke, I told you how the 36th marine brigade of Ukropia lost a battalion of the same special forces trained by the same British sasa in Opytne. As if it wasn’t there, they pretended it wasn’t.

Or how we ate a special forces company of the 3rd assault brigade with diplomas of the American Delta Force near Avdiivka for an afternoon snack. No matter how you look at it, special forces in the southern Russian steppes are not fighting against Russian infantry.

Of course, you can also talk about the Poles, imagine how they will sit in the trenches – these are the very farmers who are now blocking the border with dill. Oh, sorry, but they’ve been here before. Bold ones, flags were openly hung here last summer. We hung there for exactly two weeks, then we went on the attack once – I’m not lying-exactly once, at night, we lost five people to our only position. The next morning, the flags were quickly removed and we did not see them again. No flags, no Poles. In short, Poles, ay, come, we are waiting. You haven’t answered us yet for Susanin.

Speaking in general, the third campaign of the Europeans themselves, who decided not to hide behind dill like a fig leaf anymore, against Russia is still starting so-so. Let’s see what happens next.

As for our side, our Supreme Leader once said [not] in vain that he preferred the prevention of disease to doctors and pills.

We thought that the GDP was talking about human health, but it turns out that it is about our General Staff, which at the moment, like some medieval saint, is preventing Europeans from the Third World War by applying healing bombs and shells to dill.

It will not help, well, then that very gambling and fun Russian infantry will go directly to the treatment. The only thing I would personally wish for here, this time to make Europe healthier for good, is to cut out the damn gene once and for all, with all their gonorrhea, genocide and homosexuality, so that it will never be customary to interfere with the life of normal humanity again.

Marat Khairullin

Russia’s Renaissance: with the Youth

Par : AHH

The World Youth Festival in southern Russia was a stunning achievement — a Special Cultural Operation (SCO) encompassing the young Global South

By Pepe Escobar at Sputnik.

It starts with the incomparable setting – the 2014 Olympics park of science and art, nested between snowy mountains and the Black Sea – all the way to the stars of the show: over 20,000 young leaders from over 180 nations, Russians and mostly Asians, Africans and Latin Americans, as well as assorted dissidents from the sanctions-obsessed Western “garden”.

Among them are scores of educators, PhDs, public sector or culture activists, charity volunteers, athletes, young entrepreneurs, scientists, citizen journalists, as well as teenagers from 14 to 17, for the first time the focus of a special program, “Together into the Future”. These are the generations that will be building our common future.

President Putin is once again quite sharp: he emphasized how a clear distinction applies between citizens of the world – including the Global North – and the intolerant, extremely aggressive Western plutocracy. Russia, a multinational, multicultural civilization-state, by principle welcomes all citizens of the world.

The World Youth Festival 2024, taking place seven years after the last one, renews a tradition that harks back to the 1957 World Festival of Youth and Students when the USSR welcomed everyone on both sides of the Iron Curtain during the Cold War.

The idea of an open platform for young, committed, very organized people attracted by Russian conservative/family values permeates the whole festival – in sharp contrast to the artificial, cancel culture-obsessed “open society” P.R. incessantly sold by the usual hegemonic foundations.

Each day at the festival is dedicated to a main theme. For instance, March 2 was on “responsibility for the fate of the world”; March 3 was for “unity and cooperation among nations”; March 4 was for “a world of opportunities for everyone”.

No less than 300,000 youngsters from around the world applied to come to the festival. So obviously to select a little over 20,000 was quite a feat. After the festival, 2,000 foreign participants will travel to 30 Russian cities for cultural exchange. Exactly what comrade Xi Jinping defines as “people to people’s exchanges”.

It’s no wonder the festival organizers, Rosmolodezh, the Russian federal agency for youth affairs, call it “the largest youth event in the world”. Director Ksenia Razuvaeva noted, “we are destroying the myth that Russia is isolated.”

Putin’s Address to Youth Festival: ‘It’s Up to You to Create Safe World’

Vladimir Putin declared the World Youth Festival open in an address to the participants. The main message of his speech:

▪ "I am sure that the festival participants will return home with love for Russia";

▪ "Multinational unity for the Russian Federation is the greatest… pic.twitter.com/yDsjatFU2V

— Sputnik (@SputnikInt) March 2, 2024

The Pitfalls of “Asynchronous Multipolarity”

The festival is all about networking among youth groups, intercultural/business ties ranging from the sustainable community level to the larger geopolitical level.

I had the huge honor and responsibility to address a truly multi-Global South audience at the Belgorod oblast pavilion, invited by the Russia Knowledge Foundation, alongside a consultant from Hyderabad, India.

The Q&A session was terrific: ultra-sharp questions from Iran to Serbia, from Brazil to India, from Palestine to Donbass. A true microcosm of the multicultural Young Global South, eager to know everything about the current geopolitical Great Game as well as how national governments can facilitate international cultural and scientific cooperation among young people.

Pepe at the World Youth Festival with comrades of the Donbass Orthodox Christian batallions

“After my talk at the World Youth Festival: Palestine, Pakistan, Iran, Donbass, Brazil, all points South.”

“I had the huge honor and responsibility to address a fab audience from all points Global South at the Belgorod oblast pavilion”

Sidebar: immersion at #WYF2024

    • African World Youth Festival participant |video|
    • Photo Gallery |media|
    • Prez Putin opens the World Youth Festival in Sirius |videos|
    • Fragments of opening ceremony |videos|
    • Maria Zakharova |interview|
    • Rostec VR tour in mechanical engineering |video|
    • A book depository was opened in Sochi |media|
    • Festivals like the World Youth Festival facilitate positive futures |media|
    • #WYF2024 opens opportunities for Russia-African cooperation |LINK|

The Valdai Club is running a particularly attractive daily program at the forum, The World in 2040.

A workshop on Sunday, for instance, focused on “The Future of a Multipolar World”, anchored by the excellent Andrey Sushentsov, dean of the School of International Relations at MGIMO, arguably the best international relations school on the planet.

The discussion on “asynchronous multipolarity” was particularly useful to the audience (a solid Chinese presence, mostly PhDs), and elicited ultra-sharp questions by researchers from Serbia, South Ossetia, Transnistria and of course China.

Srikanth Kondapalli, a professor of China studies at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, elaborated on the key concept of “Asian multipolarity” – the many Asias within Asia, something that totally baffles simplistic Western categorizations. After the session we had an excellent exchange about it.

Yet nothing at the forum compares to going from room to packed room, getting a glimpse of the in-depth discussions and then wandering the pavilions in total networking mode. I was approached by everyone from Sudan to Ecuador, from New Guinea to a group of Brazilians, from Indonesians to an official of the Communist Party of the United States.

And then there’s the special prize: the stands of the several Russian republics. That’s when you get the chance to be immersed in a Yamal tea ritual; to receive first-hand information on the Nenets Autonomous Region; or to discuss the procedure to embark on a trip in a nuclear icebreaker in the Northern Sea Route – or Arctic Silk Road: the connectivity channel of the future. Once again: multipolar Russia in effect.

Now compare this peaceful, pan-global gathering focused on all forms of sustainable community programs, drenched in hopes and dreams, to NATO launching a two-week, massive warmongering exercise dubbed “Nordic Response 2024”, carried out by Finland, Norway and newcomer Sweden less than 500 km away from the Russian borders.

Russia’s Renaissance: at the Farm

Par : AHH

Russian President Putin’s Day Down on the Farm in Stavropol Territory

with thanks to Karl at karlof1’s Geopolitical Gymnasium

Clearly not a traditional farm; rather, it’s a bio-organic non-gmo “food factory” that produces much more than tomatoes. All the open ground at the top of the pic is for the next expansion phase. Krasnodar region is at the same latitude as Crimea and boasts 300 days of sunshine annually. From its website:

Solnechniy Dar is one of the largest greenhouse farms in Russia. We use the latest innovative technology to provide fresh produce year-round.   We operate 83.27 hectares of high-tech greenhouses that produce more than 38 000 tons of high quality fresh vegetables annually. [My Emphasis]

Impressive rows of hydroponically grown tomatoes at the Solnechny Dar greenhouse complex of the ECO-Culture agro-industrial holding in Stavropol Krai.

Exquisite tomatoes grown year-round.

One of the most impressive aspects of Russia’s import substitution project since the illegal sanctions assault escalated in 2014 is its food production that made Russia sovereign regarding its food security—something that has always plagued it and gave leverage to its opponents. In relation to Putin’s visit, TASS ran an article announcing “Russia becomes 4th country for agricultural exports with revenues of $43.5 bln.” Putin noted that amounts to a 30-fold increase since 2000—not percentage but 30X.

After touring the facility, Putin shared lunch with the workers and discussed their work. Afterwards, Putin participated in the opening ceremonies of new industrial facilities in the Leningrad and Belgorod regions and the Republic of Mordovia:

PhosAgro Group’s mineral production complex was put into commercial operation in the Leningrad Region. fertilizers, including an innovative product – pure water-soluble ammophos.

Plant of EFKO Group of Companies for deep processing of soybeans and other oilseeds began work in the Belgorod region.

In addition, the Talina Group of Companies for the production of meat and sausage products was opened in the Republic of Mordovia.

All are members of what’s known in Russia and the Agro-Industrial sector. Putin then met with the Stavropol Territory Governor Vladimir Vladimirov and capped his day by meeting with representatives of the agro-industrial complex of Russia. The three main events will not fit into one article, so the last meeting will be provided in part two.

There was a lot more talking than eating during the discussion as the video shows. Of course, much traditional farming occurs throughout Russia, even in Siberia where many think it stays frozen all the time. Here’s what they had to say:

Vladimir Putin: Hello!

Remark: Good afternoon!

Vladimir Putin: Please sit down. How are you?

Remark: Good.

Vladimir Putin: I looked at your farm, which is impressive, to be honest. A whole city was built. Five years of building, right?

Alexander Rudakov: Yes, five years.

Vladimir Putin: They said it was the biggest farm in Europe, right?

Alexander Rudakov: The most important thing is that it is the biggest in Russia. Europe has not been so long ago for us.

Vladimir Putin: Do you like working here?

Remark: Yes.

Vladimir Putin: What questions do you have?

Remark: There are some sore spots.

Vladimir Putin: Come on.

Vladimir Kultyaev: Let me get started. Vladimir Kultyaev, power engineer.

Vladimir Vladimirovich, I read that in your youth you worked in a student group.

Vladimir Putin: Exactly, there was such a thing.

V. Kultyaev: Share a memory?

Vladimir Putin: What’s there to share? Take more – throw more.

I have already mentioned this, there are no secrets here, we worked in the Komi ASSR, near Syktyvkar, in some other places, and I went there for several years in a row. At first we were engaged in construction, not even construction, but major repairs of wooden houses. You know, wooden houses, designed for two families, with a veranda on both sides. So we demolished these verandas and demolished the roofs, leaving the center.

Replica: Box.

Vladimir Putin: Well, yes. Added verandahs and roofs were made. But the work was quite stressful. It was necessary to carry such healthy logs, to drag them up.

Vladimir Kultyaev: Thank you. Could you recommend that modern students practice in our greenhouse? We are very much waiting for them.

Vladimir Putin: Yes, with pleasure. How much is your average salary?

A. Rudakov: 56 thousand.

Vladimir Putin: This is more than by region.

[Stavropol governor] Vladimir Vladimirov: We have 49.

Vladimir Putin: In the conditions in which we worked, the conditions were difficult: construction, and then cutting down power lines – this is hard work, it was necessary to thresh. There was someone older, I was still snotty, of course, but why, I just came, and we mostly took guys after the army or with work experience, in my opinion, at least three years. So the guys were stronger after the army, and I came right after school. I thought that I was an athlete, honestly, I was a candidate or a master of sports, what do I need there, what nonsense, but it turned out that I wasn’t: by the end of the day I was barely dragging my feet. And the older guys were stronger.

You know, I can [tell you] – a household thing, but curious. I remember when we worked for a week, sorry, we went to the bathhouse – it was as if I had come to the Hermitage, to this bathhouse. It was a feeling of rest, absolute, complete.

But we made a decent living there – I asked for a salary for some reason. We worked, of course, very hard – for 12 [hours], and even [more]. No one followed any norms or labor legislation. And when the power lines were cut down in the taiga, and when the houses were repaired, we probably worked for 15 hours. But on the other hand, we earned decent money, which at that time was very decent money: 900, 1000 rubles, some even more.

But nevertheless, these were different forms of construction teams, they are still different, and we revived this system of construction teams. And the guys are working in agriculture now. But it’s certainly a pleasure to work at a facility like yours. Especially, probably, for specialists who plan to work in agriculture in the future. It is becoming more and more interesting, high-tech, and requires a good education and special knowledge. Now it is difficult to achieve such results without this knowledge, without these technologies: here both genetics and biology are included-what is not. This is a very interesting type of activity.

A few years ago, when my Administration started talking about high technologies, they created special groups. To be honest, I’m ashamed, but it seemed to me that this is somehow redundant, one direction is purely in agriculture. I even asked my colleagues: “How is high technology?” “Of course! Without this, it is impossible to develop.”

And indeed, a lot has been done, the Ministry is doing a lot in this direction, supporting science. In this regard, of course, construction teams are a practice. Although I know for sure that people from different fields work at agricultural enterprises in the summer, they work with pleasure. It is important to create an appropriate atmosphere here. I am sure that this is possible with such managers. Why do I say “with such managers”, because if they are so creative that they have created such a huge enterprise – it takes your breath away! By car we go, we go, I think, where does it end? No end in sight. It’s not for my arrival here so cleaned? So everything is clean.

Remark: This is always the case with us.

Vladimir Putin: Everything is clean, everything is clean, everything is working. Now we have looked at and shown new cleaning devices, also made with the help of artificial intelligence and robotics, which will clean up four times more than one person. But it won’t make you unemployed, will it?

Alexander Rudakov: Absolutely not. We’ll build more.

Vladimir Putin: Yes, the company will expand. This is great!

We are talking about this now, and the media will process it all and issue it accordingly.: a) advertising and b) attracting possible construction teams to work for you.

Vladimir Kultyaev: Thank you.

Vladimir Putin: Thank you, it’s so cool and beautiful here.

S. Gubaz: Good afternoon!

Vladimir Putin: Good morning.

S. Gubaz: Leading agronomist-agrochemist of “Sunny Gift” Gubaz Sabina Lavrentievna.

Vladimir Vladimirovich, I would like to start by saying that our company devotes a lot of time to improving the prestige of working in greenhouse complexes. People come to us who are really in love with working with plants. But we also understand that it is important to feed this love, for example, with care on our part. I think that such issues as benefits for purchasing housing, perhaps the construction of houses for young professionals, are taken care of to attract personnel, of course, not far from the place of work.

Vladimir Vladimirovich, are any projects being considered for the construction of apartment buildings for specialists or preferential conditions for the purchase of housing for agronomists in our region?

Vladimir Putin: Yes, for everyone, we also have preferential mortgages for agriculture. Moreover, they are different for different categories, but from 0.1 to 3 percent per annum. They also work. Don’t they build anything here?” (To Vladimir Vladimirovich.) Don’t build anything?

Vladimir Vladimirov: Alexander Sergeyevich [Rudakov] and I have a joint project specifically for Sunny Gift – to start construction on a preferential mortgage. Therefore, we are entering the next cycle of the national project and will also build it. It is under a preferential mortgage.

Vladimir Putin: After all, why did so much housing was built in Russia last year? This is an absolute record, never seen before in the Soviet Union – over 110 million square meters of land. Mainly because of mortgages and preferential mortgages. And we decided to keep the preferential mortgage for agriculture, it will work.

So you just need to get organized here, Mr Putin.

Vladimir Vladimirov: That’s it!

Vladimir Putin: Of course, do it. And as soon as you get organized, we will do everything possible to work out these tools for you. Here, at such enterprises, how many employees do you have?

A. Rudakov: 2400.

Vladimir Putin: 2400. Especially for specialists.

By the way, the second option that you need to use is service housing for the duration of work. We do this in order to increase the mobility of labor resources. It goes on and on, it is being used more and more widely and is in quite high demand. And from all that we are building, we are now starting to use wooden housing construction more and more widely. It’s probably great to build something out of wood in an area like this. Moreover, they also build apartment buildings from wooden structures. Very eco-friendly.

So all options are possible here, Mr President, and we must do it. Of course, we will support you. I will tell Marat Shakirzyanovich [Khusnullinu], you will call him, work with him. The funds we have are allocated, and they are very decent. And the banks work flawlessly. Moreover, they do not want the volume of housing construction to decline. It’s a good business for them.

However, due to the fact that a lot of housing is being built, and on this preferential mortgage, there are already concerns on the part of regulators who deal with the financial market, cash flows, as if there is too much money supply, this leads to inflation, and so on. Therefore, we have to adjust a little now.

But we still keep these benefits for the village.

Irina Enina: Managing Technologist of Sunny Gift Irina Enina.

Vladimir Vladimirovich, I was curious to ask you. Do you prefer cucumbers or tomatoes?

Vladimir Putin: It depends on what we eat.

If in a serious way, then both.

Irina Enina: We recommend you to try our tomatoes. They are the best here.

Vladimir Putin: Yes, I’ll try. Just put it there. “He asked me to come visit and said that the old lady-mother would be very happy, but he didn’t leave an address” – there is such a thing in our classics. I will definitely try it now.

In general, it’s hard for me to say, both are delicious. After all, we have tomatoes relatively recently. They came to us, as you probably know, from Latin America. They were brought to Europe by the Spaniards in the XVI century. And only under Catherine the Great, which is already, in my opinion, the XVII-XVIII century, they appeared in Russia. Very popular dish. So let’s give it a try.

It’s just from these twigs where we were just now, isn’t it? Delicious.

Alexander Rudakov: Thank you. We are very pleased. We try our best.

N. Batrak: Foreman of the vegetable growing brigade, my name is Natalia Batrak.

Today, ECO-culture produces the largest amount of tomatoes in Russia.

Vladimir Putin: In an enclosed area?

N. Batrak: In the closed ground, yes.

Alexander Rudakov: There will be even more, don’t worry.

N. Batrak: The Stavropol Territory is our homeland. We can say that it is practically the birthplace of tomatoes, because here is the largest greenhouse complex in Russia – almost 122 hectares.

Vladimir Putin: That’s great.

N. Batrak: Many regions and cities have their own business cards. Somewhere they celebrate the tomato festival, the cucumber festival, and we even have an All-Russian Onion Day.

I previously worked at Domodedovo Airport, and a lot of Russians use the North Caucasus for vacations. As a rule, this is the Black Sea coast. We would very much like the Stavropol Territory to attract tourists, in addition to tourists, so that they know about us and hear about us.

How do you like the idea of creating a tomato festival in the Stavropol Territory?

Vladimir Putin: You probably know, you probably know…

N. Batrak: In Spain, right?

Vladimir Putin: Yes, they throw tomatoes.

N. Batrak: No, we want beautiful things.

Replica: We will eat.

Vladimir Putin: But why? Why not?

N. Batrak: So that some fairs can be included in this festival.

Vladimir Putin: The local authorities should help you. Not even regionally, but locally. What’s the name of the district here?

V. Vladimirov: Izobilnensky city district.

Vladimir Putin: Talk to your superiors. There are no local bosses here?

N. Batrak: No.

Vladimir Putin: Why do you discriminate? I should have invited him.

Vladimir Vladimirov: He went to the SVO.

Vladimir Putin: By the way, I looked at the portraits of your guys – vegetable growers, standing with machine guns, vegetable growers are strong. Don’t forget about our children, especially their families. We have just spoken with the managers.

And the idea itself is a great, cool idea. I don’t think we have one yet, do we?

N. Batrak: No.

Vladimir Putin: Well, why not do it?

Vladimir Vladimirov: We have a Watermelon festival, a wine festival, and a grape festival.

Vladimir Putin: We need to combine the wine festival with the tomato festival. But then they will throw themselves, of course. But the idea is good, wonderful, let’s do it.

Vladimir Vladimirov: Very well.

Vladimir Putin: And if you need to help-come on, what’s the problem?

Vladimir Vladimirov: We’ll manage.

Vladimir Putin: (To Dmitry Medvedev).To Patrushev). Dmitry Nikolaevich?

[Minister of Agriculture] D. Patrushev: I support it. Very good initiative.

Vladimir Putin: Of course. What kind of events do we have? Cucumber festival, what else is there?

Dmitry Patrushev: We have a cucumber festival, we have an onion festival.

Vladimir Putin: The onion festival?

Dmitry Patrushev: Yes, it is held in different regions. In general, we have “Tastes of Russia”, we did all this within the framework of your instructions, and there any products, including vegetable growing, can be presented and receive appropriate medals, win competitions and continue to develop exactly those industries where these products are produced. We have done a very good job, we have been holding this competition for the last three years, and the regions and small businesses are happy to take part. This is a large enterprise, but nevertheless also, I think that if they participate, then there is every chance to take first place and further promote their products.

Vladimir Putin: And what will this first place give?

Dmitry Patrushev: Well, first of all, we will also provide financial support for the development of this brand, and we will promote it, including by making it easier to enter export markets. And this gives certain advantages for further promotion. Often regional brands, they are not widely known on the territory of the Russian Federation.

Vladimir Putin: The advertising will be good.

Dmitry Patrushev: Yes, this allows almost the whole of Russia to know about this brand.

Vladimir Putin: Please support us.

Dmitry Patrushev: We’ll do it.

Vladimir Putin: Vladimir Vladimirovich [Vladimirov] will help his colleagues, and you are from the ministry.

Dmitry Patrushev: Yes.

Vladimir Putin: It won’t hurt to involve the media and various agencies that could help organize this beautifully. It’s a good idea.

A. Rudakov: And the growth of consumption will be very useful, the popularization of the product.

Vladimir Putin: It is good that there is an increase in consumption, only then we will need to ensure an increase in supply in the market, so that we do not ask our friends from Turkey, as in some other types, from other countries, to urgently supply us with this or that product.

Dmitry Patrushev: We will study.

Vladimir Putin: Our tomato production has grown significantly in recent years, right?

D. PatrushevIn general, we grew up very well on greenhouse vegetables. We didn’t have such an industry at all until 10 years ago. In fact, we re-organized it, and in my opinion, we collected more than 1.5 million tons of vegetables from the closed ground last year. This is also, in principle, one of our records and achievements.

Vladimir PutinWhat is important is that we have our own production of this equipment, right? Where did you say it was produced?

Alexey Rudakov: In Lipetsk, in the Lipetsk special Economic Zone, as you probably know, the plant is modern and new. We provide for our own projects and our partners who build in Russia, and there are no problems with this, Mr Putin. Russian equipment – 90% of our production is made in Russia.

Even the film, we have a film complex, there is a slightly different technology, probably you know. It was the best in Greece. We made a film in Lipetsk, tested it in Switzerland, it surpasses this Greek one, the best, in terms of light transmission capacity. We produce everything ourselves, everything that makes economic sense. Well, we bribe something in China, some fees. There are no problems with this.

Vladimir Putin: You’re doing everything you can, aren’t you?

Alexander Rudakov: Yes.

Vladimir Putin: That’s great.

Alexey Rudakov: If we have a stronger dialogue with the Ministry of Industry and Trade, we need them to support us a little bit.

Vladimir Putin: What do you need?

Alexey Rudakov: At least by 10 percent, as the Ministry of Agriculture supports us in every possible way.

Vladimir Putin: What do you need?

Alexander Rudakov: Metalworking is their industry.

Vladimir Putin: Yes, of course.

A. Rudakov: There is also some kind of preferential financing there, and so on. We are trying to build a dialogue, but so far we have to use our own resources to implement all this.

Vladimir Putin: And the benefits and tools that we envisage for agriculture cannot be applied there?

Dmitry Patrushev: Mr President, we only have support for the production of food products, agricultural producers, but if they produce food, food. And if they do something else, we do it carefully.

Vladimir Putin: And on all sorts of investment platforms and so on?

Dmitry Patrushev: You can watch it. I think that Alexander Sergeyevich [Rudakov] and I will just think about what programs the Ministry of Industry and Trade can integrate into in order to have some benefits in terms of, perhaps, soft loans, perhaps there are some grants.

There is an industry support fund, I do not know, I am currently fantasizing whether it will be possible to use it or not, but we will think about it and join forces.

Vladimir Putin: Why is it impossible? We also have various investment platforms. Here, not just any investment platform will be used, but for agriculture. Let’s talk to Manturov.

Dmitry Patrushev: All right.

Vladimir Putin: Agreed. So you did the right thing.

N. Batrak: We will wait.

Irina Morozova: Irina Morozova, Chief Specialist of the HR Department.

I have a question, probably more of a request than yours. We have a large greenhouse complex, as already announced, 2,400 employees, but most of the employees live outside the village of Solnechnodolsk, these are rural areas and remote areas. Delivery of our employees is carried out by official transport. What’s the point? Personnel reserve. We are always waiting for people, we are always happy to see them, we have covered a large radius of settlements in order to attract people.

Vladimir Putin: How many employees do you have in total?

I. Morozova: 2400.

A. Rudakov: This was collected from a radius of 100 kilometers.

Vladimir Putin: I understood.

Irina Morozova: Even in some places there are more than 100 kilometers.

Our municipal roads are not very comfortable. There are a lot of people who want to go, but it’s not very comfortable to get there. Not only do we create conditions, people want to work, there are people who want to, but the road is not very comfortable. And especially in the off-season, it is not very convenient and problematic. I would like your help in repairing inter-municipal roads. Such a problem.

Vladimir Putin: You know, I’m going to turn back to the governor. I’ll tell you why. Vladimir Vladimirovich [Vladimirov] knows this, and we have divided our competence between the federal center and the regions. And it is divided as follows: the federal center deals with federal roads, and the money comes from the federal budget. There we have a task: to bring 85 percent of these federal roads into a standard state, and in principle the task is fulfilled.

As for the regional ones, I didn’t mention this in my Address just now, because the financial authorities there are somehow worried about the amount of funding. But now I will say that there is nothing here that is not a state secret, especially since this figure has already been mentioned, 60 percent of interregional roads need to be brought into a standard state. And appropriate finances are allocated. Whether it will work or not, I just didn’t want to get ahead of myself right now, because there are certain restrictions, because we have a lot of money allocated in other areas, in the social sphere, and we need to understand how much and what it will be possible to do there. But nevertheless, the reference point is approximate.

This is the responsibility of the regions. But we also help the regions with this, and we allocate money from the federal budget. In my opinion, 300 billion rubles were allocated last year for inter-municipal roads in general. But this is still the task and responsibility of the regions of the Russian Federation, in this case, of course, the Stavropol Territory itself.

I will ask you now, and Mr Putin will say a few words about what they are planning there. But we provide assistance from federal funds, from the federal budget.

I think that it is necessary, of course, to pay attention – not just to all the sisters in the same earrings, but in this case, when you have a large enterprise, then you absolutely need to collect employees from the district, so let’s say, of course, you need to pay primary attention to such situations.

Vladimir Vladimirovich, Izobilnensky city District is part of the Stavropol agglomeration. When you gave instructions to create the national project “Safe, High-quality Roads”, the Stavropol agglomeration was included in this project. We have received about 15 billion rubles in 6 years, in addition to the fact that our road fund has grown to 19 billion. Currently, the regulatory status of inter-municipal, i.e. regional roads in this agglomeration corresponds to 81 percent.

I think that we will work with the management, in addition to the direction of where, what is not covered. You correctly say, you cannot “by earrings”. Overall figures always look nice – we are the third best road quality company in Russia.

Vladimir Putin: So, by the way, I forwarded it.

Vladimir Vladimirov: In addition to the direction where there are difficulties on the roads…

Vladimir Putin: Until you praise yourself, not a single piglet will say a good word.

V. Vladimirov: I never promise anything, we won’t do it in a year, but within a year and a half, taking into account the design, I think that we will decide on the direction that is very important for ECO-culture.

Vladimir Putin: This is a specific enterprise.

Vladimir Vladimirov: Direction – meaning from where? Where is the bad road? You just tell me.

Vladimir Putin: It’s just a specific enterprise here. They use a vacuum cleaner to collect people from all over the area – of course, this is important.

I. Morozova: I can tell you that much. Novoaleksandrovsky district, Vorovsky farm. Problematic.

Vladimir Putin: Do you also need specialists from there?

Irina Morozova: Wait a minute. We have a large number of vegetable growers. Such work is carried out, these are the people who support production. After all, tomatoes are a colossal work. So we are waiting for everyone. Even from such a locality. And the people there are wonderful employees, by the way.

Vladimir Putin: I don’t doubt it, I don’t question it in any way.

Why did I just say that this is a regional level of responsibility? Because even when we give money from the federal budget for support, we give a transfer, we don’t ask the region where it wants to send it, it is the region itself that decides. We are sitting here right now, Vladimir Vladimirovich is listening, and of course, I am sure that he understands this very well: if an enterprise has been established, it needs to be provided with labor resources, people need to be brought in.

The same applies to transport, by the way, and we also allocate money for this.

Vladimir Vladimirovich Vladimirov: 260 buses, thank you very much, we have received them. Thank you very much for this decision, because today we cover almost all economically impractical routes with so-called municipal transport. Thank you so much.

Vladimir Putin: In six years, 40 thousand [units] of transport should be delivered additionally [to the regions].

Vladimir Vladimirov: We have just received the first ones.

Vladimir Putin: So it’s not for nothing that we discussed it.

Irina Morozova: We are expanding the talent pool of Sunny Gift and we are very much hoping for Vladimir Vladimirovich.

Vladimir Putin: Mr Putin will tell us later what exactly he decided to do.

Vladimir Vladimirov: I already remember Vorovsky.

Vladimir Putin: We need specialists from there to work at the enterprise.

With.Vorontsov: Sergey Vorontsov. I work as an agronomist here at the complex. I like my job, I like working in this industry, but when I communicate with my peers and peers, many people simply do not know what kind of job it is, what kind of profession it is, and what I do. Before I got a job here, I didn’t know that agronomists worked here.

Vladimir Putin: What did you finish?

With.Vorontsov: I’m a chef.

Vladimir Putin: Yes, but you love tomatoes.

With.Vorontsov: Yes, I love tomatoes. What do you think, maybe it’s time to somehow modernize the name, rename, maybe, the agronomist? Maybe a plant-growing designer of some sort?

Vladimir Putin: No, it doesn’t inspire confidence – the designer is a plant breeder. The content is needed, not the appearance. I do not know, you know better. I think an agronomist sounds proud. If memory serves, this word is of Greek origin. Agros is land, arable land, and nomos is a norm or law. Arable land, land and law. And this makes a lot of sense. I do not know if you think it doesn’t sound like it, but in my opinion, it is…

With.Vorontsov: Closer to the youth, maybe.

Vladimir Putin: Suggest something. I wouldn’t change it at all. The agronomist-this is me as if in jest, but I say it without joking: it sounds so solid, you know. If you know what this means and what a person does, especially in modern conditions, what is modern arable land, what is modern science about agriculture. Agronomists are in hot demand in the country today.

Dmitry Patrushev: Absolutely true.

Vladimir Putin: There is a huge shortage of good specialists. This is a very prestigious job, it requires both knowledge and good experience, and the ability to gain this knowledge again and again, because in such an area as agriculture, of course, at the pace that is gained in agriculture, in world agriculture. You know, this is also breeding, this is the same genetics, there are a lot of such high-tech things there. They require deep knowledge and the ability to constantly work on yourself.

With.Vorontsov: Can we somehow popularize this profession?

Vladimir Putin: Yes, that’s another matter, of course.

Here you are absolutely right, to show what kind of work it is, not just to walk around in knee-high rubber boots…

With.Vorontsov: Many people don’t know, really.

Vladimir Putin: Yes, you are right here. I don’t mind any innovations, but where they are needed, I don’t see the need here. But popularization, show development prospects, prospects for creative and industrial growth – this is of course. The significance of this type of activity today for the country, its charms are diverse. I repeat, from the point of view of career growth – this, of course, needs to be discussed. It’s true.

The Ministry initiated these things at that time.

To be honest, it all sounded a little unusual for me, this question, this suggestion. Because I thought that against the background of a large deficit, the demand for agronomists in the country, in the industry, I thought that this issue would be solved.…

With.Vorontsov: Maybe that’s why there is a shortage, because few people know?

Vladimir Putin: No, there is a shortage, because there is rapid development, very rapid development. How much land have we introduced recently?

Dmitry Patrushev: Mr President, we have introduced millions of hectares over the past few years. We now have a sown area of about 84 [million hectares]. It increases regularly, so, of course, specialists are needed.

We have a certain problem. Our specialized universities do not always train specialists who are in demand in agriculture. There were fashionable certain professions in their time-economists, lawyers, and they retrained. True, it was all done for extra-budgetary funds, but it was still blurry. Now we are still retraining our universities, and the main focus, the main emphasis is on those professions that are in demand in our industry, in the agro-industrial complex.

And you are absolutely right, a high-quality, professional agronomist is a profession that is currently in great demand. Alexander Sergeyevich knows that serious, professional, competent people with this profession, indeed, there is a very competitive struggle between large enterprises for them. Therefore, on the contrary, we will introduce more hours for training such specialists.

Vladimir Putin: As for the training of specialists, we do it in all industries, pay attention to the training that is in demand on the labor market and production. And these universities were transferred from you, right?

Dmitry Patrushev: No, these are our universities.

Vladimir Putin: What prevents you from restoring order then?

Dmitry Patrushev: Mr President, we are doing this. This work is being carried out quite actively, and our students who are graduating are in demand. We train high-quality guys.

Vladimir Putin: Then, you see, the result largely depends on agronomists. If not 100 percent, at least more than 50 percent, that’s for sure. And the result is what we have-such results have never been! Last year, how much, 157 [million tons of crop], right?

D. Patrushev: 147 [million tons].

Vladimir Putin: And the year before last?

Dmitry Patrushev: The year before last – 157 [million tons], in my opinion.

Vladimir Putin: Yes, 157 [million tons], then 147 [million tons] in the last year of harvest. There have never been such harvests! You see, we have become the fourth country in the world to export agricultural products. And for wheat – the first country in the world. Revenue was what-45 billion?

Dmitry Patrushev: 43.5.

Vladimir Putin: $ 43.5 billion in revenue from sales of products on the foreign market alone.

We have become one of the first countries in the world to produce meat, and this is also related to agronomic activities, because feed is needed, this is the same chain. There have never been such results in the country’s agro-industrial complex. I do not know, even under the tsar-father, probably, there were no such results.

Dmitry Patrushev: It wasn’t. There were no such technologies there.

Vladimir Putin: Everything is becoming more and more high-tech. But popularization is needed, it’s quite obvious, it’s for sure. We’ll do it, try, and say it more accurately.

Mikhail Dorokhov: Hello. I am a specialist in civil defense and emergency situations Dorokhov Maxim Vitalievich.

Vladimir Putin: What is a specialist in?

M. Dorokhov: On Civil Defense and Emergency Situations.

Vladimir Putin: It’s clear.

Mikhail Dorokhov: Our colleagues mostly talk only about their work and problems. I also have a question, but I would like to start with something positive.

Vladimir Putin: We also talk about positive things.

Mikhail Dorokhov: I want to tell you a little bit about myself. I live in a private house in a rural area. I’ve been waiting for more than five years for the gas line to come to my house. Since I had electric heating, it was very difficult for the family pocket.

Finally, in 2022, as part of the social gasification program, gas came to my house right on New Year’s Eve, December 31. I want to say thank you to the guys, gas workers, who turned on the power at 10 o’clock…

Vladimir Putin: It was a New Year’s gift.

Mikhail Dorokhov: Yes. Comfort came to the house.

When I found out that I would have the opportunity to see you, I was delighted, and I want to personally thank you from the bottom of my heart for the changes in my life that have come to my house.

Vladimir Putin: Thanks to Gazprom, not me. A little bit and they worked.

Mikhail Dorokhov: And now I have a question, a very relevant question, which concerns all the residents of our village, nearby villages and settlements. This is more than 30 percent of the residents of the Izobilny city district.

This question is “on the pencil” with our governor, but we want you to also pay attention to it and help in this matter. Our question is as follows. “ECO-culture” constantly supports our city district in financial and social matters, and it has renovated our hospital, brought it into a modern form, and there are no doctors in it. There are no doctors. We have to travel to Izobilny, often to Stavropol. The main issue is that life is solved in minutes, and Izobilny is 30 kilometers away. We ask that intensive care, surgery, and therapy return to us as before. We even had gynaecology, I’m sorry, it was the most advanced in the surrounding areas. That’s what I wanted to ask you.

Vladimir Putin: The clinic itself, or what is it?

Mikhail Dorokhov: No, this is a hospital. There used to be a maternity hospital here, and I think some of them were born here.

Vladimir Putin: Is the hospital in order now?

Mikhail Dorokhov: Yes, ECO-culture helps the village a lot. We now have a modern overhaul done, even ahead of time, before the New Year, and our governor knows, in my opinion. So what we’re asking is very important. Moreover, we already have more people in the village, it is growing, the village itself.

Vladimir Putin: How many people live there?

Mikhail Dorokhov: Well, last time there were more than 12 thousand people. And it increases.

Vladimir Putin: Yes, look, first of all, as for gasification. The program is good, we are extending it, first for a certain category of households, we did it, then expanded it to social facilities. And now, perhaps you noticed, I said in my Message that we will also distribute it to horticultural areas and partnerships. Over a million households have already used this project, one million and one-tenth. The networks are already connected to them. And we will continue to do so. I am very pleased that there are concrete results. This is the first one.

Now, the second thing is that as far as healthcare and education are concerned, by the way, it’s the same. Of course, this is one of the most important areas of rural social development. I’m not going to list everything that is being done here, but you’ve probably heard that we have introduced such tools as additional payments to rural paramedics, rural doctors, and so on. But now, I also said this quite recently, we are adding more to this (I did not accidentally ask how many people live in your village), in localities we are adding less than 50 thousand doctors to what we did before, we are adding another 50 thousand to this increase for doctors and 30 thousand for the average medical staff. In localities from 50 to 100 thousand inhabitants, the increase will be smaller: 29 and 13 thousand, respectively.

We have a big program to develop the so-called primary health care system. These are FAPs, including midwifery centers, and so on. But what should I mention? We give this money, but regional leaders should also determine priorities.

I was recently in the Tula region, came to the FAP – this is a paramedic and midwifery center, it is simple, but everything should be there in order to provide primary care to people – and the manager says to me: “And we still have several FAPs that need urgent support, restoration or even new construction”.

But the Federation only gives money, and the local leadership determines to whom in the first, second, third place and how much to give. It’s not up to us to decide, it’s up to the governor and his team, and they have to do it. We give this money to doctors and nurses, and the regional and local authorities should determine who should use these support tools first and how. They are there.

Since we are both here, the two Presidents, so I think that the Governor and I will have a separate discussion today and decide what can be done specifically for your object, for your locality.

Mikhail Dorokhov: Thank you very much.

Elena Apalkova: Mr President, your visit is a great honor for us. Once again, I would like to ask you what impression you got from visiting our greenhouse? What did you like? Or maybe, in your opinion, we need to work on something else?

Vladimir Putin: Alexander Sergeyevich said that they plan to develop and develop new areas. We must do what we can. I understand that these construction companies are also yours, right? In Lipetsk. This is a mixed type of activity being mastered.

We have now shown representatives of a young, small, but very interesting company that deals with robotics. I have already mentioned this. Apparently, you know the vending machine that collects these tomatoes. This is the second direction you have. It’s already two, three. There may actually be a lot of them. But, of course, those who are engaged in business, first of all, look at making it efficient, in order to pay salaries, in order to create jobs, in order to develop markets at home and abroad.

Since both the Minister and the governor are here, I think that we will support any initiative that will benefit you, the region, and the country as a whole. Only you formulate what you want.

Elena Apalkova: Thank you.

Alexander Rudakov: Mr President, please take this opportunity to follow up. We are building two large projects – in the Omsk region and in the Rostov region. By the way, Governor Khotsenko reported to you for our Omsk project, which we are building in Siberia. They are fully illuminated.

Could you help us with the issue of direct connection to the Federal Grid, because we are deployed at IDGC, where kilowatt-hour is twice as expensive, and we will not have savings. If possible.

Vladimir Putin: You know, it would be better if you whispered this in my ear right now. I’ll tell you why.

Alexander Rudakov: I was too shy.

Vladimir Putin: I shouldn’t have. Because connecting to these networks, as a rule, the vast majority of consumers want to be directly connected. Then who will connect to other networks and how do I maintain other networks? But it doesn’t matter, we’ll talk to you separately.

Alexander Rudakov: Thank you very much.

Vladimir Putin: Please.

Elena Apalkova: We will have a request for you.

Vladimir Putin: Please.

Elena Apalkova: Can I take a photo with you as a keepsake?

Vladimir Putin: With pleasure. [My Emphasis]

The banter in this discussion was rather hard to follow in places, particularly with Putin referring to himself in the third person. As I’ve written many times, Russia remains a developing nation in many areas that were neglected during the Soviet era. Roads are just one instance. Russia also shares the global problem of their being too few doctors in rural regions, which is related to an overall shortage of doctors. Now, in Russia the problem isn’t sky high tuitions that require massive loans to finance and then repay; rather, it’s the demographic problem that sees shortages of trained people in many areas—new specialized agronomists as noted here. The USSR tried to deal with this shortage by directly assigning people to their positions. Now that’s being done by incentive programs in pay and housing, but that still doesn’t solve the underlying problem of too few people. Putin could probably bemoan that issue everywhere he goes but doesn’t. Success at times breeds problems. The agro-industrial complex is growing rapidly and competes for workers with other areas. The problem isn’t in the lack of rural regions to develop; the problem is infrastructure of which the potential workforce is one component that can’t be manufactured. IMO, the one nation most likely to become close to having the robotic density described in Asimov’s Foundation will be Russia.

Meeting with Stavropol Territory Governor Vladimir Vladimirov.

The discussion between the two Vladimirs, one Russia’s President, the other Stavropol’s President, probably went well beyond what the transcript provides as what we read deals with some of the issues raised at the farm.

Vladimir Vladimirov: I would like to draw your attention to two aspects. As always, according to the standard report about today. Now we are on the threshold of spring field work. In general, we have almost 4 million hectares of land – 3 million 924 thousand hectares. Two million we sow for winter, winter crops, two million we sow for spring. 84 thousand pieces of equipment, and I want to say that the Ministry of Industry and Trade helps us very well here. Every year, we replace imported equipment by 10 percent. Now we have increased 10 percent again, bought 8 thousand units of Russian or Belarusian equipment, and, accordingly, we have literally 16 thousand units of imported equipment left. Everything is going well.

On seed production. We also discussed breeding work at the meeting. All from 7 to 19 percent of the replacement of imported seeds. Now we were in teplitsy, a regional investment park that we created in 2015. There is an American plant for the production of corn here, the Americans have not left, they are also working, they have mimicked the Russian jurisdiction, they are working calmly and we are already almost 50 percent provided with corn. On grain completely on 100 percent.

Socio-economic indicators. I specifically gave you six years, why? National projects, after all. We have received 131 billion rubles for national projects over 6 years. Almost all indicators are either double growth or two and a half times growth. Our exports have grown from 400 million this year to 2 billion. And here I thank the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Ministry of Agriculture, because both there and there are a billion rubles each.

By salary. Also growth, we entered 30 thousand, now we have 49 thousand salaries. GRP per capita increased by two and a half times. It was 200 thousand rubles, and today it is 450 thousand rubles per capita. Everything goes, everything turns out slowly.

By budget efficiency. The most important element, but in terms of numbers.

Vladimir Putin: Let’s see how it turns out.

Vladimir Vladimirov: Mr President, we have a record. This year, for the first time, we have passed the budget of 200 billion rubles. 10 years ago, it was 55 billion.

Vladimir Putin: And the debt load has decreased?

Vladimir Vladimirov:The debt burden has decreased: it was 130 percent, but today we have reached 23 percent. And then, 23 percent is not because we borrow something somewhere, thank you very much for the investment and budget loans. As for infrastructure, we transfer it through investment and budget loans, so they appear in the structure as over-credited, but we haven’t taken out a single ruble of loans since 2018. We go and slowly everything is replaced.

I can’t help but focus on supporting a special military operation. During this time, 19 billion rubles were allocated to support families and children who are fighting. We pay for rewards, injuries, and the loss of a breadwinner. We took over the children’s education completely. Today, we encourage contract work by making lump-sum payments through our regional budget. Now we have taken the food, the uniform, and the tuition fees have already been taken care of.

We meet people. On your behalf, I also held a meeting with the widows of our departed children. There are instructions there – they asked to increase the preparation for school, they asked me to double the payments, all this is being resolved. There were questions about registration, and now we are making changes to our legislation. We try to respond quickly to all requests that come from people. 19 billion rubles were allocated for social support, 9 billion-this is our business support for children: copters, uniforms, clothing, weapons – all that is necessary for them to be able to fight today. And about 9 billion rubles have been allocated to our sponsored territories today.

By your Decree, we had the city of Anthracite and the Anthracite district. We have restored 384 objects there since 2022, and now the third season is starting. Now, by your order, we have entered the city of Stakhanov together with the Omsk region, with Vitaly Pavlovich Khotsenko. I visited there on February 21, the same situation as in Anthracite, where Russians were deliberately killed.

Everything is ruined, everything is killed. I’m asking: what’s happening? We haven’t invested a penny in 30 years. We went to the House of Culture – honestly, there are no such people even in Stavropol. Apparently, Stakhanov was, broke through the situation at the time-he was just there in the recruit was standing. A good House of Culture – unfortunately, it arrived on purpose. Apparently, they were bombed with Hymars, and one part of the House of Culture was bombed. We will now undertake to restore it.

If you want to see – a real Stalinist Empire style. It was from 1936 to 1945 that they built it. There’s a decent House of Culture right there, and we’re going to restore it now. The pool was requested – there are a lot of questions.

Issues are resolved here. Vladimir Vladimirovich, I can’t help but stop-criticize me, of course, on the roads – I know that from the farm Vorovsky.

Vladimir Putin: Well no…

Vladimir Vladimirov: 81 percent of [roads] meet [the standards], I will deal with Vorovsky exactly, there will be no problems.

Vladimir Putin: There is a large enterprise there. Employees need to be delivered…

V. Vladimirov: BCD [“Safe, high-quality Roads”] is our most recognizable national project. Another major renovation of schools and BCD. As I have already reported to you, there are 19 billion rubles for the BCD. For an agglomeration, this is a crazy leap. 81 percent of roads in the agglomeration meet the standard, and 87 percent are located within the urban agglomeration. This is a good result. We are here-honestly – in a leading position in Russia. For private matters, it doesn’t matter: now the patching will also go. We will try to [solve it].

Vladimir Putin: Is it 30 percent higher than in the Russian Federation as a whole?

Vladimir Vladimirov: It worked, in general. Thank you to the Ministry of Transport.

Education. The most important element. I really want to say a big thank you for the school. What we have today…

Vladimir Putin: What a colleague just said at the meeting: there is not just an external update, but really deep work.

Vladimir Vladimirov: We went to the school, stripped everything down to the bare walls, and if the walls – we still have many people thrown on the crate – the crate was stripped off, everything was completely re – made – water, sewerage, electricity, weak power, fire – everything was re-made. Actually a new school. The windows, roofs, facade, and entire territory were tried [to improve] – everything works out here.

3.6 billion rubles were allocated for major repairs of schools a year – this is simply an incredible figure. Today, thank God, it works.

Rural schools – now we can go to Solnechnodolsk, each rural school has 347 growth points. This is 347 places, and children are engaged in additional education. It turns out perfectly. We have launched Sirius, we have two Avangard schools, one Warrior school, eight IT cubes and two places for robotics classes. All this is the national project “Education”. [My Emphasis]

As I said, there seems like more is there but was cut. It seems like the Governor is on top of his job. The region has certainly grown and progressed, and as with many rural Russian regions there remains lots of work to do.

The Rocky Road to Dedollarization

Par : AHH

An Interview with Sergei Glazyev, guru extraordinaire of multipolar geoeconomics… ‘the dogs bark — the Caravan of the Global Juggernaut moves on‘

By Pepe Escobar at Sputnik.

Very few people in Russia and across the Global South are as qualified as Sergei Glazyev, an academic with a prominent role within the Eurasia Economic Union (EAEU), to speak about the drive, the challenges and the pitfalls in the road towards de-dollarization.

As the Global South issues widespread calls for real financial stability; India inside the BRICS 10 makes it clear that everyone needs to think seriously about the toxic effects of unilateral sanctions; and Professor Michael Hudson keeps reiterating current policies are not sustainable anymore, Glazyev graciously received me at his office at the EEC for an exclusive, extensive conversation, including fascinating off the record odds and ends.

These are the highlights – as Glazyev’s ideas are being re-examined, and there’s huge expectation for the green light from the Russian government for a new trade settlement model – which for the moment is in the final stages of fine-tuning.

Glazyev explained how his main idea was “elaborated a long time ago. The basic idea is that a new currency should be first of all introduced on the basis of international law, signed by the countries which are interested in the production of this new currency. Not via some kind of conference, like Bretton Woods, with no legitimacy. At the first stage, not all countries would be included. BRICS nations will be enough – plus the SCO. In Russia, we already have our own SWIFT – the SPFS. We have our currency exchange, we have correspondent relations between banks, consultation between Central Banks, here we are absolutely self-sufficient.”


All that leads to adopting a new international currency:
“We don’t really need to go large scale. BRICS is enough. The idea of the currency is that there are two baskets: one basket is national currencies of all countries involved in the process, like the SDR, but with more clear, understandable criteria. The second basket are commodities. If you have two baskets, and we create the new currency as an index of commodities and national currencies, and we have a mechanism for reserves, according to the mathematical model that will be very stable. Stable and convenient.”

Then it’s up to feasibility:
“To introduce this currency as an instrument for transactions would not be too difficult. With good infrastructure, and all Central Banks approving it, then it’s up to businesses to use this currency. It should be in digital form – which means it can be used without the banking system, so it will be at least ten times cheaper than present transactions through banks and currency exchanges.”


That Thorny Central Bank Question

“Q: Have you presented this idea to the Chinese?”

“We presented it to Chinese experts, our partners at Renmin University. We had good feedback – but I did not have the opportunity to present it on a political level. Here in Russia we promote the discussion via papers, conferences, seminars, but there’s still no political decision on introducing this mechanism even on the BRICS agenda. The proposal by our team of experts is to include it in the agenda of the BRICS summit next October in Kazan. The problem is the Russian Central Bank is not enthusiastic. The BRICS have only decided on an operating plan to use national currencies – which is also a quite clear idea, as national currencies are already used in our trade. Russian ruble is the main currency in the EAEU, trade with China is conducted in rubles and renminbi, trade with India and Iran and Turkiye also switched to national currencies. Each country has the infrastructure for it. If Central Banks introduce digital national currencies and allow them to be used in international trade, it’s also a good model. In this case crypto exchanges can easily balance payments – and it’s a very cheap mechanism. What is needed is an agreement from Central Banks to allow a certain amount of national currencies in digital form to participate in international transactions.”

Q: Would that be feasible already in 2024, if there is political will?”

“There are some start-ups already. By the way, they are in the West, and the digitalization is conducted by private companies, not Central Banks. So the demand is there. Our Central Bank needs to elaborate a proposal for the summit in Kazan. But this is only one part of the story. The second part is price. For the moment price is determined by Western speculation. We produce these commodities, we consume them, but we do not have our own price mechanism, which will balance supply and demand. During the Covid panic, the price for oil fell to nearly zero. It’s impossible to make any strategic planning for economic development if you do not control prices of basic commodities. Price formation with this new currency should get rid of Western exchanges of commodities. My idea is based on a mechanism that existed in the Soviet Union, in the Comecon. In that period we had long-term agreements not only with socialist countries, but also with Austria, and other Western countries, to supply gas for 10 years, 20 years, the basis of this price formula was the price for oil, and the price for gas.”

So what stands out is the effectiveness of a long-term, long view policy:
“We did create a long-term pattern. Here in the EEC we are looking at the idea of a common exchange market. We already prepared a draft, with some experiments. The first step is the creation of an information network, exchanges in different countries. It was rather successful. The second step will be to set up online communication between exchanges, and finally we move to a common mechanism of price formation, and open this mechanism for all other countries. The main problem is that the major producers of commodities, first of all the oil companies, they don’t like to trade through exchanges. They like to trade personally, so you need a political decision to make sure that at least half of production of commodities should go through exchanges. A mechanism where supply and demand balance each other. For the moment the price of oil in foreign markets is ‘secret’. It’s some type of colonial times thinking. ‘How to cheat’. We must create legislation to open all this information to the public.”


The NDB in Need of a Shake-up

Glazyev offered an extensive analysis of the BRICS universe, based on how the BRICS Business Council had its first meeting on financial services in early February. They agreed on a working plan; there was a first session of fintech experts; and during this week a breakthrough meeting may lead to a new formulation – for the moment not made public – to be put into the BRICS agenda for the October summit.

Q: What are the main challenges within the BRICS structure in this next stage of trying to bypass the US dollar?”

“BRICS in fact is a club which doesn’t have a secretariat. I can tell it, from a person that has some experience in integration. We discussed the idea of a customs union here, on the post-Soviet territory, immediately after the collapse. We had a lot of declarations, even some agreements signed by heads of state, over a common economic space. But only after the establishment of a commission the real work stated, in the year 2008. After 20 years of papers, conferences, nothing was done. You need someone who’s responsible. In BRICS there is such an organization – the NDB [New Development Bank]. If the heads of state decide to appoint the NDB as an institution which will elaborate the new model, the new currency, organize an international conference with the draft of an international treaty, this can work.

The problem is that the NDB works according to the dollar charter. They have to reorganize this institution in order to make it workable. Now it works like an ordinary international development bank under the American framework. The second option would be to do it without this bank, but that would be much more difficult. This bank has enough expertise.”

Q: Could an internal shake-up of the NDB be proposed by the Russian presidency of BRICS this year?”

“We are doing our best. I’m not sure the Ministry of Finance understands how serious this is. The President understands. I personally promoted this idea to him. But the chairman of the Central Bank, and ministers are still thinking in the old IMF paradigm.”


‘Religious Sects Don’t Create Innovation’

Glazyev had a serious discussion on sanctions with the NDB:
“I discussed this issue with Mrs. Rousseff [the former Brazilian President, currently presiding the NDB) at the St. Petersburg Forum. I gave her a paper about it. She was rather enthusiastic and invited us to come to the NDB. But afterwards there was no follow-up. Last year everything was very difficult.”

On BRICS, “the financial services working group is discussing reinsurance, credit rating, new currencies in fintech. That’s what should be in the agenda of the NDB. The best possibility would be a meeting in Moscow in March or April, to discuss in depth the whole range of issues of BRICS settlement mechanism, from most sophisticated to least sophisticated. It would be great if the NDB sign up for it, but as it stands there is a de facto gulf between the BRICS and the NDB.”

The key point, insists Glazyev, is that “Dilma should find time to organize these discussions at a high level. A political decision is needed.

Q: But wouldn’t that decision have to come from Putin himself?”

“It’s not so easy. We heard statements by at least three heads of the state: Russia, South Africa and Brazil. They publicly said ‘this is a good idea’. The problem, once again, is there is no task force yet. My idea, which we proposed before the BRICS summit in Johannesburg, is to create an international working group – to prepare in the next sessions the model, or the draft, of the treaty. How to switch to national currencies. That’s the official agenda now. And they have to report about that in Kazan [for the BRICS annual summit]. There are some consultations between the Central Banks and Ministers of Finance.”

Glazyev cut to the chase when it comes to the inertia of the system:
“The main problem for bureaucrats and experts is ‘why they don’t have ideas?’ Because they assume the current status quo is the best one. If there are no sanctions, everything will be good. The international financial architecture that was created by the United States and Europe is convenient. Everyone knows how to work in the system. So it’s impossible to move from this system to another system. For businesses it will be very difficult. For banks it will be difficult. People have been educated in the paradigm of financial equilibrium, totally libertarian. They don’t care that prices are manipulated by speculators, they don’t care about volatility of national currencies, They think it’s natural (…) It’s a kind of religious sect. Religious sects don’t create innovation.”


Now Get on That Hypersonic Bicycle

We’re back to the crucial issue of national currencies:
“Even five years ago, when I spoke about national currencies in trade, everybody said it was completely impossible. We have long-term contracts in dollars and euro. We have an established culture of transactions. When I was Minister of Foreign Trade, 30 years ago, at the time I tried to push all our trade in commodities into rubles. I argued with Yeltsin and others, ‘we have to trade in rubles, not in dollars’. That would automatically make the ruble a reserve currency. When Europe moved to the euro, I had a meeting with Mr. Prodi, and we agreed, ‘we will use euro as your currency, and you will use rubles’. Then Prodi came to me after consultations and said, ‘I talked to Mr. Kudrin [former Russian Finance Minister, 2000-2011], he didn’t ask me to make the ruble a reserve currency’. That was sabotage. It was stupidity.”

The problems actually run deep – and keep running:
“The problem was our regulators, educated by the IMF, and the second problem was corruption. If you trade oil and gas in dollars, a large part of profits is stolen, there are a lot of intermediate companies which manipulate prices. Prices are only the first step. The price for natural gas in the first deal is about 10 times less than the final demand. There are institutional barriers. A majority of countries do not allow our companies to sell oil and gas to the final customer. Like you cannot sell gas to households. Nevertheless, even in the open market, quite competitive, we have intermediates between producer and consumer – at least half of the revenues are stolen from government control. They don’t pay taxes.”

Yet fast solutions do exist:
“When we were sanctioned two years ago, transfer from US dollar and euro to national currencies took only a few months. It was very quick.”

On investments, Glazyev stressed success in localized trade, but capital flows are still not there:
“The Central Banks are not doing their job. The ruble-renminbi exchange is working well. But the ruble-rupee exchange doesn’t work. The banks that keep these rupees, they have a lot of money, accrue interest rates on these rupees, and they can play with them. I don’t know who’s responsible for this, our Central Bank or the Indian Central Bank.”

The succinct, key takeaway of Glazyev’s serious warnings is that it would be up to the NDB – prodded by the leadership of BRICS – to organize a conference of global experts and open it for public discussion. Glazyev evoked the metaphor of a bicycle that keeps rolling along – so why invent a new bicycle? Well, the – multipolar – time has come for a new hypersonic bicycle.

Russia’s Victory in Ukraine resonates in Central Asia

Par : AHH

Russian victory against NATO and personal approach won over the Taliban and Central Asian stans

By Amb. MK Bhadrakumar at Indian Punchline

Russia’s stunning victory in the battle of Avdeevka and the rout of the Ukrainian military, boosts the credibility of Russia as provider of security for the Central Asian region. The point is not lost on the erudite Central Asian mind that Russia has single-handedly put the NATO on the back foot. 

This becomes a defining moment, as it complements the comfort level stemming out of the new normalcy in Afghanistan, thanks to Russia’s effective diplomatic engagement with the Taliban.

Yet another vicious cycle of western propaganda is petering out  — predicated on the false assumptions that Russia’s influence in Central Asia is in “decline” (Wilson Centre); that the Central Asian states are “are emerging from Russia’s shadow and asserting their independence in ways not seen since the collapse of communism in 1991” (Financial Times); that in the wake of the war in Ukraine, Central Asian leaders “might well be now considering how long Putin will be able to remain in power in Russia” (Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty).

In reality, the economic performance of the region in 2023  registered an impressive GDP growth of 4.8%. And Russia contributed to this success story. The Ukraine war led to the vacation of western firms from the Russian market, which created new opportunities for regional states. At the same time, the conditions under sanctions prompted Russian firms and capital and Russian citizens to relocate their businesses to the Central Asian region.

Central Asian entrepreneurs haven’t missed the lucrative opportunities to source Western goods and technology for the Russian market — walking a very tight rope by ensuring compliance with Western sanctions, while also nurturing their interdependence and integration with Russian markets. The recovery of the Russian economy and its 3.6% growth last year created business opportunities for Central Asian countries.

Moscow’s policies aim at a ‘Renaissance’ in the region’s relations with Russia. The new thinking in Moscow meant that Putin took a hands-on role to maintain a high momentum of contacts with the Central Asian leaderships at a personal level, making use of all available formats of interaction bilateral as well as regional. The Russian approach allowed space for the regional states to adopt a ‘neutral’ stance on the war.

A comprehension problem for outsiders is very often that the Central Asian attitudes are seldom in overt mode, and under specific circumstances (such as Ukraine war), they need to be discerned in terms of preferences. Thus, the political message out of the May 9 parade in Moscow last year when all the Central Asian presidents joined Putin at the ceremonies on the Red Square was a massive gesture of support for Russia — and for Putin personally.

Throughout 2023, the Central Asian states found themselves targeted in an unprecedented diplomatic effort by the West to uphold the sanctions against Russia. The US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and French President Emmanuel Macron visited the region. Two historic summits in the ‘C5+1’ format were hosted by President Joe Biden and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz respectively in Washington and Berlin.

But the western interlocutors refused to see the writing on the wall. Blinken’s Kazakh counterpart told him that Astana ‘does not feel any threats or risks from the Russian Federation.’ The joint statements issued after the two ‘C5+1’ summits did not even mention Ukraine!

Putin’s new thinking puts the great game on the back burner and instead prioritises the accretion of content in Russia’s relations with the Central Asian states, especially in economic and humanitarian spheres. This approach has palpably dissipated the ‘Big Brother’ syndrome. Putin’s meetings with his counterparts from Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan in Kazan  on Wednesday took place in a palpably relaxed atmosphere. (herehere and here)

Interestingly, Emomali Rahmon, Tajik president, wished not only Putin’s success “in everything you do” but his “nerves of steel” as well. Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Kazakh president underscored meaningfully that “under your (Putin’s) distinguished leadership, Russia has achieved notable, impressive successes. In fact, your statements and actions are shaping the global agenda.” Tokayev’s remark is particularly noteworthy, as western analysts had spotted him as a potential mutineer against Putin in the steppes!

However, in the final analysis, if Russia’s security relationship with the Central Asian region has transformed during the past couple of years, it is because Moscow’s coordinated efforts to forge ties with the Taliban has gained traction lately. They helped diminish the threat perceptions regarding Afghanistan in the Central Asian region.

If the traditional pattern of addressing the threat perceptions was to resort to military means and by sequestering the region from Afghanistan, Russian diplomacy switched to a radically different approach by constructively engaging with the Taliban (although Taliban continues to be a proscribed organisation under Russian law) and strove to make the latter a stakeholder in building cooperative ties within a matrix of mutual interests. It paid off.

Moscow estimated that Taliban rule has stabilised the Afghan situation significantly and it is in Russian interests to help the Kabul administration to effectively counter the extremist elements in the country (especially the Islamic State, which is known to be a legacy of the US occupation of Afghanistan.) Russia leveraged its influence with the Central Asian states to ensure that western-backed anti-Taliban ‘resistance’ forces did not get sanctuaries. 

Of course, the strategic objective is that the western intelligence will not be able to manipulate free-wheeling Afghan elements to destabilise the Central Asian region or the Caucasus all over again.

Taliban has been most receptive to the Russian overtures aimed at strengthening the Afghan statehood. Recently, Taliban went to the extent of boycotting a UN-sponsored conference on Afghanistan on February 18-19 in Qatar, which was, in reality, an invidious attempt by the US to re-engage the Taliban on the pretext of promoting “intra-Afghan dialogue” (which essentially meant the return of the West’s Afghan proxies living in exile in Europe and America.)

To be sure, the Taliban saw through the western game plan to rebuild their intelligence network in Afghanistan and countered it by setting conditions for its participation in the Doha conference, including that it be the sole representative of Afghanistan at the meeting. The Taliban also opposed the appointment of a UN special envoy to Afghanistan, whose main task would be to promote “intra-Afghan dialogue”.

The Taliban’s Foreign Ministry, in a statement ahead of the Doha meeting, accused the international community of “unilateral impositions, accusations, and pressurisation.” The most interesting part of the pantomime playing out in Doha was that at the Taliban’s request, the Russian delegation that participated in the Doha meeting refused to meet the so-called ‘civil society representatives’ from Afghanistan. It signalled that Russia has begun working with the Taliban as the de facto rulers of Afghanistan.

Indeed, the Central Asian states heartily welcome this brilliant diplomatic initiative by Russia to strengthen regional security and stability. The region’s confidence level vis-a-vis the Taliban rulers has already reached a point that at the meeting with Putin in Kazan on Wednesday, Uzbek president Mirziyoyev raised the “important question” of Uzbekistan and Russia moving ahead with the construction of a new railway via Afghanistan connecting Central Asia with the adjacent regions and the world market.

 

Two Years after 22.2.22, the West is Paralyzed

Par : AHH

Two years after the start of the SMO, the West is totally paralyzed … The geopolitical moment: “You are irrelevant, and the Global South / Global Majority don’t care”

by Pepe Escobar at the Strategic Culture Foundation.

Exactly two years ago this Saturday, on February 24, 2022, Vladimir Putin announced the launching – and described the objectives – of a Special Military Operation (SMO) in Ukraine. That was the inevitable follow-up to what happened three days before, on February 21 – exactly 8 years after Maidan 2014 in Kiev – when Putin officially recognized the self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Lugansk.

During this – pregnant with meaning – short space of only three days, everyone expected that the Russian Armed Forces would intervene, militarily, to end the massive bombing and shelling that had been going on for three weeks across the frontline – which even forced the Kremlin to evacuate populations at risk to Russia. Russian intel had conclusive proof that the NATO-backed Kiev forces were ready to execute an ethnic cleansing of Russophone Donbass.

February 24, 2022 was the day that changed 21st century geopolitics forever, in several complex ways. Above all, it marked the beginning of a vicious, all-out confrontation, “military-technical” as the Russians call it, between the Empire of Chaos, Lies and Plunder, its easily pliable NATOstan vassals, and Russia – with Ukraine as the battleground.

There is hardly any question Putin had calculated, before and during these three fateful days, that his decisions would unleash the unbounded fury of the collective West – complete with a tsunami of sanctions.

Ay, there’s the rub; it’s all about Sovereignty. And a true sovereign power simply cannot live under permanent threats. It’s even feasible that Putin had wanted (italics mine) Russia to get sanctioned to death. After all, Russia is so naturally wealthy that without a serious challenge from abroad, the temptation is enormous to live off its rents while importing what it could easily produce.

Exceptionalists always gloated that Russia is “a gas station with nuclear weapons”. That’s ridiculous. Oil and gas, in Russia, account for roughly 15% of GDP, 30% of the government budget, and 45% of exports. Oil and gas add power to the Russian economy – not a drag. Putin shaking Russia’s complacency generated a gas station producing everything it needs, complete with unrivalled nuclear and hypersonic weapons. Beat that.

Russian Winter Soldier

Ukraine has “never been less than a nation”

Xavier Moreau is a French politico-strategic analyst based in Russia for 24 years now. Graduated from the prestigious Saint-Cyr military academy and with a Sorbonne diploma, he hosts two shows on RT France.

His latest book, Ukraine: Pourquoi La Russie a Gagné (“Ukraine: Why Russia has Won”), just out, is an essential manual for European audiences on the realities of the war, not those childish fantasies concocted across the NATOstan sphere by instant “experts” with less than zero combined arms military experience.

Moreau makes it very clear what every impartial, realist analyst was aware of from the beginning: the devastating Russian military superiority, which would condition the endgame. The problem, still, is how this endgame – “demilitarization” and “denazification” of Ukraine, as established by Moscow – will be achieved.

What is already clear is that “demilitarization”, of Ukraine and NATO, is a howling success that no new wunderwaffen – like F-16s – will be able to change.

Moreau perfectly understands how Ukraine, nearly 10 years after Maidan, is not a nation; “and has never been less than a nation”. It’s a territory where populations that everything separates are jumbled up. Moreover, it has been a – “grotesque” – failed state ever since its independence. Moreau spends several highly entertaining pages going through the corruption grotesquerie in Ukraine, under a regime that “gets its ideological references simultaneously via admirers of Stepan Bandera and Lady Gaga.

None of the above, of course, is reported by oligarch-controlled European mainstream media.

“Parade on Red Square in Moscow on November 7, 1941” — Konstantin Vasilyev

Watch out for Deng Xiao Putin

The book offers an extremely helpful analysis of those deranged Polish elites who bear “a heavy responsibility in the strategic catastrophe that awaits Washington and Brussels in Ukraine”. The Poles actually believed that Russia would crumble from the inside, complete with a color revolution against Putin. That barely qualifies as Brzezinski on crack.

Moreau shows how 2022 was the year when NATOstan, especially the Anglo-Saxons – historically racist Russophobes –  were self-convinced thar Russia would fold because it is a “poor power”. Obviously, none of these luminaries understood how Putin strengthened the Russian economy very much like Deng Xiaoping on the Chinese economy. This “self-intoxication”, as Moreau qualifies it, did wonders for the Kremlin.

By now it’s clear even for the deaf, dumb, and blind that the destruction of the European economy has been a massive tactic, historic victory for the Hegemon – as much as the blitzkrieg against the Russian economy has been an abysmal failure.

All of the above brings us to the meeting of G20 Foreign Ministers this week in Rio. That was not exactly a breakthrough. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov made it very clear that the collective West at the G20 tried by all means to “Ukrainize” the agenda – with less than zero success. They were outnumbered and counterpunched by BRICS and Global South members.

At his press conference, Lavrov could not be more stark on the prospects of the war of the collective West against Russia. These are the highlights:

  • Western countries categorically do not want serious dialogue on Ukraine.
  • There were no serious proposals from the United States to begin contacts with the Russian Federation on strategic stability; trust cannot be restored now while Russia is declared an enemy.
  • There were no contacts on the sidelines of the G20 with either Blinken or the British Foreign Secretary.
  • The Russian Federation will respond to new Western sanctions with practical actions that relate to the self-sufficient development of the Russian economy.
  • If Europe tries to restore ties with the Russian Federation, making it dependent on their whims, then such contacts are not needed.

In a nutshell – diplomatically: you are irrelevant, and we don’t care.

That was complementing Lavrov’s intervention during the summit, which defined once again a clear, auspicious path towards multipolarity. Here are the highlights:

  • The forming of a fair multipolar world order without a definite center and periphery has become much more intensive in the past few years. Asian, African and Latin American countries are becoming important parts of the global economy. Not infrequently, they are setting the tone and the dynamics.
  • Many Western economies, especially in Europe, are actually stagnating against this background. These statistics are from Western-supervised institutions – the IMF, the World Bank and the OECD.
  • These institutions are becoming relics from the past. Western domination is already affecting their ability to meet the requirements of the times. Meanwhile, it is perfectly obvious today that the current problems of humanity can only be resolved through a concerted effort and with due consideration for the interests of the Global South and, generally, all global economic realities.
  • Institutions like the IMF, the World Bank, the EBRD, and the EIB are prioritizing Kiev’s military and other needs. The West allocated over $250 billion to tide over its underling thus creating funding shortages in other parts of the world. Ukraine is taking up the bulk of the funds, relegating Africa and other regions of the Global South to rationing.
  • Countries that have discredited themselves by using unlawful acts ranging from unilateral sanctions and the seizure of sovereign assets and private property to blockades, embargoes, and discrimination against economic operators based on nationality to settle scores with their geopolitical opponents cannot be considered guarantors of financial stability.
  • Without a doubt, new institutions that focus on consensus and mutual benefit are needed to democratize the global economic governance system. Today, we are seeing positive dynamics for strengthening various alliances, including BRICS, the SCO, ASEAN, the African Union, LAS, CELAC, and the EAEU.
  • This year, Russia chairs BRICS, which saw several new members join it. We will do our best to reinforce the potential of this association and its ties with the G20.
  • Considering that 6 out of 15 UN Security Council members represent the Western bloc, we will support the expansion of this body solely through the accession of countries from Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

Call it the real state of things, geopolitically, two years after the start of the SMO.

Medvedev Unplugged

Par : AHH

“A dog’s death is a dog’s death.”

Deputy Chairman of the Security Council Dmitry Medvedev gave a long interview to the Russian media. He discusses the fate of the SMO, camps for pests in Russia, and WW3 (Eng Subs). The conversation was attended by journalists from Komsomolskaya Pravda, RIA Novosti, TASS, Radio Mayak and Lenta.ru.

Transcript:

Question: Thank you for the traditional invitation to this round table Kolya the beginning of the year then my first question will be just a global one.  Judging by your January and February posts on social networks subtle discussions about preventing Etsi training, I trained for a very long time in this year from you You shouldn’t expect such subtle reasoning, what do you expect from what year

Medvedev (DM):  Well, the year is actually already in full swing, after all, it’s mid-February like this What It’s absolutely obvious that certain trends have formed, what am I waiting for, but I’m thinking how and the vast majority of our citizens are waiting for Victory in a special military operation and this is probably where all our efforts are concentrated, waiting for the return of all our defenders who are taking part in this operation. Well, it means it will work out or not. This is a question that will be resolved just this year, but the trends that have formed a lot. The sun is working and developing Despite all the difficulties of current life I hope that all this will continue and during the remaining months of the year it will be good

1:45 Well, as for subtle existential problems, you know there are always more subtle arguments, less subtle questions about the degree of depth of analysis of certain problems, which means since you are reading there mo Nina, you probably notice that there are subtle arguments interspersed with very ordinary simple ones, sometimes harsh ones, that’s why it will be both, like this

2:17 Question: Dmitry Anatolyevich I will continue; Komsomolskaya Pravda Elena Revyakina: When you were president and prime minister both in Russia and in the West you were considered, well, if you look at the top of the Russian government, you were considered very liberal democratic politicians in recent years, your political image has changed a lot and you are called the main hater on behalf of the Russian authorities on the Internet. I’ve written out some of your expressions here that have become popular. I’ll read them; “to my colleagues from The USA and the EU are Atlantic impotents, a pack of barking dogs from the Western kennel, a motley pack of grunting pigs. And in relation to the French Foreign Ministry, you didn’t even expect us to use a swear word at all. It’s interesting that in relation to you and, well, our authorities, we fortunately didn’t do that we hear.” And the question is that history is cyclical and sooner or later But you will have to put up and somehow come to an agreement, so you personally are not afraid to become an unshakable politician in the international arena. You probably want to continue your political career in this direction

3:33 DM: Well, look at – firstly, those Qualities that were attributed to me and are attributed to me are always someone’s subjective assessments, these are those who wanted to see me as a liberal politician, these are certain circles in the West in our country, some circles or people. They saw it, which means I really am like this and there remained, as they say among the Russian people, another question: that of course the external situation will change for one simple reason because we believe that we were treated unfairly with the Russian Federation and therefore harsher assessments appeared, but as for my internal assessments and feelings, I dare to assure you they are completely probably haven’t changed,

I had, like any politician, illusions that were a little different, but they didn’t change much, but recently the president said that we’ve been with them for too long and this is the phase of our country’s development, it was necessary to give them answers to all the questions earlier extremely strict form regarding the fact that I’m afraid there that someone there won’t say hello or won’t shake hands, firstly, let them ask me to give them a hand, and secondly, when relations are normalizing and I’ll say about some because recently some of them will simply die. That’s why those who want to build relations with Russia must show this in a direct, openly frank form. There are such people and of course the number will grow, but in this sense I am absolutely I am confident that in the near future there will not be a major rapprochement with the West, Western Europe, the United States of America with the Anglo-Saxon world, there is too deep a gap, a divide has formed between us, if you like, and it will be very, very difficult to overcome it.

6:04 Question:  Recently, a number of Western publications have published articles on the topic of the fact that it’s worth dreaming of some possible defeat of Russia in Ukraine Because the focus has switched, the focus of the West has switched, the focus of the United States has switched to the Middle East, so what do you think such publications say, who are they really addressed to, and what conclusions should the Western audience and the West of Eli draw from these publications?

6:30 DMWell, only the Western elites themselves, who need to be properly nurtured and give them the right signals. So before this, the main calculation was for the defeat of Russia, taking into account the hybrid war that was unleashed against us, taking into account the fact that we are opposed by the entire Western world , of course, all Westerners with what Rus is – it will collapse and be divided into parts; Russia will not have enough power to resist the Atlantic military machine. And so on and so forth, events are developing in a completely different scenario.

7:17 Well, naturally, they must react somehow. If we talk about signals like it’s time to take a break, it’s time to start negotiations to a large extent, of course, this is such a cunning move, it means it’s not very cunning, let’s be honest, but the proposal is designed for the fact that we will stop our military actions, the Russian lands will not take place, they will not return to their native bosom, and at this moment they will receive a respite, concentrate, captivity, which will turn out to be several more successful than the failure that took place last year.

8:08 This is also what such publications are designed for. Well, partly. If you want, this is part of such a propaganda campaign and even means those visits that they make to special services, punching through this story in a variety of ways. social fear of different social environments This is nano Calculated. But we are absolutely indifferent to this, let them write what they want, it means it is obvious that they cannot ignore the current situation But what is happening in the Western media is only a reflection of a real-life picture of the real-life events of the day

8:56 Question:  Dmitry Anatolyevich, Anagen and here in the last DB the success of the Russian Armed Forces near Avdeevka Yesterday literally the president met with the Minister of Defense they discussed all the details, but in Ukraine immediately after this, naturally many began to accuse the new commander in chief that it was his fault and to remind him of Russian origin here In your opinion, Syrsky and I were so lucky or is this still the result of long-term combat work and I will immediately allow myself to ask in continuation of this question, they took Avdiivka and Donetsk, well, the shelling of Donetsk continues Unfortunately, And what in your opinion are the general limits of a special military operation? Should we will reach Kiev, maybe to Lvov, will there be any part of Ukraine that we will consider a legitimate state? Whose borders will it remain? We will be ready to recognize

10:07 DMAvdiivka yesterday, an analysis was given of what happened, this is certainly a major success of the Russian Armed Forces, everyone who took part in this operation is heroes and this needs to be said directly. This, of course, is not some kind of Syrsky. But these are our valiant Armed Forces who concentrated, conducted long-term preparations and made this Breakthrough. You probably all paid attention, because such a fortified area was created in the Avdeevka area, it took more than a year or two to create, these are really very serious fortification protective structures and this made it possible to hold this settlement, so it was a difficult task, but our Armed Forces coped with it brilliantly, I want to congratulate everyone again on this event.

10:59 Well concerns where to go. Well, I’ll express my point of view, which in my opinion corresponds to the current picture of the day, we need to fully ensure our interests What does it mean to fully ensure our interests, firstly, fulfill our tasks that the president said, and secondly, create the necessary protective cordon that will insure from any kind of encroachment on our land, not only shelling but also active offensive operations, and so on and so forth, and only in this case it will be possible to admit that the tasks have been completed, I don’t know where to stop. I think that, taking into account what I said, it means we will still have to will it work a lot and seriously, will it be Kiev?

11:45 Yes Probably it should be Kiev too. If not now then after some time maybe in some kind of this conflict for two reasons [1] Kiev is a Russian city and [2] from there comes a threat to the existence of the Russian Federation International threat because at least Kiev and a Russian city by its roots, it is controlled by the International Brigade of opponents of Russia, led by the United States of America, all who formally perform their functions there are Puppets who have neither conscience nor fear for the future of their country; it is impossible that all decisions are made overseas and at headquarters NATO is absolutely obvious, that’s why Yes, it could be Kiev, which means that if something remains from Ukraine as a result of everything that is happening, then probably such a state has a chance of surviving, although not very great, which means, and in any case, this is certainly not a question for today, but it will be on the agenda after a while

13:05  We must guarantee the future of Russia and without the defeat of this nationalist pro-fascist clique in Kiev it is impossible. This regime must fall. It must be destroyed. It should not remain in this world what will be left for later what will be left in this territorial entity I can’t call it a country now, I don’t know, maybe Lemberg is a region with a center in the city of Lemberg if the Poles or some other regions are very concerned about it. But this is a complex not only military but also a political process and have your say in this in the process they must play or say only war , but the people themselves inhabiting these lands, I have said this many times, that the current Ukrainian state is dangerous for the Ukrainians themselves, and for them this choice looks like this: either life in a normal common state with Russia, or at least in some close principles to the common state of frost, we must make this choice for ourselves.

14:33 Question:  RIA Novosti Maria [sit..] continuation of the topic of Ukraine; How do you assess Zelensky’s prospects today, in your opinion, how loyal are his subordinates to him, can another coup d’etat happen in Ukraine and If so, with whom then to negotiate, if at all,

14:53 DMit is a secondary question from the point of view of who to negotiate with negotiations, a holy place is never empty As for this character, his fate is certainly sad in the history of his country in the history of the world, he will remain as the Bloody Clown who became known thanks to famous publications and who did not bring anything good to his people. Well, he will probably be remembered for the fact that he is delicately individual he played the piano with parts of his body. That’s probably all I can say about him, but the point is not in him.

The point is that the elites themselves who now rule in Kiev must leave, some out of goodness and health, and some forcibly and must appear completely different people who are aware of their responsibility for the future of the people inhabiting this complex There is still an existing entity called Ukraine, when such people appear, somehow you can negotiate with them, although we did not refuse negotiations even with this clique, but you yourself know that they did, they forbade these negotiations for themselves, and even attempts by Western countries to push them in this direction have not yet brought success. You can understand why. Therefore, they will realize. As soon as they say, We are ready for negotiations with the Russian Federation, and their conditions are understood; this recognition of the results will immediately tear off their head. will be demolished And therefore they naturally try as much as possible to delay the moment when they have to pack their bags and leave there for Warsaw or London. Well, this is the best

16:57 Question: case of the technical options about how Ukraine will disappear from the world map; the best was considered the third when the Western lands join a number of EU countries, people central and some other economically unruly regions declare self-determination by joining the Russian Federation; Hungary, Romania and Poland, as you know, have already made territorial claims of their own. This year, at the end of last year, more and more people are appearing in the west. As you just said. We discussed supporters fix the situation along the line of military conflict, but at the moment it’s the end of February, according to which of your options are events currently developing?

17:36 DMWell, in fact, none of these options can yet be rejected, the main thing is that events are developing as a whole in the trend that I’m talking about wrote, it means how it will all end with slow erosion and the fall of power in Kiev or the instant collapse of the call system and the rapid replacement of the main political characters, it’s difficult to say yet, but this process is underway and obviously it cannot be stopped, and everything that happens on the line of combat contact, everything that happens in the holding area its the best proof of these trends. I don’t know how it will happen. I don’t know, but it will happen without any doubt and everyone understands it, so a lot of analysts are there either openly or those who are still afraid and embarrassed somewhere on the sidelines are saying that Well, that’s it That’s how we will certainly not be able to defeat Russia there in this sense. Although publicly they declare all sorts of nonsense, they carry some kind of political blizzard, such as that we should not allow Russia to win this war.

I was recently forced to speak out on this very topic. This is what it means to prevent Victory This means on the terms on which Kiev speaks, that is, to take away from Russia our territories that were included in the Constitution of the Russian Federation as a result of a referendum and that means our new lands were annexed. Our subjects of the Federation returned to Russia. Well, it’s clear this is a global catastrophe. This is a real full-fledged Third World War. Knowledge of all sorts of shoals and other things they are designed only for the public. They themselves are not into it. they believe but are forced to repeat it like a mantra simply in order to justify the gigantic expenditures on the corresponding military budgets. Well, so far everything is developing. It is according to this scenario of more accurate forecasts

19:57 Question:  Yushchenko in his interview with Deutsche Welle said I allow myself to quote the question not in Putin, but the bearers of Putinism are 140 million of these little Putins who need to be destroyed. Do you think our media should rebroadcast such statements in order to show the essence of this Nazi regime and all the Elites in Ukraine, or, on the contrary, it is better not to focus attention on such statements, which are essentially a call for genocide?

20:32 DMmy opinion should be emphasized to the maximum extent Yushchenko is rare with a lumpy one so nasty that it ’s unpleasant even to look at on TV, but this information must be conveyed to everyone in the world and socially to the military personnel who defend our country, this opinion despite my assessment of this character of the former president of Ukraine means they are in something then they try to reproach But the former president of Ukraine makes such statements, however, his essence was clear to me, in any case, already in 2010, when I was forced to give the future president the most harsh assessment of the leader of Ukraine, which was extremely unusual in general for the period, we still tried with them somehow building relationships and so on, but already then, in fact, he actively began to move towards NATO and well, preparing for a war with Russia, it’s not even Kuchma who said that Ukraine is not Russia. This is a completely different character, that’s why my opinion about it it needs to be told so that everyone knows that.

21:54 Question:  I stated that Odessa can be both a bone of discord and a symbol of conflict resolution; since then, monuments to Empress Catherine II have been demolished in Odessa. And in recent months, there have been discussions about dismantling the monument to Prince Mikhail Vorontsov, which stood even in Soviet times on the spot Here’s How do you assess such a policy of the Ukrainian authorities, what can Russia oppose to the destruction of Russian cultural historical heritage other than military force and what fate would you wish for Odessa and its residents?

22:32 DMWell, about Odessa, I can just say Odessa come home and that’s it. So we’ve been waiting for Odessa in Russia Federation, even due to the history of this city, what kind of people live there, what language they speak, this is our Russian city. As for their behavior of this clique of the Kiev regime of Kiev, but at least this is short-sighted because they thereby simply alienate some of the people even those who were loyal until recently Their authorities Well, in general, it looks monstrous because we are talking about measures to counteract the entire Russian culture in general and our entire common path. Well, they are demolishing monuments. We have never even thought about this, all the main Ukrainian characters with the exception of outright Nazis, Banderites of various kinds. So we have always treated them with respect.

I’m not even talking about those people of those classics who, in general, are the pride of the Ukrainian people in the known world and the Ukrainian people were, I mean, Shevchenko. Although he a significant part of the works was written in Russian by Lesya Ukrainka, I’m not talking about Gogol, who is generally one of the outstanding Russian Ukrainian writers, as if immediately answering the question that may arise here, I proceed from the fact that in general the Russians of Ukraine are one people , which means this started talking only in XX century after the destruction of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, this is one people. Yes, there are linguistic features ; there is a classical Russian language; there is a South Russian dialect; years they were together, they were separated by various historical events.

Well, I’m not even talking about the fact that Russia at some point was forced to come to the aid of the inhabitants of these Little Russian territories and drive out all the uninvited guests there. The Poles and others concluded the necessary agreements that allowed this part of Russia to develop autonomously and not under the heel of individual Western countries, the composition of Ukraine actually included certain territories that are not directly related to Russia, this is true, but there are different moods and different approaches, and they were always looking in a certain direction, you know, it was always like that.

[I] was probably about 15 years and the school and I went to Tallinn. Well, Tallinn also had its own moods, that was known. But nevertheless, we were accepted there as schoolchildren. We were placed as I remember now, in the sports hall, we were put to sleep on mats, which means that suddenly, we were almost lost there, as they say. a crowd of guys come in, so dressed up, excited, says Let’s go talk Well, we went together Swa where the schoolchildren are from, the same as and say Lvov no, everything was decent, we chatted something there, talked, but you know what I noticed, it was extremely surprising for me, I was normal, normal A Soviet schoolboy, this is some kind of eightieth howl, the first year in their words. And these were children, there was an undisguised hatred for everything Soviet. Well, and partly Russian, for me, as a person who was brought up in international traditions, we didn’t even know who was what nationality in the class. It was very It’s amazing.

Maybe at first I didn’t even attach such importance to it, I didn’t attach such importance, but then I understood. These children who came to meet us were also children from the families of those same Banderites who were brought up in this atmosphere and already, what is called mother’s milk, absorbed hatred to everything Russian. But this is a completely special part of that territorial community, I cannot call it in the full sense a country, and then it was not a country, it was just a republic within the USSR which was called Ukraine, as you know, appearing there as a result of the political events of the first half of the century. I remembered this and wanted to tell you.

28:12 Question: Thank you. About relations with the United States. I wanted to talk what do you think if Trump wins the American elections Will it be more convenient for Russia to build relations with him and in general is it possible to improve relations between Russia and America in the coming years. If yes, under what conditions could this happen and is it possible to return to at least a discussion of treaties that have ceased to be valid?

28:42 DM Now my current position allows me to speak more categorically openly than in certain other periods without regard to the need to build [communication]. I will answer simply Marie, [it] impossible in the coming years of the decade. There will be no normal relations between the United States of America after what happened and, by and large, we are absolutely indifferent to who is at the helm of power in the United States. Yes, they have personal characteristics. Although, looking at the current president and the previous one, I always get the feeling, I don’t know about you, that I watching comics. In a certain sense, the heroes who uttered memes form memes, which means that they are the reason for endless jokes and everything that the Internet and social networks are replete with.

29:53 Why am I talking about this? Well, compare, let’s say Biden on the one hand and Roosevelt, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Nixon, Ford, […] America is strong here I am I ask you not to think about some kind of conspiracy theory. I talk about this completely seriously when they talk about the deep state, if you don’t take any stupid theories. But to be serious, this deep state is just a very strong state apparatus at the middle level that doesn’t care who is in power a democrat or a republican, a funny grandfather who forgets the names of the leaders of other countries or a completely strong leader of the state, the APT holds the VH that allows America to overcome a variety of obstacles, in fact, to create such a state apparatus is a very serious and big task and this must be treated with respect This allows them to overcome a lot of difficulties.

31:13 But even this state apparatus is not able to fully remove the problems and contradictions that this or that leader can bring , but when you look at what is happening on the border with Mexico, I can hardly imagine this under another president. Well that there is direct disobedience of the Federal authority and the supreme ruler, so to speak, of the United States cannot do anything about it when the head of the state says I will not carry out your instructions, we will not carry out the decision of the Supreme Court, we do not obey the National Guard, we obey our laws and we have our own guard We will carry out these tasks in this sense, this is such a very colorful touch showing the depth of the contradictions and they are connected with the fact that the states are trying, despite their waning strength, to play first fiddle in the international arena instead of really in this case it is difficult to disagree with a number of legislators in In America, instead of strengthening their own country, deal with these problems at the border and solve social problems there, which are more pressing problems that in any state, including rich America, they spend hundreds of billions of dollars on a country that for most Americans does not know Where it is Well, this is a well-known thing Ask where e Ukraine, they will be there for a long time looking for where it is on the world map And that it is clear that this money largely goes to maintaining the military-industrial complex of the United States But on the other hand, it is not spent on social tasks, economic tasks are also of a different order. That is why giving so much a detailed answer with whom it is better for us to work, it doesn’t matter who we work with, because we have direct antagonism now and this gap will not be bridged in the next year.

33:14 Question:  Dmitry Anatolyevich developing the previous question and when Europe stops listening to the USA and to be their salt?

DM:  you know by these things the feelings that I now have in the coming years this will not happen for several reasons, firstly, the Americans took very good advantage of the weakness of Europe, they recaptured a number of economic spheres from them, they completely ensure their security, that is, the Europeans march in formation on the orders of the United States, and secondly, in Europe about m as you have said many times, a generation of dull Technocrats has arrived who are only separated by the Eurohangar, […] again Compare Macron and many of his predecessors to the same Mitterrand whom Biden confuses with Macron But these are different presidents and Francois Mitterrand and Immanuel Macron are different presidents, maybe this will be important information for them, but I’m not talking about General de Gaulle. Compare the liverwurst of Scholz and Kohl or Schmitt. These are different politicians.

The previous generation had well, what is called the internal strength to object on issues important to their countries, this does not mean that they they went over to our side or abandoned some European ideals, no, but they could secretly object that during the period when De Gaulle was President of France, France suspended participation in the military component of NATO considered this correct. Can you imagine that now at least someone about he stuttered about this and they will tear him into pieces, he will say yes, the Russians will attack us instantly again, the Cossacks will gallop around Paris and it means that there will simply be a world collapse, which is why it means that in this sense there is no way to talk to.

35:58 If such people appear, it will be easier to find a common language with them. I hope that they will appear, if not tomorrow, then the day after tomorrow. It’s just that people will ask such people to come because they will feel that the current generation of politicians does not live up to their hopes, technically, it’s possible to redly close to six hundred. I was on M.

36:31 Question:  You just touched on several already now which you’ve raised several times on social networks the topic of possible Independence of the state of Texas Could the situation with illegal migrants lead to the loss of a star on the US flag and the emergence of a new independent state?

DM:  I wrote in my humorous forecast that this will happen. Now we are all waiting for the conclusion of an agreement on friendship and cooperation between the TPR and the DPR of the Texas people republic and the Donetsk People’s Republic But in fact, speaking seriously Just 20 years ago this would have seemed nonsense Yes United States Federation The Federation has more internal problems, we know from the experience of the Soviet Union and our experience too, but nevertheless it is a very strong country Leader There and so on, and now this is a completely discussed main thing. Why Because there has been such a division of values, if you want, even a civilizational one between parts of America, and the relationship between supporters of the Democratic Party and the Republican Party used to laugh, they said yes, it’s all the same thing, it’s all big capital from them It means they have a unified position, they just put forward certain points that they use during the election campaign. But now you can’t say that anymore, it’s not a difference in ideology, but the fact that they don’t hear each other and even hate each other.

38:21 Look what the attitude of the nuclear democratic electorate is to Donald Trump, they hate him more than all of us put together because they see him as a threat and, on the contrary, the Trumpists, the conservative wing of the Republican Party, believes that this course of the Democrats of this frenzied globalization will lead America to a dead end from here yes So this is the slogan of [MAGA]. The Revival of internal forces America is actually their problem. But the fact that this will happen 20-25 years ago was impossible to imagine, but it happened. This is precisely because of the mediocre course pursued by the US leadership after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

39:25 Question:  Well, that is, a state may appear, but

DM:  Well, it seems to me I said this, isn’t the agreement between the People’s Republic and the DPR a sign of the statehood of the Armed Forces? Maybe now this is really not an excluded option, as they themselves talk about it. By the way, if you think that we are very happy about this, then no. Because with all the costs of coexistence, let’s say honest enmity united states for It is more important for us that there be a situation there than for a managerial collapse to occur or some unpredictable civil war to break out like in the 19th century.

Well, for one simple reason, America is still the most important world player; America has colossal military potential; America is our direct enemy in this sense, but on the other hand parties partner for negotiations on nuclear potential America Unfortunately for the world, the ENO is the leading issuer of a reserve currency, if this currency is crap, then in fact there will be consequences. For everyone, this also needs to be aware of this; it is necessary to gradually displace the dollar from the first positions; there must be a set of reserve currencies what we have been talking about for decades Yes, but if you suddenly pull out the dollar, the balance between reserve currencies in the world needs to develop electronic currencies, digital currencies are the future. But you need to understand the risks that exist

41:10 Question:  In the Middle East, the situation is also tense. And what will happen if Iran gets involved military conflict, can this completely switch the attention of the backside from supporting Ukraine and breaking this and [Mikh]

DM:  About the dream of that character who is now sitting in Kiev that all attention will be switched by an element of the psychotype if a person is used to an actor playing there That’s how I said on different instruments that absence his attention makes him completely unsure that I am not needed, this is sad, but in fact, the World lives, of course, according to different laws, attention and so will largely be diverted from Ukraine in the Middle East and in a number of other regions, Iran, which you mentioned, seems to me to be very occupied a balanced, calm position does not allow itself to be drawn into any showdowns.

This speaks of the wisdom of the leadership of the Islamic Republic of Iran, but in the end, no matter how trivial it may sound, in everything that happens there, the sleepy States are to blame, again. This is who is blocking the fulfillment of the year on the creation of the Jewish and Arab states The Americans have been blocking for many decades, the first few decades they behaved more or less normally and then they stopped being active here, and we understand that the controlling stake in the settlement in this region in Chita lives in the decision-making autonomy of the Israeli authorities, this is of course not the case and they largely dependent on financial and military assistance from the United States.

Therefore, if the United States wanted peace in the Middle East, in any case, by creating two states, these decisions would be much better to manage the conflict from the point of view of the leadership of the United States of America, divide and rule, it is easier to give everyone a little and to show their indispensability, all the more so. They believed in this again after the disappearance of the Soviet Union from the world map because the Soviet Union was still quite actively pursuing its own policy in the Middle East, then a vacuum arose and the United States decided that they were in control of everything there, but the result was that [conflicts of interest] killed it is sad

44:00 Question:  You just spoke about the USA as a nuclear power I have a question about the use of nuclear weapons if it seemed like it a year ago Well, some horror stories and you also somehow spoke about it quite easily, but now your rhetoric is again is changing to a tougher one and you are talking about the threat of using nuclear weapons. Well, it seems quite serious in the public space. And we all understand it like this, if humanly. Yes, understand that if Russia, for the same reasons for itself , presses the nuclear button, then overseas it presses the answer is well, or on the contrary, they press, we press this is a threat to all humanity and probably there are not so many masochists even in the highest echelons of power, after all. Explain how scary these are or do you really believe in the reality of such a scenario, we need to now at least all of us run to some kind of bunker

DM:  Well now there is no need to run. But no matter how sad this scenario sounds, this scenario is real, this scenario is real, we must do everything to prevent it from happening. But this very clock that is ticking there in a certain direction has now accelerated very much and in this I also see the inability. Excuse the impotence of these Western authorities who constantly repeat the same thing No, this is the Armed Forces, the Russians are scaring them, they will never do this, they are mistaken.

45:26 If we are talking about the existence of our country, I also said this recently. What choice will be left for leadership for the head of state , no, that’s why this is unfortunately real the existing threat is a direct and obvious threat to all humanity, there are also arguments that, unfortunately, can be given in this direction, firstly, when humanity created something from weapons. It was always used. [i.e.] by the Americans. What do they think? By the way, they dealt a then unnecessary blow to Japan, which was our common enemy And after that that ‘s all Nobody will ever take this out of the Arsenal, I’m not even talking about our nuclear weapons now, that’s not true, there can be a lot of motives. This first and second is also an accident from which no one is immune, and the accidental unintentional start of a nuclear conflict cannot be dismissed as accounts, therefore, all these games around Ukraine are extremely dangerous

46:43 Well, look, if it occurs to someone, and periodically these clever guys in NATO talk about this. So they will put planes to fly for them While there is nowhere special from Ukraine, let some Starton plane from a NATO country take it this is an attack on Russia I won’t even describe further What can happen Although it can happen Well, almost by accident and not intentionally it may not even be sanctioned at the level of the entire leadership of NATO and the United States as the holders of the main, so to speak, NATO package and the main levers, so unfortunately such a development of events. Perhaps we must do everything to prevent this from happening.

47:36 Unfortunately all instruments of control, full-fledged nuclear deterrence, they are now destroyed, in our opinion, thanks to the efforts of Western countries, because even the last agreement that we once signed with both Obama and which was extended Vladimir Vladimirovich, together with Biden, he has now practically exhausted himself; other agreements are also practically ineffective. So the world is in a tense state.

Question:  Well, there’s no need [for use of nuclear weapons] for now.

DM:  Yes [there’s no need], but I won’t deceive the readers of Komsomolskaya Pravda or all those present; this is not whipping up passions. This is just a reason to think about where For some reason, we people, you know, when we think, well, we almost started a nuclear war, but that was a long time ago, it wasn’t true, it was there because of Cuba, it was also because of something, and now it’s impossible. What’s the difference? in no way is the situation even more tense, then there was no conflict between Russia and America. But now it exists and everyone understands it. That ’s how

48:48 Question: I would like to defuse the situation a little, so let’s talk about the future. Well, in particular, let’s probably turn to the internal agenda and talk about those who have returned Russian regions, this is how it is in the Russian leadership the situation there is being assessed from the point of view of the political construction of economic restoration. Surely there is such a problem as waiting, what should those people who do sports do with them? Because it’s more convenient And deep down they are waiting for the arrival of Ukrainian tanks and there is one more nuance, it’s quite subtle and probably painful. But for sure there are people who are registered according to documents somewhere in the regions of Donbass, but it so happened that they are fighting in the ranks of the Armed Forces, no one canceled the oath And when it all ends when it ends when we win [Medvedev interjects: When we win unconditionally] And what will happen to them will they receive Russian passports or what

50:04 DMWell, look, it means about the general situation with new regions, new subjects of the Russian Federation, they are developing, there are obvious changes for the better, the housing stock is being restored, industry is being restored within certain parameters , the social sphere is being restored, payments are being made, this is seen by the people who live there, the situation is different everywhere, there are regions and, say, populated areas points that live essentially on the line of combat contact, this is a very difficult story, our people there risk their lives every day and everyone needs to remember this. These people are essentially at the front, but nevertheless life is changing and a lot has already been done there, but not enough to to give life to the level that we expect is the task set by the president by this year so that, according to the main parameters, the residents of these territories of these regions are equal to other regions of our country; this task is absolutely feasible.

Just look at our experience that we gained in Crimea when I went there for the first time got it It seemed to me that a generation separates us from the point of view of the development of the social sphere of medicine and education. Well, nothing [did not happen] in just 5 years, everything has been greatly improved, and here the same can be done, but only when everything is finally decided on the military front, which means this is the first thing.

As for the people, you know, there are different people there, you said, they sit and wait for Ukrainian tanks. I think there aren’t many of them there. There are just people who sit and think, that’s how the Whites will come and rob, the Reds will come to rob, which means in other words, who will be stronger, that’s who we will serve.

There are certainly such people there, but nevertheless, we must work with everyone, so to speak, there is nothing like that if it’s just caution. Well, we need to convince these people that we are back forever, if these are people who are harming Russia, they need to be exposed and punished — sent to Siberia so for re-education correction to labor camps. As for those who are now fighting, you understand, well here what can you remember what events in the history of the [last] century, but when did the Second World War end, the leaders of Hitler’s Germany, the NSDAP SS activists, the party and political apparatus were tried.

Well, some they executed a few, some were simply convicted, but the vast majority of participants in the corresponding German military machine returned home; they were forgiven if they were not convicted of crimes against humanity in genocide, extermination of people on ethnic grounds, and so on. In a certain sense, the same scale should be applied here. We don’t destroy prisoners, on the contrary, we treat them humanely, as you can see lately, They are actively surrendering, but they understand that they are still a pony in the middle.

53:58 Question:  United Russia is taking part in the preparation of Putin’s election program and your forecast for the elections. What do you think? what will the result be?

DM:  The President is the leader of our country. The United Russia party, as is known, unanimously supported his candidacy at its congress. We are trying our best to keep this in mind. Vladi is in order, he has enormous authority in our country. As for the election program, the President himself forms it.

Moreover, I’ll say straight out that the president’s program can be broader than the program of United Russia, even taking into account the fact that the president is supported not only by those who vote for a bully candidate, so that means we will certainly be ready to implement the ideas with which the president goes to the polls, some of them, well essentially in this pre-election vein. He will probably voice this during the delivery of his message at the end of the month.

Well, as for the forecasts for everything else, I think there is no doubt that Vladimir Vladimirovich will win these elections and show the highest results.

55:27 Question:  Dmitry Anatolyevich is no secret that you are an active Internet user. [DM: Well, yes..] and in this regard, your opinion is very interesting. Is it necessary to block the external Internet and how to provide, well, some kind of protection against well, our Internet space from toxic content from Internet scammers who simply demonstrate miracles of ingenuity in an attempt, [DM: they are scammers] and you guys are chasing money, but what’s the saddest thing is that these funds often go to our enemies to support the Armed Forces and some other things that are destructive for us, this is like one moment, and I also have one here in question, probably Well, not directly related but indirectly, we often talk about the need to ensure intellectual sovereignty, and our citizens are also savvy here, probably. Well, in your opinion, it plays an important role. Is it necessary to speed up the announced Steps on education reform?

56:40 DM:  You have several questions, which means I’ll start with: Do we need to isolate yourself No, of course, yes, this is almost unrealistic in the modern world. You can tweak something a little, block something, let’s put it bluntly. But completely isolating it is unrealistic and not necessary, the more such segments arise, the more interest there is in them; you need to understand that

Another question is that you really need to put blocks on destructive things destructive various kinds of criminal activity, for example, there are the same [as] drugs and so on. But this should be very, very selective with regard to the protection of our critical technologies, our elements of critical information infrastructure. This is the most important task that was set in general. We need to move faster for quite a long time. You know, I head a commission on this, so to speak, digital sovereignty on critical information technologies, there is a task to bring all the software regarding critical infrastructure to Russian rails, the task is not easy because we don’t have everything, plus it exists.

Well, such conservatism of thinking in companies is because foreign is better than ours and therefore Let us work on it some more, but everyone was convinced that such threats exist after the way Western countries behaved, for example with ordinary household appliances, people bought cars from them, then there are no updates, but it’s just a car or something else some kind of equipment. When we are talking about power plants, elements of other infrastructure, key transport, and so on. This is already a very serious threat.
Therefore, we will definitely cover this topic. Promoting concerning education reform, in view of what exactly is in the reform?

58:53 Question:  Well, now we very often have, as it were , and we are trying to build a patriotic Education education and a savvy person, he resists much more easily the same destructive content, he just bounces off it, it does no good [DM: black is always capable of distinguishing from white], so then it’s not scary to have to be poisoned by some kind of iron curtain of the Internet, and so on

DM:  I understood yes. Well, of course, it’s absolutely certain that a person who is well advanced in these areas is easier to navigate in this and it’s more difficult, so to speak, for scammers to have a conversation with him although every time they come up with something new. But this is a question of general enlightenment. Look at how it happened Well, I probably remember this You also, one way or another, remember Russia’s integration into the Internet environment when the Internet became popular among us

Well, this is not about the nineties Although a user In the nineties of the Internet, some people, especially people of the older generation, believed everything that was on the Internet, well, on TV they always tell the truth. Yes, in the newspapers they always write the truth and Wikipedia tells the truth Pete Ilya VN information, she was prepared to visualize and then growing up came.

I’m not talking about what to believe. no one is allowed, but still, a significant part of almost everyone in our country today understands that there can be lies and fakes on the Internet and everything. What is connected with this in the future there will be more [technology] most likely to the fact that we will have to expose various falsehoods on this topic and that means fighting these fakes, since this is already happening now, so education in this area is necessary. You are right. But you know, as if I would say this is not just some kind of courses, it seems to me a general maturation of the audience.

Strangely enough, our children are often in this I mean, Horseshoe is better than a child, they have been using all this since childhood and they understand that it’s all wrong, it’s all not working, it’s all there, so to speak, somehow they’re talking in a different language. If you paid attention to how millennials communicate, zoomers communicate. It’s like that further This is a slightly different language Although it irritates me now to say it, but this is already the grumbling of an adult. That’s why society will grow up. This is obvious, but we must move society towards this, probably , we probably need to make some decisions in education too on this topic

I really to be honest, I can’t even imagine what the basics of information hygiene are. It seems to me that this is a course that is unlikely to be difficult, unlikely to be easy to teach, but I’ll say it again, I don’t even have some skills in this sense, but who more often falls for the bait is precisely people who are more adults who didn’t have this information hygiene that you said since childhood That is, they just absorbed it all And absorbed it all, we just need to fight the scammers This is absolutely obvious.

1:02:43 Question:  Let’s talk about the economy. Is there any hope that Russia will return frozen assets Do we need them or will we be able to survive and without these 2, if the West comes up with a withdrawal mechanism, how can we respond?

DM:  I will express my position. I think that the chances of returning this money are small, although I feel sorry for them, but this is an element of confrontation, part of that hybrid war that is unleashed against us. Note, I want to draw attention to one point that they understand in the West, look, the West is legally not officially a participant in the war with our country. The West did not declare war on Russia, but we did not declare war on the European Union, on Western
countries.

Yes, we understand there is a hybrid war going on, they pump them up with weapons with money, instructors. But officially, and this is very important, we are not in now here is a continuation of the thought Why in certain cases a country pays reparations because something is confiscated from it, confiscated because other countries are participants in the conflict with it, they are in a state of war, and the West is with us and it talks about it all the time in the Kama Foundation

Because of this, they have such confusion in their brains, “I want to take it away, I want to give this money to the Ukrainian authorities” and with on the other hand, this is an explosion, this is a hacking of the legal world order, this is a rejection of the principles of the basic principles of protecting global private property, and so on, which has already been there for hundreds of years, which is why this task is still difficult for them.

But if they want, of course, they will refuse everything based on their principles and take it away this is the Sun. We will survive without this. As for our answers, they may be different, there are even a number of decisions on this matter, but they are still of such a fragmentary nature; for obvious reasons, we do not have investments from foreign countries on our territory on which we could impose our own penalties This is how our investments are, let’s say.

But we have a fairly large fund of obligations for which we must fulfill something in relation to Western investors, this set of obligations is estimated differently, but it can range from 250 to 300 billion dollars, this is completely different history, but in principle it is asymmetrical; the answer in this case will not be fulfilled by the private investor, although we would frankly not really want to go down this path. But this is still just reasoning out loud. Moreover, no decisions have been made there either, even regarding income for our assets but most likely this will happen I think. We are preparing for this.

1:06:25 Question:  About Texas you said but about the Texas problem I aggravated a little the marketplace losses were quite large and again raised a painful issue around the topic of migration – this is ethnic crime and unwillingness to follow the norms of our society and in the current conditions There are risks of using the migrants who are here with us for sabotage purposes. You yourself said that the situation should not be allowed to destabilize due to conflicts between migrants and the local population. Now maybe it’s time to tighten the migration policy in your opinion.

DM:  Well, if we talk about various types of criminal actions. Here you are they mentioned sabotage and so on in fact Unfortunately, not all acts of sabotage are committed by migrants, we understand that some of them will be committed by our criminals who did not migrate at all and who were bought by traitors, which is why we should immediately say here that it all came from there incorrectly and the migration problem is complex American — here is an example that we just spoke to you proves that there are migration problems that are much more complex than those that face our country.

So, in short, I will say that those who commit crimes on the territory of Russia among migrants are subject to strict criminal liability in this There can be no doubt about those who are legally obedient participants in trade relations of economic relations in our country. Well, that means they can actually come and work. You and I understand that without this source of labor resources we also very often cannot survive.

But what needs to be done? And this is this probably the main thing is to put everything under control. And this can be done through digital services that are now being actively implemented and such a task has now been set, because what is the problem, some people are moving in under someone else’s name, there is even such a topic as the difficulties of transliteration, one letter changes And we no longer understand the same person is not the same person whether he has an entry ban or not. He has a ban.

This database needs to be digitized by the Armed Forces and then the situation will become much more manageable, in other words, these processes need to be managed competently. We are learning to do this. Although there are problems here, this is true, but without any doubt, we will have to do this precisely because our situation as a whole is not the simplest right now. [Q: That is, like in Europe.] Yes, yes, I mean this, including biometrics.

But this is an even broader statement of the problem in addition to biometrics. just so that all this is in a single database and not scattered across different sources because often in one place they don’t know what was done in another, such a universal database with elements of biometric information that you are talking about will allow you to put it under control And of course In general, the practice of applying Russian administrative and criminal law should also be used with all its might; those who were told at some point goodbye should no longer return.

1:10:10 Question:  Dmitry Anatolyevich I’ll touch on the military topic again, but from a slightly different angle, all the form of armature in parades, but the WTO when qi old tanks Really someone threw dust in the eyes of the management by talking about the successes of the Russian defense industry and now you are visiting enterprises, inspecting in your opinion whether there is enough capacity to realize your goals and whether there are problems with personnel because the enterprises work 24/7, enough for specialists?

DM:  Clear means, (well parades are parades and war is war). These mean completely different things. And here you just need to understand the different criteria that are used. The Armata tank is a new tank, it has not yet been fully tested, it is not the cheapest Tank. We have other tanks that are brilliant have proven themselves during their period, this is
the T90m breakthrough, which the president recently called the best tank in the world. I would like to completely share this position. All my conversations, for example, with those who take part in it both at the training grounds and, in fact, on the line of combat contact prove that it is just that simple. I’m here

When I came to inspect individual recruitment units under a contract, the commanders, the combat commanders who were in the front line, they are forming a unit then they will leave, they asked, they say, help us get the T90, this is a very good weapon, but also other tanks . Well, if we started talking about tanks, the T-80 BVM and T-72 B 3M Why do I call these letters with numbers modernized Tanks? Yes, their project is, well, the eighties and seventies, so to speak. But these tanks definitely show themselves no worse and better than Western ones, especially in the modernized version. But the most important thing is that we were able to supply armored vehicles to the Armed Forces and this equipment is used, these are thousands and thousands of armored vehicles.

1:12:54 Now regarding the military-industrial complex. Well, you need to understand that the military-industrial complex or the defense-industrial complex works differently during military operations and in ordinary life; no one ever produces weapons of destruction only to the warehouse This is absolutely obvious during the period of hostilities. It takes completely different forms as with work in three shifts are huge. We have a defense order for individual positions, but about tanks. I said through defeat. I mean missiles, shells, bombs, production there has increased from DH to 10 or 15 times, that is, by 1%, this allows us to actively use them in combat work and in general, to achieve results, therefore, the defense industry In my opinion, it passed the test, it has proven itself in the best way, quite

By the way, read Western analytics, at first they scoffed, they said, they are pulling out something old, they are missing this, this is not enough, and now we have piled on everyone with NATO and we will be them supplying all this means tanks and shells and walkie-talkies, and that means UAVs and so on, but now they don’t laugh anymore. They see that in a significant part of a significant part of the components we are superior to them.

A separate issue is unmanned aerial vehicles, before we really started ours, this component was not really was well developed, this is true, but to the credit of the agro-industrial complex, it must be admitted that over the last year and a half, this gap has been bridged and now our drones operate in all segments, from large vehicles to loitering supplies, that is, one-time drones that perform a single task, destroy an object and are disappearing and all this is also put on stream, so I can only say that our Code of Criminal Procedure has passed the test of a special military operation and I can thank everyone who works in this complex, these are actually enthusiasts of their work, this is how

1:15:26 Question:  Dmitry Anatolyevich the Western media wrote that in what year the expenses Russia’s federal budget for defense will increase, while the head of the Ministry of Finance, Anton Siluanov, insists that the country’s budget cannot be called military, so whether the Russian economy has switched to a war footing has not been left out. Social issues have been ignored. And what is more important now, at the moment, military or social spending?

DM:  Igor I think that Silanov is right, Anton Germanovich, our budget is not military in the narrowly special sense of the word. Well, for example, if we compare it with the budget of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics during the Great Patriotic War, we have so easy to understand the numbers and approximately 30 trillion rubles in expenditure are social expenses all education health care not a single social obligation is lost; money for everyone salaries are paid in this sector;  benefits are paid and even for individual positions they are growing. this is a third

The second third this is just the development of the country this is the economy this means transport; this is the development of cities; the development of communications of all kinds and knowledge the remaining part of the budget or is otherwise related to its own in the broad sense of the word, this is not in the narrow sense defense spending.

But in the broad sense it means, well, this is exactly what the Minister of Finance said, this is the budget of a developing state. But of course with very significant defense spending needs, this is true. We’ll see , we’ll just say that for this component, even after the completion of the active part of the special military operation, we will, of course, still have to work on defense for a very long time so that everyone understands that our reserves are very strong and no one even thought about encroaching on them, on our interests, plus returning to the Code of Criminal Procedure, this means that I am sure that after what has been done, our military equipment will be in demand on world markets, more than it was before; it’s one thing to just show beautiful pictures, but another thing to actually fight, and in this sense that’s all this is very proof.

1:18:06 Question:  Let me continue the series of tense and probably not very convenient questions for you, but I have to ask after the death of Alexei Navalny in the colony, many people at once PAMM acted tactfully, let’s call it that in St. Petersburg, packs of people grabbed a man in a paddy wagon in Sali Cardi brought flowers separately to the monument, brought the police station, presented a VK pistol to his head and demanded to explain why he brought Flowers.

And Navalny’s mother cannot receive the body yesterday, she appealed to the president, did not receive an answer, they did not explain the actions, but it turns out that this only raises additional questions about the reasons for his death and uh, additional seething Well, among Navalny’s supporters, I have a question: why is it that the authorities continue to fight Navalny? And even after his death, and Why are people given 15 days for silent laying of flowers for pickets at monuments that, in fact, are not even monuments to Navalny, they are monuments victims of political repression

DM:  Well, regarding what is being done in the regions, I’ll say frankly. I’m just not ready to comment on it, there are always some costs. If we are talking about laying flowers, then probably there is no corpus delicti or even an administrative offense. No one is fighting it right now, that’s also It’s clear. Therefore, no, I won’t develop this idea further, because it’s customary for us to talk about the departed either good or nothing good about him, I can’t say anything bad, I won’t say it, it means if there are supporters. Well, this is also part of life, this must be taken into account, but don’t add this fact to your friends I was talking more about something else, here’s how they reacted to it not in our country.

In the end, this man was trying to work here and conduct his political activity. And abroad, this is the same barrel that I was talking about, it was agreed upon that they need to name sanctions packages there by His name and so on, it all looks so surprising because they don’t even have data about what happened, however, it’s all already turned into a political program, it’s all turned into Propaganda, although the same barrel is not about him to reason about this, if I were in his place, I would generally prepare for the earth, which means bearing in mind his venerable age, and somewhere there in the Madrid Polytechnic Institute of Technology, in my opinion, which he graduated from, already negotiated scholarships in his name and would not think about naming the sanctions lists in the name of a person unfamiliar to him, in general, such incidents are always tragic, of course they give rise to very different emotions once you started talking about it.

Look at the smiling happy face of Navalny’s widow, it feels like she’s been waiting for this event all these years to unfold her love and she’s already said about it, but that’s all sad. It seems quite sad to me, but I won’t comment on this anymore.

1:22:05 Question:  I’m just drawing attention to the second question. It coincided that two such high-profile fatalities in Spain killed a former Russian military pilot, defector Maxim Kuzminov, who six months ago hijacked an Mi-8 helicopter to Ukraine, previously Russian the military threatened Kuzminov with death Well, now IT corias from the Rhone of Russia from the West Everyone says everything is so interesting, everyone agrees on one version that this is Retribution, but the main question is Whose Retribution is this, how do you comment on this whole situation?

DM:  Very briefly dogs dog death. [Q: doesn’t matter. DM: affirmative]

Question:  from chkh spoke harshly about the rela ants, but at the same time you did not comment at all but not about everyone I if you are quoted there from a post known to him in the telegram, yes, then it applied [DM: Not to everyone] Yes, who speak out about Russia, but you did not comment in any way, for example, on the same naked party of Nastya Ivleeva Although even the president in his speeches made a remark about a weirdo showing his genitals What do you think, after all, will the people’s love return to the participants of this party and the trust of the concert venues, have they apologized enough?

DM:  Can I not talk about this [liberal exhibitionist club] party, it has set my teeth on edge, it is such a dregs compared to what is happening in the country, in the world. It’s just a pity our time with you, but I’m commenting on something else in relation to those who are moving the company abroad. You called them relocation, and among them there are different people, look at those people who just went there, scared of something, without fully feeling what was happening. Well, for some reason for their own reasons And they just sit there and sit there. Well, God be with them. Let them sit.

That means there are no legal claims against them at the moment and there cannot be any moral ones, but these are already categories: moral, this is a separate story, but among them there is a small part of famous people who moved there or after the start of their own or even before their own they lead an aggressive anti-Russian company, not just an anti-Russian company that directly wish the death of our military personnel, participate in programs to support the Armed Forces that wish the defeat of Russia and its division into parts.

But these people are these [… ryokan …] and they should be subject to criminal liability in any way case, as I wrote, I will repeat once again, we will have a reason in some situation to spit on their graves, these are different people, so they need to be separated from each other, but about what you asked about Let me just not even comment on

1:25:53 Question:  Anato, they have been very tough lately changes occur in legislation almost every week, such news reaches us, deputies accept and tighten them, including, well, I’ll list a few of these and the confiscation of property from those who criticize their own, here’s the recent ban on advertising on the pages of those who are recognized by agents and recognizing writers as extremists even to think we couldn’t even be there 2 years ago Why, they will end up with criminal cases against directors and screenwriters who are sitting in pre-trial detention centers and it’s as if nothing is happening and society in society is happening in response to this, also an interesting phenomenon, society in general begins to denounce its neighbors or colleagues and so on there are no Yani company turned out to be So, but such a witch hunt has already happened, you know the history very well and it didn’t bring anything good, [DM: it wasn’t dangerous, it didn’t inform anyone, thank God,] don’t you think this phenomenon is dangerous and this kind of reaction of the people is dangerous knife shadow

DM:  Guys, look , that means, well, this is a continuation of what we just talked about, because even those who are accused of criminal offenses will not be accused systematically, let’s take some Akunin here, his value system and the words that he said there in relation to that that I understand everything and it is necessary to bomb Russian cities, these are absolutely different things, a person can you can you can you can never do it, it is to wish for the defeat of your fatherland.

Even if you are disappointed with something and the death of your military personnel is both a terrible sin and, according to current laws, a criminal offense and such people need to be persecuted and very strict laws should be adopted and this is lowly depravity. The man sits on
the edge and says yes, bomb Russian cities on the other side of his book there are their scripts being sold or are they being bought? Well, it shouldn’t be like that, but let’s get back to reality. This is, so to speak, that during the Great Patriotic War we would have had some fees go to Berlin??

From the department about denunciation and everything connected with it, you understand this This problem is also partly philosophical and worldview, depending on what is meant by this. I also agree that we don’t need the atmosphere of the [nineteen] thirties, this is absolutely obvious, on the other hand, attention to what is happening must be, otherwise the enemies will take advantage of it, the same saboteurs, terrorists, I think that any citizen should report this to the special services to law enforcement agencies

1:29:22 This is completely normal by the way. Here we are far from ahead of the rest. Look at the number of signal messages that occur every day in the United States of America. In Europe I was once amazed in the nineties I went to Finland while I was still a completely private person with my comrades, there were no cameras on the roads, nothing. Well, the roads are good. It’s not like our roads at that time, they were 40 kilometers faster than the standard, they were driving fast in 10 minutes, they slowed us down. Why, I emphasize, there were no cameras they didn’t measure anything there, some vigilant person has already called there, there’s a car with Russian license plates going at pig speed So not every message to law enforcement agencies or intelligence services is Well, morally condemns the mosfete Swa is not needed You are right, such a spirit does not need to be supported but to react especially in a situation where your country is at war, it is necessary both in the sense of adopting tough laws and in the sense of controlling what is happening even among your neighbors. You can, of course, about the holiday that was stolen from us.

Question:  I mean soon the Olympics in which we will not participate because war has been declared on Russian sports and we cannot influence the governing bodies of world sports in any way because everyone who governs there is all supporters of the West, which we see in the decisions of the respective appeal commissions. Well, it seems to me that our allies who did not help them participate there in Asian associations and tournaments, for example We also don’t really need it, so in this case we need to isolate ourselves and conduct your favorite rowing in inland waters.

1:31:30 DM:  Well, they are now holding it in inland waters and they are trying to hold competitions there, including in your favorite rowing and in other sports, you know, in this situation, of course, I’m very sorry for our professional athletes. Well, they dedicated their whole lives to this, they were preparing for this holiday, they were deprived of this holiday, and this is an absolutely disgusting story that characterizes the International Olympic Committee and international sports structures on the other hand, when I think about it, it’s an honor to say so at such a level the first reaction is to slam the door and say, well, live by your own laws, try to create something of your own, but it’s very difficult. You’re right.

Obviously, SPO [International Olympic Committee] lies absolutely does not correspond to the precepts of Pierre Coubertin. Sport is business. Sport is politics, and sport in some cases is crime. And this also needs to be kept in mind when we make individual decisions, it means we participate and participate in those iht life sports Our athletes and it’s really a pity for them.

1:32:57 When everything returns to normal I don’t know because ahead of these great testaments of the founding fathers of international sports there is politics in life, but it’s absolutely obvious, it showed up. By the way, not during your period, remember very well. When we were at the Olympics Yes, no one is sinless No one says that we didn’t have doping there Of course there was, but it was in volume I think Well, it’s certainly comparable to the doping that athletes in other countries used,

But they pulled us out first because it was part of a political program because the leadership of all these structures like WADA and so on had people who were aggressive towards our country, then the opportunity arose to isolate us for something after the Crimean events, after other events. And after the start of theirs, they were just everywhere so to speak, freeze our participation, but I don’t know, I’ll say this thing. Maybe not everyone will agree with me ahead of this Olympics in Paris. Yes, to be honest, I don’t want to watch it, I don’t even want to look at the performance of our athletes under a neutral flag who swore an oath that they do not support the Russian state, this is their choice, I don’t blame them from a legal point of view, but from a moral point of view this is such a very complex topic. So I think that in the end the Olympics in Paris will be very sad. Well, we’ll wait and see

1:34:44 Question:  Dmitrich in one resonant message in Telegram you explained why your posts are so harsh; “I answer I hate them” you wrote. Who you had in mind and who in the political arena you, on the contrary, could call a friend?

DM:  well here everything is just I hate those whom I consider enemies of our country and today this category is not virtual, not evaluative but it is objective. Unfortunately, what about our friends, there are many of them, they live in different countries, they are ordinary people, millions of hundreds of millions of them, just look at social networks, these are the leaders of large countries who are friendly towards Russia, let’s say this. Among our friends we can conditionally include everyone who is not {refers to the political class} of the Anglo-Saxon world, this is a very large number of leading countries. I’m not talking about ordinary people, that’s why everything is simple here.

Thank you Dmitry Anatolyevich

Question:  Well, I’m finishing I propose, but on a satirical note, probably such a satirical cinematic note, I wanted to know if you’ve watched the American satirical film Don’t watch to the top and it came out a long time ago Yes, but it raises the topic of the destruction of humanity and a very important topic of how people manage to massively reject the truth that would seem obvious Well, first of all, if you watched it Did you like the film and don’t you actually think that it’s very relevant today

1:36:19 DM:  I’ll start from the last. Unfortunately very relevant now is another film Oppenheimer. The clock is ticking. As for the film “Don’t Look Up,” I really watched this film. The film is witty ironic showing the ravs of the elite their ravs ru their character there are memorable images, for example the image of the president who plays if not both Meryl Streep who is such a very interesting, completely cynical girl, I don’t know who to compare her with in a modern panopticon, but she probably reminds me partly of a gynecologist Ursula von der Leyen in terms of the degree of deceit and desire to fool the brains of a huge number of people

The Spiritual Beat in Wartime Donbass

Par : AHH

“… Deep down in the Donbass countryside, in communion with those living life during wartime, we feel the enormity of something inexplicable and vast, full of endless wonder, as if touching the Tao by silencing the recurrent loud booms. In Russian there is, of course, a word for it: “загадка”, roughly translated as “enigma” or “mystery”…”

by Pepe Escobar at Sputnik International.

Pepe Escobar embarked on a journey across Donbass to share his thoughts on the many first-hand encounters with the locals, who show unbreakable resilience.


You are given a name by the War:/it’s a call sign, not nickname – much more./Lack of fancy cars here and iPads,/But you have APC and MANPADS./Social media long left behind,/Children’s drawings with “Z” stick to mind./’Likes” and “thumbs up” are valued as dust,/But the prayers from people you trust./Hold On, Soldier, my brother, my friend,/The hostility comes to an end./War’s unable to stop its decease,/Grief and suffering will turn into peace./Life returns to the placid format,/With your callsign, inscribed in your heart./ From the war, as a small souvenir:/Far away, but eternally near.

Inna Kucherova, Call Sign, in A Letter to a Soldier, published December 2022

It’s a cold, rainy, damp morning in the deep Donbass countryside, at a secret location close to the Urozhaynoye direction; a nondescript country house, crucially under the fog, which prevents the work of enemy drones.

Father Igor, a military priest, is blessing a group of local contract-signed volunteers to the Archangel Gabriel battalion, ready to go to the front lines of the US vs. Russia proxy war. The man in charge of the battalion is one of the top-ranking officers of Orthodox Christian units in the DPR.


A small shrine is set up in the corner of a small, cramped room, decorated with icons. Candles are lit, and three soldiers hold the red flag with the icon of Jesus in the center. After prayers and a small homily, Father Igor blesses each soldier.

This is yet another stop in a sort of itinerant icon road show, started in Kherson, then Zaporozhye and all the way to the myriad DPR front lines, led by my gracious host Andrey Afanasiev, military correspondent for the Spas channel, and later joined in Donetsk by a decorated fighter for the Archangel Michael battalion, an extremely bright and engaging young man codename Pilot.

There are between 28 and 30 Orthodox Christian battalions fighting in Donbass. That’s the power of Orthodox Christianity. To see them at work is to understand the essentials: how the Russian soul is capable of any sacrifice to protect the core values of its civilization. Throughout Russian history, it’s individuals that sacrifice their lives to protect the community – and not vice-versa. Those who survived – or perished – in the Siege of Leningrad are only one among countless examples.

So the Orthodox Christian battalion were my guardian angels as I returned to Novorossiya to revisit the rich black soil where the old “rules-based” world order came to die.

The Living Contradictions of the ‘Road of Life’

The first thing that hits you when you arrive in Donetsk nearly 10 years after Maidan in Kiev is the incessant loud booms. Incoming and mostly outgoing. After such a long, dreary time, interminable shelling of civilians (which are invisible to the collective West), and nearly 2 years after the start of the Special Military Operation (SMO), this is still a city at war; still vulnerable along the three lines of defense behind the front.

The “Road of Life” has got to be one of the epic war misnomers in Donetsk. “Road” is a euphemism for a dark, muddy bog plied back and forth virtually non-stop by military vehicles. “Life” applies because the Donbass military actually donate food and humanitarian aid to the locals at the Gornyak neighborhood every single week.

The heart of the Road of Life is the Svyato Blagoveschensky temple, cared for by Father Viktor – who at the time of my visit was away on rehabilitation, as several parts of his body were hit by shrapnel. I am shepherded by Yelena, who shows me around the impeccably clean temple bearing sublime icons – including 13th century Prince Alexander Nevsky, who in 1259 became the supreme Russian ruler, Sovereign of Kiev, Vladimir and Novgorod. Gornyak is a deluge of black mud, under the incessant rain, with no running water and electricity. Residents are forced to walk at least two kilometers, every day, to buy groceries: there are no local buses.

Yelena, the caretaker of Father Michael’s temple at the ‘Road of Life’ in Donetsk.

Alexander Nevsky’s icon at Father Michael’s temple

In one of the back rooms, Svetlana carefully arranges mini-packages of food essentials to be distributed every Sunday after liturgy. I meet Mother Pelageya, 86 years old, who comes to the temple every Sunday, and would not even dream of ever leaving her neighborhood.

Svetlana organizing food packages out of donations by the DPR military to civilians close to the front line

Mother Pelageya, 86, at Father Michael’s temple in the ‘Road of Life’ in Donetsk

Gornyak is in the third line of defense. The loud booms – as in everywhere in Donetsk – are nearly non-stop, incoming and outgoing. If we follow the road for another 500 meters or so and turn right, we are only 5 km away from Avdeyevka – which may be about to fall in days, or weeks at most.

At the entrance of Gornyak there’s the legendary DonbassActiv chemical factory – now inactive – which actually fabricated the red stars which shine over the Kremlin, using a special gas technology that was never reproduced. In a side street to the Road of Life, local residents built an improvised shrine to honor the child victims of Ukrainian shelling. One day this is going to end: the day when the DPR military completely controls Avdeyevka.

The Donbass Activ chemical plant at the entrance of the ‘Road of Life’ in Donetsk

‘Mariupol Is Russia’

The traveling priesthood exits the digs of the Archangel Gabriel battalion and heads to a meeting in a garage with the Dmitry Donskoy orthodox battalion, fighting in the Ugledar direction. That’s where I meet the remarkable Troya, the battalion’s medic, a young woman who had a comfy job as a deputy officer in a Russian district before she decided to volunteer.

Onwards to a cramped military dormitory where a cat and her kittens reign as mascots, choosing the best place in the room right by the iron stove. Time to bless the fighters of the Dimitri Zalunsky battalion, named after St. Dimitri of Thessaloniki, who are fighting in the Nikolskoye direction.

At each successive ceremony, you can’t help being stricken by the purity of the ritual, the beauty of the chants, the grave expressions in the faces of the volunteers, all ages, from teenagers to sexagenarians. Deeply touching. This in so many aspects is the Slavic counterpart of the Islamic Axis of Resistance fighting in West Asia. It is a form of asabiyya – “community spirit”, as I used it in a different context referring to the Yemeni Houthis supporting “our people” in Gaza.

Mariupol building

Mariupol. Destroyed to the left, rebuilt to the right.

So yes: deep down in the Donbass countryside, in communion with those living life during wartime, we feel the enormity of something inexplicable and vast, full of endless wonder, as if touching the Tao by silencing the recurrent loud booms. In Russian there is, of course, a word for it: “загадка”, roughly translated as “enigma” or “mystery”.

Lidia Trofimova, a resident of Mariupol, born in 1978, died after being treated for arthritis with untested foreign drugs at Mariupol Hospital No. 7, her son Mikhail Trofimov told Sputnik

In this hospital those drugs were tested on patients for research in the interests of… pic.twitter.com/Q75fLjV9QC

— Sputnik (@SputnikInt) February 13, 2024

I left the Donetsk countryside to go to Mariupol – and to be hit by the proverbial shock when one is reminded of the utter destruction perpetrated by the neo-nazi Azov battalion* in the spring of 2022, from the city center to the shoreline along the port then all the way to the massive Azovstal Iron and Steel Works.

The theatre – rather the Donetsk Academic Regional Drama Theatre – nearly destroyed by the Azov battalion is now being meticulously restored, and the next in line are scores of classical buildings downtown. In some neighborhoods the contrast is striking: on the left side of the road, a destroyed building; on the right side, a brand new one.

At the port, a red, white and blue stripe lays down the law: “Mariupol is Russia”. I make a point to go to the former entrance of Azovstal, where the remaining Azov battalion fighters, around 1,700, surrendered to Russian soldiers in May 2022. As much as Berdyansk may eventually become a sort of Monaco in the Sea of Azov, Mariupol may also have a bright future as a tourism, leisure and cultural center and last but not least, a key maritime entrepot of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the Eurasia Economic Union.

The Mystery of the Icon

Back from Mariupol I was confronted with one of the most extraordinary stories woven with the fabric of magic under war. In a nondescript parking lot, suddenly I’m face to the face with The Icon.

The icon – of Mary Mother of God – was gifted to the whole of Donbass by veterans of the Zsloha Spetsnaz, when they came in the summer of 2014. The legend goes that the icon started to spontaneously generate myrrh: as it felt the pain suffered by the local people, it started to cry. During the storming of Azovstal, the icon suddenly made an appearance, out of nowhere, brought in by a pious soul. Two hours later, the legend goes, the DPR, Russian and Chechen forces found their breakthrough.

The icon is always on the move along the SMO hot spots in Donbass. People in charge of the relay know one another, but they can never guess where the icon heads next; everything develops as a sort of magical mystery tour. It’s no wonder Kiev has offered a huge reward for anyone – especially fifth columnists – capable of capturing the icon, which then would be destroyed.

The shrine set up at one of the Orthodox Christian battalion, where Fath Igor blesses the soldiers.

Father Igor reciting prayers.

The Orthodox icon “Mary Mother of God”, gifted to the people of Donbass.

At a night gathering in a compound in the western outskirts of Donetsk – lights completely out in every direction – I have the honor to join one of the top-ranking officers of the Orthodox units in the DPR, a tough as nails yet jovial fellow fond of Barcelona under Messi, as well as the commander of Archangel Michael battalion, codename Alphabet. We are in the first line of defense, only 2 km away from the front line. The incessant loud booms – especially outgoing – are really loud.

The conversation ranges from military tactics on the battlefield, especially in the siege of Avdeyevka, which will be totally encircled in a matter of days, now with the help of Special Forces, paratroopers and lots of armored vehicles, to impressions of the Tucker Carlson interview with Putin (they heard nothing new). The commanders note the absurdity of Kiev not acknowledging their hit on the Il-76 carrying 65 Ukrainian POWs – totally dismissing the plight of their own PoWs. I ask them why Russia simply does not bomb Avdeyevka to oblivion: “Humanism”, they answer.

The DIY Rover From Hell

In a cold, foggy morning at a secret location in central Donetsk – once again, no drones overhead – I meet two kamikaze drone specialists, codename Hooligan and his observer, codename Letchik. They set up a kamikaze drone demo – of course unarmed – while a few meters away mechanical engineer specialist “The Advocate” sets up his own demo of a DIY mine-delivery rover.

That’s a certified lethal version of the Yandex food delivery rovers now quite popular around Moscow. “Advocate” shows off the maneuverability and ability of his little toy to face any terrain. The mission: each rover is equipped with two mines, to be placed right under an enemy tank. Success so far has been extraordinary – and the rover will be upgraded.

‘The Advocate’ setting up his DIY mine-delivering rover test

There’s hardly a more daring character in Donetsk than Artyom Gavrilenko, who built a brand new school cum museum right in the middle of the first line of defense – once again only 2 km or so away from the frontline. He shows me around the museum, which performs the enviable task of outlining the continuity between the Great Patriotic War, the USSR adventure in Afghanistan against the US-financed and weaponized jihad, and the proxy war in Donbass.

At the school/museum in Donetsk only 2 km away from the front line

That’s a parallel, DIY version of the official Museum of War in central Donetsk, close to the Shaktar Donetsk football arena, which features stunning memorabilia from the Great Patriotic War as well as fabulous shots by Russian war photographers.

So Donetsk students – emphasis in math, history, geography, languages – will be growing up deeply enmeshed in the history of what for all practical purposes is a heroic mining town, extracting wealth from the black soil while its dreams are always inexorably clouded by war.

We went into the DPR using backroads to cross the border to the LPR not far from Lugansk. This is a slow, desolate border which reminds me of the Pamirs in Tajikistan, basically used by locals. In and out, I was politely questioned by a passport control officer from Dagestan and his seconds-in-command. They were fascinated by my travels in Donbass, Afghanistan and West Asia – and invited me to visit the Caucasus. As we left deep into the freezing night for the long trek ahead back to Moscow, the exchange was priceless:

“You are always welcome here.”

“I’ll be back.”

“Like Terminator!”

Putin, 2022 “Satanism Speech”

Par : AHH

This Speech is best bracketed with his Munich Security Council Speech of 10.02.2007 (here). It tracks the evolution of President Putin’s thought, and the final turning of the Russian Mir from the Old Order built by the combined West. 

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A ceremony for signing the treaties on the accession of the Donetsk People’s Republic, the Lugansk People’s Republic, the Zaporozhye Region and the Kherson Region to the Russian Federation took place in of the Grand Kremlin Palace’s St George Hall. [source]

  • 01:46 Article 1 of the UN Charter
  • 02:35 The neo-Nazi coup d’état in Ukraine in 2014
  • 04:16 Common destiny and thousand-year history of Russia and Ukraine
  • 04:54 Termination of Soviet Union
  • 06:04 Determination of millions of people to return to historical homeland
  • 06:30 Genocide in Donbass
  • 07:02 Appeal to Kiev authorities and their true handlers in the West to end the war and return to the negotiating table
  • 07:52 The choice of the people will not be discussed at the negotiating table
  • 08:24 Russia will restore the affected facilities and social systems
  • 09:19 Appeal to the military and their families
  • 10:17 Dictate of the West after the collapse of the Soviet Union
  • 10:49 West continued looking for another chance to break up Russia
  • 11:19 The West is ready to cross every line to preserve the neo-colonial system
  • 12:11 Coercion to surrender sovereignty in favor of the United States
  • 12:52 Real causes of the hybrid war that the collective West is waging against Russia
  • 14:16 Broken Promises of the West
  • 14:44 False «rules-based order» against international law
  • 15:56 Totalitarianism, despotism and apartheid of the West behind the screen of democracy
  • 16:17 Western racism and false labels
  • 17:23 Historical crimes of the West that contrary to the very human nature, truth, freedom and justice
  • 18:22 Russia’s pride for the leading role in the anti-colonial movement of the 20th century
  • 18:37 Russia’s success is based on creating a strong centralised state and traditional values
  • 19:31 Memory of the plunder of Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union
  • 19:53 Thanks to the new regions
  • 20:13 Centuries-old lies of the West about freedom and democracy
  • 20:40 Demonstrative unnecessary cruelty of the US in military conflicts (nuclear weapons, cities annihilation, carpet bombings, use of napalm and chemical weapons)
  • 21:28 Occupation of Germany, Japan, Republic of Korea and other countries in our time
  • 22:22 Migration Crisis
  • 22:37 Grain from Ukraine
  • 23:15 Europe deindustrialisation by forcing to impose anti-Russian sanctions
  • 23:44 Betrayal of their peoples by European elites
  • 24:00 Sabotage on the Nord Stream – the destruction of the entire energy infrastructure of Europe
  • 24:25 The law of the fist
  • 25:18 The deterrence of Russia, China and Iran and other countries
  • 25:57 US sanctions against their allies
  • 26:22 Unexpectedly failed sanctions blitzkrieg against Russia
  • 27:11 «Information hunger» in the West – ocean of myths, illusions and fakes, aggressive Goebbels like propaganda
  • 27:40 Economic, financial, energy crises – Western elite crisis
  • 28:59 Solving the problems of the West through wars and plunder
  • 30:26 Russia’s responsibility to the international community
  • 30:34 The current neocolonial model is ultimately doomed
  • 31:02 Radical denial of moral, religious, and family values
  • 32:09 Dictatorship of the Western elites targets all societies, including the citizens of Western countries themselves
  • 32:17 «Religion in reverse» – pure Satanism – «By their fruits ye shall know them»
  • 32:49 New centres of power, anti-colonial movement against unipolar hegemony
  • 34:23 The ongoing collapse of Western hegemony is irreversible
  • 34:34 The battle for the great historical Russia
  • 35:40 The words of a true patriot of Russia Ivan Ilyin
  • 36:53 The truth is with us, and behind us is Russia


During the ceremony for signing the treaties on the accession of the DPR, LPR, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions to Russia. From left to right: Head of the Kherson Region Vladimir Saldo, Head of the Zaporozhye Region Yevgeny Balitsky, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Head of the Donetsk People’s Republic Denis Pushylin, Head of the Lugansk People’s Republic Leonid Pasechnik. Photos: Grigoriy Sisoev, RIA Novosti

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Transcript

President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Citizens of Russia, citizens of the Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics, residents of the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions, deputies of the State Duma, senators of the Russian Federation,

As you know, referendums have been held in the Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics and the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions. The ballots have been counted and the results have been announced. The people have made their unequivocal choice.

Today we will sign treaties on the accession of the Donetsk People’s Republic, Lugansk People’s Republic, Zaporozhye Region and Kherson Region to the Russian Federation. I have no doubt that the Federal Assembly will support the constitutional laws on the accession to Russia and the establishment of four new regions, our new constituent entities of the Russian Federation, because this is the will of millions of people. (Applause.)

It is undoubtedly their right, an inherent right sealed in Article 1 of the UN Charter, which directly states the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples.

I repeat, it is an inherent right of the people. It is based on our historical affinity, and it is that right that led generations of our predecessors, those who built and defended Russia for centuries since the period of Ancient Rus, to victory.

Here in Novorossiya, [Pyotr] Rumyantsev, [Alexander] Suvorov and [Fyodor] Ushakov fought their battles, and Catherine the Great and [Grigory] Potyomkin founded new cities. Our grandfathers and great-grandfathers fought here to the bitter end during the Great Patriotic War.

We will always remember the heroes of the Russian Spring, those who refused to accept the neo-Nazi coup d’état in Ukraine in 2014, all those who died for the right to speak their native language, to preserve their culture, traditions and religion, and for the very right to live. We remember the soldiers of Donbass, the martyrs of the “Odessa Khatyn,” the victims of inhuman terrorist attacks carried out by the Kiev regime. We commemorate volunteers and militiamen, civilians, children, women, senior citizens, Russians, Ukrainians, people of various nationalities; popular leader of Donetsk Alexander Zakharchenko; military commanders Arsen Pavlov and Vladimir Zhoga, Olga Kachura and Alexei Mozgovoy; prosecutor of the Lugansk Republic Sergei Gorenko; paratrooper Nurmagomed Gadzhimagomedov and all our soldiers and officers who died a hero’s death during the special military operation. They are heroes. (Applause.) Heroes of great Russia. Please join me in a minute of silence to honour their memory.

(Minute of silence.)

Thank you.

Behind the choice of millions of residents in the Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics, in the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions, is our common destiny and thousand-year history. People have passed this spiritual connection on to their children and grandchildren. Despite all the trials they endured, they carried the love for Russia through the years. This is something no one can destroy. That is why both older generations and young people – those who were born after the tragic collapse of the Soviet Union – have voted for our unity, for our common future.

In 1991 in Belovezhskaya Pushcha, representatives of the party elite of that time made a decision to terminate the Soviet Union, without asking ordinary citizens what they wanted, and people suddenly found themselves cut off from their homeland. This tore apart and dismembered our national community and triggered a national catastrophe. Just like the government quietly demarcated the borders of Soviet republics, acting behind the scenes after the 1917 revolution, the last leaders of the Soviet Union, contrary to the direct expression of the will of the majority of people in the referendum of 1991, destroyed our great country, and simply made the people in the former republics face this as an accomplished fact.

I can admit that they didn’t even know what they were doing and what consequences their actions would have in the end. But it doesn’t matter now. There is no Soviet Union anymore; we cannot return to the past. Actually, Russia no longer needs it today; this isn’t our ambition. But there is nothing stronger than the determination of millions of people who, by their culture, religion, traditions, and language, consider themselves part of Russia, whose ancestors lived in a single country for centuries. There is nothing stronger than their determination to return to their true historical homeland.

For eight long years, people in Donbass were subjected to genocide, shelling and blockades; in Kherson and Zaporozhye, a criminal policy was pursued to cultivate hatred for Russia, for everything Russian. Now too, during the referendums, the Kiev regime threatened schoolteachers, women who worked in election commissions with reprisals and death. Kiev threatened millions of people who came to express their will with repression. But the people of Donbass, Zaporozhye and Kherson weren’t broken, and they had their say.

I want the Kiev authorities and their true handlers in the West to hear me now, and I want everyone to remember this: the people living in Lugansk and Donetsk, in Kherson and Zaporozhye have become our citizens, forever. (Applause.)

We call on the Kiev regime to immediately cease fire and all hostilities; to end the war it unleashed back in 2014 and return to the negotiating table. We are ready for this, as we have said more than once. But the choice of the people in Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporozhye and Kherson will not be discussed. The decision has been made, and Russia will not betray it. (Applause.) Kiev’s current authorities should respect this free expression of the people’s will; there is no other way. This is the only way to peace.

We will defend our land with all the forces and resources we have, and we will do everything we can to ensure the safety of our people. This is the great liberating mission of our nation.

We will definitely rebuild the destroyed cities and towns, the residential buildings, schools, hospitals, theatres and museums. We will restore and develop industrial enterprises, factories, infrastructure, as well as the social security, pension, healthcare and education systems.

We will certainly work to improve the level of security. Together we will make sure that citizens in the new regions can feel the support of all the people of Russia, of the entire nation, all the republics, territories and regions of our vast Motherland. (Applause.)

Friends, colleagues,

Today I would like to address our soldiers and officers who are taking part in the special military operation, the fighters of Donbass and Novorossiya, those who went to military recruitment offices after receiving a call-up paper under the executive order on partial mobilisation, and those who did this voluntarily, answering the call of their hearts. I would like to address their parents, wives and children, to tell them what our people are fighting for, what kind of enemy we are up against, and who is pushing the world into new wars and crises and deriving blood-stained benefits from this tragedy.

Our compatriots, our brothers and sisters in Ukraine who are part of our united people have seen with their own eyes what the ruling class of the so-called West have prepared for humanity as a whole. They have dropped their masks and shown what they are really made of.

When the Soviet Union collapsed, the West decided that the world and all of us would permanently accede to its dictates. In 1991, the West thought that Russia would never rise after such shocks and would fall to pieces on its own. This almost happened. We remember the horrible 1990s, hungry, cold and hopeless. But Russia remained standing, came alive, grew stronger and occupied its rightful place in the world.

Meanwhile, the West continued and continues looking for another chance to strike a blow at us, to weaken and break up Russia, which they have always dreamed about, to divide our state and set our peoples against each other, and to condemn them to poverty and extinction. They cannot rest easy knowing that there is such a great country with this huge territory in the world, with its natural wealth, resources and people who cannot and will not do someone else’s bidding.

The West is ready to cross every line to preserve the neo-colonial system which allows it to live off the world, to plunder it thanks to the domination of the dollar and technology, to collect an actual tribute from humanity, to extract its primary source of unearned prosperity, the rent paid to the hegemon. The preservation of this annuity is their main, real and absolutely self-serving motivation. This is why total de-sovereignisation is in their interest. This explains their aggression towards independent states, traditional values and authentic cultures, their attempts to undermine international and integration processes, new global currencies and technological development centres they cannot control. It is critically important for them to force all countries to surrender their sovereignty to the United States.

In certain countries, the ruling elites voluntarily agree to do this, voluntarily agree to become vassals; others are bribed or intimidated. And if this does not work, they destroy entire states, leaving behind humanitarian disasters, devastation, ruins, millions of wrecked and mangled human lives, terrorist enclaves, social disaster zones, protectorates, colonies and semi-colonies. They don’t care. All they care about is their own benefit.

I want to underscore again that their insatiability and determination to preserve their unfettered dominance are the real causes of the hybrid war that the collective West is waging against Russia. They do not want us to be free; they want us to be a colony. They do not want equal cooperation; they want to loot. They do not want to see us a free society, but a mass of soulless slaves.

They see our thought and our philosophy as a direct threat. That is why they target our philosophers for assassination. Our culture and art present a danger to them, so they are trying to ban them. Our development and prosperity are also a threat to them because competition is growing. They do not want or need Russia, but we do. (Applause.)

I would like to remind you that in the past, ambitions of world domination have repeatedly shattered against the courage and resilience of our people. Russia will always be Russia. We will continue to defend our values and our Motherland.

The West is counting on impunity, on being able to get away with anything. As a matter of fact, this was actually the case until recently. Strategic security agreements have been trashed; agreements reached at the highest political level have been declared tall tales; firm promises not to expand NATO to the east gave way to dirty deception as soon as our former leaders bought into them; missile defence, intermediate-range and shorter-range missile treaties have been unilaterally dismantled under far-fetched pretexts.

And all we hear is, the West is insisting on a rules-based order. Where did that come from anyway? Who has ever seen these rules? Who agreed or approved them? Listen, this is just a lot of nonsense, utter deceit, double standards, or even triple standards! They must think we’re stupid.

Russia is a great thousand-year-old power, a whole civilisation, and it is not going to live by such makeshift, false rules. (Applause.)

It was the so-called West that trampled on the principle of the inviolability of borders, and now it is deciding, at its own discretion, who has the right to self-determination and who does not, who is unworthy of it. It is unclear what their decisions are based on or who gave them the right to decide in the first place. They just assumed it.

That is why the choice of the people in Crimea, Sevastopol, Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporozhye and Kherson makes them so furiously angry. The West does not have any moral right to weigh in, or even utter a word about freedom of democracy. It does not and it never did.

Western elites not only deny national sovereignty and international law. Their hegemony has pronounced features of totalitarianism, despotism and apartheid. They brazenly divide the world into their vassals – the so-called civilised countries – and all the rest, who, according to the designs of today’s Western racists, should be added to the list of barbarians and savages. False labels like “rogue country” or “authoritarian regime” are already available, and are used to stigmatise entire nations and states, which is nothing new. There is nothing new in this: deep down, the Western elites have remained the same colonisers. They discriminate and divide peoples into the top tier and the rest.

We have never agreed to and will never agree to such political nationalism and racism. What else, if not racism, is the Russophobia being spread around the world? What, if not racism, is the West’s dogmatic conviction that its civilisation and neoliberal culture is an indisputable model for the entire world to follow? “You’re either with us or against us.” It even sounds strange.

Western elites are even shifting repentance for their own historical crimes on everyone else, demanding that the citizens of their countries and other peoples confess to things they have nothing to do with at all, for example, the period of colonial conquests.

It is worth reminding the West that it began its colonial policy back in the Middle Ages, followed by the worldwide slave trade, the genocide of Indian tribes in America, the plunder of India and Africa, the wars of England and France against China, as a result of which it was forced to open its ports to the opium trade. What they did was get entire nations hooked on drugs and purposefully exterminated entire ethnic groups for the sake of grabbing land and resources, hunting people like animals. This is contrary to human nature, truth, freedom and justice.

While we – we are proud that in the 20th century our country led the anti-colonial movement, which opened up opportunities for many peoples around the world to make progress, reduce poverty and inequality, and defeat hunger and disease.

To emphasise, one of the reasons for the centuries-old Russophobia, the Western elites’ unconcealed animosity toward Russia is precisely the fact that we did not allow them to rob us during the period of colonial conquests and forced the Europeans to trade with us on mutually beneficial terms. This was achieved by creating a strong centralised state in Russia, which grew and got stronger based on the great moral values​​of Orthodox Christianity, Islam, Judaism and Buddhism, as well as Russian culture and the Russian word that were open to all.

There were numerous plans to invade Russia. Such attempts were made during the Time of Troubles in the 17th century and in the period of ordeals after the 1917 revolution. All of them failed. The West managed to grab hold of Russia’s wealth only in the late 20th century, when the state had been destroyed. They called us friends and partners, but they treated us like a colony, using various schemes to pump trillions of dollars out of the country. We remember. We have not forgotten anything.

A few days ago, people in Donetsk and Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporozhye declared their support for restoring our historical unity. Thank you! (Applause.)

Western countries have been saying for centuries that they bring freedom and democracy to other nations. Nothing could be further from the truth. Instead of bringing democracy they suppressed and exploited, and instead of giving freedom they enslaved and oppressed. The unipolar world is inherently anti-democratic and unfree; it is false and hypocritical through and through.

The United States is the only country in the world that has used nuclear weapons twice, destroying the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan. And they created a precedent.

Recall that during WWII the United States and Britain reduced Dresden, Hamburg, Cologne and many other German cities to rubble, without the least military necessity. It was done ostentatiously and, to repeat, without any military necessity. They had only one goal, as with the nuclear bombing of Japanese cities: to intimidate our country and the rest of the world.

The United States left a deep scar in the memory of the people of Korea and Vietnam with their carpet bombings and use of napalm and chemical weapons.

It actually continues to occupy Germany, Japan, the Republic of Korea and other countries, which they cynically refer to as equals and allies. Look now, what kind of alliance is that? The whole world knows that the top officials in these countries are being spied on and that their offices and homes are bugged. It is a disgrace, a disgrace for those who do this and for those who, like slaves, silently and meekly swallow this arrogant behaviour.

They call the orders and threats they make to their vassals Euro-Atlantic solidarity, and the creation of biological weapons and the use of human test subjects, including in Ukraine, noble medical research.

It is their destructive policies, wars and plunder that have unleashed today’s massive wave of migrants. Millions of people endure hardships and humiliation or die by the thousands trying to reach Europe.

They are exporting grain from Ukraine now. Where are they taking it under the guise of ensuring the food security of the poorest countries? Where is it going? They are taking it to the self-same European countries. Only five percent has been delivered to the poorest countries. More cheating and naked deception again.

In effect, the American elite is using the tragedy of these people to weaken its rivals, to destroy nation states. This goes for Europe and for the identities of France, Italy, Spain and other countries with centuries-long histories.

Washington demands more and more sanctions against Russia and the majority of European politicians obediently go along with it. They clearly understand that by pressuring the EU to completely give up Russian energy and other resources, the United States is practically pushing Europe toward deindustrialisation in a bid to get its hands on the entire European market. These European elites understand everything – they do, but they prefer to serve the interests of others. This is no longer servility but direct betrayal of their own peoples. God bless, it is up to them.

But the Anglo-Saxons believe sanctions are no longer enough and now they have turned to subversion. It seems incredible but it is a fact – by causing explosions on Nord Stream’s international gas pipelines passing along the bottom of the Baltic Sea, they have actually embarked on the destruction of Europe’s entire energy infrastructure. It is clear to everyone who stands to gain. Those who benefit are responsible, of course.

The dictates of the US are backed up by crude force, on the law of the fist. Sometimes it is beautifully wrapped sometimes there is no wrapping at all but the gist is the same – the law of the fist. Hence, the deployment and maintenance of hundreds of military bases in all corners of the world, NATO expansion, and attempts to cobble together new military alliances, such as AUKUS and the like. Much is being done to create a Washington-Seoul-Tokyo military-political chain. All states that possess or aspire to genuine strategic sovereignty and are capable of challenging Western hegemony, are automatically declared enemies.

These are the principles that underlie US and NATO military doctrines that require total domination. Western elites are presenting their neocolonialist plans with the same hypocrisy, claiming peaceful intentions, talking about some kind of deterrence. This evasive word migrates from one strategy to another but really only means one thing – undermining any and all sovereign centres of power.

We have already heard about the deterrence of Russia, China and Iran. I believe next in line are other countries of Asia, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East, as well as current US partners and allies. After all, we know that when they are displeased, they introduce sanctions against their allies as well – against this or that bank or company. This is their practice and they will expand it. They have everything in their sights, including our next-door neighbours – the CIS countries.

At the same time, the West has clearly been engaged in wishful thinking for a long time. In launching the sanctions blitzkrieg against Russia, for example, they thought that they could once again line up the whole world at their command. As it turns out, however, such a bright prospect does not excite everyone – other than complete political masochists and admirers of other unconventional forms of international relations. Most states refuse to ”snap a salute“ and instead choose the sensible path of cooperation with Russia.

The West clearly did not expect such insubordination. They simply got used to acting according to a template, to grab whatever they please, by blackmail, bribery, intimidation, and convinced themselves that these methods would work forever, as if they had fossilised in the past.

Such self-confidence is a direct product not only of the notorious concept of exceptionalism – although it never ceases to amaze – but also of the real ”information hunger“ in the West. The truth has been drowned in an ocean of myths, illusions and fakes, using extremely aggressive propaganda, lying like Goebbels. The more unbelievable the lie, the quicker people will believe it – that is how they operate, according to this principle.

But people cannot be fed with printed dollars and euros. You can’t feed them with those pieces of paper, and the virtual, inflated capitalisation of western social media companies can’t heat their homes. Everything I am saying is important. And what I just said is no less so: you can’t feed anyone with paper – you need food; and you can’t heat anyone’s home with these inflated capitalisations – you need energy.

That is why politicians in Europe have to convince their fellow citizens to eat less, take a shower less often and dress warmer at home. And those who start asking fair questions like “Why is that, in fact?” are immediately declared enemies, extremists and radicals. They point back at Russia and say: that is the source of all your troubles. More lies.

I want to make special note of the fact that there is every reason to believe that the Western elites are not going to look for constructive ways out of the global food and energy crisis that they and they alone are to blame for, as a result of their long-term policy, dating back long before our special military operation in Ukraine, in Donbass. They have no intention of solving the problems of injustice and inequality. I am afraid they would rather use other formulas they are more comfortable with.

And here it is important to recall that the West bailed itself out of its early 20th century challenges with World War I. Profits from World War II helped the United States finally overcome the Great Depression and become the largest economy in the world, and to impose on the planet the power of the dollar as a global reserve currency. And the 1980s crisis – things came to a head in the 1980s again – the West emerged from it unscathed largely by appropriating the inheritance and resources of the collapsed and defunct Soviet Union. That’s a fact.

Now, in order to free itself from the latest web of challenges, they need to dismantle Russia as well as other states that choose a sovereign path of development, at all costs, to be able to further plunder other nations’ wealth and use it to patch their own holes. If this does not happen, I cannot rule out that they will try to trigger a collapse of the entire system, and blame everything on that, or, God forbid, decide to use the old formula of economic growth through war.

Russia is aware of its responsibility to the international community and will make every effort to ensure that cooler heads prevail.

The current neocolonial model is ultimately doomed; this much is obvious. But I repeat that its real masters will cling to it to the end. They simply have nothing to offer the world except to maintain the same system of plundering and racketeering.

They do not give a damn about the natural right of billions of people, the majority of humanity, to freedom and justice, the right to determine their own future. They have already moved on to the radical denial of moral, religious, and family values.

Let’s answer some very simple questions for ourselves. Now I would like to return to what I said and want to address also all citizens of the country – not just the colleagues that are in the hall – but all citizens of Russia: do we want to have here, in our country, in Russia, “parent number one, parent number two and parent number three” (they have completely lost it!) instead of mother and father? Do we want our schools to impose on our children, from their earliest days in school, perversions that lead to degradation and extinction? Do we want to drum into their heads the ideas that certain other genders exist along with women and men and to offer them gender reassignment surgery? Is that what we want for our country and our children? This is all unacceptable to us. We have a different future of our own.

Let me repeat that the dictatorship of the Western elites targets all societies, including the citizens of Western countries themselves. This is a challenge to all. This complete renunciation of what it means to be human, the overthrow of faith and traditional values, and the suppression of freedom are coming to resemble a “religion in reverse” – pure Satanism. Exposing false messiahs, Jesus Christ said in the Sermon on the Mount: “By their fruits ye shall know them.” These poisonous fruits are already obvious to people, and not only in our country but also in all countries, including many people in the West itself.

The world has entered a period of a fundamental, revolutionary transformation. New centres of power are emerging. They represent the majority – the majority! – of the international community. They are ready not only to declare their interests but also to protect them. They see in multipolarity an opportunity to strengthen their sovereignty, which means gaining genuine freedom, historical prospects, and the right to their own independent, creative and distinctive forms of development, to a harmonious process.

As I have already said, we have many like-minded people in Europe and the United States, and we feel and see their support. An essentially emancipatory, anti-colonial movement against unipolar hegemony is taking shape in the most diverse countries and societies. Its power will only grow with time. It is this force that will determine our future geopolitical reality.

Friends,

Today, we are fighting for a just and free path, first of all for ourselves, for Russia, in order to leave dictate and despotism in the past. I am convinced that countries and peoples understand that a policy based on the exceptionalism of whoever it may be and the suppression of other cultures and peoples is inherently criminal, and that we must close this shameful chapter. The ongoing collapse of Western hegemony is irreversible. And I repeat: things will never be the same.

The battlefield to which destiny and history have called us is a battlefield for our people, for the great historical Russia. (Applause.) For the great historical Russia, for future generations, our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. We must protect them against enslavement and monstrous experiments that are designed to cripple their minds and souls.

Today, we are fighting so that it would never occur to anyone that Russia, our people, our language, or our culture can be erased from history. Today, we need a consolidated society, and this consolidation can only be based on sovereignty, freedom, creation, and justice. Our values ​​are humanity, mercy and compassion.

And I want to close with the words of a true patriot Ivan Ilyin: “If I consider Russia my Motherland, that means that I love as a Russian, contemplate and think, sing and speak as a Russian; that I believe in the spiritual strength of the Russian people. Its spirit is my spirit; its destiny is my destiny; its suffering is my grief; and its prosperity is my joy.”

Behind these words stands a glorious spiritual choice, which, for more than a thousand years of Russian statehood, was followed by many generations of our ancestors. Today, we are making this choice; the citizens of the Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics and the residents of the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions have made this choice. They made the choice to be with their people, to be with their Motherland, to share in its destiny, and to be victorious together with it.

The truth is with us, and behind us is Russia!

(Applause.)

 

Maria Zakharova on USUK bombing Syraq

Par : AHH

As usual, the Russian Foreign Ministry brings clarity, cutting through the flagging production of the fogging machine: (1) the British, who said they would not participate in the aggression, lied and did participate in last night’s criminal bombing. And (2) the larger operation to torch the entire region, as with Europe through the Ukraine, remains unchanged through the ongoing calculated behavior of the Anglo-Zionists.

≈≈

3 February 2024 15:22

Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova’s comment on US strikes on Iraq and Syria

The US strategic bomber attack on Iraq and Syria, which destroyed and damaged dozens of facilities and killed numerous civilians, has once again demonstrated to the world the aggressive nature of US policy in the Middle East and Washington’s total disregard for international law.

The obedient participation of British Royal Air Force in the US attack should not give anyone the illusion of an “international coalition” taking action. London has yet to answer for its zealous support of the provocations launched by its bosses in Washington.

It is clear that the airstrikes were specifically intended to further escalate the conflict. By relentlessly attacking the facilities of allegedly pro-Iranian groups in Iraq and Syria, the United States has been purposefully attempting to draw the largest countries in the region into the conflict.

Confident of its impunity, Washington continues to sow chaos and destruction in the Middle East. The largest US air operation in the region since 2003, presented by Joe Biden as an “act of retaliation” for an unknown UAV attack on a US base in Jordan, has no justification. The attempts to flex their muscles in order to influence the political situation in the United States, as well as their desperation to salvage the failed international policies of the current US administration in the context of the ongoing election campaign are leading to a further escalation of international tensions and further undermining US credibility in the Arab world.

The recent events have confirmed that the United States is not seeking solutions to the region’s problems, nor has it ever sought any. Washington has always been content with a situation where chronic disagreements in the Middle East were only getting worse. It is not even about American strategists’ usual indifference towards the regional states’ aspirations or interests; rather, it is their obsession with creating hotbeds of tension from Finland to the Suez Canal, from Libya to Afghanistan, far from their own borders, closer to their “adversaries,” but also closer to their loyal allies in NATO and the EU.

We strongly condemn this new outrageous act of US-British aggression against sovereign states. We insist on the urgent consideration of this situation by the UN Security Council.  (emphasis in original on the Ministry’s Telegram channel)

Russia Ushers in BRICS-2024 Presidency

Par : AHH

@Sputnik Africa: 

Russia opens the first meeting of BRICS Sherpas and sous-Sherpas during its presidency of the alliance in 2024

Representatives of five new members – Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – will also take part in the event, which is scheduled for January 30 – February 1 in Moscow.

One of the priorities of BRICS activity this year is the harmonious integration of the newcomers into the global work, Russia said.

Traditionally, the sherpas meet to:
✔ exchange views on major international issues;
✔ discuss urgent issues of cooperation;
✔ prepare for upcoming events.

The Russian side is also expected to present in detail the program of its presidency, which will culminate in the BRICS Leaders’ Summit to be held in Kazan in October.


❓Expanded BRICS: What did the member countries discuss at their first meeting in Moscow?

The meeting of BRICS sherpas and sous-sherpas took place on January 30, marking the start of Russia’s rotating presidency in 2024.

Proposals:
✔ Use national currencies in settlements between BRICS member countries (Chinese Sherpa);
✔ Create a BRICS drug depository (Indian Sherpa);
✔ Open a BRICS artificial intelligence center (Chinese Sherpa);
✔ Intensify the transition to settlement in national currencies (Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister).

Other statements made at the meeting:
▪ The countries of the global north are knocking on the door of BRICS and want to cooperate (South African Sherpa);
▪ All BRICS members will benefit from the expansion of the group (Russian diplomacy);
▪ BRICS will pay close attention to promoting trade in national currencies (Moscow);
▪ BRICS diplomatic chiefs to meet in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, in June (Moscow)

More at Russia’s MFA website

Russian FM Lavrov: 2023 Foreign Policy Review

Par : AHH

Original and Video at Ministry of Foreign Affairs website

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s statement and answers to media questions during a news conference on Russia’s foreign policy performance in 2023, Moscow, January 18, 2024

Ladies and gentlemen,

I am glad to welcome you at our annual event. Every year, we come together right after the New Year and Christmas break. I would like to offer those of you who celebrate these holidays my greetings and wish you a Happy New Year 2024. We all want to make it a better year in every respect, as President Vladimir Putin explained in quite some detail.

We have a clear vision for our domestic development plans. The Government of the Russian Federation is hard at work. President Vladimir Putin held a series of meetings with Government members over the past few days to discuss various ways to promote sustained economic progress in today’s environment, considering the aggressive and unlawful policies of the United States and its satellites. The goal is clear. It is to eliminate our dependence on any manufacturing, supply and logistics chains, financial and banking systems whenever our Western colleagues exercise too much control over them in one way or another. Previous and future decisions articulate this policy without any ambiguity.

As far as foreign policy is concerned, we have also defined our priorities for the foreseeable future. In March 2023, President Vladimir Putin approved a totally new and updated Foreign Policy Concept of the Russian Federation. It responds to the present-day reality in international affairs. The West has demonstrated its total inability to make deals and has proven to be an unreliable partner in all undertakings. The Global Majority can no longer tolerate this selfish approach and wants to prioritise its own national interests and the interests of every single country in its development efforts while strictly abiding by the principles enshrined in the UN Charter, starting with respecting the sovereign equality of states. Since the Charter was adopted in 1945, there has not been a single foreign policy initiative by the West on the international stage which took into account or respected the principle proclaiming the equal rights of nations large and small, as the Charter reads, without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion.

On the foreign policy front, we have a clear objective to develop our relations with those who are ready to work with us on an equal, mutually beneficial and mutually respectful footing by engaging in a frank dialogue and talks for finding a balance of interests instead of taking decisions that serve someone’s selfish agenda only, which is what happens with discussions involving the US-led West in an overwhelming majority of cases.

The past year showed that there is no acceptance of the manners traditional to the Western hegemon, manners based squarely on its vested interests and disregard for the opinion of all others. Yes, 500 years of ruling the world and having no serious rivals almost for this entire period (with the exception, perhaps, of the Soviet period) seems to have made it addicted to being hegemon. But life never stops. New centres of economic growth, financial might and political influence have emerged and gained strength, significantly outpacing the United States and other Western countries in terms of development.

I am sure you know how we assess the development of Russia’s relations with the People’s Republic of China. This is the fastest growing economy along with India’s. Our relations with China are at the highest level in their entire centuries-long history. We particularly appreciate the fact that President Xi Jinping paid his first post-reelection state visit to Moscow in March 2023. In turn, President Vladimir Putin visited China in October 2023 to attend the Third Belt and Road International Forum.

The specially privileged strategic partnership with India has been making headway as well. We have established regular top-level dialogue and contacts between corresponding agencies through the foreign ministries.

Considering our immediate environs, it certainly includes the Middle East countries, Iran, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar. Accordingly, we are interested in expanding not only bilateral relations, but also ties with regional organisations that include many of our partners. I am referring to the Gulf Cooperation Council, the League of Arab States, ASEAN, the African Union, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, and others.

We are working to take our partnership with Africa to a truly strategic level. This was confirmed at the second Russia-Africa Summit held in St Petersburg in July 2023.

An important milestone in the development of our relations with Latin America was the Russia – Latin America International Parliamentary Conference held in Moscow in autumn 2023. We consider Africa, Latin America and Asian countries as emerging independent centres in a multipolar world.

We were active on the UN platform in 2023. The Group of Friends in Defence of the United Nations Charter has been successfully operating there since it was established several years ago. The group has adopted joint statements on fundamental issues of global development. This group catalyses and stimulates the General Assembly’s work, promoting joint initiatives, including Russian ones. We support the ideas of our partners in this new entity.

I will note another important milestone – the adoption of a resolution on combating glorification of Nazism, neo-Nazism and other practices that contribute to fuelling contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance. It was adopted at the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly by an overwhelming majority of the vote, despite the chicanery of the West. However, I have to point out that for the second time in a row, Germany, Italy and Japan voted against that resolution – the Axis countries that publicly repented for the crimes committed during the Second World War after their defeat, and assured everyone that it would not happen again. These states have been voting against the resolution demanding that Nazism never be revived for the past two years, which provokes serious contemplation and makes us wonder where these ideological processes are leading, not only in these states but also in the West as a whole.

We constructively worked in other formats as well. I should specifically note our closest allies, the Union State of Russia and Belarus and the Collective Security Treaty Organisation through which we promoted stability in all dimensions, including military, biological and general security against new threats and challenges such as terrorism, drug trafficking and other forms of organised crime. The Eurasian Economic Union adopted important decisions for deepening Eurasian integration and coupling these processes with projects like China’s Belt and Road Initiative, cooperation with the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, ASEAN and all the other associations and countries on our common enormous Eurasian continent.

This year, Russia presides in the CIS. We plan to continue the useful projects launched in 2023. As one such project, we will pay special attention to the International Russian Language Organisation founded at the CIS summit in Bishkek last autumn. All the CIS members approved this initiative proposed by Kazakhstan. The organisation is open to any country wishing to join. We know that the Russian language is popular across all continents and we hope there will be many interested participants.

I mentioned the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation as an umbrella project. Along with the Eurasian Economic Union, in the context of cooperation with ASEAN and other sub-regional bodies, this organisation objectively and organically helps us form the Greater Eurasian Partnership. President Vladimir Putin spoke about this at the very first Russia-ASEAN summit. The outlines of this partnership are already visible.

In the current conditions, it is important to have an economic partnership that meets the interests of all the countries on the continent we share. It was God’s will that we use the objective competitive advantages of sharing the same space that, as it happens, has been a driver of growth for the global economy for a very long time. And it will maintain this role for many years ahead. In addition to mutually beneficial economic projects, it is important to ensure, regardless of other factors, military and political security in Eurasia. We will support the idea that the countries on the continent should deal with this task without attempts by countries from other regions to intervene in these processes with their own rules. We are convinced that the Eurasian countries are capable of handling these tasks independently.

I have listed several regional entities, but there is also a supra-regional global association called BRICS which epitomises the diversity of the multipolar world. The decision adopted during the summit in South Africa last year to expand the number of BRICS members came as a particularly important step to strengthen the position of BRICS. Russia, which assumed the BRICS chairmanship on January 1, will pay special attention to ensuring that newcomers seamlessly join in the common work and contribute to the strengthening of positive trends not only within the association, but also in the international arena in the interests of the Global Majority. Since over 20 (even closer to 30) countries are interested in establishing close ties with BRICS, we see a bright future for this association with global representation.

We have continued to prioritise the protection of the legitimate interests and rights of Russian citizens abroad. You are well aware of how they are discriminated against in the countries of the collective West. Unlike your Western colleagues who are increasingly trying to hide the truth about journalists’ working conditions in the countries with “established democracies” (pardon the expression), many of you write about this. But in addition to the everyday problems faced by our citizens in the United States, Europe, and other countries, natural and man-made emergencies didn’t go anywhere.

Recently, we have been providing broad-based assistance to evacuate Russians and citizens of CIS countries and some other countries from Gaza and, several months before that, from Sudan riven by internal conflict.

In terms of public diplomacy, I would like to single out the milestone of creating in March 2023 of the International Russophile Movement, which is an informal association of people living on different continents with spiritual and cultural affinity for Russia. The founding meeting of this movement was successfully held and its first full-fledged congress will be held in the first half of this year.

We will continue to promote the ideals of truth and justice in international affairs. We will do our utmost to make international relations more democratic. In this sense, our Ministry strongly supports United Russia’s initiative to hold in Moscow an international inter-party forum of supporters of combating the modern practices of neo-colonialism. It is a popular theme given that the neocolonialist nature of Western policy is present in a big way in the current policies pursued by the United States and its allies. Its thrust remains the same – to use the resources of other countries to their benefit and to live off of others. The upcoming forum promises to be an engaging and important event.

Russia will host a number of major international cultural events, including the World Youth Festival, which is fast approaching, the Games of the Future which is a mix of physical sports and cybersports, and the sports games of the BRICS countries. Both games will be held in Kazan (the Games of the Future in February, and the BRICS Games in the summer of 2024.)

The Intervision international song contest is being prepared. Many countries of the Global Majority showed interest in it. We will do our best to make sure that our guests who will come to these and numerous other events fully experience Russian hospitality as in 2018, when we hosted the finals of the FIFA World Cup.

In closing, I would like to reiterate our openness to communicating with media representatives in a variety of formats. I hope the Ministry representatives present here cannot be accused of ducking the media. Other senior ministerial officials, heads of departments, and our employees (especially when they travel as part of a delegation to international events) are simply under obligation to share information about our work and to make our work clear and transparent. This is what we strive to achieve.

Question: If elections take place in Ukraine this year, can a person willing to talk to Russia come to power there? Kiev signed a security agreement with London and may sign similar agreements with other G7 countries. How important is it for Russia in the context of the future settlement of the conflict? Does it mean that Ukraine won’t have a neutral status?

Sergey Lavrov: Frankly, we are not too concerned over the details in the discussion of Ukraine’s political affairs. The issue of elections surfaced. We heard that the West strongly advised Vladimir Zelensky to hold these elections, apparently in the hope that the election campaign and the voting itself will make it possible to bring him into line with Western interests, because he is getting harder and harder to control.

Zelensky announced in public that he would not hold any elections because of the ongoing war. This reminds one of another staged performance and reflects exclusively the desire of this man and his well-known underlings to hold on to power as much as possible. This is the desire I see.

The West would like to have more flexibility. Apparently, they have already understood that the much-publicised blitzkrieg with the ultimate goal of inflicting a “strategic defeat” on Russia is a mere illusion. There has been a fundamental shift, primarily in Western minds. They realised their mistake. It is hard to admit it. Now they are looking for some external signals that would allow them to still support Ukraine while pushing Kiev to become more accommodating and listen to its Western bosses. I find it hard to predict how successful they will be in that.

As for the second part of your question, this story is nothing new. Several months ago, there were “clashes” in the West over whether to admit Ukraine to NATO or the European Union. Not everyone was in favour of this and not everyone was happy. Everyone understood that this was yet another completely senseless, irresponsible and risky move for European security. The signing of bilateral agreements with individual Western countries was invented as a product requiring additional assembly. I heard about the contents of the document agreed upon by Zelensky and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. I did not see in its analysis any legally binding provisions unless we consider as such Ukraine’s obligation to come to the defence of Great Britain in case of an attack. This sounds like a joke. But, on the other hand, we can regard it as a continuation of Studio Kvartal-95. Probably, now it will go by a different name.

We do not object to the agreements that other countries sign with Ukraine but this does not change our goal one iota. President Vladimir Putin confirmed this the other day. We will steadfastly pursue the goals of the special military operation and we will achieve them.

The West periodically sends us some signals and then cancels them. We take a philosophical attitude to them. President Vladimir Putin said many times that Russia does not refuse to negotiate. He said this as early as in 2022, when Boris Johnson and other Anglo-Saxons prohibited Kiev from signing an already agreed-upon treaty to reach a settlement with the Russian Federation. This is a well-known episode. It took place in April 2022. Speaking in 2022 about this issue, President Putin said again that we do not reject talks. However, those who do should realise that the more they drag it out, the harder it will be to come to terms later. Now we see how this prediction is coming true. There is no hope at all that Russia will be “defeated.” This was said many times. Those who have not studied history (there are many of them in the West) and geography know little and may engage in flights of fancy. Or they may come up with another plot for the afore-mentioned Studio Kvartal-95. But it will have nothing to do with real life.

Question: I would like to wish you a happy New Year and victory on all fronts to the Russian people.

The United States is creating “international political and military coalitions” which are committing acts of aggression against Yemen and continue to support and encourage Israeli genocide against the Palestinian people, as well as military operations against Syria and Lebanon. What is Moscow’s stance on these issues?

Sergey Lavrov: We have made numerous public statements to present our views on the developments in the Middle East, not only in Gaza but also in the Palestinian territories as a whole and in Lebanon, Iraq and, of course, Yemen.

It is obvious that the United States, Britain and some of their other allies have trampled underfoot all the norms of international law, including the UN Security Council resolution, which only called for protecting commercial shipping. Nobody was given the right to bomb Yemen, just as nobody gave NATO the right to bomb Libya in 2011. A resolution adopted back then only established a no-fly zone over Libya, which meant that the Libyan Air Force aircraft must not fly over the country, and they did not. There was not even the most far-fetched pretext for using armed force there. But the country has been bombed to dust and turned into a black hole. Nobody has been able to reassemble the Libyan state to this day. A huge number of migrants flooded Europe, making it suffer. But the Americans and the British are not suffering. The terrorists whom the West used to overthrow Muammar Gaddafi moved towards central Africa.

We can see the same arbitrariness with regard to Yemen now. It is obvious to everyone. I would say that Washington’s justifications are pathetic.

The other day, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in Davos that virtually every country in the Middle East wanted the United States and they wanted it leading. I cannot confidently say if the regional countries want this. We should ask them. But one of these countries, Iraq, adopted a decision several years ago stating that the United States had been in the country, its military bases had been in the country for a long time, and that this should end, and the United States should go home. But the Americans refuse to leave.

Baghdad has recently made another statement on the Americans’ reluctance to go home even though they have been encouraged to leave long ago. It is especially regrettable that Secretary of State Blinken also implied that only the United States can help negotiate peace between the Palestinians and the Israelis. He said this. We are aware of such semi-secret contacts involving the United States, Israel and several Arab countries. But these contacts do not involve a direct dialogue between the Palestinians and the Israelis. Instead, they imply that the “big guys” will sit at a table somewhere to decide how the Palestinians should live and will present their decision to them. This cannot succeed. Only a direct dialogue, which must be relaunched, can bring about progress. It went on, with difficulties, but it continued with support from the quartet of international intermediaries. We have always said that the activities of the quartet – the United States, Russia, the UN and the EU – must also involve representatives from the Arab League. It is deeply regrettable that the Americans and the Europeans blocked that idea. And then the United States dissolved all such quartets and monopolised the entire mediation process.

In September 2023, US National Security Adviser Jack Sullivan said that the Middle East region was quieter today than it has been in the past few years. A month later, a conflict broke out in Gaza. This calls for collective efforts, which the United States seems to have lost the habit of. It has become addicted to dictating.

Next Tuesday, the UN Security Council will hold a special meeting on this issue. We plan to attend it, and I will personally travel to New York for this purpose. We will put forth our ideas aimed at resuming collective efforts and ending the attempts to decide everything single-handedly, and not only in the Middle East. The United States wants to promote its agenda throughout the world. We’ll see what comes of it.

Ultimately, life itself will likely teach our Western colleagues a lesson. Regional countries must clearly show that it is their region, and the security of all states in the region is of crucial importance. While external recommendations will not be disregarded, the final decisions must be taken by the regional countries themselves.

The main focus of these efforts should be the establishment of a Palestinian state in strict compliance with the UN Security Council’s decisions. This state should be viable, as the decisions state, and live side by side with Israel and other regional countries in peace and security. Otherwise, we will continue to see outbreaks of violence like the current situation in Gaza. Without a state of their own, the Palestinian people will continue to feel disadvantaged and injured. One generation of young Palestinians after another will be aware of this injustice and will pass on this feeling to their children. This injustice must be put to an end through the establishment of a Palestinian state. I hope that the Israeli leadership will ultimately reach the same conclusion. Currently, very few people consider this solution acceptable to Israel, but this only means that efforts must continue to help them see the truth, which is that Israel’s security cannot be guaranteed without the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Russia wants Israel and its people to live in security. Israel is our long-time partner. Our country was the first to recognise Israel’s independence. About 2 million Israeli citizens also hold Russian passports and have come from Russia. Of course, we are concerned about this. We are ready to play an active role in bringing about a comprehensive settlement that will guarantee Israel’s security while strictly complying with the UN resolution on the Palestinian issue.

To be continued…

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Traditionally, Sergey Lavrov holds a large-scale press conference at the beginning of the year to assess the foreign policy events of the past year.

Sputnik Africa goes live as Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is summing up the past year at a major press conference.

The event is held in a hybrid format: some Russian and foreign journalists have joined the conference directly in the press center of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, while others have connected via the Internet. Moreover, the representatives of the press were able to send their questions in advance.


⭕ ❗ Russian FM Lavrov’s statements on the Ukraine crisis:
🔻 Russia sees no US, NATO readiness for fair settlement of Ukrainian conflict, they continue escalation;
🔻West pushing Ukraine to use long-range missiles on Russian territory shows no interest in peace settlement;
🔻Moscow is not concerned about political life in Ukraine, West wants to have more flexibility in Ukraine’s leadership;
🔻Security issues in Eurasia must be resolved without countries outside the region.
⭕ ❗ West is talking more about clash of nuclear powers, there are fewer deterrents, Lavrov states. The Russian foreign minister has also noted that the US wants to resume control over Russian nuclear arsenal under the guise of reciprocity.


⭕ ❗ The main focus of efforts on Palestine should be the creation of a Palestinian state, Lavrov says. He also noted that without the creation of a Palestinian state, the recurrence of violence in Gaza will continue and Israel’s security will not be ensured.
⭕ ❗ US, UK violated all norms of international law with strikes on Yemen, Russian FM Sergey Lavrov says. The UN did not give the US the right to strike Yemen, as before it did in Libya, the Russia’s top diplomat has also underscored.


⭕ ❗ Lavrov: “One of the large European countries that does not speak English” invited the Russian ambassador to think about joint projects in Africa to help regain this country’s lost influence amid the strengthening of Russia’s relations with Africa, in particular with Burkina Faso, the Central African Republic, Chad and Niger.
🗣 “The cynicism is off the charts. You remain our enemy […] but in Africa you will somehow help us… There will never be such negotiations,” added the foreign minister.
⭕❗ Argentina’s refusal to join BRICS is the country’s sovereign decision, the Russian foreign minister says.


Highlights from Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s statements at the press conference on the results of 2023:

Africa and BRICS:
⚫ Moscow is taking its partnership with African countries to a truly strategic level;
⚫ Argentina’s refusal to join BRICS at this time is a sovereign decision of this country;
⚫ BRICS symbolizes the abundance of a multipolar world;
⚫ Russia will pay special attention to ensure that new BRICS members fit seamlessly into the bloc.

Ukraine:
⚫ The situation with the elections in Ukraine is increasingly reminiscent of a staging and reflects Zelensky’s desire to cling to power as much as possible;
⚫ There are no legally binding provisions in the London-Kiev security agreement;
⚫ Russia does not see the US interest in a settlement in Ukraine.

Yemen:
⚫ The US and UK trampled international law by striking at Yemen;
⚫ Washington’s excuses in the situation with Yemen look pathetic.

The Palestinian-Israeli conflict:
⚫ Semi-closed contacts involving the US, Israel and some individual states on Palestine will not be successful;
⚫ Only direct dialogue is needed to resolve relations between Israel and Palestine;
⚫ Russia is ready to play an active role in ensuring a full resolution of the conflict in the Middle East.

The security dialogue with the US:
⚫ It is impossible to talk about the prospects for strategic dialogue with the US in isolation from other issues;
⚫ The US has created unacceptable conditions for the implementation of disarmament treaties;
⚫ In December 2023, Russia conveyed its assessments on strategic stability to the US and warned that they had no alternative.

Russian Fifth Column – (SVR) Director Sergey Naryshkin has said.

Par : amarynth
Mere weeks ahead of the 2024 presidential election in Russia, the United States intends to ramp up efforts to recruit Russian graduates of US exchange programs in order to form a “fifth column” in Russia and to meddle in Russia’s internal affairs, Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) Director Sergey Naryshkin has said.
Commenting on this development, retired US Air Force Lt. Col and former Pentagon analyst Karen Kwiatkowski told Sputnik that “all participants and graduates of military and state department exchange programs have always been targets for this kind of recruitment.”
According to her, the expansion of this recruitment approach to a “wider range of high school student exchanges, academic scholarships to ostensibly private universities, and civilian travel speaks to three things.
  • “One, the return to human intelligence (HUMINT) within the CIA and other intelligence agencies.
  • Two, expected available future funding for HUMINT, which has been weak for years in the US and is less costly and more easily hidden within the larger budget,” Kwiatkowski said. “
  • And three, the expanded and pervasive nature of the US surveillance state, and its ability to not only track and identify but surreptitiously engage these young people among Americans (who are surveilled usually without FISA warrants).”
Reported widely in Russian media today, this made me think of Catherine A Fitts, who said that the US is coming to rescue their dollar.   We have Latin American destabilization growing stronger as well.
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