Laura Ru

⚡️Israel, who has just launched new attacks on Gaza, has rejected a proposed ceasefire deal that had been accepted by Hamas. Netanyahu says the security cabinet will not meet as scheduled to approve the Gaza ceasefire deal, blaming Hamas for causing a “last-minute crisis and backing out of some agreements." Hamas rejects the Israeli claim as baseless. Israel's acceptance of the deal will not be official until it is approved by the country's security cabinet and government. ▪️Last night, the prime minister of Qatar as well as both Joe Biden and Donald Trump announced that a deal had been reached, but Benjamin Netanyahu has continued to insist that the final deal has not been inked and some outstanding details remain. The Religious Zionism party led by Bezalel Smotrich said it may resign from the government in opposition to the deal. Without the support of these genocidal settlers Netanyahu's government would collapse and he could end up in jail. The war on Gaza swept Netanyahu's trial off the agenda - in Israel he is on trial for corruption, bribery, fraud and breach of trust. @LauraRuHK

Interview with Nikolai Patrushev, Assistant to the President of the Russian Federation, permanent member of the Security Council.

The American elite is split and does not have the same idea of how to build policy both in the world and within the country.

Trump's main slogan is that he allegedly has a plan to return the US to a pragmatic policy that would be beneficial to both the state and its citizens. How this will relate to the interests of other countries and peoples is not yet clear.

One way or another, today we are witnessing serious changes in the world. I am referring not only to the geopolitical situation, but also to the state of affairs in the economy, the technological sphere, social and cultural processes. The last time such tectonic shifts occurred was after the collapse of the USSR. At that time, the West could not properly adapt to the new realities and continued to live as during the Cold War, constantly looking for enemies.(...)

Time will tell whether Trump will be able to realize his intentions to the fullest. As his first term demonstrated, the notorious deep state in the US is very strong. It may prevent it from unfolding. And the experience of the election campaign and the attempt on his life showed that you need to be prepared for the most unthinkable scenarios.

It is clear that Trump's positions are not shared by all US elites. His views are significantly at odds with the plans hatched by representatives of the Democratic Party, individual owners of industrial giants and transnational corporations. Therefore, it is extremely important that the safety of Trump and his entourage is ensured before taking office as head of state, as well as in the presidency.

For the Biden administration, Ukraine was an absolute priority. It is clear that the relationship between Trump and Biden is antagonistic. Therefore, Ukraine will not be among Trump's priorities. He is more concerned about China.

In addition, he outlined his interests in relation to Greenland, the Panama Canal, Mexico and Canada. Redrawing the map of the world to suit one's interests and interfering in the affairs of countries on different continents is an American tradition.(...)

As for relations between the United States and China, I believe that Washington's disagreements with Beijing will escalate, and the Americans will inflate them, including artificially. For us, China has been and remains the most important partner with whom we are linked by relations of special privileged strategic cooperation. These relations are not subject to conjuncture, they persist regardless of who occupies the Oval Office.

The main priority for us is the protection and well-being of our citizens and compatriots around the world. If we talk about the international aspect, then discrimination against the Russian population in a number of countries, and, of course, in the Baltic States and Moldova, must be stopped. The authorities of these states continue to lead themselves into the deepest crisis with ill-conceived actions and at the same time stubbornly spin a Russophobic narrative. The energy crisis is especially indicative, the blame for which lies one hundred percent with the Moldovan authorities, who obediently carry out the orders of Brussels to reduce gas dependence on Russia.
I do not rule out that Chisinau's aggressive anti-Russian policy will lead to the fact that Moldova will either become part of another state or cease to exist altogether. In this situation, we can look at the example of Ukraine, where neo-Nazism and Russophobia led the country to collapse, and long before the special military operation.

The territories once ruled from Kiev became part of Russia as a result of the expression of the will of citizens in accordance with international law, the laws of the Russian Federation and the legislation of these regions.

Russia's policy towards Ukraine remains unchanged. It is important for us that the goals of the SMO are achieved. They are known and have not changed. They have been repeatedly named by Vladimir Putin.

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Brookings, one of the most influential US think tanks, recommended a policy of deliberate ambiguity towards China.

The central policy challenge for the United States going forward will be two-fold: 1) how to keep Beijing off balance as it takes stock of the new administration, so that 2) the administration can advance initiatives to compete with China with a diminished risk of reprisal from Beijing. These two goals are in fact mutually reinforcing—the more uncertain Beijing is about the Trump administration’s policies, the longer it will seek to prolong this tactical pause in the competition and placate Washington. The primary challenge in the opening phases of diplomacy with the People’s Republic of China (PRC) is to keep Beijing uncertain—neither reassuring it nor driving it to despair. If U.S. actions prompt Beijing to judge that no action it takes will assuage U.S. objections, then Beijing will have no incentive to placate the United States and may stop doing so altogether—leaving the United States with less leverage than if it had left Beijing uncertain. Beijing craves clarity from Washington, but we should feed it ambiguity—at least as a first course.

The new Trump administration will be able to determine the tempo, tenor, and contours of Sino-U.S. competition in the coming year. The United States has the advantage of the initiative in this moment since China remains in a wait-and-see posture. Beijing does not yet know if the new administration is aiming at decoupling or at a deal that addresses U.S. grievances about China’s trade and economic practices.

@LauraRuHK

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has distanced himself from US President-elect Donald Trump's call for increasing defense spending by NATO countries to 5% of their GDP.

"Five percent would mean more than 200 billion euros a year. Germany’s budget is less than 500 billion euros," Scholz said during a trip to the city of Bielefeld. "This is only possible on the condition of a significant tax increase or major cuts in spending on many things that are important to us," the DPA news agency quotes him as saying.

The chancellor vowed that Germany would continue to spend no less than the NATO target of 2% of GDP on defense.

"I guarantee that we will continue to spend 2% of our GDP on defense," he said. "Anyone who says this is not the way to go should also say where to get the money from," Scholz stated.

Germany's GDP in 2023, according to some estimates, was around 4.2 trillion euros.

Earlier, Trump told a news conference that he intended to push for an increase in military spending by NATO member-states to 5% of their GDP. (Source: TASS) @LauraRuHK

Poland has assumed the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union. You don’t need to look far for Warsaw’s top priority during its six-month term: "Security, Europe!" is the tagline for the Polish presidency.

Since Russophobia is an integral part of Polish national identity, no brownie points for guessing which country is deemed a threat to European security. A 50 page document outlining the priorities of the Polish presidency states that Russia poses "an existential threat to Europe, the greatest since the end of the Second World War".
To combat this alleged threat, the EU needs "concerted and ambitious action on European defence, complementing the efforts of NATO", reads the document.
"There is a need to boost defence readiness based on increased military spending, a stronger defence industry and addressing defence capability gaps".

The same document calls for greater defence spending in the EU. Poland plans to spend 5% of its annual GDP this year on defence, up from over 4% in 2024 - the largest of all EU member states in percentage terms.

That kind of spending will be music to Donald Trump's ears, who called on NATO members to spend that same amount - 5% of GDP - on defence.

Of course Poland has a vested interest. Its companies are completing a border wall to seal off its border with Belarus.

They are installing night vision and thermal cameras, building a new road to patrol the border and reinforcing the five-metre high steel fence that the previous government built in 2022. It costs more than 2.5bn zlotys (€587mn) to reinforce the border, half of which is allocated by the Tusk government.

Warsaw has also called on EU partners to contribute financially to a separate military project called the East Shield. Tusk has earmarked 10bn zlotys for this project which includes new air surveillance systems, anti-tank barriers and ditches. In the coming months, Warsaw will also build a new road to reach the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad that will "allow Polish troops to react faster to possible security breaches".

Ursula von der Leyen said Brussels would give €170mn to countries neighbouring Russia and Belarus in order to counter “hybrid threats from Russia’s and Belarus’s unacceptable weaponisation of migration”. No wonder the Baltics, Finland and Poland have institutionalized Russophobia. @LauraRuHK

Croatia's President Milanovic wins another term after defeating ruling party candidate.

Croatia's opposition-backed President Zoran Milanovic overwhelmingly won reelection for another five-year term on Sunday, defeating a candidate from the ruling conservative party in a runoff vote, official results showed.

Milanovic won more than 74% of the vote compared to his challenger Dragan Primorac, who received nearly 26%.

The result is a major boost for Milanovic, who is a critic of Western military support for Ukraine and a fierce opponent of Croatia's conservative Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic and his government. @LauraRuHK

The Kiev regime attempted an attack on the infrastructure of the Russkaya compressor station in the village of Gaikodzor in Russia's Krasnodar Region, which supplies gas to the TurkStream gas pipeline. All UAVs used for the attack were shot down by air defense systems. ▪️The gas pipeline running from Russia to Turkey through the Black Sea with a capacity of 31.5 billion cubic meters is designed to supply gas to Turkey and the countries of Southern and Southeastern Europe

▪️As of today, it remains the only active pipeline for Russian gas supplies to Europe after the North Stream was sabotaged and Kiev decided not to renew a five-year contract allowing Russian gas to flow through Ukraine. @LauraRuHK

Prisoner swap - Mohammad Abedini Najafabadi, who was arrested at Milan airport, is back in Iran. His liberation is the result of negotiations between Iranian and Italian intelligence services. Tehran released Cecilia Sala, the Italian journalist arrested last month for violating the laws of the Islamic Republic, and Rome released the Iranian engineer who was detained at the request of the United States. Giorgia Meloni got Donald Trump's OK to turn down a US extradition request for the Iranian engineer so he could be freed in a prisoner swap.