RT and Sputnik News

🇷🇸 Biden puts pressure on Serbia to sanction Russia before leaving - Deputy PM

Joe Biden's administration is trying to put pressure on Belgrade with sanctions against the Russian-Serbian company Naftna Industriya Srbije before leaving the office, Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vulin said.

"This is being done because now is the time to break the Serbian leadership and put maximum pressure on President Vucic in order to try to force him to impose sanctions against the Russian Federation or at least take a step with NIS that will look to Russian partners like something directed against them," Vulin said.

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Deputy Director General of Rossiya Segodnya: Western media show their weakness

The blocking of the RIA Novosti Telegram channel in a number of EU countries shows that the Russian media scene has proved stronger than the Western one, Alexander Yakovenko, deputy director general of the Rossiya Segodnya media group, told Sputnik.

"The basis of any country's immunity is the fabric of public statements by officials and experts on events in the world and at home. The Russian information fabric has proved to be stronger, as it contains answers to questions of interest to society," Yakovenko stressed.

He also noted that the West will soon have to deal with the whole world's majority media.

"Today [the media of the world majority countries] are more open to different points of view than in the West. It is in this area that a clash of meanings is taking place, and the projection of these meanings partly shapes public opinion and the policies of states. That is why the world majority countries did not support Western anti-Russian sanctions," Yakovenko concluded.

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Turkish drone maker Baykar acquires Italian aviation giant Piaggio Aerospace

Turkish drone manufacturer Baykar has acquired Italian aircraft producer Piaggio Aerospace, according to Italy's industry ministry on Friday.

Baykar's bid was selected over two other final and binding offers from international competitors, officials said. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

#Türkiye #Italy

Trump's team weighs using military bases to deport illegal immigrants - Reports

The incoming Donald Trump administration is considering the possibility of using US military bases and aircraft to detain and deport undocumented immigrants, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing Tom Homan, Trump's "border czar."

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🇬🇪 Outgoing Georgian president stays overnight in presidential palace

Outgoing Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili said on Saturday she would spend the night at the presidential residence in Tbilisi as the inauguration ceremony of Georgian President-elect Mikheil Kavelashvili takes place tomorrow.

"Tomorrow at 10 o'clock in the morning [06:00 GMT] I will wait for you at the Orbeliani Palace and from here I will tell you what tomorrow will be like," Zourabichvili said in a video address to her supporters.

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze expressed hope on Friday that Zurabishvili would not have to be forcibly evicted from the presidential palace and that she would leave the building of her own free will at the end of her term.

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Too soon? Sweden searches for enough cemetery space in case of war

Swedish burial associations are securing land to prepare for mass burials in wartime, following Church of Sweden advise, as well as guidelines from the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency and the Swedish Armed Forces.

According to the Church of Sweden, burial associations are responsible for ensuring the availability of enough land to bury roughly 5 percent of the population within a parish.

#Sweden

UK will train 180 Ukrainian soldiers in mental health care in 2025

The United Kingdom will train an additional 180 Ukrainian soldiers as "combat mental resilience practitioners" on the front lines in 2025, the British Ministry of Defense said on Saturday.

📑 Nearly a fifth of Ukrainian soldiers have gone AWOL from their posts, The Economist reported in November, citing a source in the general staff.

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Netanyahu will have his prostate removed on Sunday following a UTI - his office says

Poverty plummeted in Russia – study

Just 4.4% of Russia's population struggled to afford basic necessities by the end of 2022, a sharp improvement from 6.3% in 2020, according to Rosstat

Unemployment fell significantly from 5.8% in 2020 to 3.9% in 2022, pointing to consistent improvements in the country’s economy.

The agency will keep monitoring poverty levels in the country.

#Russia

🔥 German MP calls Ukrainian UN envoy 'fascist worshipper'

This is how German MP Sevim Dağdelen of the BSW party commented on Ukraine's new permanent representative to the UN, Andriy Melnyk, who said that he expected the future German government to provide aid of 20 billion euros a year.

"Fascist worshipper Melnyk ever more brazen. Now they are already demanding arms contributions of 20 billion a year (!). Merz Habeck Scholz will probably continue to burn German taxpayers' money in Ukraine," she wrote on X.

In 2022, Melnyk, then serving as Ukraine's ambassador to Germany, caused a public uproar by claiming that Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera "was not a mass murderer of Jews and Poles" during WWII.

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US and UK seek to force Russia out of Syria to further destabilize Middle East – CIA veteran

The outgoing Biden administration and the British leadership are looking to maintain chaos in the Middle East while regarding the Russian military presence in Syria as a force hindering their plans, according to Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR).

The SVR stated that the CIA and MI6 are developing plans to organize a series of terrorist attacks on Russian military facilities in Syria using ISIS* fighters armed with drones as their proxies.

"This is just one more egregious example of the US poking the bear. And up to this point, the bear has not eaten the poker," retired CIA intelligence official Larry Johnson tells Sputnik.

The US and its allies believe that they "can inflict enough damage on Russia that it'll pull out of Syria and withdraw its presence from those military bases" since they misinterpret Moscow's patience as weakness, according to Johnson.

The SVR noted that the US and UK hope these terror provocations would also cast a shadow on the new Syrian authorities as being incapable of controlling the situation on the ground.

Meanwhile, the US also intends to maintain control over oil-rich areas of Syria east of the Euphrates River under the pretext of fighting ISIS, according to the SVR.

"The interests of the US are very simple. It's oil control. They've had control of some of the oil in the east for at least eight or nine years—so this is not new," Johnson stresses.

"There's zero interest or intent on the part of the US to promote either democracy or stability" in the region, the pundit concludes.

*terrorist organization banned by Russia and other countries

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End of Trudeau? Lawmaker gears up for a January takedown

A Conservative Party lawmaker John Williamson is set to lead efforts to unseat Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as early as January.

The House of Commons Public Accounts Committee will meet on January 7 during the legislative recess to discuss and vote on a motion of non-confidence in Trudeau’s Liberal government. To succeed, the motion will need approval from the majority in the House of Commons.

#Canada

Biden reportedly REGRETS suspending his reelection campaign, believing he would have BEATEN Trump - though Harris supporters think his problem was he stuck around for too long before withdrawing

What ever happened to the Russian interference narrative?