The World Blog by humble servant.

The US Treasury Department has exempted Russian telecommunications and internet companies from some of the strictest sanctions imposed in response to the invasion of Ukraine in February. The move follows pleas from NGOs and internet freedom groups which had argued that cutting Russians off from communication with the west would do more harm than good.Businesses involving “services, software, hardware, or technology incident to the exchange of communications over the internet” will no longer be subject to the heavy-handed sanctions the US imposed on Moscow following its invasion of Ukraine in February, according to an order issued last week by the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control. The new order specifically does not apply to Russian financial institutions or state-controlled entities, however, which remain under sanction. Access Now legal counsel Natalia Krapiva praised Washington’s move, declaring that “US internet communication technologies are key for human...

Canada’s military has reportedly provided combat training to members of Ukraine’s neo-Nazi Azov regiment, contrary to stated policy and despite previous denials of any official relations between Ottawa and the notorious militia. The apparent connection came to light in photos posted on social media by the Ukrainian National Guard, according to a report on Monday by Radio-Canada. The pictures show soldiers wearing Azov Battalion patches on their uniforms while participating in training with Canadian forces. “According to Oleksiy Kuzmenko, a journalist specializing in the Ukrainian far right, the presence of these patches strongly suggests that the Azov regiment had access to Canadian military training,” Radio-Canada said in its report. The patches display a crest that is “firmly and exclusively associated with the Azov regiment,” Kuzmenko told the media outlet. Adrien Nonjon, who researches Ukrainian nationalism at the National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilizations, agr...

Britain announced sanctions on Monday against Bosnian-Serb politicians Milorad Dodik and Zeljka Cvijanovic, who are accused of “deliberately undermining the hard-won peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina.” The measures, which include asset freezes and travel bans, come in response to political activity that the UK claims amounts to “de facto secession of Republika Srpska [from Bosnia and Herzegovina] in direct contravention of the country’s constitution.” Cvijanovic is president of Republika Srpska, a constituent entity of Bosnia Herzegovina. Dodik serves as the Bosnian-Serb member of the state's three-person presidency. The pair are believed to be “emboldened by Russia’s undermining of the international rules-based system” and “encouraged by [Russian President Vladimir] Putin,” the UK Foreign Office said in a Monday press release, which also accuses both of “genocide denial.” “Their reckless behavior threatens stability and security across the Western Balkans,” Foreign Secretary Li...

Andrey Kortunov: Ukraine conflict is the last act in a long Soviet collapse © RIA/Maxim Blinov Thirty years ago, when the Soviet Union ceased to exist, many observers expressed their surprise at the relatively peaceful nature of the huge state's disintegration. The deconstructions of other great European empires – including the British, French, Spanish, and Portuguese – were followed by large-scale armed conflicts, some of which lasted for several decades and were accompanied by hundreds of thousands, or even millions of victims. The post-Soviet space, of course, also witnessed military violence and armed conflicts in the early 1990s (Tajikistan, Nagorno-Karabakh, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Transnistria, Chechnya, and Dagestan), but most of these were of a relatively modest scale and duration. Military conflicts within the territory of the former USSR were often successfully “frozen” and only from time to time did they draw attention to themselves with outbreaks of escalation. Th...

British, French, and Danish troops who recently arrived to serve in NATO Battlegroup Estonia began joint drills with Estonian forces this weekend. The ongoing Bold Dragon exercises, involving the foreign troops and members of Estonia’s 1st Infantry Brigade, are being held at the Estonian military’s central training area in the north of the Baltic state. Their aim is to provide the newly-arrived Western European servicemen with their first opportunity to get acquainted with the Estonian terrain and improve their cooperation with their local counterparts. On Saturday and Sunday, the participants of the drill practiced both assault and defensive maneuvers, according to a statement by the 1st Infantry Brigade. Some 2,000 Estonian troops are taking part in the war games, which will culminate in a battalion-level tactical exercise on Wednesday and Thursday, it added. © Estonia’s Defense Ministry The Bold Dragon drills also feature aviation, including Belgian F-16s, British Eurofighter...

Russian President Vladimir Putin has instructed the government on measures for social and economic support of the nation in the face of Western sanctions. The presidential order was published on Monday on the Kremlin website. The Cabinet of Ministers is expected to make a number of amendments to laws to increase the availability of social support measures. So, before April 30, amendments should be made to ensure an increase in the availability of support measures for families with children, whose income has decreased significantly after March 1. The government has also been instructed to establish, by the end of the year, a special procedure for assessing the needs of families that have been affected by job losses. In addition, the Cabinet will have to ensure a reduction of poverty in the country in 2022, while at the same time reducing income inequality. The government will report by June 15 to the president on the work done towards this and, after that, quarterly. The government ...

johnnie ellington @e7johnny · 2m Replying to @e7johnny and @CNNPolitics The remark came after the Bild journalist asked what the worst thing he had heard in recent days was. When the interviewer probed further, asking whether it was the head of state of an EU nation, Zelensky replied in the affirmative, though he refused to name the official. johnnie ellington @e7johnny · 1m Replying to @e7johnny and @CNNPolitics Kiev’s version of events surrounding the Bucha killings, asking for proof that the atrocities were not staged. Speaking to German newspaper Bild on Friday, Zelensky described how a leading EU politician asked him for evidence proving that the Bucha massacre had not been staged. johnnie ellington @e7johnny · 2m Replying to @e7johnny and @CNNPolitics Zelensky The Ukrainian president has refused to divulge who exactly the politician was By The humble servant. April 09, 2022 Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has revealed that an EU member state’s leader called into ...

Closed-doors talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer concluded outside Moscow on Monday. No press conference or joint statements followed the meeting at Putin’s official residence, and no photo or video materials were published. The negotiations were not a “friendly visit” but were rather “very direct, open and hard,” Nehammer told Austrian media after the talks. He signaled that the conversation revolved around the humanitarian aspect of the ongoing hostilities in Ukraine. “This is not a friendly visit. I’ve just come from Ukraine and saw with my own eyes the immeasurable suffering caused by the Russian war of aggression,” Nehammer stated, adding that he had raised alleged “war crimes” blamed on Russian troops during the meeting. The chancellor also revealed that he told Putin that anti-Russian sanctions imposed by the EU would remain in place and could even be reinforced as long as the conflict goes on. “The EU is more united than ever ...

Hungary is ready to accept the new ruble-based payment mechanism for Russian gas to secure the country’s energy supplies, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto told a news conference on Monday. “As for paying in rubles, we have a solution that does not violate any sanctions but at the same time it secures Hungary's gas supply,” Szijjarto said, noting that the option to pay bills in another currency rather than euros was included in a bilateral contract between Hungary’s energy group MVM's subsidiary, CEE Energy, and Russian Gazprom Export, sealed in September last year. In March, Moscow amended the payment mechanism for its natural gas exports, demanding that buyers from countries that imposed sanctions on Russia over its military operation in Ukraine pay for the commodity in rubles. Moscow explained that buyers will now have to transfer gas payments in their currency of choice to accounts in Russian Gazprombank, which will convert them into rubles so they may reach gas producer ...

On April 11, North Korea celebrates 10 years of Kim Jong Un’s rule, as the nation commemorates their leader’s political achievements and his development of nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic missiles. In a speech at a national meeting on Sunday, North Korea’s First Vice President of the State Affairs Commission and Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Supreme People’s Assembly, Choe Ryong-hae, praised Kim Jong Un as a “gifted thinker and theoretician, outstanding statesman and peerlessly great commander.” Choe went on to say that Kim is a “peerless patriot and a great defender of peace”, marking his achievements in making North Korea “a full-fledged military power equipped with all powerful physical means of self-defense,” adding that he opened up “a new era for North Korea” as a prospering and self-reliant “powerful socialist nation.” Kim Jong Un was named supreme commander of the North Korean military and the top party and state leader on April 11, 2012, after hi...

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has refuted former US President Bill Clinton’s comment on NATO’s open-door policy towards Russia, arguing that Washington has made it impossible for Moscow to join the Alliance. “I know for sure that the American side has repeatedly spoken about the impossibility of such membership. De facto, it was said that the doors, on the contrary, are closed, because it is fundamentally impossible,” Peskov told reporters on Monday. Earlier last week, Bill Clinton published an article in The Atlantic attempting to justify his administration’s policy on the expansion of NATO. “My policy was to work for the best, while expanding NATO to prepare for the worst. Yes, NATO expanded despite Russia’s objections, but expansion was about more than the U.S. relationship with Russia,” the former president explained. He added that, “[the US] left the door open for Russia’s eventual membership in NATO.” In late February, Russian President Vladimir Putin released a nearly hou...

The European Union’s foreign ministers have not agreed on a ban on Russian oil and natural gas imports, Head Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell said on Monday, adding that discussions on the issue will continue. The energy ban was expected to be part of the latest EU sanctions package against Moscow. “We discussed, first of all, how to ensure the effectiveness of the existing sanctions in order to avoid gaps in their implementation. But we also discussed new steps we can take, including sanctions against oil and gas,” Borrell said. “We have not made decisions regarding such sanctions, we agreed to continue the discussion.” While the European Union agreed numerous sanctions against Moscow, member states have been at loggerheads over banning Russian energy imports. That’s because many EU countries are heavily dependent on Russian energy. Thus, Hungary has placed a veto on a total ban of Russian gas imports, saying it was the only...

A long-disused Russian diplomatic compound located in the capital city of Warsaw was seized by Polish authorities on Monday. The Russian mission objected to the move, sending a diplomatic note to the host country’s Foreign Ministry. The breach of the facility by Polish bailiffs attracted a crowd of reporters and was attended by the city’s Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, who pledged to use the building to accommodate Ukrainian refugees. “As promised, we are taking over the so-called Spyville and we will try to hand it over to our Ukrainian guests,” Trzaskowski said in a video address from the scene shared on his Twitter feed, referring to the compound by its popular nickname. “At the moment, we are checking the technical condition of the building. I am glad that we can show that Warsaw helps our Ukrainian friends in such a symbolic way.” Poland reveals new anti-Russia proposalsREAD MORE: Poland reveals new anti-Russia proposals The building in question was built by the Soviet Union back in...

The UK is facing the biggest decline in living standards since comparable records began in the 1950s, according to an independent forecast. The London-based Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) released a report on Monday, saying that the "cost of living crisis" has "well and truly" arrived in the UK. CEBR cites the recent uprating of the energy price cap – reflecting the global rise in energy costs – as the reason, saying that average UK households will be paying a whopping 73% more for their energy bill than compared to a year ago. In addition, petrol prices are up by 30% on the year and diesel prices are 36% higher, the report says. According to the consultancy, in the coming months the consumer price inflation will far outstrip wage growth, jumping by a further 2.5% from its February level of 6.2%, which was the highest in 30 years. While most forecasts expect the UK economy to grow in each quarter of 2022, the energy price crisis will still see ...

The EU made a “serious U-turn” by morphing into a military organization acting in the interests of Washington and NATO, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Monday in an interview with Russian media. He cited a remark that EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell made last Saturday. The European official said the conflict in Ukraine “will be won on the battlefield” as he announced more European military aid to Kiev. Lavrov called the statement “outrageous.” “When a diplomatic chief … says a certain conflict can only be resolved through military action… Well, it must be something personal. He either misspoke or spoke without thinking, making a statement that nobody asked him to make. But it’s an outrageous remark,” Lavrov told Rossiya 24 news channel. The EU has made a noticeable U-turn in its attitude towards Russia because Western powers are furious at Moscow for defending its vital interests in Ukraine instead of accepting a subservient role in the Washington-dominated “ru...

European governments have “spat” on their own environmental values by embracing US oil extracted with the help of fracking technology in lieu of Russian energy, a former president has claimed. In a Telegram post titled “It’s not personal, just business” published on Monday, Dmitry Medvedev, who served as Russia’s president from 2008 till 2012 and is currently deputy chairman of the country’s Security Council, marveled at how “the Europeans, not stopping to think for a second, spat on all of their ‘immutable values’ of the past decades,” dashing headlong toward “their new fortune – new dirty energy.” According to Medvedev, “Europe, which ‘lost its marbles’ over the renunciation of Russian energy can now forget about its ‘green ideals’.” The Russian official warned that the continent was in for something it “had previously been so squeamish about,” having to turn a blind eye to just how environmentally unfriendly the fracking technology employed in the US is. Medvedev claimed that Wa...

State-owned company Russian Railways has been ruled in default after failing to pay a bond coupon due on March 14. An attempted payment to shareholders was blocked last week by Western financial institutions. The International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) announced on Monday that “a Failure to Pay Credit Event occurred in respect of [Russian Railways],” which effectively puts the company in default over the payment. The company tried to pay the bond coupon, but the payment did not reach investors by the end of a 10-day grace period due to “legal and regulatory compliance obligations within the correspondent banking network.” This refers to sanctions placed on Russia following the launch of a military operation in Ukraine. Sanctions, among other things, blocked Russia’s accounts in the US, EU and some other countries, effectively denying Moscow an opportunity to conduct financial transactions with foreign institutions. Moscow threatens legal action if West pushes it into...

Tweet See new Tweets Conversation The Hill @thehill · 10m Zelensky: The world shares some responsibility for atrocities in Ukraine http://hill.cm/NsjtPjn johnnie ellington @e7johnny · 7m Blah Blah.Come out come where ever you are. johnnie ellington @e7johnny · 5m I thought I saw a Comic Nazi embracer jew bigot of himself.evil monster.Having his people OBLITERATED and peace is what it always has bee. YOUR THE THE ONE ON TRIAL NOW. johnnie ellington @e7johnny · 36s Peace is simple.And you listen to these evil people encouraging you to fight when you can't fly a plane. And all we hear is help help help. Help yourself and act like a man instead of the worse tool ever.! johnnie ellington @e7johnny · 25s And be something in history like a peace maker instead of a, the worse kind of nazi a Jewish self HATER OBVIOUSLY admitted. We have never seen Nazism embrace and promoted by the hater.And history always judge correctly LATER. SAVE your self and country no one responsible. johnnie ellin...

Russia's military action in Ukraine is meant to put an end to the US-dominated world order, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has explained. Washington has been seeking supremacy by imposing ad-hoc rules and violating international law, he claimed, in an interview aired by Russian television on Monday. He was referring to America's attempts to impose its own so-called “rules-based international order,” which have met with strong resistance from Moscow and China. “Our special military operation is meant to put an end to the unabashed expansion [of NATO] and the unabashed drive towards full domination by the US and its Western subjects on the world stage,” Lavrov told Rossiya 24 news channel. “This domination is built on gross violations of international law and under some rules, which they are now hyping so much and which they make up on a case-by-case basis,” he added. EU now NATO’s ‘economic department’ – RussiaREAD MORE: EU now NATO’s ‘economic department’ – Russia ...

Russia will take legal action if the West tries to create an artificial default in the country, Izvestia newspaper quoted Finance Minister Anton Siluanov as saying on Monday. The US blocked Moscow’s payment to its bondholders last week. “Of course, we will sue, because we have taken all the necessary steps to ensure that investors receive their payments,” Siluanov said in an interview. “We will present in court our bills confirming our efforts to pay both in foreign currency and in rubles. It will not be an easy process. We will have to very actively prove our case, despite all the difficulties.” The minister earlier said the country would do everything possible to make sure its creditors are paid. “Russia tried in good faith to pay off external creditors,” Siluanov said. “Nevertheless, the deliberate policy of Western countries is to artificially create a man-made default by all means.” Russia’s external liabilities amount to about 20% of the total public debt, which stood at abo...

South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense has rejected Kiev’s plea for anti-aircraft lethal weaponry due to a “principled stance,” ahead of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s virtual address to Seoul’s parliament. The country's Defense Minister Suh Wook had a phone call with his Ukrainian counterpart, Aleksey Reznikov, on Friday. During the conversation, Seoul’s military chief reiterated his country’s “principled stance” on not sending lethal weapons to the war-torn nation, outlet This Week in Asia has reported. “The Ukrainian defense minister asked for weapons for air defense and Minister Suh politely repeated the South Korean government’s principled stance that its aid is confined to non-lethal materials,” an identified Korean official shared with the outlet. On Monday, President Zelensky is expected to address the South Korean National Assembly, seeking to receive more support from Seoul for Kiev’s resistance to Russian troops operating within Ukraine. Seoul gets Russ...

The ruble weakened against foreign currencies on Monday after the previous week’s record rally as the Bank of Russia relaxed capital control measures. As of 10am GMT, the ruble slid to around 78 rubles to the US dollar and to just over 84 against the euro during trading on the Moscow Exchange. The Russian currency lost roughly 4% of its value against the dollar and 3% against the euro since surging on Friday to its highest level this year. Monday’s drop follows the central bank’s decision to relax temporary capital control measures that were introduced over the past few weeks to support the currency amid sanctions against Russia. A 12% commission for buying foreign currency through brokerages was scrapped as of Monday and a temporary ban on selling foreign exchange cash to individuals will be lifted from April 18. Russia adds billions to emergency spending fundREAD MORE: Russia adds billions to emergency spending fund Among the remaining support measures are the obligatory convers...

The Russian government has suspended work on the recently proposed bill to nationalize foreign firms that have chosen to end their operations in the country amid Ukraine-related Western sanctions, Izvestia newspaper reported on Monday, citing sources. Last month, a government commission on legislative activity approved a draft law, which would allow for the introduction of external management in firms, at least 25%-owned by residents of “unfriendly states,” or of countries that have placed sanctions on Russia. The initiative was proposed in response to a mass exodus of foreign companies from the country due to Western sanctions related to the conflict in Ukraine. The measure was aimed at preventing these firms’ bankruptcies and the loss of jobs in Russia. According to Izvestia, the draft document has not yet been submitted to the government. One of the unnamed sources cited by the publication explained that “it does not make sense to launch such a serious mechanism at this stage” bec...

Elite special forces from the UK and the US have been present in Ukraine since the beginning of hostilities with Russia in late February, a source in the French intelligence community reportedly told a Le Figaro reporter, last week. The claim was reported by the newspaper’s senior international correspondent Georges Malbrunot on Saturday, the day when British Prime Minister Boris Johnson made his surprise visit to Kiev. The British leader was reportedly surrounded by guards from the elite SAS force, though this claim was not officially confirmed. UK hopes Ukraine will keep fighting – mediaREAD MORE: UK hopes Ukraine will keep fighting – media SAS units “have been present in Ukraine since the beginning of the war, as did [sic] the American Deltas,” Malbrunot tweeted citing a French intelligence source. He added that according to the source Russia was well aware of the “secret war” waged against its troops by foreign commandos. Le Figaro included his report in their updates on Ukraine...

Russian commandos have killed a prominent member of Ukraine’s ultra-nationalist Right Sector group, the Russian defense ministry claimed on Monday. Taras Bobanich was accused by Moscow of causing hundreds of civilian deaths in eastern Ukraine during hostilities in 2014. A Russian recon team killed the top Neo-Nazi while on patrol about 5km south from the city of Izium in Ukraine’s Kharkov region, the ministry statement explained. It said he was a deputy commander of the Right Sector responsible for reserve operations. The ministry didn’t disclose the circumstances of Bobanich’s death. The Right Sector’s social media reported that he was killed on Friday near Izium, calling him a “legendary nationalist”. The 33-year-old, whose nickname was “Hummer”, came originally from western Ukraine. He rose to national prominence during the mass protests and armed coup of 2013-2014, during which Western-backed Ukrainian nationalists served as a street fighting force against law enforcement. The...

Russian forces have destroyed foreign-supplied S-300 anti-aircraft launchers in a number of precision strikes on Ukraine, the Defense Ministry, in Moscow, claimed on Monday. Days earlier, Slovakia reported the donation of a battery of old Soviet-made S-300 air defense missiles to Kiev. In its regular briefing on the ongoing military action in Ukraine, the Russian Defense Ministry reported hitting a hangar “on the southern outskirts of the city of Dnepropetrovsk,” where “equipment from an S-300 battery supplied to the Ukrainian regime by one of the European nations” was hidden. The barrage of sea-launched Kalibr missiles destroyed four S-300 launchers and as many as 25 Ukrainian troops in the Sunday strike, ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov claimed. He used the old name of the city, which Ukrainian authorities renamed Dnepro in 2016 to distance it from the Soviet period of the country’s history. The Russian official also reported destroying an S-300 targeting radar i...

Germany would face “mass unemployment, social decline and democratic upheaval” should it stop buying Russian gas overnight, Bavaria’s top official has warned. In an interview with The Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung (WAZ) newspaper published on Sunday, Minister-President Markus Söder said that Germany already “stood on the brink of social and economic overload,” with “galloping inflation” in evidence even before the military conflict in Ukraine broke out. The politician cited “energy and food prices” which were already a “true burden for many families,” calling for the middle class to be saved from being sucked into an “undertow of decline.” According to Söder, “if we now stop gas from Russia overnight, then we will experience mass unemployment, social decline and democratic upheaval.” He advised the powers that be in Berlin to “act with foresight and not in a mad rush.” The minister-president called instead for more weapons deliveries to Kiev. Söder criticized the German governmen...

Finland and Sweden could join NATO as early as this summer in response to Moscow’s ongoing military assault on Ukraine, according to a report from Britain's The Times newspaper, on Monday. The Finnish application to join the bloc is expected to be submitted in June, with Sweden following suit shortly after that, unnamed US officials told the British newspaper. The possible membership of the two Nordic nations was “a topic of conversation and multiple sessions” during the summit of NATO’s foreign ministers in Brussels last week, the sources said. Finland’s FM Pekka Haavisto and his Swedish counterpart Ann Linde were both present at the two-day talks. Helsinki and Stockholm “would be real feathers in NATO’s cap as net contributors,” especially in terms of intelligence-gathering and air-force capabilities, according to a European diplomat who talked to the paper. Russia, Finland and Sweden all have access to the Baltic Sea, with a shared Russian-Finnish land border spanning some ...

French banking group Societe Generale announced on Monday that it would stop all business activities in Russia. “Societe Generale ceases its banking and insurance activities in Russia and announces the signing of a sale and purchase agreement to sell its entire stake in Rosbank and the group’s Russian insurance subsidiaries to Interros Capital, the previous shareholder of Rosbank. “With this agreement, concluded after several weeks of intensive work, the group would exit in an effective and orderly manner from Russia, ensuring continuity for its employees and clients,” the group said in a statement on its website. The asset sale is expected to close in the coming weeks. According to a press release from Interros, a firm linked to Russian billionaire Vladimir Potanin, the terms of the deal to acquire Rosbank, of which Societe Generale is a major shareholder, were greenlit by Russia’s government commission for foreign investment control. As per the terms of the deal, Rosbank will co...

A spokesperson for the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy said at a briefing last week that the country could completely cut its dependence on Russian energy in two years. Susanne Ungrad said Berlin is aiming to end Russian oil imports by the end of this year, while coal could be phased out by the fall, and natural gas could be given up by the middle of 2024. Discussions are currently underway on how to further speed up the process, she added. Ungrad also noted that abandoning Russian energy would require “a national application of strength.” Meanwhile, experts say that Russian gas, which Germany receives through fixed pipelines, will be the hardest to quit. The country currently imports 55% of its natural gas from Russia. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz earlier warned that stopping the importation of Russian gas precipitously could lead to job losses in the hundreds of thousands and an economic recession.