The World Blog by humble servant.

Russia is a great power and European diplomacy needs to work to prevent it from uniting with China into the world’s leading economic and military bloc, French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen said in an interview on Monday. Agreeing with her rival, the incumbent President Emmanuel Macron, Le Pen argued that having Moscow integrated with the rest of Europe would help preserve the security of France and the continent. “I think Russia is a great power, and I would not want it to finally enter into an alliance with China,” Le Pen said Monday morning, in an interview with France Bleu Normandie, a radio station. Re-attaching Russia to Europe politically “is an important condition for ensuring the security of our continent and our country,” Le Pen quoted Macron as saying. Noting it might seem strange that she was agreeing with her opponent, she pointed out that “the head of state cannot be short-sighted, one must see the future.” “Imagine we do nothing to prevent a situation in which...

Since February 24, authorities across multiple German regions have launched more than 140 investigations into acts seen as endorsements of Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine, Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland (RND) reported on Monday, citing regional internal and justice ministers. In the majority of cases, those suspected had displayed the letter ‘Z’, the ubiquitous marking on Russian equipment in Ukraine that has become a sign of support for Moscow’s offensive. In Saxony-Anhalt, for instance, 17 out of 19 such cases revolve around the letter, while in the city-state of Hamburg, 16 out of 17 probes were launched for that reason. In a number of German regions, the ‘Z’ symbol has been deemed off limits since late February. A spokesperson for Saxony-Anhalt’s interior ministry told RND that “display of this symbol in public in connection with the Russian aggressive war leads to the launch of an investigation,” if the authorities construe the letter as an endorsement of Moscow’s actions...

estern nations have failed in their attempts to destabilize the Russian economy with sanctions, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a government meeting on economic issues on Monday. “The situation is stabilizing, the ruble exchange rate has returned to the levels of the first half of February and is supported by a strong balance of payments… Foreign cash is returning to the country’s banking system, and the volume of deposits by citizens is growing. As for the consumer market, after a short rush to buy a number of goods… retail demand has returned to normal. Commodity stocks in retail chains are recovering,” Putin said. Overall, he noted that sanctions have failed to break the country’s economy. “The goal [of sanctions] was to quickly undermine the financial and economic situation in our country, provoke a panic in the markets, trigger a collapse of the banking system and a large-scale shortage of goods in stores. But this policy has failed – the economic blitzkrieg has run a...

Left-wing pedagogical efforts to introduce gender ideology into the classroom have by and large slipped under the notice of parents, who are only now becoming aware of its impact on children. Some call it ‘ideological capture’, others call it ‘grooming’. Kids are being exposed to drag shows, Pride parades organized by local school boards, transgenderism, and LGBT-based curricula. Children are instructed to question their gender and sexuality. It’s all being done for the sake of affirming the choices of adults who often struggle with their own identities. Dogged investigations by the Manhattan Institute’s Christopher Rufo and ‘Irreversible Damage’ author Abigail Shrier have done much to bring the issue into the limelight. Tireless work by social media researcher Libs of TikTok chronicle an endless litany of self-published videos by professed kindergarten and grade schoolteachers who ramble on about “educating” the kids under their care with transgenderism and gender theory. Chroni...

The Russian national currency, the ruble, has strengthened against the euro and US dollar on Monday, reaching its highest level against the European single currency since April 8, trading data from the Moscow Exchange shows. The rally comes despite the easing of capital control measures by the Russian central bank, which on Monday lifted a ban that had been in place since late February on individuals buying foreign currency for rubles. As of 11:35 GMT, the Russian currency had jumped 4.14% to 81.81 rubles against the euro and gained 1.12% against the greenback to trade at 79.1 to the dollar. “Due to the measures taken by the [Bank of Russia], the ruble is hardly reacting to external pressure. The high price of oil, as well as tax payments by exporters until the end of April, support the exchange rate of the Russian ruble,” Maxim Timoshenko, head of the Financial Markets Operations Department at Russian Standard Bank, said. Another expert, Bogdan Zvarich, chief analyst at the Banki...

Senior officials in Serbia have blasted Britain after a report in local media claimed that the country had secretly supplied advanced weapon systems to Kosovo, a breakaway region that Belgrade considers to be under its sovereignty. 'Novosti' claimed on Sunday that 50 NLAW shoulder-fired anti-tank missiles had arrived in the partially recognised statelet, with more weapons to come. According to the newspaper, the delivery was agreed upon by UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Albin Kurti, who holds the office of prime minister of Kosovo, in late February. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said the news highlights the hypocrisy of the Western position on Kosovo and its relationship with Serbia, particularly when it comes to weapons purchases. Western nations are preparing Kosovo so it can field its own fully-fledged armed forces, he alleged. Serbia explains refusal to join anti-Russia sanctions Read more Serbia explains refusal to join anti-Russia sanctions “Not only are the...

Russia continues to supply natural gas to Europe through Ukrainian territory without interruptions, the spokesman for Russian energy major Gazprom, Sergey Kupriyanov, told the media on Monday. “Gazprom supplies Russian gas for transit through Ukrainian territory in accordance with requests of European consumers,” Kupriyanov told reporters. According to him, around 56.9 million cubic meters of gas were requested as of April 18. This volume is, however, below the deliveries provided under Gazprom’s long-term booking for gas transit via Ukraine, which is around 109.5 million cubic meters per day. European consumers have been stepping up efforts to curb dependence on Russian natural gas amid sanctions placed on Moscow in response to its ongoing military operation in Ukraine. Some EU leaders proposed banning Russian energy imports altogether, but no drastic moves in this direction have been agreed upon, as most of the continent relies heavily on Russian gas and other energy supplies, an...

Instead of sending more weapons to Ukraine, the West should focus on trying to resolve the Ukraine conflict through peaceful means, former Czech President Vaclav Klaus has argued in an op-ed. “The war in Ukraine has been going on for seven weeks. … People are dying,” Klaus wrote in a piece published on the news website iDNES, last week. “Yet, no serious peace talks are taking place. On the contrary. Instead of calls for such negotiations, we are hearing battlecries and reports of an increase in supply of modern weapons [to Ukraine].” Klaus, who led the Czech Republic between 2003 and 2013 and also previously served two terms as prime minister, raised doubt about whether the current conflict was limited to just Russia and Ukraine. “Isn’t it actually a conflict between the West and Russia, in which Ukraine is an unfortunate, albeit convenient object?” he wrote. The former president argued that “the West and Russia must sit down at the negotiations table as soon as possible.” He also...

China has invited foreign astronauts to join the mission aboard Beijing’s Tiangong space station and conduct research alongside its crew. Speaking on Monday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said that Beijing was “ready to cooperate with all nations.” The diplomat added that the “Chinese space station is inviting foreign astronauts to conduct research in outer space together with China’s taikonauts.” Wang noted that China is holding consultations with the UN regarding a joint space mission, saying that space exploration should be a joint venture involving the entire international community. According to the official, an international team could get to work as early as the end of this year. Chinese astronauts return from space stationREAD MORE: Chinese astronauts return from space station The first module of China’s Tiangong was sent into orbit last April, with two more laboratory modules awaiting launch later this year. The addition of these two segments will make ...

If there’s one thing Russia can learn from the West it is the example of how fans support their football teams, according to Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Russia’s top diplomat is an avid supporter of Spartak Moscow and was speaking as the club celebrates its 100th anniversary. “There are people – it’s difficult to call them patriots of their team – who say that they support good football. Everyone wants good football. What’s unusual in that? But a follower of a club is a different category, you could call it 'a fan', 'a supporter',” Lavrov told TV channel Rossiya 1, according to RIA. “I think that all these phratries (fan groups), these associations of fans are useful. “[But] there are attempts by some extreme-minded people to divert these movements in the wrong direction, to organize confrontations instead of supporting football, who will beat whom: Spartak fans [will beat] Zenit fans, or Dynamo fans [will beat] Spartak or CSKA fans. “It's bad for footbal...

The Federal Reserve will face a difficult task in tightening monetary policy enough to cool inflation without causing a recession in the United States, Goldman Sachs Chief Economist Jan Hatzius wrote in a research report on Sunday and seen by Bloomberg. The analyst sees the odds of economic contraction at about 35% within the next two years. According to the report, the regulator’s main challenge is to narrow the gap in what is a plentiful supply of jobs but scarce labor supply. The Fed also needs to slow wage growth to a pace consistent with its 2% inflation goal by tightening financial conditions enough to reduce job openings without sharply raising unemployment. Achieving a so-called soft landing may be tough, because historically large declines in the job-worker gap in the United States have only occurred during recessions, Hatzius said. “Taken at face value, these historical patterns suggest the Fed faces a hard path to a soft landing.” However, the chief economist said that ...

The Russian economy is entering a period of major adjustments to cope with the impact of the sanctions placed on Moscow by the US and its allies, Elvira Nabiullina, the head of the country’s central bank, says. “Our economy is entering a difficult period of structural changes associated with sanctions. As I said, sanctions primarily affected the financial market, but now they will begin to increasingly affect the economy,” Nabiullina said, speaking in the State Duma on Monday. According to the official, Russia still has reserves to support the economy, but they won’t be able to sustain it much longer, especially after roughly half of them were frozen abroad by sanctions. “The period when the economy can live on reserves is over. And already in the second – beginning of the third quarter, we will enter a period of structural transformation and the search for new business models,” she said. Nabiullina noted that while Russia still has the opportunity to use about half of its reserve...

Taiwan should ramp up its military cooperation with the US and start hosting American troops on its soil as it did before the 1979 switch of diplomatic recognition to Beijing, former US National Security Advisor John Bolton proposed at a policy event on Saturday. Both the Washington and Taipei should boost military spending on the island’s defense, Bolton insisted, adding that the formal stationing of American troops could be part of a solution to the threat from China. The US maintained a military presence on Taiwan between 1950 and 1979, with as many as 19,000 troops deployed during the period. This changed with the Nixon-era rapprochement with Beijing, which culminated in Washington’s change of diplomatic recognition of China to the mainland under Jimmy Carter. However, the US kept informal diplomatic, trade and military relations with Taipei, including by keeping some military personnel as trainers and advisors, as well as guards at the American Institute in Taiwan, the de fact...

ccusations of embezzlement have been leveled at France’s National Rally party leader, Marine Le Pen, and several of her close associates, just a week before the 53-year-old politician crosses swords with incumbent President Emmanuel Macron in the second round of the French presidential election on April 24. On Saturday, French online investigative outlet Mediapart published part of a 116-page report penned by the European Union’s Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF), which claims that Le Pen, her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, her former partner, Louis Aliot, and another top figure in the party, Bruno Gollnisch, misused nearly €620,000 of EU funds during their time as members of the European Parliament. If the report is anything to go by, the National Rally (formerly known as the National Front) leadership was not appropriating the money for personal enrichment, but rather diverting it for party purposes. Mediapart cited instances of supposed embezzlement on the part of Le Pen in which she, among o...

US Representative Ilhan Omar has reportedly called out a key potential stumbling block in President Joe Biden’s push to have Russia prosecuted for alleged war crimes in Ukraine: Washington isn’t even a member of the international court that would handle the probe. The International Criminal Court (ICC) was set up specifically to prosecute such major cases as war crimes, including genocide, when a country declines to investigate atrocities allegedly committed by its nationals. With Biden and other Western leaders accusing Russia and President Vladimir Putin of committing war crimes in Ukraine, the ICC is the logical entity to take on the case. In fact, the court began investigating the Ukraine conflict a few days after Moscow launched its military offensive in February. However, as Omar, a member of Biden's own Democratic Party, pointed out, even as Washington tries to lead efforts to gather evidence that may be submitted to the ICC and the International Court of Justice, it still...

e Russian central bank has relaxed temporary capital control measures, which were introduced to support the domestic currency and prevent capital outflows amid Ukraine-related Western sanctions. According to the Bank of Russia, starting on April 18, domestic banks are once again allowed to sell euros and dollars to individuals. The measure will be effective through September 9. However, the regulator noted that banks are only allowed to sell foreign currency banknotes that they received after April 9, 2022. Russian citizens will also be able to withdraw funds from their foreign currency accounts in both US dollars and euros up to $10,000 or its equivalent, while amounts above this limit can be withdrawn in rubles. Earlier this month, the authorities also scrapped the previously introduced 12% commission for buying hard currency through brokerages. Resurgent ruble turns back timeREAD MORE: Resurgent ruble turns back time Capital control measures were temporarily introduced last mon...

It has cost Serbia a lot to defy the West’s push to impose sanctions on Russia over its military operation in Ukraine, President Aleksandar Vucic said on Sunday. He believes he would be celebrated by the West and hailed as a hero had Belgrade backed the economic restrictions against Moscow. “It costs us a lot not to have imposed sanctions on Russia. But if we imposed them, it would cost us our principle of not supporting sanctions against anyone, because we know from our own experience that sanctions are immoral and inefficient,” Vucic told Pink TV. “They’re saying that I’m a traitor. A traitor? The only one in Europe who hasn’t imposed sanctions on Russia, and from such a small country. Call me whatever you want, but the people have shown what they think [during the election].” Vucic was re-elected with 58% of the vote earlier this month. He repeatedly said that Belgrade has been under serious pressure and “blackmailing” to join in on the restrictions placed on Russia after it la...

An estimated 6,824 foreign mercenaries from 63 countries have come to Ukraine to fight for Volodymyr Zelensky’s government, the Russian Defense Ministry stated on Sunday. Of these, 1,035 have been “destroyed,” while several thousand remain. Four hundred foreign fighters are holed up in Mariupol, where nationalist forces, including the neo-Nazi fighters, have refused to surrender. The most numerous group of foreign fighters (1,717) arrived from Poland, while around 1,500 came from the US, Canada and Romania. Up to 300 people each came from the UK and Georgia, while 193 arrived from the Turkish-controlled areas of Syria. These figures were announced on Sunday by Defense Ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov. According to the general, 1,035 foreign mercenaries have been killed by Russian forces and 912 fled Ukraine, leaving 4,877 active in the cities of Kiev, Kharkov, Odessa, Nikolaev and Mariupol /> Roughly 400 of these foreign fighters remain embedded with Ukrainian n...