The World Blog by humble servant.

The allegations about Russia threatening to use nuclear weapons against Ukraine are “untenable and baseless,” the head of Moscow’s delegation to the UN Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) review conference, Andrey Belousov, said on Friday in New York. “This is impossible since Russian doctrinal guidelines strictly limit emergency situations in which the use of nuclear weapons is hypothetically possible, namely in response to aggression involving weapons of mass destruction, or in response to aggression involving conventional weapons, where the very existence of the state is threatened,” Belousov explained. “None of these hypothetical scenarios is relevant to the situation in Ukraine,” he stated. The Russian diplomat also rejected insinuations about Moscow placing its nuclear deterrent on “high alert,” explaining that the current state of “increased vigilance,” with extra personnel on duty at strategic command posts, was “completely different” from the actual “state of high alert of str...

Russia considers France an “unfriendly” country because of the steps Paris is taking against Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday, adding that the time is not right for contact between their leaders. “First of all, France is an unfriendly nation, owing to all the measures France is taking against this country,” Peskov emphasized when asked why Russian President Vladimir Putin and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron have not been in touch lately. “As for [the two leaders] not having any calls lately, they simply do not feel like the time is right just yet, and there is currently no need for talking. If the need does arise, they will be able to get in touch whenever they want to,” he said. Russia’s “unfriendly countries” list – introduced back in March in response to Western sanctions over its offensive in Ukraine – includes the EU states, US, UK, Canada, and a number of other nations. Moscow has slapped its own restrictive measures against all of th...

G20 states revolt against US pressure – Bloomberg Half of the G20 nations have not supported the sanctions The US-led drive to isolate Russia through sanctions has not succeeded, as half the countries in the Group of Twenty leading global economies refused to sign on, Bloomberg reported on Friday. According to the publication, senior officials from leading Western nations are surprised by the lack of support within the wider G20, despite their efforts to make the case for restrictions against Russia. Argentina, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and Turkey have not joined the sanctions that were adopted by the US, UK, EU, and their allies Australia, Canada, Japan, and South Korea. Some nations, like China and South Africa, have openly criticized the restrictions. The G20 nations account for around 85% of global economic output. READ MORE: Anti-Russian sanctions endanger global food security – Moscow According to Bloomberg, the reasons for the lack ...

Washington’s attempts to spread its influence to more and more areas around the globe are doomed to fail, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday. “Our American colleagues demonstrate permissiveness” for themselves in international affairs “every time they try to assert their dominance” in new places, Lavrov said during a meeting with Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit in Cambodia’s capital of Phnom Penh. “The Americans have taken up a course of suppressing any independence,” Russia’s top diplomat insisted. But those who follow their actions “understand the futility of a policy according to which you can just turn a blind eye to one situation, one crisis created by the US, and expect that everything will be more or less OK there,” he said. Lavrov mentioned the conflict in Ukraine and the current crisis over Taiwan as examples of reckless policies pursued by the US. “They decided to turn Ukraine into a menace for Russia and for many ...

The report on Ukraine’s violations of humanitarian law was based on an “extensive investigation,” the NGO maintains Amnesty fully ‘stands by’ report on Ukraine Amnesty International said on Friday that it stands by a report in which it accused Kiev of endangering civilians by placing its military assets in schools and residential areas. The investigation drew the ire of the Ukrainian government and President Vladimir Zelensky. The NGO “fully stands by our research,” its Secretary General Agnes Callamard told the news agency AFP in an emailed statement. She also took to Twitter to state that her organization stands “by all victims. Impartially” and lashed out at those she called “social media mobs and trolls” that are “attacking” Amnesty’s investigations. This is called war propaganda, disinformation, misinformation. This won’t dent our impartiality and won’t change the facts. Earlier, Zelensky accused the NGO of shifting “the responsibility from the aggressor to the victim,” refe...