🇺🇸❌🇷🇺 U.S. president, Joe Biden on X:

Today, we're imposing over 500 new sanctions in response to Putin's brutal war and Aleksey Navalny's death.

Putin is betting on us to walk away.

We won't.

🔗 POTUS

🇺🇸🇪🇺❌🇷🇺 US targets Russia with more than 500 new sanctions

The US has announced more than 500 new sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine and the death of opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

These include measures against Russia's main card payment system, financial and military institutions, and officials involved in Navalny's imprisonment.

The EU has also announced new sanctions on access to military technology.

The newly-announced US measures also include nearly 100 firms and individuals which will also face export restrictions.

Others target the state-owned operator of Mir, Russia's main payment system, which has become more prominent since Visa and Mastercard suspended their services there.

Companies involved in powering Russia's war effort, developing the country's future energy production and its co-operation with Iran over drones will also be hit.

More than two dozen entities outside of Russia - including people in China, the UAE, Vietnam and Liechtenstein - have also been sanctioned, accused of being connected to businesses that send materials to Russia's military.

The sanctions are unlikely to have an impact on Russia's economy. It is already the most sanctioned country in the world, and there are very few key entities or sectors that are not already subject to US and European restrictions.

Russian banks and military-industrial enterprises have adapted, and developed workarounds to evade existing sanctions.

🔗 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68380251

🇺🇸❌🇾🇪❗️ — 📰 Al-Jazeera quoting American officials: The strikes are the largest military action against the Houthis in two weeks

https://fxtwitter.com/AJABreaking/status/1761501012123148588

#BREAKING

🇺🇸❌🇾🇪❗️ — Gulf Arab Medias report violent explosions rocking the center of Hodeidah Governorate of Houthi/Ansarallah-controlled areas of Yemen

🇦🇷❌📚👨‍🎓🇧🇷 The Milei government started deporting Brazilians who were studying at Argentine universities “for free” but who never even started their residency process.

https://twitter.com/BowTiedMara/status/1761543467228910027

🇧🇾❗️🇵🇱 — 🏴 ZeroHedge | Is The West Plotting A False Flag Provocation In Poland To Blame On Russia & Belarus | Authored by Andrew Korybko via Substack | February 24, 2024:

"Poland might very well be put up by its dual American-German patrons into carrying out a possible false flag provocation in order to generate popular support for the bloc’s rapid militarization plans aimed at building “Fortress Europe”.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said during a large meeting with the senior staff of his national security agencies on Tuesday that their Western counterparts are plotting a false flag provocation in Poland. According to his sources, it’ll be aimed against civilians there and be blamed on Russia and Belarus. This builds upon what KGB Chairman Ivan Tertel warned about in December, which in turn was an expansion of what Lukashenko himself raised awareness of in June.

The Belarusian leader warned about Belgorod-like terrorist incursions from Poland last summer, but then his aforementioned security chief hinted a few months back that this could be prompted by a false flag incident similar to the one that started World War II. On the subject of world wars, Lukashenko also said during his speech on Tuesday that “Now we are literally covered with an information wave of the so-called premonition of the third world war. There are grounds for concern.”

🗄 Archive

🔗 Full:

🇨🇳👺❌🇬🇧🇺🇸 — 🇺🇸 Radio Free Asia | Chinese company hacked UK government, NATO, GitHub leak claims | Leaked data claiming to be from Shanghai's I-Soon reveals huge appetite among Chinese government, law enforcement | February 22, 2024:

"Chinese hackers have been targeting government departments, academic institutions and human rights groups in the United Kingdom and across Asia, gaining covert access to sensitive information on behalf of the country's law enforcement and spy agencies, according to a recent data dump on developer platform GitHub.

Files posted to the site claiming to be leaked from the privately owned Shanghai-based commercial surveillance company I-Soon reveal, if verified, a massive appetite among police and state security agencies for confidential data, which they buy from specialized companies, keeping themselves at one remove from their sophisticated hacker operations.

A screenshot of a list of U.K. targets that forms part of a file of leaked internal messages lists the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, Home Office and His Majesty's Revenue and Customs, alongside other major government departments as targets for data acquisition."

🗄 Archive

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#BREAKING
🇦🇶🦠❗️ — Bird flu found on mainland Antarctica for the first time ever! Now, multiple scientists are fearing an ecological disaster!

🇲🇩📞🇪🇺 — 🇷🇺 RIA Novosti: Transnistria turned to the OSCE because of the preparation of sabotage groups in Moldova, but there is no adequate response, head of the unrecognized PMR Vadim Krasnoselsky told RIA Novosti.

The Transnistrian Ministry of State Security reported that foreign specialists are preparing combat groups in Moldova, which include Ukrainians, to carry out terrorist attacks and sabotage on military installations in Transnistria.

🇺🇸🪖🇪🇺 Russia's invasion of Ukraine sparked a defense boom. It’s likely to outlast the war

Since February 23, 2022, the day before Moscow began bombing several Ukrainian cities, the stocks of five of the top US and European defense contractors have all risen. The companies — Europe’s BAE Systems, Thales and Rheinmetall, and Lockheed Martin (LMT) and Northrop Grumman (NOC) in the United States — have all either provided weapons for the battlefield in Ukraine or signed agreements to do so.

Governments have donated ammunition, tanks, and fighter jets to Ukraine, are replenishing their own depleted stockpiles, and have committed billions more to their defense budgets.

Canada and the European members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which make up the bulk of NATO’s membership, spent 11% more on defense in 2023 than the previous year.

Record earnings, more jobs

For major defense contractor Saab, it has been “a dramatic two years,” according to chief executive Micael Johansson.

In that time, the Swedish company has invested billions to build up production capacity. It has expanded its workforce by 3,600 people since the start of 2022, and expects it to grow by another 2,000 this year, Johansson told CNN.

Saab’s profit soared 30% last year to hit an all-time high.

The company’s biggest customer is the Swedish government, which announced another package of military support for Ukraine last week, including donations of artillery ammunition and anti-tank weapons. Meanwhile, Poland, Ukraine’s neighbor, has become a “big customer” since the war broke out, Johansson said.

BAE Systems has also enjoyed healthy earnings. On Thursday, the UK defense contractor reported profit of £2.6 billion ($3.3 billion) in 2023, up 8% from 2022.

But the pressure on Western governments to beef up their military coffers will outlast the Ukraine war, analysts say, and it started to rise even before Moscow sent its troops marching toward Kyiv two years ago.

📝 Defense *industry* is booming but it’s still fundamentally broken. It’s not producing what we need rapidly at huge scale despite tons of additional money.

The heavily financialized, consolidated industry needs fundamental root and branch reform.

🔗 https://edition.cnn.com/2024/02/24/business/us-europe-defense-industry-spending/index.html

📎 Elbridge Colby