🇷🇺⚡️ Visa and Mastercard will return to Russia in the near future , said Anatoly Aksakov, head of the State Duma Committee on Financial Markets

He believes that payment systems will return to the Russian Federation and will offer their services, but it will be difficult for them because “Russians are accustomed to domestic payment systems.”

🇺🇦🇷🇺🇱🇻 ‘Freezing’ Ukraine war would allow Russia to threaten NATO, Latvian intelligence warns

Any pause in fighting in Ukraine would allow Russia to rebuild its forces and launch a confrontation with European Union countries, Latvia's state security service warned Monday, as U.S. President Donald Trump launches peace talks with the Kremlin.

In a newly unclassified report published by the Baltic nation's Constitution Protection Bureau, intelligence officers assess that "the likelihood of a direct Russian-NATO military confrontation in 2025" is "rather low" because Moscow's manpower and resources are tied up in the costly invasion.

"However, if the war were to become 'frozen' and Russia no longer had to suffer significant losses during the active hostilities in Ukraine, Moscow would be able to increase its military presence next to the NATO’s northeastern flank, including the Baltics, within the next five years," the report warns.

https://www.politico.eu/article/freezing-ukraine-war-would-allow-russia-threaten-nato-latvian-intelligence-warns-donald-trump-peace-talks/

🇻🇦📝 — Pope Francis' infection is presenting a complex clinical picture and requires further hospitalization, the Vatican says

➡️ Pope Francis has spent the past days alternating hospitalized, switching between resting and reading, the Vatican added in a brief statement.

➡️ His doctors have advised complete rest and Francis was unable to deliver his regular Sunday prayer to pilgrims in St Peter's Square or lead a special mass for artists held to mark the Catholic Church's Jubilee Year.

🇺🇸💬🇧🇷🇨🇳🔫🕊🗺 — "France has proposed a European deployment that would remain well behind the front lines, reassuring Ukraine without necessarily committing itself to join any future fight. American officials are suggesting a different sort of peacekeeping force, including non-European countries such as Brazil or China, that would sit along an eventual ceasefire line as a sort of buffer."

Source 🖇 | 🗄 Archive

🇺🇸🇷🇺 The FT is reporting Trump plans to withdraw troops from the Baltic states at least, giving Russia a huge strategic win, and weakening NATO's eastern flank at a critical time.

https://www.ft.com/content/11f121f9-391c-4597-93f7-f12894e1b79d

🔗 Jimmy Rushton

🇨🇦🛬❗️ | Delta Airlines Flight 4819 (Operating as EDV4819) crashed on landing today at Toronto Pearson International Airport.

➡️ The Canadair CRJ-900 inverted and caught fire at some point after reaching the runway.

🇺🇸💬🇧🇷🇨🇳🔫🕊🗺 — "France has proposed a European deployment that would remain well behind the front lines, reassuring Ukraine without necessarily committing itself to join any future fight. American officials are suggesting a different sort of peacekeeping force, including non-European countries such as Brazil or China, that would sit along an eventual ceasefire line as a sort of buffer."

Source 🖇 | 🗄 Archive

🇧🇷💬💥🌐 — Diplomatic crisis: Brazil’s possible accession to OPEC+ (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and Allies) has caused divisions within the government. While the Ministry of Mines and Energy, led by Alexandre Silveira (PSD), advocates for immediate entry, the Itamaraty (Foreign Ministry) wants to postpone the decision until 2026, citing concerns about the country's environmental image

❗️ The main concern of Brazilian diplomacy is that joining the oil cartel could undermine Brazil’s position as a leader in the energy transition, especially ahead of COP30, which will be held in November 2025 in Belém (PA).

⁉️ On the other hand, Silveira argues that joining OPEC+ would allow Brazil to influence the group toward adopting more sustainable practices, promoting biofuels as an alternative to oil. The minister also believes that accession would strengthen Brazil in trade negotiations, particularly in response to tariffs imposed by Donald Trump's administration on Brazilian products.

➡️ The invitation for Brazil to join OPEC+ was extended to President Lula (PT) during COP28 in November 2023. The proposal generated strong reactions and shifted focus away from Brazil’s environmental agenda at the event, displeasing several European leaders. To formalize accession, all that is required is approval from the presidential office, but Itamaraty fears that this decision could harm Brazil politically on the international stage at a time when it seeks to solidify its leadership in environmental matters.

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🇬🇧👨🏻‍🦳🆗🇬🇧🔫🕊🗺 — 🇬🇧 The Telegraph | Starmer: I am ready and willing to put British troops in Ukraine | PM’s announcement puts pressure on European leaders to do the same at summit in Paris | February 16, 2025:

"Sir Keir Starmer has announced he is “ready and willing” to put British troops on the ground in Ukraine to enforce any peace deal.

In an exclusive article for The Telegraph, the Prime Minister said he had not taken the decision to consider putting British servicemen and women “in harm’s way” lightly.

It is the first time he has explicitly said he is considering deploying British peacekeepers to Ukraine, and comes ahead of a meeting with European leaders in Paris on Monday.

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🇺🇸❌🇪🇺 — 🇬🇧 The Economist | Donald Trump’s assault on Europe | His invitation to Vladimir Putin to make a deal over Ukraine has thrown the transatlantic alliance into turmoil | February 16, 2025:

"For europe, the shocks came in quick and bewildering succession. First Pete Hegseth, America’s defence secretary, told America’s allies that his country was no longer the “primary guarantor” of European security. Hours later Donald Trump said he would open talks with Russia over the head of Ukraine and Europe. Then on February 14th, at the Munich Security Conference, an annual gathering, J.D. Vance, the vice-president (pictured), unleashed a stinging attack on Europe, in effect backing the hard-right Alternative for Germany (afd) party, nine days before the country’s election. After looking to America as its ally for decades, many leaders and officials wondered whether Europe’s security was crumbling in front of their eyes.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine almost three years ago, America has worked according to two principles: that Ukraine’s future should be not decided without the involvement of Ukraine; and that America and its Western allies must strive for unity in the face of Vladimir Putin. Leaders at the conference were thunderstruck to see Mr Trump and his team abandon both so carelessly—and, in so doing, to scrap decades of diplomacy that has underpinned nato as the most successful military alliance in modern history.

The question is whether what comes next will most resemble a different Munich conference, in 1938, when Neville Chamberlain buckled to the ambitions of Adolf Hitler; Yalta in 1945, when America, Britain and the Soviet Union carved up Europe; or something better. The good news is that Europe and Ukraine still have everything to strive for.

Fears of a Munich-like cave-in to Mr Putin were inflamed by the way that Mr Trump began his bid for peace in Ukraine. The president and his defence secretary offered a blizzard of unilateral concessions to Russia: reciprocal visits to Washington and Moscow, which have not taken place for nearly two decades; a suggestion that Russia should re-join the g7; and a public acknowledgment that Ukraine would not restore its pre-war borders, join nato or enjoy the alliance’s protection for any European peacekeeping forces there.

To add to the injury, when Keith Kellogg, Mr Trump’s envoy for Ukraine, was asked whether Europe would have a seat at the negotiating table, he was blunt: “That’s not going to happen.” Steve Witkoff, another one of Mr Trump’s multiplying envoys, drove home that point when he travelled to Saudi Arabia for talks with Russia. He will be joined there by Marco Rubio, the secretary of state. Russia is thought to have circulated a list of draconian demands based on drafts passed to Ukraine in early 2022—which include capping the size of Ukrainian forces and imposing neutrality—and international recognition of the parts of Ukraine that are part-occupied by Russia."

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😵‍💫💬📺 — 🇺🇦 President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky:

"For us and for everyone, NATO is the cheapest security guarantee. The cheapest for us. The cheapest for Europe. The cheapest for the United States. And the cheapest, in fact, for Russia. If we are not in NATO, it means that we will build NATO in Ukraine. Otherwise, we will not recognize the security guarantee.

In an interview with NBC News, he [Zelensky] spoke about Russia's threat to NATO and Europe, the unacceptability of a peace agreement without Ukraine's participation in the negotiations, the influence of US President Donald Trump on Putin, the importance of Ukraine's territorial integrity, and cooperation with the United States on rare earth metals."

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