❗️Moscow has provided security guarantees for Biden's visit to Kiev, otherwise it would not have taken place, says Russian diplomat

🗣️“Putin's suspending a Russian participation in the last remaining arms control treaty between our two nations. And anybody who doesn't understand how serious this is probably doesn't appreciate life”, Scott Ritter, a former UN weapons inspector speaking about the New START suspension

💬”We need to pray that the United States gets over its Ukraine fixation and gets into “How do we stop the world from dying in a nuclear holocaust to which we will be singularly responsible for initiating”, he added.

🎧Listen to more of Ritter’s analysis in our podcast The Critical Hour: Russia Suspends START Cooperation; Anti-War Rally in DC; China's Push for Peace

❗️Latest statements from Russia’s Foreign Ministry after Sergey Lavrov’s meeting with China’s top diplomat Wang Yi:

▪️Lavrov discussed Ukrainian crisis with Wang Yi, Moscow is grateful to Beijing for balanced approach to it;

▪️Russia welcomes China's readiness to play a positive role in settling the Ukrainian crisis;

▪️Russia and China have similar visions of resolving the pressing international issues.

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🇷🇺📹 "Right now a battle is taking place on our historical frontiers for our people": Highlight of Vladimir Putin's speech at Russia's Luzhniki Stadium during a Defender of the Fatherland Day event

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Scott Ritter, a former UN weapons inspector discussing the New START suspension, talks about the reasons for and the meaning of the New START suspension:

💬“We withdrew from Open skies, and now we're cheating on the last remaining treaty, new START. We're not allowing Russian inspectors to come and inspect us while demanding that we go inspect Russia. And so the Russians have suspended this. This is all a power play by the United States to further what we believe to be our strategic advantage over Russia. The problem is Russia is no longer a defeated, compliant state. The Russians have nuclear superiority over us today. Their missiles are better than anything we have. We don't have a missile defense system worthy of the name. And so if there was a nuclear conflict, we would be annihilated.”

🎧Listen to more of Ritter’s analysis in our podcast The Critical Hour: Russia Suspends START Cooperation; Anti-War Rally in DC; China's Push for Peace

❗️Joe Biden calls Vladimir Putin’s decision to suspend participation in the New START Treaty a "big mistake."

On February 21, Vladimir Putin said that the growing calls from the US and NATO to allow on-the-ground inspections of Russian nuclear sites are absurd, because NATO specialists modernized and armed drones that were used by Ukraine to attack the Engels Air Base, home to part of the airborne contingent of Russia's nuclear triad. "And now they want to inspect our defense facilities. In the current conditions and today's confrontation, this simply sounds like some kind of nonsense," he added.

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❗️Latest statements of China’s Wang Yi after meetings with Russian FM Lavrov and Vladimir Putin:

▪️Relations between Russia and China are not directed against third parties, they do not tolerate interference and will not accept threats;

▪️China and Russia are ready to play a constructive role to promote peace and development worldwide;

▪️China is ready to deepen mutual political trust and strategic coordination with Russia, and protect the legal interests of the two countries.

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🇮🇹 Former Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi has slammed Volodymyr Zelensky’s claim about Berlusconi not having lived through bombardments and blackouts, Italian media reports.

"What does [Zelensky] know about me? He does not know anything! I survived bombings as a child," Berlusconi said.

A week earlier, the former Italian PM harshly criticized Zelensky, saying all the Ukrainian president had to do was stop attacking Donbass to prevent the devastating conflict. In response, the Ukrainian president clapped back by claiming that Berlusconi had never had to live through bombings. However, Berlusconi was born in 1936 and as a child saw the bombing of Milan during World War II.

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Independent investigative journalist Christopher Helali joins us to discuss Vladimir Putin's Federal Assembly address

💬“Russia always tries to awaken people who are listening to the speeches to kind of take a closer look in the mirror and to see what's going on on their side,” he added

🎧Listen to more of Helali’s analysis in our podcast Political Misfits: Dueling Ukraine Speeches, High Prison Deaths, SCOTUS on Section 230

Seymour Hersh: US, Norway Have Cooperated on Clandestine Operations Since Vietnam War

The US investigative journalist said that Norway invested in developing large armed boats to defend its 1,400 miles of Atlantic coastline after World War II, which were more powerful than US boats. Norway subsequently used these boats to assist the CIA to pressure North Vietnam's leadership during the Vietnam War.

Hersh said that Norway stayed quiet all along about its assistance to the US and even went on to sell 18 more of their boats to the US Navy. Citing a US intelligence source, Hersh said that the first batch of such boats used in the CIA’s “secret war within a secret war” against North Vietnam numbered six and landed in early 1964 at a naval base in Danang.

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Bryce Greene, a contributor to Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, joins us to discuss the media blackout on Seymour Hersh’s reporting on US involvement in the Nord Stream pipeline sabotage

🎧Listen to more of Greene’s views in our podcast By Any Means Necessary: Biden Sends More Money to Ukraine While Environmental Crisis Unfolds

📹 Joe Biden tripped on the stairs of Air Force One yet again while leaving Poland

Biden still hasn't visited Ohio, where the toxic chemical spill is potentially threatening the lives of locals, but instead went on a European tour to Ukraine and Poland.

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🇷🇺📹 Sputnik’s special correspondent Denis Bolotsky has visited Moscow's Alpha Automotive Technologies assembly line, which had been working hand-in-hand with Western car manufacturers before the sanctions-motivated exodus in 2022, and spoke to AAT’s CEO Zorigto Sakhanov.

Take a look at how the automobile assembly plant is faring with China's help.

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📹 Meanwhile, Donald Trump boards plane on the way to East Palestine, Ohio, where a train hauling 20 cars from Norfolk Southern with hazardous materials derailed on February 3

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Hungary's Orban Snubs Biden, Skips Big Meeting of Leaders of NATO's Eastern Flank

In a press conference, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto reiterated Budapest’s desire to see fighting stop and peace talks begin.

💬 “It’s necessary to put an end to this [conflict] immediately, because if a ceasefire and peace talks do not take place right at this moment, a huge problem will result,” the Hungarian top diplomat said.

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Previously, US media claimed that Biden’s trip to Ukraine was a “surprise visit” that took "months of planning." However, the White House confirmed that it had informed Russia of Biden’s plans to visit Kiev in advance for “deconfliction purposes.”

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Scott Ritter, a former UN weapons inspector, commented on Biden’s trip to Ukraine the other day:

💬“So he [Biden] plans a covert trip to Kiev that wasn't covert. We now know. I mean, why be covert? Are you worried the Russians are going to attack you? Well, I don't know. Maybe if you coordinated with the Russians and said “We're visiting, please don't attack” that might help. That's what we did. There's nothing covert about this. It was theater. Theater of the absurd. So absurd that while Biden was there, Zelensky arranged to have air raid sirens sound to make it look as if Biden was under attack. Pure theater of the absurd.”

🎧Listen to more of Ritter’s analysis in our podcast The Critical Hour: Russia Suspends START Cooperation; Anti-War Rally in DC; China's Push for Peace

🔺UN Security Council on Nord Stream Attack: Ray McGovern will join us to speak about his and Jeffery Sachs’ address to the U.N. Security Council on the sabotage of Nord Stream pipelines in light of Sy Hersh’s reporting
🔺South Africa-Russia-China cooperation: Chinese naval fleet arrives in South Africa for joint maritime drills with Russia
🔺Israel-Palestine tensions increase: Raid by Israeli forces leaves several Palestinians dead in Nablus

The Critical Hour will cover these and more stories! Tune in to Radio Sputnik at 6pm EST|3pm PST|12am CET via the website or app

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Nobody is pushing for conflict in Ukraine harder than US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland, Twitter CEO Elon Musk said.

Musk’s statement came in response to a US media report covering Russia’s reaction to recent comments by Nuland in support of strikes on Crimea. Nuland’s support for strikes on Crimea confirm the United States’ intimate involvement in the Ukraine conflict, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

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US Plans to Give Kiev Long-Range GPS-Guided Bombs Once Used to Devastate Iraq, Afghanistan: Reports

Made by Boeing, the heavy, GPS-guided 500-2,000 pound (230-910 kilogram) glide bombs have a range of up to 72 km, and consist of a bolt-on conversion kit that turns unguided ‘dumb bombs’ in to precision-guided ‘smart’ weapons.

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How Many Su-30MKI Fighter Jets Does India Have?

🛩 The Russian Su-30MKI is the dominant aircraft in the inventory of the Indian Air Force (IAF), having procured 272 of them in multiple deals following its maiden contract of $1.4 billion for 50 warplanes in 1996.

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