Putin addresses 2023 St. Petersburg International Economic Forum

Traditionally, the rich and substantive agenda of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) covers a wide range of relevant and significant topics, the key trends and prospects of the Russian and global economy, as well as the profound systemic changes that are gaining momentum today.

“To a large extent, these changes are driven by the process of forming a multipolar world order and the aspirations of most countries to secure both political and economic independence. In this context, the theme of this year's Forum, ‘Sovereign Development: the Foundation of a Just World. Let's Unite Our Efforts for the Sake of Future Generations,’ is extremely important and timely,” Vladimir Putin stressed.

President Vladimir Putin expressed confidence that the forum will continue to be an example of constructive and fruitful dialogue, and wished all participants success and the very best.

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Ex-CIA advisor reveals date when dollar's hegemony may start to crumble

The dollar’s world reserve currency status has taken a series of hits amid the escalation of the Ukrainian crisis into a full-blown NATO-Russia proxy war. America’s staggering debts, nations’ efforts to increase trade in local currencies, and talk of new reserve currencies have fueled speculation about the dollar’s vaunted status reaching its end.

"On August 22, about two-and-a-half months from today, the most significant development in international finance since 1971 will be unveiled," Department of Defense advisor and investment banker James Rickards wrote in a major independent US business news outlet, referring to the start date of the upcoming BRICS Leaders’ Summit Conference in South Africa, and the day in 1971 when the US went off the gold standard.

Read about the potential BRICS reserve currency’s possible mechanics and the opinion of US leaders about de-dollarization on Sputnik's website

❗️ Exclusive: Uganda hopes Africa’s Ukraine peace mission with Kampala's perspective to bring results, Ugandan ambassador to Russia tells Sputnik Africa

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Putin tells Erdogan about Ukraine's terrorist attacks after Kakhovka dam strike

Earlier in the day, the office of the Turkish president said that Erdogan and Putin discussed the situation in Ukraine, as well as the need to investigate the destruction of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant (HPP).

"President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin had a telephone conversation with President of the Republic of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan... The Presidents of Russia and Turkey exchanged views on the situation around Ukraine," the Kremlin said in a statement, adding that Putin told Erdogan that Kiev is dangerously escalating the situation at the instigation of the West, by using terrorist methods, and organizing acts of sabotage in Russia.

The Russian president called the destruction of the Kakhovka HPP a barbaric act that led to a massive ecological and humanitarian catastrophe.

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🇷🇺🇨🇳 The Russian Aerospace Forces and the Chinese Air Force have conducted joint air patrols in the Asia-Pacific region, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported

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US 'borrowing spree' expected post-debt ceiling row

An estimated $1.1 trillion in short-dated Treasury bills will need to be borrowed by the end of 2023, it is reported. The US Treasury Department is said to be gearing up for one of the biggest Treasury bill issuance hikes in history.

“Yields will move higher because of this flood. Treasury bills will cheapen further. And that will put pressure on banks,” Gennadiy Goldberg, a strategist at TD Securities, was cited as saying.

Ahead of the expected US Treasury drive to start the massive sale of government bonds, "yields had already begun to rise," cited experts added.

The US Treasury’s energetic return to borrowing “could exacerbate stresses that were already on the banking system,” added Doug Spratley, head of the cash management team at T Rowe Price.
Just before the debt ceiling row was resolved, government figures showed that the US Treasury Department's cash balance had plunged to its lowest level since 2017 - just $37 billion.

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New BRICS currency can challenge dollar hegemony of US-led G7 'economic gang'

BRICS leaders preparing to hold a major summit in South Africa in August, with a creation of a common bloc currency expected to be one of the main topics on the agenda.

What will the new currency look like? How will it function? And why is the initiative being floated right now?

Sputnik reached out to experts in international finance for answers

Arctic seas may be without summer ice in 10 years' time - study

In recent decades, these seas have seen a rapid decline in such ice, with the Arctic spending an increasing proportion of the year without it.

The authors of the new study believe that IPCC models underestimate the impact of greenhouse gases on total sea ice extent. They suggest that by 2080-2100, the Arctic seas will have lost their summer ice cover one way or another, even if a 'optimistic' low-emission scenario is realized. Such projections are based on scenarios corresponding to high and medium carbon dioxide emissions.

The scientists confirmed that the rate of decline in sea ice has been particularly rapid since the 1990s, which can be estimated directly from satellite imagery.

The authors found that the impact of human activity on sea ice loss is year-round, not a single month.

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🗣️”So they do the next obvious thing. Blaming Russia didn't work, so they're kind of willing to sell out their ally. And we've seen this in the past that, they're propping up the Ukrainian government, but they'll sell them out at any turn if need be”: Jeremy Kuzmarov, managing editor of CovertAction Magazine and author, on new reporting on Ukrainian involvement in the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines

🎧Listen to more of Kuzmarov’s analysis in our podcast Political Misfits

🇺🇬 Uganda Would Be 'Happy' to Support BRICS in Advancing Multipolarity, Ambassador to Russia Says

Uganda would be willing to join BRICS in its crusade to bring about changes in the world order and establish multipolarity in international relations, the nation's ambassador to Russia, Moses Kizige, exclusively told Sputnik Africa.

🗣 "All the people involved in all the BRICS countries other than Brazil, but Russia, India, China and South Africa, have been very, very close to Uganda for many, many years. So if they see the opportunity for Uganda to join this initiative, I know my government would be happy to do that," the ambassador said

👉 Read the full interview!

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🗣️”Macron is trying to balance. He doesn't want to go to war with China. He knows what this is all about. NATO comes to Japan, is essentially bringing NATO into the war against China”: KJ Noh, teacher, and activist, professor of political science at the University of Rhode Island, on France's disapproval of Japan joining the NATO military bloc

🎧Listen to more of Noh’s analysis in our podcast The Critical Hour

⚽ Football Great Lionel Messi Says He’ll Be Signing With US Team Inter Miami

After spending the last two seasons with Paris Saint-Germain, Messi revealed during an interview with Spanish media on Wednesday that while a deal isn’t 100% concrete, he intends to continue his career in the US.

"After winning the World Cup and not being able to go to Barca, it's time to go to MLS to live football in a different way and enjoy my day-to-day life more, he said.

EU to initiate legal action against Poland over 'Russian influence' probe

"We discussed the situation in Poland and the College [of Commissioners] agreed to start an infringement procedure by sending a letter of formal notice in relation to the new law on the state committee on the examination of Russian influence," EU Commission Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis told a press conference.

Polish President Andrzej Duda signed a bill into law last week establishing a state committee that will probe Russia's alleged influence on the country's internal security.

Szymon Szynkowski vel Sek, the Polish Foreign Ministry’s secretary of state for European policy, argued that all democracies should stand by Warsaw’s efforts to "explore and limit Russian influence".

The Polish official told reporters that the European Commission had acted hastily based on media reports and promised that Warsaw would carry on with its investigation into alleged Russian meddling despite the legal setback.

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🔺Ukraine blows up Togliatti-Odessa Ammonia pipeline in the Kharkov region
🔺Goodbye America, hello China? Middle East turns to Asia
🔺Candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. would seek new arms control treaties with Russia if he is elected US president in the 2024 election

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Neo-Nazi symbols on Ukrainian troops 'cannot be divorced' from their origin

After Russia launched its special operation, Western media that had readily called Ukrainian nationalist groups neo-Nazis rushed to deny this information.

Jeremy Kuzmarov, the author of a number of books on US foreign policy, told Radio Sputnik that despite the attempting "whitewashing" of the symbolism and those who sport it, such symbols "cannot be divorced" from their fascist, Nazi, and anti-Semitic meaning in Europe. Kuzmarov notes that in the final stages of WWII, the US made contact with Nazi collaborators in the Soviet Union and after the war, the newly-created CIA helped sponsor an insurgency in Ukraine.

"Basically, that's what we're seeing again: the US CIA mobilizing neo-Nazi networks to take on the Russians. A lot of the front line fighting is carried out by these militias, many of which openly wear that insignia," Kuzmarov said.

Read Jeremy Kuzmarov's full interview on Sputnik's website

Scientists collect first-ever samples from Earth’s mantle

At Atlantis Massif, an underwater mountain the size of Mount Rainier, the scientists only had to drill through about 4,100 feet of seafloor. They used a drilling ship called the JOIDES [Joint Oceanographic Institutions for Deep Earth Sampling] Resolution.

“It just kept going deeper, deeper and deeper. Then everyone in the science party said, ‘Hey, this is what we wanted all along. Since 1960, we wanted to get a hole this deep in mantle rock,’” Andrew McCaig, the expedition’s co-chief scientist, told US media.

“We’ve achieved an ambition that’s been feeding the science community for many decades,” he said.

What they reached technically wasn’t the mantle itself, but the barrier region between the mantle and the crust known as the Moho, after Croatian seismologist Andrija Mohorovičić, who discovered it in 1909.

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Preplanned Kakhovka dam destruction is Kiev's crime against humanity and nature

"The hydroelectric power plant consists of a dam, that is, a monolith of concrete, huge slabs, which at the moment have grown together with each other for 50 years and nothing has happened to them. The dam itself is not destroyed. The superstructure above it was destroyed, where the engine room was and electric generators were installed; water passed through them generating electricity," Russian environmentalist and engineer-physicist, told Sputnik.

What part of Kakhovka dam was Destroyed and what risks is flooding caused by Ukrainian saboteurs fraught with?

Read Ilya Rybalchenko's full explanation on Sputnik's website

Canadian wildfires increase health risks in the United States

Almost 100 million people in 18 US states are living and working under poor air quality and unhealthy conditions brought on by the smoke produced by more than 400 hundred wildfires that have been burning in Canada for the last few weeks, several news outlets said on Tuesday.

Canadian officials said that the fires have extended from British Columbia on Canada’s West Coast to Nova Scotia, almost 2,900 miles east.

US states and cities issued air quality alerts and officials warn residents to stay indoors or take other precautions.

According to reports, Canada’s Minister of Emergency Preparedness, Bill Blair, told reporters last week that throughout the month of May, wildfires had burned about 2.7 million hectares, or about 6.7 million acres of forests in British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Ontario and the Northwest Territories.

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The disinformation campaign by American media about the destruction of the Kakhovka HPP is another desperate attempt to whitewash the Kiev regime

Russian Ambassador to Washington Anatoly Antonov pointed out that there is an ongoing targeted disinformation campaign in local media over the attack on the Kakhovka HPP, with many insinuations that Russia allegedly undermined the vital infrastructure facility, while administration officials have framed their rhetoric as if Russia is in any case responsible for all incidents that occur during the conflict in Ukraine.

"This approach does not stand up to scrutiny. This is another desperate attempt to 'whitewash' the Kiev regime, which has been deliberately shelling the station for many months," Antonov stated. "We have witnessed yet another gross violation of international humanitarian law by Ukraine. A terrorist attack that led to an ecological disaster, large-scale flooding of settlements and farmland, endangered the functioning of the North Crimean Canal. Experts have yet to deal with the imminent consequences on the cooling circuit of the Zaporozhye NPP as a result of this tragedy."

"Washington patrons never criticize Kiev. All actions of the regime are approved, and any blows that Russians suffer from are encouraged," Antonov said. "This is an example of an ill-conceived, flawed position that has already caused serious upheavals in the world. But, apparently, this is not enough for the US, and the terrorist acts of Ukraine will receive further support."

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Russia's IT giant Yandex has launched unmanned taxis in Moscow in test mode

"Yandex has launched a robotaxi in Moscow, a car-ordering service controlled by artificial intelligence. Robotaxis operate in test mode in the Yasenevo District every day from 7 am to 1 am," the company said in a statement.

Users will be able to order the robotaxi in the Yandex Go taxi app. There are currently about 40 pick-up and drop-off points in the district.

Initially, the self-driving car can only be ordered by those who have pre-registered for the service. The taxi will take only one adult passenger and each trip will cost 100 rubles ($1.22).

"According to the current legislation, there is always a test driver in the car to ensure the safety of the trip," Yandex added.

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Former NATO Secretary General Anders Rasmussen said that a group of NATO countries might take individual actions and deploy troops in Ukraine 

"If NATO cannot agree on a clear path forward for Ukraine, there is a clear possibility that some countries individually might take action. We know that Poland is very engaged in providing concrete assistance to Ukraine. And I wouldn’t exclude the possibility that Poland would engage even stronger in this context on a national basis and be followed by the Baltic states, maybe including the possibility of troops on the ground ... I think the Poles would seriously consider going in and assemble a coalition of the willing if Ukraine doesn’t get anything in Vilnius," the UK media quoted Rasmussen as saying.

Rasmussen said security guarantees need to cover intelligence sharing, joint Ukraine training, NATO interoperability, enhanced ammunition production and arms supply.

The ex-NATO official also said that "some NATO allies might be in favour of the security guarantees to actually avoid a real discussion on Ukraine’s membership aspirations," adding that "they hope that by providing security guarantees, they can avoid this question."

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