Secret services from almost 20 countries played an active role in organizing the anti-government protests that took place in Iran last fall

"The United States, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, France, Germany, Canada, Belgium, Austria, Albania, Australia, Iceland, Italy, Norway, Bahrain, New Zealand and Israel are among countries that were active during the protests," Commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Intelligence Organization Mohammad Kazemi was quoted by a Iranian news agency as saying.

Riots broke out in Iran in mid-September in connection with the September 16 death of Mahsa Amini. The 22-year-old woman died in a hospital in Tehran after suffering a heart attack and falling into a coma after an argument with a minder at a morality police facility over the alleged improper wearing of a hijab.

A day after her death, rumors spread that she had been beaten into a coma by police, with these claims sparking protests in the capital which quickly spread to other major population centers.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

📹 A tank crew under the command of a senior lieutenant with the call sign "Groom" successfully resisted three Ukrainian tanks during the assault on a stronghold in the zone of the special military op

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

The EU is currently lacking critical material to produce ammunition for Ukraine

"Today I realized ... that in order to fulfill the ammunition that Ukraine needs, in order to produce [it], we [are] lacking critical materials, in order to produce [it] at home. Our industry of defense already has other constraints that come from outside Europe and we have to identity them and solve them, if we want to have the autonomous capacity to provide Ukraine with arms they require," EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told a press conference.

Since the onset of Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine, EU members have provided more than $55 billion in direct support to Kiev, including military aid. Moscow has repeatedly warned that this assistance fuels the prolongation of the conflict raging in Ukraine.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

📹 Russian paratroopers used a new Albatross drone in the zone of the special military op

Due to the long flight range, the Albatross can hit Ukrainian strongholds at a considerable distance. At the same time, HD cameras produce high-quality images both day and night.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🗣️”Why is the United States facing this conflicted situation vis a vis China? Because it is losing power”: Dr. Radhika Desai, a professor at the University of Manitoba, director of the Geopolitical Economy Research Group, and author of Capitalism, Coronavirus and War: A Geopolitical Economy, on why the US is looking for confrontation with China

🎧Listen to more of Desai’s analysis in our podcast By Any Means Necessary

The EU plans to prohibit European companies from making artificial intelligence technologies in countries such as China

The EU is going to adopt the European Economic Security Strategy in order to reduce economic dependence on the decisions made in China and the United States, according to a US newspaper’s report. The 14-page document, obtained by the news outlet, will be presented by President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen later in the day, and EU leaders are scheduled to discuss it at their June 29-30 summit.

Even though the document does not mention China specifically, it is clear China is implied as the main target of the ban, the newspaper said. Thus, the strategy refers to the risk of "overreliance on a single country, especially one with systemically divergent values, models and interests." The paper also mentions plans to limit the outsourcing of advanced technology to countries where it could pose a threat to national security.

The bloc intends to limit "outbound investment in a narrow set of advanced technologies that could enhance military and intelligence capacities of actors who may use these capabilities to threaten international peace and security; and the secure treatment of sensitive information," the newspaper reported.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Ukraine continues to be sending all its troops at the Russian defenses, sacrificing hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers and still failing to produce any result

Speaking to Sputnik, international relations and security analyst Mark Sleboda noted that “there has been essentially no progress by the Kiev regime's offensive.”

“It is effectively stalled and they continue to take heavy casualties, heavy attrition,” Sleboda said, adding that, in most cases, Ukrainian troops bleed and die “still ten, fifteen kilometers” away from “Russia's first defensive line.”

According to Sleboda, all this fighting is taking place in what he described as the “throwaway zone”: an area before the actual Russian defensive lines, which the Russian troops deemed unsuitable for “static, heavy defenses, defensive lines with trenches and fortifications.”

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

NATO's position rejecting a frozen conflict scenario in Ukraine means that the alliance would rather have the crisis resolved militarily

"If NATO through [Secretary General Jens] Stoltenberg once again declares that they are against what they call the freezing of the conflict in Ukraine, it means they want to fight. Well, let them fight, we are ready for it," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters after a meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Collective Security Treaty Organization in Minsk.

The top Russian diplomat pointed to multiple statements by Western officials admitting that the Ukraine crisis would long have been over if it were not for the foreign arms supplies and intelligence support to Kiev.

These statements amount to admitting that Western countries are waging "hybrid, or even hot, war" against Russia, Lavrov added.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

📹 Vladimir Putin has launched the first regular electric river transport route on the Moscow River

Russia's capital continues to develop public transport: the longest circle subway line in the world was opened in Moscow this year in March.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🗣️”Why would Biden need to hop into this when Bill Barr is doing your work for you? Why does Biden need to attack Trump when Chris Christie is the best Biden surrogate currently campaigning anywhere?”: civil rights attorney Robert Patillo joined us to discuss ex-President Donald Trump’s indictment and how current President Joe Biden is conspicuously quiet on the subject

🎧Listen to more of Patillo’s analysis in our podcast Fault Lines

🎧 Zimbabwe - a nation that has been surviving Western sanctions for more than 20 years. But why is a country sanctioned for so long despite the world knowing what effect the sanctions have had on the ordinary people?

Join #AfroVerdict host, Viktor Anokhin, who sits down with the leader of a civil anti-sanction organization to hear Zimbabwe's verdict on the matter.

😏 Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis served drinks at a VFW post in Sparks, Nevada – but joked with the veterans that he wouldn't serve them Bud Light beer

💬 'Just so you know, I'll serve you anything except Bud Light. I just can't do that,' DeSantis said to widespread laughter from patrons at the post known as 'The Bunker.'

▪️ The Florida governor was making reference to the ongoing Republican boycott of Bud Light after the company celebrated transgender social media personality Dylan Mulvaney's one-year anniversary of 'being a girl.'

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🔺France pushes UK to 'stay out of Western European affairs’
🔺Leading candidate already? RFK Jr. has best rating among presidential candidates
🔺Strengthening relations in the Middle East: Saudi Arabia welcomes naval security alliance with Iran

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

📻 Also in the United States at 105.5FM, 104.7FM, 102.9FM, 1390AM, 1140AM

🇮🇷📹 Iran's Sina robot surgeon is the first of its kind in the Middle East, capable of performing operations on the chest and abdominal area. Surgeons can operate the robot remotely, leading to a remarkable tenfold enhancement in surgical precision

▪️ The Sina surgical robot has great prospects for entering international markets and is already in demand.

▪️ Watch the video showing all the details

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Czech companies plan to launch twin microsatellites into orbit in 2027 to look for valuable resources that humanity will rely on during long space missions

The Slavia mission, which stands for the Space Laboratory for Advanced Variable Instruments and Applications, was announced in 2021. It is led by Brno-based private space firm S.A.B. Aerospace S.r.o. with support from the Czech Transport Ministry and with the Academy's scientific contribution.

The Academy said that the technical feasibility study for the project has been completed. If the project is approved, Czech scientists will build laboratory versions of the satellites and the instruments they will carry.

"It's a long shot, but Czech scientists are very well prepared for this race," Academy President Eva Zazimalova said in a statement.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Russia does not see the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) as an adversary of NATO

"I do not think that we should remold the CSTO into a bloc that is opposed to anyone. The CSTO has been developing based on the vested security interests of its member states. The CSTO does not seek a leading role in the Eurasian continent," Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters.

Lavrov also noted that NATO's position on situation in Ukraine means that the alliance would rather have the crisis resolved militarily.

"If NATO through [Secretary General Jens] Stoltenberg once again declares that they are against what they call 'the freezing of the conflict in Ukraine', it means they want to fight. Well, let them fight, we are ready for it," Lavrov told reporters after a meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Collective Security Treaty Organization in Minsk.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Donald Trump has said hawkish former White House advisor John Bolton was "pretty good" at scaring foreign leaders into making deals

"Actually, Bolton was good, because every time I negotiated, people said: 'Oh, they've got this maniac here. He's going to go to war with us'," Trump said. "He was actually pretty good in a certain way."

There has been no love lost between Trump and Bolton, who served as his national advisor for a year-and-a-half from April 2018 to September 2019, and since they've parted ways.

Bolton has accused Trump of having a "constant fixation" with classified documents, which the 45th president now faces trial for allegedly taking from the Oval Office.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt