Russia's IT brain gain: professionals return home, reversing long-time trend

According to Alexander Khachiyan, the head of AWG IT integrator, approximately 85 percent of IT specialists who left Russia in 2022 have returned to the country. Khachiyan mentioned that the most significant wave of returnees occurred between February and March, around six months after September 2022.

Khachiyan concluded that many Russian IT expats started bearing the brunt of forfeiting their tax residency status because their personal income tax rose from about 13-15 percent to 30 percent upon returning to Russia. Employers were unwilling to make up for such a change, a significant motivator for IT specialists to return.

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Seven times Biden lied on Ukraine

The US announced last week that it would expedite the delivery of 155mm howitzer-launched cluster munitions to Ukraine, despite earlier characterizing the use of such weapons as a “war crime,” and promising to remove them from US inventories.

What other Ukraine-related promises has the Biden administration broken?

Here’s a partial list

🇪🇺🇦🇺 EU, New Zealand sign free trade agreement

The European Union and New Zealand have signed a free trade agreement that is expected to increase bilateral trade by up to 30% within 10 years, the European Commission said.

The European Union is already New Zealand's third biggest trade partner, and with the new agreement, EU investment in New Zealand will probably increase by 80%, even, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said.

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❗️Attempts to shell the Kerch Strait, Rostov and Bryansk regions of Russia on July 9 by Kiev would have been impossible without the assistance of the United States and its "coalition," Russian Foreign Ministry says

🇷🇺 🌍First Russia-Africa Summit: What Nations Agreed on at Historic Meeting in Sochi

The First Russia-Africa Summit, which took place in Sochi on October 23-24, 2019, was the largest event ever held in the history of modern Russia and was unprecedented in Russian-African relations.

Titled "For Peace, Security and Development," it outlined the goals and objectives adopted for the future development of Russian-African cooperation in various fields, including the political, security, economic, science and technology, cultural, and humanitarian spheres.

👉 Check out the full text of the declaration of the First Russia-Africa Summit

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🇺🇸 DeSantis threatens to cut off trade with China if elected president

Florida’s Governor Ron DeSantis told a TV news interviewer on Sunday that he would revoke the normal trade status between Washington and Beijing if elected president in 2024, although he was unclear on how to achieve that.

DeSantis is currently running a distant second in an increasingly long field behind Trump in polling for the 2024 Republican primary race.

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🇺🇸 Matthew Miller, the head of the US State Department's press service, twice referred to the military conflict in Ukraine as a strategic failure on the part of Kiev, but eventually said that he had simply misspoken.

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🇮🇱🇺🇸 Israel, US kick off joint air force exercise to improve interoperability – IDF

The program of the drills includes long range striking, combat for aerial superiority and repelling cyber attacks, as well as midair refueling, the Israel Defense Forces said.

The Juniper Oak 23.2 life-fire drills, conducted from January 23-27, was the largest US-Israeli bilateral military exercise in history. It took place both on the territory of Israel and over the Mediterranean Sea with participation of over 140 aircraft, 6,400 US and 1,500 Israeli troops and several ships.

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⚡Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has agreed to forward the NATO accession protocol for Sweden to the parliament for ratification as soon as possible, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg confirmed on Monday.

Get the latest details here!

Majority of Poles concerned with migrant presence in country - survey

The majority of Polish citizens are apprehensive about migrants, a poll conducted by the IBRiS laboratory showed that 53.1% of respondents were concerned about the potential risks posed by the presence of migrants in their country.
Supporters of the ruling Law and Justice party (PiS) were most concerned about the migrant issue (83%), as compared to those of other Polish parties.

The survey of 1,100 people was conducted by computer-assisted telephone interview July 7-8.

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🔺Non-Aligned Movement reiterates support for Venezuela against US blockade
🔺Scott Ritter: cluster munitions will change nothing for Ukraine
🔺Latin American leaders reject presence of Ukraine’s President Zelensky at EU-CELAC meeting

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

🇷🇺🌍 Russia-Africa Summit 2023: everything you need to know

Dear readers, ahead of the Russia-Africa Summit 2023, Sputnik Africa has prepared a special dossier dedicated to this important diplomatic event, which in a couple of weeks will be attended by Russian leaders as well as representatives of more than 50 African countries.

🔍 Here you will find the latest updates, details on preparations, official statements, and even what is going on behind the scenes at the summit, which is to take place on July 27-28 in St. Petersburg.

✅ The dossier is available in English and French.

Stay tuned for more to come

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🎥 The crew of a Russian Ka-52 reconnaissance and attack helicopter detected and destroyed an armored combat vehicle with a precise hit of a guided missile in the Zaporozhye direction

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🇸🇩 Sudan's airspace to remain closed to all traffic, officials say

The Khartoum International Airport announced on Monday that the Sudanese Civil Aviation Authority has extended the closure of Sudanese airspace until July 31, except for humanitarian aid and evacuation flights with the permission of the authorities.

✈️ Sudanese airspace was closed to regular traffic following a military conflict between the country's army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in mid-April.

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🇦🇺 Australia to deploy AWACS aircraft in Germany to patrol NATO's Eastern flank - Scholz

"I am particularly pleased that Australia will contribute to the protection of the airspace in the eastern territory of the Alliance members this fall by deploying an AWACS aircraft at Ramstein [Air Base] for this purpose," Scholz said at a joint press conference with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

Albanese, in turn, said that the aircraft will participate in air patrols for six months, and that 100 military personnel will take part in the mission.

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NATO Vilnius summit to fall short of Ukraine's expectations

"US President [Joe] Biden has declared that Ukraine is not 'ripe' to join NATO," Paolo Raffone, a strategic analyst and director of the CIPI Foundation in Brussels, told Sputnik. "Some European allies, among others Germany, also doubt the readiness of Ukraine to join NATO.

At the Vilnius NATO summit, it will not be decided on the membership of Ukraine in NATO. However, some sort of 'arrangement' in the form of a NATO-Ukraine council can be agreed upon. It is very clear that the US does not want any direct military confrontation with Russia – a position reaffirmed by Biden and [CIA Director William] Burns – the issue of Ukraine NATO membership is off the table."

Instead, it is expected that the US, UK, France, and Germany will provide Kiev with some sort of security guarantees to ensure a regular delivery of Western military aid.

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📹 Osa SAM teams cover Russian troops from the air in the special military operation

One of the main tasks of the anti-aircraft gunners is to counter enemy drones.

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The FBI helped the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) censor social media accounts based in the US as part of an effort to combat alleged Russian disinformation

The FBI forwarded Meta* an SBU-provided list of accounts flagged for removal, based on their alleged involvement in spreading disinformation, US media reported. However, the list included some US-based accounts, including the US State Department’s own Russian-language Instagram account.

The FBI and SBU marked authentic accounts belonging to the US government and journalists in an effort to have them censored, the report said.

* banned in Russia as an extremist organization

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🇱🇦 Every eight minutes, 24 hours a day, for nine years from 1964 to 1973, American B-52s dropped an entire planeload of cluster bombs on Laos

50 years later, civilians are still falling prey to American bombs.

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All Zelensky can expect from the NATO summit on Ukraine's admission to the alliance is guarantees of further military aid at best, Russian diplomat says

Zelensky continues to bend his line that he needs Western weapons and military equipment under the pretext of a confrontation with Russia, the diplomat said, adding that is why Zelensky has long hinted that he would like an accelerated process of joining NATO. The UK and the US, however, have made it clear that the necessary criteria must be met for this.

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The situation in the confrontation between Russia and NATO is degrading to the most unfavorable scenario, Russian Ambassador to Washington Anatoly Antonov said 

He added that the measures taken by the Western countries created more and more insurmountable obstacles on the way out of the most acute military and political crisis, "fraught with the most serious consequences for international security."

NATO leaders will gather in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius on July 11-12, 2023, to discuss a wide range of topics ranging from Sweden's accession to the alliance to military assistance to Ukraine.

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