Russia has sent 23 notes to the secretariat of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) on the use of toxic substances as chemical weapons by Kiev, but the OPCW does not yet see the need to send specialists to Ukraine, Russian Permanent Representative to the OPCW Alexander Shulgin said on Wednesday.

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“The economic bloc between a rock and a hard place is Europe – they're energy importers, they're not particularly good exporters of anything that really matters anymore,” financial and geopolitical analyst Tom Luongo told the New Rules podcast, commenting on Europe’s economic state

👉 The growing risk of a European banking collapse, NATO’s shrinking options to keep funding the proxy war in Ukraine, and why Biden needs China to bail out the US economy: You can find the full interview on YouTube or Rumble

The West is afraid, because the truth is the sharpest weapon against lies - Putin on blocking Russian media at a meeting of the supervisory board of the ANO 'Russia - Land of Opportunities'.

Putin also said he would support a project by French journalist, who said she wants to assemble a team of Western journalists to cover the situation in Donbass: "I will ask colleagues from the media community to help you expand your opportunities. RT broadcasts in six languages, Sputnik in more than 30," Putin said.

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❗️ From July 20, all ships sailing in the Black Sea to Ukrainian ports will be considered potential carriers of military cargo, and the countries of the flag of these ships will be considered involved in the conflict due to the termination of the Black Sea grain deal and the curtailment of the maritime humanitarian corridor - Russian Defense Ministry.

In addition, a number of sea areas in the northwestern and southeastern parts of the international waters of the Black Sea have been declared temporarily dangerous for navigation.

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🇷🇺🇬🇧 Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova slammed British MI6 head Richard Moore for calling on Russians to cooperate with their intelligence service.

"If Russia had 'little chance' of regaining ground, you, Richard Moore, would not have made such a fuss. As for 'open doors and keeping secrets,' you might have been believed if you had presented the Skripals. Usually those who believed and trusted you, you destroy in the first place," she said.

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The new accusations against Trump reportedly contain articles about pertaining to deprivation of rights, conspiracy to commit an offense against or defraud the United States and witness tampering

🇵🇱 Poland will block Ukrainian grain imports if the European Commission fails to extend the current ban, the Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has warned

According to Morawiecki, the borders need to be reopened to Ukrainian grain on September 15 as per the European Commission's decision. However, if the commission does not agree to extend the ban, Poland will take matters into its own hands to protect its farmers.

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❗️LIVE NOW: Russian President Putin Chairs Government Meeting

Join the live stream here or follow this link to Sputnik’s website

🗣️ On former President Donald Trump's legal cases:

“We know that president after president after president have been responsible for and guilty of some of the worst crimes that this world has ever seen, numerous war crimes, crimes against humanity, rape, torture, pillage, plunder, you name it. And it's very interesting to me that they're so desperately focused on Donald Trump right now. And it is, I think, in a huge way, a desperate attempt to try to distract away from the Hunter Biden stuff. And I think that it is unfortunately not working the way that they are intending it to,” Misty Winston, radio host and free speech and press freedom activist, told Sputnik.

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

🇺🇸 Ex-Pentagon adviser Douglas Macgregor said that the creation of a currency by Russia, China and India is a rebellion against the USA and it will also shake American financial hegemony.

He also said that more than 40 countries have already expressed a desire to use the new gold-backed currency.

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Pentagon announces $1.3 billion package to Ukraine amid faltering counteroffensive

The package includes NASAMS, 152 mm artillery rounds, and drones

❗️ Vladimir Putin's latest statements on the grain deal:

▪️ The continuation of the grain deal has lost all meaning;

▪️ The West used the grain deal for political blackmail, used it to enrich corporations;

▪️ The West is obstructing not only the grain deal, but also the gratuitous transfer of grain and fertilizers by Russia to the poorest countries;

▪️ It is Russia that contributes to global food security, statements that Ukraine feeds countries are a lie;

▪️ Russia is ready to continue supplying its grain;

▪️ Russia will consider the possibility of returning to the deal if all the principles of its participation in it are taken into account and implemented without exception.

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🇷🇺 Russian Armed Forces received Drok Advanced Self-Propelled Mortars which allow its crew to conduct fire without leaving the vehicle and can be transformed into firing position in less than a minute.

The producer Rostec stressed that the 2S41 Drok is superior to foreign analogs in terms of certain performance characteristics, adding that the self-propelled mortar is designed to destroy enemy manpower and lightly armored vehicles, as well as blind hostile observation posts and create smoke screens.

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🎙 In build-up to the Second Russia-Africa Summit just a week from now, a group of journalists representing ten African nations share their expectations from the upcoming event in St. Petersburg in our new #AfroVerdict podcast from Sputnik Africa.

Participants of the just-ended EU-Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) summit in Brussels failed to agree on a joint declaration due to Nicaragua’s position on the Ukraine conflict, a UK newspaper has reported.

The media outlet added that Nicaragua reportedly was “the sole holdout on a text approved by 59 other nations that expressed ‘deep concern’” over the Ukraine standoff.

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🗣️ On US fighting its main competitor - Russia:

“The US is watching the global marketplace sort of tightening. And I think that this is another move where it's like ‘Look, we won't Russia out as a competitor. We want to make sure Russia displays the resources in there.’ And obviously the US wants to displace Vladimir Putin. And I think that they're willing to let things ride out until then. Ukraine is not valuable to that. I mean, Eastern Europe, for the most part, isn't valuable to them. I think that peace obviously isn't the objective here… The US wants to make sure there's no competitors. And if we can't have the direct war to do that, obviously, because it leads to nuclear war,” James Carey, host of The Left is Dead podcast, told Sputnik.

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

🇯🇵🇦🇺 Japan’s Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) will launch for the first time its Type 12 surface-to-ship missile (SSM) into Australian waters ahead of the Talisman Sabre military drills, Talisman Sabre exercise director Brig. Damian Hill said on Tuesday.

"This is the first time the JSDF have tested this capability in Australia," Hill told the US broadcaster, adding that the Japanese armed forces will launch the missile from Beecroft Weapons Range into the East Australia Exercise Area off the coast of Jervis Bay.

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The White House halted the Wuhan Institute of Virology’s federal funding for allegedly failing to provide documents, US media said, citing a memorandum.

The Department of Health and Human Services, after a review that began in September, told the lab that it found the facility to be noncompliant with federal regulations and is seeking to debar it completely, the report said Tuesday, citing a memo sent from the Department to the lab.

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🇺🇸 US's military supplies to Ukraine will include VAMPIREs - the Vehicle Agnostic Modular Palletized ISR Rocket Equipments - a portable kit capable of firing laser-guided rockets. The producer L3Harris technology announced that the US Department of Defense awarded them a $40 million contract to deliver 14 VAMPIRE weapon systems for Kiev forces.

However, according to Russian military expert Yury Knutov, this weapon is of dubious effectiveness due to the difficulty of hitting maneuverable air targets, as well as the poor performance of the laser guidance system in bad weather.

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