❗️ After the collapse of the USSR, the West wanted to collapse Russia too, Putin told journalists

🇻🇦 On Sunday night, international media widely covered the “trial of the century”: the story of 75-year-old Cardinal Angelo Becciu, who was sentenced by a Vatican tribunal to 5.5 years in a case involving luxury real estate transactions abroad.

The New York Times writes that Becciu was one of the most influential people in the Vatican, and the trial, which lasted for several years, even affected Pope Francis.

The Washington Post used the phrase "trial of the century" in its headline about the trial. The newspaper writes that Becciu was the first cardinal to be prosecuted by the Vatican Criminal Court.

Corriere della Sera notes that the proceedings centered on a real estate transaction in London, as well as investments by the Secretariat of State in 2011-2018, where Becciu was substitute for general affairs.

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📹 The first night version of Russia’s Gastello attack FPV drone has been successfully tested in the special op zone, Sputnik's correspondent reports

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Politicians warn aiding Ukraine will bring about ‘end of EU’

The Ukraine conflict has to be stopped before Europe is turned into an “industrial and economic desert,” French parliamentarian Nicolas Dupont-Aignan warned.

“We give our money to Zelensky, we pay 4X more for our gas in the United States and poverty is exploding in our country!” the leader of the right-wing political movement “Debout la France” fumed in a post on X.

A similarly dire warning was given by founder of the now-defunct Megaupload file-sharing service Kim Dotcom. EC President Ursula von der Leyen is bringing the destruction of the EU closer with her statements about Ukraine, he wrote on X.

“Remember this moment. Nations agreed to join the EU on the promise of unanimity for all major decisions. This promise is now being broken. It’s the end of the European Union,” the entrepreneur said.

Kim Dotcom was referring to von der Leyen’s remarks amid Hungary's veto on Ukraine aid. “It is now also necessary to work on potential alternatives to have an operational solution in case...unanimity is not possible,” von der Leyen said.

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Russia 'plays the long game' amid Ukraine fatigue

Ukraine has the ‘odds stacked against it,’ while Russia is ‘playing the long game,’ retired Air Vice-Marshal Sean Bell told UK media.

Ukraine has failed to make any significant gains on the battlefront, and the advantage of the Russian Armed Forces on the battlefield is evident, Bell underscored.

‘They [Ukraine] don't have an air force. They don't have air power. They're not a member of NATO. They have a lot of issues stacked against them,’ he said, adding that the flow of aid from Western patrons has slowed to ‘a trickle.’

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A staggering number of British households are unable to pay their electricity and gas bills due to the cost of living crisis

The amount owed to energy suppliers has risen by £400 million since mid-October, reaching £3 bln ($3.8 bln), revealed a report released.

These concerns have prompted the industry regulator Ofgem to propose raising its cap on household bills by £16 or £1.33 a month, for the next financial year from April 2024. That rise is aimed at helping intermediary billing companies offset higher debt costs they say could drive them to bankruptcy.

“The record level of debt in the system means we must take action to make sure suppliers can recover their reasonable costs, so the market remains resilient, and suppliers are offering consumers support in managing their debts,” stated Tim Jarvis, Ofgem's director general for markets.

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❗️ Main statements by Vladimir Putin in interview with journalist Pavel Zarubin:

▪️ Putin admitted that naivety was inherent in him despite his work in intelligence and government positions;

▪️ The president added that in the 2000s, he had naive ideas about the West;

▪️ Vladimir Putin said that he blamed the inertia of the West's thinking for its tendency to confront Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union;

▪️ The West believes that such a big Russia is not needed and wants to divide and subjugate it;

▪️ Putin called the claim that Russia might attack NATO "complete nonsense" and that Biden's remarks about it were a figure of speech;

▪️ Russia is interested in developing relations with NATO countries;

▪️ Russia has neither territorial claims nor any other interest in going to war with NATO countries;

▪️ Russia had great relations with Finland, and now it will have to concentrate military units in the Leningrad Military District;

▪️ The US will have to take Russia into consideration and find common ground.

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🇷🇺🪖 Key points of Russian MoD briefing on progress of special military op in Ukraine:

▪️Russian troops repelled nine attacks by the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Kupyansk direction;

▪️The Russian Armed Forces repelled an attack by a Ukrainian special forces brigade in the Krasny Liman direction. Enemy losses amounted to up to 90 military personnel;

▪️In the South Donetsk direction, the Russian Armed Forces repelled two attacks by Ukrainian assault groups;

▪️The Russian Armed Forces destroyed a HIMARS launcher in the Konstantinovka area in the DPR;

▪️Ukrainian forces lost up to 100 military personnel in the South Donetsk direction;

▪️Ukrainian losses in the Donetsk direction amounted to up to 250 military personnel and four of their attacks were repelled;

▪️Over the past 24 hours, the Russian Armed Forces shot down two Ukrainian MiG-29s, one Su-25, two HIMARS missiles, a JDAM guided bomb, and 91 drones;

▪️Russian troops destroyed a command post of Ukraine’s 47th Mechanized as well as fuel depots for aircraft.

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📹 Crews of Russian army aviation helicopters strike enemy strongholds and manpower in the Kupyansk direction

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🎄 Germany's Grinch-like Federal Customs Service has warned on its website of the possible confiscation of Christmas gifts sent from Russia this festive season.

German authorities have threatened to steal Christmas by confiscating gifts mailed from Russia.

The EU's sanctions on Russia already include financial blocks, sectoral restrictions, transport and visa bans, export controls and import restrictions.

It has prohibited the import of strategic raw materials from Russia, including oil, petroleum products, coal, ferrous metallurgy products and gold — but now authorities have seemingly added frankincense and myrrh to that list.

The Federal Customs Service has extended the ban to personal belongings, including Christmas gifts, from Russia. Customs officials may now confiscate or detain items such as paper, wooden products, cosmetics and more.

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❗️The United Russia Party Congress unanimously has supported Putin’s candidacy in the presidential election

LIVE: Putin Speaks at United Russia Party Congress

The live stream is over. Follow the link to the Sputnik's website for more details.

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❗️ Russia will either be a self-sufficient, sovereign power, or it will not exist at all, this must be remembered, Putin said.

Russia cannot, like some countries, give up its sovereignty "in exchange for sausage" and be someone’s satellite, he added.

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❗️ The satellites tried to bring down the Russian state system and sow confusion, but such recipes have not worked and will not work when it comes to Russia, Putin said

📹 Russia cannot, like some countries, give up its sovereignty "in exchange for sausage" and be someone’s satellite, Vladimir Putin said.

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📹 Western elites tried to bring down the Russian state system and sow confusion, but such recipes have not worked and will not work when it comes to Russia, Putin said

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❄️ The tasks facing Russia are growing like a snowball, but Russia is a winter country and loves snow, Putin said

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🇷🇺 The full video of Putin's speech during the United Russia Party Congress.

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🇺🇸🪖 The US will ring in the new year with its smallest active duty footprint since 1941 – the year Washington abandoned its non-interventionist foreign policy and joined the Second World War.

That’s according to military strength levels outlined by the NDAA, which showed a drop in active duty personnel to 1,284,500 service members, from 1.39 million in the previous year, as recruiters face growing difficulty enticing young people to join.

Observers blame a variety of factors for falling recruitment numbers, from declining confidence in the US military (from 70 percent in 2018 to about 46 percent now), to growing incidence of health problems among young people, to concerns among conservatives about the military’s increasingly “woke” culture, to falling morale in the wake of decades of illegal wars abroad.

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