❗️Key points from the Putin's statement during the meeting with students participating in the conflict in Ukraine:

▪️About Special mil op: there were no other considerations except for the defense of Russia.

▪️After the collapse of the USSR, nationalists became the de facto rulers of Ukraine.

▪️Our geopolitical adversary orchestrated a coup and began physically eliminating those willing to build normal relations with Russia.

▪️Everything that happened in Donbas is genocide; on our historical territories, Russians were declared a non-titular nation.

▪️An anti-Russian enclave began to be created on Ukraine's territory, and they left us no chances.

▪️The special military operation is an attempt to end the war.

▪️We will achieve the implementation of the tasks and goals of the special military operation.

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🗣The US will enflame global instability to slow BRICS down

"Many countries are deciding that the horse they want to get off of is G7, and the horse they want to get on top of and ride into the future is the BRICS. And nobody in Washington is missing that process... And if an opportunity arises, a-la Ukraine, which might slow the process down, which might seriously weaken one of the senior partners of the BRICS, namely Russia. Then that will be worth exploiting," Dr. Richard Wolff, professor of economics, warns the New Rules Podcast.

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❗️Putin's statements on Il-76 shoot-down:

▪️The Ukrainian Main Intelligence Directorate knew that 65 Ukrainian POWs were being carried on board and they still attacked the plane;

▪️ It is obvious that Kiev did this, two missile launches were recorded from territories controlled by the Kiev regime;

▪️I will ask the Investigative Committee to make public all the circumstances of this crime to the maximum, so that people in Ukraine know what really happened;

▪️ Ordnance found on the spot indicate that this is an air defense missile;

▪️ Most likely, these are American Patriot systems, or European air defense systems, most likely French;

▪️ The exact answer from which system the fire was fired will be in two or three days.

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Oklahoma intends to deploy its National Guard to support Texas in enhancing security along the US-Mexico border.

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The Russian Investigative Committee released footage of Ukrainian prisoners of war boarding an Il-76 plane that crashed in the Belgorod region as a result of a terrorist attack.

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NATO's Steadfast Defender 2024 may be used as covert support to Ukraine

"I think that an option [to provide extra weapons to Ukraine under the guise of military drills] may not be excluded," Vasily Dandykin, a captain 1st rank reserve and military expert, told Sputnik.

Dandykin said some of weapons used in Steadfast Defender 2024 – the largest in decades – could be transferred to Ukraine via Poland, which has become a hub for transportation of the West's weapons to Ukraine since the beginning of the conflict.

NATO's military drills, which will continue up until May 31, 2024 and will take part from the High North to Central and Eastern Europe, could also be used to draw some Russian forces away from the zone of the special military operation, according to Dandykin. Presently, the Russian military is steadily improving their strategic positions along the entire front line. "Things are getting pretty bad for the Ukrainian military," he stressed.

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During an interview from India, Governor Greg Abbott reveals that ten additional states have deployed their National Guard to the Texas border, with more states set to join. Abbott asserts his readiness for a potential conflict with federal authorities.

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▪️How does the Texas border crisis resemble the Donbass uprising in 2014?

▪️What could be the result of the US border showdown? Dimitri Simes Jr. explains.

▪️"Dmitry Medvedev was right": is his prediction from 2022 about a civil war in the US coming true?

▪️The capabilities of the Texas National Guard: can it stop the border crisis?

▪️The current showdown is just a tip of the iceberg of the Texas pro-independence movement

▪️Watch videos of what happened at the US southern border

▪️Texas border showdown: keep track how it escalated

❗️Among the material evidence from the crash site of the Il-76, there are documents belonging to the Ukrainian prisoners of war who perished in the catastrophe, stated the Russian Investigative Committee.

Additionally, the investigative agency has identified the launch point of the missile that struck the aircraft.

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Texas Governor Greg Abbott said on Friday that he is prepared for a conflict with federal authorities over a legal dispute about barriers placed along the state’s portion of the US border with Mexico.

"We are prepared, in the event that that unlikely event does occur, just to make sure that we will be able to continue exactly what we’ve been doing over the past month, and that is building these barriers," Abbott said in an interview with Tucker Carlson, when asked about the potential for the federal government to take over the Texas National Guard.

On Monday, the US Supreme Court issued a temporary order allowing federal Border Patrol agents to remove physical border barriers placed by Texas. However, Abbott maintains that Texas has the constitutional authority to protect its borders, due to the federal government’s failure to address the flow of illegal migrants into the United States.

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❗️ The Biden administration considers the Texas governor's actions to protect the US border "unsafe," the White House said.

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❗️ Naval forces of the Houthi movement in Yemen attacked a British oil ship in the Gulf of Aden on Friday, and the vessel caught fire after it was hit by a missile, Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said.

"Yemeni naval forces carried out a targeting operation on the British oil ship (MARLIN LUANDA) In the Gulf of Aden, using a number of appropriate naval missiles, the strike was direct, and resulted the burning of the vessel," the spokesman wrote on his Telegram channel.

Bloomberg reported that a Trafigura fuel tanker is on fire in the Gulf of Aden after being struck by a Houthi missile as it transited the Red Sea.

“Firefighting equipment on board is being deployed to suppress and control the fire caused in one cargo tank on the starboard side,” a Trafigura spokesperson said in a statement.

Military ships in the region are underway to provide assistance, according to the report.

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The United States intends to once again station nuclear weapons in the United Kingdom amid increased tensions with Russia, The Telegraph reported on Friday.

The United States intends to station nuclear warheads at the Royal Air Force’s Lakenheath base, the report said, citing Defense Department documents.

Washington removed its nuclear weapons from the United Kingdom in 2008 after having stationed them there during the Cold War.

The United States is expected to station B61-12 gravity bombs, which are three times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, at the Lakenheath base, the report said.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said that the Kremlin would view the deployment of US nuclear weapons in the United Kingdom as an escalatory action.

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Ukraine conflict is pretext for US to beef up military presence in the Black Sea

"The US wants to establish dominance over the Black Sea," Vasily Dandykin, a captain 1st rank reserve and military expert, told Sputnik. "This is an old idea. One of the goals is to bring Ukraine into NATO. Because they believe that whoever dominates the Black Sea and owns Crimea receives all the bonuses."

Washington is developing a new Black Sea strategy, as Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Jim O'Brien revealed on January 25 while speaking at a German Marshall Fund gathering. O'Brien has been pushing the concept for quite a while, outlining the blueprint in detail on October 25, 2023 for US lawmakers. According to O'Brien, the Ukraine conflict is a "unique" opportunity for the US to assert and enhance its presence in the Black Sea region, redrawing the region's energy map and "isolating" Russia.

"The fact is that the strengthening of the United States and NATO – first of all, the United States – in all directions has become the general concept," Dandykin stressed, adding that Russia is ready for all possible scenarios in this respect.

Per the military expert, Washington's aggressive push in the Black Sea won't go unnoticed by Moscow. Moreover, Washington and NATO cannot sideline Russia to implement their Black Sea strategy, according to Dandykin: Russia maintains control over the strategic Crimean peninsula and its territorial waters in the Black Sea, it possesses military forces and sovereignty, he stressed.

“We are seeing a polar shift in the geopolitical sphere… maybe we will see countries like Russia, maybe like China, or maybe like South Africa or other BRICS members, find a way to stop or to punish Israel,” said journalist Esteban Carrillo Friday.

Carrillo joined Sputnik’s Fault Lines program to break down the International Court of Justice’s ruling on South Africa’s genocide case against Israel as it was released.

“Economically, Israel is already facing dire consequences,” Carillo claimed. “Its ports are empty, its workforce is completely depleted, and, among other things, their currency is on the downward trend.”

Carillo agreed the “moral weight” of the ICJ’s decision could convince Global South nations to take measures against Israel even as the United States continues to offer the country “complete protection.”

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☢️ US plan to cut reliance on Russia's uranium may be used to strong-arm suppliers

The prospects of a joint association by the US, France, Canada, Japan and the UK to cut reliance on Russian nuclear fuel sound "vague,” Alexey Anpilogov, military analyst and head of the Foundation center, told Sputnik.

According to the nuclear energy expert, it sounded like “an attempt to create a consortium or cartel of uranium buyers who will try to somehow impose their conditions on countries that sell natural uranium on the world market, trying to strong-arm them.”

As to which other countries might join this consortium, Australia and Kazakhstan were singled out by Anpilogov, along with a few African countries, such as Namibia and Malawi, that do not have their own uranium processing technologies. But the whole of ‘Francophone Africa’ is now a "big question," he remarked, referencing the resolve of many former French colonies to shed vestiges of their past.

There is little doubt regarding the ulterior motives of any such consortium led by the US to slash reliance on Russia's nuclear fuel, considering that Washington thrives on weaponizing its plans to suit its own agenda.
America’s own natural uranium production slumped to historic lows in past few years, while about a third of enriched uranium is still supplied by Russia.

Last year US lawmakers made efforts to end the supply of enriched uranium to their country from Russia. However, a bill banning US imports from Russia’s Rosatom by 2028 and approved by a House subcommittee last May but has stalled in Congress.

🇩🇿🇺🇳 Algeria will request that the United Nations Security Council be convened in the coming days to implement the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling in the Gaza genocide case, the country’s foreign ministry said on Friday.

"The Permanent Mission of Algeria to the UN has received instructions from the republic’s president, Abdelmajid Tebboune, to request that the UN Security Council be convened as soon as possible for the implementation of the ruling issued by the ICJ regarding the provisional measures imposed on the Israeli occupation," the statement read.

Algeria believes that the ICJ’s ruling will put an end to the "impunity era" in Israel’s actions against Palestine.

Later in the day, a United Nations source told Sputnik that Algeria has requested a UN Security Council meeting on the situation in the Gaza Strip to be held on January 31.

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“This is extremely dangerous,” said activist Anthony Rogers-Wright Friday of the growing controversy between federal and state authorities at Texas’ southern border. The spokesman for the coalition Movement for Black Lives joined Sputnik’s Political Misfits program Friday to discuss the developing battle of states’ rights versus federal government prerogatives.

“If one skirmish like that happens, oh my goodness, what would happen after that, like, nobody knows,” he added, claiming the situation represents a “constitutional crisis” hearkening back to the Jim Crow era of the 1950s and 60s.

Quarrels over the dueling power of state and federal officials in the US strike at deeply-rooted controversies in the country’s history.

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