As today marks the 80th anniversary of the complete liberation of Leningrad from the Nazi blockade, the German Foreign Ministry said that the country takes full responsibility for the crimes of Wehrmacht troops.

"Germany is committed to ensuring that the memory of the atrocities of German war crimes in the Second World War is maintained and expressly acknowledges its historical responsibility for the crimes committed in Leningrad by the German Wehrmacht."

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Joe Biden decides to hit the US' southern states

The US president announced a suspension of LNG export licenses to study the impact of supplies on US energy security.

The response from the southern states was not long in coming:

“This reckless decision is a gut punch to the hard-working men and women in the energy industry. It also could cause some countries to rely upon dirty coal as opposed to cleaner burning natural gas,” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

❗️Latest statements by Vladimir Putin at the opening of a memorial for the victims of the Nazi genocide:

▪️The tragedies of Leningraders during the siege and prisoners of Nazi concentration camps will remain evidence of the monstrous essence of Nazism;

▪️The crimes of the Nazis have no statute of limitations, they were not committed on the battlefields, but were punitive actions;

▪️Nazis and their satellites during the Great Patriotic War did not fight against the regime or ideology, their goal was the resources and wealth of the USSR;

▪️The blockade of Leningrad was unprecedented in cruelty and cynicism;

▪️Investigations will be conducted into all crimes committed by the Nazis during the Second World War against citizens of the USSR;

▪️The Kiev regime continues to kill civilians; in European countries, Russophobia is promoted as official policy;

▪️Russia will do everything to eradicate neo-Nazism.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

If Texas were a country: economy in figures   

Here are some common yet curious facts about the economy of the Lone Star State, against the backdrop of the ongoing border standoff between Texas Governor Greg Abbott and the Biden administration.

▪️Texas is currently in the top-ten list of the world’s largest economies and it ranks second among US states after California, according to the state’s official website;

▪️In the third quarter of 2023, Texas accounted for 9.1% of the entire US economy;

▪️The Texas economy (valued at more than $2.4 trillion) grew faster than the nation as a whole for the fifth quarter in a row, increasing at a rate of 7.7% during the third quarter of 2023;

▪️There are over 100 of the 1,000 largest public and private companies in the US based there, including such behemoths as AT&T, ExxonMobil and Dell;

▪️The largest industries by revenue in Texas are gasoline and petroleum wholesaling, as well as oil drilling and gas extraction, plus petroleum refining, which generated $298.1 billion, $210.9 billion and $170.2 billion in 2023, respectively, per IBISWorld;

▪️The Lone Star State leads America as the top producer of both crude oil and natural gas, with nearly 480,000 miles of pipelines running across its territory;

▪️The state is home to one-fourth of the nation's proved natural gas reserves and is Number 2 in total LNG exports;

▪️Texas remains the largest exporter among US states. Its biggest exports pertain to oil and petroleum products, as well as computer parts, aircraft parts and integrated circuits. Late last year, Texas exports totaled about $36 billion;

▪️Texas gained the most jobs in the nation over the last 12 months, registering an increase of 369,600 jobs from December 2022 to December 2023.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

"I can assure you that there was not one second when Putin or Xi Jinping thought, 'How can I deliberately fu** up my people?' But that’s exactly what’s been happening in US/Europe for a long time now," said S.L. Kanthan, Sputnik India columnist, analyst and writer, on his X-account.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

📊 What is NATO preparing for?

This year will mark the most extensive military exercises since 1988. Steadfast Defender 2024 (a combat training course for Western militaries) will last until May 2024.

Earlier, spokeswoman of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova stated that NATO exercises are provocative in nature and are fraught with military incidents:

“Crossing out all international security systems. Amid Russia's constant calls for de-escalation, the North Atlantic bloc's plans to hold the largest exercise since the Cold War, exercise Steadfast Defender 2024, raise questions."

Check out Sputnik's infographic to know more about Steadfast Defender 2024.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

German party congress opens with gratitude to the Soviet Red Army that liberated Auschwitz

"The Red Army alone sacrificed 13 million soldiers to liberate those oppressed and blinded by the Nazi regime. They gave their lives for this cause. We are grateful and indebted to them forever, regardless of how the world has changed over time," said Daniela Dan, a new member of the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance for Reason and Justice party.

Contrary to Ursula von der Leyen’s recent statements, Dan reminded that it was Soviet soldiers who liberated Auschwitz, not representatives of the Allied armies.

She also recalled that "the greatest crime in the history of mankind was committed by the Germans."

In April 2022, Dan joined a group of individuals who signed an open letter, urging Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz to refrain from providing weaponry to Ukraine. The letter also called on Scholz to encourage the Kiev regime to halt its military resistance.

Today marks International Holocaust Remembrance Day. On January 27, 1945, the Red Army liberated Auschwitz, the largest Nazi death camp where approximately 1.4 million individuals lost their lives between 1941 and 1945.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

A song in support of Texas goes viral in Russia 🎵

“Rise Up, Texas”: the humorous track and memes about the “Texas People’s Republic” have become a trend on Russian internet

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Biden makes ‘unquestionably dangerous’ effort to gain new emergency powers to deal with US border crisis

US President Joe Biden’s attempt to gain additional emergency powers via a bipartisan Senate bill, ostensibly to deal with the crisis on the southern border, is “unquestionably dangerous,” says US constitutional historian and political commentator Dan Lazare.

“Providing the executive with essentially unchecked emergency powers is always fraught with risk. Even if Biden doesn’t abuse them, it sets a precedent for others who will,” he notes.

According to Lazare, the US border crisis is essentially “unfixable short of a new version of the Berlin Wall,” which is complicated by the fact that the US-Mexican border is “very long.”

The significant economic disparity between the United States and its southern neighbors results in a staggering number of migrants from Latin American countries trying to sneak into the US.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

'It's like our old civil war': ex-Pentagon analyst warns about internal clash over US border crisis

"This whole immigration issue has become one total mess," Michael Maloof, a former senior security policy analyst at the Office of the US Secretary of Defense, told Sputnik. "The way things are going right now, if Biden wins reelection, there could be a huge explosion in this country."

The Texas National Guard recently "seized" a section of the US-Mexico border, blocking federal border patrol agents from accessing it and raising legal disputes. While the US Supreme Court ruled that federal agents may cut the wire barriers to deter illegal migrants, 25 Republican governors have openly backed Texas and its fight with the federal government over the "invasion" of migrants.

"If you look at the states that are involved, they're mostly right in the middle and approaching toward the east. And it's really a clear division of blue states versus red states in this country today, which is where the political lines have been drawn," Maloof said.

Ex-President Donald Trump, the GOP front-runner in the 2024 race, called on "all willing States to deploy their guards to Texas to prevent the entry of Illegals, and to remove them back across the Border" on his Truth Social account.

"It's like our old civil war. Back in the 19th century – brothers against each other, taking sides. Hopefully, cooler heads can manage [this]," the expert concluded.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt