🇷🇺 Two Tu-95ms strategic missile carriers of long-range aviation of the Russian Aerospace Forces completed a planned flight in the airspace over the neutral waters of the Bering Sea, near the western coast of Alaska, the Russian Defense Ministry reported.

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Big cat with deadly claws: What we know about Russia's new Manul IFV

Russia's Defense Ministry and High Precision Systems (a division of Rostec) are putting the finishing touches on the final design of the prospective Manul infantry fighting vehicle, a deeply modernized variant of the legendary BMP-3 IFV design, reports say. And just as its namesake – the Pallas’ cat - it promises to be elegant, unstoppable, and deadly to its enemies!

🔺The Manul will feature a turbocharged, 816-horsepower UTD-32T engine mounted toward the front of the vehicle.

🔺Troop-carrying capabilities are unknown, but the base BMP-3 with which the Manul shares many design elements can carry up to seven troops and has a crew of three.

🔺For weapons, variants of the Manul with the Bumerang-BM and AU-220M Baikal automated weapons mounts have been spotted. The former comes with a 30 mm autocannon, Kornet missiles, and PKT 7.62 mm coaxial machinegun. The latter has a 57 mm automatic gun and 7.62 mm 6P7K machinegun.

🔺According to Kurganmashzavod, which works on the Manul, it will feature many components found in the base BMP-3, allowing “an easier transition to a next-generation vehicle.” That should help dramatically reduce development, manufacturing, and repair costs, and simplify training.

🔺The Manul is one of a series of Russian IFVs in development. Others include the Kurganets-25, the T-15 Armata, and the Bumerang wheeled fighting vehicle.

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🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia has called for a meeting of the UN Security Council due to the situation in Rafah

Saudi Arabia has warned of the dangerous consequences if Israel were to launch an offensive on the city of Rafah in the Gaza Strip, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have moved after the start of the conflict. This was reported by Arab News, citing a statement from the Kingdom's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

"Rafah represents the last refuge for hundreds of thousands of peaceful inhabitants forced to flee by the cruel Israeli aggression," the ministry's statement said.

"Deliberate violations of international humanitarian law underscore the urgent need for a Security Council meeting to prevent Israel from causing an inevitable humanitarian catastrophe," Saudi Arabia said.

According to the UN, as reported by the publication, about half of Gaza's 2.4 million residents are currently sheltering in the city, with many reportedly sleeping on the streets in tents and makeshift shelters, raising concerns about food and water shortages.

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Mainstream media has been bashing Tucker Carlson, claiming that he is not a real journalist. Watch this CNN reporter show him how to really put a national leader on the spot with challenging and impartial questioning. Gold-standard journalism indeed.

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🇩🇪🏭 Germany faces deindustrialization without Russian energy

Berlin is caught in a deep crisis triggered by its decision to cut itself off from Russian energy. In a Bloomberg piece ennoscriptd ‘Germany’s Days as an Industrial Superpower Are Coming to an End’, industrialists and officials shared a grim outlook on the manufacturing giant’s future.

“You don’t have to be a pessimist to say that what we’re doing at the moment won’t be enough,” Volker Trier, foreign trade chief at Germany’s Chambers of Commerce and Industry, said.

“We are no longer competitive,” German Finance Minister Christian Lindner admitted at a business event in Frankfurt on Monday. “We are getting poorer because we have no growth.”
German opposition figures have blamed Berlin’s slavish dependence on Washington, which helped push the country into the current crisis while sucking producers out using cheap energy and generous subsidies.

The consequence is an economy “bursting at the seams, with businesses closing and moving abroad,” Alternative for Germany lawmaker Eugen Schmidt told Sputnik. Germany is paying “crazy amounts of money for American liquefied natural gas at the same time that we’re imposing sanctions on [Russian] pipeline gas.”

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🇷🇺 Russian artillerymen of the Battlegroup Dnepr destroyed a Ukrainian ammunition depot in the Kherson region using a 152-mm towed D-20 gun.

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🔺Germany faces deindustrialization without Russian energy

🔺Saudi Arabia has called for a meeting of the UN Security Council due to the situation in Rafah

🔺Dutch activist, Eva Vlaardingerbroek, commented on the Carlson-Putin interview

🔺X users have ridiculed a BBC article "fact-checking" Putin's remarks about the history of Ukraine

🔺Vladimir Putin outlined the priorities for foreign policy in his congratulatory message on Diplomatic Worker's Day

🔺CNN shows the gold-standard journalism

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Two US military facilities sitting on natural oil and gas fields in eastern Syria came under fire on Saturday, local Syrian sources told Sputnik.

"Four missiles fell on the territory of a US base in Koniko," a source said.

The missile strike on the Koniko gas field in the Syrian province of Deir ez-Zor was followed by a drone attack on a US installation in the Omar oil field in the same province, another source said.

"Three drones attacked an American base. Several explosions were heard at the base," the source said, adding US air defenses failed to foil the attack.

These are the latest in a string of more than 160 attacks on US facilities in Syria and neighboring Iraq that Washington attributes to Iran-backed militias. The Pentagon retaliated last week by striking targets belonging to militant groups who it says killed three US troops in an attack on a US outpost in Jordan in early February. Iraq and Syria condemned the US aggression against their territories.

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Poland, South Korea rethink $22 bln arms deal amid danger of sparking regional wars

Seoul's arms deliveries to Poland have been stalled in a loan-related deadlock as the South Korean government does not want to antagonize Russia amid its special military op in Ukraine, political analyst Peter Kolchin has told Sputnik.

"In the case of Poland’s rearmament, the situation is also very slippery due to the fact that Russian-Polish relations have deteriorated significantly in recent years,” the observer said, noting that Seoul could become an unwitting “accomplice” of Warsaw should it use its South Korean-sourced weapons against Russia.

“Russia has many of the latest military technologies without analogue in the world, and if the DPRK receives the opportunity to develop at least some of them, of course this would be a threat to South Korea. Therefore, it’s quite possible that, given that both parties doubt the feasibility of the contract, it can either be altered or, in principle, terminated,” Kolchin said.

Recently elected Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said in January that there was a “problem” in the proposed loan conditions for new purchases of military hardware from South Korea. Former Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak accused Tusk of “looking for savings” and “preparing soldiers and public opinion for withdrawals from weapon contracts.”

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Two Israeli fighter jets launched airstrikes at Al-Dimas airport near the Syrian capital of Damascus, a senior Russian military officer told a news briefing.

"Two tactical F-35 fighters of the Israeli air force … fired four precision-guided air bombs at military infrastructure in Al-Dimas airfield," Rear Adm. Vadim Kulit said.

The Israeli airstrikes caused material damage, the official said. The jets came from the southern Golan Heights and did not penetrate into the Syrian airspace.

US Utah GOP Senator Mike Lee's "long" speech against the Ukraine funding bill goes on for more than 3 hours.

Earlier, Lee accused his colleagues of trying to pass an aid bill for Ukraine, taking advantage of the fact that the Americans' attention would be drawn to the Super Bowl, the US National Football League's championship final, and promised 'long' speech.

Lee said that US cannot send billions of dollars to Ukraine while America's own borders are bleeding, while noting that American people are distracted by sports, family and entertainment.

Previously, US Kentucky Senator Rand Paul slammed GOP minority leader Mitch McConnell's for his support of the military aid bill for Ukraine, calling it "outrageous" and "criminal neglect".

“It’s criminal neglect for Mitch McConnell, Chuck Schumer, and Joe Biden to get together to send $100bln overseas to fix someone else’s border before addressing our border,” Paul told Fox Business in an interview.

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US Senator Mike Lee spoke non-stop for three hours and 56 minutes, protesting against the Ukraine aid bill and urging a vote against it.

Lee said he "must have missed that day" when Ukraine had become the 51st state of the US, warning that US has already poured a 12-figure sum and adding 60 more billions won't get things better.

The fate of the Ukraine aid bill in the Senate could be decided on Sunday, when a vote is expected to finalise the document and send it for approval.

🇷🇺 'Eye opener': expert comments on Putin's geopolitical insights in interview with Carlson

Russian President Vladimir Putin's interview with American journalist Tucker Carlson sheds light on the geopolitical situation in Eastern Europe, including Ukraine, Prof. Lere Amusan, Professor of International Relations at North-West University, told Sputnik Africa.

"For me, the interview is an eye opener, it let us know exactly what is going on in the Baltic and in the eastern part of Europe and the rationale behind why Russia is in Ukraine, in order to maintain sanity in the region," the expert noted.

Regarding Russia's actions in Ukraine, the professor noted that the majority of the country's inhabitants, especially in the area of the capital Kiev, are Russian-speaking, and Russia "cannot leave its own people because of the cultural implications and for the stability of its own country."

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A bill that would require US lawmakers to “serve on the front lines” if they vote for more aid to Ukraine, was put forth by Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna (Rep.-FL).

Called the 'Senators Can Help Underpin Military Engagement and Readiness, or SCHUMER, Act,' Luna said she introduced the bill in response to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (Dem-NY) ultimatum that if Russia is allowed to defeat Ukraine, US troops may be used to fight Russia in Eastern Europe.

After the bill was leaked to the media, Luna defended it vehemently. “I make no apologies,” she said. “My bill, the SCHUMER Act, would require Members of Congress to fight on the front lines in Ukraine if they support Schumer’s calls for American sons & daughters to fight.”

She added that the bill was “In honor of Chuck Schumer.”

“If we don’t aid Ukraine, Putin will walk all over Ukraine, we will lose the war and we could be fighting in eastern Europe and a NATO ally in a few years. Americans won’t like that,” Schumer said earlier this month on American television.

While the bill is unlikely to pass or even come to a vote, it will provide lawmakers with an opportunity to put their name on something that implies politicians should fight in the wars they advocate for. Luna said that her fellow lawmakers will have until February 12 to be one of the bill’s original co-sponsors.

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🌎 BRICS today represents an alternative to Western dominance, expert says

"The Russian president is absolutely right when he says that today the center of the world is shifting from the West to the developing countries," Adu Yao Nikez, an Ivorian international relations expert, told Sputnik Africa, commenting on Putin's recent remarks. "We should be talking about the BRICS, not the G7, because it no longer dominates the world economy."

Putin said during an interview with US journalist Tucker Carlson that the rise of BRICS is "inevitable" like "the rise of the sun".

According to Nikez, BRICS countries exhibit robust economic growth rates that challenge traditional Western powers. He underscored the necessity for global decisions to be made with the active involvement of these nations.

In Africa, BRICS provides an opportunity for African countries to have a platform where they can assert themselves on the world stage, Nikez said.

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Did Russia shoot down the US Army’s next-gen scout helicopter program?

The Army has terminated its $7 billion Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA) after spending at least $2 billion on the project.

Army Chief of Staff Randy George said the shakeup was the result of observations on the battlefield in the ongoing NATO proxy war against Russia in Ukraine, which he indicated have effectively shown manned reconnaissance to be obsolete.

“Sensors and weapons mounted on a variety of unmanned systems and in space are more ubiquitous, further reaching, and more inexpensive than ever before,” George said, suggesting aerial reconnaissance “has fundamentally changed.”

General James Rainey of the Army Futures Command assured that the FARA project’s cancelation was not a “failure,” and that the command has a host of other great projects in the pipeline.

The EU must spend more on its defense capabilities, French FM Stéphane Séjourné said, claiming the so-called "Russian threat" to be the main reason.

Séjourné also promised that together with his counterparts from Germany and Poland, he would announce a joint project to combat disinformation. He said the ministers will explain in a transparent manner the tools of this disinformation and even provide "evidence."

Recently Russian President Putin, during an interview with Tucker Carlson, spoke about Russia's relations with NATO, and the fact those countries are trying to intimidate their populations with an imaginary Russian threat.

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The image of former Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valery Zaluznhy and the leader of the Ukrainian nationalist party the Right Sector* was an “explicit threat against [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelensky,” Mark Sleboda, an international relations and security analyst told Sputnik’s Fault Lines.

“We saw Zaluzhny pose over [the] last weekend for a photo with a commander of the Right Sector, the Banderite fascist, neo-Nazi battalion that is now an official part of the military,” Sleboda recounted. “In front of his giant portrait of Stepan Bandera, the West Ukrainian genocidal Nazi collaborator [...] and next to a red and black Banderite flag with the innoscription 'victory without negotiations.' So, I saw that as a pretty explicit threat against Zelensky.”

Earlier this week, Zelensky fired Zaluznhy after weeks of speculation, replacing him with General Oleksandr Syrsky, whom Sleboda said was disliked by Ukrainian troops.

“They call him General Butcher [...] and [it’s not] favorable,” Sleboda said. “It is in reference to his seemingly casual way of throwing away the lives of his own men.”The situation could lead to unrest among troops and the civilian population, but a lot will depend on Zaluzhny’s next move.

“Does he stay quiet [...] for the time being?” Selboda asked. “I don't know about that because he refused to resign and decided to make, obviously, a political issue out of this,” he concluded, referring to Zaluzhny’s reported refusal to resign.

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*The Right Sector is an extremist organization banned in Russia

Ukraine can expect a "cascading collapse" on the frontline as early as this year without US assistance, the New York Times has quoted Western officials and military experts as saying.

For example, US officials estimate that without regular imports of air defense equipment, Ukraine will have enough of them only until March.

Ukraine will also be able to conduct local counterattacks with difficulty starting from March, and by early summer its armed forces may face difficulties in defense as well.