🇷🇺 '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.

The EU has threatened to bring the Hungarian economy to its knees due to the refusal to finance Ukraine, Balazs Orban, adviser to the Hungarian prime minister, confirms.

The Financial Times, citing an EU document, previously wrote that the bloc could sabotage the Hungarian economy if it would not lift its veto on aid to Kiev at the summit in Brussels on February 1. In such a case, the heads of state and government had promised to publicly declare the “unconstructive behavior” of the Hungarian prime minister, which would have prevented Budapest from unfreezing EU funds.

Now the Austrian newspaper Exxpress writes that Balazs Orban, when asked whether there really was blackmail and whether the situation was serious at the time, said that it was serious, and when then asked to clarify whether there was a misunderstanding on the part of the Financial Times, he answered three times "no."

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The chief executive of one of Africa's largest commercial banks, Access Bank, has died in a helicopter crash in the US. The Nigerian financial group operates in at least 14 countries on the continent and was also planning to enter the markets of a number of other African states.

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Trump said that the United States should stop giving money to foreign countries free of charge and convert all its foreign aid into loans. In his opinion, Washington should also be able to demand repayment under a number of conditions.

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🇫🇷 French politician Florian Philippot called Vladimir Putin's interview with Tucker Carlson a "global phenomenon" and a "huge slap" for the media of Western countries.

According to him, many people have already realized that the Western media has been deceiving them for two years about the conflict in Ukraine. The politician also urged his readers to help spread the video of the interview.

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▪️ French politician Florian Philippot called Vladimir Putin's interview with Tucker Carlson a "global phenomenon" and a "huge slap" for the media of Western countries

▪️ US military facilities in eastern Syria came under fire

▪️ Senator Mike Lee spoke non-stop for nearly 4 hours straight, protesting against the Ukraine aid bill and urging a vote against it

▪️ US lawmakers voting for more aid to Ukraine might be obliged to “serve on the front lines”

More stories to cover:

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

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

▪️ Did Zaluzhny make an “explicit threat against Zelensky”? Sputnik expert explains

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🇷🇺 Kremlin reveals how ball got rolling with Tucker Carlson's Putin interview proposal

Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Tucker Carlson himself proposed an interview with Putin and the president quickly agreed.

The Kremlin had fears that even before the interview began there would be "persecution" of Tucker Carlson, the West is becoming increasingly unpredictable, Peskov said. According to him, the American journalist could have foreseen the heat of passion around the interview, but it added to his popularity.

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Former Ukrainian First Deputy Defense Minister Oleksandr Pavlyuk has been appointed commander of the ground forces to replace Oleksandr Syrsky, who became the commander-in-chief. Kiev also replaced the commanders of the airborne assault troops and the joint forces of the Ukrainian Army.

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