Russian FM Sergey Lavrov will visit Cuba on February 19 and Venezuela on February 20.

The Russian Foreign Minister will also take part in the G20 foreign ministers' meeting in Rio de Janeiro on February 21-22, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova announced.

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Former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was spotted dancing a traditional Jewish horah with Israeli soldiers in Gaza

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🇪🇸 Protesting Spanish farmers destroy tomatoes from Morocco.

One of their demands is to strengthen control over imported products so that they comply with internal EU standards.

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Sky News acknowledges the truth about the Ukrainian crisis

Comments from Russia's Ambassador to London Andrei Kelin about the situation around Ukraine and the Russian economy are true, UK broadcaster Sky News admitted following an interview with the diplomat.

“That is broadly speaking true, give or take some hyperbole, and it highlights the perilous state of Ukraine's war machine given ongoing doubts about continued American financial support,” Sky News concluded.

The ambassador spoke about how the front lines in Ukraine are moving further westward amid declining military support from the West. At the same time, Russia has withstood Western sanctions and its domestic military and industrial capabilities will suffice.

Kelin also illustrated how Russia is now rebuilding towns ravaged by the military actions.

“Go to Mariupol now, look at it. It’s a newly rebuilt, totally rebuilt city. I just looked at a report from it. It’s amazing how beautiful it is,” he said.

Kelin’s interview to the UK media comes just a few days after Vladimir Putin spoke to US journalist Tucker Carlson, during which the Russian president paid particular attention to the historical aspects of the ongoing crisis, as well as Russia’s stance on some pressing issues pertaining to the situation.

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❗️Ukrainian troops lose up to 1,010 soldiers killed and wounded in all directions per day, according to a report of the Russian Ministry of Defense.

🇷🇺🪖 Other statements from the Russian Defense Ministry briefing on the progress of the special military operation in Ukraine:

▪️The Russian Army improved the situation along the front line in the Krasny Liman region, repelling two attacks. Ukrainian losses amounted to 312 soldiers;

▪️The Russian Armed Forces destroyed a Ukrainian S-300 air defense system and a Bukovel-AD electronic warfare station;

▪️In the DPR, Russian forces repelled six attacks. Ukrainian losses amounted to 360 soldiers;

▪️Russian air defense intercepted seven Ukrainian HIMARS and Alder missiles and destroyed 98 drones.

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🇹🇷🇪🇬 Turkish President Recep Erdogan arrived in Egypt for the first time in 12 years and was met by President al-Sisi.

The visit can be called historic; it marks the normalization of relations between Cairo and Ankara. Problems arose after the coup in Egypt in 2013, when Erdogan sharply condemned the actions of the Egyptian military.

Relations began to improve in February 2023, when al-Sisi expressed condolences to Turkiye after its earthquake and the Egyptian Foreign Minister traveled to the disaster zone.

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Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called media statements about certain proposals from Russia to the United States to freeze the conflict in Ukraine a conspiracy theory.

All this is an incorrect interpretation of what Moscow has repeatedly said publicly, the Foreign Ministry representative said.

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EU could use a European army to subjugate dissent member states – military expert

"The Brussels technocracy is perfectly capable in its logic of creating a public force, a sort of supranational police force, which can be used for internal political purposes within the EU," Colonel Jacques Hogard, who served 26 years in the French Army, told Sputnik.

"Europe needs its own army," Czech MEP Mikulas Peksa from the Greens–European Free Alliance, tweeted on February 11 in response to US Republican frontrunner Donald Trump's notion that he would not defend NATO members who do not abide by their spending obligations if elected.

Any potential joint European forces could be financed from the EU’s budget and be supervised by the European Parliament, Peksa further explained to journalists. Florian Philippot, a French politician from The Patriots and ex-MEP chastised Peska as a "Eurofanatic" on X (formerly Twitter): "An EU army would first and foremost be an army used against the European peoples who would like to free themselves from the EU: total danger!"

"I think the totalitarian temptation is already there," Hogard warned in an interview with Sputnik. "The European Union institution is sick. Sick of its technocracy, sick of its authoritarianism, sick of its internal differences, sick of its ideology, fundamentally globalist, leveling, resolutely opposed to the identity of European nations, contrary to the interest of the nations and peoples who compose them."

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The US and NATO have brought Europe under their yoke – military expert

"The European Union, totally subjugated until now by the United States of America and its armed wing, NATO, is today under their influence," Colonel Jacques Hogard, who served 26 years in the French Army, told Sputnik. "Hence this pathetic 'Russophobia', which it believes is a means of creating unity! Strategic error!"

According to Hogard, NATO is "wrongly considered as the security umbrella of the EU" as it drags the Old Continent into serious geopolitical trouble by further escalating tensions with Russia over Ukraine.

As Florian Philippot, French politician from The Patriots and ex-MEP argued on X on February 12, the "great Russian threat" is also used by Brussels to create fear and impose its oligarchic agenda on EU member states. GOP presidential frontrunner Donald Trump's victory could pave the way for Europe's liberation from the diktat of the US and unelected leadership of the EU and NATO, according to Hogard.

"I am one of the French who would not regret their disappearance, either, and who would on the contrary see it as a historic opportunity to re-launch the project of building a Europe of nations from Atlantic to the Urals, integrating economic and cultural cooperation, and of course a common security system for the whole European continent," Hogard concluded.

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How does Russia protect its border with Finland after Helsinki’s NATO entry?

Russia has been conducting regular missile drills near the Gulf of Finland in a bid to strengthen its border after Helsinki rushed into joining NATO last year. During the drills, the Russian military used the Bal and Bastion mobile coastal missile systems. Let’s explore them in more detail:

The GRAU 3K60 Bal (Ball):

▪️ contains typically with 4 launchers carrying Kh-35 “Uran” anti-ship missiles that have a range of up to 250 km (150 miles).

▪️ can fire 32 missiles in a salvo and has another 32 missiles in its ammunition load.

▪️ can disrupt a combat task of the enemy’s large surface action group or its amphibious assault force or convoy.

The K-300P Bastion-P:

▪️ can engage enemy surface ships, including carrier battle groups, convoys, and landing craft.

▪️ contains P-800 Oniks or Yakhont supersonic anti-ship missiles, which have a range of up to 300 km (186 miles).

▪️ can also fire the state-of-the-art Zircon hypersonic missiles, which remain invulnerable to any enemy air defenses, including American-made Patriot systems.

▪️ protects a 600-km (372 mile)-long coastline, and can be brought into firing position within five minutes.

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📹 Putin on vaccines against cancer: "We have come close to developing so-called 'oncovaccines' or vaccines against cancer and a new generation of immunomodulatory drugs. I expect that they will soon be used effectively as individualized therapies".

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🇵🇱 Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk accused the previous government of illegally using Pegasus spyware against citizens

Tusk presented proof of widespread illegal use of Pegasus spyware under the previous government during a news briefing alongside President Andrzej Duda.

“I have a disclosed the document, but it is only a sample of the documents that are at your disposal Mr. President, which unfortunately, I say this without satisfaction, confirm one hundred percent the purchase and use in a legal and illegal manner of Pegasus,” Tusk said. “The list of victims of these practices is unfortunately very, very long,” he added.

The previous government was headed by Mateusz Morawiecki, the leader of “Law and Justice” party, a right-wing national-conservative party aligned with the current president of Poland Andrzej Duda.

The new parliament has set up a special commission to investigate who used Pegasus and against whom during Law and Justice’s years in government.

Pegasus is a military-grade spyware program made by Israel’s NSO Group that can remotely hack into mobile phones and take total control of the device. Earlier in 2021 it came under fire for spying on the phones of about 50,000 targets including French President Emmanuel Macron, ex-Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, and President of the European Council Charles Michel, among others.

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💬 Putin on healthcare in Western countries

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📹 Putin is not worried that the Chinese might rush and get ahead in some developments because they publish scientific articles and Russia can translate them.

“We're smart enough to do that," the Russian president said

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Who wants to be the next NATO boss?

Mark Rutte, prime minister of the Netherlands, appears to be the most likely candidate to become the next secretary general of NATO after the military bloc’s current boss Jens Stoltenberg finally vacates the office, if publications in a number of Western media outlets in recent weeks are to be believed.

Recent media reports suggest that Rutte’s bid is supported by NATO’s European powerhouses such as France and Germany, although as Bloomberg puts it, NATO ambassadors are “yet to officially sign off” on his candidacy.

France’s support of Rutte’s candidacy is reportedly the product of the Dutch prime minister’s rapport with French President Emmanuel Macron, while the reasons Berlin and the White House seem to favor him are a less clear.

Turkiye also seems to be in favor of Rutte becoming the new head of NATO, although Ankara first wants to secure a number of concessions for itself before actually backing the Dutch prime minister’s bid, Bloomberg notes.

That said, Rutte appears to have detractors among the US lawmakers who are none too thrilled about the Netherlands consistently failing to meet NATO’s guidelines on defense spending, Politico reported in November.

Rutte, however, is not the only European politician who seeks to become secretary general of this US-led organization:

▪️Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas and Latvian Foreign Minister Krisjanis Karins also expressed their interest in becoming NATO’s chief;

▪️UK’s former Defense Secretary Ben Wallace and Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen apparently considered vying for that position but both have since withdrawn from the competition;

▪️A number of media outlets previously speculated that European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen may also seek to become secretary general of NATO, though von der Leyen herself said in June that she has no interest in that job.

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