Surrogat-V: What’s known about Russia’s secret, stealthy super-heavy sub imitator

🔺The Surrogat-V is the Rubin Design Bureau’s latest multi-purpose autonomous underwater drone design, with the system envisioned as a wingman for manned submarines.

🔺The drone sub’s capabilities include searching for naval mines, conducting reconnaissance in ice-covered waters, and doing other missions which are dangerous or time-consuming for manned boats, like terrain mapping. One of its crucial functions is the imitation of noises generated by manned nuclear and diesel-electric subs to take enemy subs and warships off the scent of manned Russian submarines.

🔺The underwater vehicle is expected to displace a whopping 40 tons, with a 17-meter length and a cruising range up to 800 miles at speeds of 5 knots (accelerating to up to 24 knots for short bursts).

🔺The vessel will be powered by lithium ion batteries, but an electrochemical power plant is also said to be in the works.

🔺Rubin is one of the top submarine developers in the world, creating many of Russia’s most iconic submarines, submersibles and unmanned underwater drones and robotic equipment.

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American freedom unshackled everything that was taboo in humanity, Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, commented after the march of the neo-Nazi group Blood Tribe in Nashville.

"They staged their demonstration right outside the administrative buildings, and then marched through the central streets of the capital of Tennessee. They had ‘2218’ written on their backs — apparently the alphanumeric code of the neo-Nazi chant 'Bring back Adolf Hitler,'" Zakharova wrote in her Telegram channel.

The spokeswoman was outraged by the behavior of the US, which every year votes against the United Nations resolution on "combating the glorification of Nazism, neo-Nazism and other practices that contribute to the escalation of modern forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance" on the pretext that it is a "violation of freedom of speech and assembly."

"But resistance to this evil [neo-Nazism] is punishable, according to American freedom, as a violation of it," she added.

While Russia is fighting neo-Nazism in Ukraine, the West demolishes monuments to WWII heroes and applaud a Nazi collaborator in the Canadian parliament. "After all, this is exactly what all NATO bosses, led by the United States, do."

Coverage of the deaths of American journalist Gonzalo Lira and Alexey Navalny in leading American and British media, number of publications according to Sputnik calculations.

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It turned out who Kuleba was imitating when he was smoking a cigar.

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🇺🇸 Separatist sentiments are growing rapidly in Alaska: about 36% of residents would support secession from the United States.

The list of those who support secession from the United States also included Texas (31%), California (29%) and New York (28%).

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Avdeyevka’s liberation shows Ukrainian front ‘has begun to crack’

Russian forces fully liberated the heavily fortified Donetsk suburb of Avdeyevka this week, breaking out and advancing over 8.5 kilometers beyond the city amid a disorganized and chaotic retreat by Ukrainian forces.

“This is the first city that we’ve taken since Artemovsk, that is, since May of last year. The city…is essentially the last fortified area remaining in the suburbs of Donetsk, which the Ukrainian side has been fortifying since 2014,” Sergei Poletaev, cofounder of the Vatfor media project, told Sputnik, commenting on the significance of Avdeyevka’s liberation.

From here on out, everything will depend “on how big the hole in the front” Russia manages to puncture, with advances threatening to snowball and push Ukrainian forces back rapidly if Kiev proves unable to set up new defensive lines. Avdeyevka’s liberation is an important sign that “the (Ukrainian) front has begun to crack,” Poletaev stressed.

For the West, Avdeyevka’s loss serves as “embarrassing proof that what Ukraine and our intelligence services have done with Western money and Ukrainian lives has been an exercise in waste, and wasted aggression,” former US Air Force officer and DoD senior analyst Karen Kwiatkowski told Sputnik.

“The liberation of Avdeyevka means that soon the arc of Druzhkovka, Kramatorsk and Slavyansk will come under Russian attack,” veteran Russian military expert Ivan Konovalov told Sputnik.

“And this, in fact, is the last defensive belt Ukraine’s military has in the context of fortified defenses. That is, our troops are already approaching these areas, and beyond that is territory that’s less heavily fortified.” The closer Russian forces approach to these areas, the more desperate fighting will become, Konovalov said.

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🔺Avdeyevka’s liberation shows Ukrainian front ‘has begun to crack’

🔺American freedom unshackled everything that was taboo in humanity, Maria Zakharova stated

🔺Sputnik compared how Western media covered the deaths of Gonzalo Lira and Alexey Navalny

🔺Surrogat-V: What’s known about Russia’s secret, stealthy super-heavy sub imitator

🔺Key points from Putin's statement on gas supplies to Europe in interview with journalist Zarubin

🔺Russian President Vladimir Putin has commented on the historical part of his answer to Tucker Carlson during his interview

🔺Separatist sentiments are growing rapidly in Alaska

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📹 Soldiers of the Russian Armed Forces discovered captured Western weapons at the location of the Ukrainian Armed Forces unit in Avdeyevka, a video of the raid of the Viking detachment on the liberated city was at the disposal of Sputnik

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Republican Senator Lindsey Graham has proposed that countries whose defense budgets do not meet the alliance's 2% of GDP obligation for members be expelled from NATO.

"I want to have a system where if you don't pay, you get kicked out," he told CBS News.

As Graham noted, 19 of NATO's 31 members now fail to meet this condition on defense spending.

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🔥 A group of Ukrainian Armed Forces servicemen tried to leave Avdeyevka in an infantry fighting vehicle, but Russian loitering ammunition disrupted their plans and destroyed the combat vehicle along with its personnel with an accurate hit.

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US detects first Houthi underwater drone while conducting new round of air-strikes

The US conducted five strikes in total and detected the first deployment of an unmanned underwater vessel by the Houthis, according to a statement from US Central Command (CENTCOM), the division of the US military tasked with ensuring American dominance over the Middle East, Central Asia and parts of South Asia.

“These actions will protect freedom of navigation and make international waters safer and more secure for US Navy and merchant vessels,” CENTCOM’s statement read, without clarifying the justification for US Navy ships’ presence in the Red Sea, which lies between the continents of Asia and Africa in the Indian Ocean, thousands of miles away from the United States.

The Ansar Allah movement, known in the West as the “Houthis,” cites as justification for its blockade governments’ obligation under international law to prevent genocide, a term that numerous organizations have claimed applies to Israel’s actions.

Click through for analysis of the US presence in the Middle East and how Western backing of Israel fits into the US’ broader military ambitions.

The US and its Western allies are trying to prevent the collapse of the Ukrainian army amid the loss of territory and shortage of ammunition, the Politico newspaper has quoted US lawmakers and foreign officials as saying.

At the security conference in Munich, US lawmakers assured their allies that the House of Representatives would still approve aid to Ukraine, and some of them expect the new funding package to be passed as early as March.

However, those congressmen who continue to advocate for arms supplies to Ukraine admits that confidence in Joe Biden and what Ukraine can possibly accomplish is at its lowest level in two years.

In addition, a member of the Ukrainian parliament said that Kiev is concerned about the lack of leadership shown by Washington in allocating Ukraine more funds and sending more ammunition, including long-range missiles, the report read.

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📹 Footage of the disorderly flight of Ukrainian Armed Forces units from Avdeyevka

Crowds of fleeing Ukrainian soldiers are moving along the roads, which are under constant fire control of the Russian army.

Russian artillerymen deliver precise strikes against the enemy. The roadsides are strewn with wrecked APU vehicles.

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Oregon eyes re-criminalizing illicit drugs shortly 4 years after passing most liberal drug law

There is a growing skepticism around the efficiency of Oregon Ballot Measure 110—one of the most liberal drug laws in the US passed in 2020—as the national US drug overdose death toll has crossed 100,000 for the first time since 2021.

“We’ve talked to exactly two people that have actually called that number,” said Sergeant Jerry Cioeta of the Portland Police Bureau, referring to a measure that would have reduced the 100$ fine for illegal drug possession if the person called a addiction treatment services.

Oregon Democrats are pushing for a bill that would make small-scale drug possession a low-level misdemeanor, punishable by up to 30 days in jail with the opportunity to seek treatment, while the Republicans in Oregon would like to push for harder punishments including up to a year in jail for drug possession, with the option for treatment and probation.

"It's not actually going to save lives or help people get into services. It's going to create barriers to housing and employment, which is what criminal records do," said advocate Tera Hurst of the proposed bill.

Drug overdose deaths in Oregon increased by a third from 2019 to 2020, that percentage swelled to another 44% in 2021, marking over 1,000 deaths in 2021, according to the Oregon Health Authority.

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🌍🇷🇺 ECOWAS ready for mutually beneficial partnership with Russia, commission chairman says

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is currently looking for a partnership that would benefit and unite the bloc, President of the ECOWAS Commission Omar Alieu Touray told Sputnik.

"I think, there are a number of areas ECOWAS has been cooperating with many partners on. And, I am sure that when we sit around the table with the Russian friends we should be able to identify areas which would benefit all of us ... We are looking for partnership that would help us develop, that would unite us," Touray said.

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