❗️ US Senator Lindsey Graham has been placed on a list of terrorists and extremists maintained by Russia's federal financial monitoring service

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Ten years after Euromaidan, Ukraine has essentially "degenerated and collapsed,” prices for food, housing and utility services have increased significantly, and zombie propaganda continues to poison the minds of Ukrainians, ex-Prime Minister Nikolai Azarov told Sputnik.

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Assange’s potential extradition to US poses danger to freedom of speech

The London High Court's two-day hearing is about to seal the fate of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, an Australian citizen, who can be extradited to the US to face up to 175 years behind bars for espionage.

"The whole case seems to hang on the United States wanting revenge," Paul Goncharoff, businessman, top manager, owner of the consulting company Goncharoff LLC, told Sputnik. "Revenge against a non-US citizen who published information about US Government activities and did so from an EU-based website."

According to Goncharoff, the case "brings together Australia, the EU, the UK, and the United States as a bloc that appears quite content to allow for the prosecution by American laws that are now seen to stretch beyond US borders and can capture and punish anyone, of any nationality, anywhere in the Western world."

Assange, 52, has been held in a UK high security prison since 2019. The espionage charges brought forward by the US revolve around Assange publishing thousands of classified documents concerning Washington's alleged military crimes in Afghanistan and Iraq provided by then US Army private and whistleblower Chelsea (born Bradley) Manning.

"Should Assange be extradited, the implications are grim for the future of the human right to freedom of speech, and for highlighting when governments themselves are acting inappropriately," stressed Goncharoff.

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❗️ Russian troops took more favorable lines and positions near Avdeyevka, repelled 4 counterattacks of the Ukrainian army, the enemy lost up to 425 servicemen;

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

▪️ Units of the Southern Grouping of the Russian Armed Forces have improved their position along the front line in the direction of Donetsk;

▪️ Russian air defense forces have downed a MiG-29 aircraft of the Ukrainian Air Force near the village of Belozerka in the Kherson region;

▪️ The Russian army repelled 4 attacks in the Kupyansk direction, the AFU lost up to 45 servicemen and 7 pieces of equipment;

▪️ Ukrainian army lost 3 tanks, including Leopard, 3 American APCs and more than 395 servicemen in the Donetsk direction;

▪️ Russian air defenses intercepted seven British-made Storm Shadow cruise missiles;

▪️ Ukrainian army lost up to 120 military, M777 and M109 Paladin systems towards Kherson;

▪️ Russian troops destroyed Bukovel-AD radar station and MT-12 Rapira anti-tank gun in the South Donetsk direction;

▪️ Russian troops destroyed a German Panzerhaubitze 2000 howitzer and an American M119 gun on the Kupyansk direction;

▪️ Losses of Ukrainian forces in the south Donetsk direction amounted to up to 190 military personnel, one tank and 4 vehicles.

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Plot twist of the century: Ukrainian top commander Oleksandr Syrsky’s stepson supports Russia

Ivan Syrsky, who lives in Australia, was filmed visiting the Russian Consulate in Sydney and meeting with Russian-Australian political activist Simeon Boikov (@AussieCossack).

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Presidential address to Russian parliament: what will Putin say?

President Vladimir Putin is expected to deliver his annual address to the Russian parliament on February 29.

The speech essentially amounts to the president appraising both chambers of the parliament of the state of affairs in the country as well as outlining primary vectors of foreign and domestic policies.

Though it remains to be seen what issues Putin is going to focus his attention on, this year’s address may be dedicated to the ongoing military operation in Ukraine and economic response to the Western sanctions.

Though the president usually delivers this address every year, in some rare cases it can be postponed: for example, the address that was meant to be made in 2022 was delivered by Putin only in February 2023. The Russian president said at the time that he needed to properly analyze the events that transpired in 2022.

▪️ 2023 address was largely dedicated to the events in the wake of the Ukrainian conflict escalation in February 2022. The Russian president called out the US and its allies for their hypocrisy, noting how NATO kept expanding all the way to Russia’s doorsteps while pointedly ignoring Moscow’s security concerns.

▪️ 2021 address , in contrast, was largely devoted to Russia’s economy and social policies, not to mention the handling of the global coronavirus pandemic. The president praised Russian researchers for developing “three reliable COVID vaccines” and called upon the government to enact measures that would help rectify the damage caused by the pandemic to people’s livelihoods.

▪️ 2020 speech was also mostly focused on domestic issues, with Putin paying special attention to areas such as demography, education and child support.

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Who really runs the world?

🤔 Which are the most secret societies in the world? Skull and Bones? The Bohemian Club? The Club of Budapest? The World Economic Forum?

We've dug a little deeper into history, to learn more about some of the exceptional societies that may be pulling the global strings.

Watch our AI presenter Nika's video and leave comments below!

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Putin said that his address to the Russian parliament will set out goals for the next six years.

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The Russian Ministry of Defense has shown the positions near the railway station from which the fighters of the Ukrainian 3rd Assault Brigade, formed on the basis of the Azov terrorist organization, escaped. They were accompanied by Canadian and Georgian mercenaries.

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❗️ LIVE NOW: Putin and Shoigu hold meeting in Kremlin

👉 Follow the live here or on Sputnik's website

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation managed to carry out the operation to capture Avdeyevka with minimal losses, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has said.

Offensive operations after the liberation of the city continue to the west, 72 square kilometers have been liberated, the minister emphasized.

The operation of the liberation of the city will be included in the textbooks of the Ministry of Defense, Shoigu noted.

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Russian intelligence received information about the summer Ukrainian counteroffensive at the beginning of 2023, Shoigu said.

The whole idea of the Ukrainian counteroffensive, according to the minister, was dedicated to reaching the Sea of Azov.

But the exact location of the attack was not known - so the decision was made to build defense lines along the entire length of the front, Shoigu said.

As a result, during the counteroffensive, Kiev lost 166,000 soldiers killed and wounded and more than 800 tanks, the minister said.

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⚡️In the village of Krynki in the Kherson region, the territory is being cleared, some of the Ukrainian forces are still sitting in the basements, Shoigu said.

The losses of the Ukrainian Armed Forces near Avdeyevka over the last two days amounted to 2,400 soldiers, according to the minister.

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What are the key fronts of Russia's special operation in Ukraine?

Avdeyevka has been successfully liberated by Russian forces. However, fighting near the city's outskirts persists, as well as in other strategically important areas along the frontline for the Russian army. Sputnik has displayed these developments in our infographics.

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🗣 “We have never refused dialogue here. But to pretend that the United States and the entire West, on the one hand, are calling for the strategic defeat of Russia, and on the other hand, supposedly intend to negotiate with us on strategic stability, believing that one issue is in no way connected with the other, this will not be possible”, Putin said.

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