❗️ Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico's life is still in danger after surgery, Markiza TV channel reported, citing a source

❗️ Recent statements by former Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu:

▪️ The main task in the new post [secretary of the Russian Security Council] remains the special operation.

▪️ Russian forces are advancing in all directions, and this is obvious.

▪️ The Russian Armed Forces have created the necessary reserves of men and equipment for further offensive operations.

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✍️ Putin and Xi Jinping after talks signed a joint statement on deepening relations of comprehensive partnership and strategic cooperation

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Rossiya Segodnya media group and Xinhua news agency sign agreement on holding BRICS Expert Forum

Dmitry Kiselev, the director general of Sputnik's parent media group Rossiya Segodnya, and Fu Hua, the director general of China's Xinhua news agency, signed a memorandum on holding the BRICS Expert Forum, Sputnik reports.

The Expert Forum will be held on the margins of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, one of the largest and most significant business events in Russia.

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🌖 Russia's Roscosmos space agency CEO Yury Borisov said that Russian-Chinese expansion on the Moon will begin after 2036.

“Let us develop it first, and test it on Earth. I will say this: according to plans, expansion on the Moon will be sometime after 2036,” Borisov said when asked about the date for testing a nuclear power plant being created with China to be used on the Moon.

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❗️ Our Chinese friends have created a friendly and warm, but at the same time businesslike atmosphere, Putin said.

Russia and China attach great importance to the partnership between the two countries, and it is a model of relations between neighboring countries, he added.

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🇷🇸 A man has been detained in Serbia for threatening President Aleksandar Vucic, the local Ministry of Internal Affairs reports

❗️ Russia and China have accumulated experience of mutually beneficial and diverse cooperation, Vladimir Putin said

🇷🇺🇨🇳 Putin said that during his talks with Xi Jinping, he discussed coordination between the two countries in the international arena.

Mutual trade and investments between Russia and China are reliably protected from the negative influence of third countries, he added.

The president also said the two countries plan to strengthen contacts in banking institutions.

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❗️ Doctors have managed to stabilize the condition of Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, but the situation is still very serious, the country’s defense minister said

❗️ There is no place for closed military-political alliances in the Asia-Pacific region – it is harmful and counterproductive, Putin said

🇷🇺🇨🇳 “It's not just symbolism”: Putin explains why his first official trip after reelection was to visit China

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▪️ Putin and Xi Jinping have held talks in China. Key statements by Russian president and Chinese leader

▪️ Watch Xi Jinping, guard of honor, and parade band meet Putin in front of Great Hall of the People

▪️ Russia condemns in strongest terms assassination attempt on Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico

▪️ How US mastered regime change over decades

▪️ Tensions between Egypt and Israel grow as US plays 'political trickery'

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❗️ Putin promised to brief Xi Jinping on the situation surrounding the Ukraine crisis in a closed-door meeting this evening, but said Russia is grateful for China's initiatives to resolve the conflict.

Russia and China advocate for the improvement of global economic governance and the de-politicization of global institutions, the Russian president said

"We believe it is necessary to work towards building a reliable and adequate security architecture in the Asia-Pacific region, in which there is no place for closed military-political alliances," Vladimir Putin stressed during a press statement following the Russian-Chinese talks.

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🇨🇳 Chinese leader Xi Jinping's latest statements at his meeting with Vladimir Putin:

▪️ China hopes to restore peace and stability in Europe as soon as possible, will continue to play a constructive role.

▪️ Cold War mentality, bloc confrontation and power politics threaten the security of all countries.

▪️ China and Russia will work together to bring more benefits to the two countries and make due contributions to global security and stability.

▪️ Both countries defend the international system with the central role of the UN and the world order based on international law.

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📹 Young German female snipers “about 18-19 years old” were spotted in Semyonovka in the DPR in 2023, local resident Sergey told Sputnik.

“There were Americans, Czechs, and Romanians in Semyonovka. Most of them were Germans, snipers. I have never seen so many. They came in jeeps, black jeeps with tinted windows,” Sergey says.

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Scott Ritter: Andrei Belousov’s appointment signals ‘revolution’ in Russian military affairs (Part 1)

“What wins the war is the arsenal of democracy,” said Ritter, pointing to the Allied Forces’ victory in World War II. “The ability of the United States to kick in its industrial capacity to just produce tanks, produce aircraft, shipping an endless stream of military goods that gets fed into the meatgrinder of conflict and you basically out-produce your enemy. That helped us not just build up our military, but prop up the British.”

Former UN weapons inspector and US Marine Corps intelligence officer Scott Ritter joined Sputnik’s The Critical Hour program to discuss what he described as Russia’s “new revolution in military affairs.”

“This is the key to warfare, the ability to sustain the high intensity of modern warfare,” the analyst insisted. “Russia has stepped its defense industry into gear… Russians have come out and said they are in a de facto war, not just with Ukraine but with the collective West, which means they are in a conflict against the collective defense industrial capacity of Europe and the United States.”

Russia has invested significantly in arms and ammunition production over the last several years as Ukraine’s allies struggle to provide the country with sufficient weaponry. Observers have acknowledged the weakened state of Europe’s arms production capabilities as the continent fell into dependence on the US military presence after World War II.

But concerns have been raised over US military capabilities as well, as a policy of military Keynesianism has geared arms production in the direction of private profit and economic stimulus. Additionally, the War on Terror has caused US armed forces to adapt to fighting irregular guerrilla armies in the Middle East rather than large state-sponsored militaries. The result is that two decades of technological development have left the country ill-equipped to combat a sophisticated foe such as Moscow.

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Scott Ritter: Andrei Belousov’s appointment signals ‘revolution’ in Russian military affairs (Part 2)

“This is a man who knows the Russian economy inside and out,” said former US Marine Corps intelligence officer Scott Ritter of Russia’s new defense minister Andrei Belousov. “He has the ear of the president and the respect of everybody and he's being brought in to ensure that the defense industry keeps chugging along but it doesn't overheat, to find that balance with the civilian economy.”

But Ritter claimed Belousov would focus not only on macroeconomic concerns, but also on innovation within Russia’s defense industry: the “revolution in military affairs.”

Ritter explained that Belousov would be tasked with integrating everything Russia has learned from the Ukraine conflict into its new military doctrine, taking note of both tactical and technological innovations. The realities of drone and electronic warfare will be fused with strategic insights to transform the country’s approach to fighting conflicts, he claimed.

Russia will also adapt to an increasingly-belligerent NATO, said Ritter, responding to the expansion of the bloc to Sweden and Finland as well as the hostility of the Baltic states.

“One thing that we've learned about the West is that if they go to war against Russia, they'll run out of ammunition in seven to ten days,” said the former UN weapons inspector. “Russia plans on never running out of ammunition. This is a lesson learned. Russia knows that having firepower supremacy on the battlefield is one of the guarantees of victory.”

“Nobody else in the world is ready for the kind of revolution in military affairs that Russia is getting ready to unleash, and this is what makes Mr. Belousov the most dangerous man in the world as far as the West is concerned,” said Ritter.

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New York Times admits Russian success on the battlefield

The New York Times published an article this week acknowledging Russia’s upper hand in the conflict in the Donbass, although a convenient excuse was found to explain the struggles of the US-backed Ukrainian regime.

“White House Worries Russia’s Momentum Is Changing Trajectory of Ukraine War” read the headline of the article in the controversial US newspaper. The authors identified a number of factors contributing towards Moscow’s recent success, including advances in Russian technology and battlefield tactics. But the article focuses heavily on a delay in the provision of US aid to Kiev while Congress debated the wisdom of doubling down on America’s support for the Zelensky regime.

However, the authors also conceded that Moscow has refined its strategy over the course of the war, allowing it to bring its “huge military infrastructure” and population advantage to bear. Stephen J. Hadley, a national security advisor under former President George W. Bush, is quoted as recognizing that Russia often “finishes strong” in military conflicts, adapting its tactics along the way.

The report also acknowledges Russia’s successful use of electronic warfare to disable drones and artillery provided by the West. “In some cases, Russia has successfully deceived GPS receivers, throwing off the targeting of Ukrainian arms, including a variety of missiles shot from HIMARS launchers, which Mr. Biden began providing to Ukraine last year,” the journalists highlight.

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❗️Russia and China condemn initiatives to seize foreign assets and property and emphasize the right to retaliate, according to a statement following talks between Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping

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