“It can happen to anybody” – former CIA analyst Larry Johnson

Any person who shares their views via Russian media outlets can be targeted by the Western repression machine, Johnson warned.

“Any of us US contributors to places like Sputnik, Izvestia or RT could become targets,” the ex-State Department official emphasized.

“They've already gone after Dimitri Simes. Dimitri is an American [citizen] who became a naturalized American in the 1970s because he was a dissident against the Soviet Union, against the Communist Party,” Johnson said, referring to the FBI's recent raid on the home of the former political advisor.

“And now the very country that he fled to for freedom and protection has turned on him and unleashed our version of the secret police on him,” Johnson lamented, musing on the state of free speech in America in 2024.

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❗️ Hezbollah announced retaliation strikes for the Israeli assassination of Commander Fouad Shukr, according to a statement. The resistance group claimed it had launched a major air attack deep inside Israel.

About 150 rocket launches from Lebanon towards Israel were detected during the last hour, the IDF said.

Departures from Tel Aviv International Airport have been suspended and arriving flights are being diverted to other airports "due to the security situation," Israeli media reported citing the country's airports authority.

Video from social media

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Hezbollah announced the end of the first stage of the retaliatory strike against Israel, stating that 11 military targets were hit.

The movement's fighters fired more than 320 rockets at Israeli army positions, it said.

Hezbollah also added it was ready for any development of events and threatened with a "severe response" if Lebanese civilians were injured.

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'Quite realistic scheme': Hungary found way to resume Russian pipeline oil deliveries

Hungary has come up with a new solution for the resumption of oil deliveries through the Druzhba pipeline after the Kiev regime imposed sanctions blocking the transit of deliveries from Russia's Lukoil to Central Europe in June.

"What the European company, in particular the Hungarian MOL, is proposing, is the transfer of ownership at the Russia-Ukraine border. This could lead to Russia not paying for the transit of oil through Ukrainian territory," Vladimir Demidov, an independent expert on oil and gas markets, told Sputnik.

The Druzhba oil pipeline runs from Russia to Belarus and then splits into two branches: the northern one goes to Poland and Germany, and the southern one runs through Ukraine to the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Croatia.

Under the contract, Lukoil must deliver oil to the territory of Hungary. If the point of acceptance is moved to the Russia-Belarus border or the Belarus-Ukraine border, then the oil that goes through the territory of Ukraine would de facto be the property of Hungary's MOL, not Lukoil.

"Thus, this may lead to Russia not paying for the transit of oil through Ukrainian territory. Also, Russia will not take on the risks of transporting oil through Ukrainian territory," Demidov explained.

He believes that this initiative is quite realistic. He does not rule out that this may even lead to a full-capacity operation of the oil pipeline.

Demidov suggested that in the wake of the transfer of ownership to the Hungarian energy company, the oil running through the Druzhba pipeline may be supplied not only to Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic, but also, possibly, to other countries, where it was delivered prior to Western sanctions.

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Tech entrepreneur and Telegram founder Pavel Durov arrested in France. What is known so far?
 
🔺French authorities are possibly charging Durov with terrorism, drugs, fraud, money laundering, and child abuse content
If found guilty, Pavel Durov will face up to 20 years behind bars. 

🔺Earlier, Durov stated that Western secret services were demanding him to provide a “backdoor” for them in the Telegram app. He reportedly declined to cooperate, claiming that Telegram should be a “neutral platform” and not “a player in geopolitics."

🔺Durov is the Russian-born founder of the Telegram encrypted messaging app and a tech mogul with $15.5 billion in net worth.  

🔺Cryptocurrency markets immediately reacted to Durov's detention, with the Durov-founded Toncoin plunging 15% in value.

🔺Elon Musk has slammed the European authorities for detaining Durov and envisioned an Orwellian future where a person can be executed for simply pressing the “Like” button on a meme.

🔺Prominent journo, Tucker Carlson, who had interviewed Durov earlier, believes it is the US government behind Durov's detention. “Darkness is descending fast on the formerly free world," Carlson said.

🔺Former-CIA analyst, Larry Johnson, explained that Durov's detention is "a trumped-up political case" and alleged that the real reason is the allowance by Telegram to freely share information inconvenient to the Western elites.

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💬Margarita Simonyan, the editor-in-chief of Sputnik's parent media group, Rossiya Segodnya, on the detention of Telegram founder, Pavel Durov: 

"Pavel Durov left Russia in order not to cooperate with the special services. He even became Paul du Rove. He partially cooperated with Western intelligence agencies — at least strictly followed the instructions to block RT [Russian news agency] in those countries where we are under sanctions. It didn't help," she wrote on her Telegram account.

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'Unbelievable' — French politician on detention of Telegram founder, Pavel Durov 

"Tomorrow, Elon Musk will be thrown in jail if he sets foot in France, for disobeying the European censorship regulation?!" leader of the French Patriots party, Florian Philippot, wrote on X.

Philippot criticized French authorities, saying that France, by arresting Durov for disobedience, "presented a tyrannical face to the world."

"We must free ourselves from these lunatics!" he concluded.

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❗️Ukrainian forces are shelling houses of civilians and civilian cars in the Kharkov region, the head of the Russian administration of the Kharkov region, Vitaly Ganchev, told Sputnik.

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❗️The Russian Embassy in Paris has asked the French authorities for an immediate explanation of the reasons for Durov's detention, the diplomatic mission told Sputnik, adding that it demanded that Paris protect the rights of Durov and provide consular access to him. 

At the moment, the French side is avoiding interaction, it added.

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📹The first moment of the Hezbollah attacks, when a rocket fired from Lebanon landed on the northern region of Israel.

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⚡️The Secretary General of Hezbollah Hassan Nasrallah said that he would talk about the latest developments today, at 3 p. m. GMT, Sunday, August 25, 2024.

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❗️Russian troops thwarted a number of attempted attacks by Ukrainian units in Russia's Kursk region, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

During the day, Ukrainian troops lost more than 300 militants. In total, during the Ukrainian incursion, Ukrainian losses amounted to more than 5,800 servicemen.

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📹Crowds at Ben-Gurion airport in the aftermath of Hezbollah's attacks

50 out of 360 international flights have been canceled today, the director of the airport said.

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