Key statements by Russian Presidential Aide Yuri Ushakov:

💬Over 650 heads of Russian and 44 foreign companies have confirmed their participation in the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF)

💬Putin will hold a conversation with Chinese Deputy Chairman Han Zheng on the sidelines of the EEF

💬Vladimir Putin and the Prime Minister of Malaysia will hold talks in a narrow and expanded format at the EEF on September 4 to discuss the economy and the international agenda

💬Russian President, Malaysian Prime Minister, and the Deputy Chairman of China will take part in the EEF plenary session

The Eastern Economic Forum 2024 will take place in the city of Vladivostok on September 3-6 under the slogan: Far East 2030. Let’s join efforts and create opportunities. 

Participants will discuss global challenges facing Russia and the countries of the Asia-Pacific region. They will also focus on the role of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and BRICS groups in building a multipolar world, cooperation in investments, and climate change issues.

👉Stay tuned for Sputnik's updates from the EEF on 3-6 September.

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Russia’s Defense Ministry is laboring round-the-clock to assist people in Russia’s border regions. Check out more updates on the situation in the Kursk region:

🔸The regional authorities have extended altered train traffic routes until the end of September

🔸Russian forces carried out an airstrike against Ukrainian troops and armored vehicles in the border area of the Kursk region using a Su-34 strike aircraft.

🔸Overall, Ukraine has lost over 8,900 servicemen and 80 tanks during its campaign of aggression against Kursk.

🔸Ukrainian fighters wanted to kidnap local residents and forcefully move them to the territory of Ukraine, a Kursk civilian told military investigators of the Russian Investigative Committee.

🔸Zelensky believes that no one will notice Ukraine's failure in Donbass, so he is trying his best to hype up Kiev’s attack on the Kursk Region, which has also failed, said Viktor Medvedchuk, chairman of the council of the Other Ukraine political movement.

🔸Сaptured Ukrainian soldier Andrei Anisimov revealed that some Ukrainian commanders involved in the attempted incursion of Russian territory in the Kursk region intentionally withheld their locations from subordinates to prevent soldiers from deserting.

🔸Ukrainian losses in the Russian Kursk region amounted to more than 350 militants and 14 armored vehicles during the day, the Russian Defense Ministry said, adding that Russian troops repelled six Ukrainian attacks.

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🇷🇺🇲🇳 Russia-Mongolia strategic cooperation: A cornerstone for greater Eurasian prosperity

Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit Mongolia on September 3 to participate in ceremonial events marking the 85th anniversary of the joint victory of Soviet and Mongolian troops over the Japanese at the Khalkhin Gol River.

What’s known about Russo-Mongolian cooperation and its strategic importance for Moscow?

🔸Historical and diplomatic ties: Russia and Mongolia share a 3,485 km-long border and have historic ties dating back centuries. The Mongolian People's Republic and Soviet Russia established diplomatic relations on November 5, 1921, maintaining close cooperation ever since.

🔸Recent collaborations: The two nations have been working on several significant projects, including the Trans-Mongolian gas pipeline connecting Russia and China, modernization of the Ulaanbaatar Railway joint venture, fuel supplies to the new Chinggis Khaan International Airport, and the renovation of TPP-3 in Ulaanbaatar.

🔸Rich natural resources: Mongolia's rich natural resources, including rare earth minerals, are central to its economy and attract international competition. Total reserves of rare earths are estimated at approximately 3.1 million tons, although some agencies report up to 31 million tons. According to some estimates, the country's prospective reserves of uranium amount to 1.3 million tons.

🔸Nuclear power: On May 4, 2023, Mongolia announced plans to build a nuclear power plant. By the end of July, Russia's nuclear corporation Rosatom received confirmation from Mongolia's Mon-Atom of its readiness to implement the LSPP roadmap signed on March 24.

Great Power Competition

🔸Third neighbor policy: While Mongolia develops relations with overseas partners through its Third Neighbor approach, the US, EU, and their allies aim to reduce Mongolia's cooperation with Moscow and Beijing.

🔸Resource competition: The competition for Mongolia's rare earth elements, lithium, copper, and uranium is underway, with Germany, France, the US, the UK and South Korea vying for access to these resources.

🔸Diplomatic intensification: Diplomatic and business activities from the US, EU, and South Korea in Mongolia have increased since 2022, as Russia redirects its trade and energy projects from the West to the East.

🔸Strategic advantage: Russia’s strategic advantage over Western players is its view of Mongolia as an equal partner rather than merely a source of raw materials. Russia can meet Mongolia's needs in energy security and alternative energy development.

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Financial pain with no political gain: Montenegro sacrifices Russian profits for elusive EU membership

Blinded by the promise of EU membership sometime in the future, the leadership of Montenegro eagerly shot itself in the foot and jumped on the Western anti-Russian sanctions bandwagon.

Montenegro opted to follow Brussels’ lead and impose sanctions on Russia despite the fact that five years ago some 30% of Montenegro’s tourism revenue was generated by Russians, Montenegrin President Jakov Milatovic revealed at the GLOBSEC security forum in Prague last week.

Why did Montenegro do this? All for the sake of maybe, someday, becoming part of the EU “club”, according to Milatovic.
In November 2023, Montenegro also proudly announced that it had seized assets located on Montenegrin soil, which allegedly belonged to Russians.

Ironically, even as Milatovic expressed hope that his country, which already joined NATO back in 2017, might join the EU by 2028 as well, it remains unclear whether his wish will be granted by Brussels.

Essentially, Montenegro threw away tangible economic benefits that were the product of cordial relations with Russia, all for the sake of the promises the EU made but may or may not keep.

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📹 Vladimir Putin arrived in Mongolia on an official visit

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❗️What does Ukraine's national anthem have to do with the US voter database?

A programmer had hard-coded the Ukrainian national anthem into the voter database in the US state of New Hampshire, media reported, citing a cybersecurity firm which found troubling security bugs written into the database.

During the project of replacing the state's outdated voter registration database before the 2024 election, some tasks of the project have been outsourced, which meant unknown programmers outside the US could have access to the software.

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Putin is a 'strong man' while Zuck better watch out: What's in Trump's new book?

Donald Trump's new book, noscriptd "Save America" – a collection of his photos with foreign leaders and celebrities accompanied by the former president's remarks – is set to be released on September 3.

Vladimir Putin
▪️The Russian president is reportedly depicted on several pages of Trump's book. One picture shows Putin during the 2018 Russo-American summit in Finland with a caption: "Vladimir is a strong man, but we had an understanding and got along well."
▪️Under another Helsinki summit photo, Trump wrote: "I had a great meeting with President Putin of Russia, which was acknowledged by everyone. Then the Fake News started spreading False Stories," referring to the Trump-Russia "collusion" hoax.

Xi Jinping
▪️"I had a great relationship with China," reads a caption under Trump's picture with Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife.

Kim Jong-un
▪️ A caption to a photo of Trump sitting next to Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Chairman Kim Jong-un reads: "My meeting with Chairman Kim was honest, direct, and productive. We got to know each other very well in a very confined period of time."

Mark Zuckerberg
▪️"He would come to the Oval Office to see me. He would bring his very nice wife to dinners, be as nice as anyone could be, while always plotting to install shameful Lock Boxes in a true 'Plot Against The President'," Trump wrote. Zuckerberg is known for disbursing over $400 million in aid to election officials in 2020, censoring the Hunter Biden "laptop from hell" story, and subsequently banning Trump from Facebook.
▪️"We are watching him closely, and if he does anything illegal this time, he will spend the rest of his life in prison — as will others who cheat in the 2024 Presidential Election," Trump warned.

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Rename it Starliar

The Boeing Starliner ship stuck on the ISS has started making strange noises, and US astronauts have sent information about it to Earth. They think it could be a malfunction in the link between the ship and the station.

Other problems with the spacecraft had previously been reported.

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The US has reportedly seized Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s airplane in the Dominican Republic

🔻The aircraft, valued at approximately $13 million, had been in the Dominican Republic for the past few months.

🔻US authorities claim the plane was purchased in violation of US sanctions.

🔻The plane was flown to Florida, CNN reported, citing unnamed officials.

🔻According to preliminary information, Nicolas Maduro was not onboard.

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❗️Latest details on the arrest of Telegram founder Pavel Durov

🔸Durov will be able to access the case against him and provide the elements he considers necessary - the Paris Prosecutors Office told Sputnik.

🔸Durov to pay a bail of €5 million in instalments.

🔸According to the supervision rules, Durov is obliged to live at an address in France, which he will inform the investigating judge of.

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Change your ways or else: regional election results a harsh wakeup call for Germany’s ruling coalition

The triumph of the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party at the elections in Thuringia and Saxony states was not just a “vote of no confidence in the ruling traffic light coalition [referring to the three-party bloc],” says German political analyst and independent journalist Dr. Gregor Spitzen.

According to him, the elections essentially confirmed that Germany is still “politically divided” some 34 years after its reunification, with the “political dividing line” running right along what used to be a border between West Germany and East Germany.

He does note, however, that AfD’s victory was largely “pyrrhic” as it lacks votes to form a majority government while the left-wing BSW would rather join forces with the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU).

“But the success of the AfD and the BSW sends an important message to the traffic light coalition government ahead of the 2025 general election: under its leadership, the country is moving in the wrong direction. And it has just over a year to listen to the voters and work on your mistakes,” Dr. Spitzen states.

Meanwhile, Berliner Telegraph magazine’s Chief Editor Aleksandr Boyko observes that the ruling coalition’s failure to tackle the immigration problem and to deal with rising crime, when people no longer feel themselves safe, further contribute to voters’ dissatisfaction with the powers that be in Germany.

He also states that the election results definitely highlight the voters’ crisis of confidence in the mainstream CDU and SPD (Social Democratic Party).

The German government, Boyko speculates, will likely lower various taxes, beef up border security and crack down on mechanisms that simplify the procurement of German citizenship by foreigners.

“Germans always felt that the German economy is number one. Each German always told him or herself that we live better that anyone else. But now we gradually realize that it is not exactly so anymore, that maybe the French and the Spanish live as good as us,” Boyko adds. “To sum things up, we are slowly moving towards the economic, financial and status decline.”

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The US Department of Justice said Maduro’s aircraft was seized based on violations of export controls and sanctions laws

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Israelis realize they can be killed by their own government’s “security considerations”

Thousands of protesters have taken to the streets in Israel to call upon the government of Benjamin Netanyahu to negotiate the release of the hostages still held in the Gaza Strip by Hamas. The protests were sparked by the deaths of the six of the hostages whose bodies were recovered by military last week.

But while many Israelis are not fond of Netanyahu and his government, the majority of the Israelis also “don't have an alternative for his war and perhaps don't want one,” says Dr. Ori Goldberg, expert on Israeli politics.

“The anger in the streets today is because for some time Netanyahu has claimed that the destruction of Hamas and the return of the hostages are related. The death of the six hostages on Saturday revealed that the two goals are contradictory. Most Israelis are only realizing this now and they are angry,” he explains.

Goldberg does point out that Israeli “streets” now regarding the government as a “hostile factor” is a new development, and that while Israelis do “support (in varying degrees) the notion of a war against Hamas,” the deaths of those six hostages last week “changed the mood and the vibe.”

“Israelis are beginning to realize that they cannot simply accept every government decision justified by recourse to "security considerations", because these security considerations can end up killing Israelis,” he remarks.

The protests in Israel, while unlikely to cause Netanyahu to resign, also highlight the “an increasing polarization within the Israeli society,” adds Luciano Zaccara, adjunct associate professor at Georgetown University in Qatar.

“[There are] Those who opposed him based on the mismanagement of the ceasefire negotiations, and those who vehemently demand him not to negotiate but to end the task of eliminating Hamas,” he says referring to how various groups in Israel regard Netanyahu’s policies.

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▪️What’s known about the US' seizure of Venezuelan President Maduro’s plane?

▪️President Putin arrives in Mongolia: what is the strategic importance of Russian-Mongolian cooperation?

▪️Guess which foreign language do younger members of Putin’s family speak?

▪️The latest updates from the Kursk region where the Russian Army has been repelling Ukraine’s attempts of incursion

▪️AfD’s victory in regional elections a ‘wakeup call’ for Germany’s ruling coalition

▪️Trump’s new book ‘Save America’ – check out the excerpts ahead of its release

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Enough is enough: is German government really willing and able to deal with migrant crisis?

Berlin announced that 28 Afghan refugees were deported back to their home country last week due to committing crimes on German soil.

Following the Taliban* taking power in Afghanistan after the de facto defeat of the US-led coalition in 2021, Berlin took in Afghan refugees who were fleeing from the new authorities.

This influx further compounded the issue the current German government inherited from the administration of Angela Merkel who welcomed hundreds of thousands of refugees from the Middle East fleeing from the Syrian conflict and the civil war in Libya.

The housing and welfare benefits provided to the refugees by the German government quickly cemented the image of Germany as a “promised land” of sorts in the eyes of potential asylum seekers.

Meanwhile, the refusal of many of the refugees to conform to the customs of their new home stoked tensions amid ordinary Germans, many of whom were not particularly happy by newcomers who do not respect German traditions.

The violent crimes committed by some of the migrants – such as, for example, a deadly knife attack perpetrated in August at a street festival in Solingen by a Syrian man, or a wave of sexual attacks allegedly perpetrated by men of African and Arab descent against women across Germany during the 2015-2016 New Year celebrations – also did little to endear refugees to Germans.

The migrant issue has apparently played a significant role in the less than stellar results the ruling coalition displayed during the recent elections, and it may seem that Berlin finally decided to address this matter.

*Under UN sanctions for terrorist activities.

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