“The financial and political authorities in the United States are pushing this process forward with their not only careless but also unprofessional and foolish actions. I believe they already understand that they made a mistake, but they simply cannot find a way to get out of this predicament. We are switching to national currencies and that's it,” Putin said.

“We are not against transit of our energy through Ukraine; we and Gazprom intend to fulfill our obligations to clients… We have transit contracts that expire on the December 31, and if Ukraine doesn't want to prolong these contracts, we cannot force them do that. Our main consumers in Europe do not want that to happen, yet they support [Ukraine] with military products and finances. That is why the volume of the gas that we provide to Europe will reduce. We will use Turkish flow or other gas pipelines that are used for domestic consumption,” said Putin at the plenary session of the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF).

"Regarding the journalist from the United States who was operating under the guise of a reporter — more accurately, [this individual] undertook clearly intelligence-related missions — the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia played a significant role in this effort during the initial stage. We are grateful to him for his contribution, as it ultimately facilitated the return of our citizens to their homeland," Putin stated during the Eastern Economic Forum.

"In the end, in the interests of all those involved in this process, we achieved the ultimate positive result, the most important of which is the return of our citizens to their homeland, including those who carried out special missions for the homeland abroad," Putin said.

“Obviously, they need more fuel, more energy resources, and we have these available. We will be coordinating our actions with Turkmenistan. Obviously, Iran has long been requesting us to provide supplies. This is very convenient for us. The reserve is nearby, and we'll be thinking about that. I believe this is a very doable project. The neighboring markets […] close to Iran are huge, and the opportunities there are colossal, and we will be able to pursue those markets,” said the Russian president at the plenary session of the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF).

“We need to ensure the resource sovereignty of the country. We need to provide uninterrupted supply of commodities and raw materials for our economy, for our settlements, providing them with fuel and commodities. We need to use most efficient Russian technologies and scientific discoveries in environment and management of natural resources,” Russia’s leader said at the plenary session of the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF).

“Well, I believe already today Russia is one of the world leaders in terms of the mining of cryptocurrencies and Bitcoins,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said, speaking at the Eastern Economic Forum’s plenary session on Thursday.

“As for digital currencies and digital rubles specifically, the decision is already taken by the Central Bank of Russia and right now we are simply ramping up those volumes,” Putin said, referring to Russia’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) initiative, pilot testing of which began in 2023. Cross-border CBDC payments are expected to begin in 2025.

“How we view the economy is not the unbridled capitalism of the past. It has to be a more humanistic approach towards development. Which means, of course, economic growth, more investments, more trade, but at the same time more compassion, more care towards the welfare of people,” Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said at the plenary session of the Eastern Economic Forum on Thursday alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Issues like poverty and housing “have been largely ignored,” according to the prime minister. “So the experience in some countries in the West with phenomenal growth, but abject poverty and poor housing conditions, low quality education is not our option,” he said.

Escobar touted the development of the Russian Far East “one of the great economic adventures of the 21st century,” and one which “will profit not only Russia, but a great part of Asia as well.”

“What [Anwar Ibrahim] said about ASEAN and the centrality of ASEAN and the unity in diversity in ASEAN, this is something that resonates with President Putin, with the leadership in the Kremlin, and with the global majority as well, which means the exact opposite of the death of diplomacy perpetrated by the Americans and Europeans,” Escobar said.

“And the Chinese vice prime minister [is] once again telling us about the Chinese concept of the shared destiny of mankind, which once again is unity in diversity, respecting other people's views, the primacy of diplomacy, solving problems in a very civilized way, and of course, economic development for all, which Ibrahim, Putin, China, you know, that's what everybody wants,” Escobar said, referring to Chinese Vice Premier Han Zheng’s speech.

“Prime Minister Ibrahim, that was excellent. And what he said, for instance, about the genocide in Gaza was absolutely essential, because this is not only Malaysia's position, Russia's position, this is the position of the global majority.”

"These issues are raised because of the political battle during the elections. But of course, if they have concrete evidence, they can take it up. Otherwise, I take it just as some interesting gossip and news that we enjoy, but not take very seriously," Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim told Russian media.

“The main purpose of this particular forum…is to attract especially the Asia Pacific nations to invest or trade more with the Russian Far East,” Azmi said. “So I would say yes, what Mr. Putin said – the future is in Asia, or more specifically, the Asia Pacific.”

“I see BRICS as the best opportunity for small nations like Malaysia to voice their opinion so that any decision that affects us, or affects other smaller nations – that we can participate in voicing our opinion,” Dr. Azmi summed up.

“We firmly believe that we are beginning to see, particularly through the BRICS+ family of countries…[an] alternative to the unipolar system” dominated by the West,” Nkosi Zwelivelile Mandela told Sputnik on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, pointing to South Africa’s special role in pushing for the BRICS bloc to open its doors to new members when it hosted the BRICS summit last year.

Commenting on Zimbabwe and Malaysia’s prospects for entry into BRICS+, Mandela stressed that “we would want to expand the representation of Latin America, perhaps with the likes of Cuba, Colombia and Venezuela,” as well.

The US Department of Justice alleges that RT enlisted some of the most prominent conservative bloggers, each with millions of followers in the United States, to meddle in elections and disseminate Russian narratives. As a result, five of my colleagues and I have been slapped with sanctions. The bloggers, naturally, deny everything, but what else can they do?

“We not only defeated the Apartheid regime in South Africa, but we defeated its allies as well. You know that the [UK and the US] supported the Apartheid regime to the hilt. But our friends, through our darkest days in the struggle for liberation, like Russia, China and many others... ensured that they gave full support to our cause to defeat the Western imperialist agenda. And what we are seeing in multipolarity is a continuation of that,” Nkosi Zwelivelile Mandela, Nelson Mandela’s grandson and senior South African lawmaker, told Sputnik.

“What is the alternative? The alternative is…to move away from the Western, imperialist hegemony and, the unipolar system and ensure that each country can be able to be equally represented in the international and global community,” Mandela said.

“One of the things that China offers is its ability to really do very strong infrastructure projects that have a deep impact on the economies of the countries they’re working with,” Pauken said, pointing, for example, to China’s “very strong” experience with railroad development.

"I am glad that many NATO countries have given that opportunity, and those that still have restrictions have softened the restrictions so that Ukraine can defend itself," Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters in Oslo.

"Only the Ukrainians can make the difficult choices that are needed, such as where to deploy their forces and what type of warfare is appropriate in this situation," Stoltenberg said.