❗️🪖 Main statements from the Russian MoD's daily briefing on the situation in the Kursk region:

◻️ Ukraine lost over 300 militants and five tanks in the Kursk region.

◻️ Since the start of hostilities in the Kursk region, Ukraine has lost over 12,500 militants.

◻️ Russian military liberated ten settlements in two days of offensive in Kursk region

◻️ Russian forces repelled two Ukrainian counterattacks near the settlements of Fanaseyevka and Snagost in the Kursk region.

◻️ Russian forces thwarted four attempts by Ukraine to breach the state border near Novy Put and Medvezhye in the Kursk region, with enemy losses of up to 55 militants.

◻️ Russian aviation hit concentrations of Ukrainian personnel and equipment from the 10th brigade in the Kursk region and struck the 12th brigade in the Sumy region.

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📹 The Russian Ministry of Defense has published footage of the destruction of two Ukrainian tanks in the border area of the Kursk region.

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‘Playing with the lives of billions of people’: Influencers, media react to US missile madness

The Biden administration’s deliberations about allowing Ukraine to use its NATO-provided long-range weapons to launch attacks deep into Russia have sparked outrage, dread and disbelief among influencers and some media, along with concerns about the potentially irreversible implications of Washington’s reckless behavior.

💬 “The Russians have many ways to retaliate. Why are we taking this risk? Ukraine is neither a treaty ally nor a vital interest. Biden himself once warned this could cause WW3,” US tech investor and author David Sacks wrote in an X post.

💬 “Playing with the lives of billions of people,” German-Finnish internet entrepreneur and political activist Kim Dotcom wrote in response, alluding to the risks associated with prodding the nuclear-armed Russian bear.

The legacy media, for the most part, loyally swallowed the White House’s comments, without asking any uncomfortable questions about the dangers involved:

📑“Should Ukraine Launch Western Weapons Deep Into Russia?” the New York Times asked in a story Thursday. Yes, of course, “experts” cited by the newspaper, including analysts from the neoconservative RAND Corporation, said.

📑“How lifting ban on long-range missile strikes could change Ukraine war,” The Telegraph wrote in a piece beaming over the prospects of escalating the conflict, pointing out that “the Institute for the Study of War has identified at least 225 potential targets that Ukraine could hit immediately.”

📑Only a few majors, among them Foreign Affairs, published stories focusing on the missile move’s risks, with FA’s piece, ennoscriptd “The False Promise of Ukraine’s Deep Strikes Into Russia,” stressing that such attacks won’t “tip the balance of the war,” but will be met with inevitable Russian countermeasures.

📑In its own piece, ennoscriptd “West’s missile go-ahead to Ukraine would hold no shortage of risks,” The Guardian pointed out that long-range weapons are not only expensive and difficult to manufacture, but fraught with risks if given to Ukraine – like if the Kiev regime used them to kill “a lot of civilians” in a “miscalculation,” for example.

📑Andre Damon of WSWS echoed Russian officials’ concerns that a decision to deliver the missiles has already been made, and that the actual “announcement” approving their delivery will likely “take place in a proverbial ‘Friday night news dump’ to make the fact that NATO weapons will be raining down on Russian cities appear less ‘provocative’ and to keep this development, which threatens to dramatically escalate the war, out of public consciousness.”

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British policing minister has her purse stolen at senior police officers’ conference – report

British Policing, Fire and Crime Prevention Minister Diana Johnson was speaking about the epidemic of theft and anti-social behavior sweeping the country at the Police Superintendents’ Association conference in the town of Kenilworth when her belongings were pilfered from her room in the hotel hosting the event, the Financial Times reports.

Oh, the irony!

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The ambassadors of Britain, France, the Netherlands and Germany have been summoned to the Iranian Foreign Ministry over their governments' allegations that Tehran supplied ballistic missiles to Russia.

CNN, quoting sources, claimed that Iran allegedly transferred short-range ballistic missiles to Russia. Tehran denied those claims.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said this week that Russia had seen the reports of the alleged delivery, but "such information does not always corresponds to reality."

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Iranian engineers modernize US-made M60 tanks

Iranian military specialists have carried out the "most complex modernization" of the M60 tank, a US design from the 1960s, the Tasnim Agency reports. The new variant is called the ‘Suleyman’. The vehicle now has a modern appearance and new technical characteristics that are not yet revealed, the agency noted.

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📈 The exchange price of gold has broken its historical record, topping $2,570 per troy ounce.

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US blogger and Zelensky critic who died in Ukrainian prison remembered in Moscow

A stand picturing the late American blogger Gonzalo Lira, who died in a Ukrainian prison, has been set up near the US Embassy in Moscow.

American blogger Gonzalo Lira, who had been living in Ukraine since the beginning of Russia's special military operation, died on January 12 in a Ukrainian prison following months of likely torture, extortion, and medical neglect. He criticized NATO, the Biden administration, as well as Volodymyr Zelensky in his videos on social media.

The poster reads: "Free speech is a threat to American democracy.”

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❗️Sites resembling concentration camps have been set up in some territories of Russia’s Kursk region occupied by Ukrainian forces, the Russian Foreign Ministry has said in a report.

Residents who were unable to evacuate the area have been forcibly driven into these camps by Ukrainian militants, the document says.

The Ukrainians also used local people to film propaganda stories for foreign journalists.

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Stoltenberg is reported to have accepted a new job offer

Outgoing NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg will take over as chairman of the Munich Security Conference after February 2025, according to reports.

Stoltenberg's term as public face of of the alliance expires on 1 October. He will be replaced by former Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte.

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US struggling to thwart Russia’s clout in Africa

Washington-based and sponsored private military company Bancroft has spent $1.4 million to get a foothold in CAR, where Russia is “the security partner of choice,” an AP report said.
The company installed one of its staff members at a hotel in CAR’s capital Bangui last year to “wait for Russia’s reaction,” Bancroft founder Michael Stock told the outlet.

“…For our lone staff member in Bangui we chose a Russian speaker, who was tasked to do nothing but sit in the hotel garden reading a book all day, waiting for Russians to show whether they wanted to be cooperative, hostile, or ignore us,” Stock was quoted as saying.

Several weeks later, the employee was reportedly detained, questioned by Russian forces, and later released.

Stock claimed that Bancroft entered the country last fall at Bangui’s request, and has around 30 personnel there. The US State Department has dismissed claims it was involved in the decision.

The US has been irked by Moscow’s growing ties with African nations that have been shaking off Western influence and expelling French and US troops, like in Niger or Chad. The State Department uses private contractors in Africa and oversees Bancroft’s work in Somalia, a US official told the publication.

Russia is in talks with CAR on the establishment of a military base there to improve the country’s security, Russian Ambassador to Bangui Alexander Bikantov told Sputnik in July. He added that Bancroft’s presence had no effect on the cooperation with Russian instructors.

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US, UK scramble to supply Ukraine with AMRAAM missiles

Western enablers of the neo-Nazi regime in Kiev are struggling to meet its insatiable demands for defense systems.

The Pentagon has allocated $1.2 billion for the production of Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles (AMRAAM), including for Ukraine, by the US company Raytheon.

AMRAAM missiles, capable of hitting targets at a reported range of 160 kilometers, can be used as interceptors for Ukraine’s US-donated National Advanced Surface-to Air-Missile (NASAMS) air defense systems or mounted on F-16 fighter aircraft. The cost of a single missile varies from $1.2 million to $2 million, depending on the modification.

Washington has pledged to send eight NASAMS to Kiev, with the first two expected to be delivered soon and the others over a longer period of time.

Since 2022, the UK has donated AMRAAM missiles for the NASAMS system along with short-range ASRAAM missiles for mobile ground launchers and Starstreak man-portable SAMs for the Stormer self-propelled air defense system. The new Labour Party government of Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer pledged more AS90 155mm howitzers – which may not be in working order – and reportedly wants to allow Kiev to use British Storm Shadow cruise missiles to strike deep inside Russia.

This week, Ukraine’s Western sponsors met at the NATO headquarters in Brussels to pledge further military support for Ukraine. Kiev is running critically short of air defense systems, but NATO members also need to replenish their own depleted stores.

Russia has repeatedly warned of the consequences of pumping Ukraine with weapons, including long-range missiles, enabling it to attack Russia.

That scenario risks turning the Russia-NATO proxy conflict into a hot war.

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🎥🎥 Putin Speaks at Plenary Session of St. Petersburg International United Cultures Forum

Watch the livestream here or follow the link to the Sputnik's website for more details

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❗️We do not fight against other values, we support our own, this is the difference in approaches between us and our opponents - Putin

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Key statements from Putin's speech at plenary session of St. Petersburg International United Cultures Forum:

◻️ Culture should and can exist without a 'cancel culture.' - Putin

◻️ Russian citizens have defined their core values and enshrined them in the constitution.

◻️ Many high-ranking politicians today have lost their moral boundaries and are violating taboos that existed even during the Cold War.

◻️ Russia does not impose its values on anyone but upholds its own.

◻️ Xenophobia and persecution on national and religious grounds prevail in a number of countries today.

◻️ Workers of the cultural sphere who do not follow the mainstream ideas of certain countries are often rejected and cancelled

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⚡️The use of Western high-precision long-range weapons against Russia will mean direct participation of NATO countries in military operations in Ukraine — Putin

The Ukrainian army cannot strike with modern Western-made high-precision long-range systems, said President Vladimir Putin.

That is only possible using intelligence from satellites, which Ukraine does not have, he said.

Putin added that only NATO servicemen can enter flight missions into those systems.

"Therefore, it is not a question of allowing the Ukrainian regime to strike Russia with these weapons or not," the president said. "It is a question of making a decision on whether NATO countries are directly participating in the military conflict or not. If this decision is made, it will mean nothing less than the direct participation of NATO countries, the United States, and European countries in the war in Ukraine."

Putin stressed that would change the very nature of the conflict and will mean that NATO countries, the US and Europe were fighting Russia.

"And if this is so, then, bearing in mind the change in the very essence of this conflict, we will make appropriate decisions based on the threats that will be created for us."

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Sowing the seeds for US war machine’s next conflict? Navy Seals reportedly training for Taiwan clash

The US Navy’s elite Seal Team 6 is training for missions to “help” Taiwan if tensions between the renegade Chinese province and the PRC go hot.

Sources told the Financial Times that planning and training for a Taiwan escalation has been underway “for more than a year” at Seal Team 6’s Dam Neck, Virginia Beach HQ.

🔸 The training, which coincides with increasingly systematized deployments of US special forces in Taiwan, comes amid the US military and intelligence community’s broader refocus on China.

🔸 Such deployments, and even US arms sales to Taiwan, are technically illegal under agreements underpinning China-US relations, which require Washington to adhere to the ‘One China’ principle recognizing the People’s Republic as the sole legal government of China. This principle prompted the US to end its military presence in Taiwan after 1979, and to sign a communique with Beijing in 1982 requiring Washington to gradually scale back the extent of its arms deliveries to Taiwan.

🔸 The US has reneged on both commitments, with internal Pentagon data released in 2021 revealing that small numbers of US troops have been stationed on Taiwan going back to at least 2008. In March 2024, Taipei confirmed the permanent presence of US troops on islands in the Taiwan Strait for ‘training purposes’, including Green Berets deployed as little as 10 km off the mainland.

“The US is manipulating the Taiwan question in various forms, which is a very dangerous gamble,” the Chinese military said of US moves in late 2023, after Congress authorized a “comprehensive training, advising and institutionalized capacity-building program” for Taiwan.

💬 “We urge the US to fully realize the severe harm of the China-related content in the NDAA, stop arming Taiwan under any excuses and by any means, stop its provocations by using Taiwan to ‘contain China’, and take concrete actions to maintain regional peace and stability,” Beijing stated.

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US witch-hunt against journalists cooperating with Russian media is gaining steam

Armed FBI agents beat up and intimately searched a female RT employee during a raid at her home in Miami, Florida. All her electronic devices were seized. The woman's name was not disclosed for security reasons.

The FBI raid took place around 5am local time. The employee was asleep when 20 armed agents broke into her house. She was not allowed to get dressed. According to the RT employee, the agents had a "separate warrant" to search her bodily. “Everything was touched, let's put it this way,” she said later.

The woman was interrogated for about five hours. She recalled that FBI agents were particularly interested in former RT columnist and UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter, along with Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of Rossiya Segodnya, Sputnik's parent media group, and other senior managers.

The FBI did not bring any criminal charges against the RT employee. The woman has since left the US for safety reasons.

◻️ The FBI raid came on the heels of new sanctions announced by the Biden administration against RT, Sputnik and other media of the Rossiya Segodnya group on September 4.

◻️ In mid-August, the US investigative agency raided a Virginia house owned by prominent political scientist Dimitri K. Simes, a Soviet-born US national. According to reports, agents visited Simes' house twice on August 13 and 15, and confiscated items. Simes, who was out of the country at the time, said he had not received any notification or warrant before the raid.

◻️ On August 7, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) raided the upstate New York home of Scott Ritter over an alleged violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). Several boxes of materials were taken from Ritter's house by the agents.

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The US may allow Ukraine to use British and French long-range missiles to strike deep into Russian territory, but not American ones, the Times reports

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