At the CIS summit in Moscow, the leaders attending the event issued a statement commemorating the 80th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War.

In this statement, the heads of state emphasized the need to prevent the resurgence of fascism, Nazism, and militarism, and called for putting an end to any and all attempts to ignite a new world war.

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Patrick Pasin: Russia went to protect Donbass as Ukraine was bombing civilians

Ukrainian forces were “bombing civilians” in complete violation of the United Nations charter, the Minsk agreements, and the articles of the Fourth Geneva Convention, Patrick Pasin, French publisher who has filed a lawsuit against ex-NATO chief for provoking the Ukrainian conflict, told Sputnik.

He took a moment to recall Russia’s numerous efforts to draw attention to the Donbass disaster, noting that Moscow's own core demands contained in the draft agreements on security guarantees in Europe that it presented to the US and NATO in December 2021 were disregarded.

At a January 2022 press conference, President Joe Biden fueled invasion fears, stating he believed Russia was ready to attack Ukraine. US and UK tabloids soon claimed a Russian offensive could occur on February 15-16, which did not happen.

Pasin referenced data from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), which was monitoring the ceasefire in line with the Minsk agreements. When the Russians did not, as the West had predicted, “invade” Ukraine within the designated timeline, “the [Ukrainian] bombings started immediately,” the writer noted. The Ukrainian Armed Forces began using “heavy weapons against the civilian population of Donetsk and Lugansk,” he recalled.

“It was a serious matter, because the law of nations forbids to bomb civilian populations. That's what the Ukrainian forces did,” Patrick Pasin emphasized, concluding that Russia had no choice but to protect Donbass.

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What to know about Iran’s nuclear potential amid Israeli threats to strike (Part 1 👉 Part 2)

Israel has reportedly walked back plans to target Iran’s nuclear sites after last week’s Iranian missile attack, with an NYT report indicating that US officials have communicated to Tel Aviv their plans could “plunge the region into a full-scale war.”

How significant are Iran’s nuclear capabilities and what are they used for? Here’s what to know:

🔸 Atomic Energy Organization of Iran chief Mohammad Eslami announced earlier this year that the Islamic Republic would build four additional 1,250 MW reactors at a large new nuclear power plant in Hormozgan province over the coming decade, with the $20 bln project expected to generate some 20,000 MW of energy by 2041. In 2022, construction of the 300 MW Darkhovin nuclear power plant kicked off in Khuzestan province.

🔸 Iran has an array of other nuclear facilities besides nuclear power plants, including three research reactors (in Tehran, Arak and Isfahan, respectively), two uranium enrichment sites, at Natanz and Fordow, and uranium mines in Saghand and Gchine.

Iran also has a thriving nuclear educational infrastructure, with nuclear engineering taught at up to two dozen universities, and substantial resources dedicated to the tech and industrial front to maximize nuclear independence.

Origins of Iranian nuclear program

🔸 Exploring nuclear tech beginning in the 1950s under the US ‘Atoms for Peace’ program, Iran finally joined the club of peaceful nuclear energy powers in 2011 with the launch of the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant. Construction of the $4-6 bln facility began in 1975 with assistance from West German contractors, but was frozen in 1979 after the Iranian Revolution.

Construction resumed in the 1990s with Russia’s help, with Russian specialists facilitating the installation of a sole 1,000 MW VVER-1000 reactor, which now provides for up to 2% of Iran’s electricity needs. Construction of two additional VVER-1000s at Bushehr began in 2021, and up to six more could be added later.

👉 Part 2

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What to know about Iran’s nuclear potential amid Israeli threats to strike (Part 2 👉 Part 1)

Fruitless negotiations and biased accusations

🔸 Decades of tensions with Israel and the US have made a possible military component to the Iranian nuclear program a central topic of discussion in diplomatic circles, with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) agreement signed in 2015 by Iran, the US, Russia, China, the UK, France, Germany, and the EU to restrict Iranian nuclear enrichment activities in exchange for sanctions relief.

The US walked out of the pact in 2018 at Israel’s behest, and talks on getting Washington back into the treaty have broken down.

🔸 Iran willingly signed onto the JCPOA, as its supreme leaders have issued religious edicts ruling the development of weapons of mass destruction forbidden by Islam. Nonetheless, US and especially Israeli officials have regularly accused Iran of pursuing the bomb, with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu claiming that Iran is ‘months or weeks’ away from building a nuke since the 1990s, pushing back the timeframe each time his prophesy fails to materialize.

According to the latest International Atomic Energy Agency data, Iran has about 5,750 kg of enriched uranium, including about 165 kg of uranium enriched up to 60% purity.

🔸 Amid escalating tensions and the risk of an all-out war between Iran and Israel, Western media and think tanks have come out of the woodwork to urge Israel or the US to strike the Islamic Republic’s nuclear facilities before Tehran builds the bomb. Last week, Foreign Policy magazine published a provocative piece noscriptd “The Case for Destroying Iran’s Nuclear Program Now.”

However, CIA Director William Burns said there is no evidence that Iran wants to build a nuclear weapon. Iranian leaders have spent decades emphasizing that they consider their conventional missile arsenal as their top deterrent against aggression.

👉 Part 1

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Patrick Pasin: mainstream media has been ‘lying for years’ about Ukraine conflict

The mainstream media “can't love [his lawsuit against former NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg], because they have been lying for more than two years,” Patrick Pasin, head of the publisher Talma Studios International, told Sputnik.

“In fact, they have been lying at least since the beginning of the war. People who want to express a different point of view and simply a neutral point of view, saying that we should listen to the Russians, are fired immediately. And it's the reason why they sort of forbade Russian media in Europe,” said Pasin.

Many French generals have read his complaint, Pasin noted, since he first filed it in France with the Public Prosecutor of Paris, Laure Beccuau. He also wrote a letter to the Chief of Staff of the French Armed Forces, Thierry Burkhard, to warn that “sending French troops to Ukraine is a violation of international law.” “In France, that would be punished by jail for life,” Pasin noted.

“I'm sure that if we explain to people what this conflict really is, the NATO storytelling will be difficult to sustain. And as the media, the politicians, the institutions don't do their jobs, the last thing we have left is justice,” he concluded.

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A left-wing activist attempted to disrupt the press conference of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in the European Parliament, but security swiftly intervened, escorting the heckler out of the venue.

The young man had gained access to the event thanks to a pass issued by a Hungarian opposition MEP, and accused Orbán of "betraying Hungary and the European Union."

In response to the disruption, Prime Minister Orban quipped that he "feels at home, where this happens every day," before carrying on with the press conference.

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❗️❗️❗️Terrorism in the Sahel: "Ukraine is a pawn of the West," the Burkinabe prime minister states

The UN's reaction to Kiev’s support for Sahel terrorists is long overdue, because the organization "is dominated by the West," Burkinabe Prime Minister Apollinaire Joachim Kyelem de Tambela told Sputnik Africa.

💬 "The Western countries are behind Ukraine. So, anything that goes against Ukraine's interests goes against their interests because Ukraine is a pawn of the West in this affair. So that's why it's not working," the prime minister stressed.

Burkina Faso and the other countries of the Alliance of Sahel States have called on the UN Security Council to take measures against Kiev, as a matter of “principle,” he added.

💬 "Even if the condemnation doesn't come, at least we will have taken action and we will have noted the failure of the UN in meeting its obligations," Kyelem de Tambela said.

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🔸 Sputnik Africa 🔸

Following a vote, the French National Assembly rejected the motion of no confidence against the new government led by Michel Barnier, which was proposed by the left-wing bloc "New People's Front."

Out of the required 289 votes for the motion to pass, 197 deputies voted in favor.

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Ukraine’s gaseous threats to scrap gas transit deal with Russia hide lack of alternatives

“The fact that transit will not be extended in the sense of the current contract does not mean it will be excluded in principle. This is a form of Ukraine inflating its self-importance,” Stanislav Mitrakhovich, a senior expert at Russia’s National Energy Security Fund, told Sputnik, commenting on Ukraine’s announcement that it would not extend the Gazprom-Naftogaz agreement facilitating the transit of Russian gas to Central Europe.

The only other real option Ukraine has if it doesn’t want to see its vast Soviet-era pipeline infrastructure fall idle is to import gas from the EU – which makes no sense, given Ukraine’s economic and security predicament, and the unenviable state of its transportation and distribution systems, the observer said.

“Therefore, there’s more than a 90% probability that transit will continue. The current contract will not be extended, but another one will be concluded involving the purchase of Russian gas on the Russian-Ukrainian border,” the analyst said, noting that a similar scheme has already been implemented on oil deliveries via the Druzhba oil pipeline.

As for talk of Ukraine creating a Baumgarten, Austria-style “Eastern European energy hub,” this too is just an attempt by authorities in Kiev to inflate their self-importance and “makes no economic sense” without Russian gas, the observer said.

The same applies to proposals to pump Azerbaijani gas through Ukraine, as the former does not have the volumes to fill Ukrainian infrastructure, sending its existing output to Europe via Georgia and Turkiye-based infrastructure, according to Mitrakhovich.

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