❗️Russian forces carried out 36 strikes with high-precision weapons and drones against energy facilities, airfields, and mercenary positions

🇷🇺🪖More statements from the Russian Defense Ministry's weekly briefing on the special military operation's progress:

▪️48 Ukrainian soldiers surrendered;

▪️Russia's South Battlegroup repelled 23 Ukrainian counterattacks, with the enemy's losses amounting to up to 5,080 militants;

▪️Ukrainian forces lost up to 790 militants in the Vostok Battlegroup’s combat zone;

▪️Air defenses shot down two Neptune guided missiles, 29 HIMARS rockets, and 374 drones;

▪️The Sever Battlegroup destroyed more than 2,745 Ukrainian militants, one Bradley IFV, and two Leopard tanks;

▪️Ukrainian forces lost up to 380 militants and eight field ammunition depots due to actions by the Dnepr Battlegroup;

▪️Ukrainian forces lost up to 3,150 militants in Russia's Zapad Battlegroup’s combat zone.

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For Iran, BRICS reflects most effective economic procedures - Iranian president

BRICS creates the basis for expanding mutual trade and has a good influence on international affairs, President Masoud Pezeshkian said in his address to the BRICS Business Forum.

Iranian companies have valuable experience in providing technical and engineering services, and they have experience in implementing strategic projects, the president also said.

“In this regard, we are ready to develop partnerships in different projects,” Pezeshkian emphasized.

“The BRICS Business Council sets out key prospects like strengthening collective cooperation, strengthening continuity and diversification of trade and easier access of cooperation actors to each other, meeting needs and creating beneficial and enabling opportunities,” he pointed out.

He also touched upon international sanctions, noting that they are “condemned by BRICS countries.”

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📹Watch Putin’s full speech at BRICS Business Forum

Russian President Vladimir Putin addressed participants of the BRICS Business Forum ahead of the 2024 BRICS Summit in Kazan due to open early next week.

Here are Putin’s main statements at the forum:

💬BRICS is already playing a prominent role in the global economy, and this influence is expected to grow in the future. The member countries of BRICS are key drivers of global economic growth, and they are poised to be the primary contributors to GDP growth in the near term.

💬The combined gross domestic product (GDP) of BRICS countries is more than 60 trillion dollars, something that exceeds the GDP of G7 members.

💬The relevant development platforms are emerging within BRICS, among them communication channels, financial systems, payment instruments, and, of course, mechanisms of sustainable long-term investment.

💬The new BRICS Development Bank has a special role to play in strengthening financial cooperation between BRICS members. The bank should become one of the key investors in the long-term and major technological infrastructure projects within BRICS.

💬Russia is quickly redirecting its transport flows to reliable foreign partners. Our flagship projects include the Northern Sea Route and the North-South Corridor.

💬Russia closely cooperates with our BRICS partners in the field of innovation, digital economy and artificial intelligence technologies.

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As Putin said, it's not about fighting other countries, but making our countries better –Brazilian delegation member shares his impressions of Putin's speech

Many foreign delegation representatives attended the BRICS Business Forum plenary session.

"It seems that the countries are very aligned in finding a common goal in order to reach bigger results, better results for our countries. As Mr. Putin said, it's not about fighting other countries, but it's more about thinking about our countries, not competing with other countries, but focusing on making our countries better," Joao Pedro de Goes Novochadlo told Sputnik on the sidelines of the BRICS Business Forum.

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💬 I'm looking forward to what we as BRICS+ are going to create - South African delegation member at the BRICS Business Forum

"What is really apparent from the plenary session today, especially from what President Putin said, is the amount of human capital that is available in all the BRICS+ nations," Palesa Katleho Makoti, member of the South African delegation, told Sputnik on the sidelines of the BRICS Business Forum.

She also expressed her hope for the bright future of the BRICS+ countries.

💬 "I was really impressed by the cooperation from all the senior leaders which obviously will now filter down to all our countries and I'm looking forward to what we as BRICS+ are going to create," she noted.

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🇷🇺🪖 Key statements from the Russian Ministry of Defense's daily briefing on the situation in the Kursk region:

🔸 Units of Russia’s Battlegroup Sever Battlegroup hammered eight Ukrainian formations in the direction of the settlements of Lyubimovka, Novy Put, Plekhovo and Sverdlikovo.

🔸 Russia’s Battlegroup Sever repelled two counterattacks in the areas of Lyubimovka and Zeleny Shlyakh. The enemy lost as many as 20 soldiers and two armored vehicles , the Russian Defense Ministry said.

🔸 Russian aviation and artillery strikes hit concentrations of personnel and equipment of five Ukrainian brigades in the Sumy region.

🔸 In total, Ukrainian losses over the day amounted to more than 505 militants, with 15 armored vehicles destroyed, including two tanks, two infantry fighting vehicles, ten armored vehicles, US-made M198 howitzer, and four cars.

🔸 Since the beginning of combat operations in the Kursk region, Ukraine has lost more than 24,367 troops.

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📹 'We can’t even run ourselves’ - Trump

Donald Trump, discussing the issue of Iran's nuclearization expressed concern over the calls for the US to interfere in Iran's internal affairs.

‘We can’t get totally involved…We can’t even run ourselves’, Trump came out against regime change in Iran.

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Hamas head Yahya Sinwar was eliminated as a result of tank fire, an IDF spokesman told Sputnik.

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❗️Hamas has acknowledged the death of the movement's politburo head Yahya Sinwar.

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❗️Israel's military says it has destroyed Hezbollah's central underground command center in Lebanon

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BRICS’ New Development Bank ‘has a solid future’ with ‘dozens of countries clamoring to get on board’

NDB essentially will be able to provide countries assistance in the form of funding for various projects “without the baggage of undesired and unnecessary political bells and whistles,” veteran financial analyst Paul Goncharoff tells Sputnik commenting on the Putin's speech at the BRICS Business Forum.

The demands for entities such as NDB at this point seem obvious, he says. “This is made even clearer when contrasted with the increasingly politicized demands made by traditional issuers of global credit in reserve fiat currencies, whose demands are far removed from the needs of the countries seeking financing in reasonably behaved currencies,” Goncharoff, general director of consulting firm Goncharoff LCC, adds.

“The NDB is keeping to the basics of financing without the politization or weaponization of assets in play, and the increased use of national currencies instead of the ‘big three’,” Goncharoff noted. This makes NDB more attractive than the World Bank or the IMF in the eyes of many countries.

“The NDB has all the ingredients to make a huge positive difference for many of the world's growing economies. This concept has a solid future and it is not surprise that dozens of countries are clamouring to get on board,” he remarked.

#BRICS2024

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🛰🛰🛰🛰 UPCOMING LIVESTREAM

Russian President Vladimir Putin is about to meet with the heads of major media outlets from the BRICS countries. The meeting will be held ahead of the BRICS summit in Kazan on October 22-24.

Dmitry Kiselev, the director general of Sputnik's parent media group Rossiya Segodnya, will represent Russia at the meeting.

Stay tuned so you won't miss it!

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🚨LIVE: Putin meets media heads from BRICS countries

👉Watch the livestream here or on Sputnik's website

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❗️Russia's President Vladimir Putin said that he is planning 17 bilateral meetings within the framework of the BRICS Summit in the Russian city of Kazan.

#BRICS2024

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Southeast Asia and Africa to become centers of global growth - Putin

Russian President added that the growth of economic potential of global south, Africa countries will be accompanied by increase in their world influence.

#BRICS2024

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🗣 BRICS expansion is a right step, it increases the organization's authority and influence in world, Russia's President Vladimir Putin said.

The world is constantly changing, new leaders are emerging, we need to take this for granted, he added.

#BRICS2024

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💬 The questions for Vladimir Putin's meeting with the heads of major media outlets from the BRICS countries were not discussed in advance - Nadim Koteich, general manager of Sky News Arabia broadcaster, said.

#BRICS2024

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🇷🇺🇨🇳 Russia and China have developed unique trusting relations, the volume of trade confirms this, Russia's President Vladimir Putin said.

Russian-Chinese cooperation is one of the key factors of stability in the world, he said, adding that in relations between the two, "there are no elders or youngers".

Russia does not interfere in relations between the USA and China, the president added.

#BRICS2024

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Putin on the signs of global change and opportunities of BRICS countries

Answering a question from Dmitry Kiselev, director general of Sputnik's parent media group Rossiya Segodnya, the Russian president said the main sign of change is that new development centers are emerging.

"The development will objectively take place primarily in BRICS member countries. This is the Global South. This is Southeast Asia. This is Africa. Positive growth will exist in powerful countries such as China, India, Russia, and Saudi Arabia, but the countries of Southeast Asia and Africa will show faster growth for several reasons," Putin said.

The questions were not agreed in advance, Nadim Koteich, general manager of Sky News Arabia, said earlier.

#BRICS2024

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🗣 Putin: BRICS was never meant to be against anyone

BRICS doesn’t counterpose itself to anyone, it’s a group of nations that work together and share values, Russian President Vladimir Putin said, answering a question from Dmitry Kiselev, director general of Sputnik's parent media group Rossiya Segodnya.

“BRICS is not an anti-Western group, it’s just a non-Western group,” the Russian president summarized, quoting Indian FM Indian FM Jaishankar.

#BRICS2024

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