🗣 'The situation on the international arena has not become easier for 3 years, the collective West led by the US has increased the pressure on Russia' - Lavrov

Key statements by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at the 8th World Congress of Compatriots Living Abroad:

🔸 Doomed to failure are all the efforts of our malefactors.

🔸 Russia is confidently conducting a special military operation to ensure its legitimate security interests.

🔸 The lives and safety of our compatriots, their right to preserve their memory and speak their native language will be protected.

🔸 Russia's isolation has failed - the BRICS summit in Kazan proves it. The countries of the Global South are aware of this.

🔸 The Coordinating Council of Russian Compatriots is facing problems in Western countries, where attempts are being made to abolish Russian culture and the Russian language.

🔸 The focus of the first plenary session of the Congress is the defense of traditional values. This is especially important in the face of Western neoliberal pressure.

🔸 Putin's decree on the admission of conservative foreigners has already covered some 40 countries.

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🇮🇷⚔️🇮🇱IRGC deputy chief threatens Israel with 'crushing blows' in coming days

Iran will respond to Israel's attack soon, the deputy commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Major General Mohammad Reza Naqdi stated.

"In the coming days, you will see more crushing blows against the Zionist regime. We will surprise them with our initiative and ingenuity," the Iranian TV channel Al-Alam quoted General Naqdi as saying.

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Russian reporters show true reality of world, making life difficult for Western propagandists, says MFA spokeswoman

By showing things the way they truly are, Russian reporters are making it difficult for the West to tout their slanted narrative of the world, said Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.

Speaking to Sputnik radio, the diplomat highlighted the recent assault against a RIA Novosti correspondent at a rally in Tbilisi.

Earlier, demonstrators belonging to the Georgian opposition confronted and harassed a Russian correspondent after hearing him speak Russian.

Specifically, the malevolent protestors encircled the reporter and shoved their loudspeaker right up to his ear, cranking its sound up to such a high frequency that the intensity of it knocked him to the ground.

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🇬🇪Georgian president summoned to Prosecutor's Office over her election fraud allegations

The Georgian prosecutor's office has summoned President Salome Zourabichvili over her claims of possible election fraud, with the interrogation date set for Thursday. The office added that it would question anyone who may have information on the matter.

"The Prosecutor's Office of Georgia (CEC) will simultaneously carry out all necessary investigative and procedural measures specified in the appeal of the CEC in order to examine the facts expressed by the President of Georgia, individual political parties and members of observation missions," the statement reads.

💬 "Based on the Central Election Commission’s complaint dated October 30, 2024, the Prosecutor's Office of Georgia has opened an investigation into the alleged falsification of the parliamentary elections," the office said in the statement.

Georgia held its parliamentary elections on Saturday. According to the final vote count announced by the election commission on Sunday, the ruling Georgian Dream party won 53.93% of the vote, while the nation’s four opposition parties combined won 37.78% to enter parliament.

The opposition has refused to recognize the results and demanded a new vote. Zourabichvili not only rejected the election results, but also called on the public to take to the streets.

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💰China files complaint with WTO over EU’s decision to impose tariffs on EVs

China does not recognize or accept this decision, the country’s Ministry of Commerce said, adding that the EU’s anti-subsidy investigation into Chinese electric cars represents a protectionist approach that is actually “unfair competition” under the pretest of “fair competition”.

The Ministry asserted that "China will continue to take all necessary measures to protect the rights and interests of its companies", and also added that such commercial disputes could provoke a "trade war."

Previously, the EU announced a decision to impose additional duties on electric vehicles from China amounting to up to 35.3%, which takes effect on October 30.

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

◻️ Russian Air defenses shot down one HIMARS missile and 67 Ukrainian drones over the day.

◻️ Ukranian forces lost up to 515 troops in the Russia's Battlegroup Tsentr area of responsibility over the day.

◻️ Ukranian losses in Russia’s Battlegroup Yug combat zone amounted up to 520 militants.

◻️ Russian Battlegroup Vostok repelled two counterattacks, the enemy lost up to 115 servicemen and a tank.

◻️ Russian Air Forces hit the infrastructure of military airfields, oil depot and ammunition depots of the Ukrainian armed forces.

◻️ Ukraine lost up to 70 servicemen in the Russia’s Battlegroup Sever combat zone over 24 hours.

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

🔸 Russia’s Battlegroup Sever hammered ten Ukrainian formations and repelled eight counterattacks in its combat zone. The enemy lost as many as 70 soldiers, a tank and five armored vehicles, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

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

🔸 In total, Ukrainian losses over the day amounted to more than 350 militants, with 25 armored vehicles destroyed, including a tank, an infantry fighting vehicle, 23 armored vehicles, and 25 cars.

🔸 Since the beginning of combat operations in the Kursk region, Ukraine has lost more than 27,950 troops.

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Statements by Putin's Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov to reporters:

🔸 On the detention of Izvestia employees in the United States: such treatment of journalists does not reflect well on US authorities.

🔸 The detention of Russian journalists in the US contradicts the principles of press freedom.

🔸 Russia plans to invite foreign leaders to the 80th anniversary of Victory Day and will be glad to welcome all who attend.

🔸 As Victory Day approaches, Moscow will provide updates on which leaders are invited to the parade.

🔸 There are currently no specific plans for contacts between Vladimir Putin and Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, but the Russian leader remains open to them.

🔸 There is an established mechanism for notifying countries about strategic nuclear deterrence exercises, and various countries respond differently.

🔸 Regarding the article on alleged Russia-Ukraine negotiations on halting attacks on energy infrastructure: many such reports are baseless and unrelated to reality.

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⚡️"The refusal of the Georgian president to appear for questioning will be taken as proof that her accusations of election fraud were false," Georgian Prime Minister stated.

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🇮🇳🇨🇳Disengagement in Eastern Ladakh complete, local commanders set to meet to finalise patrol details - Sputnik India citing sources

Sweets will be exchanged tomorrow, patrols will resume soon.

Source: Sputnik India

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Mira Terada: Russians abroad face full force of West-driven cancel culture

Russian citizens living abroad feel the full force of cancel culture that the collective Western governments are trying to push, Mira Terada, human rights advocate, publicist told Sputnik on the sidelines of the 8th World Congress of Compatriots Living Abroad.

“In the West it is impossible to get an alternative view, a contrary opinion that challenges the mainstream Western narrative, namely, the Russian media’s viewpoint. Russian media accounts are blocked on social networks... People who speak out, like or share certain content are facing harassment, prosecution, job loss, and even having their kids kicked out of school. It's a pretty dire situation.”

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Iran-Israel conflict: escalation hits new peak amid back-and-forth threats

Regional tensions are boiling over after last Saturday’s Israeli airstrikes on Iranian missile bases, arms factories and air defenses, which Tel Aviv and Washington claimed were a big success and Tehran said were largely neutralized. Amid the media noise surrounding the situation, Sputnik separates the informational wheat from the chaff:

🔸 IRGC Deputy Chief Mohammad Reza Naqdi warned Wednesday that Israel would face “crushing blows” in “the coming days” in response to last week’s aggression.

🔸 A New York Times report published Wednesday citing satellite images revealed that Israel’s October 26 strikes included an attack on the Shahroud Space Center in Semnan province, northern Iran. Before and after images show damage done to a building at the facility. The facility is thought to produce the sophisticated solid-fuel rocket engines Iran uses in its missiles.

🔸 IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi warned Tuesday that if Iran made the “mistake” of responding to last week’s attack, Israel would “hit extremely hard both the capabilities and the places that we spared this time.” Israel “didn’t finish this event, we are right in the middle of it,” Halevi warned.

🔸 Also on Tuesday, Iranian Defense Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh warned that Iran can repeat ‘Operation True Promise’-style operations of massed missile and drone strikes on Israel like the ones in April and October “dozens” of times if provoked. “Iran’s defensive capability is high,” Nasirzadeh said, adding that up to 90% of the missiles launched in the October strikes reached their target, and that Israel attempted to cover up this fact.

🔸 Iran has also maintained its attention focused on Gaza – the crisis at the root of the escalation across the region, throughout the week. In a meeting with ambassadors on Tuesday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi urged the UN Security Council to impose sanctions on Israel to force it to stop its military campaigns in Gaza and Lebanon, and slammed Washington for its continued “support for the Zionist regime.” Separately on Tuesday, Iranian Ambassador to the UN Saeed Iravani blasted Israeli legislation targeting the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees.

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Trump vs Harris: Who is megadonors' favorite and why?

Fifty megadonors have collectively poured over $2.5 billion into political committees and other organizations supporting Democrats and Republicans, according to The Washington Post. The ongoing election cycle "is poised to become the most expensive federal election ever," Axios reports, adding that individual contributors have played an "outsized role" in the 2024 race.

"In the period 1988 to the present, the emergence of unregulated globalism has created an opportunity for big investors to really not just curry favor with big governments, but to basically pick and choose leaders and key officials in these governments, either to protect themselves from prosecution or to put themselves in a position where they can reap large financial rewards off of their government connections," Wall Street analyst Charles Ortel told Sputnik.

Referring to the Biden and Clinton families' suspected influence peddling schemes, the analyst noted that "it's relatively cheap to send $20 million, $100 million, even $250 million towards a politician, if that politician can turn around and help a big company turn $2 trillion into $4 trillion."

Kamala Harris has outpaced Donald Trump in terms of fundraising by receiving around $1 billion since July, when she was endorsed by George and Alex Soros, BlackRock co-founder Ralph Schlosstein, and Evercore founder Roger Altman. Billionaire Bill Gates alone is said to have funneled $50 million to Harris through a non-profit, while JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon has expressed his full support for Kamala in private, according to The New York Times.

"One of the biggest games, the easy money games in America and in the West right now is promoting this unregulated globalism where there is no power strong enough to obstruct a multinational company or investors or multinational companies from profiting off of their ties to these various government actors," Ortel stressed.

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🇬🇪 The US and the EU did everything to influence the elections in Georgia, but despite the pressure, the people of the country made their choice - Russian Foreign Ministry

Voters expressed their support on October 26 for stability, development, and the traditional values of Georgia, understanding that the alternative would be destabilization and increased regional tensions.

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🇷🇺🇰🇵As North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui has arrived in the Russian capital for talks today, here’s how Russian President Vladimir Putin described the deepening strategic ties between Moscow and Pyongyang.

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💬 The death toll in Valencia, Spain, due to heavy rains has risen to 62, local authorities report.

Hundreds of homes are flooded, and many residents are being rescued in the nick of time – as this video shows.

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