❗️Vladimir Putin on the settlement of the conflict in Ukraine:

▪️Russia is not only ready for negotiations with Ukraine but in fact, conducted these negotiations

▪️The course to escalate the conflict in Ukraine is connected with the desire to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia
 
▪️Russia certainly appreciates the desire of BRICS partners to help resolve the conflict in Ukraine

▪️Putin called attempts to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia illusory

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⚔️Power imbalance on the Korean peninsula means war – Kim Jong-un’s sister

Kim Yo-jong, deputy department director of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, and sister of the DPRK's head of state Kim Jong-un, has warned of far-reaching consequences from what she described as “ever-escalating military threats of hostile forces.”

She referred to recent joint drills of the US, Japan and South Korea, which she said was held “under the signboard of ‘counteraction’ and ‘warning’ to North Korea’s latest strategic weapon test.”

“This is another absolute proof of the validity and urgency of the line of building up the nuclear forces we have opted for and put into practice. Today’s upset of the balance of power between rivals on the Korean peninsula and in the region precisely means a war. And this is an undeniable objective reality,” Kim’s sister underscored.

The North Korean official mentioned other massive drills involving US, Japanese and South Korean forces, which “posed a serious threat to not only our state [the DPRK] but also regional peace and security.”

She also recalled about the record number of recent deployments of US strategic assets in the region, including the visit of a nuclear aircraft carrier, the first-ever deployment of the Vermont strategic nuclear submarine to the waters around the Korean Peninsula, and an array of flights of strategic nuclear bombers over the peninsula, including the B-52H.

The statement comes after North Korea launched its latest intercontinental ballistic missile, the Hwasong-19, which the country’s state news agency KCNA lauded it as “the world's strongest strategic missile.”

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❗️Main statements of the Russian Foreign Ministry about the outcome of the US elections:
 
▪️Moscow wants the American people to overcome the split in society
 
▪️It would be more logical for the winner of the US elections to focus on the problems of his country rather than looking for adventures a thousand miles away
 
▪️If something changes in US politics after the elections, Moscow will be ready to study potential proposals from Washington to Russia
 
▪️Russia will defend its national interests in any case
 
▪️Moscow is indifferent to the outcome of the US elections, given the consensus of the two parties on the confrontation with Russia

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💬 NATO ex-chief Stoltenberg targeted by Soviet intelligence in 1980s for recruitment - expert

Back in the 1980s, Soviet intelligence targeted now ex-NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg for recruitment, dubbing him with the pseudonym Steklov, Main Intelligence Directorate veteran Vladimir Vinokurov told Sputnik.

“According to some sources, Stoltenberg received the pseudonym in the late 1980s and the early 1990s, but he then refused to cooperate and reported his contacts to the Norwegian security police," Vinokurov, who currently serves as the head of the Center for Military-Diplomatic Analysis and Assessments think tank, added.

Speaking earlier to the Financial Times, Stoltenberg spoke of his purported contacts with an “agent of [the USSR’s] State Security Committee (KGB)”, whom he allegedly tried to recruit in the interests of Norwegian counterintelligence. Vinokurov rejected the allegations as unsubstantiated.

Stoltenberg stepped down as NATO Secretary General on October 1 and was replaced by former Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, whose candidacy was supported by all members of the US-led military bloc.

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🗣 Key points from Russian FM Sergey Lavrov's interview with Sputnik:
 
▪️Ukraine is seen as a key element of the 'hybrid war' unleashed against Russia
 
▪️On future relations after elections: US will maintain an anti-Russian policy based on domestic political consensus
 
▪️It's hard to take seriously what both candidates say in the heat of the election campaign
 
▪️Russia is ready for equal dialogue with the US if the latter demonstrates an intention to negotiate honestly while taking into account the Russia's interests
 
▪️Russia and the US, as the largest nuclear powers, have special responsibilities that stipulate a need for their embassies
 
▪️Despite the deep relational crisis with Russia, Washington is still not ready to rupture ties
 
▪️If the US remains ready to maintain contacts with Russia, a new Russian ambassador will be appointed in a timely manner
 
▪️On appointment of a new Russian ambassador to the US: the necessary internal procedures have begun
 
▪️Lavrov warned NATO of aggression against Russia: no one beyond the Atlantic Ocean or the English Channel can sit it out
 
▪️NATO should not be mistaken; Russia will respond adequately to the alliance's aggression and use any means to ensure its own security

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❗️Kiev's attempt to pressure UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres by including him in the "Mirotvorets" database is an act that violates the UN Charter, Russian FM Sergey Lavrov told Sputnik

The Kiev regime, by including Guterres in the "Mirotvorets" database, is putting pressure on him to take Ukraine's side in the conflict with the Russian Federation, Lavrov added.

Mirotvorets (“Peacekeeper”) is a notorious online database that doxxes people considered "enemies of Ukraine" and urges their murder – that’s why the website is often considered a “kill list” of the Kiev regime.

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🗣'Statements by US analysts about Russian interference in parliamentary elections in Georgia is a blatant lie' - Lavrov

"The Russian federation will be "blamed" for the "wrong" choice of voters if forces undesirable to the US win elections anywhere," Russian FM Sergey Lavrov stated.

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⚡️The Russian military has thwarted an attempt by Ukrainian forces to seize the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant, the head of the Zaporozhye region, Yevgeny Balitsky, said.

"The enemy planned to use HIMARS missiles, as well as drone strike systems," Balitsky stated.

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💬 Legacy of Biden's administration would make a Harris victory ‘miraculous’

Kamala Harris winning the upcoming US presidential election would be a “miraculous” thing, says retired US Air Force Lt.Col. Karen Kwiatkowski, who is also a former analyst for the US Department of Defense. She also described Trump surviving an attempt on his life by accidentally moving his head in the same fashion.

While Trump’s rivals in the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections, Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden, respectively, were both career politicians who enjoyed strong support within the Democratic Party, Harris got zero primary votes from her fellow Democrats and performed “badly” both in her campaign and as vice president of the US, Kwiatkowski notes.

“I don't know how Biden is to work for, but as vice president, she's not done anything that she can really crow about,” Kwiatkowski observes. “And she has refused to separate her policies from the current administration, which is what people tend always.”

Thus, Kwiatkowski points out, people who will vote against Harris are going to be voting “against the current administration and all of its policies and whatever is blamed on that administration.”

“Certainly the economy in the United States, crime, immigration, war - the Ukraine war is not as popular as it once was. It's very unpopular, in fact,” Kwiatkowski says, adding that the war Israel wages in Gaza and Lebanon “is not popular either” and that Trump supposedly already advised Netanyahu to end it.

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🗳Who Will Win the US Presidential Election? (Part 1 👉 Part 2)

Sputnik senior political analyst Dimitri Simes Jr. breaks down the two most likely scenarios:

Scenario 1: Kamala Landslide Victory (40% probability)

🔸 End result: Democrats win almost every swing state except Arizona and Georgia.

🔸 Abortion will galvanize women to turn out for Kamala in unprecedented numbers. Early voting data suggests that women are outpacing men in key swing states.

🔸 There are some indications that Kamala Harris has made gains among older voters, especially in the Midwest.

🔸 Trump could potentially lose North Carolina due to downward pressure from scandal-hit Republican governor candidate Mark Robinson, who is currently projected to lose by double digits.

🔸 Polls could actually be over-estimating Trump’s support.

In 2022, polls predicted a ‘red wave’ in the midterm elections, but Democrats instead expanded their Senate majority. Polls also predicted Trump would win the 2023 GOP primary by a greater margin than he actually did.

👉 Part 2

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🗳Who Will Win the US Presidential Election? (Part 2 👉 Part 1)

Scenario 2: Narrow Trump Victory (30% probability)

🔸 End result: Trumps wins most of the ‘Sun Belt’ states, but fails to crack Democratic ‘Blue Wall’ with the exception of Pennsylvania.

🔸 Kamala Harris is weighed down by Biden’s unpopularity (38.5% approval rating, only 28% say that the US is on the right track).

🔸 Polls underestimated Trump’s support in 2016 and 2020, and some analysts have argued that the 2024 polls are over-sampling older white liberals.

🔸 Early voting numbers in the key swing states of Arizona, Georgia, and Nevada have been encouraging for Republicans.

🔸 Trump campaign has made a big bet on lower-propensity voters (young men and rural residents). If they succeed in mobilizing these demographics, that could help tip the balance in Trump’s favor.

As for the other potential outcomes, my prediction is that there’s a 20% probability of a narrow Kamala Harris victory and 10% probability of a Trump landslide.

👉 Part 1

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📹 Trump’s running mate JD Vance shows the choice is clear

The Republican Party has opted to clearly articulate each candidate's prospects in the 2024 presidential election.

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📹'I'm not voting for Trump and not voting for Harris' - John Mearsheimer

"I won't vote for the Democrats because of the genocide in Gaza <...> and genocide is a red flag for me," American political scientist said, answering on who he will vote for in the upcoming election.

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💬 Washington storefronts getting boarded-up early indication of Kamala Harris' defeat – Wall Street analyst

Washington DC is seeing a lot of boarded-up storefronts and buildings. The New York Times is even hinting at the possibility of violence from disenchanted Donald Trump supporters.

Wall Street analyst Charles Ortel doesn't buy into the assumption.

"Republicans are a tiny percentage of registered voters [in DC] so it is pure fiction and likely projection that they are poised for mayhem," Ortel told Sputnik. "The truth in a fair contest is that Trump and Vance are set to trounce Harris and Walz – deluded Democrats and reliable Antifa and Black Lives Matter mobsters are the ones set to riot, and certainly not Republicans, because they will be celebrating."

It seems that the efforts by the corporate media and influencers to sell the Biden-Harris Administration as a "transformative success" have fallen flat. It's becoming clear that things are actually worse now than they were under Trump, pre-Covid, according to the analyst.

"Political insiders know that Harris is a far worse candidate than Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden were in 2016 and 2020 and that Trump and Vance are a potent slate backed by tens of millions of motivated and enthusiastic voters, who likely will win decisively, absent widespread cheating," he said.

He doesn't rule out that those who poured a whopping $1 billion into the Harris-Walz ticket are preparing to throw a spanner in the works for Trump and JD Vance. They might even try to invalidate the 2024 results if the former president and his running mate win.

"I hope cooler heads prevail in what remains of the Democrat party. As of this moment, Trump and Vance seem poised to win a decisive mandate against the Deep State swamp, likely with control of the Senate and a stronger majority in the House," Ortel concluded.

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Former US diplomat shares voting impressions

Michael Springmann, a former American diplomat and political analyst, shared his impressions with Sputnik on his voting experience in the November 5 US presidential election.

Springmann said he was “not allowed to video inside for privacy but could video in [a] booth and have the poll worker shoot me at [a] scanner.”

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💬 Trump unlikely to stage coup if Harris wins

Americans have come a long way since the 2020 election, becoming both “angrier” and “wiser” than before, says retired US Air Force Lt.Col. Karen Kwiatkowski, who is also a former analyst for the US Department of Defense.

“My prediction is that we will not have this giant breakdown in society no matter who wins. We will not have this new civil war if Trump wins or if Kamala Harris is named the winner,” she postulates. If Harris wins, Kwiatkowski suggests, the Republicans will be “enraged” and there may be “marches on Washington,” but these actions will be taken “in the context of understanding how the state, how DC, how the federal government will respond to them.”

“They will not be happy, carefree, let's wander on into the Capitol building to watch the proceedings. That will not be like that. In some ways, it could be more dangerous, but in many ways it will be really geared to real change,” Kwiatkowski claims.

“Whether that is the kind of change that civil disobedience brings about, very likely some of that will occur, or real change that happens as congressmen and senators suddenly realize that their constituents are extremely angry and they want something to happen.”

Thus, she suggests, “any type of coup” by the “America First side” or by Donald Trump and his supporters seems unlikely.

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