🚨Why Russia isn’t thrilled by Trump 2.0? Senior Russian lawmaker explains

In an interview with Sputnik, Konstantin Kosachev, Vice Speaker of the Federation Council, cited the following reasons:
 
1️⃣Trump doesn’t believe in treating other countries as equals.

2️⃣Trump will pressure Russia to abandon China and Iran.

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❗️Bitcoin continues to rise, reaching another record high - $90,000

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🇷🇺🇸🇦 Russian President Vladimir Putin held a telephone conversation with the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, the Kremlin reported.

During the conversation, the importance of close coordination in OPEC+ and the effectiveness and timeliness of measures in this format were emphasized.

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Trump announces new Department of Government Efficiency: What is it?

US President-elect Donald Trump has selected Tesla CEO Elon Musk and former GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy to head the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

What is DOGE?

🔘 DOGE is a non-governmental agency that will provide “advice and guidance” from outside the government;

🔘 Musk and Ramaswamy will “drive large scale structural reform, and create an entrepreneurial approach to government never seen before” alongside the Office of Management and Budget, Trump said;

🔘 DOGE will be tasked with the reducing government bureaucracy, slashing excess regulations, cutting wasteful spending, and restructuring federal agencies, according to the president-elect;

🔘 Trump believes that “the massive waste and fraud” has ballooned government expenditures up to $6.5 trillion a year. The proposed department will have to “shrink” the size of the government by July 2026, the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

Why is DOGE needed?

◽️ By 2023, the US government was spending nearly $2 trillion more than it was raising in revenues, as measured by the Bureau of Economic Analysis data. Since 2001, annual spending grew faster than annual revenue – at an average rate of 5.5% versus 3.9%;

◽️ 2023 spending covered transfers, including benefit and subsidy payments ($3.19 trillion), aid to different US states ($1.15 trillion), interest ($0.95 trillion), purchases ($0.84 trillion), and worker compensation ($0.56 trillion), according to the Cato think tank;

◽️ In 2023, the US gave almost half of its spending to aid programs that failed to add to national GDP, including social security, Medicare, and food stamps, Cato also reported.

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🇧🇪🚜 More than 100 Belgian farmers have protested against the European Commission's plan to sign a free trade agreement with Latin American countries.

Some of them drove their tractors into central Brussels, fearing that cheaper produce from the region will drive down prices on the EU market.

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Why will US call the shots in possible Ukrainian presidential elections?

The likelihood of Ukrainians going to the polls this spring is quite high, as the incoming US administration may have its own agenda regarding the matter, Alexander Dudchak, a leading researcher at the Institute of CIS Countries and expert on the Other Ukraine movement, tells Sputnik while discussing The Economist’s report suggesting that Ukraine's elections could take place as early as May 25.

The new US administration is frustrated with Volodymyr Zelensky, and Donald Trump can remember the times when the former ignored the 45th president’s request for assistance relating to information about the Biden family’s activities in Ukraine, according to Dudchak.

“They [the new Trump team] will probably try to establish their own power in Ukraine, because the current top of the Ukrainian colonial administration is, after all, client of the British special services. Not everything is so rosy in relations between Britons and Americans as there are certain contradictions, a situation Trump may want to change,” the expert points out.

As for the results, they will most likely be known beforehand if the elections are held under Western control, he argues.

“They [the West] will know perfectly well who will be the next Ukrainian president, because in these conditions achieving the desired result is no problem at all,” the expert says, adding that Zelensky will not play a role in the process.

When it comes to presidential candidates, they “have been on everyone’s lips” and any new names are unlikely, the Institute of CIS Countries expert says, citing former Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Valery Zaluzhny, ex-Parliamentary Speaker Dmitry Razumkov and ex-President Petro Poroshenko.

The latter regularly slams the Zelensky regime, appealing to ordinary people to remember how “wonderfully” he ruled the country, Dudhcak concludes.

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❗️Donald Trump is expected to appoint a special envoy to Ukraine soon to negotiate an end to the conflict, according to Fox News

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What's behind Saudi crown prince's demand to Israel not to attack Iran?

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, also referred to as MBS, warned Israel against attacking Iran at an Arab League and Organization of Islamic Cooperation Summit in Riyadh on November 11.

The crown prince specifically said that the international community should make Israel "respect the sovereignty of the sisterly Islamic Republic of Iran and not to violate its lands."

🗣 "This is certainly an interesting development," Mehran Kamrava, professor of government at Georgetown University Qatar, tells Sputnik.

Kamrava outlined possible reasons behind the crown prince's move:

▪️Trump's decision to appoint anti-Iran politicians to key foreign policy positions could embolden Israel to step up attacks against Iran and ignite a larger regional war. "What we're seeing is an attempt by Saudi Arabia to signal its displeasure and disapproval of a potential expansion of the conflict," the pundit says.

▪️MBS laid the groundwork for de-escalation, giving Iran the opportunity "to gracefully back out" of the conflict with Israel.

▪️"Iran has now renewed popularity in the proverbial Arab street because of it being the only regular army to have attacked Israel after 1973," the professor continued, suggesting that MBS's words were also a show of support to Tehran.

▪️"This is part of a broader regional sign that is being sent to Washington" with regard to its overall Middle Eastern policy, according to Kamrava.

Meanwhile, in October, Saudi Arabia and Iran held joint naval drills in the Sea of Oman. MBS and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian spoke on the phone a day before the summit. On November 10, Saudi Arabia’s top military official visited Tehran to meet with his Iranian counterparts. These signals are "important" and "significant", the pundit emphasizes.

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🚨Russia won’t accept Trump’s reported Ukraine peace plan — senior Russian lawmaker Konstantin Kosachev (Vice Speaker of Federation Council) to Sputnik.

The plan recently outlined in the Wall Street Journal fails to address Russia’s fundamental concerns, he said.

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❗️President-elect Donald Trump arrived at the White House on Wednesday to meet President Joe Biden, marking a significant moment as the two leaders exchanged a handshake.

This visit is Trump’s first return to the Oval Office since leaving his handwritten letter for Biden two years ago.

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📹 President Joe Biden assured President-elect Donald Trump of a “smooth transition” in January as the two met in the Oval Office. In response, Trump acknowledged the challenges of politics but expressed gratitude, saying, “It is a nice world today, and I appreciate it very much.”

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THROWBACK: Pete Hegseth, Trump's pick Secretary of Defense, voiced support for the Third Temple movement back in 2018.

The movement calls for rebuilding the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem on the current location of Al-Aqsa Mosque, one of holiest sites in Islam. This was once considered a fringe movement by Israeli society, but it has gained greater prominence in recent years due to influential patrons such National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir.

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John Thune reportedly elected new US Senate majority leader, according to Fox News

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Day of RCBD Troops: Key insights into Ukraine’s use of toxic agents

November 13 marks the Day of Russia’s RCBD Troops, formed after World War I to address nuclear, chemical, and biological threats through detection, decontamination, and safety efforts.

RCBD Troops have played a key role in exposing Kiev’s use of toxic agents during Russia’s special military operation. Here are the facts shared by their chief, Igor Kirillov.

On 'dirty bomb':

⭕️ Chemical production waste and spent nuclear fuel are being imported into Ukraine, potentially enabling Kiev to create a "dirty bomb" — a conventional explosive device laden with radioactive material designed to contaminate the environment.

⭕️ Ukrainian security service officers are trained to use a "dirty bomb," as well as to manufacture and detonate it in a crowded place.

⭕️ The Kiev regime could resort to a “false flag” provocation using a “dirty bomb” against the Russian population to counter the goals of the special military operation.

On 'smoke shells' and incapacitating agents:

🔺 Kiev forces covertly used chemical weapons disguised as smoke shells during their incursion into Russia’s Kursk region this summer. Over 20 people were injured in an attack near Sudzha, where Ukrainian forces used cluster munitions containing choking agents.

🔺 The Ukrainian military has used temporarily incapacitating agents more than 400 times, including listed chemicals like hydrocyanic acid and chlorine cyanide, near the cities of Donetsk, Gorlovka, and Artemovsk.

On chemical caches and biolabs:

⭕️ Russian soldiers discovered ready-to-use substances based on the strong toxicant thallium nitrate in a Ukrainian Armed Forces cache.

⭕️ Over 40 members of the Ukrainian security services were trained in The Hague on how to take samples to document the use of toxic substances.

⭕️ Russian specialists gained access to Ukrainian biolabs in Rubezhnoye, Severodonetsk, and Kherson, revealing Pentagon-led experiments in the special military operation zone aimed at creating biological weapons components.

⭕️ The US Department of Defense financed military-biological projects in Ukraine, allocating $32 million to the task.

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