Team Trump plans for resolving the Ukrainian conflict exclude NATO membership
 
In total, there are three main proposals, Reuters reports.
 
The outline by Trump's incoming Russia-Ukraine envoy Keith Kellogg:
 
📄 includes a cease-fire based on the freezing of the existing battle lines at the time of settlement. NATO membership for Ukraine would be put on hold.
 
Trump's former acting intelligence chief Richard Grenell's initiative:
 
📄 proposes to create autonomous zones in eastern Ukraine as part of a peace agreement and believes that Ukraine's membership in NATO is not in the interests of the United States.
 
Vice President-elect JD Vance's proposal:
 
📄 provides for the demilitarization of the demarcation line between Russia and Ukraine and a guarantee for Russia that Kiev will not join NATO.
 
The head of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, Sergey Naryshkin, earlier stated that discussions in the West about freezing the conflict are related to the fact that Russia fully owns the initiative on the battlefield.
 
In addition, the Kremlin has repeatedly stressed that it is important for Russia to achieve its goals in the Ukrainian conflict; the freezing option will not work.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🎥🎥 Putin participates in investment forum "Russia Calling!"

👉 Watch the livestream here or on Sputnik's website

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Domino effect? Trump lawyers mention Hunter Biden pardon to scrap ‘hush money’ case

Donald Trump’s defense lawyers have cited Joe Biden’s pardon of his son Hunter to argue that the US president-elect’s New York “hush money” conviction should be annulled.

In a court filing, attorneys Todd Blanche and Emil Bove recalled that when recently announcing the pardon, the outgoing US president argued that his son was “selectively, and unfairly prosecuted” and “treated differently”, allegedly due to “raw politics” that “has infected this process and led to a miscarriage of justice.”

“Since [Manhattan] DA [District Attorney Alvin] Bragg took office, he has engaged in ‘precisely the type of political theater’ that President Biden condemned,” the lawyers wrote.

They insisted that the Trump case also was tainted by “contrived, defective and unprecedented legal theory” and should now be immediately dismissed.

🔸 Biden repeatedly pledged he would not pardon his son, who was convicted of tax evasion and lying on official paperwork that he hadn't previously been addicted to drugs before buying a gun at two separate trials.

🔸 Trump, who was earlier convicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records related to a “hush money” payment made to former porn star Stormy Daniels, asserts that his prosecution was politically motivated.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

📹💥 A Russian FPV drone threw a grenade into the hatch of a Ukrainian armored personnel carrier, destroying it along with its crew

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

📹 Those who wanted to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia, including in the economy, failed, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said.

In 2022, a number of countries showed themselves to be unreliable partners, destroying trade relations with the Russian Federation, he added.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

💬 Investments in Russia have been growing for the third year in a row, despite all the problems that they [the West] have tried to create for us from the outside, Putin said at "Russia Calling!" investment forum

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

💬 Russia invites investors from friendly countries to the stock market, Vladimir Putin has said.

"Of course, we are inviting investors from friendly countries to our stock market … Russia is part of the global economy and we welcome reverse capital flows," Putin said at the "Russia Calling" Investment Forum organized by the VTB bank.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

'By the end of the decade, the capitalization of the stock market in Russia will more or less double' — Putin
 

"Let me note that this year only 19 IPOs and SPOs happened, but we have been able to raise 102 billion rubles. This is a very good result," he added.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

📈 Russia's GDP grew by 4.1% in January-October; growth is concentrated in high-value-added sectors - Putin

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

❗️The digitalization level of Russia’s financial sector surpasses global averages, Putin noted at the "Russia Calling!" investment forum

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

💬Russia seeks to strengthen economic sovereignty and technological leadership, Russia's president said

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

📹Russia ranks among leaders in quality of business climate - Putin

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Key statements by Russian President Vladimir Putin at the "Russia Calling!" investment forum
 
🔸 In 2022, a number of countries proved themselves to be unreliable partners, destroying trade relations with the Russian Federation
 
🔸 The auto industry and machine building of the Russian Federation are growing at a great pace
 
🔸 The Russian economy has not only transformed, but also demonstrated structural changes 
 
🔸 Russia has a record low unemployment rate compared to many western countries

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

❗️Russia did not expel anyone or squeeze them out of its market - Putin
 
Despite political pressure, many Western companies have not left the Russian market - Russia's president stressed

Russia will not create special conditions for Western companies that want to return to its market, but it will not hinder them either, Vladimir Putin has said.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Putin stresses that Russia's pivot to the East has been steadily in progress since the 2000s, not just recently.
 

Based on the trends, Russia is developing relations with China regardless of events in the Ukrainian direction; this is its long-time partner, Russia's president added.

 
Russia focuses on those markets where there is growth and where there are partners who do not respond to the barkings of third countries, Putin concluded.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

📹 BRICS tries to pay due attention to the creation of a single digital payment system, Vladimir Putin has said.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

💬 Using the greenback, the US continues to exploit other economies for its own benefit - Putin

Other statements:

◻️ The use of the dollar as a world currency brings the United States large revenues "from the sky"
 
◻️ The Biden administration has done a lot to undermine the dollar's influence on the world stage
 
◻️ Russia did not reject the dollar; it was denied its use.

◻️ Bitcoin and other digital currencies will develop; no one will be able to ban them, regardless of the fate of the dollar

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

📹 “Are you a Pole? No, I’m worse”: Rare story from Putin’s KGB years

The Russian president has recalled how his “friend” (apparently a Soviet spy on a mission) told him about his Tarantino-style dialogue with an old German fisherman in Berlin.

- Is your fishing ok?
- No.
- Why?
- It’s the wind from the east.
- All the problems come from the east…
- Are you a Pole?
- No, I’m worse.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

💬 Vladimir Putin called the development of new logistics routes inevitable, including due to Western sanctions.

Transport volumes along the Northern Sea Route will grow, Russia's president said.

The "North-South" corridor is already in operation, and the volumes of transportation along it are constantly increasing, the president added.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

⚡️Who can prohibit Bitcoin? No one! — Putin

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt