❗️Russian energy corporation Gazprom will halt gas supplies to Moldova from 8 am Moscow time on January 1 due to Moldovagaz's debt.

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Terror tactic: What is Ukraine’s special chemical belt?

The Kiev regime has developed a new illegal tactic to conduct warfare using a special chemical belt, the Russian Foreign Ministry stated. Chemical terrorism is a real threat posed by the Ukrainian special services, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova has said.

Where is the special chemical belt located?

The special chemical belt tactic rides roughshod over the Chemical Weapons Convention by detonating containers with hydrocyanic acid and ammonia along highways and at major transport junctions near a number of settlements in southeastern Ukraine, such as the city of Kramatorsk in the Donetsk People's Republic and Kupyansk in the Kharkov region.

What’s the goal of the chemical belt?

The purpose is to “significantly complicate” the offensive operations of Russian forces and give Kiev additional time to complete construction of defensive lines in the Zaporozhye region, as well as the Kharkov and Sumy regions.
Is the US involved?

The number of toxic substances used by Ukrainian militants was produced and were in service only in the US, the ministry’s report says.

“This clearly points to specific curators of the Ukrainian special services and the Kiev regime as a whole, who have not been averse to direct participation in the terrorist activities of their proteges.”

The Kiev regime has repeatedly used banned Western-supplied agents against Russian forces in the Ukraine conflict zone. More than 400 cases of Kiev’s use of chemicals such as BZ, prussic acid, chlorine cyanide, and riot-control chemical agents have been recorded in Ukraine since 2022.

In February 2022, the Russian Defense Ministry discovered the existence of 30 US-funded military biological laboratories in Ukraine. Russia accuses the US of spending over $200 million to develop biological weapons at the facilities.

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Electricity deficit and loss of fees: How halting Russian gas transit will backfire for Ukraine

The Kiev regime's decision not to extend the transit of Russian gas to Europe beyond January 1 is set to backfire on the country, despite Zelensky putting on a brave face.

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has warned that his country would halt electricity exports to Ukraine if Kiev stops supplying Russian gas to Central Europe.

If Fico follows through, Ukraine will likely face more power shortages.

▪️Dependence on electricity imports: Ukraine relies heavily on around 1.7-2.1 gigawatts (GW) of electricity imported from Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, and Romania.

▪️Loss of Slovakia's imports: Slovakia alone exported 2.4 million megawatt hours of electricity to Ukraine between January and November, a 152% year-on-year increase.

▪️Uncertain compensation: It is unclear whether Poland, Hungary, and Romania could compensate for the loss if Slovakia ceases its electricity exports to Ukraine.

▪️Increased demand and shortages: The International Energy Agency warned in September that peak demand could reach 18.5 GW this winter in Ukraine, with an estimated supply deficit of 6 GW.

Additional impact of halting gas transit

▪️Loss of transit fees: Ukraine is set to lose $0.8-$1 billion annually in transit fees from Russian gas.

▪️Virtual reverse system: The transit of Russian gas through Ukraine facilitated the "virtual reverse" system, where gas was bought by Kiev from European traders. Despite reduced consumption since 2022, this system was still in use.

▪️Pipeline modifications: Halting Russian gas transits will force Ukraine to modify its pipeline system and operate it differently.

▪️Challenges in gas distribution:

🔸A decrease in pressure in the main gas pipelines would hinder the transportation of gas produced in the Poltava and Kharkov regions to western regions, analysts assume.

🔸Conversely, delivering gas from underground storage facilities in the west to central and eastern regions will become more difficult, they warn.

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🇷🇺🇰🇿 Russian President Vladimir Putin held a telephone conversation with Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, the Kremlin said.

The leaders exchanged condolences in connection with the crash of an Azerbaijan Airlines plane near the city of Aktau on December 25.

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❗️Russian President Vladimir Putin has approved by decree a new strategy to counter extremism in Russia.

The Ukrainian crisis is being used by unfriendly countries to unleash hybrid wars against Russia and fuel Russophobic sentiments, according to the strategy.

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❗️Key-points from the new strategy to counter extremism in Russia:

▪️Extremism is designated as one of most difficult problems of modern Russian society;

▪️Russophobia and xenophobia been added to list of basic concepts in the strategy;

▪️Global areas of instability contribute to growth of threats to Russia due to the risk of terrorist organizations entering the country;

▪️Russia intends to organize cooperation within the UN, BRICS, SCO, CIS, CSTO to fight against extremism and terrorism;

▪️Strengthening of nationalist formations, including in Ukraine, supported by external forces are becoming a serious extremist threat;

▪️Risks associated with extremism in Ukraine spreading to neighboring countries and regions;

▪️Expected result of the implementation of the strategy is the neutralization of undesirable foreign NGOs' activities.

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The Moldovan Socialist Party is demanding that the government call an emergency meeting with national energy firm Moldovagaz to discuss it's debt settlement to Russian corporation Gazprom.

The investigation into why the company has debts should be transparent, the politicians noted, according to a message published on the party's Telegram channel.

Earlier, Gazprom announced it would halt gas supplies to Moldova on January 1 due to Moldovagaz's debt.

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❗️Houthis shoot down US MQ-9 drone with a missile in the sky over Yemen's province of Al-Bayda, according to a Houthi representative.

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Trump will restore US rule of law by pardoning January 6 protesters – CIA veteran

"If Trump follows through on his promise [to pardon January Sixers], then he will be restoring the rule of law instead of the rule of arbitrary power," retired CIA intelligence official Larry Johnson tells Sputnik.

According to Johnson, Trump's "action to correct the abuse is surrounding the incarceration of the January 6 protesters will put the judicial system on notice that it must follow the law and be blind with respect to people’s political views."

On January 6, 2021, a crowd of supporters of then-President Donald Trump breached the United States Capitol Building in Washington, DC, over concerns that the 2020 presidential election was rigged.

The CIA veteran believes that the incident was a staged intelligence operation, carried out by FBI agents and undercover operatives with support from both the CIA and the Pentagon, and coordinated with Democrats.

Johnson elaborates that the subsequent Democrat-led January 6 panel was nothing short of a "political show trial that matched anything done during the Stalin era in the Soviet Union."

He assesses the persecution of January Sixers as an "overreach by the Department of Justice" aimed at intimidating Trump's base.

President-elect Donald Trump has repeatedly pledged to pardon most of January 6th actors, stressing that he would begin addressing this issue "in the first hour" of his presidency.

To date, over 1,100 individuals have been convicted, with more than 600 sentenced to prison terms. Enrique Tarrio, the former leader of the right-wing Proud Boys movement, received the longest sentence—22 years in federal prison.

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US and UK seek to force Russia out of Syria to further destabilize Middle East – CIA veteran

The outgoing Biden administration and the British leadership are looking to maintain chaos in the Middle East while regarding the Russian military presence in Syria as a force hindering their plans, according to Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR).

The SVR stated that the CIA and MI6 are developing plans to organize a series of terrorist attacks on Russian military facilities in Syria using ISIS* fighters armed with drones as their proxies.

"This is just one more egregious example of the US poking the bear. And up to this point, the bear has not eaten the poker," retired CIA intelligence official Larry Johnson tells Sputnik.

The US and its allies believe that they "can inflict enough damage on Russia that it'll pull out of Syria and withdraw its presence from those military bases" since they misinterpret Moscow's patience as weakness, according to Johnson.

The SVR noted that the US and UK hope these terror provocations would also cast a shadow on the new Syrian authorities as being incapable of controlling the situation on the ground.

Meanwhile, the US also intends to maintain control over oil-rich areas of Syria east of the Euphrates River under the pretext of fighting ISIS, according to the SVR.

"The interests of the US are very simple. It's oil control. They've had control of some of the oil in the east for at least eight or nine years—so this is not new," Johnson stresses.

"There's zero interest or intent on the part of the US to promote either democracy or stability" in the region, the pundit concludes.

*terrorist organization banned by Russia and other countries

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🔥 German MP calls Ukrainian UN envoy 'fascist worshipper'

This is how German MP Sevim Dağdelen of the BSW party commented on Ukraine's new permanent representative to the UN, Andriy Melnyk, who said that he expected the future German government to provide aid of 20 billion euros a year.

"Fascist worshipper Melnyk ever more brazen. Now they are already demanding arms contributions of 20 billion a year (!). Merz Habeck Scholz will probably continue to burn German taxpayers' money in Ukraine," she wrote on X.

In 2022, Melnyk, then serving as Ukraine's ambassador to Germany, caused a public uproar by claiming that Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera "was not a mass murderer of Jews and Poles" during WWII.

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UK will train 180 Ukrainian soldiers in mental health care in 2025

The United Kingdom will train an additional 180 Ukrainian soldiers as "combat mental resilience practitioners" on the front lines in 2025, the British Ministry of Defense said on Saturday.

📑 Nearly a fifth of Ukrainian soldiers have gone AWOL from their posts, The Economist reported in November, citing a source in the general staff.

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🇬🇪 Outgoing Georgian president stays overnight in presidential palace

Outgoing Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili said on Saturday she would spend the night at the presidential residence in Tbilisi as the inauguration ceremony of Georgian President-elect Mikheil Kavelashvili takes place tomorrow.

"Tomorrow at 10 o'clock in the morning [06:00 GMT] I will wait for you at the Orbeliani Palace and from here I will tell you what tomorrow will be like," Zourabichvili said in a video address to her supporters.

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze expressed hope on Friday that Zurabishvili would not have to be forcibly evicted from the presidential palace and that she would leave the building of her own free will at the end of her term.

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