❗️Both black boxes of the plane that crashed in South Korea have been found, the country's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport has said.

At the moment, 177 people have been declared dead.

South Korean government has declared 7 days of national mourning until and inclusive of January 4 for the victims of the plane crash.

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Oreshnik and Russia’s nuclear doctrine update: Why they matter - Part 1 👉Part 2

Russia took two critical steps to bolster its defenses in 2024: updating its nuclear doctrine and test-firing the advanced Oreshnik missile.

Nuclear doctrine:

Russia’s updated nuclear doctrine aims to “put the West on notice,” Larry Johnson, retired CIA intelligence officer and State Department official, tells Sputnik.

How it relates to Russia-West relations:

🟠Western countries “are creating a more dangerous situation and creating a direct threat to Russia, which is prepared to respond. That's the message Moscow is trying to send,” Johnson says, praising the Kremlin’s adherence to key agreements.

🟠“Russia has always signed these in good faith and abided by them, whether it was like the START Treaty or the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty or their Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty or the Minsk Agreement – Minsk 1 and Minsk 2,” the ex-CIA officer emphasizes.

🟠“It's always the West that's betraying those agreements," he notes, adding “at some point Russia will wake up and realize that this goes beyond a communication gulf.”

In November, President Vladimir Putin authorized the updated nuclear doctrine, detailing scenarios where nuclear weapons might be used, such as attacks with conventional weapons against Russia or Belarus that threaten sovereignty or territorial integrity.

Part 1 👉Part 2

#2024Overview

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Oreshnik and Russia’s nuclear doctrine update: Why they matter - Part 2 👉Part 1

Oreshnik strike:

“They don’t care. They think their continued allowance of Ukraine to launch Storm Shadow missiles into Russian territory and kill Russian citizens is just another message,” Larry Johnson, retired CIA intelligence officer and State Department official, tells Sputnik.

Putin confirmed that Russia successfully test-fired the Oreshnik missile on November 21, striking a Ukrainian military facility in Dnepropetrovsk.

The strike was a response to Kiev using US- and UK-supplied missiles to hit facilities in Russia’s Kursk and Bryansk regions.

Part 2 👉Part 1

#2024Overview

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The bodies of all 179 dead from the plane that crashed in South Korea have been recovered - Yonhap

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‘Hardline critic of the West’: What’s to know about Georgia’s new president? Part 1👉Part 2

On December 29, Mikheil Kavelashvili was sworn in as Georgia’s new president in an inauguration at parliament that was attended by members of the ruling Georgian Dream party and its founder Bidzina Ivanishvili.

Who is Georgia’s new president?

Mikheil Kavelashvili’s record

🟠A former Dinamo Tbilisi and Manchester City football player, Kavelashvili was appointed president by the parliament during the December 14 elections, in which 224 out of 225 members of Georgia's electoral college voted for the only candidate on
the ballot.

🟠The 53-year-old is a founder of the People's Power party, allied with the Georgian Dream and known for being the main voice for anti-Western sentiments in Georgia. The Guardian recently called him “a pro-Russia, hardline critic of the West.”

🟠Kavelashvili has repeatedly said that Western intelligence agencies are seeking to drive Georgia into war with Russia.

🟠He accused opposition parties of acting as a "fifth column" directed from abroad, slamming outgoing President Salome Zourabichvili as a "chief agent". The new president accused her of violating the constitution and declared that he would "restore the presidency to its constitutional framework.”

🟠The footballer-turned-politician insisted that Georgian society is divided," and that “radicalization and polarization" in the country are being fueled from abroad. He pledged to do his best to unite the society “around the idea of Georgia’s identity and independence.”

Part 1👉Part 2

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‘Hardline critic of the West’: What’s to know about Georgia’s new president? Part 2 👉Part 1

How does the US meddle in internal affairs of the former Soviet republic?

🟠The US did not think twice before sanctioning Georgian Dream party’s founder Ivanishvili earlier this week for allegedly “undermining the democratic and Euro-Atlantic future of Georgia for the benefit of the Russian Federation,” as Secretary of State Antony Blinken put it.

🟠In September, the US cited the aforementioned allegations as it slapped sanctions on Zviad Kharazishvili, head of the Department for Special Assignments of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and his deputy Mileri Lagazauri. Georgian Dream spokesman Givi Mikanadze denounced the sanctions as “interference in the pre-election processes and an attempt to influence the will of voters.”

🟠The Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), in turn, said in a statement in July that Moscow has data that indicates Washington’s determination to seek a change of power in Georgia following the results of the parliamentary elections in the small Caucasian nation on October 26, which was finally won by the Georgian Dream.

🟠According to the SVR, the US instructors have already given the command to the opposition forces in Georgia to start planning protests in the country timed to coincide with the elections.

🟠The October 26 elections saw Georgian Dream obtain 54.2% of the votes, with the four opposition parties together gaining 37.33% percent of the votes. The remaining political forces failed to overcome the 5% ceiling needed to make it to the parliament.

Part 2 👉Part 1

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🇷🇺💥ORESHNIK – NEW WORD THE WORLD HAS LEARNT IN 2024

Russia's new hypersonic missile, Oreshnik, equipped with an extremely powerful thermal warhead made headlines the moment Russian President Vladimir Putin presented it on November 21.

It’s time to learn Russian!

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2025 US military budget: Where's the money going?

The US defense spending for next year amounts to a record $895 billion. Joe Biden signed into law the defense bill on December 23.

It stipulates hefty sums for nuclear weapons and the Pacific region, East Asia and Taiwan, as Washington continues to ramp up nuclear tensions by taking new steps up the escalation ladder with Moscow and Beijing in Ukraine and over Taiwan, and occasionally waving around the nuclear button.

Take a look at Washington’s biggest defense spending plans in Sputnik's infographic.

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At least 17 people have been killed in a suspected Israeli drone attack on the outskirts of the Syrian capital of Damascus on Sunday, media reported.

An Israel drone hit the town of Adra, northeast of the capital, Sky News Arabia reported. Several others were injured.

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📹 Russia's Dnepr Battlegroup hit a Ukrainian Dana self-propelled artillery system that was concealed in a treeline near the town of Orekhov with Giatsint-B guns.

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Major winners and losers of halting Russian gas transit through Ukraine

As the Ukraine gas transit contract with Russia is set to end, Ukraine’s largest private energy company DTEK received its first delivery of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the US on December 27.

✅ Winners

🇺🇸 US LNG producers:

The halting of Russia's gas deliveries through Ukraine will increase the US share and reduce competition in the EU market.

The latest US LNG delivery amounts to 100 million cubic meters of gas (1 TWh of energy, or 3,530,000 MMBtu), bought by D.Trading, DTEK’s pan-European trading subsidiary.

The shipment arrived at Greek LNG terminals such as Revithoussa, where it will be "re-gasified" and distributed "through EU and Ukrainian gas networks," according to DTEK.

One network, the Vertical Corridor, will transmit US LNG deliveries between Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, Moldova, and Ukraine.

LNG from the US for Europe is at least 30-40% more expensive than pipeline gas from Russia.

In December 2022, the US became the world’s leading exporter of LNG amid Europe's energy crisis and the sabotage attack on Russia's Nord Stream pipelines.

❌ Losers

Ukraine: Ukraine will lose almost $1 billion annually from Russian gas transit fees. Additionally, Ukraine is likely to pay more for US LNG coming through the Revithoussa LNG terminal than for Russian pipeline gas, which used to come in the form of a "virtual reverse."

🇭🇺🇦🇹🇸🇰 Hungary, Austria, and Slovakia which have long relied on Russian gas transit through Ukraine, will face challenges. Being landlocked, access to LNG delivered to marine terminals is costly and difficult.

Long-term contracts with Russia's Gazprom allowed them to buy natural gas considerably cheaper than EU gas spot prices. For instance, Austria had been receiving Russian gas at a price almost three times cheaper than EU spot prices in 2022, according to Reuters.

🇪🇺 European Union: After sliding to $11.79/MMBtu in October, European gas prices rose to almost $15/MMBtu on November 22. On December 27, benchmark futures rose further by 5% on the news of halted Russian gas transit through Ukraine.

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🇩🇪 German CSU Party leader rules out coalition with Greens

Markus Soeder, the leader of Bavaria's Christian Social Union (CSU), has ruled out any sort of a coalition deal between the German conservatives and The Greens.

CSU is running in the February federal election together with the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) of Friedrich Merz, who will be the CDU/CSU conservative alliance's candidate for chancellor.

Soeder described the center-left Greens as the main hurdle to limiting unchecked migration to Germany, saying they were guided by completely wrong ideas in their policy.

President Frank-Walter Steinmeier formally dissolved the federal parliament on Friday less than two weeks after Chancellor Olaf Scholz lost a vote of confidence in his left-green coalition government. New elections are scheduled for February 23.

Scholz's three-party government imploded in early November after he fired Finance Minister Christian Lindner, the Free Democratic Party leader, citing his unwillingness to greenlight new proposals for the 2025 budget and more aid for Ukraine.

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🇨🇳🚆Train capable of reaching speeds of 450 km/h unveiled in China

A prototype of the CR450 high-speed train debuted in the Chinese capital, Beijing. During testing, the train reached a speed of 450 km/h, while its operating speed is 400 km/h.

Once in commercial service, the CR450 will be the fastest train in the world. Previously, the top speed reached by a train anywhere the world was 350 km/h.

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📹🇬🇪 Opposition supporters have again blocked Rustaveli Avenue near the Georgian parliament building in central Tbilisi, but the situation is generally calm, a Sputnik correspondent reports.

Protesters also blocked the avenue on Sunday afternoon after the inauguration of new President Mikheil Kavelashvili but then dispersed. Local police reported the detention of six protesters.

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❗️Kazakhstan will send the black boxes of the crashed Brazilian-made AZAL plane to the Brazilian Air Accident Investigation and Prevention Center, the republic's Ministry of Transport reported.

Earlier, the department reported that representatives from the aircraft manufacturer Embraer arrived at the crash site.

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📹🇮🇹 In the city of Brescia in northern Italy, protesters clashed with police during an anti-fascist rally

The anti-fascists tried to prevent a rally of supporters of right-wing movements. The police had previously banned both rallies.

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❗️Russian Foreign Ministry on blocking Russian media's Telegram channels: another act of political censorship, the West continues to purge the information space of undesirables.

Russia reserves the right to respond symmetrically to the blocking of Russian media Telegram channels in the West.

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The shift to the right in 2024: a global overview

This year marked a significant shift to the political right, which began in 2023, with liberal parties and their agendas losing ground to conservatives across the globe. Check out how:

🇺🇸 US

Donald Trump and the Republicans: In November, the Democrats lost control of both the White House and the US Congress to Donald Trump and the Republican Party.

🇪🇺 EU

European Parliament elections: In June, right-wing parties made major gains in the elections, despite the centrist European People’s Party winning the most seats.

France: The right-wing National Rally's success in the EP elections led President Emmanuel Macron to call a snap election, which resulted in his centrist alliance losing ground to both left- and right-wing blocs.

Germany: In September, the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) won a regional ballot for the first time in Thuringia and narrowly lost to the Christian Democratic Union in Saxony.

Austria: The right-wing Freedom Party of Austria (FPO) won the country's legislative election in September.

Portugal: In March, the right-wing Chega (lit. "Enough") and the center-right Democratic Alliance (AD) secured the most seats in the parliament.

🇬🇧 UK

Reform UK: Despite the Labour Party winning power from the Conservatives this year, the Eurosceptic and conservative Reform UK gained the third-highest share of the vote.

🇨🇦 Canada

Conservative surge: Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is facing dwindling support and a no-confidence vote in January, with Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre seen as his probable successor.

🌏 Asia

India: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his conservative Bharatiya Janata Party won the general election for the third time in June, albeit in coalition.

Indonesia: Right-wing politician and retired army general Prabowo Subianto won the presidential election and took office in October.

Japan: The long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party lost their majority in October.

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Incumbent president is leading in Croatia's presidential election - CEC

Incumbent Croatian President Zoran Milanovic is leading in the country's presidential election with 50.11% of the votes after the ballots from 51.61% of polling stations were processed, the Croatian Central Electoral Commission (CEC) said.

Milanovic's main opponent, Dragan Primorac, has 22.33%, while six other candidates have less than 10% each.

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What is identity and how does it affect countries’ sovereignty?

The concept of identity came to political science from psychology in the 20th Century, around the time when the term “identity crisis” was coined by Erik Erikson, explains Russian Academy of Sciences’ corresponding member Irina Semenenko.

▪️In political sciences, this concept gained prominence when researchers working on analyzing political processes strove to explain why certain processes occur the way they do and what shapes them.

According to her, the concept of identity is interesting not only because of its “analytic potential” but also because of the fact that it is a rare instance of a concept migrating from political science to public affairs.

▪️Due to people being “social creatures,” their personal beliefs and values are shaped in communication, including political communication, with other people, Semenenko notes.

“Identity in Latin means both ‘I am like the others’ and ‘I am not like some of the others’,” she says. “Thus, identity is a meaning that allows people to self-position themselves, to draw a boundary between them and those they associate themselves with, and those they do not agree with.”

▪️Personal identity aside, Semenenko continues, there are also group and collective identities as people usually belong to a community.

“All these identities are formed, they do not spring up by themselves out of nowhere – they form in social interactions. And certain political powers may influence these social interactions. Political science, among other things, studies mechanisms of identity politics,” Semenenko says.

She also points out that identity forms the basis of country’s “social-cultural sovereignty.”

▪️If people link their future, the future of their family and their children, with the development of the country they live in or want to live in, it becomes a basis for sovereignty, Semenenko elaborates, because “sovereignty is based on the idea of development.”

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