🤡NATO Secretary General confused west with east

"The frontline is moving in the wrong direction; it's going eastwards," Mark Rutte said at the Davos forum.

Will anybody tell Rutte the frontline is moving west? Or does no one dare upset him?🙄

Or was he actually thinking about NATO expansion?🤔

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Russia's Defense Ministry shared footage of its forces liberating the settlement of Solyonoe in the Donetsk People's Republic.

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EU should stand by Denmark in Greenland row with US - defense commissioner

"Denmark is part of the European Union. They have some kind of conversations. We should support always Denmark," EU Defense Commissioner Andrius Kubilius at the World Economic Forum (WEF).

The bloc should "wait for actions" by Donald Trump's new administration before drawing conclusions on the US president's strongly worded statements on Greenland, he added.

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Trump intends to withdraw 20,000 American troops from Europe - report

In this case, the presence of American troops on the continent will be reduced by about 20% as part of a review of US commitments to protect Europe, ANSA writes, referring to its European diplomatic source.

"For those who remain, he would like a financial contribution from European countries because these soldiers are a deterrent and the costs cannot only weigh on the shoulders of American taxpayers," the newspaper quotes the source as saying.

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Why Trump’s 24-hour plan for Ukraine won’t work

US President Donald Trump completely misunderstands the Ukrainian crisis, viewing it through a simplistic, Western lens of Soviet history, and wrongly believes he can end the conflict by sheer willpower, Russian philosopher Alexander Dugin tells Sputnik.

“Changes in the US' attitude toward the special op and Ukraine will come, but I wouldn’t be overly confident that this will quickly lead to the resolution of the conflict. I wouldn’t count on that,” he emphasizes.

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💬Russia's Foreign Ministry commented on reports about France and the UK planning to send troops to Ukraine

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🔎 Which weapons did fleeing US troops leave to the Taliban*?

Afghanistan's Taliban* has flatly refused US President Donald Trump’s demand to return billions of dollars’ worth of weapons that the US military abandoned in the country during their panicked flight in 2021. The weapons in question include:

🔻Small arms

▪️ M16A2/A4 assault rifles and M4 carbines
▪️ M24 SWS sniper rifles
▪️ M249 light machine guns and M240 machine guns
▪️ Pistols such as Beretta M9 and Glock 17

🔻Heavier gear

▪️ M203 under-barrel grenade launchers and M79 grenade launchers
▪️ M224 mortars
▪️ M2 heavy machine guns
▪️ Sophisticated equipment like communication equipment and AN/PVS-7 and AN/PVS-14 night vision devices.

🔻Hardware

▪️ M1151 and M-1152 HMMWV (Humvee) vehicles
▪️ M1117 armored security vehicles
▪️ MaxxPro Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles
▪️ And even UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters

A Pentagon report from 2022 estimated the value of weapons and military hardware left in Afghanistan to be about $7 billion.

*under UN sanctions for terrorist activities

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Zakharova called out Zelensky's claims, which fibbed that the talks between Russia and Ukraine in the spring of 2022 were not negotiations, as disinformation.

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🙅 Germany has ‘no legal grounds’ to ban AfD – lawmaker

“The procedure is very complicated and very long, in other words, this issue will not be considered before the elections either way. The chances of the party being banned are extremely low. All experts and lawyers are inclined to believe that at the moment there are absolutely no legal grounds for banning the party,” AfD lawmaker Eugene Schmidt said on the Rossiya 24 TV channel.

The AfD ranks second with a 21.5% approval rating, trailing the Christian Democratic Union and Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU) opposition bloc at 29%, according to a recent INSA poll for Bild.

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🔎 Trump’s 100% BRICS tariff pledge: Could US face a backlash?

BRICS nations accounted for more than $500 billion in US imports in 2024, the country’s Census Bureau trade data shows. What strategic imports did Washington buy from BRICS members last year?

🇧🇷 Brazil ($38 bln): semi-finished iron, crude petroleum, sulfate chemical woodpulp, pig iron.

🇷🇺 Russia (almost $3 bln): platinum (listed as one of the 50 critical mineral commodities by the US Department of the Interior, essential for the automotive and medical industries), radioactive chemicals, nitrogenous, chemical and potassic fertilizers (vital for US agriculture).

🇮🇳 India ($80 bln): packaged medicaments, refined petroleum, diamonds (used in microelectronics and medical industry).

🇨🇳 China ($401 bln): pre-dosed medications, lithium batteries, computers, media transmission systems.

🇿🇦 South Africa ($13 bln): platinum, ferroalloys, diamonds, titanium ore (critical for nuclear, chemical, aircraft, space industries).

🇮🇷 Iran (nearly $6 bln): crude oil, petroleum products.

🇪🇬 Egypt ($2 bln): nitrogenous fertilizers.

🇦🇪 The UAE (almost $7 bln): raw aluminum (essential for the automotive and space industries), refined petroleum, cement, and cyclic hydrocarbons (used in the oil industry).

So, is there any other alternative to BRICS for the US, especially in light of Donald Trump’s recent pledge to slap BRICS countries with 100% trade tariffs?

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