💬 Russia hopes talks with the US in Istanbul will be the first in a series of such consultations, Russian FM spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stated.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

❗️Russian forces struck military infrastructure and drone storage facilities in Ukraine, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

🇷🇺🪖More statements from the Russian Defense Ministry's daily briefing on the special military operation's progress:

▪️Ukraine lost up to 180 servicemen in the Russian Zapad Battlegroup's combat zone.

▪️Ukraine lost up to 310 troops, a Leopard tank and seven armored vehicles in the Russian Tsentr Battlegroup's combat zone.

▪️Russian aviation shot down seven JDAM bombs and 104 Ukrainian drones.

▪️Ukraine lost up to 150 militants in the Russian Yug Battlegroup's combat zone.

▪️Ukraine lost up to 210 soldiers and three warehouses in the areas of responsibility of Russia's Battlegroup Dnepr and Sever.

▪️Ukraine lost up to 215 troops in the Russian Vostok Battlegroup's combat zone.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

❗️The EU attempting to incite street protests in Georgia - Russian Intel

Other key statements from Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) on protests in Georgia:

🟠The EU has decided to shift from promises to pressure in dealing with Georgian politicians.

🟠The EU is determined to bring Georgia back to the path of democracy and European integration at any cost.

🟠Plans are underway to create a range of opposition parties in Georgia to challenge the ruling "Georgian Dream" party.

🟠The EU delegation in Tbilisi has been allocated funds for protests - up to €120 for each participant in anti-government demonstrations.

🟠The EU is also ready to provide Georgian bloggers with up to €50,000 to "promote anti-government sentiments" among the youth.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🔍Current balance of forces in the Arctic

Insiders have told US business media that Washington has identified the Arctic as a domain for potential cooperation with Moscow on resource and energy exploration and new trade routes.

Who controls what in the Arctic today?

1️⃣Russia: Claims about 50% of the Arctic (2.1M sq. km, including the North Pole) and has the world’s largest icebreaking fleet (45 large vessels) and extensive commercial and military infrastructure to back its ambitions.

2️⃣US: Claims around 10% of the Arctic and recently expanded claims off Alaska, the Bering Sea and the Arctic Ocean to overlap with Canada. The US has just one heavy icebreaker for sustained operations.

3️⃣Canada: Claims 25% of the Arctic with a 1.9M sq. km continental shelf claim, partly overlapping with Russia’s. Canada has 15 icebreakers, half of them capable of working in the far north.

4️⃣Denmark: Claims 20% of the Arctic via Greenland, including the North Pole. May have a hard time enforcing its claims after scrapping all of its icebreakers. With Greenlanders eying independence, and the US eying Greenland, the Kingdom may have bigger problems to worry about.

5️⃣Norway: Claims 5% (235k sq. km) and operates two Arctic-class icebreakers. Has sought to strengthen its Arctic presence mostly with NATO forces stationed across 13 regional bases.

Note: Due to overlapping claims, the continental shelf claim figures above amount to more than 100%.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

❗️First contacts with the US administration give certain hope - Putin at the FSB board meeting

Other key statements by Vladimir Putin on US-Russian relations:

🟠The current US administration, rejecting the stereotypes and messianic ideological clichés of its predecessors, demonstrates pragmatism and a realistic outlook.

🟠Western elites seek to preserve instability in the world, they will try to undermine the US-Russia dialogue.

🟠The West's actions have led to the unraveling of its own internal systems.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇷🇺 Putin congratulates soldiers on Russia's Special Forces Day

The Russian president praised personnel and veterans for their professionalism, selflessness, loyalty to duty and oath, as well as their courage and resilience in carrying out the toughest combat missions.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Putin: Some of the forces are interested in keeping hostilities and will try to disrupt emerging dialog between Russia and the US

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

📹 Curves that defy imagination: A drone captures the mesmerizing flow of the road in Huixian province, China.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Who’s criticizing the ICC and why?

The International Criminal Court has come under fire from a broad array of critics over its lavish spending, inefficiency and politicized prosecutorial style. Among its critics are leaders and countries, including:

🔸 Slovak PM Robert Fico: “I don’t doubt for a second that the ICC warrants for Vladimir Putin or Benjamin Netanyahu were politically motivated,” Fico said this week. |If someone mentioned the ICC to me a few years ago, I felt seriousness and respect. It’s ridiculous today.”

🔸 Donald Trump: The ICC “has engaged in illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America and our close ally Israel,” the US president argued in an executive order imposing sanctions on the court earlier this month. “The ICC has no jurisdiction over the United States or Israel, as neither country is a party to the Rome Statute or a member of the ICC.”

🔸 The Kremlin blasted the ICC as “essentially a puppet in the hands of the so-called collective West, which uses it for its own purposes to further increase pressure on our country” after the court issued an arrest warrant against Putin and Russia’s children’s rights commissioner in 2023 for the ‘crime’ of evacuating children from conflict-torn areas of the Donbass.

🔸 China has repeatedly criticized the ICC over its “double standards” and “politicization” over decisions on Russia, North Korea and Myanmar. In November, Beijing reminded the court that it has no right to target Myanmar leader Min Aung Hlaing, whose country is not a party to the ICC, and urged the court to “uphold an objective and impartial stance, strictly follow the principles of complementarity and cooperation, [and] exercise its functions and powers prudently in accordance with the law.”

🔸 Multiple African leaders and the African Union have also attacked the ICC over the years over its perceived “neocolonial” and racialized anti-African bias. At one point in 2017, South Africa, Burundi and the Gambia even threatened to withdraw.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Negotiations lasting over 6 hours between representatives of Russia and the United States concluded in Istanbul, reports a Sputnik correspondent.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

📹Dozens reportedly injured in a stampede following a blast at a meeting of M23 rebel leaders with residents in DR Congo

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇷🇺 Key statements by Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova:

▪️Moscow hopes the meeting with the United States in Istanbul will be the first in a series of consultations that will help bridge differences.

▪️The main irritant in Moscow-Washington relations for a long time has been the lack of contact.

▪️Ukraine's entry into NATO would mean a sharp and uncontrollable escalation of the conflict.

▪️The Paris meetings on Ukraine revealed contradictions among Western countries.

▪️Only after Brussels abandons its militaristic approach can we talk about the EU making a constructive contribution to the Ukrainian settlement.

▪️Moscow intends to use all political means to avoid a bad situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

▪️The verdict against President of the Republika Srpska of Bosnia and Herzegovina Milorad Dodik is an act of revenge, and not a fair court decision.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Austria's Freedom Party wins election but loses power

Austria's three leading centrist parties have struck a deal to form a coalition government, sidelining the right-wing Freedom Party (FPO) despite its victory in the recent parliamentary election.

The FPO clinched 29.2% of the vote, ahead of the Austrian People's Party (OVP) with 26.48% and the Social Democrats (SPO) with 21.05%.
This isn’t the first time voters in Europe have chosen one party, yet another one, takes power.

▫️In Sweden, for example, the Sweden Democrats (SD) finished in second place in the 2022 elections, yet a coalition government was formed by the Moderate Party, the Christian Democrats, and the Liberals, effectively excluding the SD from ministerial roles.

▫️Similarly, in the Netherlands, the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) won the most seats in the 2021 elections but required extensive coalition negotiations with smaller parties to achieve a governing majority.

▫️In Spain, the People's Party (PP) led the polls in 2016 but faced challenges in forming a government due to a lack of majority support.

These examples illustrate that in Europe, electoral victories do not always translate directly into governing power.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

❗️Сanada, Mexico tariffs will go into effect on March 4 as scheduled, China will be charged an additional 10% tariff - Trump

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🔥BoJo, Ursula and Emmanuel go up in flames!

Effigies of Boris Johnson, Ursula von der Leyen, and Emmanuel Macron were burned in Donetsk during Maslenitsa.

Maslenitsa is a traditional Russian festival celebrating the end of winter and the arrival of spring, filled with pancakes, music, and cultural activities!

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🔍$60B in redundant programs flagged for cuts by State Department

Most grants targeted for elimination came from USAID, with the Trump administration cutting 5,800 of them worth $54 billion, a 92% reduction in multi-year spending, The Washington Free Beacon reported.

Key figures:

🟠15,000 grants: Foreign funding initiatives under review by the State Department.
🟠$60 billion: Total funding potentially up for elimination, still under review.
🟠41% reduction: Estimated potential cut in foreign assistance.
🟠USAID: The majority of flagged grants and programs stem from USAID, which will see its workforce reduced from 10,000 to just a few hundred.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Vladimir Putin met in the Kremlin with Lee Hee-young, a member of the Politburo and Secretary of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

📊From boom to bust: Ukraine's population plunge could see just 15mln by 2100

Ukraine’s population is currently believed to be just under 36 million, according to the World Bank. However, these numbers are estimates and could be much lower.

🟠Even before the escalation of the conflict with Russia, Ukraine already had some of the WORLD'S WORST demographic numbers.

🟠Ukraine reached its peak population in the early 90s at around 52 million. Since then, it has been reducing steadily through low birth rates and emigration, the World Bank adds.

🟠If these demographic trends continue, Ukrainians could be down to 25 million by 2050 and 15 million by 2100.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

As Trump promises to BLOW THE LID off Epstein's full client list, what might be revealed?

Announcing the imminent release of the Jeffrey Epstein files, US Attorney General Pam Bondi hinted there would be “a lot of flight logs, a lot of names.”

What could the files prove?

1️⃣Intelligence links:

🔸 Epstein, suspected of being an intelligence asset, avoided federal charges in 2008 through a plea deal arranged by ex-attorney Alexander Acosta

🔸 Reports suggested Epstein worked as an informant for the FBI and was tied to Mossad

2️⃣Honey traps:

Epstein may have operated "honey traps" for intelligence agencies inside and outside the US, allowing them to harvest information about high-profile guests, the WSJ reported, citing the disgraced Prince Andrew as an example.

3️⃣Bill Clinton and 'Lolita Express'

🔸 Epstein’s donations to the Clintons’ charities were described as "the largest unprosecuted fraud ever" by Wall Street analyst Charles Ortel

🔸 In 2002, Epstein "hosted" a trip for the Clinton Global Initiative to Africa on his private Boeing 727 (aka the "Lolita Express")

4️⃣Reported big names in Epstein's “little black book”

🤔Bill Clinton
🤔Tony Blairr
🤔George Mitchell
🤔Ehud Olmert
🤔Henry Kissinger
🤔Michael Bloomberg
🤔Andrew Cuomo
🤔Bill Gates
🤔Michael Bloomberg
🤔Richard Branson
🤔Rupert Murdoch
🤔Alec Baldwin
🤔Woody Allen
🤔Dustin Hoffman
🤔David Copperfield
🤔Michael Jackson
🤔Naomi Campbell
🤔Harvey Weinstein

All have denied wrongdoing related to Epstein

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt