❗️Russia-US talks will take place in Riyadh on March 24, said Kremlin Aide Yuri Ushakov.

The Russian delegation will be led by Senator Georgy Karasin and FSB Director's Advisor Sergey Beseda. According to Ushakov, the American team has also been formed.

"We hope that the consultations scheduled for Monday will be productive," emphasized the Russian President's aide.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Macron MIA: Too busy for Renew Europe?

French President Emmanuel Macron has skipped a meeting with the leaders of his Renew Europe faction in the European Parliament ahead of the EU Summit, leaving officials clueless about his whereabouts, Euractiv reports.

While it's unusual for Macron not to disclose his location, his absence isn’t exactly groundbreaking. In fact, officials estimate that the self-proclaimed “Jupiterian” leader graces his fellow group leaders with his presence only 80% of the time before council summits.

Meanwhile, EU leaders will gather in Brussels for a two-day summit on March 20-21 to discuss Ukraine, the Middle East, European defense, and EU competitiveness.

The image is AI-generated

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

❗️EU leaders say they maintained the "peace through strength" approach in Ukraine, according to the final document from the summit in Brussels.

It was signed by 26 of the 27 countries of the union.

The document notes that the EU is ready to continue sanctions pressure on Moscow and will hold frozen Russian assets.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

❗️Russia will invite US representatives to an international meeting on security issues in May, said Sergei Shoigu, the Secretary of the Russian Security Council.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🔍 FBI agent who exposed Hunter Biden's secrets ARRESTED

Johnathan Buma, a 15-year FBI veteran, was arrested at JFK Airport on charges of illegally disclosing classified intel after circulating a book draft, the New York Post reports citing court docs.

He allegedly printed about 130 files, some marked protected, and shared them with associates. The draft detailed his career and whistleblower activities, including the FBI’s investigation into a foreign country's WMD program.

Buma exposed Hunter Biden’s actions with Burisma, claiming the real FBI story during the Trump and Biden years differs from the GOP narrative. In January 2019, Buma brought sources to DOJ prosecutors, pushing the narrative that Hunter's work with Burisma was illegal and linking George Soros to money laundering.

He was released on a $100,000 bail while awaiting further proceedings in a California federal court.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🛰🇺🇸 NASA uses LOOPHOLE to underpay astronauts for nine extra months in space

The US space organization apparently sees no difference between a business trip and overtime, as Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore will receive only $5 for each of the 279 days they spent on the International Space Station. They were meant to be there for just eight.

“While in space, NASA astronauts are on official travel orders as federal employees,” an agency spokesperson explained to the media.

As a result, astronauts will receive a daily "incidentals" allowance, totaling $1,430 for their 286 days in space.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

What are Trump’s real motives for seizing Ukraine’s energy?

President Donald Trump’s push to secure control of the Ukrainian energy infrastructure is part of the US strategy to decouple Western Europe, especially Germany, from Russia, argues Paolo Raffone, a strategic analyst and director of the CIPI Foundation in Brussels.

Rather than continue using NATO to keep “America in, Germany down, Russia out,” the Trump administration banks on “economic and infrastructure control in Europe, mainly in the energy sector.”

“The end goal is that Europe will remain steadily linked to the US and not to Russia. However, if any energy-based interaction between Europe and Russia will be envisaged, the US will be the necessary 'link' between them,” Raffone explains to Sputnik.

In order to avoid a direct military confrontation with Russia, Trump seeks to establish “sort of a ‘civilian-economic interposition presence’ Ukraine,” which he thinks would be less expensive that providing military support to Ukraine and “more effective vis-a-vis Russia.”

“It means that if the US owns or controls certain civilian infrastructures of Ukraine, deploying investments and personnel for their functioning and exploitation, it is de facto a strong deterrent for Russia to attack them militarily and at the same time guarantees that Russia does not take control of them,” Raffone elaborates.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

📹🇹🇷 Students from Istanbul universities are holding protests in various parts of the city in connection with the detention of Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, eyewitnesses told Sputnik.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

⚛️💡 US plans to profit from Europe by controlling Ukrainian power

President Donald Trump’s interest in acquiring Ukraine’s energy infrastructure stems from two factors, says political analyst and nuclear energy expert Alexei Anpilogov.

First of all, with Ukraine’s population and industrial capacity both in decline, domestic energy consumption by the end of the Ukrainian conflict will be low, with no actual reconstruction effort in sight.

At the same time, Europe continues its push towards green energy, sacrificing the reliability of power generation for the sake of building more expensive and inefficient wind turbines and solar panels.

Therefore, Ukraine’s remaining nuclear power plants could become a good source of energy for Europe and a good source of income for the US if it gains control of these facilities.

Essentially, the Ukrainian “natives” would be tasked with servicing and maintaining nuclear plants in working order while the US “masters” would simply pocket the profits, Anpilogov explains.

He also suggests that the US might want to raise the price of electricity in Ukraine in order to maximize profits. Ukrainian hydroelectric power plants may also be of interest to the US, seeing how they are regarded as “green” by Europe.

The acquisition of Ukrainian power plants would have a negligible effect on US control of Europe, Anpilogov says, seeing how Washington’s grip in that region is already as firm as it gets.

As an example, he points out how the US cut off Europe from the supply of cheap Russian gas by allegedly blowing up the Nord Stream. With Poland refusing to transport Russian gas to the rest of Europe, the latter is now forced to pay extra either for US LNG or Russian gas shipped via Turkiye.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🍔 Ukraine's new recruitment ad: Thousands of cheeseburgers for serving as meat grinder

Yes, you read that right. The official TikTok account of Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense has posted a video claiming that, for a youth contract payment of 1 million hryvnias (about $24,000), young men aged 18 to 24 can earn enough to purchase a whopping 15,000 cheeseburgers.

Because nothing says 'patriotic duty' like a mountain of fast food, right?

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

How do global central banks diversify FROM THE US DOLLAR INTO GOLD?

Countries across the world added 1,044.6 metric tons (MT) of gold to their vaults last year. What did the process look like?

▪️2024 became the third year in a row that gold purchases in this segment surpassed the 1,000 MT mark, the World Gold Council (WGC) reports.

▪️The central banks increased the volume of gold purchases between 2021 and 2024 by more than two-fold.

▪️The share of gold in global gold and foreign exchange reserves grew from 12.9% in late 2021 to 15.3% at the end of 2023. By the end of 2024, it reached 18.4%.

Forecasts

▪️81% of the central bankers expect global gold reserves to increase over the next 12 months, a 2024 WGC poll showed.

▪️The WGC suggests that central bank gold purchases will continue to be a major driver of gold demand this year.

Central banks that hold the most gold

🇺🇸 The US: 8,133.46 MT
🇩🇪 Germany: 3,351.53 MT
🇮🇹 Italy: 2,451.84 MT
🇫🇷 France: 2,437 MT
🇷🇺 Russia: 2,332.74 MT
🇨🇳 China: 2,279.56 MT
🇨🇭 Switzerland: 1,039.94 MT
🇮🇳 India: 876.18 MT
🇯🇵 Japan: 845.97 MT
🇳🇱 Netherlands: 612.45 MT

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Vladimir Putin congratulated Kirsty Coventry on her election as President of the International Olympic Committee, the Kremlin announced.

The 41-year-old Zimbabwean is the first woman to hold this position. Coventry is a two-time Olympic swimming champion.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt