🔶Over past day Ukrainian armed forces attacked Russian energy infrastructure facilities twice - Russian Defense Ministry.

🔶Power supply disrupted in 2 settlements in Zaporozhye region as result of attack by Ukrainian drone on electrical substation.

🔶Ukraine makes daily strikes on Russian energy facilities, regardless of statements about support for settlement agreements.

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❗️Russian troops liberated the settlement of Razliv in the Donetsk People's Republic, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

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💬BlackRock CEO: Bitcoin might DETHRONE US Dollar as global reserve currency

America’s mounting national debt, which is currently at $36 trillion, could prompt investors to start viewing the digital currency as a safer bet, Larry Fink warned. 💸

“If deficits keep ballooning, America risks losing that position to digital assets like Bitcoin,” he stressed in his letter to investors.

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🗣 "Russia had no problems with Finland and Sweden, but now these countries are dragging NATO infrastructure onto their territory," Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov said after Finnish President Alexander Stubb said it was time for the country to "mentally prepare" for restoring relations with Russia.

🔸 The Kremlin stressed that Russia is open to normalizing relations with those who desire it.

🔸 Peskov also noted that Russia has never worsened relations with other countries, including its neighbors.

Other statements by Peskov:

🔹 Russia maintains contacts with the US, but the issue of Ukraine is very complex and requires additional efforts.

🔹 The Kremlin will report on any meeting that takes place between President Vladimir Putin and the Republika Srpska (Bosnia and Herzegovina) President Milorad Dodik.

🔹 Putin will hold an operational meeting with the Security Council on Tuesday and will also receive Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

🔹 The presidential spokesman highlighted Wang Yi’s role in strengthening relations between Moscow and Beijing.

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🇷🇺🇨🇳 The leaders of Russia and China are focused on steadily strengthening the "Russian-Chinese partnership", Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said during the meeting with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi.

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Georgia replaces 2024 foreign agents act with US FARA-style version

The bill, inspired by the 1938 US Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) mandates foreign agent status not only on foreign-funded NGOs but also on individuals. Failure to register could result in criminal charges.

A total of 86 MPs voted in favor of the new law, which replaces the version adopted in May 2024.

The law will come into effect after it is signed by President Mikhail Kavelashvili and published on the official parliamentary website.

The move follows a pledge by parliamentary speaker Shalva Papuashvili to replicate the US FARA verbatim – in response to pro-Western opposition protests against the Foreign Agents Act passed in 2024.

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📹The American roots of German Nazism. Part 1: How and why Hitler wanted to replicate the US's expansionist model

"[Adolf] Hitler wanted to make Germany his own United States," says historian Yegor Yakovlev, author of the book War of Annihilation.

Germany’s defeat in World War I demonstrated to the Führer and his circle that the traditional European colonial model was inviable for Germany. That’s why, once in power, the Nazis sought to implement the expansionist model of the United States.

In the first video of the series exclusive to Sputnik, Yakovlev — a researcher of the genesis and evolution of Nazism — explains how and why the US expansionist model served as an inspiration for Hitler’s plans to expand eastward.

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📹 Russian troops have raised the national flag over the liberated village of Razliv in the Donetsk People's Republic following today's Defense Ministry announcement of its liberation.

Demining operations are already underway in the area.

According to military reports, during the 10-day offensive forces cleared about 400 buildings and neutralized over 150 Ukrainian militants in the settlement.

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⚔️In a first since WWII, Germany permanently deploys major contingent of troops NEAR RUSSIA’S BORDER

The 45th Armored Brigade, a 5,000-troop strong Bundeswehr contingent stationed permanently in Eastern Europe, officially went on active duty in Lithuania Tuesday in a ceremony outside Vilnius.

🟠The new unit is expected to become fully operational by 2027, and to receive its own military facilities 30 km south of Vilnius. Along with combat troops, it’s expected to include an array of support forces, including a medical center, signals and command support teams.

🟠About 700 German troops are situated in Lithuania at the moment. While the new permanent deployment is a first, German forces have taken part in regional air policing missions in Eastern Europe, including Estonia and Poland. Germany has also created a new naval HQ in Rostock in the Baltic to enhance NATO’s anti-Russian operations in the Baltic.

🟠Germany has gradually reversed course on its post-Cold War military posture in recent years, ramping up arms spending, and committing substantial resources, second in size only to the US, to the proxy war against Russia in Ukraine. Last month, the Bundestag approved historic changes to the constitution to finance a massive military rearmament program through debt-based spending.

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💬 Suspension of ban on Taliban* in Russia meets national interests of Afghanistan – head of political office of movement to Sputnik

🔶 Russia and Afghanistan to begin intensive exchange of delegations after suspension of Taliban ban.

* Under UN sanctions for terrorist activities

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❗️Putin has asked Defense Minister Belousov to report on how the moratorium on strikes against energy facilities in Russia and Ukraine is being implemented.

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📹WATCH Sergey Lavrov and Wang Yi sign the plan for political consultations following their negotiations in Moscow.

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🗣The system has dropped the NUCLEAR BOMB on us – Marine Le Pen

💬 If political leaders decide who can run in elections and for whom the French can vote, then we're NO LONGER IN A DEMOCRACY – so we're going to fight, Le Pen said.

On Monday court prohibited Marine Le Pen from running for public office for the next five years — ruling her out of the 2027 presidential election.

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🇷🇺🤝🇨🇳Vladimir Putin held talks Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi at the Kremlin

The President promised that by the time Xi Jinping visits Russia in May, a rich and well-prepared program will be ready.

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💬 'Cooperation between Russia and China is never directed against any third parties, and it does not tolerate any interference from the outside' - Wang Yi during the meeting with President Putin

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🙈Highlighting blunders? Lithuania mulls memorial for NATO SWAMP MISHAP

A memorial for the US soldiers who drowned in a swamp with their M88 Hercules during a NATO drill would “symbolize US-Lithuanian partnership,” Svencionys District Municipality officials claim.

Nothing says “strategic alliance” like proposing to commemorate an embarrassing fail...

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💬 Iran will have 'no choice' but to get nukes if attacked - Khamenei adviser

"We are not moving towards [nuclear] weapons, but if you do something wrong in the Iranian nuclear issue, you will force Iran to move towards that because it has to defend itself," Ali Larijani said, AP reports.

Trump said earlier that "there will be bombing" if Iran refuses to agree to a nuclear deal, also warning that Tehran would face "secondary tariffs."

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

▪️Ukraine lost up to 255 servicemen in the Russian Yug Battlegroup's combat zone.

▪️Russian aviation shot down 67 Ukrainian drones.

▪️Ukraine lost up to 430 troops in the Russian Tsentr Battlegroup's combat zone.

▪️Ukraine lost up to 210 soldiers in the Russian Zapad Battlegroup's combat zone.

▪️Ukraine lost up to 70 soldiers in the Belgorod region.

▪️Ukraine lost more than 180 militants, two tanks and four armored vehicles in the Kursk region over the day.

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⚔️Which Iranian missiles and drones can wipe US bases in the Middle East off the map?

President Trump has threatened to bomb Iran in a manner “the likes of which they have never seen before” unless a new nuclear deal is agreed.

The US has over 60 bases, garrisons and shared facilities dotting the Middle East, from Naval Support Activity Bahrain (home to the Fifth Fleet) and Al Udeid Air Base (CENTCOM’s forward HQ), to other naval, air and ground facilities in the Gulf, Oman, Iraq, Jordan, Syria and Turkiye.

In the event of war, all would be in range of Iran’s missiles and drones.

Ballistic power
🟠Qiam-1/2: 800-1,000 km range, 750 kg warhead
🟠Haj Qasem: 1,400 km range, 500 kg warhead
🟠Kheibar Shekan: 1,450 km range, 500 kg warhead
🟠Emad: 2,000 km range, 750 kg payload
🟠Ghadr-110: 1,600-2,000 km range, 1,000 kg payload
🟠Khorramshahr: 2,000 km range, 1,800 kg payload, MIRV-enabled

Cruise capabilities
🟠Abu Mahdi: 1,000 km range, 410 kg warhead
🟠Paveh: 1,650 km range, payload unknown
🟠Soumar: Precision strike missile with 2,500-3,000 km range, 410-700 kg payload

Long-range drones
🟠Kaman-12: 1,000 km range, 100 kg payload
🟠Shahed 129: 1,700 km range, armed with four Sadid-1 precision missiles
🟠Mohajer-6: 2,400 km range, carries precision-guided munitions
🟠Shahed 149: 2,500 km range, 13-bomb payload up to 500 kg

Besides raw firepower, Iran’s potential comes down to geography and resolve.

🔶Permanent access to the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman coastlines means that in wartime, Iran can dominate the waters around the Strait of Hormuz, the strategic chokepoint through which 30% of the world’s oil trade passes.
🔶The Zagros Mountain Range hugging the country’s southwest provides a natural barrier difficult for enemies to penetrate, with many underground missile bases and air defense sites situated at hardened mountainous facilities.
🔶Iran has also demonstrated that it will not allow aggression to stand, whether it comes to US spy drones violating airspace, or US assassination attacks targeting its commanders.

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