💬 “The biggest challenge Brazil faces in the presidency or chairmanship of the BRICS group is maintaining a balance between the Global South and the Global North,” Vitor Moura, Brazilian geopolitical expert and master’s post-graduate from Tsinghua University, told Sputnik on the sidelines of the second Youth Conference of the Valdai Discussion Club.

💬 “It's possible in the future to think about revival of broadcasting of Russian companies, of Russian media in Europe, and it will be dependent on the political situation in the European Union,” Ladislav Zemanek, Non-resident research fellow with the China-CEE Institute, established by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) in Budapest, told Sputnik on the sidelines of the 2nd Youth Conference of the Valdai Club’s New Generation Project.

💬 "What I would say we’re involved in is understanding what the Russian position is. We have a better understanding of that now because we’ve actually spoken to them after three years of not speaking to them," US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in an interview with The Free Press.

💬 “The PAS party, LGBT* (GENDERDOC-M), and the Metropolis of Bessarabia are the most discussed in this context. All other groups have shown their support, except for these three organizations,” he said.

💬 “BRICS is not about the alternative, but BRICS is a new global governance, which is it's balance the power between the West and to the new Global South,” said Sellita, Lecturer at Bakrie University’s International Relations Department in Jakarta, Indonesia, in an interview with Sputnik on the sidelines of the 2nd Youth Conference of the Valdai Club’s New Generation Project.

💬 “The Europeans, in particular Germany, France and the UK, are doing everything they can to continue the conflict rather than bring it toward its end,” says fmr MP Matthew Gordon-Banks, commenting on the spat which pushed the US to skip the London talks on Ukraine this week.

💬 “As thing stand both sides [Ukraine and US, ed.] are poles apart on so many issues” regarding the conflict “that it is going to be very difficult to get anything sorted,” says De Montfort University politics professor Alistair Jones.

💬 "If he wants Crimea, why didn’t they fight for it eleven years ago?"

💬 "The situation for Ukraine is DIRE — He can have peace, or he can fight for another three years before losing the whole country."