🇷🇺Russia has made a strong leap since 2014 thanks to sanctions imposed by the West over Crimea – Putin

➕Russia had until 2022 approached agreements with its Western partners with cautious trust, Putin said in a documentary "Russia. Kremlin. Putin. 25 Years."

➕Russia, signing the Minsk agreements, hoped for compliance, but the country was simply deceived.

➕West used the pause under the pretext complying with the Minsk agreements to rearm Ukraine, prepare for war with Russia.

➕When Western companies were leaving Russia, there were many risks, but the country did not throw itself headlong into the abyss – there were foundations for the economy.

➕When a country like Russia becomes too dependent on external factors, it is dangerous.

➕If Russia does not rely on its traditional values, it simply will not exist, it will lose its identity.

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🇷🇺Russia did not start the Ukraine operation earlier than it did because it believed in the Minsk agreements, wanted to resolve the Donbass issue peacefully - Putin

➕Russia did not prepare specifically for a military operation in Ukraine, but sought to resolve the Donbass problem by peaceful means, Putin said in a documentary "Russia. Kremlin. Putin. 25 Years."

➕Russia could not proceed with drastic decisions on Ukraine without carrying out work in the sphere of security, economy

➕It would have been unrealistic for Russia to start the Ukraine operation in 2014 as it was not ready for a frontal confrontation with the West

➕US is now openly saying that the West is in a state of existential war with Russia

➕Russia, in fact, is alone in confronting the entire collective West

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🇷🇺Putin: Russia was forced to make decision in 2014 to support people of Crimea, any other behavior would have meant handing them over to be torn apart

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🇷🇺🇨🇳China & Russia to continue to oppose unilateralism, bullying, to jointly promote equal multipolar world - Chinese MFA

➕Consensus has been reached by Russian, Chinese leaders to deepen mutual political trust between the countries, promote cooperation in all areas

➕China & Russia to continue to strengthen close cooperation in UN, SCO, and BRICS, guide global governance in the right direction

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🚨 France faces ballooning debt, broken politics

📉 France recorded a government budget deficit equal to 5.8 % of the country's GDP in 2024.

💬 PM Francois Bayrou warned:

🟠In 3-4 years, debt interest could hit over $108 billion per year — equal to the combined budgets of education and defense.

🟠A sharp rise in debt servicing costs alone could trigger an economic and financial crisis of historic proportions.

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🤷‍♂️'It was a MISTAKE': Killed son of Finnish politician RUED joining Ukrainian mercs

Leo Aland endured brutal conditions and abuse at the hands of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Here’s what we know:

🟠Aland, 20, volunteered to fight in Ukraine after his Finnish military service, despite his family’s strong objections, Yle reported.
🟠The service contract bound him to six months with Ukrainian forces.
🟠The Finnish Foreign Ministry’s guidelines warn that contracts are nearly impossible to break – something he never got the chance to learn.
🟠As a precaution, Ukrainian commanders confiscated his passport and restricted his phone use, his father told the outlet.
🟠Leo served for just over four months, with messages to his father revealing his deep regret over the decision.

💬 “Sometimes I just don't know what I'm doing here,” the young man wrote, adding that “coming here was a mistake.”

🟠On April 13, his father was notified of his death by fellow fighters.

➡️In the past three years, around 10 Finns have died fighting in Ukraine, according to the Finnish Foreign Ministry.

Like other foreign fighters seeking an “eastern European adventure," they are quickly confronted with the brutal realities of modern warfare, most often meeting an untimely and inglorious end.

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🌐 Putin believes the trend towards the reduction in the G7 countries’ share in the global economy, and therefore in world affairs, will continue over the next 25 years.

🇷🇺🇨🇳 Relations between Russia and China are of a strategic nature today and strengthen global stability amid conditions of global turbulence, Putin said.

🤝 The national interests of Russia and China largely coincide, he added.

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🇷🇺🪖Key statements from the Russian MoD daily briefing on the special military operation:

▪️Russia’s Tsentr Battlegroup wiped out over 520 soldiers and two tanks, including AMX.

▪️Russian aviation shot down 146 drones and two aerial bombs.

▪️Russia’s Sever Battlegroup wiped out over 190 soldiers;

▪️Russia's Yug Battlegroup eliminated 275 militants;

▪️Russia’s Zapad Battlegroup wiped out over 255 soldiers;

▪️Russia's Dnepr Battlegroup eliminated 60 militants.

▪️Russia’s Vostok Battlegroup wiped out over 170 soldiers;

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🇷🇺Putin on successor: I think about it all the time, but ultimately the choice will be up to the Russian people

✅Putin confirms that he looks at and evaluates everyone's potential when thinking about his successor

✅In Russia, there must be several people who can earn the trust of the people.

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💬 Putin: I hoped the reaction of society on the special operation would be EXACTLY like this

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‘Laughable’: 💪🇸🇰Slovak PM reacts to 🤡Zelensky’s veiled threat to world leaders coming to V-Day parade in Moscow

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🔥 Arms of Victory: BP-43 armored train

Sputnik continues to explore the unique arms used by the Soviets to crush the Nazis during the Great Patriotic War.

The BP-43 was a unique behemoth of an armored fighting machine, so powerful that only one of 21 trains built was ever destroyed in battle.

Where rail infrastructure was available and intact, the train would provide much-needed fire support to frontline units, taking on enemy aircraft and tanks alike using its 37 mm M1939 anti-aircraft guns, 76 mm tank guns, and 7.62 mm machine guns.

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🚨🗣 Warren Buffett calls it quits: kind of man of Wall Street or vicious shark?

The 94-year-old billionaire has announced plans to step down as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway at the end of the year after 60 years at the helm.

While the mainstream press and business leaders from Tim Cook to Jamie Dimon sing his praises as a “visionary” standard bearer of “ethical investing” with “unmatched business acumen and philanthropic contributions,” here are the shabbier aspects of Buffett’s legacy.

🏴‍☠️ Corporate Piracy

🟠BNSF Railway (2010): Berkshire’s $34B purchase raised concerns over Buffett’s influence with regulators and the Obama administration to delay the competing Keystone Pipeline.
🟠Clayton Homes (2025): This Buffett investment is facing lawsuits over predatory, high-interest lending to low-income families, drawing attention from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

😮 Shady Practices

🟠SEC Probe (1974): Buffett was investigated for trying to interfere with a competitor’s bid to buy Wesco Financial, resulting in a $115K payout to shareholders.
🟠Salomon Brothers (1990): A major Berkshire Hathaway investment slapped with a $290M fine for fraudulent Treasury securities bids.
🟠Goldman Sachs Investment (2008): Buffett’s $5B buy-in to Goldman Sachs during the financial crisis has been praised for helping stabilize markets. But critics say he used insider info on the bank’s financials to strike the deal.
🟠Wells Fargo (2016): Buffett’s investment came under scrutiny after the bank created over 2M unauthorized accounts. Despite possible insider knowledge, Buffett did nothing.

🤫 Shady Relationships

🟠The Giving Pledge: A philanthropic campaign created by Buffett and Bill Gates in 2010, seen by some as a PR move to disguise billionaire tax write-offs.
🟠George Soros Connection: Buffett joined the board of Soros' Open Society Foundations in 2013.

⛓ Corporate Slavedriver

An array of Berkshire Hathaway companies, including BNSF, NetJets and Dairy Queen have faced grievances over low wages, poor conditions and union suppression.

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👊 JD Vance SPANKS neocon warmonger Bill Kristol over Trump pope image criticism

💬 “As a general rule, I’m fine with people telling jokes and not fine with people starting stupid wars that kill thousands of my countrymen,” Vance wrote on 📱, after Kristol asked him if he was “fine with” the “disrespect and mocking of the Holy Father” the AI-generated pope Trump supposedly showed.

➡️Kristol, 73, co-founded the arch-neocon Project for the New American Century with Robert Kagan in 1997, and provided ideological justifications for US invasions of Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria and Iran. Collectively, over 7,000 US servicemen were killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, plus up to a million locals.

➡️Vance, a former Marine, did a six-month tour of Iraq in 2005 as a military journalist.

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⭐ Musk’s Starbase City is a go

Residents of Boca Chica Village, Cameron County, Texas have voted 212-6 to incorporate as the city of Starbase.

SpaceX began building its private spaceport at the location, situated near the Gulf of Mexico on the southern tip of Texas, in 2018. Most of its 500 or so residents are SpaceX employees and their families. Elon Musk has a home there on Meme Street.

Incorporation is expected to offer SpaceX zoning and development control, and the ability to independently approve construction and commercial projects, create a police or fire department, libraries, public parks and even a municipal court.

Starbase is used exclusively to launch Starship super-heavy rockets, with eight launches carried out to date (four successful, four failed).

As for the original residents of the once sleepy beachfront community, most have moved away to escape constant construction, noise and rocket launches.

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