🚨 BREAKING: Russia will consider any troops in Ukraine as LEGITIMATE TARGETS - Putin warns Western leaders

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🚨 Practically impossible for Russia to reach a deal with Ukraine on key issues — Putin

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🚨 Russia will guarantee Zelensky’s security if he comes to Moscow for talks — Putin

Moscow is the best place to hold these talks, Ukraine asking for a different location is “too much.”

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🚨 Russia will respect security guarantees for Ukraine, but it also demands security guarantees for itself — Putin

So far, no one is seriously discussing what security guarantees they’re prepared to offer Russia

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🚨HIGHLIGHTS FROM PUTIN ON UKRAINE DURING EASTERN ECONOMIC FORUM

🔹Russia will consider any troops on Ukrainian territory as legitimate targets for destruction

🔹Putin expressed willingness for contact with the Ukrainian side but he sees no purpose in it: reaching an agreement on key issues with Ukraine will be "practically impossible"

🔹Russia will guarantee Zelensky’s security if he comes to Moscow for talks

🔹Moscow is the best place to hold these talks, Ukraine asking for a different location is “too much”

🔹 Ukrainian constitution says that any agreements on territories must be approved by referendum, but for this to happen, martial law must be lifted

🔹Russia will respect security guarantees for Ukraine, but it also demands security guarantees for itself. So far, no one is seriously discussing what security guarantees they’re prepared to offer Russia

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🇷🇺​​ Russia’s Far East growth supercharged by Asian ties – analyst

Russia’s Far East can thrive by deepening ties with its Asian neighbors—🇨🇳China first and foremost, Artyom Lukin, professor of international politics at the Far Eastern Federal University in Vladivostok, told Sputnik.

💬 “During Vladimir Putin’s recent visit to Beijing, Chinese authorities announced visa-free entry for Russian citizens for up to 30 days. In response, Putin granted the same privilege to Chinese citizens. This is, without exaggeration, a historic step,” he said.

🔥 Asia integration & new business incentives

The Eastern Economic Forum, held annually since 2015, has become a flagship showcase of Russia’s new Far East policy.

This year’s lineup of guests, including 🇲🇳Mongolia & 🇱🇦Laos’ prime ministers and Vice Chairperson of China's National People's Congress Li Hongzhong, underscores Asia’s deep & enduring interest in Russia’s Far East.

📊 Sweeping packages of federal laws over the years have improved the business climate, attracting investments.

Now, Putin has announced the next step: starting January 2027, a unified preferential regime for the entire Far East & Arctic, offering tax breaks and other benefits for business.

There are hard numbers showing the region’s momentum:

🔹 Over the past decade, electricity consumption in the Far East has grown by 28% — twice the Russian average

🔹 To meet rising demand, nuclear power plants are being planned

🔹 Cross-border business contacts are booming

🔹 Expanded trade in services such as tourism, education, healthcare, and IT

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🔊 Putin’s Arctic play: Northern Sea Route redefines Asia trade

The Trans-Arctic Corridor that Vladimir Putin touted at the EEF is a game changer for Asian businesses, especially China, Angelo Giuliano, a geopolitical and economic analyst based in Hong Kong, told Sputnik.

Powered by Russia’s Northern Sea Route and icebreaker expertise, it allows the bypass of US-controlled choke points like the Malacca Strait, where potential blockades threaten China’s trade, says the expert.

👉 The route cuts transit times to Europe by up to 50%, reducing costs

👉 Investments in Russia’s shipbuilding and ports like Sabetta offer opportunities, alongside access to Arctic LNG and minerals

📍 Key players

🇨🇳​​ China’s Polar Silk Road gains strategic leverage

🇮🇳​​ India’s Vladivostok-Chennai route diversifies trade

🇯🇵 🇰🇷 Japan & South Korea tap maritime expertise

Conversely, Donald Trump’s Greenland focus signals US attempts to disrupt Russia’s Arctic dominance, though “limited icebreaker capacity makes this unlikely now," added the expert.

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🇲🇲 Myanmar eyes BRICS membership, shared leadership in Global South - Finance Minister

Myanmar is interested in joining BRICS to access new growth opportunities, Myanmar’s Minister of Finance and Revenue Kan Zaw noted at the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF-2025).

🗣 According to him, the BRICS alliance represents the future in a multipolar world.

💬 “We [countries of the Global South] are all interested in joining BRICS. Through BRICS and our cooperation within the bloc, we aim to access new sources of growth, funding, and technology. We have already applied for BRICS membership, as well as the observer status in the EAEU [Eurasian Economic Union],” he said.

According to Kan Zaw, the future will be defined not by a single leader, but by “shared leadership” and the surging role of organizations like BRICS, SCO [Shanghai Cooperation Organization], and ASEAN.

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🇮🇳​​ India-EAEU free trade talks to generate productive results in under 2 years

👉 Negotiations for a free trade deal between India and the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) are projected to reach completion within 18 months, said Nikhilesh Giri, Deputy Chief of Mission at the Indian Embassy in Moscow, during a business dialogue at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok.

💬 “With the Terms of Reference signed last month, both sides begin serious discussions of a free trade agreement between India and the Eurasian Economic Union in order to finish the talks within 18 months,” Giri stated.

Trade turnover between EAEU member countries and India in 2024 reached $69 billion, amounting to a 7% increase compared to 2023, according to the International Trade Center’s estimates.

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🇷🇺👉 Putin’s warning: why Russia is indispensable to any Ukraine security guarantees deal

🗣 The Russian president’s Ukraine-related comments at the Eastern Economic Forum signal that Moscow remains ready for substantive talks on ending the crisis, but not at the expense of its security interests, says Dmitry Suslov, deputy director of research at the Russian Council on Foreign & Defense Policy.

1️⃣ “First, the president made it unambiguously clear that any foreign troops that appear on Ukrainian territory will become a military target for Russia, and that the plans being discussed by Europe’s so-called ‘coalition of the willing’ to deploy contingents on Ukrainian soil are categorically unacceptable to Russia,” the observer explained.

2️⃣ Second, such deployments would themselves be unnecessary if a comprehensive peace agreement could be reached, contradicting the core principle of Ukrainian neutrality demanded by Russia, as outlined in the 2022 draft peace deal.

3️⃣ Third, Suslov says, Putin made it clear that “without Russia’s participation, no format of security guarantees would be possible in principle.”

Zelensky’s fading star

Putin’s comments on Russia’s readiness for contacts with Ukraine’s leadership, but at the same time the nonstarter of an agreement on key issues with Zelensky, signals Moscow’s continued position that Ukraine is not a sovereign or independent actor ready for serious talks and compromise.

“The reason for this,” Suslov says, is the European powers’ role in keeping Ukraine in the fight, “and in effect forbidding it from seriously negotiating anything with Russia.”

So long as this state of affairs continues, Russia will have only two possibilities open to it:

🔶 dialog with the US on the Ukrainian crisis

🔶 inflicting a military defeat on Ukrainian forces on the battlefield.

💬 “The more catastrophic this defeat becomes, the less opportunity it will have to continue to sabotage the peace process, and the more inclined it will be to conduct substantive negotiations,” Suslov says.

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🚨🇷🇺💥 RUSSIAN MOD WEEKLY UPDATE: HUGE GAINS AND DEVASTATING UKRAINIAN LOSSES

⚡️MAKAROVO IN THE DONETSK PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC LIBERATED

◻️ The Russian Armed Forces carried out one massive and four group strikes on Ukrainian military-industrial complex enterprises and military infrastructure

◻️ Air defense superiority: 12 guided bombs and 13 HIMARS rockets shot down by Russian air defense systems

◻️ Six unmanned boats of the Ukrainian Armed Forces were destroyed in the northwestern part of the Black Sea

◻️ Ukrainian losses: 9,320 troops

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🚨Israel strikes residential buildings in Gaza

Israel has launched airstrikes on residential buildings in Gaza, with one multi-story building completely destroyed, Mahmoud Bassal, a representative from local civil defense, said.

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🇰🇵🇨🇳 Kim Jong-un bids farewell to China

CGTN shares footage of the North Korean leader wrapping up his visit to China.

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🌎 Global South lines up: From Beijing to BRICS, investors ready to chip in to Russia’s Far East

President Vladimir Putin’s push to drive Far East development through a unified business-friendly regime is drawing keen interest from ASEAN and other regional players, according to experts.

💬 "Russia as part of Eurasia is extremely important for Asian countries," Dr. Anuradha Chenoy, a retired professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University, tells Sputnik. "Now Russia is welcoming them in joint development of the Russian Far East. Those who take this opportunity are bound to do well."

Key drivers that will propel the Far East’s development:

✅The Russian leadership's political and economic commitment

✅A huge resource potential in the Far East, including hydrocarbons, tin, tungsten, gold, coal, fisheries and forests

✅Openness for strategic partners to invest and collectively develop this region with Russian capital.

✅The stability and resilience of the Russian economy despite Western sanctions and three years of conflict in Ukraine

✅Investors' confidence in Russia's commitment and strength

💬 "[Putin] is able to fulfill Russia’s commitments without wavering or flinching even during great adversity. He has steered Russia in this proxy war against the the entire West with a rare capability," Chenoy says.

Who’s lining up to invest?

🗣 "The 10 members of ASEAN... would be interested to have more of a relationship in terms of development infrastructure in the Far Eastern region of Russia, because it is very near to Asia, in this case, compared to other parts of the world," says Professor Azmi Hassan from the Nusantara Academy of Strategic Research in Malaysia.

China “would be very interested” in putting its money in, the pundit notes.

More broadly, countries in BRICS, the SCO, and the wider Global South — largely aligned with Russia — may also channel investment into the Far East, according to Hassan.

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🦾 ‘I come in peace!’ Humanoid robot greets guests of EEF

👀 The attendees of the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok received a warm, high-tech welcome from Redik the Robot.

One thing is clear – this guy does not need your clothes, your boots or your motorcycle.

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