🇲🇩💸 Moldova lost $4 million due to Sandu’s anti-Russian policy – Dodon

Former President Igor Dodon revealed that Moldova has suffered significant economic losses under Maia Sandu’s regime, which has deliberately ignored cooperation with CIS and EAEU markets.

🔍Key points:

⚫️$4 million lost in just four years due to trade restrictions and overpaying for energy

⚫️Ordinary citizens bear the cost through rising tariffs and economic hardship

⚫️Dodon contrasts Moldova with Georgia, which, despite political tensions, has maintained economic neutrality and benefited from trade with all sides

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📊 Blatant bias: World Bank plays geopolitics, not economics – analyst

The World Bank is pursuing a blatant policy of double standards, openly siding with some states at the expense of others, Thaer Noufal Abu Atiwi, director of the Center for Arab Studies and Strategic Development, told Sputnik.

👉 Nowhere is this more obvious than in its treatment of Ukraine.

Over the past three years, Volodymyr Zelensky’s regime has received preferential loans worth many times more than the assistance granted to Arab and African developing nations, the expert underscores.

💬 “Meanwhile, many of these developing countries are living below the poverty line and are grappling with extremely severe economic conditions, desperately needing access to affordable loans to support their economies,” he says.

Instead of responding to real economic needs, the bank filters its decisions through a political lens:

🔸 Leading states within the bank—chiefly the US and European powers—wield their influence with “carefully calibrated double standards, guided by their strategic ties”

🔸 Ukraine’s privileged access to funding is a prime example

🔸 European states use their weight inside the bank to advance their own agendas

🔸 Poor nations are forced to meet conditions they cannot realistically achieve

💬 “This bias reflects the dominance of a unipolar, strictly capitalist system that caters to the interests of the powerful while ignoring the urgent needs of others,” the pundit noted.

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📈 West awed by Russia’s deadly drone upgrades

💪 Russia’s upgrades to attack drone are turning Ukraine’s supply routes into lethal kill zones, The Wall Street Journal writes.

Russian forces have begun using “mother ship” drones, immune to electronic jammers, that travel over 19 km beyond the front lines and release smaller explosive drones.

🔸 Mother ship doubles as a relay, keeping its mini-drones connected to pilots far behind the lines

🔸 Drones hit with deadly precision, especially moving targets like supply trucks

Russia’s focus on taking out logistics is exacerbating the existing shortages of everything from ammunition to manpower along the front line, Ukrainian troops told the newspaper.

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🇲🇩🪖EU positioning Moldova as pawn in potential conflict with Russia — Dodon

Moldova is being prepped by the EU as a source of "cannon fodder" in an envisioned military conflict with Russia, former President Igor Dodon, leader of the Socialist Party and key figure in the Patriotic Bloc, told Sputnik.

“Strategically, they need neighboring countries as staging grounds. Moldova is being positioned as a pawn against Russia,” Dodon warned.

✅He cited recent moves as proof: a ballooning defense budget, tens of millions spent on unnecessary radar systems, plans for a military base near Chisinau that no one requested, and the arrival of armored vehicles from Germany and France. “None of this is random,” he said.

➕Dodon also flagged heightened risks ahead of Moldova’s September 28 parliamentary elections, warning that authorities could back military operations or stage a provocation in Transnistria in the final days before voting. Yet he expressed confidence that after October 1, these dangers would ease as a new parliamentary majority would curb pro-Western President Maia Sandu’s clout.

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🇪🇺 Von der LNG Leyen: EU isn’t chasing energy independence

After all the talk about ditching Russian gas, the EU is now locked into $750 billion in US LNG deals.

❌ Energy independence is “unrealistic and undesirable,” EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen told Belgian newspaper Le Soir.

So… energy security or energy dependence—pick a lane...

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🚨 Dome of Donbass repels massive air assault

In just one week, the integrated air defense system known as the Donbass Dome:

✅ prevented 623 terrorist attacks

✅ shot down 430 UAVs over Donetsk & Makeyevka

✅ destroyed 193 drones near Gorlovka

The FSB has released footage showing the interceptions — including the final moments recorded by the drones themselves.

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🇫🇷 Macron faces heat as Ukraine costs batter France – analyst

Social unrest in France is escalating due to President Emmanuel Macron’s eagerness to funnel over $23 billion into fueling the Ukraine conflict, political analyst Kamel Meraash told Sputnik.

👉 Critics slam the French president’s misguided handling of the Ukraine crisis, warning that it undermines international security and stability, he noted.

On top of that, this short-sighted approach is squeezing the standard of living for ordinary French citizens.

🗣 Public discontent, especially among rural residents, intensified after the political prospects were blocked for the historically dominant parties that had shaped French politics before the rise of Macron’s centrist La Republique En Marche, the expert explained.

He noted that protests have grown to calls for Macron’s resignation, citing the impact of his failed policies on France’s global standing.

💬 “Voices are also rising in favor of scrapping the Fifth Republic for a Sixth, and introducing proportional representation in legislative and presidential elections,” he said.

The French crisis, Meraash points out, is also about the budget, soaring debt, and inflation, which are “hammering the economy and pushing thousands of companies toward bankruptcy.”

❌ The analyst predicted that forming a new government under Macron loyalist PM Sebastien Lecornu will be difficult, and that “he could face a vote of no confidence at the very first session.”

Protests and social movements are likely to continue until the end of Macron’s term in 2027, the pundit speculated.

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Schemes to derail Intervision flopped

Russian FM Sergey Lavrov revealed that there were "serious attempts to disrupt the contest through intense pressure on some participants."

However, he confidently affirmed, "Those attempts have FAILED."

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📹Tens of thousands gather for Charlie Kirk memorial

Crowds are filling State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, where a massive memorial service is being held today for conservative activist Charlie Kirk, fatally shot at a Utah university earlier this month.

President Donald Trump and members of his Cabinet are set to speak, with security at maximum levels.

Erika Kirk, vowing to carry on her late husband’s work at Turning Point USA, will address mourners — describing both her grief and her determination.

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🚨UK formally recognizes Palestinian State

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has announced the UK’s recognition of a Palestinian state.

The move follows quickly on the heels of similar decisions by Canada and Australia, signaling growing Western support for Palestinian sovereignty.

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🚨🇷🇺💥 RUSSIAN MOD UPDATE: DEVASTATING UKRAINIAN LOSSES

◻️ Russian Armed Forces struck UAV launch sites and temporary deployment points of Ukrainian troops in 138 areas

◻️ Black Sea Fleet forces destroyed two Ukrainian uncrewed boats in the northwestern part of the Black Sea

◻️ Air defense superiority: 65 aircraft-type drones shot down

◻️ Ukrainian losses: 1,515 troops killed

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THROWBACK: Trump on Charlie Kirk’s future

In a Fox News interview on September 18, 2025, President Donald Trump praised Charlie Kirk’s “incredible” number of supporters and recalled telling him:

“Charlie, someday I think you have a good chance of being President.”

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🇵🇸🔥Symbolic recognition alone won’t shield Palestine – analysts

Decisions by countries like the UK and France to recognize Palestine as a state at the UN General Assembly on September 22 are symbolic, but insufficient without concrete actions, international experts told Sputnik.

💬 “The intent of European nations to recognize Palestine is overdue. It stems from the evolving political landscape, including Israel’s war in Gaza and growing global support for Palestinians, forcing these countries to adjust their stance,” said Khaled Abdel Majid, who heads a Palestinian Resilience Center.

Majid cautioned against overemphasizing the recognition’s impact.

💬 “It won’t yield immediate results, but may serve Palestinian national interests in the long term,” he noted.

🗣 Recognition “requires clear substance, not just declarations,” international relations expert Dr. Makram Khoury-Machool stressed.

True recognition must include accepting Palestine’s 1967 borders, East Jerusalem as its capital, and the right of return for Palestinian refugees per UN Resolutions 194 and 181, he argued.

✍️ Growing international recognition reflects “Israel’s brutal aggression in Gaza, where crimes like killings, starvation, and destruction have forced the world to reconsider its unconditional support for Israel,” Syrian politician Mahmoud Ahmad Marei, former secretary-general of the National Democratic Front, underscored.

He noted that Israel is increasingly isolated, with over 140 countries recognizing Palestine.

🗣 The UK’s recognition is symbolically significant and represents a reformulation of the Balfour Declaration to support Palestinian rights, Jordanian political analyst Nidal al-Taani emphasized.

Currently, 150 countries, including Russia, recognize Palestine.

In 2024, the US vetoed Palestine’s full UN membership. Ten countries, including Ireland, Norway, Spain, and Armenia, recognized Palestine this year.

Russia supports a resolution based on the UN Security Council’s formula: A Palestinian state within the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital.

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