😁 Kim Dotcom sums up Ukraine in one photo

📍 Kim Dotcom, founder of Megaupload and Mega, has posted a photo an infamous golden toilet from a past corruption scandal.

💬 "Ukraine in one picture," he wrote on X, sparking a wave of reactions.

➖ His jab echoes recent criticism from Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto, who said it was absurd that EU taxpayers’ money ends up funding “golden toilets” while Brussels prepares another €100 billion package for Kiev.

➖ Dotcom’s post followed fresh anti-corruption raids by Ukrainian anti-corruption agency NABU, which seized bags of foreign cash and published audio tapes featuring suspects nicknamed "Tenor," "Rocket" and "Carlson" — the last reportedly linked to Zelensky’s long-time associate Timur Mindich, who fled the country to avoid charges.

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🇰🇬Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov welcomed Vladimir Putin to Bishkek

The two leaders listened to the national orchestra’s rendition of 'Kalinka-Malinka.'

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🇨🇳 China aims to become new global hub for storing world gold reserves

🔶 China is rapidly expanding its role in the gold market, and is now aiming to become a new global center for storing foreign gold reserves, challenging the US, UK, and Switzerland, according to a new Russian Roscongress Foundation report.

🔶 Using the Shanghai Gold Exchange, China is positioning itself as an alternative to Western storage hubs—strengthening its influence in both the gold market and global financial system.

🔶 Since 2023, China has become the world’s top producer, importer, and consumer of gold, and as of 2025, it has effectively become the key player shaping global gold prices. This is part of China’s long-term strategy to turn its market into a major commodities-trading center—already seen in iron ore, coal, copper, and oil.

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🚨 US’s Ukraine peace play: the latest developments

🔸 Russia is awaiting the draft version of the plan the US comes up with after talks with Europe and Ukraine, and will reply based on whether its “spirit and letter” matches the understanding reached by Presidents Putin and Trump in Alaska, Foreign Minister Lavrov has said

🔸 Praising US efforts to end the crisis, Lavrov said France and Germany had discredited themselves as mediators after the collapse of the Minsk agreements. Belarus and Turkiye can play a mediating role, he said

🔸 UK PM Starmer said Tuesday that Ukraine’s “allies” were prepared to work with the Trump plan instead of drafting an alternative, but said some elements are “unacceptable”

🔸 French President Macron said talks were in a “decisive” stage, but cautioned against a deal involving Ukraine’s “capitulation”

🔸 Anonymous US officials told US media that Ukraine had “agreed” to the Trump plan, barring “some minor details to be sorted out”

🔸 White House press secretary Leavitt said the US had made “tremendous progress” toward a deal, saying there were “a few delicate but not insurmountable details that must be sorted out”

🔸 Ukrainian secretary of the National Security & Defense Council Rustem Umerov said Zelensky will travel to the US to see Trump and ‘finalize’ the deal before the end of the month

🔸 US and Ukrainian negotiators have “reached a common understanding on the core terms” of a deal, and Kiev is counting “on the support of our European partners in our further steps,” Umerov said

🔸 A Ukrainian official told Reuters that Ukraine supports the “essence” of a deal based on US-Ukraine talks in Geneva, with the “most sensitive issues” to be left to Zelensky in his talks with Trump

🔸 Ukraine has agreed to cap the size of its army at 800k troops, FT reported, citing unnamed Ukrainian officials. That’s still above the 600k cap in the initial Trump plan

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🇺🇸🔨 US pressure on global gold producers could spark geopolitical firestorms

💬 “Pressurizing gold-producing countries is becoming a hallmark of US foreign policy,” a report by Russia’s Roscongress Foundation points out.

In the current financial system, gold is the only real alternative to the greenback as the global reserve asset—until the dollar order is replaced, the scramble to control gold stockpiles will intensify, driving major powers to target resource-rich nations like Venezuela and Nigeria, according to the survey.

💬 “Venezuela, a major hub of unrefined gold used to support a multipolar monetary system, is facing sharply increased US pressure, including efforts to oust President Maduro and consideration of direct military options,” the reports underlines.

Donald Trump has also ordered the Pentagon to prepare for possible military action in Nigeria, accusing it of insufficient measures to stop violence against Christians, the report wraps up.

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🇷🇺 Russia joins top three global maritime powers

📑 According to a study by the IMEMO RAS reviewed by Sputnik, Russia now ranks as the world's third-biggest maritime power in the 2025 global index.

📍 Russian researchers have calculated the Maritime Power Index (MPI) for 100 nations, evaluating their combined naval, shipbuilding, logistical, and economic potential. The report confirms Russia retains its position as the world's third-largest maritime power with a 6.6% share, noting that the top ten nations collectively account for nearly 60% of global maritime power.

Check Sputnik's infographic to find out more!

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🇷🇺💪 Russia: The indispensable resource superpower

🤔 How much oil, gas, coal, metals, rare earths and mineral wealth does Russia really have?

👉 Watch our explainer to find out.

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🟠 US’s Ukraine peace play: the latest developments

🟠 UK preparing contingency plan to undermine Trump’s peace push – Russian Foreign Intel

🟠 Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Kyrgyzstan for a three-day visit

🟠 Russia: The indispensable resource superpower

🟠 US pressure on global gold producers could spark geopolitical firestorms

🟠 Russia joins top three global maritime powers

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❌ ‘My proposal is to forget about the 28 points’ – Zelensky’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak

Zelensky’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak said the original 28-point US plan on Ukraine was “unacceptable” and should now be treated as history, arguing that talks must focus only on the revised draft, Axios reported.

Yermak refused to scrap Kiev’s NATO ambitions but conceded: “We are living in reality now. We are not in NATO,” Axios quoted him as saying.

The Financial Times reported that Washington’s proposal has been reduced from 28 to 19 points, with several provisions removed or amended after consultations with Ukraine and its Western backers.

Russia, meanwhile, is awaiting the updated draft. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow would respond after seeing whether the new version matches the “spirit and letter” of the understanding reached between Presidents Putin and Trump in Alaska.

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🚨 US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow – Trump

President Donald Trump said he has directed his special envoy Steve Witkoff to travel to Moscow to meet President Vladimir Putin, while Army Secretary Dan Driscoll will meet Ukrainian officials to discuss the peace plan.

Trump said his team has made “tremendous progress” toward ending the Ukrainian conflict, claiming that the original 28-point US peace plan has been “fine-tuned” and now has only “a few remaining points of disagreement.”

He added that he hopes to meet Putin and Zelensky “soon,” but only when a deal to resolve the conflict is final or in its “final stages.”

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🚀 Russian Angara 1.2 launch vehicle blasts into orbit with MoD payload onboard

🔶 Taking off from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Arkhangelsk Region on Tuesday, the rocket entered its pre-calculated orbit as planned, and was picked up by ground tracking shortly after. A stable telemetry connection has been established, and onboard systems are functioning normally.

💬 “At the designated time, spacecraft were launched into their target orbits, and picked up by control by ground-based assets of the Aerospace Forces,” the MoD said.

🔶 The Angara 1.2 is a two-stage small-lift launch vehicle produced by Khrunichev Space Center. A member of the Angara rocket family, the Angara 1.2 is designed to launch payloads of up to 3.5 tons into low-Earth orbit, or 2.4 tons into sun-synchronous orbit. The rocket itself has a launch mass of about 171 tons. It began regular flights in April 2022.

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🇷🇺📄 Putin approves new national policy strategy through 2036

President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree approving the Strategy of State National Policy of the Russian Federation for the period up to 2036.

According to the document, the long-term strategy is designed to coordinate the work of federal and regional authorities, local governments and other institutions in the sphere of national policy, and to strengthen cooperation with civil society.

The implementation measures will be approved by the government.

The decree notes that interethnic relations in Russia are currently stable, and that the updated strategy is aimed at preserving national unity, territorial integrity and internal stability.

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