❗️Bill on Foreign Agents withdrawn from Georgian Parliament, Ruling Party announces

🇷🇺🇸🇦Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov discussed Ukraine with Foreign Minister of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud today in Moscow.

Russia is grateful to Saudi Arabia for a balanced position on the situation in Ukraine, Lavrov pointed out.

In this video, an awkward moment when Lavrov and Al-Saud cannot decide who should ask the question on meeting with Blinken…

https://news.1rj.ru/str/youlistenedmayak/25671

⚡️EMERCOM: In Moscow, after servers of radio stations and TV channels were hacked, false alert on radioactive attack was broadcasted

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Exactly a year ago, on March 9, 2022, the world has seen this picture from the scene of destroyed maternity home in Mariupol.

The picture is among many taken by Associated Press journalists Mstyslav Chernov and Evgeniy Maloletka. They documented the most horrifying moments of Mariupol and its residents in the first two weeks of the war.

1 year later, Marianna Vishemirskaya, pictured in this photo, is still haunted by the outrage it created. Here I explain, why.

I met Marianna in person in August last year, in her hometown Makiivka, near Donetsk. Our detailed interview is still in the making.

A year later, it is not really clear what had happened in Mariupol on March 9, 2022 — was it an air strike, or a missile strike, and if so, who fired it.

What is clear — is that the hospital was hit, people died, women lost their babies. There is no publicly available information on any investigation being conducted. Marianna told me neither Ukrainian nor Russian authorities have approached her for the purpose of investigation.

As we today learned from the New York Times, the Pentagon is blocking the Biden administration from sharing evidence with the International Criminal Court in The Hague gathered by American intelligence agencies about Russian atrocities in Ukraine, as “American military leaders fear setting a precedent that might help pave the way for it to prosecute Americans”.

Happy Friday everyone. Here is “the new age propaganda” for you, shown on Ukrainian TV.

The background voice says Ukrainians prefer to keep pets of larger breeds, like german shepards, golden retrievers and jack russell Terrier. “The stronger the country is, the bigger the dogs are”. That’s why in the “country agressor” the dogs are just like their patrons — german spitz, chihuahua, yorkshire terrier

Source: https://news.1rj.ru/str/Gury_mood3/30274

⚡️⚡️Key updates on Russia and #UkraineCrisis as on March 10

🔴Nord Stream saga
Russia will publish correspondence on the investigation of the undermining of the "Northern Streams", said Dmitry Polyansky, First Deputy Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the UN.

"Investigations are underway in a number of countries — Denmark, Sweden and Germany. We are not involved in these investigations. Not because we don't want to, but because we are being kept on the sidelines. <...> To be transparent, we will publish all this correspondence very soon and distribute it among the members of the Security Council," Polyansky told The Dive.

🩸Oil meddling
FT has learned that the United States has privately urged some commodity traders to shed concerns over shipping price-capped Russian oil in a bid to keep supplies stable, the Financial Times reported on Thursday.

Treasury officials met executives and traders at Trafigura and Gunvor among others and offered reassurances over expanding their role in Russian crude and fuels trade without breaching western restrictions, the FT said, citing people familiar with the matter.

📈Corporate debt
As economic situation in Russia is projected to worsen in the medium term, there are risks that certain systemically important companies and credit institutions may need additional financial support from the state, the Accounts Chamber of Russia indicated in the report seen by Vedomosti.

According to the department, the corporate sector’s debt accounts for almost 90% of Russia’s total debt os of July 1, 2022.

💊IT bonus
The demand for a preferential mortgage program for IT employees (rolled out to prevent IT professionals from leaving the country) turned out to be lower than Russia’s Ministry of Finance expected, market players told Kommersant. They point out difficulties in obtaining the loan. In addition, a number of IT companies are developing their own mortgage programs.

🇬🇪Georgia protests
Protests against the bill on foreign agents erupted in Georgia over the past few days resulted in quick withdrawal of the bill.

As RBC explains it its detailed report, the idea of the bill was to track the NGOs, media and activist who receive foreign aid (since 1991, Georgia has become the main recipient of US aid in Europe and Eurasia, according to the US Congressional report for 2021. In fiscal years 2008-2009, the republic received US assistance in various areas in the amount of $1.04 billion).

RBC asked experts whether the development would affect Russians living in Georgia, many of whom left there after the invasion of Ukraine began and then after the mobilization was announced (in September last year more than 700 thousand Russians entered the country, about 100 thousand stayed there). Experts believe this won’t affect Russians, however in the past two days there could be seen an influx of people who want to cross the border back into Russia at the infamous Upper Lars border crossing.

👉 Follow t.me/russiawire for daily updates, analytics and ground reportage from Russia, Donbass, and the neighbourhood.

FT: Ukraine is understood to have received one of two Patriot air defence systems promised by the US and Germany, but it is not yet operational. It is also expecting some Patriot launchers from the Netherlands.

The Patriot is the most advanced medium-range air defence system the west can offer — but it has not been tested against Kinzhals. A similar system, the Samp-T, promised by France and Italy, is also yet to arrive.

https://www.ft.com/content/e85762ec-ccc5-43e4-896c-074a451dad30

To be sure, we should distant ourselves from the last phrase “Everything Putin has been saying is finally getting confirmed”.

But some of the arguments Putin has voiced, particularly about the West arming Ukraine (apart from luring it into its arms politically), aren’t baseless.

The problem is that many Russians and Ukrainians alike refuse to believe this justifies the invasion. Tough question, it’s it?

ISW’s latest:

Russian forces conducted the largest missile strike across Ukraine of 2023 so far on March 9, but the attack likely only served Russian state propaganda objectives.

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“The Kremlin likely deliberately launched missiles that Ukrainian air defenses cannot intercept to achieve results within the Russian information space despite the dwindling supplies of such missiles. […] Vladimir Putin likely used these scarce missiles in fruitless attacks to appease the Russian pro-war and ultranationalist communities, which have overwhelmingly called on him to retaliate for the Bryansk Oblast incident on March 2.

Russian milbloggers and propagandists have also criticized the Russian missile campaign for failing to make Ukraine “freeze” over the winter in late February and early March before the spring season.[11] Putin likely attempted to offset these narratives with another missile attack similar to the ones that Russia conducted in the fall of 2022, using advanced missiles to guarantee some damage in Ukraine. Russian milbloggers did not overwhelmingly support today‘s strikes, however, noting that the Kremlin needs to fundamentally change its targeting approach given that Ukraine has adapted to the established attack pattern against its energy infrastructure”.

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campaign-assessment-march-9-2023

Bershka, Zara and Pull&Bear stores will open in Russia in April under new names, TASS reports

Vegshka will be called Ecru, Pull&Bear — DUB, Zara — Maag.

The deadlines for opening the stores were postponed due to earthquakes in Turkey, where the manufacturing is located (alongside China).

The Spanish group Inditex, which owns the Zara and Bershka brands, left Russia last year & sold its business to UAE based Daher Group.

Joker DPR:

My subscriber Aiden Aislin returned to the front to work on Abramovich's smartphone and tiramisu. By the way, will he be presented with a state of shame for sharing information with me on this video?

We are talking about this situation , which I once told you. He even confirmed that my publications about the problems of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the facts of corruption are true. Yes, the information is so-so, but the fact itself. Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha...

@jokerdpr