RT News - December 23rd 2022

Price caps: Russia is to set it's own price designation for sales of gas and other commodities. Russia had warned the EU about taking "spot prices" as early as the COVID19 pandemic when demand for energy products was lower due to lockdowns, etc., and Pres. Putin had begged the countries not to use this method for purchase. Sanctions on Russian energy products have now caused prices to shoot up and simultaneously, the EU has tried to regulate market prices by imposing price caps on Russian energy supplies to manipulate the market.

Pres. Putin says the West has failed in its efforts to cripple his country's economy, as he accuses Washington of seeking to divide post-Soviet countries and pit them against Moscow. RT talks about yesterday's presser with Pres. Putin which came after the meeting of the Russian State Council, a top advisory body.

A massive blaze erupts at a major gas storage facility in the North African nation of Morocco amid a series of explosions.

The US denies violating international law after the World Trade Organization rules in favour of Hong Kong in a commercial dispute between Washington and the Chinese region. This dispute ruling comes after another in respect to tariffs applied on Chinese steel and aluminium were imposed by USA and found to breach WTO global trade rules. These rulings are far more important than at first obvious takes.

Rwanda continues to deny it's support for the M23 rebels and the massacres, terrorism and mass civilian displacements in DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo). Putting the finger on who is doing what in this tragedy is hard with France accusing and Rwanda accusing whilst all the time M23 is killing and terrorising DRC. Please catch up on previous posts on this channel or better still, if you can access it, use the RT.com website. (QS too many people have died and why isn't this being given a whole concentration week in the United Nations?)

India: All systems go for India - having moved from 11th place to 5th place as a world economy and ties between India and Russia continue to strengthen. India's resolute policy of self-determination reaps rewards. (QS such as shame the rest of our .govs can't "manage" to do this. One can only imagine the "ties of corruption" that bind the citizens by their own .govs actions)

False flag: (QS no idea what to say about this)

Max Blumenthal got some comments from the Ukraine diaspora on the way to the Pres. Zelensky address in congress. Report

US healthcare. Is it possible that Americans will lose out on healthcare amid massive U.S. spending in Ukraine ?

US senate has passed a motion to use seized Russian's assets to finance the proxy war in Ukraine. Sen. Lindsey Graham says it will be a relief for the people of Ukraine and US but failed to mention that very little "aid" ever reaches the people of Ukraine. It's also immoral to use stolen private money to relieve stolen/embezzled taxpayer's money.

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below 1) -- Energy minister assesses when Ukraine can ‘stabilize’ power grid
2) --- Europe’s largest nuclear plant secure only thanks to Russian army – Moscow
3) --- US Space Force practices for war in Europe
4) --- EU country’s officials caught in stolen car – media
5) --- US admits Afghan pullout helped arm Ukraine
6) --- North Korea rejects ‘absurd’ claim
7) --- German intel employee accused of spying for Russia
8) --- Sweden arrests suspected spies
9) --- Damage to Ukrainian civilian infrastructure self-inflicted – Russia
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via RT website 22 Dec, 2022 22:13

1) -- Energy minister assesses when Ukraine can ‘stabilize’ power grid

The repairs may take six months even if Russia stops striking the infrastructure, German Galushchenko says

Ukraine will be able to “stabilize” its damaged energy system no earlier than the summer and only if Russia stops its continuous attacks, Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko has admitted. The minister made the remarks in an interview with Forbes Ukraine published on Thursday.

“The speed of repairs is tied to attacks. If there are no attacks, even taking into account the already damaged [power] generation, we will stabilize the system by summer,” Galushchenko said, refusing to name exactly how many generation figures the country currently lacks.

According to the official, in recent months, the Ukrainian energy system has been subjected to at least nine particularly large-scale missile attacks by Russia. At the same time, Russia continues to strike specific energy facilities using drones and artillery on a daily basis, the minister asserted.

Galushchenko claimed that Russia seeks to cause a complete, country-wide blackout in Ukraine to “drive the society to protests.”

According to Moscow, however, the real goal of the critical infrastructure attacks was to disrupt Ukraine’s war-fighting capability and damage its logistics, which are used to transport troops and their Western-supplied weaponry.

Russia drastically ramped up its strikes against Ukrainian infrastructure in early October in response to repeated Ukrainian sabotage on Russian soil, including the bombing of the Crimean Bridge, which is squarely blamed by Moscow on Kiev’s military intelligence. The incident has been widely cheered by top Ukrainian officials, yet Kiev has denied any involvement in the car bomb blast that heavily damaged the road section of the bridge and killed three civilians
https://www.rt.com/russia/568768-ukraine-energy-grid-stabilize/
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22 Dec, 2022 19:20

2) --- Europe’s largest nuclear plant secure only thanks to Russian army – Moscow

Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov has accused Kiev of “terrorism” due to its repeated attacks on the Zaporozhye facility

Only the continuous efforts of the Russian military to protect the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) are shielding Europe from a catastrophe, Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov said on Thursday.

The remarks came during a briefing for foreign military attachés in which the top commander highlighted the Russian army’s activities during the Ukraine operation throughout the year.

The bulk of Gerasimov’s speech focused on the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine, which broke out in late February. The general reiterated Moscow’s accusations against Kiev of attempting “nuclear terrorism” that threatens the whole of Europe with its relentless attacks on the ZNPP.

“This summer, Ukraine resorted to the tactics of nuclear terrorism, threatening Europe with a nuclear catastrophe at the Zaporozhye power plant. Systematic shelling of its premises is carried out on an almost daily basis,” Gerasimov stated.

“Only thanks to the competent and effective actions of our Armed Forces to protect the nuclear power plant, is it possible to keep this nuclear facility safe,” he stressed.

Over the past few months, the plant has been subjected to repeated artillery shelling, as well as missile and suicide drone attacks. While Moscow insists the damage to the facility is attributable to Kiev’s forces, Ukraine has claimed that Russia, for unnamed reasons, has itself been targeting the site it controls. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has only established that attacks on the plant have been occurring but has demurred from assigning blame to any party.

The largest nuclear power facility in Europe, the Zaporozhye plant was taken over by Russian forces early in the conflict. This autumn, four formerly Ukrainian territories, the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, as well as Zaporozhye and Kherson Regions, joined Russia following referendums. In October, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree formally asserting Russian ownership over the plant and entrusting its operation to a subsidiary of the state-owned nuclear giant Rosatom.
https://www.rt.com/russia/568745-zaporozhye-nuclear-power-plant/
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23 Dec, 2022 00:25

3) --- US Space Force practices for war in Europe

America’s newest military branch drilled with several allies, sharpening its readiness in a European scenario for the first time

The US Space Force has conducted joint drills with UK, Canada and Australia – the largest such exercises in its history – to hone its readiness for a hypothetical war in Europe, according to a statement by the Space Training and Readiness Command (STAR).

Three so-called Space Flag 23-1 drills, each lasting two days, were conducted earlier this month at Schriever Space Force Base in Colorado. The exercises enabled participants to practice “orbital warfare techniques, our electronic warfare techniques, our space-domain-awareness techniques and intelligence command,” Space Force Lieutenant Colonel Albert Harris said.

“This Space Flag focused on a US European Command scenario, so we wanted to present the problem in that theater and exercise our ability to win it based off of various problems that we presented to the team,” Harris added.

The event marked the first Space Force drills that practiced for European war and just happened to come amid escalating tensions between Washington and Moscow over the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Harris said planning for the exercises began in February, the same month in which Russia began its military operation in Ukraine.

Troops were given Europe-specific problems to solve during mission planning and practiced procedures to increase their readiness to win a conflict on the continent, but the exact scenarios remain a mystery. Colonel Jason Schramm said the drills enabled US forces and coalition partners to practice their space combat tactics.

“Winning in space underpins coalition lethality in other warfighting domains,” he said. “We will fight in space as a coalition, and these opportunities are invaluable to building the team that will fight together should the need arise.”

The US has been supporting Ukraine in its fight against Russia with weapons, supplies and other forms of military aid, such as intelligence, while claiming not to be directly involved in the conflict. General John Raymond, the head of US space operations, said in July that “commercial space has been very important in providing capabilities that have been helpful to Ukraine.”

One well-known case is the supply of Starlink ground equipment to Ukraine. Elon Musk’s SpaceX has provided access to satellite broadband internet service to Kiev’s troops.

Speaking at a space event at the UN in October, Russian representative Konstantin Vorontsov expressed concern over the US and its allies using “elements of the civilian space infrastructure, including commercial, for military purposes,” and warned that “quasi-civilian infrastructure may be considered a legitimate target for a retaliatory strike.”

The US launched its Space Force as a separate military branch in 2019, more than 50 years after joining with the Soviet Union and the UK in signing a treaty that pledged to set aside space for “peaceful purposes.” The Pentagon has claimed that it must treat space as a “war-fighting domain” because of alleged threats from Russia and China.
https://www.rt.com/news/568777-space-force-europe-war-drill/
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22 Dec, 2022 22:32

4) --- EU country’s officials caught in stolen car – media

Moldovan border police reportedly found a Romanian delegation’s vehicle in the Interpol database

A Romanian government delegation headed to Moldova on an official visit had one of its cars confiscated, after a border check revealed it had been reported stolen in Italy over a decade ago, according to local media. Its current owner is the very agency in charge of overseeing the integration of national databases with the EU and international ones.

The car, whose make and model were not specified, is registered to the Romanian Digitalization Authority (ADR) and was one of the vehicles used by Research, Innovation and Digitization Minister Sebastian-Ioan Burduja’s delegation for a trip to Chisinau this week. Moldovan border guards checked the Interpol database and saw that the car had been reported stolen in Italy in 2010, according to the Hungarian news agency MTI citing a Romanian news outlet.

ADR head Dragos Cristian-Vlad was allowed to enter Moldova, pending consultations with the Romanian embassy in Chisinau. He was later told to hand over the car to the Moldovan authorities on his way out of the country.

Romanian records showed that the vehicle had changed hands several times between 2010 and 2017, when the government seized it as part of a tax judgment against its then-owner. The Romanian tax authority then gave it to the Ministry of Telecommunications, which soon became the Ministry of Transport and Telecommunications Infrastructure. In 2020, the ministry assigned it to the ADR, which operates under its wing.

Cristian-Vlad told local media outlets that such an embarrassing incident could have been avoided by connecting various databases of EU member countries, but it’s his ADR that is in charge of setting the technical and legal conditions for database interoperability.

Moldova is a former Soviet republic located between Ukraine to the east and Romania, which joined the EU in 2007, to the west. Its residents overwhelmingly speak Romanian.
https://www.rt.com/news/568769-moldova-romania-stolen-car/
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22 Dec, 2022 23:51

5) --- US admits Afghan pullout helped arm Ukraine

Secretary of State Blinken said aiding Kiev would’ve been “more complicated” without exit from Kabul

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken admitted on Thursday that the much-criticized withdrawal from Afghanistan, which he called “America’s longest war,” helped Washington redirect resources to Ukraine just months later

Appearing at the State Department for a year-end press conference, Blinken painted a rosy picture of Washington’s diplomatic accomplishments. The exit from Afghanistan, which happened in August 2021, came up because one reporter took issue with Blinken’s claim of strong relationships with US “allies and partners,” some of whom she said were critical of how that US handled that operation.

Consultations were “sustained, they were intense, and we strongly took note of everything that we heard from allies and partners in advance of the decisions that President [Joe] Biden made and that we made,” Bliken insisted, arguing that claims otherwise are “not born out by the facts.”

Though the reporter had asked about lessons of that withdrawal in “dealing with Russia and China,” Blinken proceeded to argue that “if we were still in Afghanistan, it would have, I think, made much more complicated the support that we’ve been able to give and that others have been able to give Ukraine” against Russia.

The last US soldier departed from the Kabul airport on August 31, 2021. The US-backed Afghan government had collapsed without much of a fight two weeks earlier, leaving the Taliban in control of the country – as they had been in 2001.

While the cost of the 20-year conflict has been estimated at over $2 trillion, the US spent almost $73 billion in 2021 dollars on training, equipping, maintaining and supplying the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF), most of it from the Pentagon budget. The bulk of ANDSF weaponry and equipment ended up in Taliban hands.

By comparison, the Russian Defense Ministry estimated earlier this week that total Western aid to Ukraine this year amounted to over $97 billion. The Pentagon alone has spent at least $20 billion in direct “security assistance” to Ukraine since February 2022, by its own admission. Other US government departments, NATO and EU members accounted for the rest.

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky visited Washington in person on Wednesday, receiving a pledge from Biden to fund Kiev for “as long as it takes” and a $1.85 billion packet of weapons and ammunition, including a battery of Patriot air defense missiles. Zelensky also addressed a special joint session of Congress, with a plea to approve another $45 billion in aid for 2023. The Senate did so the following day.
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23 Dec, 2022 00:55

6) --- North Korea rejects ‘absurd’ claim

Alleged delivery of weapons to Russia never happened, says Pyongyang

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea on Friday dismissed reports that it had supplied Russia with weapons as “the most absurd red herring.” The White House and the US envoy to the UN claimed to have “confirmed” the transfer, which allegedly took place last month.

A spokesman for the North Korean foreign ministry said the “false report that the DPRK offered munitions to Russia is the most absurd red herring, which is not worth any comment or interpretation,” according to the state news agency KCNA. “The DPRK remains unchanged in its principled stand on the issue of ‘arms transaction’ between the DPRK and Russia which has never happened.”

He added that the international community should “focus on the US criminal acts of bringing bloodshed and destruction to Ukraine by providing it with various kinds of lethal weapons and equipment on a large scale,” instead of the “groundless theory” that Pyongyang was selling weapons to Russia, which he said was “cooked up by some dishonest forces for different purposes.”

On Thursday, the White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby claimed that North Korea had delivered “infantry rockets and missiles to Russia for use by Wagner” in November. Kirby also claimed the private military company has 50,000 troops in Ukraine and is “emerging as a rival power center to the Russian military and Russian ministries.”

Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US ambassador to the UN, also said Washington had “confirmed” the transaction and that she will bring it up at an upcoming Security Council meeting. Asked about it at a press conference on Thursday, the UN secretary-general’s spokesman Stephane Dujarric said he had “not seen that statement.”

The questions of North Korean arms exports need to be addressed through the UN sanctions regime, Dujarric said, adding, “I have no further information.”

Iran has likewise rejected US and Ukrainian claims that it sold missiles and drones to Russia, warning Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky on Thursday that its “strategic patience will not be unlimited towards unfounded accusations.”
https://www.rt.com/news/568778-north-korea-denies-russia-weapons/
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22 Dec, 2022 22:15

7) --- German intel employee accused of spying for Russia

Authorities in Berlin have arrested a suspect for allegedly sharing state secrets, committing treason

German authorities have arrested an employee of the country’s foreign intelligence service (BND) on accusations that he was spying for Russia by leaking state secrets to Moscow.

The man, identified as a German national by the name of Carsten L., has been arrested on suspicion of committing treason, the federal prosecutors office in Berlin said on Thursday in a statement. Investigators searched his apartment, his workplace and those of another person. The BND conducted related searches at two of its offices.

Carsten L. appeared before a judge in the Federal Court of Justice on Thursday and was ordered to be jailed pending trial. According to the warrant for his arrest, he is employed by the BND and gave information obtained during the course of his duties this year to a Russian intelligence service. The information in question meets the definition of a state secret under German law, prosecutors said.

BND chief Bruno Kahl said details of the treason investigation won’t be made public because Russia could try to use such information to harm Germany.

The arrest of Carsten L. comes just three days after the Austrian Interior Ministry announced that it had identified a 39-year-old Greek citizen whom it suspected of spying for Russia. The man faces up to five years in prison if convicted.

The last time a German intelligence service employee was charged with treason was in 2014, when a man identified as Markus R. was accused of selling state secrets to the US CIA. Those secrets allegedly included personal details on more than 3,000 BND employees. He was sentenced to eight years in prison in 2016.

German officials have been on heightened alert for spying activity on behalf of Russia amid the Ukraine crisis, which has pitted NATO members against Moscow through international sanctions and military aid to Kiev. Berlin expelled 40 Russian diplomats in April, accusing them of being spies. The Russian Foreign Ministry called the allegations unacceptable and responded by expelling 40 German diplomats from Russia.
https://www.rt.com/news/568773-german-intel-staffer-accused-of-spying-for-russia/
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22 Nov, 2022 19:14

8) --- Sweden arrests suspected spies

The individuals were reportedly working for Russia

Swedish law enforcement have arrested two individuals on suspicion of espionage, the country's domestic security agency, SAPO, announced on Tuesday. The suspects were apprehended in the Stockholm area during a predawn raid, the agency said in a statement, providing few other details of the case.

It stated that the operation, which included house searches, had been conducted alongside police and the Swedish Armed Forces. According to local media reports, citing eyewitnesses, at least two Black Hawk helicopters were deployed in the area to rappel police officers.

One of the arrested individuals stands accused of “gross illegal intelligence activities against Sweden and against a foreign power,” while the second is suspected of “aiding and abetting” such activities. The authorities did not reveal the nationalities of the suspects or specify on which “foreign power” they had been allegedly spying.

Local media, however, suggested Moscow may have been involved in the affair, reporting that the suspects were actually a couple in their 60s, who had moved to the country from Russia in the late 1990s.

The authorities stressed that the arrests had been carried out after a probe that had “been ongoing for some time” and were not linked to any other cases currently open in Sweden.

Earlier this month, two Iranian-born brothers were charged in Sweden with “aggravated espionage,” having allegedly spied for Russia and its military intelligence service, commonly known in the West by its old initialism, the GRU.

The brothers, one of whom reportedly worked for SAPO itself, had allegedly been spying for Moscow for a decade before being arrested in September and November last year. Both of them have reportedly denied any wrongdoing.
https://www.rt.com/news/567006-sweden-stockholm-spies-arrested/
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17 Dec, 2022 12:48

9) --- Damage to Ukrainian civilian infrastructure self-inflicted – Russia

‘Unprofessional actions’ by Kiev's air-defense units during missile strikes on Friday are to blame, Moscow claims

Mistakes made by Ukrainian forces in their attempt to repel Russian missiles on Friday has damaged civilian infrastructure, the Russian Defense Ministry claimed in a statement on Saturday. Earlier, Kiev had blamed Russian forces for hitting residential apartments in the strike, which killed four people, including a toddler.

“Unprofessional actions of the Ukrainian air defense units resulted in damage to civilian infrastructure on the ground,” the ministry said, without providing any further details.

Earlier, the governor of the Ukrainian Dnepropetrovsk Region, Valentin Reznichenko, said that four civilians had died in Krivoy Rog in Friday's strike, including a one-year-old boy. A total of 13 people were injured, including four children, he added. According to Reznichenko, it was a Russian missile that supposedly had hit a residential building, leading to four deaths.

The Russian Defense Ministry said the “high-precision weapon strike” was targeting the Ukrainian military command and administration system as well as the military industrial complex and relevant power-supply networks. The strike had in particular “disrupted foreign weapons and munition transportation” and had “blocked the advancement of the Ukrainian reserves,” the ministry said. Production at some military industrial facilities was stopped as well, it added.

“The strike’s goal was reached. All the designated targets were hit,” the Russian ministry claimed. Ukraine's General Staff claimed on Saturday that Russia had launched a total of 98 missiles the day before. It did not elaborate on how many were shot down.

On Friday, Ukraine’s state-owned energy giant Ukrenergo declared a state of emergency following reports of the Russian strikes hitting critical infrastructure. The operator called the situation a “system breakdown,” adding that it had registered a 50% fall in nationwide electricity consumption.

In recent weeks, Russia has ramped up its airstrikes against Ukraine’s critical infrastructure, through missile and drone barrages across the country. This followed Kiev's launch of several sabotage operations against civilian infrastructure in Russia, including the Crimean Bridge truck-bomb attack.

The Russian Defense Ministry had previously said the Russian forces only target military sites in Ukraine. In October, the Russian military started targeting energy facilities that the Defense Ministry believes to be crucial for Ukraine’s military capability. As a result, the Ukrainian energy system has been significantly degraded.
https://www.rt.com/russia/568422-civilian-infrastructure-damage-strike-ukraine/
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