RT News - December 23rd 2022 Late

Paris, France: Three people have been killed and more wounded after a gunman shot apparently randomly near a Kurdish cultural centre. Clashes have broken out between Kurdish protesters and the police. Members of the Kurdish community gathered at a cultural centre near where the attack took place.Show more

The US withdrawal from Afghanistan helped free up resources to resist Russia in Ukraine, a conflict that began around 6 months after troops were pulled from Kabul. That's how the US Secretary of State responds to criticism of the move. Extended report. Please also see (search) on this channel for background and posts re: Afghanistan One Year On series https://rumble.com/user/QueenStreet?q=afghanistan&sort=date&page=2 and for much more detailed info. the RT.com website, if you can access it.

'Another betrayal': that's how human rights activists brand the US spending bill, as it neglects tens of thousands of Afghan refugees who fled to America in the wake of Washington's withdrawal in 2021. We hear from a former Afghan governor.

"Germany doesn't want people who don't know our culture" - that's according to CDU party member and Saxony district administrator Udo Witschas

In the Netherlands, Ukraine refugees had been treated a lot better than those coming from other countries. This will now stop as a Dutch court says they must all be treated in the same way.

Russia: Alexander Novak explains how Russian presence in global markets has changed in 2022.

Israel: The new coalition looks to be the most right wing in all of Israel's history.

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Below 1) -- Three dead, more injured in Paris shooting
2) Feature: Why the US has nothing to lose, and everything to gain, from prolonging the Ukraine conflict
3) --- Kremlin comments on Kiev’s purported peace plan
4) --- Russia outlines conditions for launching talks on security guarantees
5) --- RT crew comes under Ukrainian shelling
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via RT website 23 Dec, 2022 15:41

1) -- Three dead, more injured in Paris shooting

Police have detained a 69-year-old suspect reported to have a record of crimes against foreigners

A gunman has gone on a shooting spree in the French capital, Paris, killing three people and wounding another four, the mayor of the city's 10th district Alexandra Cordebard has confirmed. Police have apprehended a suspect and a murder investigation has been launched.

The attack occurred in central Paris shortly before midday local time on Friday. France’s BFM TV channel reported that shots had been fired near a local Kurdish cultural centre in the 10th arrondissement. The neighbourhood is also home to numerous shops, restaurants and bars.

Members of the Kurdish community have gathered outside the cultural centre, venting their anger over the shooting. Police used tear gas to disperse the protesters.

Two of those injured in the attack are reportedly in critical condition. An eyewitness told the AFP news agency that he had seen two people with leg wounds.

According to another eyewitness account cited by the media outlet, the assailant discharged a total of seven or eight shots, sowing mayhem in the street.

“It was total panic, we locked ourselves in,” one shopkeeper said, recounting the incident to journalists.

Police quickly moved into the area, detained a 69-year-old suspect and recovered the firearm allegedly used in the attack.

Paris Deputy Mayor Emmanuel Gregoire took to twitter to thank security forces "for their swift action.”

The public prosecutor’s office said it has launched a murder investigation, with the assailant’s motive remaining unclear for the time being. Daily newspaper Le Monde reported, citing police sources, that the suspect has had a long criminal record, ending up in custody over “acts of violence” back in 2016, as well as last December, when he allegedly stormed a migrant camp in Paris while packing a sword. The man has been held in detention after the migrant camp incident over an attempted murder, but was ultimately released from custody on December 12, Le Monde said.

French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said he was heading to Paris to visit what he described as the scene of the “dramatic shooting.” Speaking at the scene of the shooting, the minister said that was it “not certain … that the gunman was specifically targeting the Kurdish community,” but was rather seeking to attack any “foreigners in general.”
https://www.rt.com/news/568816-paris-three-dead-shooting/
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23 Dec, 2022 13:35

2) Feature: Why the US has nothing to lose, and everything to gain, from prolonging the Ukraine conflict

For Washington, Kiev represents a sort of “unsinkable aircraft carrier” which comes with endless possibilities

By Fyodor Lukyanov, the editor-in-chief of Russia in Global Affairs, chairman of the Presidium of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, and research director of the Valdai International Discussion Club.

Putting aside the pomp, the theatricals designed tug at the heart strings and the rhetorical chatter, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s visit to Washington could indeed be a milestone for the “European security” framework. A recent article by veteran German-American diplomat Henry Kissinger offered a new perspective in that he claimed a neutral status for Ukraine can no longer serve as a subject for negotiation, as the subject is no longer relevant.

Ukraine is forming a powerful and capable armed force, actively assisted by the West, primarily the US, so its formal status – whether it’s a member of NATO or not – no longer matters. It is America's de facto, if not de jure, military ally, in addition to having unique practical experience in a direct large-scale confrontation with Russia. One might add: it is motivated to pursue it.

Elaborating on this thought, it is reasonable to assume that, for the US, it’s even more comfortable for Ukraine to remain outside the formal alliance, as it expands the space for political-military action. There are no legal commitments, the level and scale of support can vary according to the situation at any moment, and the degree of Kiev's loyalty to Washington as the main guarantor of resources is likely to exceed even that shown by Warsaw or the Baltic states. As will the degree of dependence on external aid. Ukraine, like Poland and the Baltics, is likely to become increasingly distrustful of continental Western Europe, as Kiev will interpret its inevitable internal contradictions as an implicit desire to make peace with Russia.

For the US, this sort of “land-based unsinkable aircraft carrier” will come in handy. Such a trained and loyal satellite, on the one hand beside Russia and on the other pointing towards Western Europe – and Kiev’s narrative that thanks to its efforts, the rest of Europe can live in peace and not under Russian bombs – opens up many opportunities. The territorial configuration of Ukraine in this context is unimportant to Washington. Moreover, the preservation of part of the internationally recognised Ukrainian territory under Russian control cements the conflict, and leaves the rump with a reason to fight on.

For this it should be equipped and trained, but all its wishes don’t necessarily need to be fulfilled. As for preparing its forces, it is crucial, for Washington, to enhance Ukraine’s own capabilities so that any subsequent phases of the confrontation can continue without the direct involvement of US and NATO units. This is a very significant point.

The scheme is, in principle, quite rational. There is no guarantee that it will work, because Russia has the power to prevent it (even if, so far, this hasn’t been very visible), but there are few risks for the US. And the notorious European security system – the reform of which was Russia's key demand a year ago – if it ever comes back on the agenda, it will be under very different circumstances. The old approaches and demands will no longer apply.
https://www.rt.com/news/568813-lukyanov-zelensky-visits-washington/
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23 Dec, 2022 12:45

3) --- Kremlin comments on Kiev’s purported peace plan

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that President Zelensky could reveal his proposal in February

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said that Russia considers previous comments made by Ukraine's President Vladimir Zelensky about the possibility of peace talks as detached from reality. He'd been asked on Friday to comment on media reports about a new peace plan being formulated by the leader’s office.

“We are not aware of it,” the official told journalists during a briefing. “We have heard Zelensky’s statements about various steps, a peace plan. But all that he has said until now did not take into account the reality on the ground, which one simply cannot ignore.”

The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that the Ukrainian government could reveal a new peace proposal sometime in February. The Ukrainian leadership wants to achieve some battlefield victories first, to strengthen its position, the newspaper’s sources in the governments of the US and Ukraine claimed.

Zelensky last month made public what he termed a peace plan for his nation during a speech to the G20 leaders, who were meeting in Indonesia. It involved full withdrawal of Russian troops from all territories that Kiev considers under its sovereignty.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at the time that the terms were “unrealistic and inadequate” and that Zelensky’s speech was full of “militant, Russophobic and aggressive rhetoric.”

Zelensky was asked about a “just peace” ending the conflict, during a press-conference in Washington that he held this week alongside US President Joe Biden. He replied that he didn’t know what that term meant, before declaring that no amount of reparations would compensate for the losses of some Ukrainians, who want revenge on “inhumans.”

Biden intervened to declare that both he and Zelensky ultimately wanted peace. US policy states a strategic defeat of Russia as a primary goal in the crisis.

Russia and Ukraine were on the brink of reaching a ceasefire agreement in early April. But Kiev’s Western backers reportedly declined to support the deal that Kiev brought to the negotiation table. Moscow said the US and its allies derailed the talks so that they could inflict more damage on Russia, disregarding Ukraine’s interests.
https://www.rt.com/russia/568810-kremlin-zelensky-peace-plan/
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23 Dec, 2022 10:24

4) --- Russia outlines conditions for launching talks on security guarantees

Certain criteria need to be met by the US to provide ground for such negotiations, a top foreign ministry official says

The US needs to stop arming Kiev and recognize reality on the ground in Ukraine for any talks on security guarantees between Moscow and Washington to begin, Alexander Darchiyev, who heads the North America department in the Russian Foreign Ministry, has said.

“Until the pumping of Zelensky’s regime with weapons and money is stopped, the US and NATO troops/mercenaries/trainers are withdrawn [from Ukraine], and the realities defined by us [Russia] on the ground are recognized, it’s premature to start any meaningful negotiations on security guarantees in connection to Ukraine and the Euro-Atlantic region,” Darchiyev pointed out, in an interview with news agency TASS.

“The ball is now in the American court,” he insisted. Washington has been Ukraine’s main backer during the conflict with Russia, providing Kiev with billions in military and financial aid, as well as with intelligence. Russia has been saying that a “proxy war” is actually being waged against it in the neighboring country by the US and NATO.

During Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s recent visit to the US, his American counterpart Joe Biden assured him that “we will stay with you for as long as it takes.” According to Biden, it was especially crucial for Washington and Kiev to “stand together through 2023.”

Darchiyev reminded his interviewer that, in late 2021 shortly before the outbreak of the Ukrainian conflict, Moscow has made “an honest attempt to negotiate, putting forward two draft, legally binding documents” on security guarantees with the US and NATO. But all it heard in response from the West was “a resounding and arrogant No,” he said.

Last December, Russia presented a list of security demands to Washington and NATO, asking the West to impose a ban on Ukraine becoming a member of the US-led military bloc, while insisting that NATO should retreat to its borders of 1997, before it began to expand eastward.

Earlier this month, French President Emmanuel Macron said that West would have to address Moscow’s “fear that NATO comes right up to its doors and the deployment of weapons that could threaten Russia.” The US and allies also must decide on “how to give guarantees to Russia the day it returns to the negotiating table,” he also pointed out.

The comment was met with harsh criticism, not only from Kiev but also from fellow EU and NATO members, including Poland, Slovakia, and the Baltic states. However, Macron doubled down on the idea this week, saying that the crisis in Ukraine will inevitably be resolved at the negotiating table, and that the West and NATO, in particular, will have to come up with security guarantees not only for Kiev, but for Moscow as well.
https://www.rt.com/russia/568790-ukraine-security-guarantees-nato/
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23 Dec, 2022 13:53

5) --- RT crew comes under Ukrainian shelling

The incident involving RT Arabic journalists occurred near the Russian city of Donetsk

An RT Arabic crew covering the conflict in Ukraine came under fire from Kiev forces on Friday.

The shells were fired as the journalists and technicians were traveling in a car in the southern outskirts of Donetsk, the main city of Russia’s Donetsk People’s Republic.

RT's Arabic correspondent Maxim Toury and other crew members remained unharmed in the incident. However, several others who were nearby ended up being wounded in the Ukrainian strike.

The crew had to abandon their vehicle and walked on foot for five kilometers to make it to safety.

“We were traveling in a civilian car but, apparently, this did not stop the Ukrainian forces from opening fire on the exact spot where we were, because journalists have long been a special target for them. There were at least 15 hits,” Toury said in a Telegram post.

It’s not first time that RT reporters and support teams came in for shelling from Ukrainian forces during the conflict. In September, they struck a hotel in the city of Kherson overnight where an RT news crew was staying.

The missile destroyed the rooms in which RT correspondent Murad Gazdiev and cameraman Mikhail Kondakov were sleeping. The journalists remained unharmed, but Kondakov had to be extracted from the rubble. Two people were killed in that attack, including a former Ukrainian politician.
https://www.rt.com/russia/568818-rt-shelling-donetsk-ukraine/
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