RT News - January 8th 2023 The Weekly

Russia and Ukraine trade attacks amid intense fighting throughout the first week of this year, as hundreds of soldiers are reported killed. In Donbass, civilians were killed as Ukraine continued to shell civilian only areas. The strikes violated the Orthodox Christmas truce offered to Ukraine and rejected by Ukraine.
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A cache of leaked documents reported by the Grayzone news outlet shows how British intelligence spies on Russian forces on behalf of Ukraine.
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'A violation of free speech and the rights of journalists' - that's how Russia's Foreign Ministry describes the detention of the regional director of the Sputnik news agency by authorities in Latvia.
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South Africa wants to let more countries join the BRICS group as it assumes the bloc's rotating presidency this year, with promises to promote a more just, multipolar world. Report from Karabo Letlhatlha.
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Russia's energy supplies to China will rise to an unprecedented level this year.

There have still been no proper investigations into the terrorist attack on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.
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1) -- Pres. Zelensky sanctions over 100 Russian public figures
2) -- Pres. Zelensky deprives Orthodox priests of citizenship – media
3) -- Finns stockpiling firewood – Reuters
4) -- South Africa building BRICS for the future
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7 Jan, 2023 22:00

1) -- Pres. Zelensky sanctions over 100 Russian public figures

Kiev has targeted Oscar-winning filmmaker Nikita Mikhalkov and RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan among others

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky signed a decree on Saturday, imposing personal sanctions on some 119 Russian public figures. Kiev’s new blacklist includes prominent artists and journalists.

Ukraine sanctioned Oscar-winning film director Nikita Mikhalkov and pop singer Philipp Kirkorov, as well as stand-up comedian Evgeny Petrosyan and opera star Anna Netrebko.

Kiev also targeted a number of Russian journalists, including RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan and head of the Rossiya Segodnya media group Dmitry Kiselyov.

The restrictions imposed for a 10-year period include freeze of assets, travel and visa bans, stripping of Ukrainian state awards, and some other measures.

Kiev has repeatedly sanctioned Russian officials and public figures amid the ongoing conflict, with hundreds of them blacklisted already.

Russia sent troops into Ukraine on February 24, 2022, citing Kiev’s failure to implement the Minsk agreements, designed to give Donetsk and Lugansk special status within the Ukrainian state. The protocols, brokered by Germany and France, were first signed in 2014. Former Ukrainian president Pyotr Poroshenko has since admitted that Kiev’s main goal was to use the ceasefire to buy time and “create powerful armed forces.”

Shortly before the hostilities broke out, the Kremlin recognized the Donbass republics as independent states and demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join any Western military bloc. Last September, Donetsk and Lugansk, as well as Kherson and Zaporozhye Regions, were incorporated into Russia following referendums.
https://www.rt.com/russia/569534-zelensky-sanctions-russsian-artists/
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7 Jan, 2023 20:45

2) -- Pres. Zelensky deprives Orthodox priests of citizenship – media

Kiev has targeted the clerics for allegedly supporting Russia

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has stripped 13 priests within the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) of the country’s citizenship, the Levy Bereg (Left Bank) newspaper reported on Saturday, citing government sources.

The presidential decree targeting the clerics was purportedly signed by Zelensky in late December but has not been published officially, since it contains the personal data of the priests whose citizenship was being revoked.

Later in the day, however, the newspaper circulated a list of the affected individuals. For instance, it includes Ionafan, the metropolitan bishop of the Tulchin diocese in Vinnitsa Region, who was targeted by the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) last October.

The domestic security agency accused the cleric of sowing religious discord and supporting Russia, claiming it had seized incriminating materials, including various “printed pro-Russian content and propaganda literature.” The list also includes his subordinate vicar, Bishop Sergey, who allegedly serves as a “caretaker” for Ionafan’s property of dubious origin, the newspaper noted.

The decree also included several priests who had effectively severed their ties to Ukraine long ago, having defected to Russia. In particular, Lazar, the metropolitan bishop of Simferopol and Crimea, was deprived of his Ukrainian citizenship. The Metropolis of Crimea, which includes several Crimean dioceses, was established and submitted itself to the direct control of the Moscow Patriarchate last summer, citing disarray in the Ukrainian church and a lack of contact with Kiev.

The UOC, which had been subordinate to the Moscow Patriarchate, declared independence early in the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine. The effort to distance itself from Moscow, however, has apparently not spared the UOC from a renewed assault by the Ukrainian government. Over the past few months, UOC sites have been repeatedly raided by the SBU over alleged ties to Russia, while Zelensky openly proclaimed the need to safeguard the nation’s “spiritual independence” from Moscow.

Ukraine has long experienced religious tensions, with a number of schismatic and self-styled entities claiming to be the true and only Orthodox Church in the country. The Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), which was established back in 2018 with direct involvement of former Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko, has become the largest rival to the UOC and contests the religious sites it controls. The OCU appears to be favored by Ukraine’s incumbent authorities as well.
https://www.rt.com/russia/569528-zelensky-orthodox-priests-citizenship/
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8 Jan, 2023 07:01

3) -- Finns stockpiling firewood – Reuters

Skyrocketing energy prices and the loss of supply from Russia threaten blackouts in the Nordic country

Soaring power costs and concerns of electricity blackouts this winter have pushed people in one of the world’s northernmost countries, Finland, to hoard firewood and refit their homes to cut power usage, Reuters has reported.

The loss of oil, gas, and electricity from Russia threatens to have a massive impact on the Nordic nation. Moreover, technical problems have limited output from a new domestic nuclear plant, triggering warnings of blackouts.

“Finland used to bring a third of its energy from Russia and now we are close to zero,” said Riku Huttunen, the director general of energy and climate policy at the Finnish Ministry of Economic Affairs.

“One could say that if we have minus 20 degrees Celsius (-4 Fahrenheit) in the south and possibly minus 30 degrees up north, the risk of electricity shortage is very near,” Huttunen told Reuters.

Temperatures in Finland in winter often drop below -20C, while the cities get less than six hours of light a day in the darkest months of the year. This makes the country particularly vulnerable to the EU energy crunch, with a loss of power potentially exposing residents to life-threatening conditions in a matter of hours.

According to the Reuters report, since summer, the Finns have been hoarding torches, heat pumps, timers, solar panels, and firewood.

“We went three, four months without time off,” firewood producer Jari Saari told the media outlet, recounting how he received non-stop calls from customers looking to stock up.

“At one point we had 400 people waiting, I started to stress that what if I had promised to do too much,” Saari said.

The firewood producer noted that rising costs of timber, transport, and heating have pushed up the price for consumers, with a rough cubic meter of firewood now costing €120 ($128), up from the pre-crisis €85-90 euros.
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4) -- South Africa building BRICS for the future

catch the show from RT on Rumble, here Next month (January) South Africa takes over the chairmanship of BRICS – a trade organization uniting the emerging economies of the world.

https://rumble.com/v22xp44-south-africa-building-brics-for-the-future-africa-now-with-paula-slier.html

" ... In our new 'Africa Now' show, anchor Paula Slier, catches up with those in the know – and finds out why more and more countries are turning their backs on western trade treaties... "