RT News - February 2nd 2023 Late

FM Lavrov interview: Russia's Foreign Minister says Moscow has all it needs to complete its military operation and is pushing to secure its own territory from Ukrainian attack. "Ukraine is a means to an end" Report from Marina Kosareva.
(also see recap below)
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Game of Drones: Iran accuses Israel of a drone attack on a military facility near the central city of Isfahan. Tehran pledges to respond, saying that Israel's actions violate international law. Maria Finoshina reports.
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Africa: South Africans protest against the country's largest utility company, accusing it of failing to provide reliable power despite a recent energy bill hike. South Africa is so energy rich with a young, well educated workforce and all this talent is being prevented from being let out with "massive" unemployment. 16 years of unreliable energy and South Africa may soon declare a "state of disaster". Karabo LetLhatlha reports.
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Yemen: "Houthi tactics 'made it difficult' for Saudis to avoid war crimes in Yemen" That's according to British barrister James Eadie telling a London high court. A judicial review was brought by the Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) and Mwatana for Human Rights, challenging the UK's continued licensing of arms sales to Riyadh despite concerns about Saudi war crimes in the eight-year conflict. Over 20 million people in Yemen need humanitarian help. Hunger has reached extreme levels, with 2.3 million children needing treatment for malnutrition. 161,000 Yemenis are face famine and more than double that is expected this year, 2023. UN estimates, over 377,000 people have been killed in the war so far and millions have been displaced from their homes. Medicines are in short supply too, all because of the blockade created by NATO during Obama's presidency and the continued supply of weapons to Saudi, plus training and other administrative assistance by Britain (including loading up the bombs on the planes). Alexander McKay reports.
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Peru: Protests continue despite the move to bring the elections forward. Many have been killed as protesters demand the reinstatement of President Castillo. Roman Migus, a local jounalist, reports from Lima.
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Volgograd, Russia: President Putin was honouring the heroes. He laid a flowers at the memorial and then gave a speech where he said " he couldn't believe we're once again threatened by German tanks". There was a parade where thousands attended. There was a reenactment of the last days of the Stalingrad battle.
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Pakistan: A court order restricting access to Wikipedia has been issued citing unlawful (blasphemous) content. Shazad Raza reports and expands.

Show more

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Below via RT website A) --- Russia outlines response if Ukraine gets longer-range weapons
B) --- Russian ambassador comments on ‘normal’ US diplomacy (recap)
B) --- (continued) Lavrov reveals message from Blinken
C) --- Russian spy chief weighs in on ‘fighting to the last Ukrainian’
1) --- Putin threatens tough response to Western tank supplies for Kiev
2) --- Moscow warns of new ‘anti-Russia’
3) --- Top EU diplomat speaks out on fighter jets for Ukraine – media
3a) --- Britain reveals Ukraine tank delivery timeline
4) --- Declassified docs reveal why the US snubbed Russia
6) --- EU member kicks out Russian diplomats
7) --- Mozart Group training Ukrainian troops has ‘ended’ – founder
------------twitter stuff
8) --- Ukrainian official alleges Twitter conspiracy
8a) --- Musk mocks left-wing think tank over Russiagate claims
8b) --- Creators defend failed Russiagate platform
8c) --- Key ‘Russian bots’ claim was false – Twitter documents
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2 Feb, 2023 10:36

A) --- Russia outlines response if Ukraine gets longer-range weapons

The greater Kiev’s capabilities become, the further its troops will be pushed back, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has asserted

Ukrainian forces will be pushed further back from Russian territories in response to the West’s decision to provide Kiev with longer-range weapons, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has claimed.

Ukraine’s foreign sponsors are getting more bogged down in the conflict with every step, he told the media on Thursday, and Russia will react accordingly.

“Now our goal is to push the artillery of the Ukrainian Armed Forces back to a distance, where they would not create a threat to our territories. The longer range the weapons supplied to the Kiev regime have, the further the troops will need to be moved,” Lavrov stated.

The Pentagon’s next package of military assistance to Ukraine will reportedly include Ground Launched Small Diameter Bombs (GLSDBs), munitions for rocket artillery, and munitions that have a range of 150km (94 miles).

Kiev has long been lobbying donors to provide weapons with greater capabilities, such as MGM-140 ATACMS ballistic missiles, which can strike targets up to 300km (190 miles) away.

The approach described by the Russian foreign minister will apply to territories that Ukraine considers to be its own, including Crimea, the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, as well as Kherson and Zaporozhye regions.

Crimea and the city of Sevastopol joined Russia in 2014, while the four other provinces did the same last year. Kiev dismissed referendums in which people living in those territories voted for the move as a “sham.”

The US has reportedly provided its military aid to Ukraine on condition that it is not used to strike targets in Russia. However, American officials have said this restriction does not apply to Crimea and the other new Russian territories.

The West’s arming of Ukraine is “snowballing,” Lavrov said, having started with helmets and escalated to current proposals for the supply of fighter jets. He dismissed statements by some Western officials that Kiev won’t get Western-made warplanes, citing a lack of coherence in their policy. Kiev says it needs modern military aircraft for protection, but US President Joe Biden and the leaders of some EU countries, such as Germany, say it’s not on their agenda.

“[German Chancellor Olaf Scholz] stated that NATO would never go to war against Russia. But his foreign minister, [Annalena] Baerbock, said ‘We already are at war with Russia all together,” Lavrov remarked, referring to remarks made by his German counterpart last week.
https://www.rt.com/russia/570849-lavrov-western-arms-ukraine/
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1 Feb, 2023 22:55

B) --- Russian ambassador comments on ‘normal’ US diplomacy

Anatoly Antonov wondered why the State Department chose secret messages via Egypt instead of picking up the phone

(QS recall post January 31st 2023 Late : Message from U.A. to Russia: Russia's top diplomat Sergey Lavrov says he's received a message from US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, delivered by his Egyptian counterpart who's now in Moscow. The message says the conflict in Ukraine must be ended peacefully - that is, after Russia is defeated. Marina Kosareva reports from Moscow about Sameh Hassan Sooukry's visit to Moscow)

Anatoly Antonov, Moscow’s ambassador to Washington, said in an interview on Wednesday that he was baffled that the US chose to pass a message to Russia via Egypt, instead of using the normal and available diplomatic channels.

Appearing on the Channel One news show ‘Great Game’ on Wednesday evening, Antonov was asked about the message US Secretary of State Antony Blinken asked his Egyptian colleague Sameh Shoukry to pass on to Moscow.

“The US considers it normal for Blinken to send some kind of messages to Sergey Viktorovich Lavrov via Shoukry or some other messenger,” Antonov told the show. “What, he can’t pick up the phone and call our minister to discuss serious matters?”

Lavrov said on Tuesday that Moscow has always been willing to listen to a “serious proposal” from Washington when it came to the conflict in Ukraine. What Shoukry passed along from Blinken was nothing of the sort, the Russian foreign minister said.

Americans, Antonov told Channel One, are “not inclined to resolve the situation in the Ukrainian territory by diplomatic means.” Instead, Washington keeps “stuffing” the Ukrainian military with weapons and keeping the conflict in a state of “controlled heat.”

The Russian ambassador predicted the US will continue to increase weapons deliveries to Kiev, while “steadily testing the reaction of the public at home.” However, he said, Washington is “well aware” that Western weapons and “cannon fodder in the form of Ukrainian military personnel” are not enough to achieve victory.

According to Antonov, the conflict in Ukraine is just part of a broader struggle for a new, multipolar world order, “whose outlines can already be seen.”

The ambassador also noted that contacts between the US and Russia have been reduced to space exploration and maintaining the New START nuclear arms control treaty. Last August, when he called the ruined relationship “crumbs” of what used to exist, Antonov mentioned a deconfliction hotline in Syria as well – notably missing from Wednesday’s interview.

Meanwhile, the State Department has accused Russia of violating the New Start with its “refusal to facilitate inspection activities.” Moscow suspended inspections last summer, citing the inability of Russian inspectors to do their job on account of US sanctions. While Russia values the treaty, further discussions within its scope are impossible so long as the US keeps sending weapons to Ukraine, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in November.
https://www.rt.com/russia/570834-antonov-blinken-lavrov-diplomacy/
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31 Jan, 2023 14:39

B) --- (continued) Lavrov reveals message from Blinken

The information contained no “serious proposals,” the Russian foreign minister said

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has conveyed a fresh message to Moscow on the ongoing conflict with Ukraine, although the statement offered nothing of value, according to Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Russia’s top diplomat made the remarks on Tuesday following talks with his Egyptian counterpart, Sameh Shoukry.

While Moscow has been always ready to hear a “serious proposal” from Washington “aimed at resolving the current situation,” the message from Blinken contained no such information, Lavrov stated.

“Minister [Shoukry] said that he conveyed a certain message from Secretary of State Blinken, who was recently on a visit to Cairo. I can confirm that,” Lavrov said. The Russian diplomat added that the message once again urged Moscow to “stop” and “leave,” and “then everything will be fine.”

The real goals of the US and the collective West, however, have been articulated much more clearly by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, Lavrov continued.

“In one of his speeches, he said that Russia must lose, Russia must be defeated, and the West cannot allow Ukraine to lose, because then the West will lose. And the whole world will lose,” Lavrov explained, referring to the NATO chief’s comments. “That is, he took it upon himself to speak not only on behalf of three-dozen NATO members, but also on behalf of all other countries of the world, [including] Asia, Africa, and Latin America.”

Multiple senior US officials have repeatedly urged Moscow to end its military campaign in Ukraine, as well as to cede the former Ukrainian territories which were incorporated into Russia following referendums. US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland signaled last week that doing so might prompt Washington to consider easing anti-Russian sanctions. The proposal, however, was dismissed in Moscow.

“We still don’t see anything [new] in Madame Nuland’s words. We are absolutely not inclined to exaggerate their importance,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters at the time, adding that the remarks once again showed “the lack of flexibility in the position of the US.”

Russia sent troops into Ukraine on February 24, 2022, citing Kiev’s failure to implement the Minsk agreements, which were 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 agreement to buy time and “create powerful armed forces.” The idea was confirmed by then-Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel and then-President of France Francois Hollande.
https://www.rt.com/news/570754-lavrov-gets-blinken-message/
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2 Feb, 2023 08:37

C) --- Russian spy chief weighs in on ‘fighting to the last Ukrainian’

Moscow understands that most people in Ukraine are normal and just want a peaceful life, Sergey Naryshkin says

Russia has no desire for the conflict with Kiev to continue until the last Ukrainian, the head of Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) has said. Sergey Naryshkin went on to accuse the West of keeping up arms supplies to Vladimir Zelensky’s government in order to prolong the hostilities.

Since the fighting broke out in February last year, Russia’s top officials including President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov have suggested that Kiev’s Western backers wanted the conflict continue “to the last Ukrainian.” The comment implied that the US and its allies were ready to sacrifice Ukrainian lives for their declared goal of weakening Russia.

Naryshkin told the RIA Novosti news agency on Thursday that Moscow does not want to see this scenario occur.

“If we talk about Russia, then, of course, we wouldn’t want to wage war to the last Ukrainian,” he insisted.

The spy chief reiterated Moscow’s stance that the people of Ukraine are not the enemy. “We understand that most of the population of Ukraine are normal people, who want to live a peaceful life, but those people became both hostages and victims of the totalitarian Kiev regime, and victims of the aggressive policies of the NATO bloc,” he said.

According to Naryshkin, the US-led military alliance “poses the main threat to stability and security in Europe and beyond.”

Making sure that Ukraine officially declares itself a neutral country that will never join NATO – a development that would gravely undermine Russia’s security – has been mentioned by Moscow among the reasons for launching the military operation almost a year ago.

Russia has long insisted that the fighting in Ukraine is actually a “proxy war” waged against Moscow by Washington and its allies. Last month, the chief of the Russian General Staff, Army General Valery Gerasimov, said the country’s armed forces were “opposed by almost the entire collective West” in the conflict.

Earlier this week, Foreign Minister Lavrov said Russia was always ready to consider any “serious proposal” on resolving the crisis in Ukraine through diplomatic means, but the Americans have so far been unable to formulate one. The latest message from US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was “stop” and “leave” Ukraine, and “then everything will be fine,” the Russian diplomat said, calling the idea unacceptable to Mosсow.
https://www.rt.com/russia/570843-ukraine-nato-west-naryshkin/
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2 Feb, 2023 14:51

1) --- Putin threatens tough response to Western tank supplies for Kiev

The Russian president has promised a reaction that goes beyond armored vehicles

Russian President Vladimir Putin has hit out at the looming deliveries of Western-made tanks to Ukraine, warning that Moscow’s response to the threat will span far beyond armored vehicles. The Russian leader made the comments during a ceremony to mark the 80th anniversary of victory at the Battle of Stalingrad.

“Unbelievable, but true – we are once again threatened with German Leopard tanks, with crosses on their hull. And once again seeking to battle Russia in Ukraine with the help of Hitler’s followers, the Banderites,” Putin said.

“Those seeking to defeat Russia on the battlefield apparently do not realize that a modern war with Russia would be entirely different for them. We’re not sending our tanks to their borders. Yet we have something to respond with, and it would not be limited to armor use only, everyone must realize that,” he added.

Last week, Berlin changed its stance on supplying modern armor to Kiev, pledging to deliver 14 Leopard 2 tanks as well as allowing European countries to re-export German-made vehicles from their own inventories. The number of Leopards expected to be funneled to Ukraine amounts to some 112 vehicles. Separately, Washington pledged to send 31 Abrams tanks, but doesn’t expect to deliver them until late 2023 at the earliest.

Moscow has repeatedly urged the collective West to stop “pumping” Ukraine with modern weaponry, warning that the ongoing military aid would merely prolong the hostilities and inflict more suffering on everyday Ukrainians, rather than change the ultimate outcome of the conflict.
https://www.rt.com/russia/570872-putin-response-to-threats/
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2 Feb, 2023 14:01

2) --- Moscow warns of new ‘anti-Russia’

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says the West is pushing the ex-Soviet republic of Moldova to align with NATO

Moldova could follow in Ukraine’s footsteps and become a new “anti-Russia,” Moscow’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has suggested in an interview with the Russian media. The diplomat claimed that the West had installed a president in Chisinau who is hell-bent on bringing the former Soviet republic into the US-led fold.

On Thursday, Russia’s RIA Novosti and Rossiya 24 media outlets published an interview with Lavrov. He was asked which country, in his opinion, could go down the same path as Ukraine and become an “anti-Russia.”

The foreign minister responded by claiming the West was “currently considering Moldova for this role.” He said the country had been chosen primarily because the West succeeded in installing “through some very peculiar methods, far from free and democratic [ones],” a pliant president at the helm there.

Maia Sandu is “rushing into NATO” and “has Romanian citizenship,” Lavrov noted.

The diplomat concluded that the Moldovan head of state is ready to merge her country with neighboring Romania and to “do practically anything.”

Lavrov said the West and Moldova’s leadership have effectively put on hold the normalization process regarding the breakaway region of Transnistria in the 5+2 format. This involves the US and Russia, along with the United Nations and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, as well as Moldova and Transnistria. He claimed that the new Moldovan government is no longer interested in the process and is considering retaking the region by force and booting Russian peacekeepers out of Transnistria.

Late last month, President Sandu told Politico “there [was] a serious discussion” underway in Chisinau “about our capacity to defend ourselves, whether we can do it ourselves, or whether we should be part of a larger alliance.”

While she did not identify NATO directly, Sandu has consistently been pursuing pro-Western policies since coming to office back in 2020.

Moldova was granted EU candidate status last year. It has also been actively cooperating with NATO in recent years, sending its troops to participate in the military bloc’s force in Kosovo.

The Moldovan president held a meeting with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in New York in September 2021, and the country’s foreign minister attended a meeting of the organization in Romania last December.

However, the outstanding issue of Transnistria precludes Moldova from becoming a member state of the US-led organization, as NATO requires all aspiring entrants to resolve all territorial and ethnic disputes first
https://www.rt.com/russia/570859-lavrov-names-new-ukraine/
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2 Feb, 2023 11:39

3) --- Top EU diplomat speaks out on fighter jets for Ukraine – media

The delivery of warplanes to Kiev is a “highly controversial” issue for the bloc, Josep Borrell has explained

The idea of sending fighter jets to Ukraine amid its conflict with Russia is causing divisions among EU states and isn’t on the agenda at the moment, the bloc’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has announced, according to media reports.

The delivery of warplanes to Kiev is a “highly controversial” issue for the 27-member union, Borrell said during his conversation with the media in Brussels on Wednesday, as cited by El Pais Spanish daily.

According to the diplomat, combat aircraft are “a different matter” compared to the main battle tanks that Germany, Poland and some other EU nations agreed to provide to Ukraine in late January, despite ruling out such possibility for months.

Borrell advised the bloc’s members to focus on fulfilling their promise of delivering these tanks to Kiev instead. He also regretted that countries had agreed to supply armor “one by one,” saying “it would’ve been better to make a European decision,” EFE news agency cited.

The diplomat also declined to reveal his own stance on the issue of fighter jets. “My job is to try to maintain consensus and one of the best ways is not to take positions that could put it at risk,” he explained.

After securing pledges from EU countries, the US and UK to provide dozens of Leopard 2, M1 Abrams and Challenger 2 tanks, respectively, Kiev has intensified calls for NATO to also supply it with fighter jets, in particular, US-made F-16 aircraft.

While France and the Netherlands said they were open to sending warplanes to Ukraine, some other countries, including Germany, have ruled out such a possibility.

Much like Borrell, German Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck pointed out earlier this week that “there is a difference between battle tanks and fighter jets.” Giving Kiev planes would “probably” mean crossing a line and risking Berlin being drawn into direct conflict with Moscow, he said.

Outside of the EU, the US and UK have also said the supply of tanks to Vladimir Zelensky’s government won’t be followed by warplanes. US President Joe Biden said “No” when asked if Kiev would be getting F-16s, while the British government pointed out that the planes were “not practical” for Kiev.

Moscow has long decried deliveries of Western weapons to Ukraine, arguing that they won’t change the course of the conflict, but only prolong it and increase the risk of a direct confrontation between Russia and NATO.
https://www.rt.com/news/570857-ukraine-jets-eu-borrell/
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recall on 30th January, French President Emmanuel Macron has said that the idea of sending fighter jets to Ukraine had not been “excluded,” as Kiev ramps up its campaign to pressure the West into donating combat aircraft to its military.

Asked about the possibility of transferring jets to Kiev’s military, Macron told reporters that “nothing is excluded in principle,” according to France’s AFP news agency. The president added that Kiev would be forbidden from using French jets to attack Russian soil.

Macron was speaking after a meeting with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who told reporters that his government saw “no taboo” around sending US-made F-16 fighters to Ukraine, but admitted it would be a "big step.”
https://www.rt.com/news/570720-macron-fighter-jets-ukraine/
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30 Jan, 2023 18:25

3a) --- Britain reveals Ukraine tank delivery timeline

The Challengers will arrive on the battlefield “this side of summer,” the defense minister said

Ukraine will receive 14 Challenger 2 main battle tanks from the UK before the summer, Defense Minister Ben Wallace told Parliament on Monday. This timeline means the Challengers will likely arrive after Germany’s Leopard tanks reach the battlefield amid Kiev's hostilities with Russia.

Asked when the tanks would be deployed in Ukraine, Wallace told lawmakers "It'll be this side of the summer, or May – it'll be probably towards Easter time." For Western Christians, Easter Sunday falls on April 9 this year.

Wallace said that he could not provide further information on the training process for the tanks’ Ukrainian operators. Kiev’s ambassador to the UK, Vadim Pristaiko, told Ukrainian media last week that this process “will not take much time.”

Wallace’s timeline is close to that provided by Alex Chalk, the Defense Ministry minister of state, who said last week that the Challengers should be deployed “at the end of March.”

The UK announced that it would send the Challengers nearly two weeks before Germany confirmed it would donate an equal number of Leopard 2 tanks. However, the German armor will likely reach Ukraine just before its British equivalents, with Berlin stating on Thursday that its tanks would arrive by the end of March or beginning of April.

Germany also granted other European countries permission to ship their own fleets of Leopards to Ukraine. Poland, which had threatened to send the tanks with or without Berlin’s permission, will deliver around 14 Leopards “within a few weeks,” Deputy Defense Minister Wojciech Skurkiewicz told local media on Thursday.

The last heavy Western armor to reach Ukraine will be the US’ M1 Abrams tanks, the deliveries of which were announced by Washington alongside Germany’s Leopards. The announcement came despite earlier statements from the Pentagon that the Abrams tanks are too complex to maintain and consume too much fuel for use in Ukraine. According to recent reporting by the Washington Post, the tanks were only offered as “cover” for Germany to send the Leopards, and will not arrive until the end of the year at the earliest.

Russia has maintained that foreign weapons, including heavy tanks, will not change the course of the conflict. “As we said in the past, these tanks will burn just like the rest. They just cost a lot [to make],” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday, referring to the Abrams specifically.
https://www.rt.com/news/570717-challenger-tank-delivery-date/
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2 Feb, 2023 10:57

4) --- Declassified docs reveal why the US snubbed Russia

Unresolved issues prevented Washington from considering Moscow an 'ally', according to minutes from a meeting in 1992

The US rejected Russian suggestions to describe the pair as “allies” during a meeting of the then-presidents of the two nations in 1992, newly declassified transcripts have revealed. George H.W. Bush explained to his counterpart Boris Yeltsin why he was reluctant to use the word, asserting that not all issues between the countries had been ironed out.

On Monday, the US National Security Archive published a trove of declassified minutes of several meetings between the two presidents just over three decades ago. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in late December of 1991, there were high hopes among the new Russian leadership that the former arch rivals could become allies.

One such conversation took place on February 1, 1992, at the US presidential retreat at Camp David in Maryland, during Yeltsin’s first state visit to the country.

Toward the end of the meeting, the Russian president asked Bush: “Are we still adversaries or not?”

“No, we are not,” the US leader replied, adding that a statement had been prepared that moved “us away from the old era.” He then suggested that the Russian head of state take a look at the message.

Upon doing so, Yeltsin remarked: “You have nothing here which says that we are no longer adversaries and are moving to be allies.”

“It says friendship,” Secretary of State James A. Baker interjected.

However, the Russian president insisted that the document should state that the US and Russia “are moving from a stage of adversaries to allies.” Such wording, according to Yeltsin, would add a “new quality” to the message.

President Bush, in turn, clarified that his administration was “using this transitional language because we don’t want to act like all our problems are solved.”

In addition to the episode, Yeltsin told his American counterpart that while the Russian government was committed to democracy and market reform, the country was going through “hard times.” He argued that Washington “must provide aid” to the former Soviet republics, including Russia, unless it wanted to see a return of “conservative forces [and] hawks” to power in Moscow. Yeltsin warned that would lead to Russia becoming a “police state,” with “repression” and an “arms race” recommencing.

The Russian leader also made a number of bold nuclear arms reduction proposals which Bush did not accept, with the US president refusing to scrap submarine-launched ballistic missiles, which formed the core of America’s strategic triad.

Yeltsin’s idea of creating a joint global missile defense system was likewise not received enthusiastically by the Americans.

Despite the differences of opinion, both leaders described the meeting as extremely positive at the time.
https://www.rt.com/news/570845-declassified-transcript-us-russia-allies/
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2 Feb, 2023 16:26

5) FM Lavrov interview with state media Geopolitical battles, Ukraine, and US exceptionalism: main take-aways

Highlights from Lavrov’s big interview

The Russian foreign minister sat down for a discussion on a wide range of issues

Moscow is locked in a geopolitical struggle against Washington and the crisis in Ukraine is at the forefront, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said. The diplomat added that Western nations are not keen on hostilities to end.

Lavrov made the remarks during a wide-ranging interview with Russian state media on Thursday, in which he also accused the US of stripping the EU of any semblance of independence.

Here are some of the key comments from Lavrov’s TV appearance.

Ukraine as epicenter of geopolitical battle
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Western nations want to cripple Russia with sanctions to bring a “decade of regression,” Lavrov stated, referring to the words of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
“We are in the center of a geopolitical battle. There is no doubt about it,” the foreign minister said.

Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine are “heroes” whose “deeds are for the future of mankind, in which there will be no conditions for full US hegemony,” added Lavrov.

US belief in its exceptionalism
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The US “has subjugated” European politicians, taking the “last traces of independence” from the EU, the diplomat argued. The kind of “democracy” they advocate boils down to “a right for them to impose on others what democracy should look like,” Lavrov said.

The Russian foreign minister argued that Washington pressures other nations to do its bidding, offering no benefits for compliance and threatening punishment to any dissenters. He called the approach “the pinnacle of pragmatism, but also cynicism.”

The core of US foreign policy is American exceptionalism and Washington’s belief in its “infallibility and superiority,” according to Lavrov.

Western intentions in Ukraine
--------------------------------

The conflict in Ukraine continues to rage because Western nations, led by the US, refuse to stop “until they conclude that they have eliminated threats to their hegemony,” Lavrov insisted. According to the leading Russian diplomat, Kiev has been barred by the West from seeking peace with Moscow.

“Nobody objected when [Ukrainian President Vladimir] Zelensky prohibited negotiations with Russia by law. Nobody scolded him when he… claimed that he doesn’t understand who makes decisions in Russia and who he should talk to.”

Zelensky likely feels ashamed to be controlled and manipulated by the West and resorts to psychological projection, Lavrov suggested.

The next ‘anti-Russia’
------------------------

Lavrov was asked which nation could next be turned into an “anti-Russia” – a term that the Russian leadership has used to describe Ukraine in its current state. The Russian minister said Moldova could be cast in that role due to the personality of its president, Maia Sandu.

Sandu was “installed at the helm of the country through specific methods that were far from freedom and democracy,” Lavrov assessed. “She has Romanian citizenship, is ready to merge [Moldova] with Romania and to do pretty much anything.” In addition, Sandu is “rushing into NATO,” argued the diplomat.

Georgia fitted the description under former President Mikhail Saakashvili, Lavrov said, but he added that the current government in Tbilisi has put national interest first.

No help needed in Ukraine
-----------------------------
Russia did not have and does not have any intention to ask its allies in the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) for military assistance in Ukraine, Lavrov stated, referring to the regional defense group of which Russia is a member.

“We have everything we need to achieve the goals of the special military operation, to end this war, which the West started through the Kiev regime after the [2014] coup [in Ukraine],” he stressed.

China’s take on US-designed globalism
----------------------------------------------------
Lavrov described current Russian-Chinese relations as the strongest ever, adding that they have “no restrictions, no limits, and no issues banned for discussion.”

Both Moscow and Beijing simply want to pursue national development “within the framework of existing norms of international trade.”

“China beats America on its own turf under its own rules,” the diplomat assessed. According to Lavrov, this is why the US is reneging on the economic principles that it spread across the world and benefited from in the past.

In Moscow’s eyes, the current form of globalization “no longer has positive traits,” Lavrov said, adding that “we realized it sooner because we were the first to take a punch.”

Russia had “less immersion” than China in the US-influenced global financial system and other mechanisms, which Washington now abuses, he explained.

It will take China some time to reduce its involvement with those mechanisms and create alternative tools to defend its interests, but it is moving in that direction, Lavrov predicted.
https://www.rt.com/russia/570861-lavrov-interview-ukraine-china/
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2 Feb, 2023 14:14

6) --- EU member kicks out Russian diplomats

Moscow has vowed a proportionate response to the move

Vienna has revoked the diplomatic status of four Russian representatives and ordered them to leave Austria within one week, the country’s foreign ministry announced in a statement on Thursday.

Two of the diplomats being expelled are members of Moscow’s permanent mission to the UN in Vienna, while the other two are employees of the Russian embassy. According to the Austrian MFA, the embassy staff were found guilty of committing actions “inconsistent with their diplomatic status” and declared persona non grata. Members of the mission allegedly violated the “headquarters agreement,” it claimed.

Russia’s ambassador in Vienna, Dmitry Lyubinskiy, has stated that the Austrian authorities have yet to explain what exactly the diplomats did to earn the expulsion and have not presented any specific charges other than “vague references to the opinion of special services.”

Meanwhile, Russia’s Foreign Ministry has told the media that it intends to have an “appropriate response,” which likely means it plans to expel an equal number of diplomats from Vienna’s embassy in Moscow.

Back in April, Austria made a similar move and expelled four Russian diplomats, again accusing them of committing actions “incompatible with their diplomatic status.” In response, Russia also declared four employees of the Austrian embassy in Moscow persona non grata.

Lyubinskiy says that last year’s exchange happened just 24 hours after he met with Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg, who assured him that Vienna would not unreasonably expel Russian diplomats.

The latest expulsion of Russian diplomats from an EU state comes just one day after Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis suggested that all European countries should kick out their Russian ambassadors as there is “little point left in keeping” them. He claimed that Russian embassies were no longer diplomatic institutions, but “institutions of propaganda” that “promote genocide.” Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia have already expelled their Russian ambassadors and lowered the level of diplomatic relations with Moscow.

The West and Russia have been in a sort of “diplomatic war” and have mutually expelled a number of diplomats since February last year, when Moscow launched a military operation in Ukraine.
https://www.rt.com/russia/570862-austria-expels-russian-diplomats/
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1 Feb, 2023 15:50

7) --- Mozart Group training Ukrainian troops has ‘ended’ – founder

The scandal-plagued mercenary group is set to be rebranded, Andrew Milburn has announced

The Mozart Group, a private military company that has been providing training for Ukrainian troops, is set to change its name, the group’s co-founder, Andrew Milburn, announced on Wednesday.

“Today was the last day for the Mozart Group. The Mozart Group ended today. The name and entity had become the subject of litigation and a distraction from our core mission: training Ukrainian soldiers and rescuing civilians. But, the mission and the people continue,” Milburn wrote in a social media post.

The retired Marine commander did not reveal the name of the rebranded group.

Founded by US citizens Andrew Milburn and Andrew Bain last March, the Mozart Group has been viewed by some as a Western response to the Wagner Group – the Russian private military company taking part in the ongoing hostilities between Moscow and Kiev. The group has been extremely ambiguous about its goals, insisting it has been engaging in exclusively “humanitarian” work, but, at the same time, admitting it has been training Kiev’s forces to “kill Russians.”

The Mozart Group has also become the subject of multiple controversies lately. Late last year, for instance, Milburn delivered explosive remarks on the Team House podcast, stating that there were “f****d up people running Ukraine” and admitting he was “not a big fan” of the country altogether. The mercenary leader also condemned “a number of things” that Kiev’s forces do with Russian POWs in violation of the Hague Convention on the Laws of Armed Conflict.

The group has also been damaged by a conflict between its co-founders, with Bain accusing Milburn of violating US arms trafficking regulations and seeking to expand Mozart’s training operations into Armenia. The pending lawsuit also accused Milburn of embezzling money, staging burglaries of humanitarian supplies in Ukraine, bribing Ukrainian military leaders and even sexually harassing a female co-worker. Milburn, in turn, accused Bain of seeking to extort money from the Mozart Group and alleging his close ties with Russia, which the latter denies.
https://www.rt.com/russia/570810-mozart-group-rebranded-ukraine/
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1 Feb, 2023 20:51

8) --- Ukrainian official alleges Twitter conspiracy

An aide to President Vladimir Zelensky has claimed that Elon Musk is suppressing the Kiev government’s accounts on the platform

Ukrainian presidential adviser Mikhail Podoliak has blasted Twitter owner Elon Musk as a sympathizer for Russian propagandists, accusing the billionaire entrepreneur of “forcibly reducing” the reach of the Kiev government’s accounts on the social media platform.

“Maybe you should stop pessimizing Ukrainian official accounts and forcibly reducing their reach,” Podoliak told Musk on Wednesday in a Twitter post. “It’s too obvious.”

He went on to suggest that Musk has tried to help “talentless” purveyors of Russian propaganda. “It won’t help them, and Twitter’s reputation is dying,” Podoliak claimed. “Maybe a regulator is needed to explain competition rules to the owner.”

It’s not clear which regulatory agency Podoliak wants to unleash on Musk or which antitrust law he has supposedly violated. Many Twitter users have complained in recent days of declining reach and engagement of their posts. The company’s engineers are reportedly working to resolve a glitch that apparently arose when the platform tweaked some of its features last month.
https://twitter.com/Podolyak_M/status/1620785169740468225

Musk provided Ukraine free use of his Starlink satellite communication service after Russia launched its military offensive against Kiev last year. Media outlets, including the Economist, have credited Musk’s satellites with having “saved Ukraine and changed warfare.” However, Zelensky’s regime has clashed with the Tesla CEO, such as when Musk suggested last October that the conflict could be ended by offering such concessions as allowing UN-monitored secession elections in separatist regions.

“F**k off is my very diplomatic reply to you,” Ukraine’s then-ambassador to Germany, Andrey Melnik, told Musk in response. “The only outcome is that now no Ukrainian will ever buy your f**king Tesla crap.”

Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion in October, vowing to make it a bastion for free speech. But he has also made enemies on the Russian side of the conflict. Vladimir Solovyov, a prominent Russian television host, recently denounced the Twitter owner as a “war criminal” for his support of Ukraine’s military.

Podoliak has a history of making unsupported allegations, such as his claim last week that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) took bribes from Russia to “promote genocide.” He made the accusation after the IOC floated the idea of allowing Russian athletes to return to competitions. In December, he accused Twitter of hiding trends related to the Ukraine crisis, apparently dismissing the possibility that public interest in the conflict had declined.
https://www.rt.com/news/570832-ukraine-official-claims-musk-suppressing-tweets/
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30 Jan, 2023 11:57

8a) --- Musk mocks left-wing think tank over Russiagate claims

Hamilton68’s operations were the biggest journalism scam in a long time, the billionaire said

Elon Musk has hit out at the Alliance for Securing Democracy (ASD) and its so-called “Russian bot dashboard” Hamilton68 for labeling Twitter accounts that it disagreed with as assets supposedly linked to the Kremlin.

The billionaire illustrated his point with a mockup of a children’s book on justifying political failures in the media and government, titled ‘Everyone I don’t agree with is a Russian Bot’.

His response comes after internal Twitter messages published by journalist Matt Taibbi on Friday revealed that the Hamilton68 dashboard knowingly mislabeled the accounts of real Americans as “Russian Bots.”

The creators of the tool at one point claimed to be tracking over 600 accounts with alleged ties to the Kremlin to provide the West with an authentic view on Russian “influence operations.” Hamilton68 was later used as a source by numerous major Western media outlets and even academic publications to claim that Russian bots were pushing conspiracy theories and promoting terms like “deep state” as well as hashtags such as #ReleaseTheMemo, #SchumerShutdown, #AlabamaSenateRace, and #ParklandShooting.

https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1619058860131602434

see https://www.racket.news/p/move-over-jayson-blair-meet-hamilton (refers)

However, the latest Twitter Files have revealed that the social media platform’s employees analyzed Hamilton68’s list of supposed “Russian bots,” only to find that these accounts were “neither strongly Russian nor strongly bots” and primarily consisted of real people living in the US, Canada, and the UK.

“It was a scam. Instead of tracking how ‘Russia’ influenced American attitudes, Hamilton 68 simply collected a handful of mostly real, mostly American accounts, and described their organic conversations as Russian scheming,” wrote Taibbi.

The ASD has since attempted to defend its dashboard, claiming it was not meant as a list of Moscow-backed opinion leaders, but was a “nuanced” tool that was misunderstood by journalists. However, the committee’s own members have previously been on record as claiming that the Hamilton68 list included accounts used by Moscow to “discredit the FBI… attack ABC news... critique the Obama administration… and warn about violence by immigrants.”

“This is the biggest journalism scam in a very long time,” replied Musk, who criticized the ASD’s attempts to shrug off any responsibility as a “disingenuous response.”
https://www.rt.com/news/570689-musk-twitter-hamilton68-bots/
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29 Jan, 2023 19:39

8b) --- Creators defend failed Russiagate platform

Hamilton68 was no list of Moscow-backed opinion leaders, but a “nuanced” tool misunderstood by journalists, its founders now claim

The US think tank Alliance for Securing Democracy (ASD) sought to clarify its activities on Friday, after internal Twitter messages published the same day by journalist Matt Taibbi called into question the accuracy of its “Russian bot” dashboard, Hamilton68.

The released communications show employees knew many of the listed accounts on the dashboard were neither Russians, nor bots. ASD is now seeking to recast Hamilton68 as a “nuanced” tool misinterpreted by reporters.

The creators of the dashboard, which once claimed to track over 600 Kremlin-linked accounts to provide the West with an authentic window on Russian “influence operations,” published a statement on Friday insisting Hamilton68 never pretended the accounts it monitored took their orders from Moscow – only that they were “wittingly or unwittingly” amplifying Russian narratives.

Advised by a bipartisan panel consisting of Weekly Standard editor and Iraq war proponent Bill Kristol, Hillary Clinton campaign chair John Podesta, and former US ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul, the ASD launched the dashboard in 2017 “to track Russian disinformation on Twitter,” according to its website. Hamilton68’s primary architect, former FBI agent Clint Watts, admitted the following year he was “not convinced on this bot thing.”

The group blamed “members of the media, pundits and even some lawmakers” for failing to include the necessary context explaining that Hamilton68’s conclusions weren’t drawn from real Russian bots, even though its own advisory committee members are on record in 2017 claiming “Moscow used [the accounts included in Hamilton68] to discredit the FBI…to attack ABC news…to critique the Obama administration...and to warn about violence by immigrants.”

Internal messages between Twitter employees published by Taibbi revealed that the social media platform’s executives had analyzed Hamilton68’s list of 644 putative Russian bots back in 2017, only to find “these accounts are neither strongly Russian nor strongly bots,” in the words of Twitter Trust and Safety chief Yoel Roth.

Roth recommended Twitter “just call this out on the bulls*** it is” as “virtually any conclusion drawn from [the dashboard] will take conversations in conservative circles on Twitter and accuse them of being Russian.”

However, he was discouraged from calling out the group by Twitter's head of global policy communication, Emily Horne, who reminded him “we have to be careful in how much we push back on ASD publicly.”
https://www.rt.com/news/570659-hamilton68-russian-bots-fake-twitter/
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12 Jan, 2023 21:32

8c) --- Key ‘Russian bots’ claim was false – Twitter documents

As media and Democrats labeled organic content Kremlin propaganda, the platform chose silence

Twitter executives knew that several hashtags denounced by leading congressional Democrats and corporate media as “Russian disinformation” were a product of authentic Americans, but chose not to say so in public, journalist Matt Taibbi revealed on Thursday.

Taibbi has been publishing the “Twitter Files,” internal company documents provided by the company’s new owner, Elon Musk, since early December. Evidence published so far shed light on the censorship of key stories ahead of the 2020 presidential election, FBI pressure, direct White House interference on Covid-19 matters, and the banning of Donald Trump – the sitting US president at the time.

Thursday’s revelations concern the events of January and February 2018 and the memo by Republican Congressman Devin Nunes of California detailing how the FBI used the “Steele Dossier” to spy on Trump’s campaign and presidency. Democrats and major media outlets denounced Nunes in what Taibbi described as “oddly identical language,” while attributing the calls to #ReleaseTheMemo to “Russian bots” and “trolls.”

Senator Dianne Feinstein and Congressman Adam Schiff – ranking Democrats in the Senate and House intelligence committees – wrote to Twitter on January 23, 2018, claiming that #ReleaseTheMemo “gained the immediate attention and assistance of social media accounts linked to Russian influence operations.”

Another Democrat, Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal, followed up with a letter denouncing as “reprehensible that Russian agents have so eagerly manipulated innocent Americans.”

Twitter, however, “found no evidence, as in zero, that Russians were anywhere near this story,” Taibbi wrote on Substack. Trust and Safety chief Yoel Roth personally reviewed the accounts that started the hashtag and found “none of them show any signs of affiliation to Russia.”

The engagement was “overwhelmingly organic” and driven by prominent real people, Roth found. He also noted that Schiff, Feinstein and Blumenthal all pointed to the same source – the “Hamilton68 dashboard,” run by an outfit calling itself the Alliance for Securing Democracy (ASD). “All the swirl is based on Hamilton,” he wrote.

Documents show that Twitter executives eventually realized that Democrats weren’t looking for solutions, but were just using the Russia accusation to push them further. One executive even compared it to the children’s book ‘If You Give a Mouse a Cookie’.

Yet for some reason, the company chose not to say so publicly, allowing Democrats and the media to continue blaming “Russian bots” for any problems in US society – government shutdowns, school shootings, gun control, etc.

“By spreading the Russia collusion hoax, they instigated one of the greatest outbreaks of mass delusion in US history,” Nunes told Taibbi when reached for comment, referring to the Democrats.

The memo itself was published on February 2, 2018. Justice Department Inspector-General Michael Horowitz confirmed its findings in his report, published in December 2019.
https://www.rt.com/news/569778-twitter-russiagate-false-taibbi/
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