25 Mar, 2023 16:02 Kekkity

Former president urges Russians to pirate Western content

Foreign entertainment companies that left Russia should suffer “the maximum damage,” Dmitry Medvedev has said

Russians shoulddownload for free movies, music, and other contentfrom Western entertainment companies that left the country over the conflict in Ukraine, former President Dmitry Medvedev has said.

The companies that have ceased or paused operations in Russia over the past year include film industry giants Disney, Warner Bros., Universal, Paramount, and Sony, as well as streaming services such as Netflix, Spotify, Megogo, and Amazon Prime Video.

“You know what?Find proper pirates and download everything from them,” Medvedev told journalists on Saturday, when asked about how foreign-made content currently unavailable in Russia due to sanctions could be accessed.

“If they left us – Netflix and others – then we’ll just download all of this anduse it for free. I would also just put it everywhere online to deliver the maximum damage. Maximum damage so that they go broke.”

Medvedev, who is currently the deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council, said that as a legal professional, he has always had a negative attitude toward piracy and preferred to overpay for content, even when people around him pointed out that it can be easily downloaded online.

“But now I’m treating this in accordance with the ‘you got what you were asking for’ principle. Let them lose money,” he explained.

Medvedev also said that the Russian authorities recently discussed the possibility of depriving foreign content providers of some of their non-property rights in the country.

Netflix, which the ex-president mentioned,lost 700,000 subscribersafter pulling out of Russia last April. The first customer decline in more than a decade saw the streaming platform’s shares plummeting by 37%, which led to a massive loss of $40 billion in market capitalization.

Disney estimated in May that itlost $195 millionjust from shutting down its Disney Channel in Russia.

https://www.rt.com/russia/573573-medvedev-netflix-disney-piracy/

25 Mar, 2023 14:01

Iran taunts France over unrest

The Islamic Republic condemned Paris’ “crackdown on peaceful protests”

The Iranian Foreign Ministry has condemned France’s harsh response to pension reform protests, calling on Paris to “talk to its people and listen to their voices.” With violence in their own streets, French officials should avoid “preaching to others,” Tehran said.

“We strongly condemn the crackdown on peaceful protests by the French people,” the ministry tweeted on Friday. “We call on the French government to respect human rights and avoid using force against its people who are pursuing their demands in a peaceful manner.”

France has been rocked by protests since President Emmanuel Macron’s government bypassed parliament last week to pass a controversial pension reform bill that raises the country’s retirement age from 62 to 64. More than a million demonstrators took to the streets across the country on Thursday, and hundreds were arrested in Paris for lighting fires and clashing with riot police.

The Council of Europe condemned the government for using “excessive force” to police the protests, while France’s national Consultative Commission on Human Rights claimed that hundreds of demonstrators were arbitrarily arrested and subjected to extreme “kettling” tactics by police.

Iran was heavily criticized by Western nations – including France – for its handling of anti-government protests late last year. The French Foreign Ministry used near-identical language in October when it declared that “Iran must respect the right to peaceful protest as well as human rights, in particular the rights of women and girls,” and demanded “that this repression end immediately.”

“The French government should talk to its people and listen to their voices,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani tweeted on Friday. Kanaani shared a video of French police clubbing demonstrators in Paris, adding that “this kind of violence” contradicts France’s “sitting on the chair of morality lessons and preaching to others.”

“French protesters are also waiting to see the collective [video clip] of European, Australian and Canadian female ministers in support of French protesting women,” Kanaani continued, referring to a virtual gathering of female ministers organized by Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly in October in which they pledged support to “the incredibly brave women of Iran.”

Iranian authorities arrested an unknown number of people during last year’s protests, although Ayatollah Ali Khamenei granted pardons to more than 22,000 earlier this month. The protests, which broke out following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody, were fomented by the US and Israel, the Iranian government claimed.

https://www.rt.com/news/573575-iran-condemns-france-protests/

25 Mar, 2023 10:30

Ukraine not ready for offensive – Zelensky

Kiev’s troops are suffering from a lack of ammunition, the Ukrainian president has said

Ukraine has not yet accumulated enough resources to stage an offensive, President Vladimir Zelensky has admitted.

In an interview released on Saturday by the Japanese newspaper Yomiuri, Zelensky said that the situation on the frontline “was not good,” explaining that Ukraine was lacking enough ammunition for successful operations.

On the subject of an offensive, the Ukrainian president stated that “we can’t start [it] yet. Without tanks, artillery and [US-supplied rocket launchers] HIMARS, we cannot send our brave soldiers to the front lines.”

“We are waiting for ammunition to arrive from our partners,” he added, claiming thatRussian troops had been firing three times as manyshells as the Ukrainian side. (Kek, what a lie.)

In light of this, he reiterated his calls for Kiev’s Western backers to send more arms and urged them to sign off ondeliveries of fighter jets.

Commenting on a potential dialogue with Russia, Zelensky insisted that “absolutely no conditions have been formed for this,”suggesting that Russian forces would have to leave the territories Ukraine claims as its own first. Moscow has repeatedly said that it is open to talks with Kiev on condition that it recognize the “reality on the ground,” referring to the new status of four former Ukrainian regions as part of Russia.

Speculations about an imminent Ukrainian spring counteroffensive have been swirling in the Western media for several weeks now. Last week, Politico reported that the US expected Kiev to start the offensive in May, with Ukrainian troops attempting to push into Crimea either by crossing the Dnieper River – which was consideredan unlikely option– or moving out from their positions in the north.

Around the same time, the New York Times reported that Western officials were worried that Ukraine’s costly attempts to hold on to the strategic Donbass city of Artyomovsk (known as Bakhmut in Ukraine) could jeopardize the upcoming offensive, given that Kiev’s Western backerswould not be able to replenish its ammunitionstocks any time soon. With this in mind, one Pentagon official cited by the outlet described theanticipated push as a “last-ditch effort.”

On Friday, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who now serves as deputy chairman of the Security Council, said that Moscow is well aware of Ukrainian plans to stage an offensive, noting that Russia’s General Staff is making its own assessments on the matter and planning a response.

https://www.rt.com/russia/573571-ukraine-not-ready-offensive/

Not much news on Ukraine for 10 days, there’s something happening here

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