Happy Birthday to the BEST PRESIDENT EVER, President Donald J. Trump, God blesses you, your family and your patriots not only because of your Courage and Bravery, but your extreme loyalty to God and his souls on this planet! I love and respect you forever! You have taught us all how to be better warriors!
Anons save this, it will come in handy! KEK
14 Jun, 2024 14:35
Russia was ready to withdraw from southern Ukraine – Putin
Kiev could have retained sovereignty over two of its former regions if it had agreed to guarantee Moscow free land access to Crimea, the president has revealed
Russia was open to withdrawing its troops from Kherson and Zaporozhye Regions early in the Ukraine conflict on the condition that Kiev agreed to an uninterrupted land connection between Crimea and the mainland, President Vladimir Putin stated on Friday.
Speaking at a meeting with the country’s senior diplomats, Putin revealed that in early March 2022, as Russian troops were advancing into southern Ukraine, a senior foreign politician representing the West proposed mediating the conflict between Moscow and Kiev. While Putin did not name the leader, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev identified him as then-Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.
According to the Russian president, Bennett asked officials in Moscow at the time why Russian troops were operating in Kherson and Zaporozhye Regions, given that their stated goal was to help Donbass.
Bennett was told the decision to send Russian troops to those regions was made based on the plans drawn by the General Staff, which sought to bypass heavily fortified Ukrainian positions in Donbass, Putin explained. According to the Russian leader, when Bennett asked whether Russian troops would remain in Kherson and Zaporozhye Regions after the end of the conflict, Putin said he was open to the idea of pulling them back to their bases.
“I replied that, in general, I do not rule out that Ukraine will retain its sovereignty over these territories, provided that Russia will have a solid land connection to Crimea.”
Putin noted that to secure the guarantee, Moscow and Kiev would have to sign a legally binding “servitude” agreement, a property law that ties rights and obligations to the ownership or possession of land.READ MO: Putin names conditions for Ukraine peace talks
The deal would then have to be finalized with the involvement of the UN Security Council, as well as local citizens and the Russian public.
However, when Bennett traveled to Kiev to present Moscow’s proposal to the Ukrainian government, it was rejected, and the Israeli leader was branded a Russian sympathizer, Putin noted.
Now, this proposal is off the table, given that Kherson and Zaporozhye Regions, along with the two Donbass republics, voted to join Russia in public referendums in the fall of 2022, Putin stated.“There can be no talk of violating our national unity… This question is closed forever and beyond any debate.”
At the same time, Putin signaled that Moscow was ready for talks with Ukraine on the condition that Kiev fully withdraws its troops from Donbass, Kherson, and Zaporozhye regions and abandons plans to join NATO. But the proposal has been rejected by Kiev, which insists upon returning the country to its 1991 borders.
https://www.rt.com/russia/599297-putin-russia-kherson-zaporozhye-ukraine/
14 Jun, 2024 15:46
Governor of New York proposes face-mask ban to combat anti-Semitism (the Most Unimpressive Governor EVER!)
Kathy Hochul says the face covers are being used by criminals on subway to conceal identities while committing anti-Semitic acts
New York’s Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul has proposed a legislative ban on face masks on the NYC subway system to combat acts of anti-Semitism, claiming criminals are concealing their identities using the face coverings.
Before the Covid-19 pandemic, New York had a law banning face masks in public. However, that rule was suspended in 2020 in light of the pandemic and the city’s authorities made face coverings mandatory for all subway riders until September 2022.
Speaking to reporters during a news conference in Albany on Thursday, Hochul stated that she was in talks with lawmakers over details of a bill once again banning masks, noting that the policy has to be clearly defined to include “common-sense exemptions” for the use of face masks for health, cultural or religious purposes.
“We will not tolerate individuals using masks to evade responsibility for criminal or threatening behavior,” Hochul said, adding that her team is “working on a solution.”
The Mayor of New York City, Eric Adams, had also mentioned reviving some version of a mask ban and returning to the way things were before the pandemic, insisting that people should not be able to wear masks at protests.
Hochul explained that she was moved to propose the ban after receiving a report earlier this week about a group of people donning face masks that “took over a subway car, scaring riders and chanting things about Hitler and wiping out Jews.”
It’s unclear if the Governor was referring to a specific incident or several, but they appear to be connected to Monday’s pro-Palestinian demonstrations that took place around the city. Near Union Square Park, a number of people who had left the rally were seen on video flooding into a subway station waving flags and banging on drums.
In one clip, a man not wearing a face mask could be seen chanting “raise your hands if you’re a Zionist” to other passengers on the train, telling them to get out of the subway car. Another video shows a man in Union Square, also without a mask, shouting “I wish Hitler was still here. He would’ve wiped all you out!”
Critics of Hochul’s proposed mask ban have slammed it as an attempt to crack down on protests in which people want to conceal their identities to avoid legal or professional repercussions. Donna Lieberman, the executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, suggested that the governor’s legislation would be used to selectively squash political protests and used to “arrest, doxx, surveil and silence people of color and protestors the police disagree with.”
https://www.rt.com/news/599305-nyc-subway-mask-ban/
>>21021978 This is how stupid Democrats and Congress are, you have no power to reign them in, idiot!
>>21021564 they should have been arrested because they are all ugly
(seems like Red File Folders are in vogue)
8 Jun, 2024 14:20
SPIEF 2024: Rosneft chief reveals cost EU paid for rejecting Russian gas
Members of the bloc have shelled out $630 billion to replace Moscow’s resources, Igor Sechin has said
EU nations spent more than $630 billion on non-Russian gas imports in the three years through 2023, the head of Russian oil major Rosneft, Igor Sechin, told an energy panel at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) on Friday.
The figure is close to investments made in the bloc into so-called green energy over the same period of time, Sechin said, describing it as quadruple the aggregated gross domestic product of the Baltic states and equal to the total volume of the Swedish and Polish economies.
“The sum also equals the EU’s total gas spending over the previous eight years,” the Rosneft chief highlighted.
Higher energy costs are “eating up” the margins of energy-intensive sectors such as production of steel, fertilizers, chemicals, ceramics, and glass, Sechin claimed, adding that production activity in the euro area has been declining since the middle of 2022.
He stressed that 32% of German enterprises are already planning to transfer their production facilities abroad due to increased energy costs that inevitably deprive them of competitive advantage.
Russian gas exports to the EU have dwindled due to sanctions related to the Ukraine conflict, as well as to the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines, which were previously Russia’s major gas route to the region. Last year, Russia’s share of pipeline gas imports to the bloc dropped to about 8% from 41% in 2021, according to European Council estimates. Meanwhile, Moscow still accounted for around 15% of total EU gas imports, including pipeline gas and liquified natural gas (LNG) combined.
Norway has overtaken Russia to become the region’s top pipeline gas supplier, while the EU is increasing imports of expensive LNG from the US and other countries.
Politico reported in May, citing draft documentation, that the EU was mulling the idea of sanctioning Russia’s LNG sector. The measure is not expected to directly bar the bloc’s imports of the super-chilled fuel, but would reportedly prevent member states from re-exporting it.
In October 2022, Rosneft CEO Sechin warned that the bloc’s ambitious plan to ditch Russian energy would cost its economy up to 11.5% in GDP. He also said that the potential slump in the chemical industry could reach 20-45%, while metallurgy output could plummet by 30-60%, as these are among the top energy-intensive sectors.
Earlier this year, German Vice-Chancellor and Economy Minister Robert Habeck said that his country had lost its competitive advantage after abandoning Russian gas supplies. He admitted that the EU’s economic locomotive had been in “a particularly difficult situation,” as gas imports from Russia had been “very profitable.”
Last year, the minister warned that Germany would have to wind down or even switch off its massive industrial capacity if Ukraine’s gas transit agreement with Russia is not extended after it expires at the end 2024.
https://www.rt.com/business/599009-sechin-eu-russian-gas-cost/