21 Feb, 2025 22:43

Trump rules out attending Moscow victory parade

The US president has denied reports claiming that he would travel to Russia on May 9

US President Donald Trump has denied plans to attend the annual World War II victory parade in Moscow. His statement came as the US and Russia have restarted direct talks about bringing an end to the Ukraine conflict.

According to The Times, when asked about the trip on Friday, Trump told reporters: “No, no I’m not.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has also denied plans for such a meeting.

Speculations about the potential visit flared after French magazine Le Point cited its sources as claiming that Trump would meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on May 9.

Heads of states, diplomats, and other foreign dignitaries often visit Moscow on May 9, when they watch the large military parade in Red Square and lay wreaths at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier outside the Kremlin wall.The last American president to participate in the commemoration was George W. Bush, who attended the 60th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany and its allies in 2005.

When asked about the possibility of a Trump visit earlier this month, Peskov said that Putin “would be happy” to see different world leaders in Moscow.

Trump and Putin spoke over the phone on February 12, paving the way for US-Russian talks in Riyadh on Tuesday. Ukrainian and EU officials have criticized Trump for completely reversing the policies of the Biden administration, which led a campaign to isolate Russia on the world stage.

The public spat between Kiev and Washington escalated further this week when Trump called Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky “a dictator without elections” and insisted that he was in no position to complain about being sidelined during the talks with Russia.

https://www.rt.com/news/613133-trump-denies-attending-wwii-moscow/

KEK

21 Feb, 2025 21:

US could withdraw troops from Central, Eastern Europe – Bild

Moscow is hoping to get Washington to vacate nations that joined NATO after 1990, the tabloid claims, citing anonymous sources

Western security services and politicians are worried about a potential exit of US troops from NATO member states in Central and Eastern Europe, Bild has reported on Wednesday, citing unnamed sources. The tabloid suggests that Russia is trying to get the US to radically downgrade its military presence on the continent.

Bild claimed that European members of NATO “feared” that the high-level US-Russia talks in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, could lead to such an outcome. The German media outlet quoted an anonymous Western European security official as saying, “according to our information, we’re talking about [Vladimir] Putin’s 2021 demands, that is, the withdrawal of US troops from all NATO states that joined the alliance after 1990.”

In December 2021, Russia presented the US and NATO with a list of proposals aimed at reshaping the security architecture in Europe, and to rule out Ukraine’s accession. The West rejected the Kremlin’s overture as an ultimatum at the time.

Bild also quoted former Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis who posted on X on Tuesday that “it seems much more than likely” that the Kremlin would renew its demands that “NATO must go back to its 1997 borders, retreating from everything except East Germany.” He noted that while Trump technically cannot unilaterally implement a “reversal of NATO enlargement,”he could still “withdraw US troops from the Eastern Flank, which would have almost the same effect.

The nations that wouldtheoretically be affected include Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Sweden.

A Romanian official made similar allegations on Wednesday. Cristian Diaconescu, the president's chief of staff and adviser for defense and national security, alleged that while the US team had rejected Moscow’s supposed demands in Riyadh, “the situation can change from hour to hour or from day to day,” and Washington could eventually cave in. (Man they are freaking out, maybe they shouldn’t have put their lots in with Bidan!)

On Friday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed the claims as “not true,” adding, however, that Moscow’s concerns regarding “NATO’s military infrastructure having inched toward our borders as part of several waves” are “no secret to anyone.”

https://www.rt.com/news/613130-bild-us-could-withdraw-troops-nato-east/

I love how freaked out the “elite” are!

21 Feb, 2025 17:49

Zelensky ‘not important’ for meetings - Trump(Z please do what you just tried again, I’m sure it will work this time)

The Ukrainian leader’s presence would only “make it very hard to make deals,” the US president has said

Ukraine’s leader Vladimir Zelensky is actually “not very important” to have at meetings, US President Donald Trump has said, adding he only makes negotiations difficult.

Trump ramped up his ongoing criticism of the Ukrainian leader in an interview with Fox News’ Brian Kilmeadeon on Friday, duringwhich he suggested Zelensky was an obstacle to making any deal to end the conflict with Russia and suggested the it is “not very important” to have him at meetings at all.

“He’s been at meetings for three years with a very, with a president who didn’t know what the hell he was doing,” Trump said, referring to his predecessor Joe Biden and dismissing Zelensky’s complaints about Ukraine not being represented during recent talks between Moscow and Washington in Saudi Arabia.

“He’s been at the meetings for three years and nothing got done. So I don’t think he’s very important to be at meetings to be honest with you…He’s - he makes it very hard to make deals.But look what’s happened to his country, it’s been demolished,” Trump added.

Earlier this week, the US president branded Zelensky a “dictator” for refusing to hold presidential elections, and claimed the Ukrainian leader had an extremely low approval rating in his country.

When repeatedly pressed by the host about whether Russia was responsible for the ongoing conflict,Trump dodged the question, suggesting that other parties were at fault.The US president also reiterated his claim that the hostilities would never have started if he had been in office at the time.

Every time I say, oh, it’s not Russia’s fault, I always get slammed by the fake news. But I’m telling you, Biden said the wrong things. Zelensky said the wrong things. They got attacked by somebody that’s much bigger and much stronger, which is a bad thing to do, and you don’t do that. But Russia could have been talked out of that so easily,” Trump asserted.

Ties between Kiev and Washington appear to have rapidly deteriorated in a matter of a week, with Trump and Zelensky, as well as other senior officials from the two nations, trading various accusations. Among other things, Zelensky has claimed that the US leader was “living in a disinformation bubble” allegedly created by Russia and has also rejected a proposed deal that would give the US access to Ukraine’s rare-earth minerals to compensate for military aid. He has also refuted Trump’s estimates on the amount of aid Kiev has received, claiming it had not got even half of the sum.

On Wednesday, Trump branded Zelensky a “dictator without elections,” claimed that the Ukrainian leader has had an extremely low approval rating and warned that the Ukrainian leader would not “have a country left” should he continue with his policies. Top US officials, including National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, said Trump has grown frustrated with Kiev’s rhetoric, branding it “unfortunate” and “unacceptable.”

https://www.rt.com/news/613127-zelensky-meetings-trump-important/

I sincerely do not understand why Zelenskyy didn’t decipher what Trump’s communication style was after all these years

21 Feb, 2025 19:01

G20 welcomed Riyadh talks – Lavrov

Russia and the US resumed dialogue this week after a 3-year pause

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said thatall G20 nations welcomed recent US-Russia talks in Riyadh, which aimed to restore dialogue and address the ongoing Ukraine conflict. Lavrov made the remarks at a press conference on Friday, following the two-day G20 foreign ministers’ meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa, that began on February 20.

Speaking to journalists, Lavrov said “All welcomed our meeting,” while acknowledging that theRiyadh talks marked only the start of dialogue.

The high-level discussions in the Saudi capital earlier this week involved Lavrov, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and other officials from both sides. The talks focused on reestablishing diplomatic ties between Moscow and Washington and potential paths toward resolving the Ukraine conflict.

Both sides described the talks as productive, with Lavrov stating that the delegations worked “quite successfully” on improving relations. Rubio called the meeting “the first step of a long and difficult journey but an important one.”

As a result of the talks, both sides agreed tolay the groundwork for restoring US-Russian bilateral tiesand working towards a resolution to the Ukraine conflict. They also committed to organizing a summit between their respective leaders in the future.

Addressing reporters on Friday, Lavrov noted that the way certain “tragicomic characters leading the Brussels bureaucracy and NATO reacted to the Riyadh meeting speaks for itself.”

The foreign minister further argued thatonly “unhealthy people” would view diplomatic engagement between two global powers as a “betrayal of Western interests.”

Both the EU and Ukraine, which were excluded from the talks in Saudi Arabia, condemned the meeting. Vladimir Zelensky described the talks as “disreputable,” accusing Washington of “helping Putin get out of years of isolation” and portraying Russia as “a victim.”

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas suggested that Moscow emerged as the biggest winner from the talks, stressing that any peace deal regarding Ukraine has to involve the Europeans and Ukrainians to be effective.

Russian President VladimirPutin said on Wednesday that Moscow “has never refused contact with EU nations or withdrawn from negotiations with Ukraine.” He noted that it was Kiev that pulled out of the Istanbul talks in the spring of 2022 and later banned its officials from engaging in any dialogue with Moscow.

The Russian president reiterated that Moscow is ready to return to the peace process at any time, but said the decision ultimately lies with Kiev and Brussels.

(It seems the EU ideology is “what we tell you” and that will never work with Russia)

https://www.rt.com/russia/613117-lavrov-russia-us-talks-g20/

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION

==Judge gives go-ahead for the Trump administration to gut USAID's workforce

The decision comes after the judge had temporarily paused efforts to place thousands of USAID employees on administrative leave following a lawsuit by labor groups.== (why did he do this when he ruled against him a couple of days ago?)

The decision comes after the judge had temporarily paused efforts to place thousands of USAID employees on administrative leave following a lawsuit by labor groups.

Feb. 21, 2025, 6:42 PM EST

Liberia Battles Spreading Ebola Epidemic

A federal judge on Friday paved the way for the Trump administration to move forward with plans to remove thousands of U.S. Agency for International Development workers from their jobs.

U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols denied a request from labor groups to issue a preliminary injunction after the Trump administration said thousands of USAID employees would be placed on administrative leave and ordered agency personnel abroad to return to the U.S. within 30 days.

“Weighing plaintiffs’ assertions on these questions against the government’s is like comparing apples to oranges. Where one side claims that USAID’s operations are essential to human flourishing and the other side claims they are presently at odds with it, it simply is not possible for the Court to conclude, as a matter of law or equity, that the public interest favors or disfavors an injunction,” Nichols wrote.

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“Plaintiffs have presented no irreparable harm they or their members are imminently likely to suffer from the hypothetical future dissolution of USAID,” Nichols wrote. “And it is not clear why the speed of proceedings in the relevant agencies would be insufficient to address the only actions that have already happened and are presently ripe for review: administrative leave placements, expedited evacuations, and other changes to working conditions of the sort those bodies routinely confront.”

Earlier this month, the judge had paused the administration’s move to place 2,200 USAID staff on administrative leave. He also rescinded leave for 500 workers and paused efforts to expedite evacuations for personnel abroad. The temporary restraining order on those actions extended until the judge’s ruling on Friday.

The lawsuit was initially filed by the American Foreign Service Association, a union representing 1,980 foreign service officers working for USAID, and the American Federation of Government Employees. They argued that efforts to dissolve USAID have had “disastrous humanitarian consequences” by terminating the agency’s efforts to stop children’s malaria deaths, ending pharmaceutical clinical trials and threatening HIV resurgence.

They also alleged that the move to gut the agency had “already imperiled American lives,” and referenced the State Department last month advising U.S. nationals to leave the Democratic Republic of the Congo due to safety concerns tied to protests at U.S. government buildings.

“By abruptly putting staff on administrative leave, Defendants left USAID workers in perilous situations stranded, without any information or funding to escape,” the lawsuit said.

Tom Yazdgerdi, the president of the American Foreign Service Association, called the judge’s ruling “a setback in our fight to protect our members from efforts that threaten to dismantle USAID, but it does not change the importance of their mission — advancing U.S. interests and delivering life-saving assistance worldwide.”

Skye Perryman, the president and CEO of Democracy Forward, one of the firms representing the unions in the lawsuit, said that they would “continue to pursue all legal options in this case in order to ensure the safety of Americans at home and abroad.”

“The Trump administration’s attack on USAID is part of a coordinated effort to undermine the will of Congress and isolate America on the global stage,” Perryman said in a statement.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday night.

The Trump administration has indicated it hopes to cut up to 10% of the federal workforce. Tech billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has played a central role in those efforts and in overall plans to drastically reduce government spending.

In addition to promoting false conspiracy theories about USAID, Musk recently referred to the agency as “a criminal organization” in a post on X that added, “Time for it to die.”

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-administration/federal-judge-gives-go-ahead-trump-gut-usaid-workforce-rcna193262