18 Jul, 2025 20:22

Putin, Trump and Xi could meet in September – The Times

The Russian president is already set to meet his Chinese counterpart in Beijing for upcoming World War II commemorations

US President Donald Trump could meet his Russian and Chinese counterparts, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, at an upcoming event marking the 80th anniversary of victory over imperial Japan in World War II, The Times has reported.

China has announced plans to honor the date with a military parade in Beijing in September, and Moscow has confirmed that Putin will attend.

The Soviet Union, China and the US cooperated in the fight against Japan during World War II.Both analysts and ordinary Chinese have called on Xi to “seize the opportunity,” invite Trump and host a three-way summit during the upcoming victory celebration, The Times wrote on Friday.

“Why not align Trump’s visit with the September 3 commemoration?” Renmin University of China Professor and popular Chinese opinion leader Jin Canrong told the Guancha news outlet last month. “If the leaders of China, the US, and Russia were to stand together during the military parade, it would be a great positive signal to the world,” he suggested.

According to The Times, Beijing “tacitly encouraged speculation” on the subject by refusing to deny a report by Japan’s Kyodo News released last month, which claimed that the decision to invite Trump had already been made.

Relations between Washington, Beijing, and Moscow have soured in recent years over the Ukraine conflict, accusations of Chinese cyber warfare, and what the US describes as “unfair”market practices.

Since the start of his second term in January, Trump has moved to thaw diplomatic ties with Russia and pushed for a settlement in the Ukraine conflict. However, on Monday, he expressed exasperation with the pace of the talks and threatened 100% secondary tariffs on Russian trading partners if the hostilities aren’t resolved within 50 days.

Trump has also reignited a trade war with Beijing, which earlier this year rattled global financial markets. The tit-for-tat tariff standoff peaked with 145% US duties on Chinese imports and 125% retaliatory levies from Beijing. Tensions appear to have eased following a trade deal last month under which China relaxed restrictions on key rare earth mineral exports.

https://www.rt.com/news/621668-putin-trump-xi-meeting-times/

18 Jul, 2025 00:55

Putin and Trump need to meet – Orban

The Hungarian PM says “someone is lying” about seeking peace in Ukraine

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has called for an in-person meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin andhis US counterpart Donald Trump, describing it as the only realistic path to ending the Ukraine conflict.

In an interview with the Ultrahang YouTube channel published on Thursday,Orban called Trump “the man of peace” but voiced skepticism about the sincerity of other Western governments and officials in Kiev.

“Everyone says they want peace, but there’s still war. That means someone is lying,” he said, accusing some parties of having a vested interest in prolonging the bloodshed. “They want the war to continue, no matter what they say.”

A deal won’t come from Kiev. It must come from Washington and Moscow. Until then, there will be no peace.

“The conflict will not stop until the Russian and American presidents sit down at the negotiating table,” Orban added. He expressed hope that such a meeting could lay the foundation for a broad agreement addressing not only Ukraine, but also global trade and arms control.

Earlier this week, Trump said he was “very, very unhappy” with Putin and threatened Moscow’s trade partners with “severe” secondary tariffs if no diplomatic progress is made within 50 days.

Budapest has consistently criticized efforts to arm Kiev and opposes its EU and NATO ambitions, warning that it prolongs the conflict at growing cost to European economies and taxpayers.

Trump has indicated that Washington will no longer fund Kiev’s war effort, but has allowed other NATO members to continue purchasing US-made weapons for Ukraine.

Since returning to office in January, Trump has held several phone calls with Putin and has alternated between assigning blame to Moscow and Kiev for the lack of progress.

In May, Ukraine agreed to resume direct negotiations with Russia under pressure from Washington. However, talks stalled after two rounds, with Kiev declaring the process “exhausted” and indicating it had only participated to avoid appearing dismissive of Trump’s diplomatic initiative.

Moscow has said it remains committed to achieving its core objectives in Ukraine but prefers a diplomatic solution. The Kremlin has expressed hope that,despite his public statements, Trump is also applying private pressure on Kiev.

(https://www.rt.com/russia/621671-ukrainian-drone-raid-moscow/)

Someone should tell Lindsey to butt out of influencing Ukraine and Zelensky

18 Jul, 2025 22:42

More Ukrainian drones target Moscow in renewed raid

Kiev has intensified attempted long-range attacks, with at least 13 UAVs intercepted on approach to the Russian capital early Friday

Russia’s air defenses destroyed more than a dozen incoming Ukrainian drones approaching the capital overnight, according to Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin – after the country’s DefenseMinistry reported nearly 90 interceptions across multiple regions in under five hours.

The ministry said the intercepts occurred across several areas, including the Bryansk, Oryol, Kaluga, Rostov, Tula, Kursk, Smolensk, Voronezh, and Moscow regions, with a total of 87 hostile targets downed between 6:15 pm and 11:05 pm Friday.

The drone raid continued into the night, with Sobyanin reporting at least 13 more interceptions of drones en route to Moscow after midnight, as of 1:50 am Saturday.There were no reports of casualties or damage, with emergency crews responding to the crash sites, according to the official.

Ukraine has been conducting UAV raids deep into Russian territory for months, often striking residential buildings and other civilian infrastructure. TheRussian government describes Ukraine’s strikes as “terrorist attacks”deliberately targeting civilians.

Kiev has intensified attempted drone attacks on Moscow over the past week, according to Sobyanin, who has been reporting similar incidents since Wednesday.

Last month, Sobyanin told reporters that the city’s air defense system operates at the “highest level,” intercepting 99.9% of targets. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov earlier emphasized that Russia employs layered air defense systems to minimize the threat posed by drone attacks.

(https://www.rt.com/russia/621671-ukrainian-drone-raid-moscow/

18 Jul, 2025 21:02

Putin aide gives verdict on new EU sanctions

Brussels is depriving the bloc of stable energy supplies from Russia, presidential investment envoy Kirill Dmitriev has said

EU sanctions on Russia are far more damaging to the bloc’s member states than they are to Moscow, presidential investment envoy Kirill Dmitriev said on Telegram on Friday.

Brussels announced the adoption of its 18th package of sanctions against Russia earlier in the day, targeting the country's hydrocarbon exports and banking sector.

One of the financial institutions sanctioned was the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), of which Dmitriev is the CEO.

According to the presidential envoy, European Commission President Ursula von derLeyen pushed for sanctions on the fund because the RDIF “facilitates the settlement of the Ukrainian conflict, promotes dialogue between Russia and the United States, and invests in the growth of the Russian economy.”

The EU elite is afraid of peace and continues to remain captive to hostile narratives, destroying the economy of the entire EU with its own hands.

The economic restrictions are destructive to bloc member states, depriving them of stable energy supplies and access to the Russian market, Dmitriev argued.

“Last year, despite all the sanctions pressure, Russia’s GDP grew by 4.3%, versus a 0.7% growth rate in the Eurozone,”he said.

The RDIF calls for “unwinding the sanctions spiral,” Dmitriev said. He argued that, despite the imposition ofmore than 30,000 sanctions against Russia, the measures have failed to force Moscow into acting “in opposition to Russian national interests.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday that Moscow has developed “a certain immunity” to the Western sanctions.

According to Russian President Vladimir Putin, such unilateral economic restrictions harm the economies of the very states that turn to them. “The more sanctions are imposed, the greater the damage to the imposers,” at the Eurasian Economic Union summit in Minsk last month.

(At some point sanctions are always meaningless, because Russia always has a work around. How does the EU not understand that?)

(https://www.rt.com/russia/621669-putin-aide-verdict-sanctions/

16 Jul, 2025 15:48

Russian region rewarding policemen for refusing bribes

Officers in Rostov Region are now receiving the same sum they turned down

Police officers in southern Russia’s southern Rostov Region are being rewarded for refusing bribes by receiving the same amount of money that they turned down, a senior official has said.

Aleksandr Rechitsky, head of the Interior Ministry’s regional office, told reporters on Tuesday that the new practice is being carried out “in accordance with [his] order,”as a reward for taking a strong anti-corruption stance.

“Every amount offered is transferred to the officer in full,” he said.

Rechitsky added that criminal proceedings are being launched against those attempting to pay off police. More than 25 such cases have been opened over the past two months alone, he said.

The initiative is seen as a way to encourage law enforcement to remain honest, particularly in cases involving small to medium-sized bribes, such as those often offered to traffic police by drunk drivers or people facing civil charges.

According to data cited by Rechitsky, police recorded 767 corruption-related crimes in the first half of the year, many in the economic sphere. Authorities intercepted 260 bribery attempts, with 135 uncovered by Interior Ministry officers.

Former policeman Ivan Artamonov told Rossiyskaya Gazeta that the payments likely cover bribes ranging from 25,000 up to 150,000 rubles ($321 to nearly $2,000). Defense lawyer Dmitry Ivanov, who specializes in corruption cases, said documenting bribes and their exact value is a complicated legal process.

Such incentives are not new in Russia. Similar systems have been tested in Moscow in the past, as well as in Tatarstan,where officers were even awarded with apartments for exposing bribery.

(Kek how do they know they are not taking both?)

(https://www.rt.com/russia/621568-russia-policemen-refusing-bribes/

David Sacks: how US involvement in Ukraine backfiredJames BillotMARCH 7, 2024Note the date!

Investor David Sacks brought his campaign against US involvement in Ukraine to Washington DC last night. Speaking for over 40 minutes at a gala for Republican think-tank American Moment, in which he was honoured with an award, he made the case that American involvement in the Russia-Ukraine war has been a failure.

Speaking alongside a slide presentation titled “Biden’s Backfire”, the tech entrepreneur blamed Joe Biden for prolonging, escalating and even partly provoking the conflict. Although he began his history of the conflict with what he called Nato’s “unbelievably reckless” open door policy towards Ukraine, he blamed the President in particular for scuppering the 2022 Istanbul agreement. “These terms were certainly more favourable than anything Ukraine is going to get now,” he said. “Once Biden sabotaged the peace deal, he became a co-owner of this war”.

Sacks was speaking to an audience of young conservatives, Trump-aligned Republicans and “realist” critics of US foreign policy, including former Trump advisor Stephen Miller, Arizona Congressional candidate Blake Masters and Ohio Senator J.D. Vance, whose introductory remarks were interrupted by environmental protesters.

The 51-year-old laid out four key “backfires”, starting with the economic sanctions. “The idea that sanctions are working is totally delusional,” said Sacks. “The Russian economy stabilised and even outperformed G7 economies in 2023”. According to the entrepreneur, the “real victim” of the sanctions was Europe, which was seeing “far-Right” parties surging in support across the continent as a result. “The population of Europe has realised that this war is not in their interests,” he said.

The venture capitalist went on to attack Democrats and neoconservative Republicans for claiming that military support, the second major failure, would “weaken” Russia. Citing the asymmetric cost of artillery shell production, the size of Russia’s military versus Ukraine’s, and the yawning gap in war enthusiasm in the two countries,Sacks concluded that “while seeking to weaken Russia we only weaken ourselves”.

Downstream of these military shortcomings Sacks listed another failure: diplomacy. “The rest of the world has not come along for the ride,” said the investor. “They have rejected Biden’s framing of the war”. Consequently, more and more countries, most notably the Brics alliance, were “committed to undermining the dollar status as a global reserve currency”. In turn, “the project to show American leadership had backfired and catalysed resistance to the US all over the world”.

But it was Ukraine, he argued, that was suffering the most from US involvement in the war. The conflict has resulted in a humanitarian catastrophe, the fourth and final backfire, which according to Sacks has “doomed the country”. “The fertility rate was not at replacement level before the war but it has now plummeted,” he said. “Now there’s a huge “gouging out” of the country’s working population. How will the country survive demographically?”

Sacks reserved most ire for the Washington “blob” that he accused of pushing a “narrative mirage,” with an endlessly receding and changing end goal.What began as a promise to help Ukraine win decisively in early 2022 has slowly morphed into seeking a stalemate until settling on merely “survival” today. “The blob is now promoting ‘hold and build,'” he argued. “It wants to hold Ukraine together so that can rebuild in 2025”.

The venture capitalist concluded with the controversial idea that American hostility to Russia is a “manufactured conflict” that really started with Russiagate.He argued that the “fantasy that Putin was controlling our elections” meant that the “Russiagate hoax had metastasised into a new cold war with Russia”. In order to prevent World War III, he implored the US to “cut a deal” and seek detente with Russia, which would provide a baseline for peace on the world stage.

Sacks summed up his message to his audience: “stop listening to the bipartisan cabal of warmongers”.

https://unherd.com/newsroom/david-sacks-how-us-involvement-in-ukraine-backfired/?us=1