Putin says Trump must go harder on Europe and Ukraine; must move faster; he promised 24 hours; won’t meet with Trump until Trump is ready for serious results; the cause of the war is NATO
Putin: I’m surprised by Trump’s restraint toward allies who behaved rudely 0/
Putin: The U.S. is working with European allies on Ukraine to reach solutions acceptable to both sides. It’s not an easy task.
When Trump was a candidate, he spoke about resolving the Ukraine crisis quickly. But after becoming president and receiving more information, his position changed. 1/
Putin: I haven’t seen Donald in a long time. We don’t have a close relationship, but during his presidency, we met and discussed U.S.-Russia relations. I’d gladly meet him again today.
I think he would too - it was clear from our phone call. But just meeting for coffee isn’t enough. Our teams need to prepare serious issues that matter to both Russia and the U.S. 2/
Putin: There are many issues where both the U.S. and Russia are involved.
Of course, Ukraine remains our top priority. 3/
Putin: It’s natural - Trump started receiving real information, and it changed his approach. That takes time. I want to meet, but the meeting must be prepared to bring real results. 4/
Putin: Trump was accused of ties to Russia, dragged through courts - nothing was proven because nothing happened.
Meanwhile, European leaders openly interfered in the U.S. election, even insulting a candidate. We had our sympathies but didn’t interfere. 5/
Putin: We don’t speculate on Euro-Atlantic relations, but Europe, as U.S. allies, is to blame for what’s happening.
They dragged him through courts, accused him of ties to Russia, while every European leader directly interfered in the U.S. election. 6X
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At Munich Security Conference world leaders declared post-1945 world order is dead — Ray Dalio.
Merz: "The world order as it has stood for decades no longer exists. We are in a period of great power politics. Freedom is no longer a given". 1/
Macron: Europe's old security structures tied to previous world order don't exist. Europe must prepare for war.
Rubio: We are in a new geopolitics era because the old world is gone. 2/
Ray Dalio: We are in Stage 6 part of the Big Cycle in which there is great disorder arising from a period where there are no rules, might is right, and there is a clash of great powers.
This is the stage where international relations follow the law of the jungle. 3/
Russia's foreign intelligence service planned military coup in Senegal.
Leaked documents show Moscow recruited local military figures to seize power and prepared political and logistical support for new regime — United24. 1/
After Prigozhin's death, Russia brought Wagner under direct control of foreign intelligence service.
76 internal documents from 2023-2024 show transfer of Wagner's assets to state structures. Key figures include Sergei Mashkevich, Sergei Klyukin, Artem Gorny. 2/
Russia created "African Political Science" with $750K monthly budget.
Uses St. Petersburg offices to coordinate operations in 30+ countries. Organization divided into political operations for lobbying and media operations for manipulative social media content. 3/
Andrey Kurkov, Ukrainian writer: Nobody’s winning in Russia-Ukraine war.
Trump wants to be a winner and look like a peacemaker, but he’s a business dealer. He wants a deal with Russia, and Ukraine is an obstacle to restarting joint oil projects and profits. 1/
Kurkov: I feel like I spent already half of my life in war. Now it became part of daily life and lottery. You never know who will be killed tomorrow by Russians.
You just live one day at a time, hoping to survive till the next year, but with no guarantee. 2/
Kurkov: This winter became the main enemy — it allied with Russia.
Not sleeping because of explosions is one thing, not sleeping because of the cold is another. With no heating, you go to bed with plastic bottles filled with boiled water. It isn’t good for your health. 3/
Bolton: It was a mistake not pressing earlier to admit Belarus, Ukraine and Moldova to NATO. We absorbed eastern Europe for one reason — space.
Every country pushed the front line closer. We failed to close the gap and Ukraine, Moldova and Belarus were left in a gray zone. 1/
Bolton: The French and the Germans objected Ukraine and Georgia in NATO. Ukraine is an incredibly rich powerful country striving to be Western, rejecting the nationalism of Putin.
It was closely related to our vital interest in the peace and stability of other NATO members. 2/
Bolton: We don't have a national security decision-making process anymore. Trump has proposed a $500 billion increase in the defense budget. Great, but we are behind.
Communist China is becoming a peer nuclear competitor. In a tripolar nuclear world, none of treaties work. 3X
A mine tore off his foot. He tightened a tourniquet and crawled six hours under FPV drones to stay alive.
This is “Keks,” a fighter from Ukraine’s 144th Special Operations Center. — Ukrainska Pravda 1/
At 05:00 he moved out with three comrades. High grass covered the trail. He stepped on a Soviet-designed “petal” mine.
The blast shredded his foot. He tried to run, collapsed twice, then dragged himself to a tree for cover. 2/
A teammate on his first combat mission tightened the tourniquet.
Keks handed over his machine gun, gave orders, and told the group to move ahead while he crawled behind them. FPVs hunted overhead. Mortars struck nearby. 3/
Estonia FM Tsahkna: The story “Estonia is one of the most vulnerable countries” is fake news. We prepare for a Russian probable invasion and the deterrence is really strong. NATO is stronger than ever. If Russia is coming to our territories, we will bring the war to Russia. 1/
Tsahkna: For 20 years we have been saying Europe must do more and have more self-confidence. Our relation with US is very strong but not anymore unconditional. Let’s use this pressure to wake up Europe. The new vision must be let’s unite Europe. 2/
Tsahkna: There was no support for idea to start talking with Kremlin on Thursday informal meeting of European leaders. We must put more pressure on Russia not to talk with them. 3/