#Russia's economic pic: 1- Amassed foreign reserves of 635B$, 5th largest in the world; 2- National debt of 18% of GDP, 6th lowest in the world; 3- Has a budget surplus; 4- It has slashed its dependency on oil state revenues with fiscal break-even cost of a barrel of oil at $52 #US #Biden declared that #Russia-n #Putin "will be a pariah on the international stage" for his unprovoked attack on #Ukraine, and announced severe new sanctions with the #G7 that include sweeping export controls and a freeze on billions of dollars worth of Russian assets.

Unfortunately what was bound to happen happened today: 3 attacks against #France: #Nice, 3 killed in knife attack in a church, terrorist arrested; #Avignon, man shot dead after attacking police with knife; #Jeddah, #SaudiArabia citizen wounds guard in attack at #French consulate

https://twitter.com/OlivierGuitta/status/1320482690114703370

#France: The attack in #Nice again targeted a church where the jihadist constantly yelling "Allahu Akbar" beheaded one woman & mortally stabbed to death two other people. The jihadist in a man in his twenties that speaks #French; that's all we know so far. bit.ly/3oBamH6

Being in #Berlin while the preparations for the #Libya Peace Conference were under way, I gave an interview to the excellent @SumangaliS @dwnews about the possible outcomes of Sunday's meeting plus the assessment o the players including #IslamicState. bit.ly/2tsa7q9 @SumangaliS @dwnews My Two cents on #BerlinConference on #Libya:
1- Interesting that a major player, #Morocco, was not invited, while it was instrumental in the accords of #Skhirat.
2- Invited though: #Tunisia, #Algeria and #Qatar, countries favourable to the #GNA. bit.ly/30ET4gA

#Iran may be overplaying its hand in #Iraq by using its proxies openly attacking the #US. The slight goodwill that President #Trump showed about getting a deal with Iran might be waning quickly...

https://twitter.com/LizSly/status/1211996165518057472

This could be one of the biggest nights in the fight against terrorism, if confirmed that the #US was able to kill at the same time the #Iran-ian terror master Qassem #Soleimani and the head of the Kataeb #Hezbollah militia in #Iraq. reut.rs/39AnDs7

A terror attack in #Paris against the #Iran-ian main opposition group the #MEK was foiled. Attack due to take place during their conference whose speakers included Rudy #Guilani.The 2 arrested terrorists were a couple of Iranian origin living in Belgium bit.ly/2MJbZir The Belgian couple was arrested in #Brussels a few hours before the attack was to take place at a conference attended by 25,000 people. Police found in their car 500 g of #TATP and detonators. 2 accomplices were arrested in #France and #Germany, including an #Iran-ian diplomat.

A man shot dead two police officers in the center of the eastern #Belgian city of #Liege on Tuesday and was himself shot dead after having taken a woman hostage, bit.ly/2L1Au9s According to #Belgian paper @ladh, the murderer in #Liege #Belgium reportedly yelled "Allahu Akbar" when shooting down dead 2 policemen and a passersby bit.ly/2sntmMX

#Russia-n mercenaries are now showing up everywhere in #Africa: one country in particular is the #CAR where Russians are also providing weapons. Also present in the #Niger Delta of #Nigeria actually helping the rebels that target the western oil companies. bit.ly/2KkU0OD Fascinating story on how #Russia entered the #CAR. It was blocking a delivery of weapons from #France to #Bangui so #Macron told CAR President to go and convince Russia to unblock the sale. Instead Russia saw an opportunity to sell its own weapons to CAR. bit.ly/2rj8kyH