RT News - January 20th 2023 Late

More than 50 western defence chiefs met in Ramstein, Germany to discuss new arms supplies to Ukraine with yet another huge US aid package announced. Lloyd Austin (US Sec. of Defence) said as a preamble “We need to keep up our momentum and our resolve, and we need to dig even deeper”, indicating it was a get your purses open event. There's still no decision by Germany on whether to send its coveted Leopard tanks. Rachel Marsden gives more details of the "summit".
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India: "A hit piece on Modi" The Indian Foreign Ministry slams a controversial BBC documentary about Prime Minister Narendra Modi, claiming it promotes a colonial mindset. Runjun Sharma reports.
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Crimea: 32 years ago Crimea voted for it's autonomous status. More than 90% of Crimeans voted for this on this day in 1991. In 2014 Crimea voted for it's reunification with Russia. Interesting historical info from William Mallinson (former British diplomat) and Eunan O'Neill.
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Less than 10-percent of Western companies have left Russia since the conflict began in Ukraine - those findings coming from a Swiss University study.
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U.S. has announced that it is to transfer Russia's confiscated assets to Ukraine. (QS This is separate from the Russia's foreign exchange heist and is more than $30 billion of Russian individual's assets/property). It will make an environment where nobody is safe to leave anything in USA. Political analyst Eike Hamer discusses.
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Washington is providing training to Taiwan's armed forces despite saying it supports the "one China policy" (QS : worrying)
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In Yemen, life saving medicine and equipment remains in too short supply. 80,000 patients are registered with an oncology centre and 6,000 more added each year. People of Yemen are dying because of inability to get care regular and medicines. Abdullah Thawabah, director general of Yemen's National Cancer Centre explains the implications of the continuing western blockade.
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Images of the first space walk of 2023 from the International Space Station.
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1) --- Russia posts record current account surplus
2) --- Iran threatens to designate ‘any’ EU member army as terrorist group
3) --- Top EU official admits dialogue with Ukraine becoming ‘more difficult’
4) --- Investigation pulls back veil on Soros’ ‘indoctrination’ efforts
5) --- US ally walks back nuclear remarks
5a) --- US pulling military gear from Korea for Ukraine
5b) --- Russia blasts US asset expropriation scheme
6) --- Moscow outlines what West can do to resolve Ukraine crisis
7) --- NATO member weakens itself by helping Ukraine – analyst
8) --- Meta makes ‘balanced’ decision on Ukrainian neo-Nazi regiment

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19 Jan, 2023 06:04

1) --- Russia posts record current account surplus

Surging commodity prices have boosted the country’s energy exports, the central bank has said

Russia’s current account surplus almost doubled last year and hit a record high amid rising global energy prices and despite the imposition of Western sanctions, the country’s central bank reported on Tuesday.

The current account – which measures the difference between outgoing funds and money coming into the country through trade, investment and transfers – grew by almost 86% year-on-year in 2022 to $227.4 billion, the regulator’s preliminary data showed.

The central bank said soaring commodity prices throughout 2022 had helped push the current account balance higher, while imports slowly recovered in the second half of the year.

“The value of imports of goods and services was reduced,” the regulator said. “Nevertheless, the decline in imports observed in the first half of 2022 compared to last year’s indicator was replaced by their gradual recovery.”

Russia’s foreign trade surplus in goods and services also surged by 66% from $170.1 billion in 2021 to $282.3 billion last year, reaching a historic maximum for the second straight year.

It comes as Moscow has rerouted the bulk of its trade flows eastwards after Western sanctions largely disrupted supply chains with European markets. Trade between Russia and China soared by nearly a third in 2022 to over $190 billion, according to China’s customs data.
https://www.rt.com/business/570029-russia-posts-record-current-account-surplus/
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20 Jan, 2023 16:01

2) --- Iran threatens to designate ‘any’ EU member army as terrorist group

Tehran’s warning comes after the European Parliament urged blacklisting the Revolutionary Guards

The Iranian parliament has warned EU countries against designating the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization, threatening to retaliate and treat European countries and their militaries in a similar fashion.

Ahmad Naderi, a member of the Presidium of the Iranian Parliament, announced on Friday that Iranian lawmakers had prepared a draft amendment to the country’s legal code that would designate EU member countries as terrorist organizations.

Naderi specified that the law would apply to any and all EU states – as well as their armed forces, organizations and institutions –that include the IRGC on a list of terrorist groups.

The announcement comes after the European Parliament adopted a resolution on Wednesday calling on the EU and its member states to blacklist the IRGC, which it accuses of terrorist activities, violently repressing protests, and supplying drones to Russia. The designation would mean that it would become a criminal offense for anyone in the EU to belong to, associate with, or donate funds to the IRGC. Its assets in the bloc would also be frozen.

The IRGC is an elite branch of Iran’s Armed Forces which, according to various estimates, boasts between 190,000 and 250,000 active personnel. The group is responsible for both internal and border security and wields control over vast segments of the country’s economy.

On Thursday, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian condemned the “emotional” approach of the European Parliament, labeling its resolution “inappropriate and incorrect.”

“Unfortunately, we witnessed the issuance of a draft of an emotional, harsh and unprofessional resolution by the European Parliament, which is in conflict with political rationality and civility,” the minister said, noting that should the EU follow through with the recommendation, it would end up “shooting itself in the foot.”

The recent spike in tensions between Tehran and the West comes after a wave of protests and riots sparked by the death of a young woman, Mahsa Amini, in police custody in September. Amini was arrested for wearing an “inappropriate” hijab and died due to alleged mistreatment while in custody.

The US, EU, and a number of other countries imposed a series of sanctions on Iranian individuals and entities they claim were responsible for the violent crackdown on the protests.

Tehran has refuted claims that Amini’s death was the result of police brutality and has insisted that the unrest in the country was incited from abroad and that Washington and Brussels were using sanctions as a tool to stir up more social tension in the country.
https://www.rt.com/news/570221-iran-eu-terrorist-organizations/
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20 Jan, 2023 09:46

3) --- Top EU official admits dialogue with Ukraine becoming ‘more difficult’

European Council President Charles Michel concedes there’s a divide between Kiev and Brussels on sanctions

Negotiations regarding further sanctions on Russia with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky are becoming increasingly complicated with each new round, European Council President Charles Michel said during a trip to Kiev on Thursday. The statement came after Zelensky urged the EU to impose even tighter restrictions on Moscow.

“Each debate on sanctions is much more difficult than the previous one,” Michel told reporters, as quoted by Bloomberg. “We have good debates with President Zelensky, and I will brief my colleagues on what are the Ukrainian proposals and we will consult. I’m confident we will be able to strengthen the pressure on the Kremlin.”

Michel added that the EU will adopt a tenth sanctions package on Moscow. “We have to see which additional sectors can be targeted in the future,” he said.

The EU imposed sweeping restrictions on Russia after Moscow launched its military operation in Ukraine in late February. Zelensky called on Brussels on Thursday to target Russia’s nuclear industry, including “all entities involved in the Russian missile program.” He also asked for a full ban on Russian energy exports.

The bloc’s efforts to completely relinquish Russian oil and gas have been met with resistance from countries such as Hungary, whose economy is heavily dependent on Russian energy. Budapest has managed to gain several carve-outs that allow it to continue receiving supplies from Moscow. “Russian [energy] accounts for 85% of Hungary’s gas consumption and 65% of oil demand. This cannot be changed overnight,” Tamas Menczer, the state secretary for foreign affairs, explained last week.

The Hungarian government shared survey results this month indicating that “97% of Hungarians reject sanctions that cause serious damage.” It added that “the message is clear: the Brussels sanctions policy must be reviewed.”

The Kremlin stated last month that the Russian economy has adapted to the sanctions and that it is impossible to deny that the restrictions are hurting the EU countries as well. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accused the West on Wednesday of trying to use sanctions to incite “a revolution” in Russia and assert “the dominance of the US by all means.”
https://www.rt.com/russia/570190-ukraine-eu-sanctions-russia/
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20 Jan, 2023 14:57

4) --- Investigation pulls back veil on Soros’ ‘indoctrination’ efforts

At least 54 high-profile media personalities are connected to groups the tycoon helped finance, MRC Business has claimed

Billionaire George Soros has links to dozens of prominent media figures in the US and beyond, via organizations he funded, a conservative US watchdog has claimed.

In the last report of a three-part investigation, published on Tuesday, MRC Business examined the ties of the Budapest-born mogul, concluding that he “cemented himself as one of the most powerful influencers in global politics through his incredible influence in the media.”

MRC Business said that it had uncovered at least “54 major figures in journalism and activist media who are connected to Soros-funded organizations.” The list includes CNN's chief international anchor Christiane Amanpour, NBC News anchor Lester Holt, and Cesar Conde, the NBCUniversal News Group chairman, who oversees the outlets NBC News, MSNBC, and CNBC.

Many of the 54 individuals play prominent roles in institutions funded by Soros. For instance, Amanpour is a senior adviser at the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), which received $2.75 million from the mogul between 2018 and 2020, while Holt is listed as a board member in the same organization. Conde is a trustee at the Aspen Institute, which received over $1 million from the billionaire between 2016 and 2020.

According to MRC, in total Soros has funneled over $32 billion into his organizations in a bid “to spread his radical ‘open society’ agenda on abortion, Marxist economics, anti-Americanism, defunding the police, environmental extremism and LGBT fanaticism.” These efforts have paid off, allowing him to “help indoctrinate millions with his views on a day-to-day basis”, the group claims.

MRC has previously claimed that Soros has financial ties to at least 253 media organizations globally, funding them through his non-profit groups and enabling him to reach viewers and listeners in virtually every corner of the world.

Commenting on the report, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova noted on Thursday that such revelations could be compared to a “nuclear bombshell.” Should it be proven that the leading US media outlets “received money for adjusting their coverage, all US democracy could be wrapped up in their Constitution and thrown out into the garbage heap of history,” she said.
https://www.rt.com/news/570211-soros-media-ties-report/
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20 Jan, 2023 14:44

5) --- US ally walks back nuclear remarks

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol had said his country might obtain its own atomic weapons

South Korea is still committed to the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, President Yoon Suk-yeol insisted on Thursday. Earlier this month he had asserted that Seoul could acquire its own arsenal if the North continued developing its own atomic force.

Yoon assured the Wall Street Journal that South Korea’s “realistic and rational option is to fully respect the NPT regime,” referring to the landmark 1968 Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, which seeks to prevent the spread of nuclear arms and relevant technologies.

The president also noted that he was “fully confident about the US’s extended deterrence,” a policy under which Washington provides South Korea with a “nuclear umbrella” to defend it against military threats.

By reiterating commitment to the NPT regime, Yoon stepped back from his statement of last week, when he said that South Korea “may deploy tactical nuclear weapons or come to possess its own nuclear weapons” in a short time if “the [North Korean nuclear] problem becomes more serious.” Later, his office clarified that he did not actually have plans to do so.

When asked to comment on those remarks from Yoon, US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby referred to the later clarification, adding that Washington and Seoul are seeking to improve extended deterrence capabilities.

The South Korean leader also told the Journal that Seoul was “preparing a stronger joint planning and joint execution in operating the US nuclear assets on the Korean Peninsula.”

Earlier this month, Washington and Seoul voiced conflicting positions on joint nuclear exercises. While Yoon Suk-yeol said that the two countries were in “talks on joint planning and exercises involving US nuclear assets to counter North Korea’s nuclear threats,” President Joe Biden denied that claim.

Washington withdrew nuclear weapons from the Korean peninsula in 1991 as part of its global nuclear arms reduction efforts.

Speculation increased about South Korea possibly acquiring a nuclear arsenal after the North intensified its test missile launches, with US officials warning that Pyongyang might also test another nuclear weapon.

North Korea insists that its launches are a response to US-South Korean drills, which it views as a national security threat.
https://www.rt.com/news/570204-south-korea-walks-back-nuclear-weapons/
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20 Jan, 2023 16:08

5a) --- US pulling military gear from Korea for Ukraine

With its own stocks reportedly depleted, the Pentagon is scrambling to keep Kiev’s forces fighting

The US has asked its forces stationed in South Korea to provide military equipment for Ukraine, the Department of Defense said on Thursday. While the Pentagon did not state what kind of equipment would be requisitioned, earlier reports suggested that the US is sourcing artillery shells from Seoul.

US Forces Korea confirmed the Pentagon’s request, with a spokesman saying that it would have “zero impact on our operations and our ability to execute on our ironclad commitment to the defence of our ally, the Republic of Korea.”

The spokesman did not specify what kind of equipment had been requested, how much would be supplied, or whether any had already been transferred.

However, the New York Times claimed on Tuesday that the Pentagon has already given Ukraine 155mm artillery shells from its stocks in South Korea and Israel. The US has supplied Ukraine with just over a million of these shells, “a sizable portion” of which came from these two countries, the newspaper reported, citing an anonymous US official.

Ukrainian forces currently fire between 4,000 and 7,000 of these shells per day, according to American officials interviewed by CNN. Estimates of Russian fire have varied hugely from anywhere between 5,000 and 60,000 artillery rounds per day. Ukraine’s artillery disadvantage is compounded by the fact that its Western-donated guns – the German-made Panzerhaubitze 2000 and American M777 howitzer, for example – were never designed for such sustained rates of fire, and are plagued by battlefield breakdowns.

The US is “looking under every rock” for ammunition, an anonymous official told Fox News on Wednesday. Months of media reports have suggested that the US-led effort to arm Ukraine has left stockpiles in some NATO nations close to the point of exhaustion.

Against this background, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin traveled to Germany this week to head a meeting of the ‘Defense Contact Group’, a panel of nearly 50 countries that meet regularly to pledge new arms packages for Ukraine. Speaking before the meeting on Thursday, Austin said the US is looking to “energize the industrial base” to produce more weapons and ammunition.
https://www.rt.com/news/570224-korea-military-equipment-ukraine/
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20 Jan, 2023 05:59

5b) --- Russia blasts US asset expropriation scheme

The illegal transfer of Russian assets to Ukraine would be a “breach of fundamental American values,” Moscow says

Russia has denounced plans by the US government to give Ukraine assets confiscated from Russian citizens, warning the move will undermine confidence in the global financial system and erode the protection of private property.

In a statement issued on Thursday night, the Russian Embassy in the US accused Washington of an “obvious disregard of generally accepted legal norms” after the Department of Justice announced that it would transfer “forfeited” Russian assets to Kiev.

“Such dangerous precedents only serve to discredit the United States as a ‘bastion’ of free enterprise. Washington, with its own hands, is undermining confidence in both the American and international financial system, as well as the security of the dollar jurisdiction,” it said, calling the decision “a breach of fundamental American values which erroneously seemed unshakable.”

US President Joe Biden first proposed the asset transfer scheme in April, suggesting that any seized property thought to be “linked to Russian kleptocracy” should be used to “support Ukraine.” To make the plan work, Congress was required to amend several laws, and the DOJ confirmed on Thursday that those changes were included in a massive $1.7 trillion spending package passed late last year.

Washington and its allies have also frozen assets belonging to Russia’s central bank, totaling around $300 billion, but have so far found no legal justification to seize that property outright.

Last week, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova slammed the confiscation of assets as “a completely illegitimate measure, violating commonly acceptable standards of commercial and international law.” She warned that any attempt to take Russian-owned funds and redirect them to Ukraine would violate property rights and said Moscow would respond with “appropriate” countermeasures.

More than 1,000 Russian entities and 1,300 individuals are currently under American sanctions, according to data from the Atlantic Council, a Washington, DC-based think tank with close ties to the NATO alliance. The total value of Russian assets held by the US government has not been made public, however.
https://www.rt.com/news/570172-russia-assets-transfer-ukraine/
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20 Jan, 2023 14:11

6) --- Moscow outlines what West can do to resolve Ukraine crisis

The US and allies must address Russia’s security concerns and their past deceptions on Donbass, the Kremlin says

US-Russia relations are at their lowest point ever amid the crisis in Ukraine, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday. As the conflict deteriorates, the only way to reverse the trend is for Western nations to acknowledge their mistakes and change their policies, he added.

Despite initial hopes that, under President Joe Biden, the US would engage Russia diplomatically, the last two years “have been very bad for our bilateral relations,” the official told journalists. They are now “probably at their lowest point, historically” he added, and “there is no hope for improvement anytime soon.”

The Ukraine hostilities – the focus of the confrontation between Russia and Western nations – are in “an upward spiral” according to Peskov.

“We can see a growing indirect, and sometimes direct involvement of NATO nations in this conflict,” he stated. The nations that back Kiev are acting under “a delusion that Ukraine has any chance to win on the battlefield,” he explained.

Asked how the vicious circle could be broken, Peskov suggested that the US and its allies had to mentally turn the clock back to the end of 2021, “when Russia was suggesting a discussion of its concerns at the negotiations table” only to be dismissed.

Western repentance for its “cynicism” was also in order, he added.

“Germany, France and Ukraine were playing a swindle game with the Minsk agreements. Now is payback time,” he said, referring to the roadmap for Ukraine reconciliation, which the three nations signed with Russia in 2015.

Angela Merkel, Francois Hollande and Pyotr Poroshenko, the leaders at the time of Germany, France and Ukraine respectively, have since stated that the deal they negotiated with Russia was meant to give Kiev time to rebuild its military.

Moscow considers these admissions to be evidence that the negotiations were conducted in bad faith and that the Ukrainian government and its backers had always intended for the Minsk agreements to fail and for the Donbass standoff to be resolved by military means. Russia claimed that its military campaign in Ukraine launched last February preempted an offensive planned by Kiev with NATO’s help.

Ukraine, Germany, and France “lied to the people of Donbass, as they had a terrible fate planned for them, which Russia prevented,” Peskov explained.
https://www.rt.com/russia/570209-ukraine-crisis-escalates-peskov/
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20 Jan, 2023 11:44

7) --- NATO member weakens itself by helping Ukraine – analyst

Sending howitzers to Kiev undermines Denmark’s commitments to the US-led bloc, an expert has told local media

Denmark’s decision to donate 19 howitzers that its military hasn’t received yet to Ukraine “really hurts” and will affect both the country’s national security and commitments to NATO, a military expert has warned, as cited by the Berlingske newspaper.

“The weapon system has been the core of the planned reconstruction of the Danish army. And this important piece is now being removed,” military expert Kristian Soby Kristensen told the influential Nordic daily on Thursday.

Denmark placed an order for 15 Caesar truck-mounted artillery pieces, which are produced by French arms maker Nexter, in May 2017, with delivery under the €40.3 million ($43.7 million) deal initially scheduled for 2021. It bought an additional four pieces in October 2019. The acquisition however, has been mired in delays, allegedly caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

On Thursday, Danish Defense Minister Jakob Ellemann-Jensen announced that all 19 guns would be sent to Ukraine instead of being retained by the country's military. The decision would affect rearmament plans, he admitted, but the government would seek alternative weapon systems.

Kristensen, who is a senior researcher at the Department of Political Science of the University of Copenhagen, told Berlingske that he doubted that viable alternatives could be found. Caesar howitzers are “tailored to the needs of the Danish army,” he explained.

“You can probably find some other guns, but the problem is that the whole world is now ordering military equipment,” he added.

The 19 French artillery systems were a key component of Denmark’s plan to field a heavy infantry brigade. Copenhagen pledged to outfit the unit by 2032 as part of its commitments to NATO. The project faced a series of delays, with difficulties in getting new weapons being a major stumbling block, according to the Danish media.

Officials in some NATO nations have previously warned that continued supply of arms and ammunition to Ukraine on a massive scale would come at a cost to their own defensive capabilities. Former German defense minister Christine Lambrecht went on record in August that her nation was running out of stocks it could supply to Kiev. She resigned on Monday amid discussions about whether Berlin should provide Kiev with Leopard 2 tanks.
https://www.rt.com/russia/570199-denmark-nato-ukraine-aid/
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20 Jan, 2023 09:35

8) --- Meta makes ‘balanced’ decision on Ukrainian neo-Nazi regiment

Content about the notorious Azov will be freely posted on Facebook and Instagram again, a Ukrainian minister says

Ukraine's neo-Nazi Azov regiment, which has close ties to extremist far-right movements around the world, will no longer be suppressed on platforms owned by the US tech giant Meta. That's according to the Kyiv Independent, a Western-backed Kiev media outlet which cites the US tech giant as a direct source.

The designation has now been lifted, according to its report, but only for the national guard unit and not its auxiliaries.

“The war in Ukraine has meant changing circumstances in many areas and it has become clear that the Azov Regiment does not meet our strict criteria for designation as a dangerous organization,” a Meta spokesperson was quoted as saying.

The pledge to change policy was purportedly made to Ukrainian officials by Nick Clegg, Meta president of global affairs, and Monika Bickert, the head of global policy management at Facebook during a meeting at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Ukraine's Digital Transformation Minister Mikhail Fedorov, who broke the news on Thursday, thanked Meta for a “balanced and important decision,” remarking that Facebook and Instagram, two social media platforms operated by Meta, were “powerful tools for spreading the truth.”

Azov Regiment originated as a right-wing Ukrainian nationalist militia, which coalesced after the 2014 armed coup in Kiev. The new regime deployed the militants to suppress a rebellion in the east that rejected its rule, and welcomed volunteer battalions like Azov to join the effort. Later that same year, the unit was formally incorporated into the newly-formed National Guard by the Interior Ministry.

That formation became the core of a wider Azov movement, which has its own political party and a cadre of activists dubbed the “Civil Corps.” It has long been considered by many observers to be a dangerous right-wing organization.

An expose published by TIME magazine in January 2021 reported that online recruitment and propaganda on Facebook allowed the Ukrainian movement to become the hub of “a network of extremist groups stretching from California across Europe to New Zealand.” The online platform first designated Azov a “dangerous organization” in 2016, but Facebook’s efforts to suppress its content were not particularly successful, the article noted at the time.

Amid the conflict with Russia, Azov and its backers have sought to rebrand the unit as brave defenders of Mariupol, the city that it used as a home base. The unit even changed its insignia to drop the neo-Nazi rune it had featured for years.

Mariupol was captured by Russian troops last spring. Hundreds of Azov fighters continued to hold out in the tunnels under Azovstal, a massive Soviet-era steel mill, before surrendering in mid-May.
https://www.rt.com/news/570187-azov-regiment-meta-platforms/
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20 Jan, 2023 15:03

9) --- Russian military confirms capture of key Donbass settlement

Taking the village of Klescheevka paves way to Kiev’s stronghold of Artyomovsk

The strategic village of Klescheevka in Russia’s Donetsk Region has been freed from Ukrainian forces, the Russian Defense Ministry has said.

“The volunteers of assault units with fire support from tactical and army aviation, missile forces and artillery of the Southern Military District have liberated the settlement of Klescheevka,” the ministry said in a statement on Friday.

A day earlier, the capture of Klescheevka was announced by Yevgeny Prigozhin, the chief of the Wagner Group private military company. While the settlement itself was under Russian control, intense fighting has been taking place on its outskirts, with “the opponent clinging on to every meter of land,” Prigozhin claimed.

Klescheevka, which was populated by just over 500 people before the conflict, had been heavily fortified by the Ukrainian military. It lies 9km southwest of the city of Artyomovsk, called Bakhmut by Ukraine. The capture of the village is vital to the Russian operation to encircle Artyomovsk, which is a major stronghold and logistics hub for Ukrainian forces in the Donetsk People’s Republic.

The seizure of Klescheevka follows last week’s taking of the key town of Soledar, some 15km northeast of Artyomovsk, and several other villages in the area, by Russian forces. The Defense Ministry earlier praised “the courageous and selfless actions” of the Wagner Group’s strike teams during the battle for Soledar, but also pointed out that the success was achieved by a “mixed group of forces,” including aviation and artillery units.
https://www.rt.com/russia/570210-klescheevka-capture-ukraine-donbass/
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