RT News - June 20th 2024 early. President Putin arrives in Vietnam.

President Putin arrives in Vietnam; the leader of Hezbollah warns Israel will not be safe, Pelosi makes an (unwelcome to China) visit to the Dalai Lama.

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President Putin is in Vietnam where he's received a warm welcome. President's Putin and To Lam will hold bi-lateral talks during the visit. "We will always stand for peaceful cooperation across the world" see schedule so far, below. Full updates, videos and details of documents etc to follow.
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Hassan Nasrallah (Hezbollah's Secretary General) warned Israel that they are prepare and no place in Israel will be spared from their rockets in case of war and says Israel must wait for Hezbollah by land, sea and air. He also said that if Cyprus joins with Israel then the Cypriot .gov is part of the war and will be dealt with as part of the war.

IDF retaliates after Hezbollah fire more rockets into southern Israel, after Israel had carried out deadly airstrikes into Lebanon. Back and forth attacks have been continuing for some time. Maria Finoshina reports on worrying updates. The Washington Post reports on Lebanon's weapons which could bypass "the cornerstone of Israel's national security". Saad Nimr discusses and says Israel may not be ready for a war against Lebanon.
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The Houthi's are stepping up their activities against Israel in the Red sea.
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Nancy Pelosi is visiting the Dalai Lama and has made comments to China, (about Pres. Xi) which are offensive. A "Bill" demanding that China restarts relationships with Dalai Lama's group is going through the US .gov processes (as I mentioned in yesterday's post, what does this have to do with USA "government" ?) Runjhun Sharma reports.
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ISIS K has infiltrated Europe via Ukraine, according to Thomas Haldenwang (German Federal Domestic Intelligence Chief). Murad Gazdiev reports (disturbing images and a very disturbing, worrying, lengthy report)

Short take : The warning from the leader of Hezbollah coming as the IDF says it’s prepared to invade Lebanon to attack the militant group, following months of mutual cross-border strikes. Russian president Vladimir Putin receives a warm welcome from his counterpart in Vietnam as official talks between the two leaders are in full swing in the country’s capital. A former Vietnamese Deputy Defense Minister says ties with Russia would help bring peace to the region and the world. Former US House speaker Nancy Pelosi takes aim at the Chinese president as Beijing slams Washington’s delegation for meeting with the Dalai Lama, who is considered a separatist in China.

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Zelensky bans another Ukrainian opposition party 20 Jun, 2024 01:03

Kiev has outlawed another political force amid questions about the legitimacy of the government.

A Ukrainian court has banned the Nash Krai (Our Land) political party and ordered the seizure of its assets at the request of the Ministry of Justice. The move is the latest in a crackdown on the opposition under Vladimir Zelensky’s administration.

A panel of judges from the Eighth Administrative Court of Appeal issued the ruling on Wednesday, according to a statement.

“The court satisfied the claims of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine: the activities of the political party Nash Krai were banned; the property, funds and other assets of the party, its regional, city, district organizations, primary cells and other structural units were transferred to the state,” the statement read.

The party was registered in August 2011 as the ‘Bloc Party’ and was renamed ‘Nash Krai’ in 2014. From 2015, the party positioned itself as a “group of local leaders and businessmen” who aimed to avoid political games and intrigue, according to RBK Ukraine. Only three of its members were elected to the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament) as independents in 2019, but the party gained some 1,694 seats in regional administrations during local elections in 2020.

Following the escalation with Russia in February 2022, Zelensky banned major political competition, including Opposition Platform – For Life (OPZZh), the second biggest party in terms of MP seats in the Verkhovna Rada. He also cracked down on the media, shutting down multiple television channels associated with his political opponents and consolidating nine of the largest TV networks into a single 24-hour state-run broadcast dubbed ‘Telemarathon’.

Zelensky’s presidential term expired on May 20, although he chose not to hold elections under the pretext of martial law imposed after the beginning of the conflict with Russia.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has noted the Ukrainian constitution has no provision for prolonging a president’s term in this way. It forbids holding elections during a period of emergency, and explicitly states lawmakers should retain their powers until a new parliament can be elected by the people, Putin said, calling the current Ukrainian political situation a “usurpation of power.”
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related: 7 Jun, 2024 18:49 Power in Ukraine has been usurped – Putin

Vladimir Zelensky’s official term as the country’s head of state expired last month.

Power in Ukraine has been usurped, and its executive authorities have lost their legitimacy, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday during a plenary session at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF).

Vladimir Zelensky remains in power in Ukraine despite his term in office having officially expired on May 20. He opted not to hold a presidential election, citing martial law imposed due to the conflict with Russia. Zelensky argues that his mandate as Ukraine’s leader continues and that no presidential election can be held during wartime.

Putin pointed out that the Ukrainian constitution forbids elections during a period of emergency and explicitly states that elected lawmakers should retain their powers until a new parliament can be chosen by the Ukrainian people. However, the constitution does not provide for prolonging a president’s term.

“There are relevant articles in the criminal code that imply the usurpation of power. It looks like we are dealing with the usurpation of power [in Ukraine],” he said.

Moscow could still negotiate with Kiev, Putin told the audience on Friday, stating that in accordance with Ukraine’s constitution, presidential power should be transferred to the speaker of the Verkhovna Rada, the Ukrainian parliament.

“So, if you want to negotiate, you can find someone to do it with,” the Russian leader said.

Ukrainian parliamentary speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk has insisted that Zelensky remains head of state and denounced as “an enemy” anyone who questions his legitimacy. He also stated that Zelensky has a constitutional obligation to remain in office until a new president is sworn in.

Putin has previously suggested that Ukraine’s Western backers could be keeping Zelensky in place in order to blame him and his government for “unpopular decisions” taken by Kiev before replacing them with someone else.

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EU state imprisons Russian academic for ‘spying’ 19 Jun, 2024 13:22

An Estonian court has sentenced university professor Vyacheslav Morozov to over six years in prison for allegedly providing intelligence to Moscow.

Former Tartu University professor Vyacheslav Morozov has been sentenced by an Estonian court to six years and three months in prison for allegedly working for a foreign intelligence service, the news outlet ERR reported on Tuesday.

Morozov, a Russian citizen, was detained by Estonian police in January on charges of collaborating with Moscow by supposedly collecting and providing information about the Baltic state.

According to the court documents, the academic had worked at St. Petersburg State University until 2010. He later joined the faculty of the University of Tartu in Estonia, where, from 2016 to 2023, he held the position of Professor of European Union and Russian Studies. He then worked there as a professor of International Political Theory until his arrest.

“Morozov was tasked by the Russian special service to collect information from the Republic of Estonia about Estonia’s internal, defense and security policy and related people and infrastructure,” the leading state prosecutor Taavi Pern was quoted as saying in a press release by the Estonian internal security service (Kapo).

According to Pern, the professor was forwarding information about Estonia’s “political situation and elections, allied relations, and integration and social integration.” The prosecutor claimed that while most of this information was publicly available, and some had been obtained by Morozov thanks to his “position as a scientist,” it could be used to “threaten Estonia.” Pern noted that Morozov did not have any access to state secrets.

The prosecution also claimed that Morozov had been working with Moscow “for a long time” and alleged that he was recruited by Russian intelligence services when studying at a Russian university in the 1990’s.

At the same time, Kapo Director General Margo Polloson noted that in his actions, Morozov “did not damage or manipulate his own educational or research activities in any way. The science he did and guided is still relevant today.” Nevertheless, Polloson claimed that Morozov “pretended to be a professor of international relations, which gave him access to various entities, events and people, which he took advantage of.”

The head of the Tartu University Johan Skytte Institute for Political Studies, Kristiina Tonnisson, had previously stated that Morozov’s arrest in January was a “shock to us all.” She added that while the university had “no grounds for complaints regarding Morozov’s previous work,” his past activities would be critically reviewed.

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US-supplied F-16s to be stationed inside Ukraine – White House 19 Jun, 2024 10:57

Vladimir Zelensky and President Joe Biden had previously signed a bilateral security agreement on the fighter jets.

F-16 warplanes transferred to Kiev by Washington will be stationed on Ukrainian territory, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan has announced in an interview with PBS news channel.

He revealed the plan after US President Joe Biden and Vladimir Zelensky signed a ten-year bilateral security agreement last week, under which Washington has pledged to continue backing Kiev in its conflict with Moscow.

Zelensky announced after the deal was signed that the US had promised to supply Ukraine not only with weapons, including Patriot air-defense systems, but also with “squadrons” of fighter jets comprising F-16s as well as other aircraft.

The US, Belgium, Denmark, Norway and the Netherlands, have pledged to provide Ukraine with up to 60 F-16 jets by the end of this year. Kiev has on several occasions suggested that the Western-supplied fighters could be stationed outside Ukraine, on the territories of neighboring NATO countries where they would be “safe.”

Sullivan, however, said the “plan is to put the F-16s in Ukraine,” adding that the bilateral security agreement signed by Biden and Zelensky had “reinforced this point.”

“We want to help Ukraine have this capability. It should be a capability based in Ukraine,” he said.

Meanwhile, Moscow has repeatedly warned that any Western weapons delivered to Ukraine would become legitimate targets for strikes by Russian forces and would not have any effect on the ultimate outcome of the conflict, leading only to more bloodshed.

The chair of the Russian parliament’s Defense Committee, Andrey Kartapolov, has also warned that if any of Kiev’s F-16s are stationed outside of Ukraine and are used in combat operations against Russia, then Moscow would consider those foreign bases to be “legitimate targets.”

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Killers of Donbass commander sentenced in Russia 19 Jun, 2024 12:23

The crime was reportedly part of an assassination campaign run by Kiev in the years before the conflict with Russia.

A Russian military tribunal has ordered lengthy prison sentences for four people in the case related to the 2016 murder of Arsen Pavlov, a senior military officer in the then-breakaway Ukrainian region of Donetsk.

Pavlov, also known under his nom-de-guerre, ‘Motorola’, was killed in October 2016 by a powerful explosive device planted over an elevator cabin in his apartment block in Donetsk. His bodyguard, Vasily Churilov, also died in the attack.

In February, the New York Times reported that the assassination had been conducted by members of the CIA-trained Fifth Directorate of the SBU, the Ukrainian successor to the KGB. The newspaper said the people involved in the operation were given commemorative patches, each one stitched with the word ‘Lift’. Previous reports in the Western press described a program of political assassinations run by the Ukrainian government.

The Russian tribunal passed a life sentence to the person who planted the IED, Aleksandr Pogorelov. The case included several other charges against him and three other members of what Russian prosecutors labeled an “SBU-created terrorist cell.”

These included the attempted assassinations of another military official in Donetsk in 2016 and the head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, Aleksandr Zakharchenko. There was also the assassination of a military leader in the Lugansk People’s Republic in 2016. The Ukrainians also tried to kill Pavlov months prior to the successful bomb plot, Russian investigators have said.

The other accomplices were given prison terms ranging between 12 and 17 years. All four pleaded not guilty during the proceedings. Pogorelov reportedly declared during the trial: “Overall I do not disclaim my actions, but I don’t consider myself guilty, since I committed no crime on Russian territory.”

The two Donbass republics split from Ukraine in the wake of the US-backed armed coup in Kiev in 2014. After the new authorities attempted to quash their rebellion by military force, people in Donetsk and Lugansk successfully resisted and declared themselves independent from Ukraine.

Moscow backed a roadmap for reconciliation between Kiev and the ethnic Russian separatists in the form of the 2014-2015 Minsk Agreements, which would have given them broad autonomy. Ukrainian officials later admitted that they had taken the deal purely to win time and build up their military with NATO’s help. The self-proclaimed entities joined Russia in late 2022, giving it jurisdiction over the case.

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Concerns grow over press freedom in Ukraine – NYT 19 Jun, 2024 08:35

Restrictions and pressure on the media are going beyond wartime security needs, local journalists told the paper.

Ukrainian journalists and monitoring groups have sounded the alarm over attempts to curtail press freedom in the country under Vladimir Zelensky, the New York Times has reported.

According to media workers, restrictions and pressure on them from the government go beyond Ukraine’s security needs amid the conflict with Russia, the paper said in an article on Tuesday.

The authorities in Kiev are trying to make sure that the opposition, in particular the party of former president Petro Poroshenko, does not get positive coverage in the press, and that the government and the military are never criticized, the report read.

Late last year, management at the state-run news agency, Ukrinform, provided a list of opposition figures, activists and elected officials labeled “undesirable” for quoting in its articles, according to the NYT. Those blacklisted included the mayor of Lviv, Andrey Sadovoy, who is viewed as a possible future presidential candidate, it added.

The deputy director of Ukrinform, Marina Singaevskaya, resigned this year over what she described as political meddling by the authorities.

“If we name desirable and undesirable speakers, it is a big step back for democracy,” Yury Stryhun, a reporter with Ukrinform, told the outlet.

Stryhun said he received a notice to renew his draft registration one day after he appeared on Suspilne broadcaster to talk about the government’s guidelines for journalists. The timing of the notice was “suspicious,” he added.

Last month, Ukrainian media watchdog, Detector Media, said members of Zelensky’s Servant of the People party accounted for some 70% of political guests on the Telemarathon, a round-the-clock multi-channel broadcast set up by the Kiev government as a single source of televised information about the conflict with Russia, during the first quarter of this year.

The only broadcaster that gave airtime to representatives of Poroshenko’s European Solidarity party during the Telemarathon was Suspilne, which had since withdrawn from the project. The channel’s leadership said its decision to quit the Telemarathon was linked to pressure from the government, the report read.

The paper noted that the Ukrainian authorities also had “tense relationships” with Western media throughout the conflict as they revoked military press passes for journalists from several outlets, including the NYT, following reports criticizing the military. However, credentials were later restored, it added.

It also mentioned a story that made headlines in Ukraine in January, when it was revealed that Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) officers had spied on reporters attending a holiday party of an investigative news website, Bihus, by drilling peepholes in their hotel rooms.

“The only way people can change things for the better is through journalism. That’s why some people in the government try their best to control it,” Sevgil Musaeva, the editor in chief of Ukrainskaya Pravda national news outlet, told the NYT.

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Islamic terrorists using Ukraine to enter EU — German spies 19 Jun, 2024 10:58

Jihadists remain a major threat to the country, the country’s BfV security agency has warned.

Jihadist pose a serious domestic security risk to Germany, the country's BfV security agency warned on Tuesday, singling out the Afghanistan-based offshoot of the once-powerful terrorist organization Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS).

The group, designated ISPK by the German intelligence service, “has managed to bring followers to Western Europe, possibly with the wave of refugees from Ukraine, who are now staying here in various Western European countries,” Director General Thomas Haldenwang told the media on Tuesday.

The senior official and Interior Minister Nancy Faeser presented an annual report on the BfV’s activities, including a July 2023 operation involving a series of arrests in Germany and the Netherlands.

A total of nine people from Central Asia were taken into custody at the time for allegedly founding a “domestic terrorist group” and preparing major attacks on European soil. Seven of them lived in Germany.

The group was allegedly in contact with ISPK, also known as ISIS-K, and had entered the European Union from Ukraine “almost simultaneously,” according to German security officials. The suspects were described as “black sheep” among Ukrainians when the arrests happened.

ISPK has a large number of supporters and calls for “major attacks,” Haldenwang said. He cited as an example the gun and arson massacre at a concert hall outside of Moscow in March, which the Afghanistan-based group claimed credit for.

Moscow believes that Ukrainian intelligence services had facilitated the Crocus City Hall attack, which left over 145 people killed. ISPK could have just lent its brand name to the plot, which helped the real mastermind recruit the perpetrators, Russian officials have suggested.

The BfV’s report is over 400 pages long and covers a wide spectrum of threats, from foreign espionage to domestic extremism to terrorism. The strength of jihadist terrorist organizations is estimated at 27,200 people.

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VIETNAM - Pres. Putin's trip so far

20 Jun, 2024 04:00

Putin’s state visit to Vietnam: LIVE UPDATES 20 Jun, 2024 04:00

The Russian president continues his Asian tour after a historic visit to North Korea.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is set to meet his Vietnamese counterpart To Lam, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, and other top officials in Hanoi, with the talks expected to encompass economic partnership, trade, and scientific and technical cooperation.

The Vietnamese delegation greeted Putin on the red carpet with a guard of honor as he touched down at Hanoi’s Noi Bai international airport late on Wednesday, but the official welcoming ceremony is scheduled to take place on Thursday.

The Vietnam trip comes immediately after Putin’s state visit to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, where he and Kim Jong-un signed a comprehensive new partnership treaty.

20 June 2024

08:14 GMT
Moscow and Hanoi have agreed the main principles of strengthening their strategic partnership, Vietnamese President To Lam has said after talks with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. This partnership will be based on “the principles of equality, mutual respect, and non-interference in each other’s internal affairs,” he added.

Russia and Vietnam promised each other not to “enter into alliances and treaties with third countries in order to harm each other’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity,” the Vietnamese leader said.

08:00 GMT
Following his talks with Vietnamese counterpart To Lam in Hanoi, Russian President Vladimir Putin thanked the people of Vietnam for their “warm welcome” for the delegation from Moscow.

“When I say warm, I don’t just mean the temperature outside (36C), but the heartfelt reception that we were met with,” Putin joked.

07:54 GMT
Russia and Vietnam have signed more than a dozen agreements aimed at strengthening their strategic partnership during Vladimir Putin’s visit to Hanoi. Among other things, the two nations have decided to increase cooperation in defense and security, and have issued a memorandum on the schedule for creating a nuclear technology center in Vietnam.

07:19 GMT
Building relations with Moscow is one of Hanoi’s foreign policy priorities, Vietnamese President To Lam has said during talks with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

“Vietnam pursues an independent and self-contained peaceful foreign policy, as well as a diversified and multi-vector policy, but at the same time we attach great importance to the development of traditional friendship with Russia,” he said.

The Vietnamese president stressed that his country remembers “the selfless assistance and support that the Russian people provided to Vietnam in our struggle for independence” from Japan and France.

07:01 GMT
Russia has achieved “important successes” both domestically and internationally under the leadership of Vladimir Putin, Vietnamese President To Lam has told his Russian counterpart during talks in Hanoi.

“We are glad that political and social stability in Russia is strengthening, the economy is actively developing, the living standards of the population are improving; Russia’s position and authority are steadily growing on the international arena,” the Vietnamese leader said.

06:41 GMT
An RT Arabic correspondent in Hanoi has filmed a video of Vietnamese security personnel and officials taking photos with Vladimir Putin’s Russian-made Aurus limousine outside the presidential palace, as talks between Russia’s president and his Vietnamese counterpart, To Lam, continue.

06:31 GMT
Russian President Vladimir Putin has invited his Vietnamese counterpart, To Lam, to attended the Victory Day celebrations in Moscow in 2025, which will mark 80 years since the defeat of Nazi Germany.

06:28 GMT
Moscow and Hanoi are coordinating their actions on the international scene, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said during talks with his Vietnamese counterpart, To Lam.

"Russia attaches great importance to the development of dialogue with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), of which Vietnam is one of the leading members,” he said.

06:11 GMT
During the talks in Hanoi, Russian President Vladimir Putin told his Vietnamese counterpart, To Lam, that “strengthening the comprehensive strategic partnership with Vietnam is one of our [Russia’s] priorities.”

Putin also noted that this year Moscow and Hanoi are celebrating 30 years since the signing of a treaty of friendship between the two countries. “All this time, we have maintained regular and meaningful political contacts, including through parliaments, ministries, agencies, parties, regional authorities and public organizations,” he said.

05:42 GMT
The Kremlin has published a video of Vietnamese President To Lam greeting his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin at the Presidential Palace in Hanoi. Negotiations between the two leaders are to begin soon.

04:49 GMT
Authorities in Hanoi are making final preparations for the official welcoming ceremony, with spectators gathering near the presidential palace and a military orchestra seen rehearsing the Russian national anthem, according to videos shared by journalists.

04:30 GMT
The main program of President Putin’s state visit is set to begin at noon local time (5am GMT) with an official welcoming ceremony. After the event, the Russian leader is set to hold a meeting with Vietnamese President To Lam and sign a package of agreements.

At a working breakfast later in the day, Putin will discuss “various economic topics” with Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh. The Russian leader is also scheduled to speak with the general secretary of the Vietnamese Communist Party, Nguyen Phu Trong, and parliament speaker Tran Thanh Man.

As part of the program, Putin will lay wreaths at the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum and the Memorial to the Fallen Heroes, and attend another reception hosted by his Vietnamese counterpart as the final event of the visit.

04:12 GMT
The Vietnamese government has ignored US criticism for inviting President Putin, marking the latest failure by Washington to isolate Moscow over its conflict with Ukraine.

“The visit demonstrates that Vietnam actively implements its foreign policy with the spirit of independence, self-reliance, diversification, multilateralism,” according to a statement on Vietnam’s government website, as cited by Bloomberg.

03:54 GMT
The US Embassy in Hanoi has denounced Vietnam for hosting a state visit by the Russian President.

”No country should give Putin a platform to promote his war of aggression and otherwise allow him to normalize his atrocities,” an embassy spokesperson told Reuters on Monday. “If he is able to travel freely, it could normalize Russia’s blatant violations of international law.”

03:50 GMT

Ahead of his visit to the Southeast Asian country, Putin wrote an article for the official newspaper of the Communist Party of Vietnam, in which he noted that the two countries were paying serious attention to enhancing mutual trade and promoting investment, particularly in the Russian ruble and the Vietnamese dong.

“Food, mineral resources, machinery and equipment are exported to Vietnam. Many Vietnamese goods, including clothing, fruits, vegetables and other agricultural products, are in demand on the Russian market,” Putin stated, lauding the role of a free trade agreement between the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and Vietnam.

20 June 2024

03:39 GMT
President Putin’s plane touched down at Hanoi’s Noi Bai international airport around 2am local time on Wednesday. Despite the late-night arrival, the Russian leader was greeted by several top Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) officials, including the Secretary of the Central Committee and Chairman of the Commission for External Relations, Le Hoai Trung, as well as Deputy Foreign Minister Le Thi Thu Hang.
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