[🇷🇺] Russia vs West

[Saif]

Date of Event: Dec 6, 2024 Source : https://www.thedailystar.net/news/world/news/cold-war-can-turn-hot-3769461

‘Cold War’ can turn ‘hot’
Warns Lavrov, accuses West of destabilising the ‘Eurasian continent’

Russia's top diplomat Sergei Lavrov yesterday accused the West of destabilising the "entire Eurasian continent" and warned that the Cold War that the west is waging can turn "hot".

Meanwhile, Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga branded Lavrov a "war criminal" as they both attended an international summit in Malta, the latter's first visit to an EU member since the 2022 invasion.

Sitting between the representatives of San Marino and Romania, Lavrov railed against the EU, Nato and in particular the United States.

He said the West was behind a "reincarnation of the Cold War, only now with a much greater risk of a transition to a hot one", according to a transcript of his remarks from RIA Navosti.

He also accused Washington of military exercises in the Asia-Pacific region that sought to "destabilise the entire Eurasian continent ".

Sybiga accused Moscow of being "the biggest threat to our common security" as the two foreign ministers sat on the same huge table at a meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was also in Ta'Qali, near Valetta, for the talks, though officials said he had no plans to meet Lavrov.

"Russia is not a partner; it is the biggest threat to our common security. Russia's participation in the OSCE is a threat to cooperation in Europe," Sybiga told ministers from the 57-member body.

"When Russians say they want peace they lie," he said, adding: "Ukraine continues to fight for its right to exist.

"And the Russian war criminal at this table must know: Ukraine will win this right and justice will prevail."

Lavrov, who has been sanctioned by the European Union, had not visited an EU country since a December 2021 trip to Stockholm, again for an OSCE meeting, Russian media reported.

The OSCE was founded in 1975 to ease tensions between the East and the West during the Cold War, and now counts 57 members from Turkey to Mongolia, including Britain and Canada as well as the United States.​

 

[Saif]

US, UK unveil sanctions on Russia’s energy sector

The United States and Britain on Friday announced sanctions against Russia’s energy sector, including oil giant Gazprom Neft, just days before outgoing President Joe Biden leaves office.

www.newagebd.net

US, UK unveil sanctions on Russia’s energy sector
Agence France-Presse . Washington, United States 12 January, 2025, 00:42

The United States and Britain on Friday announced sanctions against Russia’s energy sector, including oil giant Gazprom Neft, just days before outgoing President Joe Biden leaves office.

The US Treasury Department said it was designating more than 180 ships as well as Russian oil majors Gazprom Neft and Surgutneftegas, fulfilling ‘the G7 commitment to reduce Russian revenues from energy’.

At the same time, the UK government announced sanctions against the two companies, saying their profits were ‘lining Putin’s [Russian president Vladimir] war chest and facilitating the war’ in Ukraine.

‘Taking on Russian oil companies will drain Russia’s war chest—and every ruble we take from Putin’s hands helps save Ukrainian lives,’ UK foreign secretary David Lammy said in a statement.

‘Putin is in tough shape right now, and I think it’s really important that he not have any breathing room to continue to do the god-awful things he continues to do,’ Biden told reporters Friday at the White House.

Gazprom Neft slammed the sanctions as ‘baseless’ and ‘illegitimate’, Russian state news agencies reported.

‘Gazprom Neft considers the decision to include its assets on the sanctions list as baseless, illegitimate and contrary to the principles of free competition,’ Russian state news agencies quoted a company representative as saying.

Oil prices rose on the news, with a barrel of Brent North Sea crude oil for delivery in March up 3.6 per cent at $79.68 at about 4:45pm in Washington.

Asked about gasoline prices, Biden conceded costs could rise ‘as much as three, four cents a gallon’, but stressed that sanctions would have a ‘more profound impact’ on Russia.

Even before the sanctions were officially announced, rumours of fresh designations sparked condemnation from Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, who told reporters that the Biden administration was trying to leave incoming US president-elect Donald Trump ‘as heavy a legacy as possible’.

In total, the United States announced sanctions against almost 400 people and entities.

These include 183 oil-carrying vessels, along with Russian oil traders and oilfield providers, the two Russian oil majors, and more than two dozen of their subsidiaries, according to the Treasury Department.

Serbian president Aleksandar Vucic announced plans to speak with Putin about the sanctions, which also affect Petroleum Industry of Serbia, majority-owned by Russia’s Gazprom Neft and its parent company, Gazprom.

NIS is the only supplier of gas to Serbia and the majority owner of both gas pipelines that transport gas from Russia to households and industries in the country.

‘Today [Friday], the United States imposed the most significant sanctions yet on Russia’s energy sector, by far the largest source of revenue for Putin’s war,’ Daleep Singh, the Biden administration’s deputy national security advisor for international economics, said in a statement.

Senior administration officials told reporters the measures were designed to give the United States additional leverage to help broker a ‘just peace’ between Ukraine and Russia.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky praised the United States for introducing the sanctions.

‘These measures deliver a significant blow to the financial foundation of Russia’s war machine by disrupting its entire supply chain,’ he wrote in a post on the social media platform X.

Friday’s announcement comes just 10 days before Biden is due to step down, and puts Trump in something of an awkward position given his stated desire to end the Ukraine war on day one of his presidency.

Asked about the timing, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters that oil markets were now in a ‘fundamentally’ better place than they had been in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and that the US economy was also faring better.

‘We believe the moment was ripe right now to adjust our strategy,’ he said.

The US State Department announced it was also taking action against Russia’s energy sector, ‘sanctioning nearly 80 entities and individuals, including those engaged in the active production and export of liquefied natural gas from Russia.’

Among those it designated were people involved in Russia’s metals and mining sector, ‘and senior officials of State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom.’

The move sparked condemnation from Rosatom, which called it ‘unreasonable and unlawful’ in nature.

‘The sanctions are perceived as an element of unfair competition on the part of unfriendly states,’ Rosatom said in a statement published by several Russian news agencies.​

 

[Saif]

Kremlin ready for ‘mutually respectful’ Trump talks

The Kremlin said on Thursday it saw nothing new in US president Donald Trump’s calls for Russia to end its military offensive in Ukraine, and that Moscow was ready for ‘mutually respectful’ dialogue with him...

www.newagebd.net

Kremlin ready for ‘mutually respectful’ Trump talks
Agence France-Presse . Moscow 24 January, 2025, 00:20

The Kremlin said on Thursday it saw nothing new in US president Donald Trump’s calls for Russia to end its military offensive in Ukraine, and that Moscow was ready for ‘mutually respectful’ dialogue with him.

The US leader had on Wednesday threatened fresh sanctions on Moscow if Russia did not strike a deal to end its nearly three-year campaign against Ukraine.

Expectations are high that Russian president Vladimir Putin and Trump will soon hold a phone call to discuss the conflict, after the Republican pledged on the campaign trail to bring a swift end to the fighting.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia was ‘ready for equal, mutually respectful dialogue.’

‘We are waiting for signals, which we have not yet received,’ he added.

Trump has not said publicly how he sees the contours of a potential peace deal between Kyiv and Moscow.

Putin has outlined maximalist demands that include the Ukrainian withdrawal from parts of its own territory still under Kyiv’s control.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has meanwhile ruled out territorial concessions, though has said he would consider trying to secure the return of land captured by Russia through ‘diplomatic’ means.

Kyiv is also demanding security guarantees from NATO and the United States along with the deployment of Western, including American, peacekeeping troops.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump on Wednesday told Putin to make a deal ‘now’ and threatened ‘high levels of Taxes, Tariffs, and Sanctions’ on Moscow.

Trump said he was ‘not looking to hurt Russia’ and had ‘always had a very good relationship with president Putin,’ a leader for whom he has expressed admiration in the past.

‘All of that being said, I’m going to do Russia, whose Economy is failing, and president Putin, a very big FAVOR. Settle now, and STOP this ridiculous War! IT’S ONLY GOING TO GET WORSE,’ he said.

Asked about the comments on Thursday, Peskov said the Kremlin did not see anything ‘particularly new’ in Trump’s threat of sanctions.

He said it was clear from Trump’s first presidency that the American ‘liked’ sanctions, adding that Moscow was ‘closely following’ all of his statements.

The Kremlin has repeatedly dismissed the barrage of Western sanctions that it has been hit with since ordering troops into Ukraine in February 2022.

The Russian economy has largely defied Western hopes the restrictions would push it into economic collapse.

Peskov on Thursday conceded that Russia faced economic ‘problems’ — ’as all countries’ — but said Russia had the resources to meet ‘all military requirements.’

Russia’s troops have been advancing on the battlefield in recent months, while both Moscow and Kyiv have increased their aerial attacks deep behind the frontlines.

Moscow’s army on Thursday claimed to have captured another small settlement in the eastern Donetsk region, which Russia annexed in 2022.

Meanwhile, Russian aerial attacks on frontline towns in eastern and central Ukraine on Thursday killed at least three people and wounded dozens, officials said.

The authorities said a 53-year-old woman was killed by a Russian bombardment in the frontline town of Kostyantynivka and a 54-year-old by a Russian drone strike on a village in the northeastern Kharkiv region.

Emergency services in the central city of Zaporizhzhia earlier announced one person was killed and said 51 were wounded — including four firefighters and a two-month-old — in an overnight drone and missile attack.

Rescuers posted images of a destroyed building and a damaged firetruck they said were hit in the apparent double-tap attack.

Russia fired drones and missiles at intervals, authorities said, explaining that firefighters had been wounded in ‘the second’ attack.​

 

[Saif]

Putin ready to talk to Trump, waits for signals: Kremlin

Russian president Vladimir Putin is ready to talk to US counterpart Donald Trump but is waiting for signals from Washington first, the Kremlin said on Friday, fuelling expectations the two would be in contact.

www.newagebd.net

Putin ready to talk to Trump, waits for signals: Kremlin
Agence France-Presse . Moscow 25 January, 2025, 01:05

Russian president Vladimir Putin

Russian president Vladimir Putin is ready to talk to US counterpart Donald Trump but is waiting for signals from Washington first, the Kremlin said on Friday, fuelling expectations the two would be in contact.

The Ukraine conflict has plunged relations between the two nuclear powers to their lowest levels since the Cold War, with Trump repeatedly promising to end the fighting with a ‘deal’.

He told reporters on Thursday he would meet Putin ‘immediately’, and that Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky wanted to negotiate.

‘Putin is ready. We are waiting for signals,’ Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said of Trump’s overtures.

Peskov said that he could not comment further on a possible meeting between the leaders, saying it was ‘hard to read coffee grounds’ to predict the future.

Trump has threatened Russia with tougher economic sanctions if it does not agree to end its nearly three-year offensive.

‘If they don’t settle this war soon, like almost immediately, I’m going to put massive tariffs on Russia, and massive taxes, and also big sanctions,’ the Republican said during a Fox News interview on Thursday.

The Kremlin rejected Trump’s claim that the conflict in Ukraine could be ended by lowering the price of oil used to fund Moscow’s budget, saying: ‘This conflict does not depend on oil prices.’

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Thursday, Trump had said that he would ask Saudi Arabia and OPEC to lower oil prices, saying: ‘If the price came down, the Russia-Ukraine war would end immediately.’

Peskov said the conflict was instead based on ‘threats to Russia’s national security’, ‘threats to Russians’ living in Ukraine and ‘the lack of desire and complete refusal of Americans and Europeans to listen to Russia’s concerns’.

Neither side has shown signs of de-escalating hostilities since Trump’s inauguration on Monday.

Russian aerial attacks near Kyiv killed three people and wounded several others, Ukrainian officials said Friday, while Ukraine fired 120 drones at least 12 Russian regions, including the capital Moscow.

The Kremlin has launched drone or missile attacks at Kyiv almost every day since sending troops into Ukraine in February 2022, ostensibly targeting military and energy facilities.

‘Three people were killed in an enemy attack in the Kyiv region,’ the emergency services said in a statement on social media.

It said fragments of a drone had struck a 10-storey residential building after the head of the region said a private home had also been hit.

Black smoke billowed from a residential building damaged in the strike as rescue workers hauled out the bodies of the victims, official images from the scene showed.

In Russia, the Ukrainian military said it launched an overnight drone attack striking an oil refinery, power station facilities and an electronics plant.

State media reported that a microelectronics factory had halted work after six Ukrainian drones damaged production and storage facilities in the Bryansk region.

Moscow and Kyiv are both vying to gain the upper hand ahead of possible negotiations in the early days of Trump’s administration.

Prior to his inauguration, Trump vowed to end the Ukraine conflict immediately upon taking office, raising concerns in Ukraine it would be forced to make major territorial concessions to Russia.

Moscow has been advancing on the battlefield for months, closing in on the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk.

On Friday, Russia said its forces captured the village of Tymofiivka about 20 kilometres east of the key industrial hub.​

 

[Saif]

Russia warns outlook for extending last nuclear arms pact with US does not look promising

Russia warned on Monday that the outlook for extending the last remaining pillar of nuclear arms control between Moscow and Washington, the world’s two biggest nuclear powers, did not look promising and that the situation appeared to be deadlocked. The New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

Russia warns outlook for extending last nuclear arms pact with US does not look promising
REUTERS
Published :
Feb 10, 2025 20:35
Updated :
Feb 10, 2025 20:35

Russian Yars intercontinental ballistic missile launcher takes part in the Victory Day military parade general rehearsal on the Red Square in Moscow, Russia, May 5, 2024. Photo : Maxim Shipenkov/Pool via REUTERS/Files

Russia warned on Monday that the outlook for extending the last remaining pillar of nuclear arms control between Moscow and Washington, the world’s two biggest nuclear powers, did not look promising and that the situation appeared to be deadlocked.

The New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or New START, which caps the number of strategic nuclear warheads that the United States and Russia can deploy, and the deployment of land- and submarine-based missiles and bombers to deliver them, is due to run out in less than a year - on February 5, 2026.

US President Donald Trump, during his first presidential term, withdrew the US from another important treaty - the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty - and the New START agreement is now the only pact remaining.

Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, who oversees US relations and arms control, told a news briefing in Moscow on Monday that the prospects for talks on amending and extending the agreement looked bleak for now.

“As for our dialogue in the field of (nuclear) strategic stability and the post-New START situation, the situation does not look very promising,” said Ryabkov.

“On February 5, 2026, the pact expires and after this it will not exist.”

Trump in January said he wanted to work towards cutting nuclear arms, adding that he thought Russia and China might support reducing their own weapons capabilities.

“We’d like to see denuclearization ... and I will tell you President Putin really liked the idea of cutting way back on nuclear. And I think the rest of the world, we would have gotten them to follow, and China would have come along too,” Trump said.

The Kremlin, commenting on Trump’s remarks, said at the time that Russian President Vladimir Putin had made clear he wanted to restart nuclear arms cuts talks as soon as possible.

But Ryabkov said that while the US wanted three-way arms talks - including China - Moscow wanted five-way arms talks.

Russia has said it wants Britain and France - also nuclear powers - to be included in any talks.

“The US is proposing a three-way talks format and we want a five-way format. We are going round in circles,” said Ryabkov.

Ryabkov also linked progress on agreeing a new nuclear treaty to Washington’s wider policy towards Russia at a time when Trump says he is exploring how to end the war in Ukraine as the Russian economy tries to weather the toughest Western sanctions ever.

“As for (renewing) New START, as Putin has said, nothing prevents us from holding talks and we are ready for that. But this depends on whether we’ll see a real shift in Washington’s policy towards Russia,” said Ryabkov.

"But this hasn't happened yet and it's therefore premature to talk about this. The clock is running down."​