🇷🇺 The 8th Eastern Economic Forum (EEF) begins in Vladivostok, Russia, on Sunday.

The EEF serves as a global platform for business leaders, politicians, and public figures to discuss the development of Russia's Far East and its integration into the Asia-Pacific region. This year's motto, "The Path to Partnership, Peace and Prosperity," reflects the host country's desire to build constructive relations and engage in inclusive dialogue with foreign partners in the region.

Russian President Vladimir Putin will address the forum's plenary session on Tuesday, joined by Vice President of Laos Pany Yathotou, the event's main guest. Additionally, Putin will hold bilateral talks with the Laotian vice president and meet with Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Guoqing.

Over 7,000 participants from 50+ countries, notably China, Myanmar, India, Mongolia, and Laos, will be in attendance at the Far Eastern Federal University campus from September 10-13.

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❗️ Russian air defense destroyed eight Ukrainian UAVs over the Black Sea near Crimea - Russian Defense Ministry

❗️ Russian aircraft destroyed 3 US-made Willard Sea Force boats with landing groups of the Ukrainian Armed Forces near Zmeiny (Snake) Island in the Black Sea, which were heading towards Crimea, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported

🇺🇸 Judge Steve Jones has denied former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows' request to transfer his Georgia election subversion case to US federal court. Jones cited a lack of jurisdiction and ordered the closure of the case, stating that Meadows' motion did not meet the criteria for removal to federal court because the actions in question were not related to his White House duties.

This ruling may set a precedent for similar cases where defendants seek to move their cases to federal court.

Meadows is one of 18 co-defendants facing charges related to alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 US presidential election in Georgia, with his lawyer arguing that his actions were within his legal duties as chief of staff and protected by the supremacy clause of the US Constitution.

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People in Morocco are too afraid to return to their homes, staying on the streets for fear of aftershocks of the earthquake that damaged thousands of houses, eyewitnesses of the deadly tragedy have shared with Sputnik.

Some neighborhoods were completely destroyed, leaving hundreds of people dead, and thousands displaced from their homes by the damage, and entire families killed under the rubble.

“Houses that were not demolished by the earthquake were so damaged that people could not stay in them due to the extent of the damage they suffered. And hundreds of people died under their houses, which collapsed on them in a matter of seconds before they could run out into the street,” Marrakesh resident Fatima Zahra al-Rashid told Sputnik.

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Day zero of the Eastern Economic Forum is underway in Vladivostok. Visitors can immerse themselves in augmented reality at the stand of the Ministry of Natural Resources.

Sputnik is the EEF's general information partner.

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Modi welcomes G-20 leaders with India's traditional item

🇷🇺 🇮🇳 Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi presents Sergey Lavrov with a beige scarf crafted from hadi fabric, a design by Mahatma Gandhi, adorned with symbols representing India's #G20 presidency.

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The power of the devastating earthquake that hit Morocco was equivalent to that of 25 nuclear bombs in terms of the amount of material contained in such bombs, Dr. Iyd al-Tarazi, a professor at the Department of Seismology and Natural Hazards at the Hashemite University in Jordan, told Sputnik Arabic.

“An earthquake with a magnitude of 7 on the Richter scale is very strong and can cause ground acceleration at the epicenter of the earthquake ranging from 200 to 300 centimeters per second, which can destroy objects, especially those not specifically designed to be resistant to earthquakes, when the foundations are not adequately prepared from the geological and topographical points of view," he said.

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Leaders and representatives of the world’s 20 largest economies met in New Delhi Saturday, reaching a compromise on a joint declaration on global priorities by leaving out Western-proposed criticism of Russia over its military operation in Ukraine. Sputnik spoke to experts to get a sense of what the declaration's "consensus language" really means.

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🇺🇸 The United States is blatantly lying about the botched Ukrainian counteroffensive, former CIA analyst Larry Johnson said in an interview with Judge Andrew Napolitano on his Judging Freedom podcast.

“Tony, look at a map,” and just look at the progress that “has not been made by Ukraine,” said the retired CIA intelligence officer and State Department official, as he commented on recent remarks made by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Kiev.

During his unannounced visit to the Ukrainian capital, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, standing alongside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, touted that the Ukrainian military had made “real progress” in its counteroffensive in the “last few weeks.” The Ukrainian president’s assessment of the battlefront developments “matches our own,” continued Blinken, who went over to Kiev to pledge a new aid package for Ukraine worth over $1 billion.

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❗️Lavrov: The G20 summit is successful, the group now is undergoing internal reform.

▪️The G20 summit's results will give a positive impetus to the IMF and the WTO reform, Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov said during a press conference on the sidelines of the summit. ▪️A consolidated position of the Global South has prevented the West from making Ukraine a key topic at the G20 summit, Lavrov stressed.

▪️Moscow appreciates UN chief Guterres’s efforts concerning the Black Sea Grain Deal, but they will be destined to fail if the West keeps making promises without taking any real steps toward implementing Russia’s terms, Lavrov said.

🇷🇺 WATCH: Lavrov responds to question from Sputnik India regarding dedollarisation push & trade in local currencies

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🌍The G20-proposed WTO reform poses 'huge challenges' for a 'divided world', Robinder Sachdev, a geopolitical and economic diplomacy analyst, founder and president of the Imagindia Institute, a New Delhi-based think tank, told Sputnik.

He applauded the fact that the “intent” was there, adding that the need for reform of the body was obvious given that “the world is getting more complicated, and more divided.” Indeed, as the recent BRICS summit showed with particular clarity, Western-centric groups are beginning to cede global leadership to the multipolar world organizations, predominantly spearheaded by Russia, China and India.

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🇨🇳🚙 Why Chinese cars steal the show at the Munich Auto Expo

This year's biennial Munich Auto Show (IAA Mobility) has showcased elegant electric vehicles (EVs), marking a notable transition in the international automotive sphere. Chinese automakers have taken center stage, striking a huge impression with their technological sophistication and lower costs.

As a result, they have demonstrated a significant shift in the industry's landscape, highlighting their prowess in the EV market and challenging the positions of German and European electric car manufacturers.

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🇷🇺 Remembering the Red Army's Heroic Donbass Offensive of 1943

The Donbass Offensive - a strategic operation by the Red Army during the Great Patriotic War was conducted from August 13 to September 22, 1943, by Soviet troops of the Southern and Southwestern Fronts, whose main goal was the defeat of the Nazis' Army Group South, the liberation of Donbass and gaining access to the Dnepr River; they also sought to liberate the major industrial and administrative centers of Donetsk, Taganrog and Mariupol.

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❗️Russian MoD briefing on the progress of the special military operation in Ukraine:

▪️Russian troops repelled two attacks by assault groups of the Ukrainian Armed Forces (UAF) in the DPR;

▪️The Russian Armed Forces repelled six attacks by the UAF in the Zaporozhye region, eliminating up to 80 enemy servicemen;

▪️The Russian military eliminated up to 260 servicemen in the DPR;

▪️The Russian Armed Forces destroyed a Sweden-made ARTHUR counter-battery radar station in the Zaporozhye region;

▪️Russian troops repelled an attack by the UAF near Krasny Liman and eliminated over 50 enemy servicemen;

▪️Russian troops repelled an attack by the UAF and eliminated over 130 servicemen in the South Donetsk direction;

▪️The Russian Armed Forces repelled two attacks by assault groups of the UAF in the LPR, with enemy losses amounting to up to 35 servicemen;

▪️The UAF's losses amounted to up to 36 servicemen in the Black Sea on three destroyed Willard boats;

▪️The Russian Armed Forces destroyed and suppressed 42 Ukrainian drones using electronic warfare;

▪️Russian troops destroyed ammunition depots of the 82nd Airborne Assault Brigade and the 9th Army Corps of the UAF in the Zaporozhye direction.

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Lavrov: Americans want to get rid of a competitor

💬 "Now, as for bilateral contacts here on the sidelines of the forum, I haven't had any, because everyone understands what the Americans want from Russia. They want to get rid of a competitor. They want to strategically defeat us, as they put it. If they had anything new in mind, well, they'd probably find a way to communicate it somehow," Lavrov said in response to a question from Sputnik's correspondent during the G20 forum.

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❗️Sputnik correspondents were not allowed to attend Macron's press conference on the margins of the G20 summit in New Delhi. Journalists who tried to enter the event were told that the hall was completely full.

Only the French press was allowed into the hall, security officials said. Many Indian and Western journalists were unable to get into the press conference.

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🗣️ On the new reality the US has to come to grips with:

“So I think there's a whole new reality setting in in the West about the impossibility of achieving their goals and objectives, especially if those goals and objectives are prefaced on the requirement for the Ukrainian army to be able to sustain this kind of large scale offensive operations. I think this is it. I think we've hit the high water mark of this conflict in terms of this is as good as it's going to get for the Ukrainians. It will never get any better. They will never have an army that was as capable as the army that they had that they threw into battle when this counteroffensive started. Those troops are gone, never to be replaced. And from here it's just downhill,” Scott Ritter, former US Marine intel officer and UN weapons inspector, told Sputnik.

🎧 Listen to more of Ritter’s analysis in our podcast New Rules

👉 Watch the full episode of our show on YouTube or Rumble