"Right now, the major means of production is human brains. We need to develop technologies," said Putin.

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The centres of the world development right now are shifting towards Asia — Putin.

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"It seems we are dealing with a usurpation of power in Ukraine," Putin stated.

"Russia is ready for negotiations with Ukraine, but on the conditions that were discussed in Minsk and Istanbul," Putin added.

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⚡️"Russia does not brandish nuclear weapons," Putin remarked.

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"The share of the USA in the structure of the global economy is decreasing; this is a step towards the multipolarity of the global financial system," Putin stated.

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"The General Staff has a plan of action for Russia's special operation, and it will be successfully implemented," Putin stated. "Russia is gradually pushing the opponent out of the territory of Donbass, with 47 settlements and 880 square kilometers liberated," Putin added.

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"The Bretton Woods system died a long time ago; the current one is based on trust in the US economy," Putin emphasized.

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"Russia currently does not supply long-range weapons to countries facing pressure but reserves the right to do so," Putin stated against the backdrop of the recent US decision to give Ukraine the green light for strikes on Russian territory.

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"Russia will only consider the use of nuclear weapons in exceptional cases, which have not yet occurred," Putin clarified.

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"As the leader of one European country told me, all agreements with them can only be reached based on defeat or victory. Of course, we are striving for victory," Putin remarked.

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With the character of Russians, nuclear weapons will not be needed for victory — Putin

"When we see what the Russian character is, what the character of a Russian citizen is, we understand it and rely on it, we do not need any nuclear weapons for final victory."

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‘People like him are fed talking points from the CIA’ — Jackson Hinkle calls out Fmr. US Ambassador Michael McFaul

Sputnik News is willing to host a live, totally uncensored debate between Jackson Hinklle and Michael McFaul

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The more the West tightens its grip, the more countries will slip through its fingers

💬 “Western countries have long relied on their technological advance and their superiority in the use of violence to impose their domination on other countries,” Professor Alexis Habiyaremye, a political analyst and senior researcher at the University of Johannesburg’s School of Economics, told Sputnik, commenting on his takeaways from Russian President Vladimir Putin’s speech at the plenary session of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum on Friday.

“With the considerable technological catch up observed since the second half of the 20th century, but above all, with the technological sophistication of the Russian defense industry, Western countries are no longer able to impose their domination without challenge,” Habiyaremye said.

The West has traditionally also “used the Bretton Woods institutions to dominate and discipline developing countries,” according to the academic, but “with the emergence of alternative sources of development finance (e.g. the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank or the New Development Bank), the financial grip on developing countries has been loosened as well. The significance of the West in the world economy and in the world population is in inexorable decline, and no matter how much violence they are deploying to keep their domination, the world has already changed. The Global South won’t accept abusive and traumatic domination, and it is already showing it in different parts of the world.”

The multipolar “new world order” being constructed by Russia and other BRICS countries, “by providing alternative poles of economic and diplomatic power, will certainly benefit countries from the Global South and lower the pressure of the current hegemon,” Habiyaremye emphasized.

With that said, “for counties in the US ‘backyard’, such as Bolivia, Venezuela or Cuba, it will remain extremely difficult to extricate themselves from the stifling influence from Washington. That is why they need more support from the other emerging poles,” he added.

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We see what the Russian character is, and we rely on it, and we don't need any nuclear weapons — Putin

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Ex-CIA intelligence officer: ‘Russia’s a land of opportunities for people willing to work’

Russia is not creating a threat to Europe or to the United States or anyone, former CIA intelligence officer Larry Johnson believes.

💬 “I see why there are so many Westerners that want to move to Russia, because it is really, it's a land of opportunity now, in a way that America once was during the 19th century and into the early 20th century, but it's been closed off. It's become sort of a rigid society that caters to elites, whereas Russia, in a very sort of contradictory manner, is catering to creating new opportunities for people who are just willing to work,” he said in an interview with Sputnik.

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West losing war on four fronts after picking a fight with Russia

💬 “The growth in the Russian economy (outpacing Western economies) is spectacular and it shows that the 15,000 sanctions applied by the West have blown back on them,” British academic and author Rodney Atkinson told Sputnik, commenting on his takeaways from President Putin’s speech at the plenary session of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum on Friday.

“The West is losing four wars in one - economically (in trade and debt), financially (de-dollarization and international payment systems), militarily (in Ukraine in battle and in a comparison of weapons systems) and geopolitically with a massive loss of influence around the world,” Atkinson explained.

💬 “Even before the 20-year expansion towards Russia and the 2014 Maidan-instigated war, European imperial ambitions and US neocon aggression were unpopular. Now that the Global South has witnessed recent events and the BRICS offer an alternative and the US has descended into record debt and industrial weakness it is very difficult for the West to recover its influence. Plagued by geopolitical ignorance, financially irresponsible policies and weak leadership, the US and its allies may not even survive as one of the poles of the multi-polar world,” the observer predicted.

Atkinson stressed the madness of the West’s logic of slapping sanctions against a country as large as Russia with its abundance of food, mineral and energy resources. What’s worse (for the West, that is) is that Moscow has been trailblazing a path to independence which can be emulated by other nations.

“Import substitution by Russia and the unwillingness of Western companies to leave Russia (1,600 international companies have left Russia since 2022 but there are more than 2,100 left) and the substitution of national currencies for dollar-based trade (i.e. rupee, yuan, ruble) all show the Global South that there are alternatives to a Western-based system based on sanctions,” Atkinson said.

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📹 Full speech of the Russian President Vladimir Putin at the SPIEF's plenary session

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‘The US wants to rape Russia, take all of its natural resources’ – Larry Johnson

The US is ‘completely divorced from reality’ by thinking that it has managed to isolate Russia, ex-CIA intelligence officer Larry Johnson told Sputnik.

“The United States is not wanting to isolate Russia. The United States wants to destroy Russia and I think it is critical, essential, that the Russian people understand that. It is not the American people that want to destroy Russia. But the American government, that is certainly its intent, to force the breakup of the Russian government, to bring it down. Because I described it as the West wants to rape Russia, take all of its natural resources, use it exclusively for the United States. The problem we have is that the United States over the last 25 years has suffered from what I call narcissistic personality disorder. They are reliving, reinventing the Greek mythology of narcissists. They see themselves as the most important, the strongest, the wealthiest, and that everybody else is of secondary or tertiary concern,” Johnson said.

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