🇷🇺🙏 PUTIN OPENS UP: Shares his home chapel in Kremlin & reveals he first knelt in prayer during the Nord-Ost terror crisis

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🇷🇺Russia has made a strong leap since 2014 thanks to sanctions imposed by the West over Crimea – Putin

➕Russia had until 2022 approached agreements with its Western partners with cautious trust, Putin said in a documentary "Russia. Kremlin. Putin. 25 Years."

➕Russia, signing the Minsk agreements, hoped for compliance, but the country was simply deceived.

➕West used the pause under the pretext complying with the Minsk agreements to rearm Ukraine, prepare for war with Russia.

➕When Western companies were leaving Russia, there were many risks, but the country did not throw itself headlong into the abyss – there were foundations for the economy.

➕When a country like Russia becomes too dependent on external factors, it is dangerous.

➕If Russia does not rely on its traditional values, it simply will not exist, it will lose its identity.

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🇷🇺Russia did not start the Ukraine operation earlier than it did because it believed in the Minsk agreements, wanted to resolve the Donbass issue peacefully - Putin

➕Russia did not prepare specifically for a military operation in Ukraine, but sought to resolve the Donbass problem by peaceful means, Putin said in a documentary "Russia. Kremlin. Putin. 25 Years."

➕Russia could not proceed with drastic decisions on Ukraine without carrying out work in the sphere of security, economy

➕It would have been unrealistic for Russia to start the Ukraine operation in 2014 as it was not ready for a frontal confrontation with the West

➕US is now openly saying that the West is in a state of existential war with Russia

➕Russia, in fact, is alone in confronting the entire collective West

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🇷🇺Putin: Russia was forced to make decision in 2014 to support people of Crimea, any other behavior would have meant handing them over to be torn apart

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🇷🇺🇨🇳China & Russia to continue to oppose unilateralism, bullying, to jointly promote equal multipolar world - Chinese MFA

➕Consensus has been reached by Russian, Chinese leaders to deepen mutual political trust between the countries, promote cooperation in all areas

➕China & Russia to continue to strengthen close cooperation in UN, SCO, and BRICS, guide global governance in the right direction

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🚨 France faces ballooning debt, broken politics

📉 France recorded a government budget deficit equal to 5.8 % of the country's GDP in 2024.

💬 PM Francois Bayrou warned:

🟠In 3-4 years, debt interest could hit over $108 billion per year — equal to the combined budgets of education and defense.

🟠A sharp rise in debt servicing costs alone could trigger an economic and financial crisis of historic proportions.

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🤷‍♂️'It was a MISTAKE': Killed son of Finnish politician RUED joining Ukrainian mercs

Leo Aland endured brutal conditions and abuse at the hands of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Here’s what we know:

🟠Aland, 20, volunteered to fight in Ukraine after his Finnish military service, despite his family’s strong objections, Yle reported.
🟠The service contract bound him to six months with Ukrainian forces.
🟠The Finnish Foreign Ministry’s guidelines warn that contracts are nearly impossible to break – something he never got the chance to learn.
🟠As a precaution, Ukrainian commanders confiscated his passport and restricted his phone use, his father told the outlet.
🟠Leo served for just over four months, with messages to his father revealing his deep regret over the decision.

💬 “Sometimes I just don't know what I'm doing here,” the young man wrote, adding that “coming here was a mistake.”

🟠On April 13, his father was notified of his death by fellow fighters.

➡️In the past three years, around 10 Finns have died fighting in Ukraine, according to the Finnish Foreign Ministry.

Like other foreign fighters seeking an “eastern European adventure," they are quickly confronted with the brutal realities of modern warfare, most often meeting an untimely and inglorious end.

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🌐 Putin believes the trend towards the reduction in the G7 countries’ share in the global economy, and therefore in world affairs, will continue over the next 25 years.

🇷🇺🇨🇳 Relations between Russia and China are of a strategic nature today and strengthen global stability amid conditions of global turbulence, Putin said.

🤝 The national interests of Russia and China largely coincide, he added.

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🇷🇺🪖Key statements from the Russian MoD daily briefing on the special military operation:

▪️Russia’s Tsentr Battlegroup wiped out over 520 soldiers and two tanks, including AMX.

▪️Russian aviation shot down 146 drones and two aerial bombs.

▪️Russia’s Sever Battlegroup wiped out over 190 soldiers;

▪️Russia's Yug Battlegroup eliminated 275 militants;

▪️Russia’s Zapad Battlegroup wiped out over 255 soldiers;

▪️Russia's Dnepr Battlegroup eliminated 60 militants.

▪️Russia’s Vostok Battlegroup wiped out over 170 soldiers;

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🇷🇺Putin on successor: I think about it all the time, but ultimately the choice will be up to the Russian people

✅Putin confirms that he looks at and evaluates everyone's potential when thinking about his successor

✅In Russia, there must be several people who can earn the trust of the people.

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💬 Putin: I hoped the reaction of society on the special operation would be EXACTLY like this

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‘Laughable’: 💪🇸🇰Slovak PM reacts to 🤡Zelensky’s veiled threat to world leaders coming to V-Day parade in Moscow

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🔥 Arms of Victory: BP-43 armored train

Sputnik continues to explore the unique arms used by the Soviets to crush the Nazis during the Great Patriotic War.

The BP-43 was a unique behemoth of an armored fighting machine, so powerful that only one of 21 trains built was ever destroyed in battle.

Where rail infrastructure was available and intact, the train would provide much-needed fire support to frontline units, taking on enemy aircraft and tanks alike using its 37 mm M1939 anti-aircraft guns, 76 mm tank guns, and 7.62 mm machine guns.

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