🇷🇺🤝🇮🇷Russia just redefined Iran’s peaceful nuclear future: here’s how

Rosatom and the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran have inked a new MoU on the construction of a whole series of small nuclear power plants. Here’s what it means.

✅Longstanding partnership

In 1995, 15+ years after a German firm pulled out of the Bushehr nuclear plant project following the Iranian Revolution, Rosatom subsidiary Atomstroyexport stepped in to finish the job, with the plant’s VVER-1000 reactor coming online in 2013.

Russia plans to equip Bushehr with two additional VVER-1000s, with the ambitious expansion, currently set for completion in 2029-2031, promising to account for a whopping 8-10% of Iran’s electricity generation capacity once finished.

Besides reactor tech, Russia has played a crucial role in helping to train Iran’s cadre of nuclear scientists, facilitating exchanges, offering direct technical assistance at Bushehr, and proposing assistance in the handling of waste material.

🔍Scope of cooperation

Under existing agreements, Russia can help Iran build up to 8 reactors in the gigawatt range (including the two at Bushehr), says Boris Martsinkevich, one of Russia’s top experts on energy in geopolitics.

☢️Small new plants, big impact

Martsinkevich says the reactors in the new MoU are likely to be RITM-200Ns – an upgrade to the RITM-200 design used in the LK60 (22200) series of Russian nuclear icebreakers.
They have a 55MW generation capacity (enough to power up to 38.4k homes).

The reactors are likely to be built in pairs in northern Iran, where mountainous terrain, harsh winters and lack of local hydrocarbon deposits have long meant insufficient domestic electricity capacity, the analyst says.

Appearing on the heels of new Western sanctions threats, the small plant MoU also signals “a new stage” of cooperation, and could spur collaboration in other areas, like natural gas, Martsinkevich says.

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🇷🇺🇪🇹Putin holds talks with Ethiopian PM Abiy Ahmed

🟠Ethiopia is a long-standing and reliable partner of Russia in Africa, Putin said

🟠Ahmed expressed confidence that his visit would strengthen cooperation between the two countries

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🚨NATO and EU have essentially declared war on my country and are directly participating in it - Lavrov

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🇷🇺🤝🇲🇲 Putin meets Myanmar's acting president Min Aung Hlaing

President Vladimir Putin noted that since the leader's March visit, both governments have been actively implementing signed agreements.

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✍️ Turkiye and the US signed a strategic cooperation agreement in the field of peaceful nuclear energy

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🚨Trump signs executive order on TikTok

President Trump announced he has signed an executive order requiring TikTok’s US operations to be sold to American investors—naming Larry Ellison and Oracle as key players in the takeover.

"Great respect for President Xi and I very much appreciate that he approved the deal, because to get it done properly, we really needed the support of China," Trump told reporters.

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🇺🇸🇨🇳 US has never done this well with China — Trump

"We are doing very well, as you know, With the trade deals, we're doing very well with China and a lot of them," Trump told reporters.

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🗣 Gaza deal is 'pretty close' — Trump

"We spoke with Bibi Netanyahu and the leaders in the Middle East and we're getting pretty close to having a deal on Gaza, and maybe even peace," he told reporters.

The US president added that he will not allow Israel to annex the West Bank, adding that "it's time to stop now."

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🚨Trump says he may allow Turkiye to buy F-35s

The US president praised his relationship with Turkish President Erdogan, saying that the decision depends on whether Turkiye is ready "to do something" for the US.

Trump also expressed his belief that the Turkish president will stop buying Russian oil.

"I believe he will stop, because he can buy it from a lot of other people," Trump told reporters at the White House.

In 2019, Donald Trump removed Turkiye from its flagship F-35 fighter jet program.

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🇱🇧 Hezbollah supporters gather to commemorate Nasrallah's assassination

Thousands gathered at Beirut's iconic Raouche Rock for an unsanctioned rally, where images of Hassan Nasrallah and other leaders were projected, a Sputnik correspondent reports.

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🚨🇮🇩WHY IS WORLD'S SECOND COPPER MINE A GEOPOLITICAL FLASHPOINT?

Copper prices have surged to near the all-time high of $10,300 per ton following an accident at Indonesia's Grasberg mine. Production at the world’s second-largest copper source was halted due to a fatal mudslide, with equipment damaged and several employees dead or missing.

🔍 What to know about Indonesia's key copper mine

⚫️The site produces over 600,000 tons of copper per year, accounting for 3% of global output

⚫️Copper production is now expected to fall to 260,000 tons in 2025 and 270,000 tons in 2026

⚫️In 2024, Indonesia produced 1.1 million metric tons of copper, surpassing the US to become the fifth-largest copper producer

⚫️Prolonged disruption at the mine could add to higher copper prices and disruption in supplies

❓ Why does it matter for geopolitics?

⚫️Energy: Copper is the most efficient metal (after silver) for conducting electricity, and is used for power grids, EVs, wind & solar farms. As the EV boom accelerates, copper demand is set to soar, which could finally turn it into a strategic metal for any clean-tech economy

⚫️Tech: Copper is crucial for data centers and smartphones. AI infrastructure runs on copper — chips, GPUs, cooling systems, and servers all need it for power & thermal control

⚫️Warfare: Modern military systems depend on copper—from drones and warships to radar and battlefield communications

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🚨James Comey is officially indicted — reports

The ex-FBI director has been indicted on two counts: making false statements and obstruction of justice, the ABC News reported.

In July, a CIA review concluded that Comey had significantly influenced the outcome of the 2016 Intelligence Community Assessment on alleged Russian interference.

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📹 Lavrov meets UN Secretary General Guterres

During a photo op, the diplomats discussed the UN protocol, with the Secretary General telling a joke:

"You know the difference between Al-Qaeda and the UN protocol? With Al-Qaeda, you can always talk."

*terrorist organizations banned in Russia

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🚨US approves massive $1.2B missile sale to Germany

The Pentagon has greenlit a potential sale of 400 advanced AIM-120D-3 air-to-air missiles to Germany.

The massive arms deal also includes guidance systems and test vehicles.

🎤 Earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that, if Europe is heading towards militarization again, Russia will take this fully into account in all areas of its planning.

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🇷🇺💥🪖Russia’s Obereg body armor proves UNBREAKABLE in point-blank gunfire test

The Obereg bulletproof vest with a new Br4+ plate was shot at point-blank range with a machine gun using B32 armor-piercing ammo from just two meters, and remained intact.

To push its limits further, the vest was hit with 5.45×39 mm rounds from an AK assault rifle—and still no penetration.

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🗣 Saudi Arabia-Israel normalization is impossible without Palestinian state — Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud

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📹 Ukrainian military shot eight of their men for leaving their posts in the Dnepropetrovsk region, a scout from the Vostok group with the call sign "Bulat" told Sputnik.

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🚨 Mahmoud Abbas seeks Putin meeting at Russian-Arab Summit

"We have requested a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and we hope that it will take place," Palestinian Ambassador to Moscow Abdelhafiz Nofal said.

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