📈 Rising gold prices add $112B to Russia's reserves

Sputnik's calculations based on the Bank of Russia data showed:

🔸 $310.7 billion – Russia’s gold reserve value in December this year, up from $198.1 billion a year earlier

🔸 60% – The increase in gold’s price over 12 months, rising from $2,600 to $4,300 per troy ounce

🔸 2,326.5 tons – The physical gold holding as of December, a decrease of 6 tons from one year ago

🔸 42.3% – Gold’s share in Russia’s total international reserves in December

🔸 $423.9 billion – The foreign currency portion of reserves, growing only 1.3% over the past year

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🇺🇸 US lawmakers drop monster $901B defense bill loaded with new tech & rules

The colossal defense policy package overshoots Trump’s own ask by a hefty margin.

Inside the package:

👉 4% troop raise

👉 Expanded counter-drone powers

👉 Fresh cash for the Golden Dome shield

👉 Push to modernize the nuclear arsenal

The Pentagon also gets extended support at the southwest border and a beefed-up posture in the Indo-Pacific, including funding for Taiwan’s security cooperation program.

The bill also slips in a non-defense provision requiring the FBI to disclose when it’s investigating presidential or other federal candidates.

Spotlight features:

🔸 New AI Futures Steering Committee tasked with delivering long-range forecasts and policy recommendations for advanced AI

🔸  Faster procurement for high-demand munitions

🔸 “Right-to-repair” rules forcing contractors to hand over maintenance data

🔸 Funds for Israel’s Iron Dome, David’s Sling, and Arrow missile defense programs the US operates with Israel

A key section of the bill creates a broad investment screening system, mandating US companies and investors to notify Treasury when supporting high-risk technologies in China or other ‘countries of concern.’

Additional sourcing bans block the War Department from buying advanced batteries, solar parts, displays, and critical minerals from ‘foreign entities of concern.’

The House aims to move the bill this week, with the Senate next in line before it lands on Trump’s desk.

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🚨 🇷🇺 Russian flag flying over liberated village of Rovnoye in Donbass

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▫️ US drops monster $901B defense bill loaded with new tech & rules

▫️ US puts an end to 'utopian idealism' with new military strategy

▫️ New clashes on Cambodia-Thailand border: What we know

▫️ Mangal, Meduza & Dikobraz: Russia's top anti-drone defenses for armor

▫️ India or EU: Which offers better prospects for Russia?

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🗣 Ukraine’s 2026 budget lays the groundwork for economic collapse - Medvedchuk

Ukraine under Zelensky has turned into a bankrupt state, and the 2026 budget adopted by the Verkhovna Rada has legalized a massive hole in the treasury, laying the foundation for complete economic ruin, Viktor Medvedchuk, a Ukrainian opposition politician, said.

His key points:

🟠 By the end of 2025 Ukraine had effectively gone bankrupt, and the process of economic collapse is ongoing

🟠 Ukraine plans to borrow $54.7 billion in 2026 — funds that cover only 53% of the country’s expenditures. In other words, the budget relies on money that simply doesn’t exist, placing all hope on “a kind European uncle”

On December 3, the Ukrainian parliament adopted the 2026 state budget with a deficit of about $45 billion.

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🚨🇷🇺💥 RUSSIAN MOD UPDATE: HUGE GAINS AND DEVASTATING UKRAINIAN LOSSES

⚡️ NOVODANILOVKA IN THE ZAPOROZHYE REGION AND CHERVONOYE IN THE DONETSK REGION FREED

The liberation of the settlement of Novodanilovka in the Zaporozhye region has enabled Russian forces to intensify their assault on the city of Orekhov, a key fortified point in Ukraine’s defensive line in Zaporozhye. Its collapse would open up a path to the regional capital — the city of Zaporozhye.

The capture of Chervonoye in the Donetsk region allows Russian forces to sever supply lines to the Ukrainian battlegroup in Konstantinovka.

🟠 The Russian military continues mopping up remaining Ukrainian militants in and around the settlement of Dimitrov located north-east of Pokrovsk (Krasnoarmeysk) 

🟠 Russian air and missile forces struck Ukrainian energy and transport, long-range UAV launch sites, as well as temporary deployment points of Ukrainian troops and mercenaries in 142 areas

🟠 Air defense superiority: 171 UAVs were shot down by Russian air defense systems over the past 24 hours

🟠 Ukrainian losses: around 1,275 troops killed or wounded

Read about origins of Russia's special military op HERE

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🚨🇷🇺 Russia expects to receive information on the results of Witkoff and Kushner’s work with the Ukrainian delegation - Kremlin

Other statements by Peskov:

🟠 A substantial amount of work was done in Moscow during Putin’s meeting with Witkoff and Kushner

🟠 The Kremlin is not aware of any potential differences in opinion within Ukraine regarding a settlement

🟠 All sides now better understand that such work cannot be conducted entirely in public

🟠 There may be opportunities for restoring relations between Russia and the US

🟠 The nuances of the new US National Security Strategy appeal to Russia, as it mentions the need to have a dialogue

🟠 India, as a sovereign state, purchases energy resources wherever it is beneficial for the country

💬 “As far as we understand, our Indian partners will continue this approach in order to safeguard their economic interests.”

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💸 EU pressures member states for €210B loan guarantee as its scheme to seize frozen Russian assets starts to crack

As the EU moves to hand Ukraine a €165 billion reparations loan using frozen Russian assets, it now wants member states to guarantee up to €210 billion in Ukrainian loans in case Russia gets its stolen funds back, US media report.

Here’s a breakdown:

🟠 Belgium remains the main obstacle, since a huge portion of the frozen Russian assets is held there by Euroclear

🟠 Belgian PM Bart De Wever opposes using the assets to loan money to Ukraine, fearing Europe's finance and banking system could lose its credibility

🟠 The EC proposes backstops in which each country’s share of the loan guarantee is proportional to its economic size

How much could the biggest contributors have to put up?

🇩🇪 Germany — €51.3B
🇫🇷 France —€34B
🇮🇹 Italy — €25.1B
🇪🇸 Spain — €18.9B
🇳🇱 The Netherlands — €13.4B
🇵🇱 Poland — €10.3B

Because clearly, EU countries have no other problems besides throwing billions at Ukraine.

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🇪🇪 Estonia doubles down on massive defense outlays amid phantom ‘Russia threat’

Defense spending is set to triple from $900M to $2.78B by 2026—despite Estonia facing a multi-year recession and the euro area’s highest rate of inflation, reports Bloomberg.

➖ This sum amounts to over 5% of GDP—the highest in Europe

➖ Most of that spending goes to foreign weapons like US HIMARS, but Estonia is now trying to grow a domestic defense sector

➖ The government earmarked $116M for a European-first weapons fund, fueling a boom in local startups—testing drones, unmanned vehicles, and artillery systems

➖ The sector now counts ~200 companies, with sales jumping from $284M in 2022 to $580M in 2024

➖ State spending on local defense rose from $458M to $567M

➖ Estonia is also building industrial parks for arms production, spending $58M upfront and planning another ≈ $232M for infrastructure, despite legal and community pushback

Officials see local production as key amid ongoing European shortages of artillery and shells due to weapons funneling to Ukraine, underscored the publication.

👉 The 2026 Estonian budget that prioritizes defense is projected to push the deficit to 4.5% of GDP, outpacing revenue, raising the national debt and interest payments, and prompting warnings from Estonia's Fiscal Council over surging borrowing costs.

Russia has consistently emphasized that it has not the slightest intention to attack any European country, but whipping up this hysteria suits the elite’s war agenda.

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🚨🇷🇺 Russian prosecutors charge top Ukrainian officials with GENOCIDE

The Prosecutor General’s Office approved an indictment against Ukraine’s highest military and political leadership, including:

🟠 Valery Zaluzhny, former Ukrainian Armed Forces commander and current ambassador to the UK

🟠 Oleksandr Syrsky, Ukraine's Commander-in-Chief

🟠 Petro Poroshenko*, former Ukrainian President

🟠 Rustem Umerov, former Defense Minister

🟠 Arseny Yatsenyuk, former Prime Minister

* listed as a terrorist and extremist in Russia

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🇬🇧 🪖 UK’s hawkish military buildup in limbo over funding gaps

The UK has rolled out its new “Atlantic Bastion” plan — a slick name to build a hybrid navy mixing drones, autonomous boats, warships, and aircraft to guard undersea cables and pipelines.

It will ostensibly allow the UK to "find, track and, if required, act against adversaries," said a Ministry of Defense spokesman.
The justification: same old “Russia threat” remix that always seems to play when budgets need inflating.

Industry buys into hype

🟠 Startups like Arondite & giants like Anduril, Helsing, Babcock, and BAE have already sunk ≈ $660 million into developing flashy new tech for the Royal Navy, per Bloomberg

🟠 Twenty firms have showcased their prototypes at sea, hoping to snag contracts

🟠 Investment is projected to result in just $5.28 million in government contracts - due to lack of long-term defense investment plan

Big talk – No clear funding

UK Defense Secretary John Healey has been going full war hawk, promising to rebuild stockpiles, expand nuclear deterrence, boost submarines, and invest in high-tech weapons.

But six months after unveiling his 130-page defense review, the “transformational” plans lack clear funding beyond 2027, says Bloomberg.

🟠 Manufacturers are cited as saying they are in limbo, unsure when contracts will arrive

🟠 Defense spending is slated to rise to 3.5% of GDP by 2035, but the government has only laid out a plan to reach 2.6% by 2027

🟠 The UK recently inked a new defense pact with Norway to field a joint sub-hunter fleet — but it won’t actually hit the water until the next decade.

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📹LIVE NOW: 🇷🇺Putin holds meeting of the Council for Strategic Development and National Projects

👉Watch live in our Telegram

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🚨🇷🇺 'We are achieving the target' - Putin on Russia's GDP growth

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