Originally @ https://t.iss.one/video_languages/1138

What Ukraine’s block on Russian gas means for Europe
Kiev has stopped flows via a key transit point, raising fears of European energy shortages

👉What happened?
Ukraine’s gas network operator, GTS Ukraine, announced late Tuesday that it would stop receiving Russian natural gas into the Sokhranovka gas metering station starting on Wednesday because it can no longer control the infrastructure in territory “occupied” by Russian troops. According to the statement of the company’s press service, “the occupying forces” interfered in the technological processes, jeopardizing the security of the country’s entire gas transportation system. The company said it views the situation as a force majeure, stating it is unable to provide deliveries to Europe for reasons beyond its control.

👉How does this effect European gas supplies?
They are declining. GTS Ukraine initially said it would temporarily transfer the Sokhranovka flows to its second, and largest, transit station – Sudzha, which is located on territory controlled by Kiev. Russian gas exporter Gazprom, however, later announced that it is technically impossible to do so. As the Sokhranovka station handles roughly a third of the Russian gas flows entering Ukraine for further transit, this amount of gas will be lost to European buyers as a result of the station’s closure. Gazprom said it was set to supply 72 million cubic meters of gas to Europe via Sudzha station on Wednesday, while the day before, the total confirmed applications of European consumers amounted to 95.8 million cubic meters. At their peak, applications from Europe reached 109.6 million cubic meters in early March. This means that Europe has just lost between 25% to 34% of its Russian gas deliveries.

👉How does this effect gas prices?
Gas prices in Europe initially surged after Ukraine’s cutoff, surpassing $1,100 per thousand cubic meters of gas early Wednesday. Experts say the situation will inevitably lead to a price hike, as European consumers assess the decrease in volumes. For instance, data from the company Snam, which transports gas to Italy, shows that the flow of Russian gas has indeed dropped compared to yesterday, while Germany’s regulator said Russian flows through Ukraine decreased by almost a quarter compared to Tuesday.

Very aggressive Russia at NATO's borders

Chicago Council, 2015. Sounds familiar with certain events, doesn't it?

A monument to the heroic granny with the Soviet flag is raised in Voronezh, Russia

Originally @ https://t.iss.one/MuesliLavrova/18265

Kosovo to apply for Council of Europe membership
🇷🇸With the departure of Russia from the body over Ukraine, Kosovo’s chances of being accepted into the organisation grew.

Kosovo’s government says it will apply for membership in the European rights watchdog the Council of Europe, seizing an opportunity after Russia quit the body.

Being accepted into the organisation requires that two-thirds of the members approve, and with Russia not recognising Kosovo as an independent state, there was a risk in the past that any previous application would fail.

Kosovo says it now has enough backing from the 46-member body and the government said it had ordered the foreign ministry to start membership procedures.

Backed by Western countries, Kosovo declared independence in 2008, nearly a decade after the war between ethnic Albanians and Serb forces ended in 1999.

Kosovo is recognised by more than 110 countries but it is still not a UN member, facing objections from Serbia and veto holder Russia.

❗Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic said his country would strongly react if Kosovo applied for Council of Europe membership and called an urgent meeting of the national security council.

🇫🇮Doomsday preparations on the rise as Finland is on the cusp of joining NATO

Originally @ https://t.iss.one/buyanTime/8040

🇷🇺MOSCOW, May 12. /TASS/. Russia will be forced to take tit-for-tat steps of military-technical nature to stop threats to its national security in response to Finland’s possible accession to NATO, according to a statement by the Russian Foreign Ministry published on Thursday.

"Finland joining NATO will seriously harm bilateral Russian-Finnish relations and the maintenance of stability and security in the North European region. Russia will be forced to take retaliatory steps both of military-technical and of other nature in order to stop the threats to its national security that emerge as a result," the ministry noted.

"Neither Russia’s assurances of the absence of any hostile intentions towards Finland, nor the long history of good-neighborly and mutually beneficial cooperation between our countries convinced Helsinki of the advantages to continue the course towards military non-alignment," the Foreign Ministry added.

"Yet history will decide why Finland should turn its territory into the frontier of a military standoff with the Russian Federation while losing its independence in making its own decisions," the agency noted.

"The accession to NATO will also become a direct violation of Finland’s international legal obligations, above all, the 1947 Paris Peace Treaty which provides for the obligation of its sides not to enter unions or participate in coalitions directed against one of them, as well as the 1992 Treaty on the Foundations of Relations between Russia and Finland which establishes that the sides will refrain from the threat of force or the use of force against the territorial integrity or the political independence of the other side, won’t use or allow to use their territory for armed aggression against the other side. However, given the current indifferent attitude to international law by the collective West, this behavior became the norm," the Russian Foreign Ministry pointed out.

"We will react depending on the situation," the diplomatic agency concluded.

✌️ThingZzz get tricky

Originally @ https://t.iss.one/c/1634612780/4606

"I take full responsibility for what I say. I eyewitnessed war crimes in Ukraine. All of them were committed by the Ukrainian army. But in France, we don't talk about this!", Adrien Bouquet says.

Here the demobilized French military, the author of the book "Get Up and Go Thanks to Science," went to Ukraine with a humanitarian mission and spent three weeks there. Upon his return, he made a difficult decision that could cost him his life or, at least, create many problems: he decided to convey to the French information about the crimes he witnessed in Ukraine.

Here are quotes from his interview:

"When I returned to France from Ukraine, I was shocked: TV channels invite people who were not in Ukraine and do not know anything about what is actually happening there now. However, they dare to talk about the events there. Between what I hear from the TV screen and what I've seen with my own eyes there lies an abyss.

Azov fighters are everywhere. With neo-Nazi patches. It shocks me that Europe is supplying neo-Nazis with weapons. The symbols of the SS men are embroidered everywhere on their uniforms. Not only do they not hide their views. They advertise them. I worked with these people and treated them. They talk openly about being willing to exterminate blacks and Jews.

Being there, there was nothing I could do. Only watch and film. I have these videos and I will use them as evidence of the crimes of Ukraine.

I witnessed the Ukrainian military shoot the knees of captured Russian soldiers and shoot in the head those with a rank higher than an officer.

I personally saw American cameramen who carried out fake filming from the scene, staging dramatizations.

All destroyed civilian buildings issued by Ukraine for bombing civilians are nothing more than the result of inaccurate shooting of Ukrainians at military targets.

The Armed Forces of Ukraine hide ammunition in residential buildings at night, without even informing residents. This is called using people as a shield.

Bucha is a dramatization. The bodies of the dead were moved from other places and deliberately placed in such a way as to make a shocking filming".

The full version of the interview in French for language experts at the link:

https://www.sudradio.fr/programme/andre-bercoff-dans-tous-ses-etats

🔥🔥🔥 "Witch Hunt", Ukrainian style

At our disposal is a unique document: the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine is looking for information about people of Russian or Belarusian origin in Europe who support the Russian Special Operation or also simply remain silent or neutral about this.

Presumably, it is planned to exert all kinds of pressure on them to force them declare solidarity with the Kiev regime. As a bonus, the abbreviations "Russian Federation" and "Republic of Belarus" are not in capital letters in the official documents. It is an official document of the Ukrainian Ministry of Culture.

No comments.

Originally @ https://t.iss.one/ukraina_ru/71164

"Shut up and celebrate!" 😅

Karine Jean-Pierre to replace Jen Psaki
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwVld2u-PQI

Originally @ https://t.iss.one/video_languages/1124

❗🇷🇺MOSCOW, May 12. /TASS/. Moscow will be ready to give the most resolute response, if any side ventures to interfere in Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday.

"We, first of all, proceed from the statements that the president [Russian President Vladimir Putin] has made since February 24 that Russia will be ready to give the most resolute response to the side, which will try somehow to get into Ukraine and get into the special military operation that the Russian Armed Forces are currently conducting in Ukraine," the Russian presidential spokesman stressed.

Commenting on the issue of a potential Russia-NATO direct clash, the Kremlin spokesman said that "all want to avoid" this scenario. "Both Russia [wants to avoid it] and, statements to this effect have been repeatedly made by NATO and, most importantly, by Washington, including at the highest level: such statements have been made by [US] President [Joe] Biden. This is what everyone would want to avoid," Peskov said.

Deputy Chairman of Russia’s Security Council Dmitry Medvedev wrote on his Telegram channel earlier on Thursday that pumping weapons into Ukraine increased the probability of NATO’s potential conflict with Russia that might grow into a nuclear war that "would be a scenario catastrophic for all".

Russian watchdog ready to assist North Korea in fight against coronavirus
🥼🩺
MOSCOW, May 12. /TASS/. Russia’s sanitary watchdog (Rospotrebnadzor) is ready to provide assistance to North Korea in the fight against the coronavirus if the country requests help, the watchdog said in a statement.

"We have not received any official requests from North Korea yet but if requested, Rospotrebnadzor is ready to provide assistance to North Korea," the statement reads.

The watchdog noted that North Korea had been one of the first countries to receive Russian testing systems in February 2020.

North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on Thursday that the country had detected its first case of the BA.2 Omicron variant, also known as stealth Omicron. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un convened a meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the ruling Workers' Party and ordered a nationwide lockdown.

Kommersant: US looking for new allies in Asia amid standoff with Russia and China
🇺🇸🌏
US President Joe Biden will hold a series of meetings with the leaders of Southeast Asian nations as part of a US-ASEAN summit on May 12-13. Washington seeks to gain the support of regional countries amid sanctions on Russia and efforts to contain China, Kommersant writes.

"The need to strengthen an anti-Chinese front in Southeast Asia is becoming increasingly relevant for Washington. Besides, the Biden administration is facing strong criticism at home for its lack of resolute support for Ukraine, which is why Washington is trying to drag ASEAN countries into a war of sanctions against Russia," Senior Research Fellow at the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute for US and Canadian Studies Vladimir Vasilyev pointed out. The US also seeks to seize the window of opportunity in order to overcome a crisis in its economy by boosting trade and investment ties with ASEAN countries who are reopening after the coronavirus pandemic. The third important aspect relates to defense cooperation, Vasilyev noted.

US pulling ASEAN into the quagmire of confronting China