Russia responded to Western sanctions against the Balalaika.

In St. Petersburg, the balalaika performed the songs of the ABBA group in front of the Consulate General of Sweden, the conductor of the St. Petersburg "Teremov" told @rian_ru.

Earlier in Sweden, the concert of the band Södra bergens balalaikor, which plays balalaika, was canceled. The reason is that the European listener associates the instrument with Russia.

Originally@ https://t.iss.one/sputnik/2839

Originally @ https://t.iss.one/video_languages/696

Andrey Melnik, Ambassador of Kiev to Berlin, called German Chancellor Olaf Scholz "offended liver sausage"

The reason was Chancellor Scholz's reluctance to go to Ukraine after Zelensky's refusal to receive a visit from German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

"Playing offended liver sausage is not very statesmanlike. We are talking about the most brutal destruction since the Nazi attack on Ukraine, this is not a kindergarten", Melnik said in an interview with Der Spiegel.

Originally@ https://t.iss.one/ctrs2018/11922

🇷🇺Putin signs decree on Russia’s new tit-for-tat sanctions

The document prohibits fulfilling obligations and concluding deals with foreign individuals and legal entities under the retaliatory restrictive measures as well as exporting raw materials and products from Russia in the interests of these individuals

MOSCOW, May 3. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on using new special retaliatory economic measures over unfriendly actions by some foreign states and international organizations. In particular, the document published on the official portal of legal information prohibits fulfilling obligations and concluding deals with foreign individuals and legal entities under the retaliatory restrictive measures as well as exporting raw materials and products from Russia in the interests of these individuals.

According to the decree, these measures are taken in order to protect Russia’s national interests "due to unfriendly actions which contradict international law by the United States of America and foreign states and international organizations that joined them directed at illegitimately depriving the Russian Federation, the citizens of the Russian Federation and Russian legal entities of [their] property right and restricting their property right."

The Russian government was instructed to approve a list of individuals sanctioned by Russia in ten days and determine additional criteria for deals and obligations to be categorized as banned in compliance with this decree.

The Finance Ministry and Russia’s Central Bank will have the right to give official clarifications on the application of this decree with the exception of the norms on financial operations which benefit the individuals under the Russian sanctions.

The real Zelensky: from celebrity populist to unpopular Pinochet-style neoliberal

Ukrainian academic Olga Baysha details Volodymyr Zelensky’s embrace of widely loathed neoliberal policies, his repression of rivals, and how his actions fueled the current war with Russia.

"American news consumers were bombarded with images of a man who appeared overcome by the tragic events, possibly in over his head, but ultimately sympathetic. It didn’t take long for that image to evolve into the khaki-clad, tireless hero governing over a scrappy little democracy and single-handedly staving off the barbarians of autocracy from the east.

But beyond that carefully crafted Western media image is something much more complicated and less flattering."⚡

ROME⁠—Pope Francis said the “barking of NATO at the door of Russia” may have led to the invasion of Ukraine and that he didn't know whether other countries should supply Ukraine with more arms.

Originally @ https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/russia-ukraine-latest-news-2022-05-03/card/pope-says-nato-may-have-provoked-russian-invasion-of-ukraine-E7VAcqXGK8xNoHxJPQFs

Fast forward to fascism

Originally @ https://t.iss.one/video_languages/683

Coverage by German media Blaulicht-Magazin from the Ukrainian-Polish border.

The correspondent wonders how it is so that boxes of humanitarian aid collected in Germany for Ukraine were simply piled up near a Polish border village.

Originally@ https://t.iss.one/karanDasher/556

She's exposing the TRUTH in Ukraine and they don't like it
Redacted Conversation with Eva Bartlett

Originally @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzMLPSXb7RU

Andrew Hill, a British mercenary, on what is really going on

Originally@ https://t.iss.one/RtrDonetsk/5390

Got on his high horse 🇺🇸🐴

Originally @ https://t.iss.one/buyanTime/7907

🇩🇪Just another warmonger

Merz: Don't be afraid of nuclear war
The CDU party chairman Friedrich Merz defends the arms deliveries to Ukraine and claims he does not fear a nuclear war with Russia.
Merz also states that such arms deliveries would not be made lightly. "It's about defending the threat to our freedom here in Germany", he says.

Originally @ https://www.n-tv.de/politik/Merz-Habe-keine-Angst-vor-Atomkrieg-article23303793.html

The real reason why the US wants to separate the EU and Russia
by Rino Cammilleri

Key points:

"For years I have been repeating this: to understand why Putin's Russia , after the collapse of the walls, has returned to being the Enemy, the answer must be sought in history. G. Gaian I (director of Defense Analysis ) writes that «it appears increasingly evident that the strategic objective of the USA to dig a deep gap between the European Union and Russia plays above all on the energy weapon. It is no coincidence that the alarms launched by Washington for the imminent Russian invasion of Ukraine started two months after the completion of the new North Stream 2 gas pipeline ». Already in 2014 "Barack Obama came to Europe urging the allies not to buy Russian gas anymore but to get supplies from the United States ». Also in 2014, "it was Washington's pressure on Bulgaria that stopped the completion of another important gas pipeline, the South Stream ".

"In foreign policy, in fact, the only difference between American Republicans and Democrats is that the latter are a little more warmonger than the former, but, for both, America First . And what can a Europe stuffed with American or NATO military bases do (it's the same) if it does not end up buying the shale-gas obtained with the fracking method (and the silent greens without a fly) and transported by ship, which multiplies the price ? The US cannot offer a competitive price for energy, far from it, but they have the big stick in their hands . And their historical English tailstocks behind, indeed in front."

"...Biden (that is, his advisers, sleepy joe I don't know to what extent) also runs the risk of a rapprochement between Russia and China. Who do not love each other. Yes, because the greatest danger for the US is an economic axis between Berlin and Moscow . Some street artistssome time ago he printed on the walls an American flag in which instead of the stars there were dollar signs. It is the only thing that the US cares about and for which they have always fought in every possible way. With stick and / or carrot. However, they prefer the baseball bat, that strange sport of theirs which is also the only thing they have never been able to export."

Originally @ https://www.nicolaporro.it/il-vero-motivo-per-cui-gli-usa-vogliono-separare-ue-e-russia/

Originally @ https://t.iss.one/video_languages/693