Tag: russia

Bessent Says US May “Unsanction” More Russian Oil Amid Energy Crisis

Yesterday, when discussing the stunning development that Russia would be granted a one-month license to sell (formerly) sanctioned oil to india while the Straits of Hormuz are blocked, we said that this step is just the start, and precited “unlimited extensions” in the future. We had to wait less than 24 hours for this to come true.

Speaking to Fox Business, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the US may lift sanctions on further Russian oil supply after a move Thursday to give Indian refiners the green light to purchase crude from the nation.

“Treasury agreed to let our allies in India start buying Russian oil that was already on the water,” Bessent said, explaining that “to ease the temporary gap of oil around the world, we have given them permission to accept the Russian oil. We may unsanction other Russian oil.”

Bessent said there’s “hundreds of millions of sanctioned barrels of crude on the water now and in essence, by unsanctioning them, Treasury can create supply,” he said, quoting verbatim what we said on February 19.

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Finland To Allow Import and Storage of Nuclear Weapons in Its Territory Bordering Russia

Helsinki has joined the nuclear-mania.

The world is getting more dangerous by the day, and especially in Europe, where a race for rearmament is in full display. More and more countries are starting to think about nuclear weapons in a way that would seem impossible just a few years ago.

From France vowing to increase its presently limited number of nuclear warheads and extend its protection to other EU nations, to Poland floating the idea of developing its own nuclear arsenal, Europeans have ‘learned to stop worrying and love the bomb’, to paraphrase Stanley Kubrick’s ‘Dr. Strangelove’.

Today (5), the Finnish government announced it will ‘ease its ban’ on nuclear weapons.

This will allow the country to import, transport, and store nukes on Finnish territory.

Politico reported:

“[Defense Minister Antti] Häkkänen told a press conference that the country’s legislative ban on nukes, dating back to 1980, was no longer relevant in the current geopolitical context. ‘The legislation does not meet the needs that Finland has as a NATO member’, Häkkänen said, according to regional media.”

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Russian mogul who called Ghislaine Maxwell his ‘soulmate’ is found dead in luxe Moscow pad

A Russian mogul who once called sex-trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell his “soulmate” was found dead in a luxury Moscow apartment Monday, according to reports — just weeks after his name surfaced in the Jeffrey Epstein files.

Umar Dzhabrailov, a Chechen businessman and former senator, was discovered lying in a pool of blood with a gunshot wound to his head at about 3 a.m., Russian outlet Kommersant reported, citing police sources who called it a suspected suicide.

Police discovered a Luger pistol lying by the 67-year-old’s body. But Dzhabrailov — who had tried to take his life in 2020 — didn’t leave a suicide note, the sources said.

The businessman’s apparent suicide comes after he was among the Russian names that appeared in the Justice Department’s latest Epstein document dump.

Emails show him trying to meet the pedophile’s madam in Moscow in 2001.

“Dear Ghislaine, I’m back from London, planing 2 B in Moscow. Really want 2 C U, but I need 2 know exactly when U arive, cause I want 2 take care of U and arrange welcoming things. Wishing U all the best! Umar,” read the email, dated May 24.

Maxwell responded the following day, writing: “Umar, sorry that we did not come last week. Got side tracked and ended up in France. However we Jeffrey Tom and I are coming next week arriving Fri. Will you be around and can we get together? Let me know. Hope you are well. Ghislaine.”

The extent of their relationship, or how they initially met, wasn’t immediately clear.

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Medvedev warns WW3 could begin at any moment if Trump ‘continues his insane course’

The Kremlin has warned that World War Three could start at any moment if Donald Trump ‘continues his insane course’.

Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, a close Putin ally, claimed that a new global conflict will make the nuclear bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki look like ‘child’s play’.

The US president has made a ‘gross mistake’ by attacking Iran and he will spark all out conflict if he ‘continues his insane course of criminal regime change’, Medvedev warned.

‘This is a war of the US and its allies for maintaining global dominance.

‘The pigs don’t want to part with the trough.’

Medvedev, who was Russian president from 2008 to 2012, was asked if WW3 had begun.

He replied: ‘Formally, no, but if Trump continues his insane course of criminal regime change, it will undoubtedly begin.

‘And any event could be the trigger. Any event.’

Medvedev, Putin’s deputy on the Russian security council, said of Western leaders: ‘There’s no magic cure for the actions of hardcore idiots and clinical bastards.

‘There’s only one guarantee: the USA is afraid of Russia and knows the price of a nuclear conflict.

‘In the event of its occurrence, Hiroshima and Nagasaki will be child’s play in the sandbox [sandpit]’.

He told state news agency TASS that US and Israeli citizens were now at risk after the military operation against Iran.

‘I think their vulnerability has significantly increased,’ he said.

‘The fact that the Iranians haven’t responded too seriously yet means that they don’t have many options.

‘But they know how to wait, this is an ancient civilisation.

‘Trump made a gross mistake.

‘By his decision, he put all Americans under potential attack, even though the Iranian regime is not well-liked in neighbouring Arab countries.

‘The main thing, however, is that the late Ayatollah was the spiritual father of almost 300 million Shiites. And now he’s a martyr. You can fill in the rest yourself.

‘And now there’s no doubt that Iran will strive with redoubled energy to acquire nuclear weapons.’

Medvedev claimed that Iran — a key Russian ally, who Moscow is so far failing to support militarily – will withstand the US and Israeli onslaught.

‘I’ve already said that Iran, as the heir to the former Persian Empire, is an ancient world and culture,’ he said.

‘They will cope, but the price of revival will be high.

‘It requires a high level of societal consolidation. And the Americans have provided such consolidation.’

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‘This could spark the largest regional war yet’: Russian analysts on the Iran strikes

As the United States and Israel launch a military operation against Iran on February 28, 2026, global attention turns to the Middle East, where the stakes could not be higher. Analysts and experts from Russia are weighing in, offering a wide range of perspectives on the strategic calculations, potential consequences, and risks of escalation. From regime change ambitions to Iran’s military capabilities, from oil markets to the broader geopolitical fallout, these voices provide a nuanced look at a rapidly unfolding crisis.

Fyodor Lukyanov, Editor-in-Chief of Russia in Global Affairs:

Trump has delivered a full-blown ultimatum to the Iranian leadership – in effect, a declaration of war until the objective is achieved, with maximalist aims that extend all the way to regime change. Apparently, he has concluded that the risks – including potential losses – are acceptable (something he had hesitated over before), and that success would yield decisive strategic gains: a final reshaping of the Middle East in the interests of Israel and the United States.

A military campaign of this scale, launched without the consent of Congress, runs counter to the US Constitution. In the case of Iraq, Congress granted authorization for the use of force in advance. Nothing of the sort has happened here. If it’s all in, then it’s all in – a bet on a swift and spectacular outcome.

But what if it isn’t?

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IMF approves $8.1 billion loan for Ukraine, with $1.5 billion to go immediately

The International Monetary Fund’s executive board on Thursday approved an $8.1 billion, four-year loan for Ukraine, with $1.5 billion to be disbursed immediately to help keep the government running as its war against Russia’s invasion drags into a fifth year.

The IMF said the new Extended Fund Facility arrangement for Ukraine would help anchor a $136.5 billion international support package for the war-torn country, which this week marked the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion.

The new loan, which replaces a $15.5 billion program that was approved in 2023, will help Kyiv to maintain economic stability and keep public spending flowing, the IMF said.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko hailed the IMF loan as part of a broader financial framework that would cover an estimated budget shortfall of $136.5 billion over four years, including a 90 billion euro loan from the European Union.

“It is very important for us that in the fifth year of the full-scale war, against the backdrop of systematic attacks on the energy sector, Ukraine has guaranteed international financial support from partners and the resources for the stable functioning of the state,” she wrote on Telegram.

The World Bank, European Union, United Nations and the Ukrainian government this week issued a new report that put the cost of rebuilding Ukraine at $588 billion over the next decade.

IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said the IMF loan would resolve Ukraine’s balance of payments problem and restore medium-term external viability, while boosting prospects for reconstruction and growth after the war ended and help to facilitate Ukraine’s steps to join the European Union.

“Ukraine and its people have weathered a long and devastating war for over four years with remarkable resilience,” she said in a statement, lauding work by Ukrainian authorities to maintain overall macroeconomic and financial stability, boost domestic revenues and advance some critical reforms.

She said officials were committed to “tackling longstanding bottlenecks to growth,” including through continued efforts to combat corruption, address tax avoidance and evasion, reform energy markets, and strengthen financial market infrastructure.

The program would be “promptly recalibrated” in the case of successful peace negotiations, she said in a statement.

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Hungary To Deploy Troops To Energy Facilities As Tensions With Ukraine Grow

Tensions between Ukraine and Hungary continue as Kyiv continues to destroy energy facilities which supply Russian gas to the central European nation. Budapest has blocked the 90M EUR loan package to Ukraine as a result, and is now taking further security measures.

Ukraine’s President Zelenskiy insulted Orban at the Munich Security Conference and Ukraine has a history of suppressing the Hungarian culture in Ukraine.

Viktor Orbán said Hungary will deploy troops and increase security around key energy facilities amid tensions with Ukraine over Druzhba pipeline disruptions.

Hungary also imposed a drone ban near the Ukrainian border and has blocked EU measures supporting Kyiv, reports Pravda Hungary.

Orban called out Zelenskiy over his continuation of the conflict.

This crisis could result in the European Union splitting or even collapsing, as globalist European capitals continue to push for global war.

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Russia’s FSB Charges Telegram Founder Pavel Durov with Aiding Terrorism

Russia’s Federal Security Service is now pursuing a criminal terrorism case against Pavel Durov, the founder of Telegram. The charge, “assistance to terrorist activities” under Article 205.1 of the Russian Criminal Code, carries up to 15 years in prison. The accusation was published Tuesday in Rossiyskaya Gazeta, Russia’s official state newspaper, which said the article was “based on materials from Russia’s Federal Security Service” and called Telegram “a tool for hybrid threats.”

The timing is hardly subtle. For months, Moscow has been throttling Telegram’s speed, blocking its voice and video calls, and pushing tens of millions of Russians toward MAX, a state-built messaging app with no end-to-end encryption, legally required integration with the FSB’s surveillance infrastructure, and a privacy policy that allows sharing user data with government authorities on request.

MAX has been pre-installed on every smartphone sold in Russia since September 2025. Telegram, used by more than 90 million Russians every month, is the target. MAX is the replacement. The terrorism charge against Durov is the lever.

Durov responded on his Telegram channel: “Russia has opened a criminal case against me for ‘aiding terrorism.’ Each day, the authorities fabricate new pretexts to restrict Russians’ access to Telegram as they seek to suppress the right to privacy and free speech.”

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NATO nations plotting to smuggle nuke into Ukraine – Russian intel

France and the UK are plotting to secretly arm Ukraine with a nuclear weapon, Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) said on Tuesday.

According to the agency, British and French officials are considering the “covert transfer of relevant European-made components, equipment, and technologies to Ukraine,” and are laying the groundwork for an information campaign that would misrepresent the nuclear capacity as domestically developed.

The SVR claimed that another option under consideration is to provide Ukraine with a French TN 75 warhead, used in the nation’s submarine-launched ballistic missiles. It added that Ukraine could also be encouraged to build a ‘dirty bomb’ – a conventional explosive device laden with radioactive materials designed to cause prolonged contamination of a territory.

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UK trace found in assassination attempt on Russian general – FSB chief

Britain’s secret services were involved in the attempted assassination of Lieutenant General Vladimir Alekseyev, Aleksandr Bortnikov, the Director of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), has stated.

Alekseyev, first deputy chief of Russia’s Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU), was shot several times in the back earlier this month as he waited by an elevator in his apartment block in western Moscow. He survived the attack.

The Russian authorities have since detained three suspects in connection with the assassination attempt, including the alleged gunman – identified as 65-year-old Ukrainian-born Russian citizen Lyubomir Korba – who was extradited to Russia with the assistance of the United Arab Emirates.

In an interview with Vesti TV channel on Sunday, Bortnikov reiterated that the assassination attempt was orchestrated by Kiev’s intelligence services. However, they had been acting with the support of “third countries,” Bortnikov said.

“We see the UK trace here, first and foremost. That’s why the investigation continues,” the FSB chief said, without providing further details. He pledged that Russia would not allow the attack to go unanswered, describing any public discussion of specific retaliatory measures as “a delicate issue.”

“We are closely monitoring everything that is happening. Of course, we will never forget, and we will never forgive,” Bortnikov added.

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