The Russian president’s trip to New Delhi is scheduled to take place before the end of 2025, spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said
Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit India before the end of the year, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has confirmed, saying he expected the trip to be “meaningful.”
Putin previously mentioned the visit last month, saying he looked forward to meeting “my dear friend, our trustworthy partner, Prime Minister Narendra Modi” in New Delhi in December. He added that Moscow aims to address the growing trade imbalance with India during the summit.
“We are actively preparing for Putin’s visit to India, which is scheduled for the end of this year. We expect it to be a meaningful visit,” Peskov told reporters on Monday. He declined to reveal the agenda for the trip, saying details “will be announced in a timely manner.”
Peskov was responding to question on a report by the Economic Times, which claimed Russia and India plan to sign a labor mobility deal to protect Indian workers’ rights and boost recruitment amid rising demand for skilled labor in machinery and electronics.
The traditionally close partnership between Moscow and New Delhi, with India among Russia’s top oil buyers, has come under Western pressure in recent months. In late October, the US sanctioned Russian oil giants Rosneft and Lukoil, and earlier President Donald Trump imposed a 25% tariff on India, accusing it of “funding” the Ukraine conflict through oil purchases.
Indian officials have dismissed Western criticism over Russian oil imports, noting that the US and EU still trade with Moscow. New Delhi says its energy policy is driven by “national interest” and that it “does not subscribe to any unilateral sanctions.” While some refiners paused new orders, others – including the state-run Indian Oil Corporation – said they will continue buying from non-sanctioned Russian suppliers. Data from Kpler showed India’s Russian crude imports rose to 1.48 million barrels per day in October, up from 1.44 million in September.
Trade in other sectors has also grown, with Russia doubling its diamond exports to India year-on-year to $31.3 million. The two nations have also signaled plans for deeper military cooperation, focusing on technology transfers for aviation, naval, and missile platforms. Last month, they held the 14th INDRA naval exercise to enhance coordination in modern warfare.
The collection could be worth up to $35,000, customs officials have said
Ukrainian customs officials have intercepted a shipment containing thousands of “Nazi-themed” postage stamps that were being smuggled in from Poland, the State Customs Service announced on Monday.
The haul consisting of 14,487 stamps depicting Nazi-era symbols and figures, including Adolf Hitler, was discovered concealed within 350kg of used clothing inside a vehicle entering Ukraine. The agency estimated the collection’s black-market value at over $35,000, suggesting significant demand among private collectors.
Images of the seized stamps released by the agency appear to show original Third Reich issues or high-quality replicas. Ukrainian law formally bans the production and sale of materials featuring Nazi or Soviet symbols, though the legislation is unevenly enforced, particularly when such imagery is linked to nationalist or military contexts.
The use of Nazi-inspired symbols by certain Ukrainian nationalist groups and military formations has been extensively documented in recent years. Despite the legal prohibition, such insignia often appear on soldiers’ uniforms or banners without official rebuke.
In a recent example, Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky last week shared images of an inspection of frontline units showing fighters wearing patches closely resembling SS lightning bolts. Pro-Kiev commentators claimed the symbols were a stylized number ’44’ representing the 4th battalion of the 4th National Guard Operational Brigade ‘Rubezh’, although the resemblance to the Nazi-era insignia is unmistakable.
The 1st Azov Corps, one of the reorganized successors to the notorious Azov Battalion, has also been photographed displaying a banner featuring a Wolfsangel rune, another emblem associated with Nazi formations during World War II.
Many Ukrainian nationalists who collaborated with Nazi Germany are celebrated domestically as national heroes. Moscow maintains that the ideological heirs of these individuals now serve in Ukraine’s military, arguing that such reverence reflects deeper continuities with extremist ideology.
The polish president and his party has accused migrants of “jumping the queue” for social welfare
Polish support for Ukrainian immigrants is collapsing and half the population now view state benefits for arrivals as overly generous, Bloomberg reported on Sunday, citing a recent survey.
Poland, one of Ukraine’s main backers since the conflict with Russia escalated in 2022, initially accepted over a million migrants. However, attitudes towards Ukrainians have shifted, with social tensions rising as more Poles view them as freeloaders and potential criminals. Recent government data indicate that at least 2.5 million Ukrainians now live in Poland, almost 7% of the population.
Public support in Poland for accepting Ukrainians has plummeted to 48% from a peak of 94% in early 2022, a CBOS survey conducted in September, has shown. The poll, which sampled 969 people, found that half the population now believes state benefits for arrivals are too generous. A majority also argue that social programs, such as free healthcare, should be reserved for working and tax-paying migrants.
Ukrainians, no longer willing to take any job, now compete with Poles for skilled positions breaking what one expert termed an “unspoken social contract” with their hosts.
Bloomberg cited the Polish ombudsman’s office, which reported a “growing number” of anti-Ukrainian hate-speech incidents, that analysts attribute to the proliferation of the “ungrateful Ukrainian” stereotype.
Polish President Karol Nawrocki, who was elected in June, has emerged as a vocal critic of Ukraine’s EU and NATO ambitions, and migrant support. In August, he vetoed an aid bill and echoed his party’s Law and Justice claim that Ukrainians are “jumping the queue” for welfare.
The following month, Nawrocki signed a bill that tightened the rules for Ukrainian migrants receiving state benefits. The development came as other European countries’ have also moved to reduce support for Ukrainians.
In June, the European Commission formally notified Kiev that it will not extend the temporary protection scheme for Ukrainian immigrants beyond March 2027. According to Eurostat, more than 4.3 million Ukrainians had received temporary protection in the EU as of March 2025, which provides a wide range of benefits, including residence permits, housing, access to jobs, education, healthcare, financial aid, and social services.
The former French president was sentenced to five years for criminal campaign conspiracy three weeks ago
Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy was granted conditional release from prison on Monday, less than three weeks after he began serving a five-year sentence over a plot to obtain secret campaign funds from the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
Sarkozy, who was found guilty of criminal conspiracy to finance his 2007 election campaign in September, has been moved to house arrest.
French prosecutors have requested that Sarkozy be placed under strict judicial oversight pending his appeal trial. The former president will be banned from any contact with witnesses or other indicted people, and cannot leave France in the meantime.
Sarkozy has consistently denied any wrongdoing.
“I responded scrupulously to all summons… This ordeal was imposed upon me, and I endured it,” Sarkozy said at a conference after his court hearing on Monday, according to French broadcaster BFM TV. “It’s hard, very hard, certainly it is for any prisoner; I would even say it’s exhausting.”
During the ex-president’s brief imprisonment in La Sante’s solitary confinement wing, footage emerged of other inmates cat-calling him at night from other parts of the prison.
Some of the videos included threats to “avenge Gaddafi.”
Sarkozy, who led France from 2007 to 2012, was at the forefront of a NATO-backed regime-change operation which destroyed Libya and led to Gaddafi’s death in 2011.
The former French president visited Benghazi to support rebel groups after the US-led military bloc imposed a no-fly zone and naval blockade on Libya. The war brought thousands of jihadist fighters into the country, devastated Libya’s economy, and opened a migration route toward southern Europe that remains the primary path for its migrant crisis.
The suspect allegedly gathered intelligence about a Russian soldier and plotted a sabotage at a railway station
A Moscow resident has been detained by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) on suspicion of treason and cooperating with Ukrainian intelligence services, the agency announced in a press release on Monday.
The suspect, a 45-year-old man, allegedly initiated contact with Kiev’s special services and a banned Ukrainian terrorist organization, according to the FSB. Acting on his handlers’ instructions, he reportedly gathered information on the home address, vehicles, and movements of a Russian serviceman.
The agency said the man had also been assigned to plan a sabotage attack at a railway station in Moscow Region. Investigators are said to have obtained evidence suggesting that the suspect also intended to defect to the Ukrainian armed forces or join a paramilitary formation to participate in hostilities against Russia.
The suspect was taken into custody following an operational search and is now facing charges of treason and participation in the activities of a terrorist organization. The crimes carry penalties ranging from 12 years to life imprisonment.
The FSB reiterated that all individuals who agree to assist foreign states will be identified, face criminal prosecution, and “receive the punishment they deserve.”
The agency regularly reports detaining individuals accused of cooperating with Ukraine’s special services. Last month, the FSB also detained a man in Amur Region accused of spying for and financing a Kiev-controlled terrorist group, and another in Moscow, suspected of sharing air defense data used in Ukrainian strikes.
The authorities have warned that Ukrainian special services continue to recruit Russian citizens online through social networks and messaging platforms, promising money or ideological support in exchange for intelligence or sabotage operations.
Kash Patel flew to Beijing to discuss the fight against fentanyl smuggling, according to the agency
FBI Director Kash Patel made an unannounced visit to China last week to discuss “fentanyl and law enforcement issues,” Reuters reported on Monday, citing two people familiar with the trip.
According to Reuters, Patel arrived in Beijing on Friday and stayed for about a day. He reportedly held talks with Chinese officials on Saturday. Neither side has officially confirmed the talks.
The report comes after US President Donald Trump met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping during a regional summit in South Korea last month. Following the meeting, Trump lifted tariffs on imports from China that his administration had linked to fentanyl. The two powers are engaged in what the US president has called a trade war.
US officials have accused Beijing of enabling the flow of fentanyl and precursor chemicals used to manufacture the synthetic opioid blamed for tens of thousands of overdose deaths annually in America.
China has called the allegations politically motivated, pointing to its domestic crackdown on illegal chemical producers.
According to the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), most fentanyl entering the US comes from Mexico, where cartels synthesize it using imported precursors. Drug seizure statistics indicate that the majority of fentanyl comes through official ports of entry along the southern border rather than through clandestine smuggling routes.
The Trump administration has also used allegations of narcoterrorism to justify maritime airstrikes strikes on civilian vessels that the president claimed were involved in fentanyl smuggling from Venezuela.
While the administration has linked Venezuela to cocaine transit routes, DEA records indicate that its role in the global fentanyl trade is negligible.
The list includes Rudy Giuliani and 76 others indicted over alleged attempts to overturn the 2020 election
US President Donald Trump has issued broad pardons to dozens of people targeted by the previous administration for challenging the 2020 election results, including former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
Trump repeatedly claimed election fraud in the 2020 presidential election, which he lost to Joe Biden.
The list, released on Monday by US Pardon Attorney Ed Martin, features high-profile figures such as Giuliani, John Eastman, and Mark Meadows, allegedly connected to efforts to challenge the certified results of the election.
The group also includes Sidney Powell and Boris Epshteyn, who were allegedly involved in legal and political campaigns to challenge the outcome in several key states.
“This proclamation ends a grave national injustice perpetrated upon the American people following the 2020 Presidential Election and continues the process of national reconciliation,” the document says, noting that it does not extend to the sitting US president.
Giuliani and Meadows, the White House chief of staff during Trump’s first term, have faced indictments in state cases linked to alleged attempts to overturn the election. Eastman, Trump’s legal adviser at the time, was charged for his involvement in legal strategies regarding alternate electors.
Powell, the president’s former lawyer, was charged in Georgia with election-related misdemeanors. She has since pleaded guilty to six counts of conspiracy to interfere with election duties and accepted a sentence of six years’ probation and a $6,000 fine.
The legal cases against Trump’s campaign team were part of a broader crackdown on efforts to challenge the election results, which contributed to the January 6 Capitol riots. Federal and congressional investigations followed, charging over 1,500 people and examining attempts to overturn the vote. Trump’s pardons now grant clemency to those prosecuted in connection with these events.
