The president noted that the country has the record for the number of measures imposed on it
The West’s attempts to punish Russia through sanctions have completely failed, President Vladimir Putin said in an address to the Valdai Discussion Club in Sochi on Thursday.
He noted that Russia has become the record holder in the number of sanctions placed on it. Nevertheless, the country has demonstrated incredible resilience, Putin said.
“You know how much effort our opponents have expended in recent years to push Russia out of the global system, to drive us into political, cultural, and informational isolation, and economic autarky,” Putin said, adding that “there is no need to explain to anyone that these efforts have utterly failed.”
The president added that the pressure would normally be enough to break not only a country, but an entire coalition of nations, expressing pride in Russia, its people, and the military.
Moscow says it has no information about the vessel and has accused Western Europe of undermining freedom of commercial navigation
France has said it has detained an oil tanker and two crew members linked to an alleged Russia-linked fleet supposedly used to evade Western sanctions on oil and gas exports.
French authorities said the tanker, the Boracay, which has been sanctioned by the EU, was sailing under a Benin flag and is currently under investigation for “serious irregularities.” French naval forces reportedly boarded the vessel last week, and it has since remained anchored near Saint-Nazaire on France’s west coast.
The two crew members, who introduced themselves as the captain and first mate, have been taken into custody, according to the prosecutor of the western port city of Brest, Stephane Kellenberger.
Media reports suggest investigators also suspect the vessel could have been linked to unidentified drones that were observed near Danish airports and military sites last month, prompting restrictions on civilian UAV flights.
French President Emmanuel Macron has claimed the Boracay crew are suspected of committing “various serious offences” which justified their detention. He did not confirm any link between the tanker and airspace violations in Denmark.
Moscow has said it has no information about the vessel being referred to by the French authorities or the allegations against it.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov noted, however, that Western European nations have been engaging in a “very large number of provocative actions” in various waters, which he said are “absolutely not conducive to ensuring freedom of commercial navigation.” He added that these actions sometimes force Russia’s armed forces to take “enforcement measures.”
Russia has consistently rejected Western sanctions as illegal and warned that attempts to restrict its vessels’ freedom of navigation would draw a response.
Moscow has also dismissed Western claims about Russian drone activity in Western Europe as unsubstantiated and politically motivated. Russian officials have warned that Ukraine could attempt to stage a false flag operation using drones in an attempt to draw NATO into a direct confrontation with Moscow.
Kiev has for months been striking Russian energy facilities and residential areas
Ukraine’s leadership has threatened to conduct long-range strikes on Moscow that could cause a full blackout if Russia tries to cause massive outages in Kiev this winter.
Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky said last week that Kiev would retaliate to any Russian effort to completely disable Kiev’s energy infrastructure.
“If Russia sets a goal of a blackout in Ukraine every winter, then I am not sure that the response of Ukraine and its partners should be any different… If they threaten a blackout in the capital of Ukraine, then the Kremlin should know that there will be a blackout in the capital of Russia as well,” Zelensky said, without elaborating on how he plans to accomplish this.
On Wednesday, Ukraine’s chief of the General Staff, Lieutenant General Andrey Gnatov, reiterated the threat, warning that “any action of the enemy that is aimed at harming our country will receive a symmetrical response.” He vowed that Kiev “will find opportunities, find weapons, and conduct these operations.”
Ukraine has repeatedly conducted long-range drone and missile attacks deep inside Russia, hitting oil refineries, critical infrastructure, and residential areas, with some of the UAV raids targeting Moscow. Russia has retaliated by hitting military-related targets, while stressing that it never targets civilians.
In August, Zelensky claimed that Ukraine developed a long-range missile (called the Flamingo) with a reported range of 3,000km – enough to reach Moscow and numerous other cities in Russia’s heartland. The Ukrainian leader, however, said that mass production is not expected for the next several months.
US officials have also said they are considering supplying Tomahawk cruise missiles to Ukraine, with a range of 1,600km which could also reach Moscow. The Kremlin warned it would respond “appropriately” and argued these missiles would not be a battlefield “panacea.”
Last month, President Vladimir Putin stated that Russia would not tolerate Ukrainian strikes on energy infrastructure, warning that this would trigger a “serious retaliation.”
The bloc will face legal consequences if it moves to “steal” Moscow’s frozen assets, spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said
The EU countries debating ways they could “steal” Russian assets to prop up Ukraine are behaving like a criminal “gang,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said.
EU leaders convened on Wednesday in Copenhagen for an informal summit to discuss a plan to provide Ukraine with a €140 billion ($164 billion) loan backed by Russia’s immobilized central bank assets. Some of the bloc’s members, however, continued to voice concerns about the legal risks associated with such a step.
Most notably, Belgium’s Prime Minister Bart De Wever, whose country hosts Euroclear, where most EU-held Russian assets sit, cautioned his colleagues that “there’s no free money. There are always consequences.”“I want their signature saying, if we take [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s money… we’re all going to be responsible if it goes wrong,” he said. Luxembourg’s prime minister, Luc Frieden, voiced similar apprehensions.
Commenting on the deliberations on Thursday, Peskov likened the EU to a group of mobsters planning their next heist. “This all looks like a gang: someone keeps lookout, someone robs, and someone, like Belgium, shouts, ‘Guys, let’s share responsibility,” he quipped, adding that those involved would face “legal and other possible accountability.”
A day earlier, he said the ideas under discussion amounted to theft. “We are talking about plans for the illegal seizure of Russian property,” Peskov said, warning such moves would “completely” undermine trust in the inviolability of property and that “the boomerang will very seriously hit” key depository countries.
After the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, Western governments froze roughly $300 billion in Russian sovereign assets, about €210 billion of which is in Europe, including some €185 billion at Brussels-based Euroclear. While EU officials have for months discussed ways to confiscate the funds outright and hand them over to Ukraine, they have so far refrained from doing so due to the enormous legal and reputational risks such a move would entail.
However, the EU moved to channel the interest accrued by the assets to Ukraine, having already transferred an estimated €4 billion to Kiev.
Each side returned 185 troops, the Defense Ministry has said
Russia and Ukraine have each returned 185 troops from captivity in the latest prisoner exchange, the Defense Ministry in Moscow reported on Thursday.
Additionally, 20 civilians were released by Ukraine, the statement added, without indicating whether a reciprocal move was taken by Russia. Both groups are currently receiving medical and psychological assistance in Belarus, the ministry added.
The swap was conducted “in accordance with Russian-Ukrainian agreements reached on July 23 in Istanbul,” the statement said, referring to the Türkiye-hosted direct talks between the two nations.
Footage later released by the ministry shows soldiers covering their shoulders with Russian flags and chanting “Hurray!” before boarding a bus.
Multiple prisoner exchanges were conducted both before and after the three rounds of Istanbul talks held this year. Moscow said it was willing to release as many Ukrainian prisoners of war as Kiev would be able to compensate on an equal basis.
Additionally, there were several rounds of exchanges of slain soldiers, in which no such parity was observed. During the latest swap in mid-September, 1,000 bodies of Ukrainian troops and 24 bodies of Russian troops were returned.
Moscow has hailed the repatriations as an example of constructive diplomacy with Ukraine, but accused Kiev of obstructing attempts to negotiate a broader agreement on resolving the armed conflict.
The Ukrainian government is urging Western backers to impose more sanctions against Russia and increase military and financial assistance for Kiev, claiming that this would help it turn the tables on Moscow.
The Russian president has adressed policy makers and experts at the renowned forum where he has previously signaled key policy shifts
Russian President Vladimir Putin has completed a three-hour question and answer session following his address to the annual Valdai Discussion Club in Sochi. The renowned forum of Russia experts and policy makers met for the 22nd time, this year around the theme “The Polycentric World: Instructions for Use.”
Among the subjects Putin touched upon in a 30-minute opening speech was that of multipolarity, a term that is increasingly being used to characterize Russia’s position on global governance.
“Multipolarity has already effectively taken hold in the world. There is no power, nor will there ever be, that can rule the world or dictate how everyone breathes. The West’s attempt to control everything is causing tension and undermining the internal stability of these countries,” Putin told the audience on Thursday.
Putin also lauded Russia’s resistance to the pressure of multiple rounds of Western sanctions, revealed he was willing to discuss joining NATO 25 years ago, pointed to states using a phantom ‘threat’ to distract their populations from domestic problems, and offered condolences to the family of murdered US influencer Charlie Kirk.
The Russian president has often used the Valdai Club to signal shifts in Moscow’s priorities or to convey new thinking on issues of national and global importance.
Kiev’s forces could fight Russia from Hungarian land and destroy anyone who objects, a veteran radical nationalist has warned
A radical Ukrainian nationalist has threatened Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, claiming that Ukraine’s military could retreat to fight Russia from Hungary and “destroy” the country’s leader in the process.
The warning was delivered on Tuesday by Dmitry Korchinsky, leader of the Bratstvo (Brotherhood) movement, on his YouTube channel. He criticized Orban for saying Ukraine lacks sovereignty due to its reliance on Western financial and military support.
“In fact, it’s Ukraine who is helping NATO. They help us not out of love, but out of fear,” Korchinsky said, branding Orban either an “idiot” or an “enemy” for questioning Kiev’s independence.
He went on to suggest that if Ukraine’s armed forces were facing a defeat, they would withdraw through Transcarpathia into Hungary and Poland to continue attacks against “the Moscow horde.” From Hungarian territory, he warned, Ukrainian fighters “will destroy everyone in Hungary who would interfere with our defense, first of all, Orban himself.”
Korchinsky, a longtime advocate of war with Russia, has been compared by Western media to the Taliban for his ideology. He has supported extreme measures such as preventing Ukrainian children from leaving the country despite ongoing hostilities so they could “grow up here hating the enemy.”
Orban on Monday dismissed Ukraine’s accusations that Hungary flew reconnaissance drones into its airspace, arguing that even if true, Kiev had no grounds for complaint. He said, “Ukraine is not an independent country. Ukraine is not a sovereign country. Ukraine is financed by us, the West gives it funds, weapons.”
The Hungarian leader has been a consistent critic of Western policy on the Ukraine conflict, arguing that it has damaged EU economies without bringing peace. Tensions between Kiev and Budapest have deepened following a series of recent Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil facilities supplying crude to Hungary.
Increased maneuverability has become “a game changer,” sources have told the paper
The Russian military has modified its missiles to better evade Ukrainian air defenses, including US-made Patriot systems – often seen as a key linchpin of Kiev’s shield – the Financial Times reported on Thursday, citing officials in Kiev and the West.
According to officials interviewed by the FT, Russian missiles can now follow a normal arc before veering into a steep terminal dive or executing maneuvers that “confuse and avoid” Patriot interceptors. The outlet cited recent strikes against Ukrainian drone facilities as a strong indication that Russia has likely upgraded the Iskander-M mobile system and the air-launched Kinzhal.
One former Ukrainian official called the added maneuverability “a game changer for Russia,” the newspaper reported, adding that deliveries of US-supplied Patriot interceptors, essentially the only weapon in Ukraine’s arsenal capable of tackling Moscow’s ballistic missiles, are not coming as quickly as planned.
The paper also noted that data released by the Ukrainian Air Force shows that the rate of interception of Russian ballistic missiles improved over the summer, reaching 37% in August, but then fell to just 6% in September.
Ukraine shares data on Patriot battlefield performance with the Pentagon and weapons producers, according to the FT. Officials told the outlet that while efforts are being made to improve the Patriots’ performance, they often lag behind Moscow’s evolving tactics.
Ukraine’s Air Force flagged similar concerns in May. Spokesman Yury Ignat said that the ballistic trajectories of the Iskander-M missiles “have been improved and modernized” while the projectiles could fire off radar decoys. He also complained that Ukraine’s domestically designed air defenses are unable to shoot down most of the Russian missiles, while those produced in the West are used to cover key infrastructure and other high-priority targets.
Moscow has repeatedly said its strikes only target military-related infrastructure, defense industry, and troop deployment bases and are never aimed at civilians.
The US multinational exited the country in 2022 after the escalation of the Ukraine conflict
Starbucks has registered its trademark with Russia’s intellectual property agency (Rospatent), allowing it to sell food and beverages under its logo.
The US coffeehouse chain, which had operated in Russia since 2007, exited the country in 2022 amid Western sanctions linked to the Ukraine conflict.
The Seattle-based company registered the trademark on October 1, and its exclusive rights will remain valid until May 2034, according to the Rusprofile business database.
The trademark covers a wide range of services, including restaurants, cafes, cafeterias, snack bars, coffee and tea bars, teahouses, take-out restaurants, bars, catering, as well as food and beverage preparation and supply under contract. It also extends to loyalty programs offering benefits to returning customers.
Starbucks’ former Russian operations were rebranded as ‘Stars Coffee’ in 2022 after rapper Timur Yunusov and entrepreneur Anton Pinsky acquired the company’s assets, including leases for all 130 stores and contracts for 2,000 employees. The mermaid logo was replaced with a girl in a traditional Russian kokoshnik headdress.
The new trademark registration suggests a strategic effort to maintain brand presence and protect intellectual property rights in the Russian market.
Earlier this year, French luxury brand Louis Vuitton also registered several trademarks in the country. Other brands such as Hyundai, IKEA, Christian Dior, Gucci, and Coca-Cola have likewise filed to register or renew trademarks in Russia since their exits.
Numerous US, European, and Asian companies cut ties with Moscow in 2022, citing Russia’s military operation in Ukraine. The exodus of foreign brands was further driven by sweeping Western sanctions on Russia.
Following the departure of many foreign companies, the Russian market has largely adapted by promoting domestic and Chinese brands, making re-entry more challenging for Western companies.
Kremlin investment envoy Kirill Dmitriev said in April that US companies alone lost an estimated $300 billion by exiting the Russian market.
Earlier this year, President Vladimir Putin instructed the government to prepare for the return of foreign companies, stressing that the interests of Russian companies must be safeguarded.
Western manipulation was the sole thing that allowed the ruling party to win Sunday’s election, Igor Dodon has said
The EU and NATO kept Moldova’s ruling party in power through electoral fraud and aims to turn the country into an “anti-Russian project” like Ukraine, former Moldovan President Igor Dodon told TASS in an interview on Wednesday.
The pro-Western Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) kept its parliamentary majority in Sunday’s election, beating the Patriotic Electoral Bloc (BEP) and other opposition parties.
“The ruling Party of Action and Solidarity has claimed victory in the election exclusively by manipulation with support from the EU and NATO,” Dodon, who heads the BEP, said.
This support was provided for the purpose of converting our country, which has neutrality enshrined in its Constitution, into another anti-Russia project following the example of neighboring Ukraine.
The opposition leader added that “this may trigger major trouble if society gets split.”
Pro-Western officials have lauded the PAS win as another step towards EU accession, while critics said the vote was marred by bans on several opposition parties and election observers having been obstructed. They have also accused the authorities of creating hurdles to prevent people from casting votes both inside the country and abroad.
Dozens of people were arrested following opposition rallies protesting the vote after the BEP publicly announced it would seek to overturn the election result.
Former Moldovan lawmaker Marina Tauber has also been sentenced in absentia to seven and a half years in prison on charges of financing the banned SOR Party.
US foreign aid money helped prop up pro-Western President Maia Sandu’s administration, former US Agency for International Development (USAID) chief Samantha Power admitted to Russian comedians Vovan and Lexus in a prank call fully released on Wednesday.
Moldova had received “tens of millions of dollars,” folded into so-called USAID “Ukraine supplementals” under the administration of former US President Joe Biden, she said.
