The head of the Federation Council Committee on International Affairs of the Russian Federation Grigory Karasin, in an interview with journalists, voiced his opinion about the true reasons for the evacuation of a number of countries of their diplomats from Ukrainian missions.
According to the parliamentarian, this decision is another “negative stuffing” of the West to escalate the situation around the Square and create the appearance of “aggressive actions” on the part of Russia.
“Stuffing about aggression continues around the perimeter…. Soon there will be a lot of gray-haired, frightened people on the streets of European cities,” Karasin noted with regret.
According to the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrel, the EU authorities have completed preparatory work on the development of sanctions in case of an attack by Russia on Ukraine.
Speaking at a briefing on the results of the EU Council in Brussels, Borrel noted that European politicians will continue to use diplomatic methods to convince Moscow to embark on the path of dialogue. “Although the Russian rhetoric does not give us much confidence,” he said.
“If diplomacy does not lead to success, then we are very far advanced in preparing reactions to potential Russian aggression. It will be a quick and decisive response,” the head of European diplomacy warned.
However, Borrel did not answer the question of the DW correspondent when exactly the preparatory work will be completed.
The US Pentagon believes that Russia has no plans to de-escalate the situation around Ukraine. According to the press secretary of the US military department, John Kirby, Washington is closely monitoring the situation on the Russian-Ukrainian border, and the US now has no doubt that the Russian Federation does not intend to de-escalate.
The Kremlin has repeatedly rejected all Western accusations of aggression against Ukraine, noting that Moscow does not threaten anyone and is not going to attack anyone. The Russian side points out that such statements about aggression are used as a pretext for supplying Kiev with weapons and deploying NATO units near the Russian borders.
Only on January 23, two transport airliners landed in Kiev, which delivered 80 and 90 tons of weapons to the country, including M141 Bunker Defeat Munition grenade launchers and other ammunition.
Forbes has released a material in which it considers the scenario of Russia’s bombing of Ukraine. This is despite the fact that the Kremlin has repeatedly stated that Russia is not going to attack anyone. The NSDC of Ukraine also said today that they see no grounds to claim that Russia is preparing a full-scale offensive.
Nevertheless, the authors of Forbes cite a scenario according to which Russia, which has the world’s third largest fleet of bombers after the Chinese and US Air Forces, will strike Ukraine with cruise missiles, using Tu-22M3, Tu-95 and Tu-160.
The article emphasizes that Russian bombers are capable of hitting targets on land with high accuracy, being hundreds or even thousands of kilometers away from them. In fact, Russian planes will be out of the reach of air defense systems and the Ukrainian military will not be able to do anything with them.
The author notes that Russia armed the Tu-160 with X-101 cruise missiles for attacks on ground targets only in 2015. Before that, more attention was paid to anti-ship missiles. The article says that this missile is capable of flying 5 thousand km and using satellite guidance to hit a target with an accuracy of 10 meters.
“Today, the Tu-160 and Tu-95 regularly use the X-101 in Syria to destroy militants and terrorists,” the article also says.
With this tactic, Russia recommended passive protection to Ukrainians: “In order to survive the missile onslaught, Ukrainians should continue to move when they can, and dig in when they can’t.”
LDPR leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky commented on reports that the United States, Great Britain and some other countries have begun evacuating employees of their embassies in Kiev and their family members.
“We welcome the decisions of those European countries that are evacuating their diplomats from Kiev,” Zhirinovsky wrote in his Telegram channel. He added that these employees are not to blame for anything and the sooner they leave the Ukrainian capital, the better.
He also urged not to listen to those who say that the evacuation started early. According to Zhirinovsky, the Americans set the right example. “It’s better earlier, while there are no traffic jams on the roads and without waiting for the Afghan option, when I had to run away, clinging to the landing gear of airplanes,” the politician noted sarcastically.
The head of the LDPR added that in this sense, the Americans are great experts in evacuation. “This requires a special flair,” Zhirinovsky summed up.
During a live broadcast on the Instagram account of the chairman of the Chechen parliament, Magomed Daudov, the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, called the figure that Russia costs the maintenance of the republic annually. According to him, this is 300 billion rubles.
Kadyrov admitted that he was thinking about a “separate Ichkeria”.
“But, I swear, we won’t be able to live for three months. Imagine, Russia spends 300 billion a year on the republic, on the maintenance of the people of the Chechen Republic,” Kadyrov said.
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He recalled that there is “no gas, no oil, no light” in Chechnya. The head of the republic said that he had not found a single investor in seven years. According to Kadyrov, the republic cannot survive without Russia.
“If they offer us something else, let them write us an economic model. Allah has given us a chance to live and develop. Don’t listen to any devils,” the head of Chechnya stressed.
According to Forbes magazine, by the end of 2020, Kadyrov declared an income of 381.19 million rubles. Sources of funds about did not specify.
Read also: Secret laws and customs of Chechnya: “Polygamy flourished after the first war.”
Dmitry Peskov told reporters that politicians and heads of regions have the right to make statements expressing their personal opinion.
“It is his right to call them accomplices of terrorists,” Peskov said about the head of Chechnya, specifying that the people to whom Kadyrov’s appeal is addressed, in turn, have the right to react – either to refute his words, or to contact law enforcement agencies.
Earlier, the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, appealed to law enforcement agencies in social networks with a request to detain the head of the “Committee against Torture” Igor Kalyapin and Novaya Gazeta journalist Elena Milashina, who, in his opinion, “earn money on the topic of the Chechen Republic and Chechens, developing scenarios and whispering texts and behavior into their characters’ ears.”
“Detain these accomplices of terrorists,” Kadyrov wrote in his telegram channel.
Peskov stressed that the position of the head of Chechnya is not the position of the federal center. “Only a court can recognize terrorists, there was no such recognition,” Peskov said.
As for the Yangulbayev family, whom Kadyrov accused of “calling for terrorism and extremism, supporting it,” “planning to take part in organizing an entire network,” according to Peskov, the Kremlin would “prefer not to comment” and “not to interfere in the clarification of relations.”
“We do not know whether the family members specifically applied to law enforcement agencies,” the presidential press secretary said, adding that if there was such an appeal, and law enforcement agencies, according to the applicants, are inactive, then they have the right to apply to the Prosecutor General’s Office.
To join forces, Ukrainian historians have asked Russia to initiate joint research projects. This was stated by Honorary Director of the Institute of Archaeology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine Pyotr Tolochko at a round table at the Russian Historical Society on the study of the history of Ukraine on the 368th anniversary of the Pereyaslav Rada.
“We are all hunted and afraid. We need more scientific projects that Moscow could make attractive to young Ukrainian historians,” PolitExpert quotes him as saying.
Tolochko stressed that the history of Ukraine cannot be studied separately from Russia. As a state entity and an ethnic nationality, the republic was formed in Soviet times.
Now Ukrainian historians have no opportunity to develop common projects and hold conferences. Moreover, a law has come into force that obliges newspapers and magazines to produce half of their circulation in Ukrainian.
“The hour is uneven, the Russian language will be banned in scientific publications… We have complete madness here,” a Ukrainian historian complained to the chairman of the Russian Historical Society, Sergei Naryshkin. Tolochko complained that young people are afraid to participate in research related to the common past of the two countries.
“We are most interested in good neighborliness with Ukraine, in as close, intensive and mutually beneficial relations as possible. I wish you courage and patience,” Naryshkin replied to him.
Earlier, the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, called the ban on Olympians giving interviews in Russian in Tokyo a manifestation of an act of totalitarianism. The Ministry of Sports of the republic also banned them from being photographed together with Russian athletes.
The Lithuanian Ministry of Defense announced that due to the concentration of Russian forces on the Ukrainian border, it will hand over to the Ukrainian army American man-portable anti-aircraft missile systems (MANPADS) Stinger.
Also The Stinger MANPADS will be handed over to Kiev and Latvia. At the same time, Javelin anti-tank missile systems (ATGMs) are to arrive from Estonia.
At the same time, Lithuanian Defense Minister Arvydas Anushauskas expressed hope that Ukraine would not need these weapons in the end.
Earlier Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have received permission from the United States to transfer Javelin and Stinger to Ukraine.
Earlier, the Russian Foreign Ministry repeatedly rejected Western accusations that Russia was allegedly preparing a military operation against Ukraine.
Chairman of the Human Rights Council Valery Fadeev commented on the accusations of the head of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov against Igor Kalyapin. According to him, this requires good reasons. The opinion of the head of the HRC is given on his official website.
Fadeev noted that he knows about the difficult relationship between Kalyapin and Kadyrov, and drew attention to the fact that the former is a member of the council under the head of state – he was approved for this position by decree of the head of state.
“In any case, we must always remain in the legal field and, making such serious accusations, which the head of Chechnya spoke about in his Telegram channel, have the same serious evidence base,” he said.
Earlier, Ramzan Kadyrov called Igor Kalyapin, the head of the Committee against Torture (recognized as an NGO-foreign agent), and Elena Milashina, a journalist of Novaya Gazeta, “terrorists” because of their statements about the story of the abduction of the wife of former federal judge Zarema Musayeva. He called on law enforcement agencies to detain them.
Read also: HRC member Kalyapin commented on Kadyrov’s threats
