Important Takeaways:
- Russia calls on BRICS to ditch dollar
- The statement was made at the Russia-China Financial Dialogue forum in Beijing on Monday, where Siluanov met with his Chinese counterpart, Lan Foan.
- The BRICS group of emerging economies – which currently incorporates Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa – has been discussing ways to facilitate payments in local currencies between member countries. The bloc aims to reduce their reliance on the US dollar and the euro for accelerated growth.
- “We need to further develop financial cooperation within the BRICS countries. Here we see opportunities … to develop a payments system that would be independent of the infrastructure, which does not always fully fulfill the goals of individual countries,” Siluanov stated.
- “Therefore, the sustainable development of financial relations and settlements on the BRICS platform is important for us, and we believe that it is necessary to work out such issues, and today we will consider a number of them,” he added.
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Important Takeaways:
- Russians banned from travel to hand over passports within 5 days–decree
- According to the Russian law, authorities can impose a travel ban on conscripts, employees of the Federal Security Service (FSB), convicts, or people who have access to state secrets or “information of special importance,” among others.
- The returned passport will be stored by the authorities that issued it, such as the interior ministry or the foreign ministry authorities. After the travel ban is lifted, the passport could be returned upon completing an application, according to the government decree.
- Those whose right to travel was temporarily limited on the basis of conscription for military or alternative civilian service will have to additionally provide a military ID with a proof that they completed service, the resolution says.
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Important Takeaways:
- Poland issues shocking warning of upcoming Russian attack on NATO countries
- Poland has warned of a shocking impending Russian attack on the West that could come within the next three years.
- In an interview with Nasz Dziennik, the head of Poland’s national security agency, Jacek Siewiera, said that Russia could attack NATO countries within 36 months.
- Siewiera argued Russia could attack Poland, Estonia, Romania, and Lithuania as they are on NATO’s eastern flank.
- He said: “If we want to avoid war, NATO countries on the eastern flank should adopt a shorter, three-year time horizon to prepare for confrontation. This is the time when a potential must be created on the eastern flank that would be a clear signal deterring aggression. Therefore, it is necessary to further increase the number of Polish troops.”
- This comes after German think tank German Council on Foreign Relations issued a warning that Europe needs to be on high alert to Russian escalation that could result in a direct attack. But their time frame was a little more optimistic.
- They said in a statement: “With its imperial ambitions, Russia represents the greatest and most urgent threat to Nato countries.
- “Once intensive fighting will have ended in Ukraine, the regime in Moscow may need as little as six to ten years to reconstitute its armed forces.
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Important Takeaways:
- Ukraine will join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) military alliance, according to Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg – but only after the nation’s war with Russia is over.
- “Allies agree that Ukraine will become a member of NATO. At [the NATO-Ukraine] meeting, we will agree recommendations for [Ukrainian reforms], as we continue to support Kiev on this path to NATO membership,” he said.
- The comments by Stoltenberg, a former Prime Minister of Norway, may be premature. Many NATO members, particularly Hungary and Turkey, seem unlikely to approve Ukrainian membership. It is also unclear whether Donald Trump would do so if he wins the next U.S. election, which currently appears likely.
- On the question of Ukraine joining the European Union, Hungarian leader Viktor Orban has suggested the proposal is untenable. Many of his arguments against Ukraine joining the EU, such as the fact its territory is uncertain, also apply to the country joining NATO.
- If it did, it would immediately full under the alliance’s mutual defense clause, meaning further conflict with Russia, a nuclear power, would immediately draw in all NATO member-states, including America and nuclear-armed Britain and France.
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Important Takeaways:
- Russia’s tallest volcano spews out 1,000-mile-long river of smoke after giant eruption, satellite images reveal
- Eurasia’s tallest volcano has violently erupted, throwing a 1,000-mile-long (1,600 kilometers) cloud of dust and ash into the air, new NASA satellite images show.
- Klyuchevskoy, sometimes referred to as Klyuchevskaya Sopka, is an active stratovolcano in Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula, which is home to more than 300 other volcanos. Klyuchevskoy’s peak stands at 15,584 feet (4,750 meters) above sea level, making it taller than any other volcano in Asia or Europe, according to the Kamchatka Volcanic Eruption Response Team (KVERT).
- The smoke and ash plume prompted KVERT to temporarily raise the aviation alert level to red (the highest possible level), which grounded planes in the area. Several schools were also evacuated due to the increase in air pollution.
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Important Takeaways:
- Russia warns NATO of ‘catastrophic consequences’ as tensions with Moscow threaten WW3
- The Russian Foreign Ministry released a dire statement on the 90th anniversary of the Russian-US relationship warning that relations were hanging by a thread
- The statement read in part: “Owing to Washington’s policy of rampant Russophobia, [relations] risk being severed at any moment. This is not Russia’s choice, but reckless moves on the part of the United States that spin the wheel of escalation, including the doctrinal task of inflicting a ‘strategic defeat’ on Moscow, risk leading to catastrophic consequences.”
- Moscow accused the US of being “hopelessly and nonsensically focused on changing the regime and stirring up internal strife in Russia, a project into which substantial funds are being invested”.
- As Russia’s war with Ukraine approaches its third year, Moscow’s position on the battlefield has become more desperate. Billions of dollars worth of Western weaponry has flooded into Ukraine, blunting Russian advances.
- Amid this backdrop of Russian soldiers being killed by NATO weapons given to Ukraine, tensions have skyrocketed. Rhetoric out of Moscow has been sharp with some politicians and pundits going as far as to call for war with the West.
- A war between NATO and Russia would be devastating and many think that such a conflict could go nuclear.
- Russia has nearly 6,000 nuclear warheads while NATO countries – the US, UK and France – have a similar amount.
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Important Takeaways:
- Ukraine is apparently heightening attacks inside Russia and on targets in Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine, according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
- In its Sunday assessment of the war, the ISW wrote about reports of Kyiv’s increased attacks, which includes the frequent strikes on Crimea as well as other Moscow-occupied territories in eastern Ukraine.
- According to the ISW report, Ukrainian partisans attacked a Russian military headquarters in the occupied city of Melitopol in the Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine on Saturday. The ISW said the Ukrainian Main Military Intelligence Directorate (GUR) reported at least three Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) and Rosgvardia officers were killed in the Melitopol attack.
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that the war with Russia will not end until all occupied land is returned to Kyiv’s control.
- Kyiv’s targeting of Crimea has relied on cruise missile and drone attacks, and has wounded a significant part of Russia’s naval fleet stationed near the peninsula
- Since February 2022, Ukraine has hit at least 17 Russian vessels in its quest to neutralize Moscow’s naval fleet
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Important Takeaways:
- As tensions soar, Iran is months away from developing nuclear weapons
- The world’s attention is focused on Gaza, but it would be a grievous mistake to overlook the risks posed by Tehran’s nuclear program. There are three critical components to the ability to deploy nuclear weaponry; it is nearing sufficient capability in all three.
- The first, and most crucial of these is a sufficient stockpile of weapons-grade uranium (90 per cent enriched or higher). The latest report from the International Atomic Energy Agency shows that Iran has a stockpile of 3,441 kilograms of enriched uranium, of which 122kg has reached a level of 60 per cent. Within four weeks, this could be initially enriched to 90 per cent, and then converted to uranium metal – sufficient to build two nuclear weapons. Given its existing stockpile, Iran could easily obtain more material should it decide to do so.
- The second is the ability to design weapons. Iran had a structured nuclear weapons program in place until 2003, and carried on with related work until 2009. Moreover, it has close military and economic ties with North Korea, which has successfully carried out six nuclear tests between 2006 and 2017. It is not improbable that Iran would be able to construct a nuclear weapon within a few weeks of obtaining sufficient enriched uranium metal – without the need for testing.
- The greatest barrier is the third; the ability to deliver a weapon to its targets. Ballistic missiles, air and sea launched cruise missiles, and indeed gravity bombs are all possible options. But aircraft are relatively easily intercepted, and while Iran has an advanced missiles program it does not yet appear to have systems capable of carrying nuclear warheads.
- This could change rapidly. Until October 18, UN Security Council Resolution 2231 on the design, development and acquisition of missiles capable of carrying nuclear weapons was still in force. That has now expired, and Russia has already announced its intention to collaborate with Tehran on missile-related activities. With North Korean warheads and Russian missiles, the timeline for a viable Iranian nuclear weapon could be short.
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Important Takeaways:
- Russia Says Risk of Nuclear, Chemical, Biological War Increasing, Blames America
- The United States’ foreign policy is wrecking global security, bankrupting Europe, and risks the outbreak of nuclear war, Russia said in a series of finger-pointing statements while failing to address its own role in the same
- Russian Security Council Nikolai Patrushev said the deterioration of global security is the “natural consequence [of]… irresponsible” U.S. foreign policy. Referring to Israel, the Russian politician accused America of exacerbating conflicts and more broadly accused the United States of “stimulating the growth of common threats and challenges, including terrorism, drug trafficking, and transnational organized crime”.
- Patrushev went on to say, per Russia’s state news service that: “The risk of using nuclear, chemical and biological weapons is increasing.” The U.S. bears special culpability in the risk of biological threats, he said, because America has been engaged in “dangerous biological experiments” in Ukraine.
- Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov, who confirmed the rant was an official statement of the Kremlin.
- Russia’s remarks on Wednesday amount to a degree of saber-rattling and finger pointing, but come just days after Russia withdrew from the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), and months after it suspended the ‘New START’ (reduction of strategic offensive arms) treaty. The United States decried the latest move as an irresponsible “significant step in the wrong direction” which sets back confidence in international arms control.
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Important Takeaways:
- NATO rebukes Russia for withdrawing from post-Cold War treaty; Kyiv slams talk of 2024 elections
- “Allies condemn Russia’s decision to withdraw from the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE), and its war of aggression against Ukraine which is contrary to the Treaty’s objectives. Russia’s withdrawal is the latest in a series of actions that systematically undermines Euro-Atlantic security,” said NATO in a statement.
- “Therefore, as a consequence, Allied States Parties intend to suspend the operation of the CFE Treaty for as long as necessary, in accordance with their rights under international law. This is a decision fully supported by all NATO Allies.”
- Earlier on Tuesday, Russia had formally withdrawn from this landmark security treaty which limited key categories of conventional armed forces, blaming the United States for undermining post-Cold War security with the enlargement of the NATO military alliance.
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