Good evening,

This is the most interesting voting pattern at the UN General Assembly I have seen in many years.

The US voting together with Russia against the ritualized wording of "Russia's unprovoked war of aggression against Ukraine".

The provocations were there - for many years. Thousands died in Donbass. At the EU foreign affairs councils the only member state genuinely interested in Ukraine was Hungary prior to Febr.24th, 2022.

Nobody cared for the Minsk agreements, it was left to the rather desinterested OSCE monitoring mission.

Whenever I asked as EU Chair how we could assist the civilian population on practical issues, the then Austrian diplomat Martin Sajdik in the OSCE special mission declined. Unfortunately those people were more interested in their salaries and per diem payments than in advancing solutions for the civilan population.
Nothing started in 2022. A lot started much earlier.

#Russia #USA #Ukraine

🗣 Key takeaways from Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s statements following a meeting with senior US officials in Riyadh:

▪️The conversation with US representatives proved to be very productive; both sides have begun to actively listen to and understand one another

▪️Russia and the United States have agreed to restore their embassies in Moscow and Washington to previous staffing levels to facilitate continued diplomatic engagement

▪️The US and Russia will announce their representatives on the Ukrainian settlement

▪️Russia and the US are interested in resuming consultations on geopolitical issues and lifting barriers for economic cooperation

▪️The Russian and US representatives were tasked with discussing what needs to be done to arrange Putin-Trump meeting

▪️Understanding between Russia and the US on some matters does not mean rapprochement

▪️Russia and the US agree “once and forever” to resolve issues with work of both countries’ diplomatic missions

▪️Russia explained to the US that Ukraine’s possible NATO membership will be direct threat to Moscow

▪️NATO troops in Ukraine would be unacceptable for Russia

Good evening,

it was a good day today in Riyadh. The key take-aways enumerated below by TASS illustrate the new chapter which the US and Russia have just started.

Bringing back diplomatic staff, creating consultation mechanisms and much more to come.

As things stand now, I expect that soon there will be direct flights between Moscow and New York, but not from Russia to Berlin or Vienna.

The EU commission already stated that the EU will keep its sanctions against Russia even if the US will lift those. And for sure the US will lift its sanction regime which never worked.

Neither was Russia "brought on her knees" by the "sanctions from hell" (see the US-Congress recordings) nor was Russia defeated on the battlefield.

Many US-companies actually never left. And those which did are interested in coming back. But it will be under different auspices.

Russians are fast learners. People on all levels managed very well to adapt to the new circumstances ever since spring 2022. From software to financial transactions, the Russians created their own.
My respects to all those women and men who paid a price, those in the armed forces, pay a heavy one. They simply reconfirmed an old truth: Russians never surrender. And Russian soldiers created facts on the ground which will remain.

And ever since I have moved to Russia I see so many parallels between Russians and Americans. It often makes me smile. And there were smiling faces today in Riyadh. Good night!

#Russia #USA #EUinTroubles

Horror and terror struck the Christmas Market in Magdeburg.

My thoughts are with the victims, their families.

It is another act of terror along a familiar pattern - similar to the attack in the Austrian city in Graz in June 2015. Alas, authories failed then, and have failed ever since to tackle the larger underlying issues.

#Germany #Terrorism

For those who cannot open the RT channel due to the media laws in the EU: Hungary' s PM Viktor Orbán said in an interview with the Hungarian Kossuth Radio (all inside the EU) that the US and the EU have so far spent 310 billion EUR on Ukraine. He got that figure from US officials.

I remember a few years ago, Austrian universities were dreaming about one billion invested into research. (Forschungsmilliarde). It was never done.

Meanwhile, both in the US and the EU infrastructure from public schools, to health and important things like bridges and trains are in a quagmire.

The confrontation between Nato and Russia on the battlefield of Ukraine is also one between those who print money (the west) and those who produce commodities. As I keep saying: you can print money, but you cannot print energy.

How will historians assess this chapter? A waste, a long war or maybe a watershed line....

#Russia #Ukraine

Good evening from back home in the village,

This morning after another meeting I visited for an hour the GUM department store next to the Red Square, always nice but especially beautiful during this season of New Year and Christmas.

See you soon Moscow, now at few days in the home-office before heading for the office in St.Petersburg

For the EU to open a dialogue with the new Syrian authorities, the country must rid itself of any Russian bases, EU High Representative Kaja Kallas said.

According to the official, this issue was discussed by the EU ministers, and “many foreign ministers emphasized that it should be a condition for the new leadership to eliminate Russian influence [in Syria].” She promised to convey this viewpoint to the new Syrian authorities during upcoming diplomatic meetings.

Kallas also opined that Iran and Russia “should not have a place in Syria’s future,” and that the EU must be the “biggest humanitarian aid donor” for the new authorities in Damascus.

The EU demands for the new strongmen in Damascus are pathetic: close the Russian military bases and we talk to you.

The EU's obsession with Russia has left the realm of irrationality and became pathological some time ago

What to do?
The EU needs a rendez-vous with reality