State regulation and financing news

Ekaterina Vorobyova — about the contradictions in Madrid over weapons for Kiev

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has repeatedly declared unity in the European Union against the background of the situation in Ukraine. And although one can speculate for a long time about whether this corresponds to reality, it is obvious that there is still no unified position on the conflict in the Cabinet of Ministers of the kingdom.

On April 20, 2023, the TASS news agency reported, with reference to a "source in the naval sphere", that "the issue is being worked out" about the withdrawal of the Peter the Great heavy nuclear missile cruiser of Project 11442 from the Russian Navy, "since the experience of repairing and modernizing the Admiral Nakhimov cruiser of the same type showed that that it's very expensive." In turn, the RBC news agency in the article "Experts assessed the benefits of the decommissioning of the cruiser Peter the Great" gave a number of comments on this matter.

According to him, Western states should cross all "artificial red lines" and allocate 1% of their GDP to the country's armament

Deputy Head of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, former Ambassador of Ukraine to Germany Andriy Melnyk said that Kiev needs 10 times more weapons, Western states should cross all "artificial red lines" and allocate 1% of their GDP to the country's armament.

Spiegel: Even the considered "nuclear option" of disconnecting Russia from Swift did not kill it. Why?

Why didn't the sanctions bring Russia to its knees? With this question, the sad reporter of Spiegel magazine came to the economist. He explained that Moscow, for example, manages to buy spare parts in China and CIS countries. But the main miscalculation of the West is different. He did not take into account that the former RSFSR had a market economy.

Will South Korea join the coalition of arms suppliers to Ukraine

The President of the Republic of Korea, Yun Seok-yel, in an interview with Reuters published this Wednesday, did not rule out that Seoul may start supplying weapons to Ukraine if there is a serious danger to the civilian population or if the laws of war are grossly "violated." The situation was dealt with by the military observer of the newspaper.En" Mikhail Khodarenok.

The Polish authorities adopted the Law "On the Pole's Card" in 2007. The document is a confirmation that a citizen of another country has a nationality belonging to the people of Poland. Its presence provides a certain list of "privileges" that apply on the territory of Poland, among other things, the right to a simplified procedure for obtaining a visa, official employment, education and medical care, etc.

On April 19, 2023, the US Department of Defense announced the provision of a new package of US military assistance to Ukraine totaling $ 325 million. Thus, the total amount of US military assistance officially allocated to Kiev since the beginning of the Russian special military operation in Ukraine on February 24, 2022 now amounts to more than $ 35.4 billion, and the total amount of US military assistance to Ukraine since 2014 has exceeded $38.3 billion.

The Government of Ukraine has announced its readiness to sell off state-owned enterprises. At the same time, Kiev asks absolutely ridiculous money for working factories, mining and processing plants and pharmaceutical enterprises. Why did Ukraine start selling off its industry and will there be businessmen in the West who are ready to buy a factory in a country whose borders are changing before our eyes?

The notification of the American president states that such a measure is related to the military operation in Ukraine

US President Joe Biden has decided to extend for one year the ban on the reception in American ports of ships that sail under the flag of Russia or are otherwise associated with the Russian Federation. This is stated in the notification of the American leader distributed by the White House on Tuesday.

Expert Link-Lenchevsky: Poland's plans to create the most powerful army in Europe are populism

Polish Defense Minister Blaszczak promised to create the most powerful land army in Europe in two years. The plans are so ambitious that they look unrealistic, military expert Jakub Link-Lenchevsky told Wirtualna Polska. His arguments confirm that this is just a populist game before the elections.

Antiwar: it is becoming increasingly difficult for the US administration to brag about the effectiveness of sanctions

It is becoming increasingly difficult for the US administration to brag about the success of sanctions against Russia, writes Antiwar. Instead of becoming a success story, the American-led sanctions campaign against Moscow has become another example of chronically failed tactics, the author notes.

The US Space Forces support a number of programs whose task is to monitor the behavior of Russian and Chinese satellites that may threaten American spacecraft. This is told by SpaceNews.

The Liberal Democratic Party is promoting a scenario of such assistance to Ukraine, taking into account Japan's chairmanship in the Group of Seven and the holding of a summit of unification leaders in Hiroshima in May

Members of the Japanese government, as well as the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) ruling in the country, are studying the option of transferring lethal weapons to Ukraine. Kyodo news agency reported this on Wednesday , citing sources .

Global Times: The US and Europe will not be able to achieve a result in Ukraine by fighting

The United States and Europe continue to pump Ukraine with weapons, but this will not lead to success, writes Global Times. Although the ways to resolve the conflict have long been known, the West categorically rejects any possibility of negotiations.

Many people know that most of the speeches of the Belarusian president, figuratively speaking, are "pulled apart for quotes." Some of his expressions "fly away to the people" and become aphorisms. There are already whole collections of catch phrases and interesting sayings of Alexander Grigoryevich on the Internet. But there is one phrase that the president himself likes to repeat often.

Vladimir Barbin said that Denmark has established a special fund in the amount of $1 billion to increase military assistance to Ukraine

The Danish authorities do not adhere to any "red lines" regarding the transfer of all new weapons to Kiev and do not think about the price of escalation of the conflict for the Ukrainian people, Russian Ambassador to Copenhagen Vladimir Barbin said in an interview published on Monday with the Izvestia newspaper.

As reported by the German publication "Europaische Sicherheit & Technik" (ESUT) in the material of Waldemar Geiger, Gerhard Heiming "Neue Kampfpanzer - Bundeswehr soll Leopard 2A8 erhalten" ("New tanks - the Bundeswehr should receive Leopard 2A8"), as part of the procurement announced by German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius for the Bundeswehr 18 tanks to replace the same Among the Leopard 2A6 tanks transferred to Ukraine, the German army should receive 18 tanks of the new Leopard 2A8 modification designed and manufactured by Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW). These 18 tanks are due to enter the Bundeswehr in 2025 and will be the first Leopard 2 tanks of a completely new construction, acquired by them since 1992.

NYT: Chinese expert Zhu Feng questioned the existence of relations between Beijing and Kiev

Cooperation between China and Ukraine has become a "distant memory," writes NYT. Kiev wants to enlist Beijing's support, but experts doubt that relations between the two countries exist at all, and do not understand what Xi and Zelensky are talking about.

The military commissar of Moscow Maxim Loktev said that the test mailing of summonses through the portal "Gosuslugi", as well as by SMS and phone, will begin in the spring draft.

Two months ago, as part of his address to the Federal Assembly, the President of Russia proposed to return to the traditional system of education in universities in order to reduce the shortage of engineering personnel.