A Russian missile strike on Friday hit a command center of the Ukrainian military, Russia’s Defense Ministry has said.
Russian forces “carried out a group strike with sea and air-based long-range precision weapons against one of the decision-making centers of the Ukrainian Armed Forces,” the ministry said in a statement on Saturday.
“The aim of the strike was achieved. The intended facility was hit,” it added, without providing further details.
The Russian Defense Ministry has also published a short video of a missile being fired by a warship as part of what it said was the strike on a Ukrainian “decision-making center.”
The Russian military previously reported strikes on “decision-making centers” in Ukraine in late May, shortly after a large-scale drone attack on Moscow, in which several residential buildings were damaged and two people suffered minor injuries. The Defense Ministry said back then that facilities in Ukraine “where terrorist attacks on Russian soil were being planned under the guidance of specialists from Western intelligence agencies” were hit.
Russia President Vladimir Putin then confirmed that the one the targeted buildings was the headquarters of the Ukrainian military’s Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR). “We’ve been talking about the possibility of striking the ‘decision-making centers.’ Naturally, Ukraine’s military intelligence headquarters falls into such a category, and it was hit two or three days ago,” he said.
Shoigu Checks Military-Industrial Enterprise in Omsk Region
Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu has checked the fulfillment of the state defense order at a military-industrial enterprise in the Omsk region, where tanks and heavy flamethrower systems are produced, the Russian Defense Ministry informed.
"The Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation paid special attention to the improvement of the safety of crews and armored vehicles during their preparation for dispatch to the special operation zone," the ministry said.
Shoigu checked the preparation of equipment and weapons for shipment to the special operation zone at the arsenals and reserve bases stationed in the Omsk region, the Russian defense ministry specified.
"Effective engineering solutions have made it possible to improve the quality of product manufacturing and reduce the time of production," the ministry said.
During inspection, Shoigu pointed to strict adherence to the schedule for the implementation of the state defense order and set the task of increasing the production of tanks and heavy flamethrower systems for special operation tasks.
More than 4,000 repaired and serviced gun mounts have been delivered to the area of Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine from a base in Omsk Region, which has been inspected by Shoigu, the Russian Defense Ministry added.
"... more than 4,000 various artillery mounts had already been prepared and sent to the special operation zone from this reserve base. In the near future, it is planned to send an additional over 700 pieces of artillery weapons," the ministry specified.
"Russian Defense Minister Army General Sergey Shoigu has inspected the implementation of the state defense order at a plant in the Omsk Region that specializes in the production of tanks and heavy flamethrower systems," the ministry said in a statement on Saturday.
The minister also inspected how equipment and arms to be supplied to the zone of the special military operation are prepared in the region. Over 4,000 artillery guns have already been delivered to the special operation’s area, Chief of the Main Missile and Artillery Department of the Ministry of Defense Nikolay Parshin told Shoigu, adding that the plan is to supply another 700 artillery armament units shortly.
Kaisar Jepang Naruhito (kiri) bersama Permaisuri Owada Masako menuruni tangga pesawat saat tiba di Bandara Soekarno Hatta, Tangerang, Banten, Sabtu (17/6/2023). Kaisar Jepang Naruhito bersama Permaisuri Owada Masako melakukan kunjungan kenegaraan pertama ke Indonesia sejak naik takhta tahun 2019 lalu. ANTARA FOTO/POOL/Sigid Kurniawan/pras.
Kaisar Jepang Hironomiya Naruhito bersama Permaisuri Masako melakukan kunjungan kenegaraan ke Indonesia. Kaisar Jepang bersama Permaisuri mendarat di Bandara Internasional Soekarno Hatta, Tangerang, Banten, Sabtu sore, 17/06/2023.
Kaisar Naruhito didampingi sang istri, Permaisuri Masako, sejak dinobatkan pada 2019, seperti dikutip dari AFP.
Hadir pula Duta Besar Jepang untuk Indonesia Kanasugi Kenji, dan Duta Besar Indonesia untuk Jepang Heri Akhmadi.
Keduanya disambut hangat oleh Menteri Pekerjaan Umum dan Perumahan Rakyat Basuki Hadimuljono di Bandara Soetta.
Simbol tertinggi Kekaisaran Jepang itu bakal menjalankan serangkaian lawatan di sejumlah tempat di Indonesia.
Kedatangan Naruhito dan Masako ke Indonesia memenuhi undangan Presiden Joko Widodo, saat berkunjung ke Tokyo tahun lalu.
Kaisar Naruhito dan Masako akan berkunjung ke Depo Kereta Moda Raya Terpadu (MRT) dan Stasiun Pompa Waduk Pluit Jakarta pada hari Minggu, 18/06/2023.
Pada hari Senin, 19/06/2023, Kaisar Naruhito dan Permaisuri Masako akan memenuhi undangan Presiden Jokowi di Istana Bogor.
Dikutip dari ANTARA, Kaisar Naruhito akan berkunjung ke beberapa lokasi selama berada di Indonesia di antaranya Jakarta, Bekasi, Bogor, dan Yogyakarta.
Berikutnya Kaisar dan Permaisuri akan mengunjungi Taman Makam Pahlawan Kalibata, Universitas Darma Persada, dan salah satu SMK pada 20 Juni, yang akan dilanjutkan pertemuan dengan perwakilan warga Jepang di Indonesia dan Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
Pada 21 Juni, Kaisar Naruhito dan Permaisuri Masako dijadwalkan akan tiba di Yogyakarta, untuk mengunjungi Balai Teknik Sabo dan Keraton Yogyakarta untuk bertemu dengan Sultan Hamengkubuwono X.
Kemudian pada 22 Juni, Kaisar Naruhito dan rombongan akan mengunjungi Candi Borobudur dan kembali ke Jakarta pada sore harinya. Rombongan Kaisar Naruhito akan kembali ke Jepang pada 23 Juni.
“Saya yakin kunjungan ini akan semakin mempererat hubungan persahabatan dan juga kerja sama baik dengan Indonesia, dan saya merasakan kebahagiaan yang luar biasa bersama masyarakat Jepang,” kata PM Jepang Fumio.
Naruhito merupakan Kaisar Jepang ke-126. Ia naik takhta sejak 1 Mei 2019, meneruskan ayahnya, Kaisar Akihito yang turun takhta pada 30 April 2019.
Naruhito mendapat kesan bahwa Indonesia adalah negara yang kaya akan keragaman, dengan populasi dan skala ekonomi terbesar di ASEAN,
"Dan saya yakin Indonesia akan memainkan peran penting dalam masyarakat internasional. Ketika Kaisar dan Permaisuri mengunjungi Jepang sebagai tamu negara pada tahun 1991, mereka diperlakukan dengan keramahan yang hangat, dan dari waktu ke waktu mereka berbicara dengan mereka," katanya.
Dikutip dari Kompas.id, Kaisar Akihito dan Permaisuri Michiko beserta rombongan berkunjung ke Indonesia pada 3 Oktober 1991. Mereka tiba di Pangkalan Udara Halim Perdanakusuma, Jakarta.
Keduanya dinantikan oleh Presiden Soeharto dan Ibu Tien Soeharto yang telah menunggu di Istana Merdeka, Jakarta.
Penyambutan kenegaraan pun berlangsung dengan ditandai upacara kebesaran militer. Sebanyak 21 tembakan meriam dilepaskan.
Setelah itu, Akihito dan Michiko menyerahkan 50 ekor ikan mas silangan yang induknya berasal dari Indonesia kepada Soeharto dan Tien.
Sebagai balasannya, Soeharto menawarkan untuk memberikan ikan arwana kepada Akihito.
Ikan mas pemberian Akihito bermula ketika berkunjung ke Indonesia pada 1962.
Ketika itu, Pangeran Akihito dan Putri Michiko kagum ketika melihat ikan mas ras Kumpay saat berkunjung ke Istana Bogor.
Pada Oktober 1980, sebanyak 80 ikan mas ras Kumpay langsung didatangkan dari Bogor ke Jepang atas permintaan Pangeran untuk dikawinkan silang dengan ikan mas asli Jepang.
Units of the Russian ‘Yug’ Group of Forces have repelled attacks of Ukrainian assault groups near five different villages in the Artemovsk area, a Russian Defense Ministry spokesperson told Sputnik.
"Units of the Yug Group of Forces have successfully repelled the attacks of the assault groups of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the areas of settlements - Razdolivka, Veseloye, Yakovlivka, Berkhivka and Yagodnoye," the spokesperson said.
In addition, aviation of the Yug Group of Forces has struck strongholds and clusters of Ukrainian military equipment, the spokesperson told Sputnik.
"The Group's aviation has carried out missile and bomb strikes against strongholds and accumulations of weapons and military equipment of the enemy in the Soledar-Artemovsk, Aleksandro-Kalinovsky and Avdiivka directions," the spokesperson said.
The latest also came as video published by the Russian Defense Ministry on Saturday showed Russian service members from the engineering and sapper unit of the Central Military District destroying a Ukrainian stronghold using a captured armored personnel carrier (APC).
The seized armored personnel carrier was filled with explosives and sent to enemy positions. The explosives were detonated remotely after the vehicle reached the Ukrainian stronghold.
Ukrainian teroboronists are drunk at the forefront in the Donbass and fight without initiative, a fighter of the Russian 1st tank army with the call sign "Joker" told RIA Novosti
The video from the Russian Defense Ministry captures the moment the armored personnel carrier, used in a similar way to kamikaze drones, exploded.
The Ministry of Defense showed the destruction of the "opornik" of the Armed Forces of Ukraine with the help of FPV drones
According to the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, payments in 2023 were received by:
▪️military pilots and air defense operators - 300 thousand rubles for each destroyed helicopter (45) and aircraft (71).
▪️100 thousand rubles each - military personnel of ground and airborne troops, as well as marines, including artillery units, for the destruction of each of the many hundreds of armored vehicles of the Armed Forces of Ukraine
▪️50 thousand rubles each - for the destruction of 1,501 combat armored vehicles, 203 self-propelled artillery installations, as well as 85 installations of multiple launch rocket systems
▪️For 15 hit launchers of the Tochka-U tactical complex and HIMARS multiple launch rocket systems, distinguished Russian servicemen received 300 thousand rubles each
▪️for the successful interception of 941 missiles from Tochka-U tactical systems, Vilkha, Smerch, Uragan and HIMARS multiple launch rocket systems, as well as the destruction of each of 1,211 Ukrainian medium-range drones, the military received 50,000 rubles
Russian intelligence officers showed the destroyed equipment of Ukrainian saboteurs who entered the territory of the Belgorod region.
The footage shows broken tanks, which were hit by artillery on the way out.
▪️Russian Navy servicemen, whose competent and prompt actions destroyed 6 Ukrainian fast unmanned boats that attacked Russian ships and civilian infrastructure in Crimea, received 200 thousand rubles each.
At present, based on the reports of the commanders of units in the Zaporozhye and South-Donetsk directions, payments are being made to the servicemen of the RF Armed Forces who destroyed Leopard tanks, as well as armored vehicles manufactured by the United States and other NATO countries during the fighting.
Special operation, 15 June. Main:
▪️Aerospace Forces struck at the places of production of drones in Ukraine, all designated objects were hit, the RF Ministry of Defense reported;
▪️Ukrainian troops continue to attempt an offensive, Kyiv lost about 500 military personnel in three directions in a day, two Su-27 fighters were shot down, the Russian Defense Ministry said;
▪️The head of Ukrainian military intelligence, Budanov, was wounded on May 29 during a Russian strike on the building of his department, a rocket "flew" into the office next to Budanov, an employee of the Russian law enforcement agencies told RIA Novosti, citing sources in Ukrainian intelligence;
▪️The Armed Forces of Ukraine are increasingly attacking the LPR infrastructure with Storm Shadow missiles, over the past two days a large number of missiles have been destroyed, Pasechnik said;
▪️The DPR is under shelling, the Ukrainian military fired 20 rockets from the MLRS in the Petrovsky district of Donetsk, the region reported;
▪️Acting head of the Kherson region, Saldo noted that since the beginning of the rescue operation after the destruction of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station, 7.5 thousand people have been evacuated from the region, including 461 children, the death toll has reached 18;
▪️Six drones were shot down by air defense forces in Crimea, three more were jammed and planted by electronic warfare, one device detonated, there were no casualties, Aksyonov said;
▪️The IAEA delegation inspected the Zaporozhye NPP. The head of the IAEA stressed that the situation at the station is serious, but the water level for cooling is sufficient;
▪️The allies of the Kyiv regime have trained almost 60,000 fighters of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and more than 6,000 are now undergoing training with the participation of 33 countries, said Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Milley;
▪️Denmark and the Netherlands signed a contract to supply the Kyiv regime with 14 German Leopard 2 tanks, writes Handelsblatt.
The main points from Putin's speech at the SPIEF plenary session on economic topics:
▪️Approaches to the development of the economy have worked, GDP growth by the end of the year may be under 2%, unemployment is at a historically low level.
▪️Russia is not afraid of competition with foreign companies, but when returning, it will take into account the peculiarities of their behavior.
▪️The course towards the openness of the economy is an important principle for Russia - we have not turned onto the path of self-isolation, with countries that do not succumb to boorish pressure, trade has increased significantly.
▪️It is necessary to keep child care benefits even if the parent is part-time and if the family income changes.
▪️The minimum wage should double by 2030, from January 1, 2024 it will be increased by 18.5%.
▪️It is necessary to consolidate the rules on the right to conduct business inspections, where they remain, only by relevant departments.
▪️The freezing of Russian accounts abroad occurs in violation of all legal norms, this is robbery and the Middle Ages.
▪️It is necessary to achieve an increase in the inflow of investments, by 2030 it should increase 5 times, up to 10 trillion rubles.
▪️It is necessary to launch a mechanism for protecting the rights of citizens and legal entities that own domestic companies through "foreign layers".
Special operation, 16 June. Main:
▪️Putin at SPIEF said that Kyiv continues to attempt a counteroffensive, but it has no chance, the Armed Forces of Ukraine have already lost 186 tanks and almost 420 armored vehicles;
▪️Russia has every right to believe that the task of denazification of Ukraine is one of the key ones, the president said;
▪️Putin warned that NATO is being drawn into the war in Ukraine with the supply of equipment - and if there is a decision on the supply of F-16s to Kiev and at the same time the aircraft will be based outside Ukraine, then "we'll see how to hit them";
▪️Lavrov said that if Moscow sees F-16 aircraft flying over Ukraine and posing a threat to Russia, the answer will be military-technical;
▪️African leaders have begun a mediation mission to peacefully resolve the crisis in Ukraine, they visited Kyiv and are now going to Moscow;
The President of South Africa said that at a meeting with Zelensky, African leaders told him of the need to end the conflict as soon as possible;
▪️Zelensky, at a briefing following the visit of African leaders, rejected the idea of any negotiations with Russia, as long as Kyiv understands that there are Russian troops on the territory of Ukraine;
▪️The Russian Ministry of Defense reported that since the beginning of the special operation, more than 10,000 servicemen of the Russian Armed Forces have received special payments for the personal destruction or capture of enemy military equipment - in particular, military pilots and air defense operators receive 300,000 rubles for each destroyed helicopter and aircraft.
Menteri Koordinator Bidang Perekonomian Airlangga Hartarto dalam rangkaian acara pameran yang bertajuk UMKM Maju dan Terbang Tinggi di Cirebon, Jawa Barat. FOTO/dok.SINDOnews
Kontribusi besar UMKM terhadap perekonomian nasional menggerakkan Pemerintah untuk terus mendukung UMKM dapat naik kelas. Di antaranya melalui penyediaan Kredit Usaha Rakyat (KUR).
Tahun 2023, Pemerintah telah meningkatkan target penyaluran KUR menjadi sebesar Rp450 triliun. Seluruh stakeholder digerakkan agar target penyaluran KUR dapat tercapai seiring dengan manfaat yang diterima oleh para pelaku UMKM.
Menutup agenda kunjungan kerja di Kota Cirebon, Menteri Koordinator Bidang Perekonomian, Airlangga Hartarto, juga berkesempatan menghadiri Pameran Produk Unggulan UMKM Debitur KUR yang dikemas dalam acara UMKM Bersukur (Bercerita Sukses KUR) dan kegiatan produksi di sebuah kabin pesawat yang telah dirombak untuk tempat pameran cara produksi UMKM
”Barusan ada akad kredit dari dua peserta prakerja yang tadi dalam acara sebelumnya meminta modal kerja, dan alhamdulillah hari ini sudah diadopsi oleh BNI dan BSI. Jadi ini membuktikan bahwa kredit KUR itu mudah untuk didapat dan prosesnya juga mudah, apalagi kalau sudah punya referensi, salah satunya adalah lulusan-lulusan dari Kartu Prakerja,” ungkap Menko Airlangga dalam Pameran yang bertajuk "UMKM Maju dan Terbang Tinggi bersama Menko Perekonomian Airlangga Hartarto".
Secara nasional, realisasi penyaluran KUR sampai dengan 12 Juni 2023 telah mencapai Rp87,48 triliun dan diberikan kepada 1,6 juta debitur. Khusus di Kota Cirebon, KUR telah terealisasi sebesar Rp63 miliar untuk 942 debitur.
Pemerintah juga terus mendorong para pelaku UMKM di segala sektor untuk memanfaatkan KUR yang disediakan Pemerintah, agar permodalan tidak lagi menjadi hambatan UMKM untuk naik kelas
”Sektornya terbuka luas, seperti tadi UMKM diberikan seluas-luasnya dan semudah-mudahnya. NPL relatif kecil, satu koma sekian persen,” pungkas Menko Airlangga.
Pada kesempatan yang sama, Menko Airlangga menyaksikan penyaluran KUR Super Mikro, penyerahan secara simbolis penerima kartu BPJS Ketenagakerjaan, penyerahan santunan program Jaminan Kematian (JKM) BPJS Ketenagakerjaan, dan penyerahan santunan program Jaminan Kecelakaan Kerja (JKK) BPJS Ketenagakerjaan.
”Pemerintah berharap melalui kegiatan ini dapat mendorong semangat UMKM di Indonesia, khususnya di wilayah Cirebon dan sekitarnya, untuk terus meningkatkan kelas usahanya melalui KUR dan ’terbang tinggi’ maju menjadi pengusaha yang hebat di masa yang akan datang. Kemenko Perekonomian sebagai fasilitator dan katalisator berkomitmen untuk senantiasa mendorong terwujudnya cita-cita UMKM untuk semakin maju dan sejahtera,” kata Plt Deputi Bidang Koordinasi Ekonomi Makro dan Keuangan, Ferry Irawan.
Turut hadir pada kegiatan ini, Gubernur Jawa Barat, Plt Deputi Bidang
Koordinasi Ekonomi Makro dan Keuangan Kemenko Perekonomian, Tim Ahli dan Asistensi Kemenko Perekonomian, Asisten Deputi Pasar Modal dan Lembaga Keuangan Kemenko Perekonomian, Direksi atau Perwakilan Direksi dari BRI, BNI, BPD Jabar dan Banten, BSI, Bank Rakyat Indonesia, Bank Mandiri, Bank Negara Indonesia, Bank Pembangunan Daerah Jawa Barat dan Banten, Bank Syariah Indonesia, Jaminan Kredit Indonesia, Asuransi Kredit Indonesia, dan BPJS Ketenagakerjaan.
Airlangga: Realisasi KUR capai Rp87,48 triliun per 12 Juni 2023
Menteri Koordinator (Menko) Bidang Perekonomian Airlangga Hartarto mengungkapkan realisasi penyaluran Kredit Usaha Rakyat (KUR) telah mencapai Rp87,48 triliun per 12 Juni 2023.
“Realisasi KUR tahun 2023 sampai dengan 12 Juni sebesar Rp87,48 triliun atau 21,07 persen dari target yang diberikan pada 1,60 juta debitur,” kata Menko Airlangga di Cirebon, Jumat.
Menteri Koordinator Bidang Perekonomian Airlangga Hartarto menghadiri Pameran Produk Unggulan UMKM Debitur KUR yang dikemas dalam acara UMKM BERSUKUR (Bercerita Sukses KUR) dan kegiatan produksi pada sebuah kabin pesawat yang telah dirombak untuk tempat pameran cara produksi UMKM. (Dok. Kemenko Perekonomian)
Total outstanding KUR tercatat sebesar Rp449 triliun yang disalurkan kepada 41,37 juta debitur, dengan rasio kredit bermasalah atau Non Performed Loan (NPL) sebesar 1,61 persen. Lebih lanjut, Menko Airlangga mengungkapkan target tahun ini yang telah ditetapkan pemerintah untuk penyaluran pembiayaan KUR secara keseluruhan yakni sebesar Rp450 triliun.
“Target KUR keseluruhan Rp450 triliun, kalau KUR Super Mikro ya tergantung di mananya kita berikan. Pokoknya di bawah Rp10 juta, berapa pun bisa diserap,” ujarnya.
Pemerintah mempunyai mekanisme khusus KUR Super Mikro yang saat ini telah diperluas bagi para alumni program Kartu Prakerja. KUR Super Mikro tersebut dimaksudkan untuk mendorong tingkat kewirausahaan nasional.
Pemerintah telah menurunkan suku bunga pada KUR Super Mikro yang sebelumnya 6 persen, menjadi sebesar 3 persen pada 2023. Perubahan tersebut direalisasi guna memperluas akses pembiayaan bagi usaha Super Mikro.
KUR Super Mikro tidak mensyaratkan lama minimal usaha 6 bulan seperti KUR pada umumnya, namun debitur perlu menyertakan bukti mengikuti pelatihan atau adanya pendampingan dari keluarga yang telah memiliki usaha. Batas plafon pinjaman KUR Super Mikro ditetapkan maksimal Rp10 juta
Genjot tingkat kewirausahaan
Di sisi lain, Airlangga menyampaikan pemerintah mempunyai mekanisme khusus KUR Super Mikro yang saat ini telah diperluas bagi para alumni program Kartu Prakerja. KUR Super Mikro tersebut dimaksudkan untuk mendorong tingkat kewirausahaan nasional.
Pemerintah telah menurunkan suku bunga pada KUR Super Mikro yang sebelumnya enam persen, menjadi sebesar tiga persen pada 2023. Perubahan tersebut direalisasi guna memperluas akses pembiayaan bagi usaha Super Mikro.
KUR Super Mikro tidak mensyaratkan lama minimal usaha enam bulan seperti KUR pada umumnya, namun debitur perlu menyertakan bukti mengikuti pelatihan atau adanya pendampingan dari keluarga yang telah memiliki usaha.
"Batas plafon pinjaman KUR Super Mikro ditetapkan maksimal Rp10 juta," jelas Airlangga.
At the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum on Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke to the global dynamic of moving toward a multipolar order and away from one dominated by Europe and the United States.
The Russian leader noted that Western sanctions, intended to strangle Russia’s economy, have instead accelerated the process of decentering the West and spurred new relationships between Russia and partners in Africa and Asia. He also pointed to increased trade in rubles and yuan, although he cautioned that Russia has never intended to “de-dollarize” its economy.
Professor Joe Siracusa, a political scientist and dean of Global Futures at Curtin University in Western Australia, told Sputnik on Friday that Putin was “simply registering what is already a reality.”
“The world has already broken up, with the BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Agreement, and we got the Western groups. The world is broken up into multi-polar agencies. I thought it was a very good statement,” Siracusa said. “It's not like it's about to happen - it has happened - and Russia has joined the show.”
Siracusa noted the “really well-dressed people from around the world, men and women there” at SPIEF, saying it “suggested to me that the American-led sanctions on Russia are a complete failure.”
“Putin literally left the sanctions for dead tonight and makes it look ridiculous, what the West is trying to do. At the same time, he didn't have a lot of malice in his voice, he invited Western companies, transnationals to come back to Russia without penalty. That's sort of very magnanimous,” he said.
“Multipolarity is the natural condition of the world,” said Paolo Raffone, a strategic analyst and director of the CIPI Foundation in Brussels, Belgium. “Unilaterality can be imposed by dominion and force but cannot be endured for a long time.”
“From 1945 to 1991, the world was locked in a bipolarity because of the post-WWII balance of power and the persistence of European colonial practices. After the end of European colonial practices and the voluntary dissolution of the USSR, the world’s natural multipolar trend regained pace,” but that changed with US and UK “interference” with the process, he explained.
“Since 2001, the USA and UK have weaponized globalization, imposing the primacy of security interests on economic development. After the financial crash of 2008, the Western powers entered a distress era while others, namely China, Russia, and some large southern countries, expanded their free actions and activities based on national interest and cooperation,” he said.
“The situation today is that the multipolarity is consolidated and it is progressively structuring its own institutional framework. Realistically, multipolarity is a fact and those who benefit from it have no intention of abandoning it. Therefore, Putin’s sentence that ‘the neocolonial international system is irreversibly finished’ is just an empirical statement. It is a realist not an ideological statement," Raffone said.
'They Don't Know Any History'
During his remarks in St. Petersburg, Putin also spoke of the special military operation in Ukraine, which is in its 16th month and where Ukraine has recently launched a new counteroffensive heavily based on Western-supplied weapons. Putin noted that Ukraine is on the verge of running out of weapons while Russian military production is continuing to ramp up, leading him to predict that Kiev has no chance of winning.
Siracusa said Putin’s confidence stems from “the fact is that Russia is bigger and has outlasted Ukraine.”
“I think the Russian armed forces have acquitted themselves very well. I mean, the Ukrainians tried to resist them, but it was of no use. And I think President Putin is just stating a fact,” he noted.
Siracusa said that Western leaders have chosen to ignore the neo-Nazi elements of Ukraine’s military, and the ethnic supremacism of today’s Ukraine, and funnel weapons to them anyway because “they don't know any history.”
“They don't understand historical events. Many of them are in their 40s and 50s and have no recollection of this. And in American universities, only 5% of people study history, in terms of the Bachelor of Arts degree in history. So, there's a much lesser understanding of what these things are. And it's not helped by the ignorance in Washington," Siracusa said.
“And of course, Washington had its own drama. I like to say that ‘Washington is 70 square miles surrounded by reality.’ They sort of make up things as they go along and attribute significance to them. But look, it's a matter of ignorance. That's what drives me crazy, is when people don't know what they're talking about and then sometimes they just make it up.”
“Western European leaders are aware of the situation, and they have done everything to prevent the situation from derailing to a point of no return. They failed.
The question should be posed to the UK and the US leaders who, for different reasons, and with different aims, turned a blind eye,” Raffone said, noting that London “has been meddling with Eastern European extremists, nationalists, and neo-Nazis, for many decades since WWI. Their strategy is continental, anti-German and competitive with France.”
“The disparity of human forces and military capacity, including weapon production, is evident,” Raffone said, pointing out that “even high-ranking US military [brass] have been rather loud in signaling that Ukrainian objectives have to be ‘sustainable’, ‘realistic’, and ‘achievable.’ In other words, the weapons and training suppliers of Ukraine are saying that reason should prevail over legitimate aspirations.”
“The many lines of Russian fortifications along the contact line make it very difficult, or impossible, for the Ukrainian forces to penetrate in the Russian controlled territories. Incursions are possible, as we see on the ground, but with high losses in terms of human resources and weaponry. While Russia can replace … both human and hardware losses, Ukraine is short of people and depends on weapons supplies from abroad. The willingness and the economic conditions of the Ukraine supporters have reached the tipping point. In the coming months, the Ukraine support chain will progressively deflate,” Raffone predicted.
De-Nazification 'Lost its Significance' in the West
Indeed, Putin spoke of the neo-Nazi atrocities in Ukraine, including a video circulating that depicts those atrocities, noting that the goal of the special military operation is the de-Nazification of Ukraine.
“This idea of de-Nazification, which, of course, is one of the basis of the allied occupation of Germany and Austria after the second World War, has lost its significance in the West," Siracusa told Sputnik.
Fighters of the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion take the oath of allegiance to Ukraine in Sophia Square in Kiev before being sent to Donbass. Members of the Nazi battalion have committed hundreds of war crimes against the population of Donbass over eight years. The Azov flag has an inverted image of the runic symbol “Wolfsangel”, which was used by the Nazis. - Sputnik International, 1920, 23.05.2022
Russia
"That is, Western audiences aren't familiar with what the president is talking about. I mean, the idea of de-Nazification is a project that goes on for a 100 years, you just don't knock the DNA out of these people overnight. I understand it in its long historical terms. I think it could have been explained a little better. And I think the Western press made no effort to explain it at all.”
Paraphrasing Shakespeare, Raffone quipped that “something is rotten in Ukraine.”
“Now it is difficult to say how the Ukrainian internal balance of power will shape. [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelensky’s leadership is under pressure from within Ukraine – extreme nationalists, oligarchs, desperate population – and from outside, as it is shown by the intensification of peace or mediation missions. The existence of strongholds of Ukrainian extremists is well known since 1991. They may become a serious security challenge for Ukraine and for Europe too. The video shown by Putin is a remarkable reminder of history, but it is also a warning on possible outcomes,” he said.
