TEHRAN (Iran News) Russian President Vladimir Putin believes that his newly-inaugurated American counterpart Donald Trump will quickly restore order in Europe where elites will “stand at the master’s heel” again.

Putin made the comment on Sunday in an interview with Rossiya 1 reporter Pavel Zarubin.

“I assure you, Trump with his character, his persistence will restore the order there [in Europe] very quickly. And all of them, you will see, it will happen very quickly and soon, will stand at their master’s heel slightly wagging their tail,” the Russian president said.

Putin said that European elites preferred Trump’s predecessor, Joe Biden, arguing that the incumbent US president has different opinions on various issues.

The Russian leader also accused the European elites of “meddling into the political life and the election process” in the US because they disliked Trump, but they “got lost” after he won the November presidential election.

Trump was inaugurated on January 20 for the second time as US president. He has spoken of “very serious” discussions with Russia about the war in Ukraine, saying that he and Putin could soon take “significant” action to end that war.

The post Putin: Europe ‘will stand at the master’s heel’ with Trump in power appeared first on Iran News Daily.

The post BRICS, Not the West, Will Drive Global Economic Growth, Putin Says appeared first on Iran News Daily.

The post Tehran-Moscow Trade Turnover on Upward Trajectory in 2024: Putin appeared first on Iran News Daily.

TEHRAN (Iran News) –In a recent telephone exchange between Iranian President Seyyed Ebrahim Raisi and Russian President Vladimir Putin, both leaders condemned the aggressive actions of the Zionist regime against the Iranian consulate in Syria.

The post Putin: Iran’s response to Israeli attack best way to punish aggressor appeared first on Iran News Daily.

TEHRAN (Iran News) –The Russian security agencies will track down the masterminds behind the recent terrorist attack on Moscow’s Crocus City concert hall, President Vladimir Putin has stated.

The post Putin says Russia going to get masterminds behind Moscow terrorist attack appeared first on Iran News Daily.

ITEHRAN (Iran News) –President Vladimir Putin of Russia warned the West on Wednesday that Moscow was technically ready for a nuclear war and that if the U.S. sent troops to Ukraine it would be considered a significant escalation of the conflict.

The post Putin warns west Russia ready for nuclear war appeared first on Iran News Daily.

Speaking at an EAEU summit in St. Petersburg where the agreement was signed on Monday, Putin underscored Iran’s economic strength and technological advancements, emphasizing that strengthening ties with Iran would bring immense benefits to both the country and EAEU member states.

He further highlighted that the trade liberalization with Iran would stimulate the development of critical transport routes like the North-South International Corridor, fostering opportunities for scientific and industrial collaboration, as well as facilitating tourist exchanges and delegation visits between the nations.

Expressing optimism, President Putin expressed hope that the parliaments of both Iran and EAEU member states would swiftly ratify the newly established free trade agreement.

The five-member EAEU comprises ex-Soviet states: Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. Under the free trade agreement, Iran and the bloc will eliminate tariffs on 87% of goods traded between them.

This landmark agreement is expected to bolster economic cooperation, enhance trade connectivity, and pave the way for further strategic partnerships between Iran and the EAEU.

The post Putin hails Iran as gateway to West and South Asia appeared first on Iran News Daily.

When a big crack happened in the body of the Soviet Union which led to the dissolution of the then second superpower of the world, nobody thought that this country once again could find the role of a superpower. Perhaps we can analyze it this way that when on September 8, 1991 and in a secret meeting between President of Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic Boris Yeltsin, President of Republic of Belarus of Soviet Union Stanislav Shovsekovic and President of Republic of Ukraine of Soviet Union Leonid Kravchuk which took place in the very luxurious residence of Belarus which had been built for high-ranking officials meeting, they signed a treaty that accordingly aligned independent countries in line with a united political ideology emerged. It may be related to this fact that in the late 1980s, Soviet Union President Mikhail Gorbachev undermined the importance of Socialist Federative Republic of Russia of Soviet Union which was considered as the second powerful pillar of the rival for the Soviet Union. Some strong Russian nationalist reactions were raised by some Russians with stating this claim that Russia for long time by giving subsidies of crude oil to the republics of the Soviet Union had been making them poorer. For example, since the demands for domestic institutes of Russia were increasing, in fact quality of Republic of Russia and the Soviet Union were leading to the decrease in development.

Concurrent with the flare of extremist nationalism in the late decade of 1980, the tension between those who keep integrated the union under the authority of Russia and the groups who wanted to create a powerful Russia had been intensified and day in day this tension was showing itself in the power struggle between Gorbachev and Yeltsin.

Yeltsin with the exit of Gorbachev from the policies of the Soviet Union in 1987as a political party leader without any background or opposite relations needed a political party policy for confronting Gorbachev. He proved it through his presence both as a nationalist Russian and as a committed democrat and during the election was elected as the new head of Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet in May 1990 and he actually became the first elected President of Russia.

And in the next month he was given authority to enact laws before the early laws of Russia and to deduct two-thirds of the budget, and since Yeltsin has taken an illegal step in direction of dissolving the parliament, Russia was, more than ever since the 1917 Revolution, close to internal conflict. This condition caused the ground to be paved for Yeltsin and Yeltsin found this freedom to impose his laws on the country with his presidential authorities. This decision through a referendum was approved in December 1993 and it was crystal clear that with this decision the disintegrated republics for their survival think to other things and ways than stretching their hands towards Yeltsin for begging.

After the 1998 financial crisis, Yeltsin actually reached the end of its political leadership and exactly hours after the beginning of 2000 and during in a huge global hysteria regarding the change of century and concern about automatic function of nuclear bombs, Yeltsin surprisingly announced his resignation and passed his government to a relatively less known Prime Minister Vladimir Putin who was a former officer and former successor of the head of intelligence service KGB  after the collapse of Soviet Union.

On March 26, 2000, the novice president could easily defeat his rivals in the presidential election and he won the majority in the first round of the election. He won 71% of the votes in 2004 and his allies won the majority in the parliament election but international (the Westerners) and domestic observers questioned the legitimacy of the election. The Western observers warned even more regarding the actions of Russia in the late of 2004 which consolidated more supervision and command of the president on parliament, military community and regional officials.

Putin lasted and today after almost two decades, he has remained undisputed leader of Socialist Russia until now, and recent mutiny of Wagner Group which disrupted a little bit Putin’s rein on power and the mercenary and contractor military group of Wagner rebelled against Defense Ministry of Russia which led to the controversy of shaking Putin’s power.

I should stipulate this point that many media outlets’ reports introduce Wagner Group as a private military contractor and the way it performs challenges this define and description for the group.

Private military company with having weapons and skillful and trained soldiers are used in the military operations instead of official army. This issue is also common in the West. For example there are many reports of signing contracts, the U.S. Administration used soldiers of the private military companies instead of army soldiers in military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. According to what have been disclosed by the media, a secret competition between Russian Defense Minister and Chief of Wagner Group Yevgeny Prigozhin who was, in the past, considered as the special chef and loyal of Putin has provided the ground for this mutiny which ended well with mediation of Russian President Alexandr Lukashenko and Putin was forced to change his defense minister. Of course this issue ended in favor of Putin and in other words Putin’s life jacket was inflated.

The post Putin’s Life Jacket Inflated appeared first on Iran News Daily.

According to the Kremlin, Putin has ordered the country’s defense minister to cease fire along the entire line of combat engagement, which has come into effect.

The U.S.-led NATO military alliance has opted to reject the truce, taking measures instead to ship more weapons to the warzone.

Critics of these arms deliveries say they will only prolong the war.

In a phone call with his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Russian leader highlighted “the destructive role of Western countries who have been pumping [Ukraine] with weapons and military hardware as well as providing it with operational information and assigning targets to it,” the Kremlin said.

In a statement posted on social media, the Kremlin said the Russian military will observe the 36-hour ceasefire in Ukraine from noon on 6 January to midnight on 7 January.

Putin’s announcement followed a call by the head of the Russian Orthodox Church for both sides of the conflict to cease hostilities in the run-up to and during the Orthodox Christmas holiday.

In a press release, Putin said that taking into account the appeal of the Russian Orthodox Church “I instruct the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation to introduce from 12:00 January 6, 2023, until 24:00 January 7, 2023, a ceasefire along the entire line of contact between the parties in Ukraine.

“Based on the fact that a large number of citizens professing Orthodoxy live in the combat areas, we call on the Ukrainian side to declare a ceasefire and give them the opportunity to attend services on Christmas Eve, as well as on the Day of the Nativity of Christ.”

Many Orthodox Christians, including those living in Russia and Ukraine, celebrate Christmas from 6 to 7 January.

The move has, however, been rejected by members of the U.S.-led NATO military alliance, the European Union, and Ukraine. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said it would be dangerous to underestimate Russia.

U.S. President Joe Biden reacted to Russia’s ceasefire, saying “I think [President Putin] is trying to find some oxygen.”

Russia’s ambassador in Washington, Anatoly Antonov, accused the White House of lacking any desire for a political settlement, adding that “even” the unilaterally declared ceasefire was being labeled an attempt to find some oxygen.

“All this means that Washington is set on fighting with us ‘to the last Ukrainian,’ and the fate of Ukraine’s people does not worry the Americans at all,” Antonov said in remarks on the embassy’s social media platforms.

Meanwhile, Pentagon spokesman, Brigadier General Patrick Ryder, told reporters, “Our focus will continue to be on supporting Ukraine”. This is while a senior U.S. administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, says the intense fighting in eastern Ukraine will continue for months to come.

European Council President Charles Michel has also dismissed the ceasefire, while UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly claims the move “will do nothing to advance the prospects for peace.”

Reports say the U.S. will soon announce a new $2.8 billion military package to be shipped to the warzone. The new weapons for Ukraine will include about 50 Bradley Fighting Vehicles, U.S. officials have been cited as saying.

On Wednesday, Biden said that sending these military vehicles, a U.S. Army staple, to Ukraine, was being considered to help fight Russia’s invasion.

One senior U.S. official told media outlets that around $800 million of the money will help Ukraine procure weapons.

The funds for the latest military hardware will be from the U.S. Presidential Drawdown Authority (PDA) for Ukraine, which allows Washington to transfer weapons from stocks very quickly without congressional approval in response to an emergency.

The package will include an armored vehicle with powerful gunfire, which is manufactured by the British arms company BAE Systems.

The U.S. has been the largest military backer for Kyiv, sending tens of billions of dollars worth of weapons as Europe’s biggest war since 1945 grinds on, killing tens of thousands.

The U.S. has increasingly sent more advanced and complex weapons to Ukraine, including High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS).

Critics say the move is prolonging the war and that Ukrainian forces are not trained sufficiently enough to fire U.S.-made advanced weapons.

Reports have surfaced that Ukrainian troops have shelled a residential area in the city of Vasilyevka in the region of Zaporizhia, killing six people and injuring 37.

Officials in the region say Ukrainian forces had used a U.S.-supplied HIMARS multiple rocket launcher to carry out the attack.

The city’s roughly 13,000 population has been told to stay off the streets and seek shelter. As the fighting rages, attacks are claiming civilian lives from both sides, but with more advanced weapons supplied by the West, Ukrainian attacks in Eastern Ukraine have increased over the past month.

The latest attack follows reports that Ukrainian armed forces destroyed a hospital in the city of Tokmak on Tuesday.

Moscow has repeatedly accused Ukraine of using HIMARS and other Western-made weapons to target civilians. Kyiv has exchanged similar allegations against Russian forces.

More recently, the Biden administration pledged to send a Patriot missile system to Kyiv.

French President Emmanuel Macron has also told President Zelensky that Kyiv would receive French tanks. Zelensky has said that “we will receive more armored vehicles, including French-made wheeled tanks.”

According to reports, citing the Elysee Palace, Macron had promised to supply AMX-10 RC wheeled tanks to Ukraine.

The UK and Germany have also indicated more military equipment will be sent to Ukraine soon.

Ukraine’s military intelligence head says the country is planning a major push in the coming months saying attacks will reach “deeper and deeper” inside Russia. Kyrylo Budanov told U.S. news channel ABC News the fighting would likely be “hottest” in March, with Ukraine planning a major push in the spring.

This will come as a major blow to the countries advocating for a peaceful resolution to the conflict who have denounced the Western delivery of arms to the warzone, saying only negotiations will bring peace.

In his call with Turkey’s Erdogan, Putin also discussed the prospect of peace negotiations with Ukraine. The Russian president reiterated that Moscow was “open to serious dialogue” with Kyiv.

Turkey has expressed its readiness to mediate a political solution to the conflict.

“Putin reiterated that Russia is open to a serious dialogue, given authorities in Kyiv meet demands that have been repeatedly put forward, with the due account is taken of the new territorial realities,” Russian news agency TASS cited the Kremlin as saying.

However, the Ukrainian Security Council has rejected any talks with Russia. The Council Secretary Alexey Danilov said there will be “no talks with Moscow if the latter recognized the new territorial realities.”

Erdogan is reported to have told Putin that “calls for peace and negotiations should be supported by a unilateral declaration of ceasefire and a vision of a just solution” to the conflict.

Early last year, meaningful peace talks between the two sides appeared to be on the verge of success, but effectively collapsed in April.

Coincidentally, the peace talks collapsed amid the start of large weapons deliveries by the West to Ukraine, which Russia says will only prolong the war and suffering of Ukrainians.

Anti-war activists say this is a clear example of how the West is not willing to end the fighting in Europe, where the conflict has left many on the continent in poverty as a result of unprecedented inflation levels and a cost-of-living crisis among ordinary households.

The post Russian president orders ceasefire appeared first on Iran News Daily.

TEHRAN (Iran News) –  A source has told Russian media that peace talks between Moscow and Kyiv are set to resume on Monday after the Russian president said the negotiations had effectively run into a “deadlock.”

The unidentified source says “It is not a postponement. The meeting will begin in the morning. The reason is the Ukrainian delegation’s logistics”.

Russian presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky, who leads the Russian delegation to the talks, earlier noted that an agreement had been reached with the Ukrainian side on Sunday to hold talks in Belarus.

The Russian delegation is said to have already left Minsk and is heading for the venue of the talks, which will reportedly not be disclosed.

Ukrainian presidential adviser Mikhail Podolyak has accused Russia of putting pressure on the peace talks process by making “certain public statements.”

“Negotiations are extremely difficult. Online in working subgroups. But they go on. It is clear that the emotional background in the negotiation process today is grim. It is clear that the Ukrainian delegation works exclusively within a framework that is pro-Ukrainian and transparent,” Podolyak told local media.

The Russian president has blamed the Ukrainian side for the stalemate in the talks, saying Kyiv had reneged on what had been agreed on during talks in Turkey, late in March.

“Kyiv has walked away from the Istanbul agreements. [We] have returned to a deadlock,” Putin said.

Russia and Ukraine have engaged in many rounds of peace talks after the conflict between the two countries broke out in late February. Some have been held face to face and others have been held virtually.

The negotiations have not produced any tangible results yet but has allowed the two sides to find common ground on humanitarian issues.

While the head of Russia’s negotiating team, Vladimir Medinsky, expressed some optimism in the wake of talks in Istanbul, saying Ukraine had signaled its readiness to declare itself a neutral state [outside of NATO], there remain major stumbling blocks.

On Wednesday, France’s President Emmanuel Macron told French media that he planned to hold new talks with Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart very soon.

“In the coming days, I will speak again by phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin” Macron, who is also campaigning for a second presidential term, said.

Zelensky has declared he was ready to swap a detained Russian political party leader for Ukrainian prisoners of war.

In a video address on Wednesday, he said “I propose to the Russian Federation to swap [Medvedchuk] for our folks who are in Russian captivity. That is why it is important for our law enforcers and the military to consider this opportunity as well,” Zelensky added.

During a joint press conference with his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko, Putin says Russia will act according to its plan on the battlefield

“I often get these questions, ‘can’t we hurry it up?’ We can. But it depends on the intensity of hostilities and, any way you put it, the intensity of hostilities is directly related to casualties,” said the Russian president.

He added that “our task is to achieve the set goals while minimizing these losses. We will act rhythmically, calmly, and according to the plan that was initially proposed by the General Staff.”

Putin also says sanctions imposed on his country would not have their desired effect, drawing an analogy between Russia’s situation today and that of the Soviet Union in 1961, when a Russian was the first man in space. “The sanctions were total, the isolation was complete, but the Soviet Union was still first in space,” Putin said.

“The blitzkrieg which our foes were counting on did not work,” Putin added, referring to the unprecedented western sanctions imposed after Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine begun.

This as U.S. President Joe Biden is preparing to escalate the crisis by sending heavy artillery and other systems, worth $750 million, two U.S. officials familiar with the matter told the media.

Activists and advocates for a swift and peaceful end to the conflict say the more backing there is for negotiations between the Russian and Ukrainian delegations the faster the war will end.

The weapons will be authorized by Biden without congressional approval.

One of the officials said final determinations were still being made about the mix of equipment.

A senior congressional aide said the equipment to be announced would likely include heavy ground artillery systems to Ukraine, including howitzers.

The White House said last week that it has provided more than $1.7 billion in weapons to Ukraine since late February. The total amount of U.S. military weapons to Kyiv is set to pass $2.4 billion since February 24.

Washington has sent more than 1,400 Stingers and 5,000 Javelins to Ukraine already according to the Pentagon.

According to a Washington lobby group, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), this amounts to a third of America’s stockpile of Javelins and a quarter of its Stingers.

CSIS is funded by weapons manufacturing companies, which have included Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, General Dynamics, and General Atomics. Another donor is Raytheon, which manufactures Javelins and Stingers.

Production levels will be one of the topics at a meeting between Pentagon officials and the top eight American weapons manufacturers.
Raytheon, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics, and L3 Harris Technologies are expected to be in attendance.

Many anti-war advocates say the U.S. and its Western allies should be backing the peace talks effort to end the conflict instead of making a profit from weapons supplies which are being sent to a conflict zone once again at the expense of U.S. taxpayers’ money.

Many have accused the West of wanting to prolong the fighting by sending weapons with Washington and London standing widely accused of not wanting the fighting to cease.

Ukraine’s deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk’s highlighted the lack of humanitarian corridors that were set up on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Russia’s Defense Ministry Spokesman Major-General Igor Konashenkov says over 1,000 Ukrainian troops, including 162 officers have surrendered in Mariupol.

Questioned on the Russian claim, Ukraine’s defense ministry spokesperson told reporters that they had no information on any surrender.

Moscow attacked its neighbor in late February, after warning NATO to stop expanding eastward toward Russian borders with Ukraine. Moscow also accused Kyiv of failing to implement the terms of the Minsk agreements signed in 2014 which led to Russia’s eventual recognition of the Donbass republics of Donetsk and Lugansk

Russia has since demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join the U.S.-led NATO military bloc.

Kyiv insists the Russian offensive was unprovoked and has denied claims it was planning to retake the two republics of Donetsk and Lugansk by force.

Elsewhere, the UN has warned that Ukrainian female refugees are at risk in the UK of sexual exploitation under the British Homes for Ukraine scheme.

Under the UK government’s scheme, British households must house Ukrainian refugees themselves, leaving tens of thousands of people resorting to social media platforms, that are unregulated to make connections.

The UN refugee agency UNHCR says it “believes that a more appropriate matching process could be put in place by ensuring that women and women with children are matched with families or couples, rather than with single men.”

“Matching done without the appropriate oversight may lead to increasing the risks women may face, in addition to the trauma of displacement, family separation, and violence already experienced,” a spokesperson said.

Leading British refugee charity groups had already raised concern about the scheme amid increasing reports of sexual predators targeting female refugees.

The post Russia-Ukraine peace talks “to resume” as Biden seeks escalation appeared first on Iran News Daily.