‘Wanted: Dead or Alive’: Russian Tycoon Puts $1M Bounty on Putin’s Head

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A Russian businessman is offering $1 million to any military officer who apprehends Russian President Vladimir Putin “dead or alive” for committing war crimes in his invasion of Ukraine.

Alex Konanykhin, an entrepreneur and former banker, posted the bounty on social media as Russia enters a full week of military action against the neighboring country. Western governments and companies have responded to the invasion by seeking to economically punish Putin and Russia’s ruling elite. The bounty offered by Konanykhin, who is now based in the U.S., places an even more direct target on the Russian leader as backlash over the invasion continues to escalate.

Konanykhin said in a Facebook post Tuesday that he promised to pay the officer or officers the money for arresting “Putin as a war criminal under Russian and international laws.” (Read more from “‘Wanted: Dead or Alive’: Russian Tycoon Puts $1M Bounty on Putin’s Head” HERE)

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China Largely Ignores Biden’s State of the Union Speech

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President Joe Biden had very little to say about China in his first State of the Union (SOTU) address on Tuesday night, and Chinese media returned the favor by saying very little about Biden’s speech.

China’s state-run Global Times counted only two mentions of China in the speech, neither of them terribly confrontational (Biden added a third in the remarks as delivered). The Chinese paper dismissed Biden’s address as a weak imitation of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s famed “Iron Curtain” speech that unsuccessfully sought to use Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to rally the divided American political parties behind Biden’s presidency.

The Global Times quoted Fudan University professor Shen Yi mocking Biden’s claims of leadership against Russia:

“If the US has been prepared for Russia’s military operation in Ukraine, why is Washington still discussing with other countries on how to sanction Russia on SWIFT? If US intelligence agencies can make correct early-warnings about Russia’s operation, but the White House failed to fully prepare for sanctions, the US’ capability and national strength are in trouble,” Shen said.

Biden said in his speech that “Our forces are not going to Europe to fight in Ukraine, but to defend our NATO Allies.” But Shen said this is another pointless line that shows Biden’s weakness. “This means the US will leave Ukraine alone even though Kiev pinned high hopes on Washington. To defend NATO? Did Russia say it wants to invade NATO?”

(Read more from “China Largely Ignores Biden’s State of the Union Speech” HERE)

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Russia’s Ultimatum: No Western Troops, Nukes in Ex-Soviet Countries; ‘He Has No Idea What’s Coming’: Biden Sends Message to Putin

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By Washington Examiner. Following calls from apprehensive neighbors of Russia for an increased U.S. military presence, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that his country opposes any Western military activity in the former Soviet bloc.

Lavrov told the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday amid his country’s invasion of Ukraine that Western powers, especially America, must not operate in Eastern Europe and should remove nuclear weapons from the region.

“The Western countries need to abandon creating military sites on the territories of countries previously constituting the Soviet Union and not members of the alliance, including using their infrastructure to conduct any military activity,” Lavrov said.

Lavrov centered his demands on U.S. nuclear weapons in Europe, saying it is “unacceptable for us that U.S. nuclear weapons still remain in a number of European states in contradiction to the basic points of the Non-Proliferation Treaty.” (Read more from “Russia’s Ultimatum: No Western Troops, Nukes in Ex-Soviet Countries” HERE)

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‘He Has No Idea What’s Coming’: Biden Sends Message to Putin

By Reuters. U.S. President Joe Biden assailed Russian President Vladimir Putin, barred Russian flights from American airspace and led Democratic and Republican lawmakers in a rare display of unity on Tuesday in a State of the Union speech dominated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“Let each of us if you’re able to stand, stand and send an unmistakable signal to Ukraine and to the world,” Biden urged Democrats and Republicans. . .

In a deviation from his prepared remarks, Biden said of Putin: “He has no idea what’s coming.” (Read more from “‘He Has No Idea What’s Coming’: Biden Sends Message to Putin” HERE)

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‘We Won’t Give Up Our President’: Ukraine Foiled Zelensky Hit Squads With Leaked Russian Intel

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Two elite Chechen death squads sent to kill Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky have been “neutralized” — thanks to intel from Russian security forces sympathetic to Ukraine, according to a senior Ukraine official.

Oleksiy Danilov, Secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, said on Ukrainian TV Tuesday that sources inside the Russian FSB gave Kyiv the intelligence needed to track down the assassins, according to a report in The New Voice of Ukraine.

“They were divided in two groups, we were tracking them,” said Danilov.

“One group was handled near Hostomel [northwest of Kyiv], the other one is in our sights.”

“We won’t give up our president, our country,” Danilov added. “This is our land, be gone.” (Read more from “‘We Won’t Give Up Our President’: Ukraine Foiled Zelensky Hit Squads With Leaked Russian Intel” HERE)

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Left-Wing Mexico President Refuses to Impose Sanctions on Russia

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Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador vowed that his government will not be placing economic sanctions on Russia for the invasion of Ukraine.

The leftist leader said Tuesday that his decision was solely based on his administration’s preference to maintain a positive image with his counterparts across the globe.

‘We are not going to take any sort of economic reprisal because we want to have good relations with all the governments in the world,’ López Obrador said Tuesday during his daily presidential press briefing.

López Obrador position stands in contrast to the international sanctions imposed on President Vladimir Putin’s actions as his military attacked a war-torn Ukraine for a fifth straight day.

The Kremlin has built strong links to various governments in Latin America, especially authoritarian administrations in Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua. (Read more from “Left-Wing Mexico President Refuses to Impose Sanctions on Russia” HERE)

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Joe Biden’s America Pays Putin $70 Million per Day for Oil

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Think about the madness of this… Joe Biden is running around trying to look tough, hitting Russia with sanctions over Vladimir Putin’s obscene invasion of Ukraine. But at the same time, we pay Russia in the vicinity of $70 million per day for oil imports.

In other words, during these seven days of Putin’s criminal war against Ukraine, we’ve sent this same Putin during those same seven days close to a half-billion dollars! . . .

On the one hand, Biden claims to be crippling Vlad with sanctions, while on the other hand, we’re slipping him $70 million PER DAY! . . .

“In 2021, the U.S. imported an average of 209,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil and 500,000 bpd of other petroleum products from Russia.”

And last I checked, oil is currently valued at $106 per barrel, and one of the reasons oil is so high is the war in Ukraine, so…. So Vlad is making more money on his oil by waging his war with a peaceful neighbor! (Read more from “Joe Biden’s America Pays Putin $70 Million per Day for Oil” HERE)

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Zelensky Calls for Flooding Ukraine With Foreign Fighters to Push Back Russia

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky established a new wing of the armed forces on Monday called the “International Legion of Territorial Defense of Ukraine,” intended for foreign nationals who wish to come to fight in the country’s war against Russia.

Zelensky signed a decree creating the military wing on Monday and has lifted visa requirements for individuals who fit the requirements to join the forces. The initiative comes as reports indicate Russian leader Vladimir Putin may be planning a much larger military assault on the country after his initial push towards Kyiv failed.

Putin announced last week that he would recognize two territories in eastern Ukraine, Donetsk and Luhansk, as sovereign states and that the leaders of these “states” had requested the presence of the Russian military in Ukraine to fight Zelensky’s forces. Putin invaded Ukraine in 2014, colonizing Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula and funneling support to the separatists in Donetsk and Luhansk, collectively referred to as Donbas.

Russian forces have moved far past Donbas, however, and have regularly bombarded Kyiv and other critical metropolitan areas. Putin has since asserted that toppling the Zelensky government is necessary to “de-Nazify” Ukraine. Zelensky has responded to the claim by noting that he is a descendent of World War II veterans who fought Nazi Germany and is Jewish.

(Read more from “Zelensky Calls for Flooding Ukraine With Foreign Fighters to Push Back Russia” HERE)

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Russian Ruble Now Worth Less Than a Penny as Wartime Sanctions Cripple Economy

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The value of Russia’s ruble has collapsed to less than 1 cent after the United States and other Western countries applied biting sanctions against the Russian economy.

The ruble was down nearly 10% against the U.S. dollar on Tuesday at 115.68 to the dollar. On Monday, after a weekend filled with painful new sanctions, the Russian currency saw an even more precipitous decline of about 30%. The ruble was at about 84 per dollar late Friday before the harshest financial penalties kicked in.

The ruble is now worth even less than an Afghani, which is the currency of Afghanistan, a failed state that has been overrun and is controlled by Taliban militants.

The currency’s free fall was blunted a bit by the Russian central bank’s decision to hike interest rates aggressively, increasing them from 8.5% to 20% in order to bolster the ruble and prevent a run on the banks. Still, people across Russia have been seen lining up at ATMs to withdraw foreign currencies. (Read more from “Russian Ruble Now Worth Less Than a Penny as Wartime Sanctions Cripple Economy” HERE)

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In Leaks About Failed Russian Diplomacy, Biden Exposed Dangerous Weakness on China

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The Biden administration’s weakness and incompetence were on full display in a New York Times article last week recounting the White House’s repeated—and failed— attempts to urge China to help avert war in Ukraine. The purpose of the article was to allow senior administration officials to take their duplicitous Chinese counterparts to task, but the account reveals above all that White House officials are out of their depth in dealing with China.

It is nearly impossible to read the Biden administration’s side of the story without perceiving the weakness, gullibility, and ineffectiveness that the Biden White House unwittingly presents. Administration officials describe how they were “repeatedly rebuffed” by Chinese officials even as the Americans scrambled for “half a dozen urgent meetings over three months” to try to avert the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The article repeats how “Each time, the Chinese officials… rebuffed the Americans,” as if to drive home the humiliating point.

These rebuffed Americans are quickly recast as duped Americans. Biden officials disclosed to The New York Times that they shared intelligence with their Chinese counterparts only to be double-crossed when the Chinese quickly leaked that intel to the Russians.

To add insult to injury, the Chinese also told the Russians that the Americans were “trying to sow discord,” and promised Moscow that Beijing would not interfere with Russia’s war plans. The Biden officials who leaked these details must not be aware of how embarrassing they are.

The article then provides a background on the growing public partnership between the Russian and Chinese autocrats, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, with their countries’ ties appearing stronger than any time since the Cold War. U.S. officials figured that if anyone could talk Putin out of an attack on Ukraine, it was Xi, given that Putin and Xi have met 37 times as national leaders. But Xi didn’t, and Chinese officials “persistently sided with Russia.” The Biden officials were for some reason puzzled about why. (Read more from “In Leaks About Failed Russian Diplomacy, Biden Exposed Dangerous Weakness on China” HERE)

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Zelensky Goes Big! Calls on Biden to Declare ‘No-Fly Zone’; Fighting Escalates Despite Ceasefire Talks(VIDEO)

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By Breitbart. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told the D.C. outlet Axios in a statement on Monday that his country “needs the West to impose a no-fly zone,” a significant escalation potentially tantamount to an act of war.

“The sanctions are heading in the right direction. In addition to disconnecting the Russian Central Bank from SWIFT and providing more Stingers and anti-tank weapons, we need the West to impose a no-fly zone over significant parts of Ukraine,” Zelensky said in a statement to Axios.

“Ukraine can beat the aggressor. We are proving this to the world. But our allies must also do their part,” he added.

On Monday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki told MSNBC that it is “not something the president wants to do,” and “that’s not a good idea.”

(Read more from “Zelensky Goes Big! Calls on Biden to Declare ‘No-Fly Zone’ (VIDEO)” HERE)

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Ukraine: Fighting Escalates Despite Ceasefire Talks

By BBC. Fighting continued on Monday, the fifth day of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, despite talks aimed at securing a ceasefire.

Missile strikes killed dozens of civilians in the country’s second city, Kharkiv, while air raid sirens sounded again in the capital, Kyiv.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky called the Russian bombardment of Kharkiv a “war crime”.

There were reports of fierce shelling in the northern city of Chernihiv.

Russia is attacking Ukraine on several fronts, but its advance has been slowed by Ukrainian resistance. (Read more from “Ukraine: Fighting Escalates Despite Ceasefire Talks” HERE)

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Soldiers Killed in Strike as Russia Convoy Advances

By BBC. . .At least 70 soldiers were killed in a Russian artillery strike, Ukrainian officials have confirmed. Emergency workers are sifting through rubble trying to find survivors. . .

More pictures are emerging of the carnage at Okhtyrka military base where a Russian missile killed at least 70 Ukrainian soldiers on Sunday.

The pictures … have been shared by local official in the Sumy region, Dmytro Zhyvytskyi. They show rescuers’ frenzied efforts to recover survivors from the smouldering rubble. (Read more from “Soldiers Killed in Strike as Russia Convoy Advances” HERE)

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