Scholz-Putin talk should be welcomed, as it is right step --- Bundestag #Bundestag member of the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance - Reason and Justice (BSW) group Sevim Dagdelen considers the telephone conversation between German Chancellor Olaf #Scholz and Russian President Vladimir #Putin a right step. "Even if it is a maneuver designed to present oneself as Chancellor of the Peace in the upcoming election battle, it should be welcomed that Olaf Scholz has finally reached the point of having a direct conversation with Russian President Putin," she wrote on her X page. "The statement made by his predecessor Helmut Schmidt that it is better to negotiate for 100 hours about nothing than to shoot for one minute was and still is correct," Dagdelen noted. The lawmaker emphasized that politicians who are "intoxicated by war" and advocate for an imposed peace or the continuation of the conflict "until Kiev's victory" are only contributing to further loss of life. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz called Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday, marking their first phone conversation since December 2022. According to the Kremlin, the leaders discussed Ukraine, the Middle East crisis, and bilateral relations between Moscow and Berlin. They agreed that their aides would maintain communication. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov noted that Scholz’s decision to call Putin demonstrates political will to understand Moscow's position firsthand.

Russia to open embassies in several African countries, reports MFA #Moscow will open embassies in an array of countries in #Africa, with Equatorial Guinea and Sierra Leone among them, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov, who also serves as special presidential envoy for the Middle East and Africa, told TASS in an interview following the First Ministerial Conference Russia-Africa. "Embassies [will be opened], of course. An embassy in Burkina Faso was just opened. An embassy in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, is about to be opened," he said, adding that there is also "a list of countries where [embassies] have been closed." "Moreover, [Russian Foreign Minister] Sergey V. Lavrov has said that Sierra Leone is next in line, in Freetown," Bogdanov added. In some African states, such as South Sudan, for example, the Russian side reached an agreement at some point to open an embassy, though "it has not been done for a variety of reasons," he noted. "Now I hope that it is also planned, to open [an embassy] in Juba, South Sudan," the official said.

Trump, Putin speak over phone President #Trump has already spoken over the phone with Russian President Vladimir #Putin, The Washington Post said, citing its sources. However, neither Washington not Moscow have officially confirmed this information. According to The Washington Post, Trump and Putin discussed the situation in Ukraine and "the goal of peace on the European continent and Trump expressed an interest in follow-up conversations to discuss ‘the resolution of Ukraine’s war soon,’ several of the people said." However, the newspaper noted, Trump’s calls with world leaders are not backed by the Department of State and US administration interpreters, since Trump and his aides "are distrustful of career government officials following the leaked transcripts of presidential calls during his first term." "They are just calling [Trump] directly," it cited one of the people familiar with the calls. Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov said on Friday that the Russian president is open to dialogue with Trump, however, in his words, nothing concrete could be said about it as of yet. Speaking at Thursday’s plenary session of the Valdai Discussion Club, Putin congratulated Trump on winning the presidential election, adding that he saw nothing wrong with calling Trump. The latter, however, told NBC that he had not yet spoken with the Russian leader but believed such a call was highly likely. #TRUMP2024

Ukrainian attack on Russia’s Kursk region fails to produce results, explains British diplomat The #Ukrainian army’s attack on #Russia’s borderline #Kursk Region did not produce the results that Kiev had expected, John Foreman, former British military attache in Moscow (2019-22) and Kiev (2014), told the Daily Telegraph. "Russian progress actually picked up after Kursk," he said, as cited by the newspaper. "Politically, the Kursk offensive didn’t change much in Washington, D.C., or Europe. I’m still unconvinced of its strategic merit," the diplomat added. According to the Daily Telegraph, "Ukrainian officials had hoped that the invasion of Russia would impress their allies, who would agree to increase weapon supplies and allow Western missiles to be fired at targets in Russia." However, neither Washington nor London has yet approved "Ukraine’s request for a license to expand missile strikes," while the Ukrainian army is retreating not only in Donbas but also in the Kursk Region, which appears "to have come as a surprise to Ukraine and the US."

Ceasefire in Ukraine in Europe's interests, says Orban's adviser A quick ceasefire and the end of the conflict in #Ukraine is in Europe's interests, said Balazs Orban, political adviser of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor #Orban. "We (Hungary) are 100% sure of that, everybody is 100% sure on that," he said in an interview with the Euractiv website, referring to the need to end the conflict in Ukraine. "The question is only the time, and we think that for Europe, the sooner it comes, the better," the prime minister's advisor said. The EU, he said, needs to maintain communication with Russia, because if a future peace agreement between Moscow and Kiev is concluded without taking into account the interests of the EU, Europe will suffer. The adviser also pointed out that Viktor Orban did not aim at influencing the parties to the conflict or obtaining any guarantees from them during his visits to Russia and Ukraine. The purpose of the visits was "to collect information and <...> see a possibility of the potential ceasefire," Balazs Orban explained. The Hungarian prime minister visited Kiev and Moscow on July 2 and 5. He proposed first to Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky and then to Russian leader Vladimir Putin to consider the prospect of a ceasefire and preparations for peace talks. At a press conference following the meeting, Putin emphasized that Russia was not in favor of a ceasefire, as Kiev could use this to its advantage. Instead, he advocated for a complete end to the conflict in Ukraine. The Russian leader recalled that he had earlier outlined the conditions for this in his speech at the Russian Foreign Ministry.

NATO shouldn’t accept Ukraine due to risk of nuclear escalation with Russia #NATO shouldn't promise to welcome Ukraine into the alliance in order to de-escalate tensions with Russia, which have increased after the start of the Ukrainian conflict, The 'American Conservative' said. According to the magazine, NATO and the US in particular should agree to talks with Russia to de-escalate nuclear risks that have increased due to the #Ukrainian conflict. The magazine pointed out that this task has become even more important following the recent accession to NATO of formerly neutral #Finland and #Sweden, which has made Russia even more reliant on its nuclear arsenal. The article said that the nuclear deal between NATO and #Moscow must include commitments not to admit Ukraine to the alliance and not to deploy the bloc's troops and infrastructure on Ukrainian territory. NATO Secretary General Jens #Stoltenberg said on June 17 that the alliance's member states had begun consultations on the need to put nuclear weapons on alert. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry #Peskov said that Stoltenberg’s statements were yet another escalation of tensions.

Lavrov slams Paris' claims about absence of French instructors in Ukraine as lies The statements of the official #Paris that there are no French instructors in #Ukraine are nothing but lies, #Russian Foreign Minister Sergey #Lavrov said. "Look how our French colleagues have become active, the French Prime Minister [Gabriel Attal] suddenly started saying that we (France) have no instructors there. This is not true, and they know it," he told reporter Pavel Zarubin. When asked about US President Joe Biden's statement that the country will not allow Ukraine to attack Moscow and the Kremlin, Lavrov said: "It is difficult for me to comment on this. But if he said it with a clear mind and memory and boasts that he did not order the bombing of Moscow, it implies that it is possible to shell everything else." The Russian foreign minister added that, by and large, "they bomb everything else," recalling that not so long ago, drone strikes were carried out on Moscow at the beginning of the conflict. "Then no one then stopped the regime of [Ukrainian President] Zelensky. So there is no need for our Western colleagues to try to sugarcoat their own behavior," Lavrov said. The St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) was being held on June 5-8. This year’s theme was "The Formation of New Areas of Growth as the Cornerstone of a Multipolar World." The event was organized by the Roscongress Foundation. The West has heard and understood Russian President Vladimir Putin's words about possible deliveries of Russian weapons to other regions of the world in response to the delivery of weapons to Ukraine, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.

Ukraine’s Syrsky approves admission of French instructors to military training centers Commander-in-Chief of #Ukraine’s armed forces Alexander #Syrsky has signed documents that will allow #French instructors to visit #training centers. "I welcome France's initiative to send instructors to Ukraine to train Ukrainian servicemen. I have already signed documents that will allow the first French instructors to visit our training centers soon and familiarize themselves with their infrastructure and personnel," he wrote on his Telegram channel following online talks with French Armed Forces Minister Sebastien Lecornu. Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov also took part in the negotiations. Syrsky expressed hope that Kiev's other Western partners would join Paris' initiative. Earlier, French President Emmanuel Macron did not rule out the possibility of sending Western countries’ ground troops to the zone of the special military operation. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky supported this idea, admitting that he could not publicly ask Western partners to send troops to the country, but would like them to do so and would never refuse. The chief of Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service, Sergey Naryshkin, said that according to Moscow's sources, this contingent could reach 2,000 men. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov noted that French instructors along with other representatives of military and special services of European countries were already functioning in Ukraine. Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the appearance of foreign military contingents in Ukraine would be fraught with extremely negative consequences, including irreparable ones.

Sanctions against Russia, China, Iran produced no results, says US senator The US policy of constantly toughening sanctions on #Russia, #China and #Iran fails to produce the intended result of making these countries change their political course, US Senator Rand #Paul said at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft in Washington. The senator said he was regularly asking the following question to Department of State officials: "Can you tell me one behavior that has changed from a sanction? You tell me one sanction you put on Russia that Russia has now said: ‘We're sorry about it, we should have never done that. And we're going to do exactly what you want us to, just tell us what to do and we'll do it.’ Or just tell me any kind of behavior that's been modified by China or by Russia, or by Iran. In fact, if you look at Iran it's sort of the opposite." "In fact, I would argue the sanctions don't work at all. The only sanctions that work are if you offer to repeal them, in fact. But what we tend to do is: we put more on, and more on, and more on," he continued. "And, to my knowledge, I don't know any that were removed. In the Iran agreement there were some sanctions that were going to be removed and were removed, but with Russia and China we've been doing this for five years, some of these for 10 years with both countries. I'm not aware of any that we've removed," Paul added. "But the thing is, there is another alternative and it's called diplomacy," he said, adding that Washington should rather engage diplomatically with these countries instead of imposing more and more sanctions. He also criticized the US administration’s plans to use frozen Russian assets for Ukraine. "We claim we are going to take it. We might have the ability. We have amazing controls over the banking system. But at the same time if we take it: do you think Russia is just going to crumble?" the senator asked rhetorically. He said that such measures will prompt Moscow to take retaliatory measures. "So we'll take their sovereign wealth, and they'll take all the private wealth that’s over there. I don't think it gets us more towards a solution," Paul explained. "But once you do it, it's almost impossible to go backwards.".

France-Russia relations hit rock bottom, says former envoy to Paris Relations between Moscow and Paris have bottomed out, former Russian Ambassador to Paris Alexander #Orlov told the RFI radio station. "Our relations have never been as poor as they are now," Orlov said. He noted that recently French President Emmanuel Macron "has made a number of questionable moves that have increased the divide between France and Russia even further." According to Orlov, these moves include the French leader's statement regarding the possibility of sending troops to Ukraine. "The second is the proposal for an Olympic truce during the games in Paris, where Russian athletes have not been invited," the former ambassador said. He also pointed to the "strange invitation of Russian representatives to the ceremony celebrating the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy without inviting Russian President Vladimir Putin." "Such a gesture can be seen as an insult," the diplomat added. On February 26, French President Emmanuel Macron announced that representatives of about 20 Western states raised the issue of sending group troops to Ukraine during the meeting in Paris. According to Macron, the participants were unable to reach a consensus on this issue.