Last year’s negotiations between Russian Foreign Intelligence Service Director Sergey Naryshkin and US Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns were organized upon a proposal from US President Joe Biden addressed to President Vladimir Putin, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Wednesday.

"Biden asked Putin about organizing a meeting between Naryshkin and Burns and this meeting took place," Lavrov said, speaking at his annual press conference on the results of Russian diplomacy in 2022.

"Indeed, it was a serious and useful meeting although it did not produce any breakthrough results," the top Russian diplomat noted.

Lavrov said that Russia would respond seriously to any serious proposal forwarded by the United States.

Plans to hand over some of confiscated Russian assets to Ukraine are discrediting the US financial system, the Russian Embassy in the United States said in a statement on Friday.

"We noted new statements by US Administration on the intention to transfer a part of Russian entrepreneurs’ confiscated assets to Ukraine," Russian diplomats said. "There is not only an obvious disregard of generally accepted legal norms, but also a breach of fundamental American values which erroneously seemed unshakable. First of all those related to the protection of private property rights."

"Such dangerous precedents only serve to discredit the United States as a ‘bastion’ of free enterprise. Washington, with its own hands, is undermining confidence in both American and international financial system, as well as security of the dollar jurisdiction," reads the statement, posted on the embassy’s official Telegram channel.

The days of the American empire are numbered, says journalist Chris Hedges, and the evidence is all too clear for anyone who’s studied history. Our rampant militarism abroad combined with neglect of the domestic needs of any but the wealthiest citizens describe a grim future for the United States, he says. And if you think progressives in government might help us avoid that destiny, think again – The Squad and their ilk are merely controlled opposition designed to provide false hope for change.

Jimmy and Americans’ comedian Kurt Metzger discuss with Hedges the calamity that elites have wrought in condemning the United States empire to the dustbin of history.

If Ukraine attacks Crimea with US-supplied weapons, Russia's response will be devastating, Yuri Gempel, the head of the on Public Diplomacy and Interethnic Relations Committee of the Crimean Parliament said, RIA Novosti reports.

"I am convinced that Russia will retaliate with a devastating blow, and the Russians will support such a decision. Russia is pursuing a balanced, prudent policy, sometimes too restrained, some may perceive this as a weakness, but this is absolutely not the case," Gempel said.

In his opinion, the plans that Washington and Kyiv harbour confirm the need to protect the interests of the Russian Federation to Ukraine's western borders with Poland. The current regime in Ukraine must be destroyed, the politician said, adding that this would help many countries live in peace. Gempel is confident that it is time for the Ukrainian citizens to take decisive action to oppose the regime.

On January 19, The New York Times reported citing its sources that the administration of US President Joe Biden was beginning to acknowledge that Kyiv might need additional forces to strike Crimea. According to the publication, Washington considers HIMARS MLRS and Bradley infantry fighting vehicles as assistance to Kyiv for this purpose, but Washington refrains from supplying long-range missile systems. The United States believes that the threat to Crimea from Kyiv will strengthen Ukraine's position in future negotiations.

Another day, another amnesty. This time it is limited, but significant; the Biden Regime is expanding waivers of fees for immigration-related applications. While this is not as important as the parole amnesty or the open southern border, it is yet another indication that the Biden Regime is lawless and acting to replace the Historic American Nation with non-white illegal aliens.

The Department of Homeland Security on Tuesday proposed expanding immigration fee exemptions while increasing some fees by hundreds of dollars.

The agency currently provides some fee exemptions and waivers, but Homeland Security proposed additional fee exemptions for refugees, juveniles, abused spouses and others.

“In this new fee rule, DHS proposes to return the focus of its fee-setting away from emphasizing the beneficiary-pays principle towards the historical balance between the beneficiary-pays and ability-to-pay principles,” Homeland Security said in a 469-page proposal. “DHS has been directed by the President to reduce barriers and promote accessibility to the immigration benefits that it administers.”

The struggle for power in Ukraine has been escalating lately. The helicopter that crashed on a kindergarten in Brovary on January 18 comes as a living proof of this. The Ukrainian Parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, may impeach President Zelensky, whereas the task of the Russian Armed Forces is to win the Key to Kyiv.

A Super Puma helicopter with the Ministry for Interior on board crashed on the morning of January 18 near a kindergarten in the town of Brovary, a suburb of Kyiv.

The leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs — Minister Denis Monastyrsky and his deputy Yevgeny Yenin — were killed in the crash. Burning kerosene flooded the area in front of an apartment building and the kindergarten. According to most recent reports, 24 people, including one child, were killed in the crash.

It is believed that the helicopter crashed due to a piloting error. The helicopter was flying in foggy weather and allegedly hit the roof of the kindergarten. However, the kindergarden is a two-story building, and pilots fly that route every time (the Kyiv defense is being prepared in Brovary), which makes the version untenable.

"The causes of the tragedy are yet to be established. We will soon find out whether it was an act of sabotage, a malfunction of equipment, or a violation of flight safety rules,” Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to the deceased Minister said in his Telegram channel.

One does not have to count on the objectivity of the Ukrainian investigation, as the Kyiv authorities are best known for their lies. Most likely, we will soon hear Kyiv officials saying that it was Russia that made the tragedy happen.

See more at https://english.pravda.ru/world/155484-ukraine_helicopter_crash/

France's refusal to import Russian energy resources provoked a crisis in the entire eurozone and, in particular, affected the lives of the French, who faced rising energy prices, said the deputy of the National Assembly of France Marie-France Loro.

"Madame Marie-France Loro asks the Minister of Energy Transition [Agnes Panier-Runache] about the new energy crisis, partly caused by financial sanctions against Russia, faced by the French. Russia has always sold its energy raw materials to France at very good prices. However packages of economic sanctions have been adopted against Russia," the text of the appeal says.

By imposing sanctions on Russia, sanctions are also being imposed against the French, who face them on a daily basis, in particular, with an explosive increase in energy prices.