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Independent researcher/writer based in Hong Kong since 1997. Reformed academic. My long-form, analytical articles are collected here https://laura-ruggeri.medium.com/ email: lauraru852@yandex.ru
Vladimir Putin signed an executive order to extend Russia’s 2021-2025 defense plan by two years.
Russia's defense plan, which is understandably secret, lays out potential risks and threats to the security of the country and coordinates measures in such fundamental areas as the development of the armed forces and the implementation of armament programs and preparations for a military mobilization and territorial defense. ▪️At the Kapustin Yar military training ground, Russia once again tested the Oreshnik hypersonic missile. ▪️On the eve of the departure of the Russian delegation to Istanbul Vladimir Putin held a meeting with military commanders. ▪️All scenarios, both political and military, are being discussed in case negotiations fail or are disrupted. @LauraRuHK
Today i visited the Moscow microdistrict of Northern Chertanovo, a very interesting Soviet experiment with architectural modernism.
Started in the mid-1970s and finished in the early 1980s, it utilized all the latest advancements in construction and technology. As such, it is still the only area in Moscow where the nearby highway is tunneled underground, saving it from cars and noise. All apartment blocks in Northern Chertanovo have underground garages with direct elevator access to all floors. The plan was to create a self-contained microdistrict with multi-level shopping mall, library, sports centre with a swimming pool, kindergartens, schools, etc, catering to residents’ every need. The apartment interiors, too, were non-standard for the time and had a free layout. By opening the wide door-screens, it was possible to combine the kitchen and living room. The apartments also featured a pneumatic refuse collection system. @LauraRuHK
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said he believes that the publication of the International Civil Aviation Organization Council's ruling blaming Moscow for the 2014 crash of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 was timed to cast a shadow on Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim's visit to Russia.
"It is clear to everyone that it was done on purpose to try to overshadow the visit. It didn’t succeed," he told reporters. "Our Malaysian friends understand perfectly well what this is about. Throughout all these years we have been in very close contact with them. They see that those who took up this investigation were doing it unscrupulously."
There are "plenty of facts" that show the investigation was dubious, according to Lavrov.
"To begin with, the Ukrainians never gave data from their radars, unlike us. The Americans never gave data from their satellites, but the judges in The Hague put it on record that ‘the Americans told us, citing their satellite data, that Russia did it. We believe them.’ Well, this is not the way to practice law!" the minister said. ▪️ Russian-Malaysian relations are growing and there is every reason to believe that they will continue on their upward trajectory, Russian President Vladimir Putin said after a meeting with Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.
"Russian-Malaysian relations are on the rise, developing successfully and steadily," the Russian president said. "Both sides are sincerely interested in making such interaction even more meaningful and productive. There are all the necessary prerequisites for this." (Source: TASS) @LauraRuHK
🇷🇺🇨🇳Thanks to its expanding energy partnership with Russia, China is in a position to significantly reduce the import of gas and petroleum products from the US. In 2025, China is expected to receive 38 billion cubic meters of Russian gas via the Power of Siberia-1 pipeline, with plans to add another 10 billion cubic meters through the Far Eastern route by 2027, totaling 48 billion cubic meters. The upcoming Power of Siberia-2 project, expected to start supplies around 2030 and reach full capacity by 2035, will further double China's gas imports by providing an additional 50 billion cubic meters annually.
For Russia, this expansion could generate over one trillion rubles in annual revenue from gas sales, with additional tax revenues stemming from increased production. For China, increased pipeline supplies offer a reliable and secure energy source, contrasting with LNG imports, which are less reliable, and not only because the LNG market does not sign such long-term contracts as Gazprom accepts, and prices depend on the more volatile spot gas market. Maritime LNG supplies from the south to China are also less reliable because they follow the same route through the Strait of Malacca, including from Qatar and the Middle East. The risk is that the U.S. could cut off China's maritime energy supplies, making pipeline imports from Russia a strategic priority for China. (Source: RIA Novosti) @LauraRuHK https://ria.ru/20250514/sdelka-2016751172.html
Following recent bilateral trade discussions in Switzerland over the weekend, the US and China agreed to reduce tariff rates after Washington imposed triple-digit duties last April. The main points are straightforward: for the next 90 days, Chinese imports to the US will face tariffs of at least 30 percent, while American exports to China will be taxed at a minimum of 10 percent. But these rates do not include tariffs carried over from the initial phase of the trade war during Trump’s first term, nor do they include other duties applicable to specific goods or product categories. My impression is that both countries are engaging in a strategic retreat and will withdraw or reposition resources, operations, market presence in response to adverse conditions. China will continue to build alternative export channels, bolster trade with Southeast Asian countries and friendly nations, and continue to reduce its financial exposure to the US. China is of course, in a better position to diversify and de-risk than the US. Meanwhile the US Army is preparing to "contain China in the Pacific"- the new plan will allow more resources to be directed to those types of weapons that are better suited for combat operations in the Asia-Pacific theater: air defense and missile defense systems, longer-range ammunition, as well as AI-enabled command and control networks, as Ryan D. McCarthy explains in the NYT https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/13/opinion/us-army-weapons-reform.html @LauraRuHK
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"Putin has made another grandmaster move. The offer of an immediate launch of talks in Istanbul without preconditions is pulling the rug from under the Kiev regime and its sponsors, who are trying to undermine the negotiation process," Diplomatic Academy Vice Principal Oleg Karpovich told Izvestia. Moscow realizes that a ceasefire is only possible in a situation where Kiev agrees to engage in a serious dialogue that would take Russia’s demands into account. "It is obvious that the idea of a 30-day ceasefire promoted by Kiev is a ruse to allow Ukraine to rearm and strengthen its position before a new round of hostilities," he added. https://iz.ru/1884585/kirill-fenin/gotov-li-kiev-k-pryamym-peregovoram-s-rf
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Just a reminder to those who have tried to contact me on various social media platforms. Please keep in mind that while i am in Russia I have only got access to Telegram, VK and Substack. And as i am making the most of my annual visit, i spend as little time as possible online. I will be back in Hong Kong next week.
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From stark evidence that AI is undermining a generation of students’ ability to learn in higher education, to tech companies vowing to replace workers with AI, to a victim’s family using an AI avatar of the deceased to sway the courts...this is the twisted AI future tech oligarchs have in store for us. PS. Brian Merchant and I may not agree on some issues but when it comes to AI we are fighting on the same side and that's why i follow and recommend his work. https://substack.com/home/post/p-163164242
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Kaja Kallas and friends celebrate Europe Day...in the capital of Banderastan, Lviv. @LauraRuHK
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Heroes of the Special Military Operation. They remind us that Russia is still under attack from the revisionist powers waging a proxy war in Ukraine. @LauraRuHK
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Slovak prime minister Robert Fico's circuitous route to Moscow. @LauraRuHK
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RIA Novosti published a map showing which countries are represented at the Victory parade in Moscow, either by their head of state or by other officials. It's a very illustrative map. 51,9% of the world population is represented at the parade, and is predominantly Asian. Russia's pivot to the East is working. @LauraRuHK
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As I was walking out of an impressive exhibition at Victory Museum, I caught Зверобой (Zveroboy) rehearsing. ❤️
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Donald Trump visited Saudi Arabia before any other nation during his first term in the White House, bucking the tradition for American presidents to make their first foreign trip to Britain. In his second term he also chose the Middle East (Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates) for his first official visit (the pope funeral was unexpected.) Washington has many reasons to focus on the Middle East. The region supplies almost half of the crude oil China needs, is a strategic theatre and a crucial trade corridor linking Asia with Europe and Africa. ▪️Trump's visit underscores the US' intention to underpin a US-led Middle East alliance system aimed at containing Iran, excluding China and Russia, and consolidating US hegemony in the region. Of course, economic interests are another important consideration. The US attempts to leverage the Gulf countries to bolster its own economy, which is why it attracted some heavy weights to Riyadh for a U.S.-Saudi investment summit: Nvidia's Jensen Huang, Palantir's Alex Karp, Citigroup's Jane Fraser, BlackRock's Larry Fink, Franklin Templeton Investments's Jenny Johnson, Uber's Dara Khosrowshahi, BDT & MSD Partners' Dina Powell McCormick and Blackstone's Steve Schwarzman. @LauraRuHK
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October 2022, Volodymyr Zelensky signed a decree that prohibited holding negotiations with Vladimir Putin, the decree was published on the official website of the Ukrainian president’s office.
May 2025, Volodymyr Zelensky, whose presidential mandate expired, challenged Vladimir Putin to meet him "personally" in Istanbul. What happened to that decree? The first meeting of Russian and Ukrainian delegations since 2022 will take place today, but of course it won't feature the Russian president. Russia’s delegation will be led by Kremlin Aide Vladimir Medinsky. Just like in 2022, the delegation will include Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin. The Russian Foreign Ministry will be represented by Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin who is in charge of issues related to the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Igor Kostyukov, head of the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, will be the fourth Russian negotiator.
Moscow will also send a team of experts to Istanbul, namely Alexander Zorin, first deputy chief information officer at the Directorate of the Russian Armed Forces General Staff, Yelena Podobreyevskaya, deputy head of the Russian presidential office for state humanitarian policy, Alexey Polishchuk, director of the Foreign Ministry’s Second CIS Department, and Viktor Shevtsov, deputy chief of the Defense Ministry’s Main Directorate for International Military Cooperation.
US officials are also expected in Turkey. Donald Trump stated earlier that Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other officials would travel to Turkey for the projected talks on Ukraine. A White House spokesperson told reporters that US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Special Envoy for Ukraine Keith Kellogg would go to Istanbul. @LauraRuHK
Very topical selection in the shop window of Biblio Globus, one of my favourite bookstores in Moscow. Suzanne Hudson's Contemporary Painting, Yanis Varoufakis' Technofeudalism, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Michel Foucault's History of Madness.
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In 2025, technocracy received a new impetus in the United States as part of the current policy of the Donald Trump administration. After his return to the White House on the wave of "DarkMAGA" (the radicalization of the slogan "Make America Great Again.") A group of IT billionaires and ideologues of the techno future began to implement a "Technate" through the so-called "gov–corp" - merging the state with corporations based on common interests. The key figures in this process are Elon Musk, Peter Thiel and Marc Andreessen. They believe in "curbing democracy" in favor of corporate authoritarianism - the society of the future should be governed by AI and experts, but not by politicians. They talk a lot about the coming "age of abundance" thanks to AI and robotics, a utopia where AI distributes wealth to everyone.
Peter Thiel, an ideologue of the "Dark enlightenment," has long been skeptical of democracy, arguing that it is incompatible with true market freedom. In fact, Thiel and his entourage advocate a "corporate monarchy" where the ruler is the CEO and the citizens are the clients of this company–the state. At the same time, democracy is considered corruption, and the oligarch shareholders are the true masters of the state, who will be able to restore "effective order." Thiel, being a convinced monarchist at heart, actively supported the Trump campaign as a chance to embody these ideas. Marc Andreessen, a venture capitalist (co-founder of Netscape and the Andreessen Horowitz Foundation) published the Techno-Optimist Manifesto, in which he outlined a position very close to accelerationism.
If you speak Russian, Oleg Yanovsky provides a good overview of this disturbing trend. https://radiozvezda.ru/programs/20241171156-BeGEs.html/202556113-Gn7e4.html
Western countries have shown that they are ready to harm their own economies in order to spite Russia, so Moscow must brace itself for further moves like this, President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting with members of the Delovaya Rossiya (Business Russia) Association.
"The world's leading economies are sliding into a recession, just to harm us. [It is like] "I'll buy a ticket and won’t go to spite the conductor," the head of state wondered.
"Of course, we must keep this in mind - that they can do what they are talking about. And of course, we must at least minimize the negative consequences," Putin said addressing business leaders.
"Everything is interconnected in the modern world, we all know this. But still, there are key factors that constitute one of the parameters of our economic independence and sovereignty," the Russian president concluded. (Source: TASS) ▪️Reuters writes that the new package of sanctions against Russia being prepared by the EU will be useless without support from the US. In addition, Reuters notes that in the European Union is becoming increasingly difficult to achieve unanimity on further restrictions. Diplomats said the leaders' bold words risked undermining the EU's credibility if they could not follow up with action.
"You keep them (sanctions) on the table as a possible pressure lever, but putting down an ultimatum when you can't really do it is not serious," one said.
"There's no appetite at all at European level for this sort of sanctions. It's hard enough to just get a basic package."A senior European official said: "The danger here, obviously, is that the Russians might see this as a bluff."
@LauraRuHK https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/massive-eu-sanctions-russia-would-take-time-us-help-diplomats-say-2025-05-13/
💶 EU budget: Contributors and receivers
Only nine out of twenty-seven EU member states are net contributors to the EU budget. This infographic shows the contributions and subsidies for each state.
🔗 Follow this link to find the full infographic.
© You are free to repost, reproduce and print this infographic.
A video appeared with the French leader Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, taken on a train during a trip to Kiev. In the video, Macron, after the journalists began filming their meeting, hurriedly begins to remove a small white package from the table. The Elysee Palace claims the small white package wasn't a bag of coke but just a handkerchief. Regardless of what it was, it's rather telling that netizens immediately suspected the warmongering trio of snorting coke. Since public opinion is routinely ignored by Western political elites, trust in political representatives is at rock bottom. @LauraRuHK
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In case you wonder, the patriotic ZVO sign (and the message "till victory, power to truth") is still in place outside the US embassy in Moscow.
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In St.Petersburg one million people took part in the "Immortal Regiment" with portraits of family members who fought in the Great Patriotic War. /channel/zvezdanews/157737
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On Red Square, Putin personally thanked the North Korean military for taking part in the SMO. /channel/banki_oil/31250
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Military delegations from 13 countries marched on Red Square - Azerbaijan, Vietnam, Belarus, Egypt, Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Mongolia, Myanmar, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. China sent the largest contingent. /channel/vestifmplus/72637
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С Днём Победы! Happy Victory Day! 👉Live broadcast of the parade https://rutube.ru/video/8f6779f6c149a38c038f097d260f6300/
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The immersive exhibition "Feat of the people", currently held at Victory Museum in Moscow, takes you from the Brest fortress to Berlin's Reichstag, via besieged Leningrad, Stalin's war cabinet, the Soviet Information Bureau and much more. Visitors walk through very realistic tridimensional reconstructions of battle sites, war time weapon factories, the Leningrad library, clinics etc. A young guide provided a live commentary. And of course people posed for pictures in front of the captured Reichstag.
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For the first time the Việt Nam People’s Army will take part in a military parade abroad. Guess where. The Vietnamese delegation, comprising 80 members, arrived in Moscow on April 24 and is undergoing intensive training in preparation for the May 9 parade on the Red Square. The team is stationed about 60 kilometers from Moscow, alongside delegations from China, which sent the largest military contingent, Laos and Myanmar. (Source: Vietnam News) @LauraRuHK
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