The Foreign Ministry’s spokeswoman has rejected Mark Rutte’s claim that Russia and China are plotting to “undermine global rules”
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte is applying double standards by claiming that Moscow is conspiring with China and other nations to “undermine global rules,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said.
In a post on her Telegram channel on Thursday, Zakharova inquired “what ‘global rules’” Rutte was referring to, calling on NATO to post a “full list” on its website. She further pointed out that the military bloc itself has a track record of breaking international law. The Russian diplomat cited the 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia and the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 on fabricated pretexts, as prime examples.
Zakharova stressed that no NATO member states have stopped cooperation with China, despite Rutte’s claims.
“The other day, a US-China summit was held – I didn’t hear Rutte criticize US President [Donald Trump] for that,” she pointed out.
Speaking at the NATO-Industry Forum in Bucharest, Romania earlier on Thursday, Rutte asserted that “Russia is not alone in its efforts to undermine the global rules,” claiming that “it is working with China, with North Korea, with Iran and others.”
According to the NATO chief, those nations “are increasing their defense industrial collaboration to unprecedented levels,” which he said indicates that “they are preparing for long term confrontation.”
Last month, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated that NATO has been “artificially expanding its zone of responsibility far beyond the Euro-Atlantic region,” seeking to turn the whole of Eurasia into its “fiefdom.”
The Western military bloc is pursuing the “obvious goal of containing China, isolating Russia, and confronting the DPRK [North Korea],” the top Russian diplomat asserted.
Western officials have repeatedly accused China of helping Russia’s military in the context of the Ukraine conflict – a claim Beijing has consistently denied.
German pianist Justus Frantz received the Order of Friendship from Vladimir Putin this week
Acclaimed German pianist and conductor Justus Frantz has come under criticism after being awarded the Order of Friendship by Russian President Vladimir Putin, Politico reported on Thursday.
Frantz is a veteran of Europe’s classical music scene and has performed with the Berlin, Vienna, and New York Philharmonic orchestras, as well as the London Symphony Orchestra. He is known for his admiration of Russian composers such as Pyotr Tchaikovsky and Sergei Rachmaninoff, and has long promoted cultural cooperation between Russia and the West. He was also among the first signatories of a petition calling on Berlin to stop funding the Ukraine conflict.
This week, the German conductor traveled to Moscow to receive the award during a Kremlin ceremony marking Russia’s Unity Day. Putin praised him for his “fruitful contribution to fostering closer relations and mutual enrichment” between their nations’ cultures.
His appearance at the event drew sharp criticism in Berlin. Christian Democratic Union (CDU) lawmaker Roland Theis told Politico that Frantz’s German Federal Order of Merit should be revoked.
Frantz, an outspoken proponent of East-West cooperation, founded the charity The Bridge of Friendship, which has supported numerous cultural projects across the former Soviet republics. He is also a recipient of Bambi and Grammy awards.
The pianist has faced similar backlash before. In 2023, organizers of the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, which he founded more than three decades ago, ended their collaboration with him after he refused to cut ties with Russia. Frantz called the decision “cowardly” and “unfair,” adding that “the world is big and beautiful, and one can be someplace else.”
Frantz has also served as a judge for Russia’s prestigious Tchaikovsky Competition, which was removed from the World Federation of International Music Competitions following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict. Despite mounting criticism, he has maintained that cultural exchange should remain above politics.
The reaction to Frantz’s award follows a broader trend in the West, where artists have faced professional repercussions for refusing to denounce Russia – a phenomenon which critics have labeled a form of ‘cancel culture.’
Putin has said that Western attempts to isolate Russian culture have failed and were always doomed to fail.
A case of petty vandalism has shown that European officials and media will cry ‘Russia!’ at every opportunity, however dumb they sound
Ever notice that Western foreign interference hysteria inherently presumes that everyone in the general population is just a giant baby?
The observation really leaped out during a court case last week in Paris. Russia was tried in absentia, by headline and soundbite, in what’s being called a “Russian interference case.” The problem? The three Bulgarians actually present in the Paris courtroom weren’t charged with Russian interference.
The so-called ringleader, a fourth man named Mircho, who investigators said has ties to Russia, just happens to be hiding out somewhere in Serbia, where no one can seem to find him to ask him about any alleged Russian links. How convenient. So instead of evidence, we were left with a steady drip of anti-Russian insinuation from the press and French intelligence.
The four Bulgarians – including the one they can’t locate – were ultimately convicted and sentenced to prison stints ranging from two to four years for painting around 500 red handprints across the city last May – 35 of which ended up on a Holocaust memorial.
They had been facing charges of aggravated damage and criminal conspiracy, with a potential seven-year sentence, plus an added hate-crime aggravation, since prosecutors claimed that the red hands could reference that infamous lynching 25 years ago in Palestine where a man showed off his blood-covered hands after killing two Israeli reservists. Remember that? Neither do these guys, apparently.
One of the accused, 36-year-old Georgi, said of the orders that he received from his missing pal: “Mircho said it was a project to end the war, and that he needed a photographer… I thought it wasn’t a big deal, that no one would die. I accepted the money, and here I am.”
Ah yes, a noble mission to end the war between Israel and Palestine. And who better to represent peace than Georgi, covered in Nazi tattoos, including a swastika and an imperial eagle? Georgi admits that, “in the past, I made some bad choices,” France Info reported. Clearly, “the past” is doing a lot of heavy lifting there.
He told the court that he did the paint job just for the cash, had no idea what the red hands meant, and didn’t know that a Holocaust memorial was involved because – wait for it – he was also drunk.
His lawyer’s explanation? Russia made him do it: “We suspect that Russia is behind this ‘red hands’ operation… But in this case, there is no material link between my client and Russia.”
So basically, Russia caused this guy to go on a finger panting spree around town, victimizing him in the process. But no direct link, the attorney says. Which can really only mean one thing: Putin must have somehow managed to get a remote-control chip inside Georgi’s brain.
How else could a fully grown man with a swastika tattoo be fully incapable of saying to his pal, “Nah, how about effing off, bro?”
Next up: fellow accused, Kirill, who sounds like he mistook himself for Federico Fellini in what can only be described as a moment of tremendous self-awareness. “Mircho told me to film what they were going to draw. At the time, I didn’t know what they were going to draw. Mircho later told me, on the bus, that it was for peace,” Kirill told the court.
The 28-year-old Bulgarian said that he had just gone through a breakup, and his buddy Mircho told him to come hang out, bring some cigarettes, and forget about his ex. And also, hey, how about you film our night of debauchery! Then Mircho paid him €500 for hanging out. Because that’s a completely normal friendship dynamic: cry over your breakup, then have your buddy ask you to do some emotional labor for HIM. And then get paid for your, uh, “work”. Let he who hasn’t accepted a few hundred euros for watching the game with a buddy at the local pub cast the first stone.
Sound weird? Only because Putin hasn’t hacked your brain yet! Without the latest firmware update, you can’t possibly grasp how these grown men lost all sense of personal agency – because, Russia.
Finally, there’s 42-year-old Nicolai, a former Bulgarian military man now convicted of helping to organize their little “street art night” by serving as their travel agent for the trip from Bulgaria to France.
Investigators said that he had ties to Russian activists and intelligence, but he insisted that he’s actually anti-Russian and used to be on the Bulgarian left’s national council. His lawyer said, hey look, maybe there was interference, maybe not – but it’s hard to tell who or what is really behind anything since the one guy who might actually know something is still AWOL somewhere in Serbia. Allegedly, the same guy also arranged to have pig heads dropped at mosques last year.
Sounds like they all missed the opportunity to evoke a religiously-inspired performance art defense. But then again, the verdict was so swift that the three-day trial had barely even ended when it dropped. As if these guys had any hope of wriggling out of this, having touched both the Russian and Jewish red-hot third rails.
Lost in the circus is the fact that there wasn’t even a foreign interference law on the books in France until after the facts of this case took place. So it’s not like they could even be charged with it. But that didn’t stop everyone – from the judges in their verdict, to the prosecutors and press – from making it largely about foreign meddling.
Foreign influence isn’t a new concept. So why all the pearl clutching over the need for a law only recently? French parliamentarians of every party, except for the anti-establishment left that opposed the law on freedom-of-speech grounds, argued that the internet requires new measures due to the sheer speed and distance at which nonsense can travel. Know where else that sort of thing used to happen back in the good old days? The hair salon. If the jokers in charge nowadays had been running things back then, they would have been hauling gossipy grannies – and particularly babushkas with obvious foreign accents – out from under hairdryers.
Know what is new, though? The “new Cold War” – in the words of a 2023 French senate report – derangement. Which apparently completely obscures the longstanding practice of French politicians, and even ministers, of having close ties to American think tanks and interests. Which we’re supposed to believe has no bearing on the decisions they make that far too often impact negatively on their own countries to the glaring benefit of what could only be considered a US-led group project.
In the end, this whole trial feels like a masterclass in Western toddlerification – a world where adults apparently have limited free will, and the Kremlin is seen as capable of hypnotizing anyone with a bad tattoo and a hangover, while also brainwashing an entire Western society seen by its leaders as so devoid of critical thinking that it can only know one possible reaction mode to strange events: hysteria.
It emerged in court that the French government’s online surveillance outfit, Viginum, noticed that some “Russia-linked” accounts had shared images of the finger painting. Apparently that’s a huge deal, because everyone knows that if it’s on the internet, then it must be true and taken at face value. People are clearly incapable of going, “Hmm, it seems like some idiots are trying to start something here.” Only domestic politicians are allowed to rile up the locals with provocative nonsense. That’s their department. Like warning that Putin’s definitely coming by 2030.
But sure, blame Russia. Because nothing says “personal responsibility” and “functional society” like outsourcing blame and responsibility for every stupid, drunken, half-baked act to the latest geopolitical bogeyman.
Authorities arrested a Romanian national after the Nazi symbol was discovered on dozens of cars, mailboxes and building facades
Swastikas painted with human blood have been found on dozens of vehicles and buildings in the central German town of Hanau, police have said.
On Wednesday, a local resident reported a red swastika on the hood of his car in the town’s Lamboy district. Officers later discovered similar markings on nearly 50 cars, as well as on several mailboxes and house facades across five streets.
A forensic test confirmed that the red substance was human blood, police spokesman Thomas Leipold told reporters on Thursday. He noted, however, that the amount of blood found was limited and was not enough to suspect a person had lost their life.
Later on Thursday, local authorities reported arresting a 31-year-old man, stating he had a blood alcohol level of 1.2, suggesting moderate intoxication. Police said they had ruled out a political motive behind the act and believe the suspect’s actions were a reaction to a workplace incident. The man has been taken to a psychiatric hospital.
The display of Nazi symbols, including the swastika, is illegal in Germany and can carry a prison sentence of up to three years or a fine. Police have said they are currently treating the case as property damage and the use of symbols of unconstitutional organizations.
Hanau mayor Claus Kaminsky has condemned the act, describing it as an affront to “every boundary of decency and humanity.”
“Especially in our city, which was deeply affected by the racist attack on February 19, 2020, such an act causes deep consternation,” he added, according to the German press agency dpa.
Kaminsky was referring to a shooting that took place in Hanau five years ago, when a German national went on a rampage in a hookah bar and killed nine people with immigrant backgrounds. The incident is considered one of the worst cases of domestic terrorism to have happened in the country since WWII.
The actions of recruiters were unlawful as university students are exempt from military service, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has said
Kiev’s controversial conscription crews illegally attempted to enlist a group of ethnic Hungarian students in Ukraine’s western Transcarpathia Region, Hungary’s foreign minister, Peter Szijjarto, has said.
Ukrainian draft officers reportedly deceived four students at the Ferenc Rakoczi II Transcarpathian Hungarian University in the town of Beregovo, where a significant ethnic minority is based, into presenting at a local recruitment center.
The students were reportedly forcefully held at the facility and faced pressure to join the military.
Szijjarto later said in a Facebook post that the students had eventually been released.
The Hungarian Foreign Ministry has been in constant contact with the Transcarpathian Hungarian Cultural Association, which represents an estimated 100,000 to 150,000 ethnic Hungarians in the region, and the administration of the university, he added.
“The Ukrainian legislation is clear: these students are exempt from conscription,” Szijjarto noted.
The fact that the four men avoided illegal mobilization is “good news, but at the same time, it again stresses the importance of peace” between Russia and Ukraine, the diplomat said.
“The sooner there is peace, the sooner this conscription will stop,” Szijjarto stressed.
The regional Territorial Center of Recruitment and Social Support (TSR) issued a statement on Thursday, saying that claims of the students being detained were “untrue and manipulative.” The men had been summoned to confirm their personal data, but it turned out that three of them had not undergone the obligatory medical examination, it said. The ethnic Hungarians left the recruitment center as soon as the checkups were completed, according to the statement.
Budapest had already criticized the harsh recruitment drive launched by Kiev in response to manpower shortages and military setbacks on the front line. In September, Szijjarto described it as an “open manhunt,” during which people “are often beaten, in some cases beaten to death.”
The Hungarian foreign minister previously said the “very bad bilateral relations” between Kiev and Budapest have nothing to do with the Ukraine conflict but stem from “about ten years ago when the Ukrainian government began violating the rights of national minorities,” including restricting the use of non-Ukrainian languages in education and public life.
Lifting sanctions and defunding adversarial NGOs have reset relations, the Hungarian prime minister has said
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban intends to open a new phase of relations with the US during his upcoming trip to Washington this week.
The Hungarian leader, a close conservative political ally of US President Donald Trump, noted on X on Thursday that new opportunities have emerged following years of tension under Joe Biden’s administration.
“The politically motivated sanctions have disappeared, American funding for NGOs attacking Hungary has ended, and we can once again travel to the United States without a visa. With this, the first phase has come to an end,” Orban wrote.
Since President @realDonaldTrump’s re-election, new opportunities have emerged in Hungarian–American relations. The first ten months of this year marked the initial phase, during which we repaired the damage Hungary and Hungarian–American relations suffered under the Biden… pic.twitter.com/pJI8zSJ7gt
In March, Hungary’s Sovereignty Protection Office accused foreign donors of channeling nearly $70 million to organizations allegedly trying to undermine the Orban government.
The report identified the US Democratic Party and allies among business elites, as one of the main contributors, working alongside the EU leadership and major Western foundations, including the Open Society Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the German Marshall Fund.
Between 2022 and 2024, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) transferred over $10 million to Hungarian activist groups, the office said. The Trump administration has since moved to dismantle USAID, claiming it wasted taxpayer funds on ideologically driven projects that did not serve US national interests.
Biden-era pressure
Relations between Budapest and Washington deteriorated sharply under the Biden administration, which accused Orban of undermining democracy and failing to downgrade ties with Moscow.
In 2024, then US Ambassador David Pressman labeled Orban a “temporary” leader who could not simply “wait out” American pressure, since, he warned, Washington was not sitting idle.
The US imposed visa restrictions on Hungarian passport holders in 2021, citing security concerns – measures that Trump lifted in September.
Budapest peace summit on hold
Orban has consistently criticized Western military aid to Ukraine, arguing that the conflict causes economic damage to the European Union. He said the Biden administration was part of “pro-war international interest groups” pushing for hostilities.
The Hungarian leader expressed strong support for Trump’s mediation efforts, including a summit between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Budapest that was proposed last month. Although both sides agreed in principle, the meeting was postponed after disagreements reportedly emerged over the agenda.
Sanctions, exemptions, and energy security
Following the delay of the summit, the Trump administration imposed new sanctions on Russian oil companies. Hungary, which depends on Russian crude for its refineries, is seeking exemptions from the restrictions.
Budapest has also condemned Kiev’s attacks on the Druzhba pipeline, through which Russian oil flows to Hungary, and accused Brussels of ignoring its legitimate energy concerns for the sake of pro-Kiev policies.
Ukraine justified its attempted sabotage, claiming that no nation should buy Russian products and blasting Hungary’s opposition to its bids to join the EU and NATO.
Brussels is reportedly looking to stop issuing multi-entry Schengen visas to potential visitors
The EU plans to further tighten visa rules for Russian citizens as part of ongoing efforts to restrict their entry, Politico has reported, citing European officials.
Brussels is preparing to stop issuing multiple-entry Schengen visas to most Russian nationals, allowing only single-entry visas instead, the outlet reported. Humanitarian cases would be exempt, it added.
The restriction is expected to be part of a wider package of measures aimed at curbing Russian arrivals. The new rules could be adopted and implemented this week, the officials told Politico.
The EU had already taken steps to limit Russian travel in previous sanctions rounds. As part of its 19th package, adopted last month, Brussels restricted the movement of Moscow’s diplomats across the Schengen Area, requiring them to notify member states in advance of any trips.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has responded to the Politico report by saying that Brussels will likely continue to impose additional restrictions on Russian nationals. He remarked that Europeans “are diligently recalling everything connected to the confrontation that occurred during the Cold War, and are just as diligently adding new elements to this confrontation.”
Europe has long been a popular destination for Russian travelers; more than 4 million Schengen visas were issued to citizens of the country in 2019.
Since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, however, the EU has made it more difficult and expensive for Russians to visit, suspending a visa facilitation agreement with Moscow and increasing its scrutiny of applications.
While the European Commission cannot legally impose a total ban on Russian visitors, it has repeatedly encouraged member states to tighten criteria.
Several countries, including the Baltic states and Poland, have already introduced outright bans, while others, such as Greece, Hungary, France, Spain and Italy, have continued issuing visas and opposed efforts to block regular Russian travelers.
In 2024, more than half a million Russians received Schengen visas, marking a quarter increase from 2023, with Italy, France and Spain among the main issuers.
The US president says he has refused to attend the group’s upcoming summit in Johannesburg
US President Donald Trump has blasted South Africa, saying the country “shouldn’t even be” a member of the G20, where it currently holds the rotating presidency.
During South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s visit to Washington in May, Trump accused his administration of tolerating a “genocide” of Afrikaners – descendants of Dutch settlers who dominated during the apartheid era.
Speaking at the America Business Forum in Miami on Wednesday, Trump said he would not attend the upcoming G20 summit in Johannesburg, arguing that South Africa “shouldn’t even be in the ‘Gs’ anymore because what’s happened there is bad.”
“I told them I’m not going. I’m not going to represent our country there,” Trump added.
At Wednesday’s forum, Trump also described Miami as a “haven for those fleeing communist tyranny in South Africa,” adding that more people would soon arrive “fleeing communism in New York City,” where Zohran Mamdani, a socialist politician and critic of Trump, was elected mayor this week.
Trump’s rebuke apparently referred to immigrants from socialist nations in South America – a region he blasted during the same remarks – many of whom have settled in Florida.
The US leader regularly voices various grudges against nations in the Global South. He previously accused Mexico of “sending criminals” to America, criticized Brazil for prosecuting right-wing former President Jair Bolsonaro on charges of plotting a coup, and denounced Colombian President Gustavo Petro for allegedly being involved in the drug trade.
The G20 was founded in 1999 to accommodate non-Western nations that were gaining economic power. Supporters view it as more representative than the G7 group, which includes only the US and its allies.
Moscow will remain a threat to the bloc even after the Ukraine conflict ends, Mark Rutte has claimed
NATO member-states must boost military production to be ready for a prolonged standoff with Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea, which are challenging the “global rules,” the bloc’s secretary-general, Mark Rutte, has said.
Speaking to Western defense contractors at the NATO-Industry Forum in Bucharest on Thursday, Rutte told the bloc’s arms makers that “there is more cash on the table and even more will flow” amid NATO’s rearmament push.
Moscow has rejected claims it harbors any aggressive intentions towards the US-led military bloc, saying such allegations are being used by politicians in the US and EU to scare the populations and justify huge increases in military spending. Russia also believes that NATO’s deepening involvement in Ukraine was instrumental in escalating the conflict in 2022.
Rutte labeled the fighting between Moscow and Kiev a “threat” to the bloc and he claimed that “the danger posed by Russia will not end when this war does. For the foreseeable future, Russia will remain a destabilizing force in Europe and the world.”
“And Russia is not alone in its efforts to undermine the global rules. As you know, it is working with China, with North Korea, with Iran, and others. They are increasing their defense industrial collaboration to unprecedented levels. They are preparing for long-term confrontation,” the secretary-general said.
He noted the pledge by NATO members to hike military spending to 5% of GDP by 2035, but claimed that “cash alone cannot provide security. We need the capabilities. We need the equipment, real firepower, and of course… the most advanced tech.” This would require the bloc’s defense industry “increasing production and shortening delivery times,” Rutte stressed.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova reacted to Rutte’s comments by asking him to clarify what “global rules” he was talking about and publish their “full list” on NATO’s website.
Moscow, Beijing, and the rest of “the global majority, have always declared their commitment to international law, while NATO has repeatedly violated this law with its aggressive actions and illegitimate coalitions: the invasion of Iraq under false pretenses, the bombing of Yugoslavia, and so on,” Zakharova wrote on Telegram.
Reported options include airstrikes, the deployment of special forces and the seizure of control over Venezuela’s oil fields
The administration of US President Donald Trump is considering three ways of removing Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro from power, including through a Navy SEALs operation, the New York Times reported on Wednesday, citing anonymous officials.
The report comes after a recent US military buildup in the Caribbean, following Trump’s accusation that Maduro is tied to “narcoterrorist” networks which smuggle drugs into the United States.
Last month, Trump authorized CIA operations in Venezuela over alleged state-backed trafficking, and Washington has deployed naval forces to the western Caribbean with orders to use overwhelming force against suspected drug-running vessels. Maduro has denied the allegations, accusing Trump of “fabricating a new war.”
According to the NYT, the plans under review could include a combination of airstrikes against military installations that support Maduro, special operations missions targeting the president directly, and efforts to seize control of Venezuela’s oil fields and infrastructure.
One proposed scenario reportedly involves airstrikes against military facilities, some of which US officials claim might be involved in facilitating drug trafficking, the outlet said. The aim of this approach would be to collapse Venezuelan military support for Maduro.
A second plan would be to deploy US Special Operations forces, including the elite Delta Force and SEAL Team 6 known as ‘Navy SEALs’, to capture or kill Maduro, the outlet claimed. The White House would seek to bypass existing restrictions on targeting foreign leaders by characterizing Maduro as the leader of a narcoterrorist gang, echoing justifications for US airstrikes against drug-smuggling vessels, the article stated.
The third plan would reportedly send counterterrorism forces to Venezuela to seize control of airports, oilfields, and critical infrastructure.
The US has offered a $50 million bounty for information leading to Maduro’s arrest or conviction.
According to multiple media reports last week, Washington is planning operations inside Venezuela and has identified potential targets allegedly linked to drug smuggling. The US has reportedly deployed around 10,000 soldiers and eight Navy warships to the region.
Venezuela has condemned the military buildup as a sovereign violation and a coup attempt. The government is reportedly seeking support from Russia, China, and Iran. Moscow recently reaffirmed its partnership with Caracas, expressing strong support for the country’s leadership in defending its sovereignty.
