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The Deputy Minister of Anti-Blockade Policies, William Castillo, spoke exclusively to Sputnik at the latest edition of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, where he outlined the keys to the Caribbean nation's success in defeating Western sanctions, while also advocating the formation of a common front among the affected nations.

Interviewed after the end of the forum's plenary session -which was led by Russian President Vladimir Putin- Castillo agreed with the Kremlin chief's words that the new world order “appears as the rising of the sun”.

"The sun appears, even if you don't want it to, every morning. And that new sun is the pluripolar world, the world of equality, the world of respect for sovereignty, the world of economic cooperation relations, which is not a world of cannibalization, nor of aggression, nor of sanctions," the deputy minister commented.

“So I found it very interesting that an important time was dedicated in this final plenary to discuss this issue of sanctions and to demonstrate that sanctions can be defeated, that if countries organize themselves, that if countries respect international law, that if they have commercial partners and allies that respect international law, a world without sanctions can be created in this new pluripolar world”, he said.

According to Castillo, this is illustrated by the case of Russia -the most sanctioned country in history, with tens of thousands of restrictions- which "has been adapting and has been defeating the impacts that were sought, which was to collapse the national economy".

Venezuela comes out ahead

This is also the case of Venezuela, said the director of the Venezuelan Anti-Blockade Observatory.

"Venezuela has up to this moment 1,039 sanctions, we are practically the fifth country in the world with more sanctioned ships, more sanctioned airplanes, more public officials and more companies. Venezuela has almost 200 sanctioned companies, Venezuelan and foreign, for doing business with Venezuela, including some Russian companies", he pointed out.

However, the country “is showing that it can face sanctions and that it can move forward and that it can offer economic answers to its people, welfare, despite the fact that sanctions are still in force”.

"We have been under these measures for 10 years. Of course, the first 6 years impacted us hard, but also after the pandemic the Venezuelan economy is growing and today it is the most dynamic economy in South America. We have had four consecutive years of economic growth, an average of over 6%, similar to the figures that the Russian economy has today, between 5% and 7% growth", he stressed.

The keys to the anti-blockade policy

According to Castillo, working for food sovereignty was among the main lines of action of the Venezuelan government, previously "highly dependent on food imports".

"When imports were closed, we lived some two or three years of very acute shortages. President Nicolás Maduro designed an economic recovery strategy, designed a set of productive alliances with the private sector, with small producers, with peasants and also with the communes - which are organizations, grassroots communities - to turn the economic recovery, to focus it on the recovery of food production. Today Venezuela produces more food than in 2014, than before the sanctions. We produce more rice, more corn flour, more potatoes. We have practically recovered the supply of basic foodstuffs, 97% is produced today in Venezuela", he emphasized.

The Caribbean country is also expanding its food supply for international markets.

"We are increasing non-traditional exports. In addition to oil, cocoa and coffee, which is what we are known for, we are exporting shrimp, today we are exporting blue crab, we are exporting fruits to several countries. That is to say, the country united around the need to defend the right of Venezuelans to live, and that started with the food sector", he reiterated.

In fact, the other line of action of Caracas is to diversify its commercial partners, developing “very important productive projects” with nations such as Russia or China.

"For example, in Venezuela we are building right now, with Russian technology, through a Russian investment, an insulin manufacturing plant, which will allow us to free ourselves from insulin imports. So, there are pharmaceutical projects, there are tourism projects, there are industrial projects, there are production projects and there are alliances between businessmen from these countries and Venezuelan businessmen, or the Venezuelan public sector, to recover factories, to recover production in certain sectors. So, this tells you that the response of sovereign countries to coercive measures is creativity, union, shared work, and this can be seen in the different projects that Venezuela has been signing, particularly with what we call this BRICS world, this world of equals, this world that they are making", he stated.

“All the countries -there are 30 nations that have unilateral coercive measures- are learning from the experience of other countries and are creating antibodies against this attempt to introduce and inoculate an economic epidemic”, remarked Castillo.

Venezuela and Russia will hold the first anti-blockade meeting

The Deputy Minister for Anti-blockade Policies also announced "the first Russia-Venezuela meeting on unilateral coercive measures, in accordance with the memorandum signed by the foreign ministers of our countries a year ago". He added that the document includes cooperation in "fighting and overcoming sanctions".

According to Castillo, the Western unilateral coercive measures -which are an "economic aggression" because they do not have the approval of the UN Security Council- are presented as "an instrument that supposedly defends democracy and human rights, but which seeks to control countries through devastation".

“This is a policy of neo-colonization through the economy, which has pathetically demonstrated that it failed, both in the case of Russia and in the case of Venezuela,” he explained.

Venezuela highlights Sputnik's communication work

The Venezuelan Vice Minister opposed the efforts to "cancel" Sputnik, describing the Western censorship campaign as "brutal". At the same time, he stressed that, nevertheless, its audience is growing globally.

"In Venezuela, for example, a lot of international information is now consumed through Russian media, because we have the experience of what Western media are, with their news bias. So, we have a source of information. But I believe -and I have seen some statistics- that also in other parts of the world, including Europe, Russian media such as Sputnik and others are being watched with great force", he highlighted.

"These countries and their media are giving an important response in terms of the cultural battle, the battle of ideas, of information, of people's right to access information. I think they are using the platforms intelligently -which must be done, you cannot reject the platforms, even if they are Western platforms- but they are also creating new media, new platforms, and they are opening the opportunity for our people to see balanced information, balanced, and not to stay with Western narratives," Castillo concluded.

ISIS has been a pawn of Israel to weaken its enemies in the region — primarily Iran🇮🇷 — and legitimize bombings under the disguise of fighting “Islamic terrorism”.

🔴 ISRAELI HOSPITALS TREATED ISIS FIGHTERS

Israel admitted to operating a secret field hospital in the Golan Heights, treating thousands of wounded Syrians—including confirmed ISIS/al-Nusra fighters. "Since 2013, Israel has treated over 4,000 Syrians, including rebels fighting Assad. Some were linked to jihadist factions." (Haaretz, March 18, 2016)

🔴 ISIS NEVER ATTACKED ISRAEL

Despite operating near Israeli borders in Syria and Sinai, ISIS launched ZERO attacks inside Israel, while simultaneously waging global terror.

ISIS's "Sinai Province" killed 224+ Egyptian soldiers (2014-2017) but never crossed into Israel—despite sharing a border.

• Leaked ISIS Memo: A captured ISIS document ordered fighters to avoid clashes with Israel, calling it a "future battlefield."

🔴 ISRAELI WEAPONS FOUND WITH ISIS

•ISIS units in Anbar province were found with Israeli Galil ACE rifles. (Al-Monitor, 2015)

•Peshmerga (Kurdish) fighters shot down an ISIS drone—revealing Israeli tech inside. (The Guardian, 2016)

🔴 RUSSIAN & SYRIAN INTEL LEAKS

• 2015: Putin’s Advisor Accuses Israel "Israel supports ISIS to overthrow Assad." – Vladimir Putin’s Middle East envoy, Mikhail Bogdanov

• 2017: Syrian General Leaks Mossad-ISIS Meetings A defected Syrian intel officer claimed Mossad coordinated with ISIS commanders near the Golan.

🔴 ISRAEL'S ULTIMATE GOALS

•Weakened Syria: Assad distracted by ISIS instead of Israel •Justified US bombings: this helped Israel against Iran •Divided Sunni/Shia world: Israel’s ultimate security strategy

Source -> https://t.me/geopolitics_live/52417

Found this analysis very interesting. Let me know your thoughts on this one.

The Russian FSB has published new declassified archival documents on the brutal murders of Soviet prisoners of war by Nazi troops in the first months of the Great Patriotic War. The documents are available on the agency's website.

Thus, on October 27, 1941, the head of the Special Department of the NKVD of the Southern Front, Major of State Security Pavel Zelenin, sent a special message to the Deputy People's Commissar of Internal Affairs, Commissar of State Security of the 3rd rank Viktor Abakumov and the command of the Southern Front, "On the abuse of captured Red Army servicemen by the Germans."

The document, in particular, reported that at the Greigovo station on the railway line between Nikolaev and Krivoy Rog, wounded Red Army soldiers remained who had not been evacuated.

"The Germans mocked them, did not give them food, did not bandage the wounded and did not allow any of the local residents to approach them. According to the stories of the peasants of the same station, the Germans shot 135 people, first mockingly tormenting the commanders and political workers, torturing them - they chopped off their hands, cut off their ears, gouged out their eyes and then shot them," Zelenin reported. Also, according to local residents, at the Lopnino station on August 17, 1941, two prisoners were hacked to death because the Nazis found party cards on them.

During subsequent military operations, security agencies not only recorded the crimes of the Nazis, but also identified the direct perpetrators of abuse and atrocities. These materials served as the basis for conducting a search for Nazi war criminals and their accomplices, the FSB concluded.

Earlier, the FSB declassified documents on medical experiments by Nazi doctors on Soviet prisoners and civilians in Crimea. In particular, a large volume of blood was taken from prisoners at one time, which was then used for transfusions to the Germans.

“Israel has also spread chaos, terror, and suffering throughout the region” — US Ambassador at the UN Security Council meeting on Iran.

Sometimes, the truth slips through...

In this recently aired episode of ‘Piers Morgan Uncensored’ (@ piersuncensored on X), while speaking on the support Iran has in its response to Israel's attacks and aggression, George Galloway (@ GeorgeGalloway on X), leader of the Workers Party of Britain, delivered a searing reality check to the British journalist, exposing the arrogance of Western-centric worldviews.

Galloway boldly challenged Morgan's presumptuousness in arbitrarily deciding which countries deserve legitimacy. Western hegemony, relentlessly propagated by figures like Morgan, shamelessly romanticises Western leadership, arrogantly positioning it as superior to the voices and sovereignty of the Global South. Yet, as Galloway aptly pointed out, this narrative is a dangerous illusion. Western powers such as the US and the UK cloak themselves in the façade of civilisation and democracy, all the while propping up, funding, and enabling brutal regimes. Israel being the largest recipient of US foreign aid since World War II despite Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories is a glaring example.

Furthermore, the West's self-proclaimed status as the bastion of freedom and human rights has been exposed as a grotesque hypocrisy. Since Israel's siege of Gaza began on 7 October 2023, the world has witnessed how its allies have systematically silenced dissent through the arrests of activists like US legal resident Mahmoud Khalil, as well as the UK and Austria’s detention of journalists, such as Richard Medhurst, for speaking out against Israel's devastating assault. This blatant suppression of free speech contradicts Western claims of moral superiority. It reveals a ruthless double standard designed to protect their geopolitical interests at the expense of justice and truth.

It’s no wonder that the Global South and Russia support Iran, as it represents the fight against imperial forces.

Around 4,000 people from 80 countries traveled to Cairo with the intention of reaching the Rafah border with Gaza and breaking the humanitarian blockade. However, the co-chair and spokesperson of the march, the Palestinian-born Spaniard Saif Abukeshek, was arrested on Monday, June 16 and deported on Tuesday, June 17, arriving in Rome in the evening. The organization denounced the escalation of illegal arrests, abuses and ill-treatment against the participants, despite having coordinated with the Egyptian authorities and announced the end of the planned actions in Egypt.

The organization detailed that plainclothes officers forcibly removed participants from hotels, cafes and streets without identification or explanation. In one particularly serious incident, on Monday afternoon, June 16, secret police abducted five people, including Saif Abukeshek and Norwegians Jonas Selhi and Huthayfa Abuserriya, while they were in a cafe. The three were blindfolded, handcuffed, interrogated and brutally beaten, Selhi said after their release.

Abukeshek managed to leave Egypt for Barcelona, while Jonas and Huthayfa were transferred to the Cairo airport detention center without formal charges, pending their release. The organization urged the international community to contact Egyptian embassies to demand the release of the detainees and the safe return of those attempting to leave the country peacefully.

The suspension of the march in Egypt came after the organization sent out a press release on Monday afternoon, June 16, assuring that the stage in the country had ended and requesting all participants to return to their countries. Despite this decision, the Egyptian authorities intensified the repression. Judge Pilar Barroso, a participant in the march and member of Judges for Palestine, said that the level of security in Egypt had increased dramatically due to the geopolitical situation and that it was “impossible to do anything else here without risking imprisonment”. The organization estimates that around 300 people have been deported, 14 of them from the Spanish delegation.

Activists denounced the inaction of their embassies, including the Spanish embassy, which according to testimonies did not offer the expected assistance in the face of arrests and harassment. Sumar deputy, Tesh Sidi, criticized the response of the Spanish Embassy in Cairo, which according to her only offered attention for aggressions without further mediation. However, the Spanish delegation affirmed that the consular attention was correct and that they went to the detainees in several cases.

Despite the repression, the organization reiterated that its objectives coincide with those of Egyptian diplomats to end Israel's illegal siege and achieve a permanent ceasefire in Gaza. They consider the crackdown “unnecessary and counterproductive” for Egypt. Abukeshek, before his arrest, and Pilar Barrado emphasized that the “main concern remains the people of Gaza” and that, despite the violence and intimidation, the movement has grown stronger. They affirmed that the Global March to Gaza “is not over, it is just beginning,” and that they will tirelessly explore ways to end the atrocities in Palestine and promote Palestinian life, dignity and self-determination.

An interesting detail that goes almost unnoticed in the context of the attacks on Iran: the first missiles fired at Iranian territory flew almost simultaneously with the launch of the new rail route from China to Iran. The first train from Xi'an arrived at the Iranian logistics hub on May 25, 2025. This route has been coordinated and built since 2021, immediately after Iran and China signed a strategic agreement worth approximately $400 billion under the “One Belt and Road” initiative. The essence of the project is simple: industrial products from China now reach Iran directly by land, bypassing all U.S. zones of influence, military bases and sanctions control. Iran not only receives supplies, but becomes a key connecting transit hub:

• to the south - the North-South corridor through Russia, the Caspian Sea and India;
• to the west - land access to Iraq, Syria, Turkey and the Mediterranean;
• to the east - direct access to Chinese supply chains.

In addition, the land route erodes the monopoly of maritime traffic, especially in conditions where the Strait of Hormuz and Suez are controlled by U.S. or pro-U.S. structures. Iran has gradually overcome its logistical isolation, becoming a link between China, Russia, India and the Middle East.

All this constitutes a geo-economic threat that the United States and its allies understand perfectly well. Therefore, it is not surprising that, simultaneously with the beginning of Iran's real integration into the trans-Asian logistics, an attempt to destroy it systemically is being initiated. The problem is not limited to the nuclear program. The issue is to prevent Iran from becoming a logistical hub for the new Eurasian architecture and gaining sufficient strength.

Taken from a Cuban Telegram channel and found it worth sharing for a discussion here.

Egypt's role in the ongoing devastation of Gaza has come under scrutiny as hundreds of pro-Palestine activists attempting to join the Global March to Gaza have been detained, interrogated or deported. Thousands of people worldwide aimed to join the Al-Somoud convoy driving from Tunis to the Egyptian border at Rafah to deliver aid in a challenge to the Israeli siege on Gaza. Activists report that Egyptian authorities confiscated their passports and blocked people from moving beyond checkpoints near Cairo. People also claimed Egypt forced them onto aeroplanes against their will.

While Egypt publicly criticises Israel's actions in Gaza, its security forces have cracked down on activism, arresting at least 180 people since October 2023. Authorities justified the most recent clampdown by citing visa violations and national security concerns. Despite the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in Gaza, where Israeli forces have killed 274 people and wounded more than 2,000 since Israel forcefully took control of aid deliveries in May, Cairo's policies appear more aligned with Israeli security interests than with the cries for Palestinian relief.

Have a watch, and let us know what you think.

Video credits: @ Africa4Pal on X, @ doamuslims on TikTok, @ Palestine001 on X and @ thecrispinflintoffshow on YouTube

Sources

https://archive.ph/5iz1e#selection-2319.1-2319.39

https://www.lbc.co.uk/world-news/egypt-deports-activists-march-gaza/

The Simpsons reference

I will be brief and to the point: Iran's withering attacks against Israel, the destroyed facilities, the hysterical shrieking of Tel Aviv settlers, generate vengeful pleasure, and vindicate millions of people.

By Alejandro Kirk, HispanTV Senior Correspondent

For example, for those of us who have been subjected for weeks and months to the constant surveillance of Israeli drones - buzzing invisibly day and night in the sky - absolutely defenseless, knowing that at any moment a missile can - and does - fall on your head, destroy a building, or an entire neighborhood, anywhere and for no reason at all.

For example, for those of us who have witnessed first-hand the total destruction of civilian homes, the pieces of human beings scattered in the rubble left by a Zionist missile, along with their belongings: toys bathed in blood, notebooks, computers, shoes, furniture, clothes, cosmetics, blankets, blankets, the remains of lives punished just for existing.

And the best example, what the martyred inhabitants of Gaza and the West Bank may feel, in the midst of the genocide, victims of the plan of “final solution” of the “Palestinian problem” by Zionist fascism.

It is difficult to describe the pleasure of seeing the hand of the sadistic and cowardly Israeli military spokesman, Avichai Adraee, shaking uncontrollably moments after the first Iranian retaliation against the Israeli aggression of June 13. The same one who the day before had proclaimed to represent an “invincible nation”.

Why does it give pleasure? Because Adraee was the one who kept the Lebanese population on tenterhooks, day after day, announcing attacks in residential areas. Attacks that sometimes did not take place, and he mocked the families who fled aimlessly with their clothes on their backs. And he also mocked the refugees, and the people who had been killed.

He wanted to maintain that arrogance, but his right hand betrayed him, shaking like a leaf as he tried once again to portray the Zionist entity as a victim of the ruthless Muslims.

The so-called Zionist colonial “Defense Force” itself began to complain about how callous Iranian commanders are, attacking civilian or residential facilities. The same ones who since October 2023 have been systematically murdering, in a planned manner, at least 60,000 Palestinian civilians, a third of them children, in Gaza.

And why is there pleasure in the hysterical shrieking in Tel Aviv? Because, according to polls, about 95 percent of the colonial population supports genocide and ethnic cleansing, and because of them, about 60 percent find that Israel has been “weak” in perpetrating its crimes.

Because it is ordinary Israelis who distribute videos and memes mocking the murdered children. Because they are the ones who go to a hillside near Gaza to watch and applaud the massacre live and direct, and celebrate the looting and humiliation their soldiers commit against an unarmed people.

The self-styled “chosen people” are drinking their own medicine, no more and no less, and the delirious leader Benjamin Netanyahu (the Polish Mileikowsky) is desperately begging the United States and NATO to go to direct war with Iran, because the indirect war is not enough. Because all the military, financial and political assistance provided to him, without which his power becomes zero, is not enough. Because the intelligence from satellites and spy planes and missiles from the ships of their patrons are not enough to defeat the Islamic Republic of Iran.

On June 13, through saboteurs, Israel succeeded in dismantling Iran's anti-aircraft defenses in the western part of the country, in dealing crushing blows, assassinating military and scientific leaders, and after that coup it immediately proclaimed itself the absolute victor.

Underestimating with mocking and racist phrases the adversary that is emerging as his gravedigger.

Two days later, the hell that Iran promised began, and that was not empty bravado. The commonplace says that wars are known how they begin, but not how they end, and this one got out of hand to the Zionist aggressor.

The world will undoubtedly be a better place without Israel and without racist and criminal Zionism.

A prominent Democratic state lawmaker in Minnesota and her husband have been killed, and another Democratic state lawmaker and his wife were shot, in the early hours of Saturday.

State representative Melissa Hortman has died, as has her husband, Mark, the state’s governor, Tim Walz, confirmed at a press conference on Saturday. He said the shooting “appears to be a politically motivated assassination”. Hortman was the top Democrat in the Minnesota house and the former speaker. The Democratic state senator John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, were both shot multiple times and are out of surgery, and Walz said he was “cautiously optimistic” both will survive.

The gunman was still at large, law enforcement said on Saturday, and the city of Brooklyn Park was still under a shelter-in-place order. The shooter was impersonating a police officer, dressed in a uniform that would appear to be real to most people, police said. Sources told the Associated Press that 57-year old Vance Boelter is currently being sought as a suspect.

“No Kings” protests against the Trump administration are set for midday at the Minnesota state capitol and around the country, but the Minnesota state patrol and Walz have asked the state’s public not to attend “out of an abundance of caution”. The state patrol said “No Kings” flyers had been found inside the suspect’s vehicle.

Organizers said they would cancel events across the state that hadn’t already started, though the main protest at the state capitol in St Paul is under way, with people in attendance.

Brooklyn Park’s police chief, Mark Bruley, said at a press conference that the suspect drove a vehicle that looked identical to an SUV police squad car. “It was equipped with lights, emergency lights, that looked exactly like a police vehicle, and yes, they were wearing a vest with Taser, other equipment, a badge very similar to mine, that, no question, if they were in this room, you would assume that they are a police officer.”

The man had a list of other lawmakers and officials in the vehicle police searched, and alerts were sent out to take action and provide security to others, Bruley said.

“There was a list of individuals, and the individuals that were targeted in this situation were on that list,” said Drew Evans, the superintendent of the Minnesota bureau of criminal apprehension. He added that it was “far too early in the investigation” to provide a motive or assess whether the victims had been targeted for their political affiliation, but that he believes the state will be able to provide more information on the motivation behind the attacks as the investigation unfolds.

“We’re here today because an unspeakable tragedy has unfolded in Minnesota,” Walz said. “My good friend and colleague, Speaker Melissa Hortman, and her husband, Mark, were shot and killed early this morning in what appears to be a politically motivated assassination. Our state lost a great leader, and I lost the dearest of friends.”

He added that Hortman was “someone who served the people of Minnesota with grace, compassion, humor and a sense of service. She was a formidable public servant, a fixture and a giant in Minnesota. She woke up every day determined to make this state a better place. She is irreplaceable.”

Democratic state senator John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, were both shot multiple times and are out of surgery, and Walz said he was “cautiously optimistic” both will survive.

“This was an act of targeted political violence,” Walz said. “Peaceful discourse is the foundation of our democracy. We don’t settle our differences with violence or at gunpoint.”

At about 2am local time, police received a call in Champlin, a suburb of Minneapolis, that Hoffman and his wife had been shot, Evans said. Police in Champlin responded to that location, and police in a nearby suburb, Brooklyn Park, assisted.

Police in Brooklyn Park went to Hortman’s house at about 3.30am to check on her, given the nearby shooting of Hoffman. Upon arrival at Hortman’s house, officers saw a supposed police vehicle in the driveway with emergency lights on and what appeared to be an officer coming out of the house, Bruley said. The gunman, impersonating an officer, immediately fired at them, and then was able to escape out the back of the house, Bruley said.

“This is somebody that clearly had been impersonating a police officer, again, using the trust of this badge and this uniform to manipulate their way into the home,” Bruley said.

Police found a man with gunshot wounds, Hortman’s husband, and administered first aid, but he was pronounced dead shortly after. Officers then used a drone to identify the woman, Hortman, in the home.

Bruley advised people in the area to call in to the police department if an officer arrives to ensure the officer belongs there, which dispatch would be able to confirm. Officers were approaching people in pairs of two officers as the search continued, he said, so if there is a single officer outside your door, do not answer. Police had detained several people for questioning, but did not have anyone in custody at the time, Bruley said.

Bob Jacobson, the commissioner of the state’s department of public safety, said there was increased security in place for elected officials and others who may be at risk.

“This is a dark day today for Minnesota and for democracy,” Jacobson said. “We will not allow fear or violence to define who we are or how we move forward. We will stand together. We will stand strong … These are public servants, leaders who committed their lives to improving the lives of others, and they were targeted in a violent and cowardly way.”

Minnesota’s house of representatives was evenly split between Republicans and Democrats. Democrats have a one-vote majority in the state senate.

Amy Klobuchar, the state’s Democratic senator, called the shootings “a stunning act of violence”: “My prayers are with the Hortman and Hoffman families. Both legislators are close friends and devoted to their families and public service.”

Trump said in a statement that he had been briefed on the shootings, which appeared to be a “targeted attack against state lawmakers”. The US attorney general, Pam Bondi, and the FBI was investigating and would prosecute anyone involved “to the fullest extent of the law”, Trump said. “Such horrific violence will not be tolerated in the United States of America,” he said. “God bless the great people of Minnesota, a truly great place!”

The shootings took place at a time when political violence has become more commonplace in the US, though the vast majority of Americans do not support it, according to a University of Chicago survey.