Tag: Vladimir Putin

  • PM Khan to become first Pakistani premier to visit Russia in 23 years

    PM Khan to become first Pakistani premier to visit Russia in 23 years

    Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan will visit Russia this month, Foreign Minister (FM) Shah Mahmood Qureshi said on Monday.

    FM Qureshi said that PM Imran Khan has been invited to Moscow by Russian President Vladimir Putin, calling it “evidence” that bilateral relations between Pakistan and Russia are witnessing a positive change.

    The foreign minister made the announcement about the Russian tour while giving a briefing about the prime minister’s recently concluded visit to China and its outcomes.

    “The joint statement is a visual manifestation of the success of the China tour,” FM Qureshi said while referring to the statement mutually issued by Pakistan and China about PM’s visit to China.

    PM Khan will become the first Pakistani premier to visit Russia in 23 years after former premier Nawaz Sharif, who visited Moscow in 1999.

  • Russian President Vladimir Putin calls PM Imran Khan

    Russian President Vladimir Putin calls PM Imran Khan

    Prime Minister Imran Khan received a telephone call from Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday (August 25).

    The two leaders exchanged views on the evolving situation in Afghanistan and bilateral relations.

    PM Khan stressed that a peaceful, secure, and stable Afghanistan was vitally important for Pakistan and regional stability. Besides ensuring safety, security, and protection of rights of Afghans, an inclusive political settlement was the best way forward.

    PM Khan also underscored that the international community must stay positively engaged in support of the people of Afghanistan, to help address humanitarian needs and ensure economic sustenance.

    PM Khan said highlighted the importance of coordinated approaches in addressing the evolving situation and noted that Pakistan attached high importance to the role of the Troika Plus format.

    PM Khan expressed satisfaction at the upward trajectory of Pakistan-Russia relations, with increased high-level exchanges and growing cooperation in diverse fields.

    He reiterated Pakistan’s resolve to strengthen trade relations as well as bilateral collaboration in the energy sector, including the early realisation of the Pakistan Stream Gas Pipeline Project.

    The two leaders agreed to closely cooperate within the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) for promoting regional peace and security.

    PM Khan reiterated his invitation to President Putin to visit Pakistan.

  • Russian president’s ‘blank cheque’ to Pakistan: What you need to know

    Russian president’s ‘blank cheque’ to Pakistan: What you need to know

    Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov recently visited Islamabad after nearly a decade and delivered an “important” message to the Pakistani leadership from President Vladimir Putin.

    “I came with a message from my president that ‘tell Pakistan we are open for any cooperation, whatever Pakistan needs Russia is ready for it’,” Lavrov was quoted as saying by a senior Pakistani official who, according to The Express Tribune, attended the closed-door meeting.

    The Russian president’s offer was dubbed by the official as a “blank cheque” as they revealed that Putin had conveyed to Pakistan through his top diplomat that Moscow would help Islamabad in any manner.

    “If you’re interested in gas pipelines, corridors, defence or any other cooperation, Russia stands ready for it,” the official quoted Lavrov as saying, explaining what he meant.

    “It is now up to us to follow up this successful visit,” the official said.

    At the joint news conference with his Pakistani counterpart, the Russian foreign minister had said Moscow was ready to supply Pakistan with “special military equipment” to enhance its anti-terrorists potential. He, however, did not provide further details.

    Relations between Pakistan and Russia have undergone transformation in recent years thanks to the new alignments and strategic realities.

    The rapprochement between the former Cold War rivals began in 2011 when Pakistan’s relationship with the US hit the rock bottom. At that time, a decision was taken to bring a strategic shift in Pakistan’s foreign policy. The shift envisaged reaching out to Russia as part of Pakistan’s efforts to diversify its foreign policy options.

    The two countries initially worked quietly to find common ground. The years-long efforts had resulted in the Russian decision to send its troops to Pakistan for the first time in history for joint exercises in 2016. Moscow even overruled the Indian objections over holding joint drills with Pakistan.

    Since then, the two countries have been regularly holding these exercises and they are looking to further deepen that cooperation.

    Pakistan is hoping that Russian President Vladimir Putin would visit the country, something that would complete the Pak-Russia ties from being Cold War foes to friends.

    In contrast, Russian ties with once its solid ally India are heading in the opposite direction. The two still have good relationship but the usual warmth they expressed earlier have been missing.

  • Blind mystic woman who foresaw 9/11 predicts cure for cancer, assassination attempt on Putin in 2021

    Blind mystic woman who foresaw 9/11 predicts cure for cancer, assassination attempt on Putin in 2021

    A blind Bulgarian mystic Baba Vanga who allegedly foretold the event of 9/11 has predicted a cure for cancer and the attempt to murder Vladimir Putin in 2021.

    She has also claimed that a “strong” dragon will overcome humanity next year.

    The “Nostradamus of the Balkans”, Baba Vanga died in 2000 but is thought to own a mysterious skill to see the coming events.

    Her history, as far as her followers tell, is that this shadowy woman was brought up on a farm known as Macedonia now and was blinded in a dust storm giving her the very “second sight”.

    People say that she foretold the President Donald Trump’s coronavirus illness in October earlier this year and that the Russian submarine Kursk would sink in 1989.

    Preceding her death at the age of 75 in 1996, the Bulgarian mystic told that 2021 would be the year when a cure for cancer would be known claiming that with the start of the 21st century, people will get rid of cancer. “The day will come when cancer will get tied with iron chains.”

    One of her predictions included that the Russian President Vladimir Putin will be the target of an assassination attempt next year, also said that Islamic radicals will step to attack Europe and that the extremists will use an collection of chemical weapons on Europeans also that the world will go through a lot of calamities and excessive tragedies.

    She claimed that the perception of people will have a transformation.

    “Difficult times will come. People will be divided by their faith.”

    The strangest of all her predictions yet is that a dragon will be overcoming humanity in 2021.

    “A strong dragon will seize humanity,” she says. “The three giants will unite. Some people will have red money. I see the numbers 100, 5, and many zeros.”

    Followers of the mystic like to point to her 85 percent accuracy in previous predictions, drawn from research by a former director of the Bulgarian Institute of Suggestology, Professor Georgi Lozanov.

    However, a 2012 Washington Post investigation uncovered that many of the predictions attributed to the mystic have their origins in viral Russian social media posts.

    No credible written version of the Baba‘s predictions is available to view, either.

    According to one Bulgarian newspaper, her neighbours were quick to spike the idea that she predicted 9/11 or the sinking of the Kursk.

  • Modi invites Imran Khan to New Delhi

    Indian Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi has invited his Pakistani counterpart, Imran Khan, to participate in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) heads of government meeting being held in New Delhi on November 30.

    According to reports, the Indian premier invited all the eight members and four observer countries on Tuesday during the online summit of the organisation held in Moscow, chaired by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

    The News quoted sources as saying that the Russian president appreciated Pakistan’s proposals on various counts.

    Modi, who tried to demean the objectives of the SCO, tried to take on Pakistan and China in the same stroke without naming them under the garb of respect of sovereignty and said in muffled words that India believed that to enhance connectivity it was important that we move forward while respecting one another’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.

    He boasted that India had always been resolute in working in sync with principles laid out in the SCO charter, but it was unfortunate that there had been repeated efforts to unnecessarily bring bilateral issues in the SCO agenda which was in violation of the SCO spirit.

    It was an assault on Pakistan and China’s policies of enhancing connectivity in the region.

    Modi referred to the Shanghai spirit and SCO charter, but he conveniently forgot that it was India that had humiliated the two documents by its actions and inactions.

    Diplomatic sources told the English daily that none of the significant member countries’ premiers will attend the New Delhi virtual meeting except Russian PM Mikhail Mishustin while the Chinese premier, Li Keqiang, and PM Imran might not be available to attend the heads of government meeting.

    Foreign Secretary Sohail Mahmood or Additional Foreign Secretary Syed Faisal Tirmizi are likely to represent Pakistan at the huddle.

  • Imran beats Trump, Modi, Putin, others with most views on UN General Assembly speech

    Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan’s speech at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) is the most-watched video among world leaders on the UN’s YouTube with more than 170,000 views since it was uploaded on September 25.

    PM Imran continues to gain popularity at international forums. His recent speech made at the UNGA platform has been declared as the most viewed speech of the UNGA session on the official YouTube channel of the UN.

    According to details, more than 170,000 viewers have seen PM Imran’s UNGA speech thus so far, which is the highest number of any international leadership viewership.

    Coming in second is US President Donald Trump’s UNGA address with close to 140,000 views since it was uploaded on September 22. In third place is Indonesian President Joko Widodo’s speech, which has more than 95,000 views since it was uploaded on September 23.

    Furthermore, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s speech got 67,000 views, Indian PM Narender Modi’s speech has 62,000 views, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s speech was viewed by 59,000 persons, and the Chinese President’s speech was watched by 44,000 people. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s speech secured only 8,000 views.

    It is worth mentioning here that as many as 2,600,000 people had watched PM Imran’s UNGA speech last year.

    On September 25, the premier virtually addressed the 75th session of the UNGA.

    PM Imran used his UNGA address to warn the international community that India is planning another “ill-conceived misadventure” in a “nuclearised environment,” but Pakistan is ready to “fight for its freedom to the end”.

    He also urged the UN Security Council to play its role in preventing this dangerous conflict, which could jeopardise the entire region.

    WATCH VIDEO:

  • Twitter slammed in China, Turkey, Russia after removing ‘manipulative’ accounts

    Twitter has removed over 200,000 handles for spreading pro-China and Russia messages while also boosting support for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

    https://twitter.com/TwitterSafety/status/1271186240323432452?s=20

    The company said “a core network” of 23,750 highly active Chinese accounts had been removed, along with another 150,000 “amplifier accounts”.

    Amplifier accounts share content to increase engagement that increases word-of-mouth exposure.

    Twitter said the Chinese network had links to an earlier state-backed operation dismantled last year by Twitter, Facebook and Google’s YouTube, which had been pushing misleading narratives about political dynamics in Hong Kong.

    Twitter said 23,750 accounts were the main focus while other accounts were identified as helping to boost the messages.

    Twitter also revealed it has shut down more than a thousand Russian-based misinformation accounts.

    In an official statement on fake Turkish Twitter accounts, they said that “those accounts were fake profiles designed to support the president and were single-handedly managed by a central authority”.

    However, Erdogan’s Communications Director Fahrettin Altun denied the allegations through his official Twitter handle while stating that it was an “attempt to smear the Turkish government and a popular political movement, which was unacceptable”.

    In general, the entire network was involved in a range of manipulative and coordinated activities. They were tweeting predominantly in Chinese, Russian and Turkish languages and spreading geopolitical narratives for political agendas.

    Last week, Twitter also accused United States (US) President Donald Trump of making false claims in some of his posts, although the platform has come under fire for not removing coronavirus misinformation.

    Earlier this week, the company said it was trialing a new “read before you retweet” pop-up aimed to promote “informed discussions”.

    A message will appear on articles that users share without actually following the link to the article.

  • VIDEO: Putin quotes Quran to urge Muslim countries for peace

    VIDEO: Putin quotes Quran to urge Muslim countries for peace

    Russian President Vladimir Putin has called for an end to the conflict in Yemen by quoting from the Holy Quran to urge Muslim countries for peace.

    According to RT, the Russian president was speaking in Turkish capital Ankara alongside President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani when he quoted a verse from Surah al-Imran.

    “And remember the favour of Allah upon you — when you were enemies and He brought your hearts together and you became, by His favour, brothers,” he quoted.

    WATCH VIDEO:

    The Russian president’s references to the Holy Quran were noted with approval by both Erdogan and Rouhani, the report said.

    Tens of thousands of people have been killed in Yemen’s civil war and millions face the threat of starvation.

    The war in Yemen is an ongoing conflict that began in 2015 between two factions: the Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi-led Yemeni government and the Houthi armed movement, along with their supporters and allies.

  • India to offer Russia $1 billion loan for development of Far East

    India to offer Russia $1 billion loan for development of Far East

    Indian Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi on Thursday said India will “walk shoulder-to-shoulder with Russia in its development of the Far East” and announced a $1 billion line of credit for the development of the resource-rich region.

    Addressing the plenary session of the 5th Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok city of Russia, Modi said the friendship between India and Russia was not restricted to governmental interactions in capital cities, but was about people and close business relations.

    “India’s connection to the Russian Far East goes back a long way. India was the first country to open a Consulate in Vladivostok,” Indian media reports quoted Modi as saying. “For its development, India will give a line of credit worth $1 billion.”

    “My government has actively engaged East Asia as part of its ‘Act East’ policy. I firmly believe that today’s announcement will add a new dimension to the economic diplomacy of the two countries,” he added.

    The Indian premier, in the presence of Russian President Vladimir Putin, also unveiled the “Act Far East” policy to boost India’s engagement with Russia’s Far East region. “Let us deepen the bond between India and Russia even further.”

    The development comes a day after media reports claimed that India was trying to garner Russia’s support as Pakistan attempts to challenge the Modi-led government for robbing occupied Kashmir of its autonomy.

    New Delhi had in August abrogated Article 370 of its constitution to snatch away the held valley’s special status — a move which Pakistan fears can pave way for a Muslim genocide in the disputed territory.