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Antonov met with Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Karen Donfried, who protested the “unsafe and unprofessional intercept” of the drone that resulted in its loss. “We consider this incident a provocation,” Antonov told reporters after the meeting. He said he told Donfried that US drones, planes and ships had no business being that close to Russian…

Neither the US nor Russia gave any coordinates for the incident. The Americans argued the drone was “operating within international airspace” over the Black Sea. The Russians said the drone was inside the restricted airspace established for the special military operation, of which everyone was properly notified months ago. Unconfirmed reports in the Russian media put the drone’s location about 60 kilometers (37 miles) southwest of the Crimean port of Sevastopol.

The UAV was flying towards the Russian border without a transponder active, in clear violation of the restricted area established for the conduct of the special military operation, the ministry said. Two interceptors were dispatched to investigate.  “As a result of sharp maneuvers around 9:30am Moscow time, the MQ-9 unmanned aerial vehicle went into uncontrolled flight, lost altitude, and collided…

“In order to bring peace and stability closer, we, of course, need to show the consolidation of our society, composure. When the enemy sees that our society is strong, internally sound, consolidated, then, without any doubt, what we are striving for will happen: both success and victory,” Putin declared. Protecting Russians living in Ukraine from persecution by the Kiev regime remains among the top goals of Moscow, Putin reiterated, adding that he has repeatedly met people from Donbass who “are exactly the same as us.” Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Moscow tried to build up solid and mutually beneficial ties with Kiev, but the efforts ultimately flopped, the president admitted. “Russia has been patiently trying for decades to mend relations with the modern Ukrainian state, but the situation changed in 2014, when a Western-prompted coup d’etat took place,” he said. Even after that, Moscow spent years trying to peacefully resolve the civil conflict in then-Ukrainian Donbass, he concluded.

Russia has its own financial messaging system, SPFS, which can act as a substitute for SWIFT in the domestic market. While its coverage is still much smaller than that of SWIFT – which boasts 11,000 financial organizations globally – the spread of SPFS has been gaining speed in recent months.

When asked about a spillover effect from the collapse of US lenders, which has led to a global stock rout, Peskov said problems in the American banking system cannot affect Russia in any way. “Our banking system, of course, has, let’s say, certain connections with some segments of the international financial system, but for the most part it is under illegal restrictions,” he said.

However, Peskov added that sanctions have been “a blessing in disguise” because Russia is “to a certain extent immune to the negative impact of the crisis that is now unfolding across the ocean.” 

The agency cited concerns over the lenders’ reliance on uninsured deposit funding and unrealized losses in their asset portfolios. “The review for downgrade reflects the extremely volatile funding conditions for some US banks exposed to the risk of uninsured deposit outflows,” it stated. Moody’s also slashed the debt ratings of collapsed New York-based Signature Bank deep into junk territory, withdrawing future ratings for the insolvent lender. The downgrades come while US bank stocks have continued to plummet despite the government’s measures to support lenders and prevent more bank runs. First Republic Bank has led the sell-off, with its share price nosediving more than 60% on Monday, forcing a brief halt in trading due to volatility. Western Alliance Bancorp lost over 47% while Zions Bancorp declined by about 26%. Dallas-based Comerica dropped 28% and UMB lost more than 15%.

“The problem is the bond market, and my prediction, I called Lehman Brothers years ago, and I think the next bank to go is Credit Suisse,” said the co-author of the best-selling book ‘Rich Dad Poor Dad’, “because the bond market is crashing.” Kiyosaki explained on Monday that the bond market, which is bigger than the stock market, is the economy’s “biggest problem” and will put the US in “serious trouble.” “The US dollar is losing its hegemony in the world right now. So, they’re going to print more and more and more of this… trying to keep this thing from sinking,” he explained.

Refusing to let Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky address the Academy Awards ceremony while handing an Oscar to a documentary about Russian activist Alexey Navalny means politics and movies do mix after all, adviser Mikhail Podoliak tweeted on Monday. “If Oscar is outside of politics how should we understand the documentary manifesto Navalny where internal Russian politics is overflowing?”

The package comes within the framework of the so-called Integrated Review, a program document envisioning ‘Global Britain’ and originally adopted under former PM Boris Johnson. The money is set to be funneled to all 42 language services of the BBC World Service and will be used to “support English-language broadcasting,” as well as to “counter disinformation,” the foreign office explained,…

An analysis by Global Affairs Canada argues that Saudi Arabia is the “principal guarantor” of affordable oil for Western countries, as well as an important market for Canadian companies, The Breach reported on Monday, citing the seven-page document. Canadian weapons are crucial to maintaining Riyadh as an “integral and valued security partner,” the report claimed.  The analysis stands in contrast…

Defense spending this year must focus on the blockade threat, earmarking funds to stockpile spare parts for F-16 fighter jets and other weaponry, the Taiwanese Defense Ministry said on Monday, in a report seeking parliamentary budget approval. Since last year, the ministry has been reviewing its strategic fuel reserves and its capacity to repair equipment, said Reuters, which obtained a copy of the report.

The Taiwanese military will also need to replenish its stores of artillery shells and rockets “to strengthen combat continuity,” the ministry said. China’s military has been conducting joint force operations “with an eye to controlling strategic choke points and denying access to foreign forces.”

According to Andrew Adams, the group has focused on identifying those who are helping Russians to avoid sanctions and export controls. “I think it can be quite effective to be sanctioning facilitators,” Adams said, calling them “professional sanctions evasion brokers.” A recent report from the Treasury Department showed that more than $58 billion worth of sanctioned Russian assets have been blocked or frozen worldwide so far. Adams pointed out that KleptoCapture aims to sell the frozen yachts and other property of sanctioned Russians, despite the legal difficulties, and use the proceeds for the benefit of Ukraine. He noted, however, that this would be done in accordance with the law.

The ban will be imposed next week and reevaluated after six months, De Croo said in a statement. Government employees will be allowed to use the app on their personal devices, but not on any devices “whose purchase, subscription or use are partly or fully paid for by the federal government.” Citing reports by the Belgian State Security Service and Centre for Cybersecurity, De Croo claimed that TikTok collects large amounts of user data, manipulates the information users are exposed to, and cooperates with Chinese spy agencies. “We must not be naive,” De Croo said. “TikTok is a Chinese company that today is obliged to cooperate with the Chinese intelligence services.”

European and Asian stock markets plummeted on Friday, following a rout in US equities amid liquidity concerns in the banking sector. The meltdown was triggered by US bank SVB Financial, known as Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), which plunged 60% on Thursday after revealing that it needed to raise more than $2 billion in capital to offset losses from bond sales.  The announcement rocked financial stocks, with Euro Stoxx Banks index on Friday on pace for its worst day since June, led by a decline of more than 8% for Deutsche Bank. Societe Generale, HSBC, ING Group and Commerzbank all tumbled more than 5%. Asian stocks suffered their worst day in five months, with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index plummeting 3% on losses in heavyweight technology stocks. The Shanghai Composite dropped 1.4%, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 index fell 1.67%. Investors started offloading US bank stocks on Thursday after SVB, a major lender to the tech industry, announced aggressive measures to support its balance sheet. The bank had reportedly been forced to sell all of its available-for-sale bonds at a $1.8 billion loss as its startup clients withdrew deposits.

The verdict follows Ng’s initial conviction back in April last year, when he was found guilty of helping Tim Leissner, his former boss at Goldman Sachs, drain money from the fund. Goldman Sachs helped 1MDB, a fund set up in 2009 to finance development projects in Malaysia, raise $6.5 billion through bond sales back in 2012 and 2013. According to US prosecutors, some $4.5 billion of these funds were diverted by Ng and his co-conspirators in the process. They were then used for bribes to government officials, purchases of high-end real estate and other luxury items. According to the Department of Justice, some of the money even went to finance the 2013 Leonardo DiCaprio film ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’, which is itself a story of defrauding and money laundering. According to US District Judge Margo Brodie, Ng and his co-defendants “effectively stole money” that was supposed to go toward infrastructure and economic development projects in Malaysia. “There is a critical need to deter crimes of pure greed like this one,” Brodie said, commenting on the sentence. Ng pleaded not guilty and said that the $35 million he was accused of getting in payments from the embezzlement scheme were in fact a return on his wife’s investment. The former banker plans to file an appeal.

According to the report, Fridman and Aven currently own 45% of the bank via a Luxembourg-based holding company that controls the lender’s Cyprus-based parent company ABH Financial Limited. Their shares will reportedly be sold to Alfa-Bank’s third co-owner, Andrei Kosogov, for 178 billion rubles ($2.3 billion). Kosogov, who already owns a 41% stake in the bank, confirmed to FT that the deal has been agreed, but made no further comments as to the details. Alfa-Bank’s press service also confirmed on Friday that such a deal is being prepared but noted that it is too early to speak about the particulars. The sale is expected to be finalized later this spring, once it is approved by the Russian central bank and tax authorities. Unlike Kosogov, who is not subject to the Ukraine-related sanctions against Russia, both Fridman and Aven have been targeted by Western authorities for their alleged ties to the Russian government. Both billionaires have challenged the EU sanctions against them in court, and now “want to do everything they can to get out of their Russian assets so that sanctions will be removed,” one of the sources told the news outlet.