France russia war

Russia has challenged President Donald Trump to come up with a clear, comprehensive strategy for the war in Syria after Trump said Wednesday that an alleged chemical attack had changed his opinion of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry suggested Trump’s policy toward Syria’s six-year civil war has not been consistent or clear since the leader took office earlier this year. Unlike his predecessor, former President Barack Obama, Trump displayed a willingness to cooperate with Russia, which has backed Assad, in the fight against the Islamic State group, also known as ISIS, and other opposition groups. Trump had said Assad was a better alternative to other factions, but after footage emerged earlier this week of what appeared to be a chemical attack in the northwestern rebel-held city of Idlib, Trump said his view toward Syria and Assad had ” changed very much. ” The U.S. government blamed Assad for the attack.

“Russia’s approach to Assad is clear. He is the legal president of an independent state. What is the U.S. approach?” Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova told CNN in a text message, published Thursday.

Moscow argued that the attack, which reportedly killed dozens of civilians, was the result of a Syrian air strike that accidentally struck a chemical weapons storage facility used by rebels. This view was disputed by Western officials, including U.K. Foreign Minister Boris Johnson, who said “all the evidence” he had seen so far indicated the Syrian military was behind the attack. The U.S., U.K. and France have expressed a desire to draw up a U.N. Security Council resolution over the incident, something Zakharova said was a “political show” that presented charges against the Syrian government without any evidence.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that it was unacceptable to launch baseless accusations pending the results of an investigation into what occurred in Idlib, according to Russia’s NTV .

Trump has blamed Obama for mishandling political crises in the Middle East and said the former president failed to take action when necessary. In 2013, Obama, who supported the Syrian opposition, indicated he would pursue a military intervention against Assad after accusing him of a chemical attack in the rebel-held eastern suburbs of Damascus. The U.S. instead continued to train and equip various insurgent groups, but stopped after jihadist organizations such as ISIS and Al-Qaeda became influential over the opposition. The U.S. then began a campaign of airstrikes against ISIS in Syria in 2015 and shifted its support to Kurd-led militants, which have also received Russian and Syrian army support.

Trump, who opposed military intervention in Syria under the Obama administration, has not said if he would take action against Assad, while other Western countries, including the U.K., have ruled out a military intervention. Trump’s apparent condemnation of the Syrian government Tuesday came less than a week after Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley indicated that Assad’s fate would be left up to the Syrian people and that removing him from power was no longer a policy goal of the U.S.

After witnessing the first two weeks of the war in Ukraine , I went back to the region of Kyiv a month later, to find a very different atmosphere.

Life was slowly resuming in the Ukrainian capital following the retreat of Russian troops from the region only a fortnight earlier. I knew the sight of people walking the streets again, and the bright beds of tulips blooming in Maidan Square would contrast starkly with what awaited me on the outskirts of the city.

I had come back to document alleged war crimes in the area. The scale of destruction was startling. What used to be peaceful suburbs and villages had been turned into heaps of ruins, behind which lay the open wounds of those who had lived through weeks of horror.

Located at the gates if the capital, the town of Irpin stands as a symbol of Ukrainian resistance to the Russian offensive. This is where I met Sasha, a 29 year old construction worker. He walked me through the nightmare he had endured in his neighbourhood, describing the summary executions of several of the residents. A shadow overcame his eyes when he showed me the spot where he had witnessed his friend, Sania, being shot in the head by a Russian soldier. It would have been Sania’s birthday that day.

The accounts of those who wanted the world to know their stories grew only more sinister as I followed my journey through the unspeakable. In Borodyanka, one of the most heavily bombed towns on the outskirts of Kyiv, searches were still continuing for bodies crushed under collapsed buildings.

“There were children, grandmothers, they were everywhere”, roared Sasha, showing me the rubble under which he had extricated corpses. In another part of the city, I witnessed one of the many exhumations of bodies of civilians that had been temporarily buried in yards and gardens during the occupation. “Look at how handsome he was!” cried out Nadiya, showing me a picture of her 34-year-old son Constantin, whose body was now lying at our feet, unrecognisable. Her tears flowed, at she leaned over the unbearable sight of what remained of her son, his mouth gaping in a grimace of pain.

‘They’re beasts! It’s not an army!’

Moving on, amidst the ruins and carcasses of burned-out vehicles piled up along the roadsides, we stopped in the village of Andriivka, which had been under occupation for a month. The main street was strewn with remnants of Russian weaponry, nails from fragmentation bombs, and heads of shells, some of which were still unexploded. There I spoke to Mykola, a soft-spoken farmer, grieving for his son, who had been shot down in the street. “They said he was passing on information through his phone, about the Russian tank column’s position” he sighed. “They’re beasts! It’s not an army! An army doesn’t attack children and grandmothers, but they do!”, he went on, before adding, in a frown of anger and spite: “They were kids, 18 years old. Some of them were crying, saying they didn’t want to come here, that they were forced to, and told it was only for two days, to train!”

Kilometre after kilometre, the tales of atrocities kept coming. In Makariv, we were called to another exhumation: the remnants of a family that had burned in their car. They had come under fire while their convoy was making its way out of the city, through a so-called green corridor. Watching the scene, a man took us aside. He wanted me to meet a woman living nearby, who had been raped by a Russian soldier. She was not at home. As I stood in her empty yard, the simple thought of what had happened brought shivers down my spine.

After being told Olesia was at work, we found her at the local hospital. She gathered her strength to tell me her story so that the world would know. Her voice choked as she described the scene, letting go of her tears as she remembered the two days of agony that her husband went through – shot down as he tried to defend her. Russian intelligence forces going passed the house finally freed her from her tormentor. “After the liberation, I learned that those who did this to me had caught another woman; they raped her and slit her throat. If it were not for the Russian intelligence men I would not be alive”, she concluded, in a whisper.

A rare testimony. Trauma and fear are such that few rape victims are willing to testify, Larisa, a lawyer, told me. She is helping several victims of rape by Russian soldiers. But there are increasing accounts of gang rapes carried out over several days – and often involving torture. Among her clients, a mother and daughter, raped for days in front of each other’s eyes. Their hands were broken by their aggressors, making it impossible for them to defend themselves or escape. It’s one of many cases and evidence that rape is systemic, used as a weapon of war, insists Larisa.

‘They liberated us from life itself’

It’s a war that will haunt Olga forever. Now living alone with her grief at her home in Bucha, the city that has become infamous for some of the worst atrocities committed in the Kyiv region. In a slow and steady voice, her pale blue eyes gazing at what seemed the infinite depth of the horror, she calmly explained how her husband, last seen coming out of a food distribution centre during the occupation, was found 10 days later in a morgue. “They broke his skull, they broke his bones, he had multiple fractures”. Unwrapping her memories, Olga went on, describing the roar of gunfire and explosions, the procession of Russian tanks, the terror. “They killed, they tortured, they did such horrible things!” Olga cried out, hiding her face in her hands. Before uttering, slowly and bravely looking up to the camera again: “They said they came to liberate us, but from who and from what? They liberated us from life itself. I wait for my husband to come back home from work every day. But he will never come back. Never”. Tears were shed not only by Olga as her words died in the thick of our silence.

‘I want the world to know what happened’

Silence, however, is something 20-year-old Tetiana refuses to let happen after her mother was shot between the eyes by a Russian sniper, in front of both her and her father. Tetiana found the courage to take us to the scene of her mother’s killing. Breathing for air, she described the gunshot, the fall of her mother, and the blood flowing onto the tarmac. “I cannot keep silent”, she says. “I want the world to know what happened. Maybe one day we will know who did it. And so there will be justice.”

So far more than 11,000 cases of alleged war crimes by Russian soldiers against Ukrainian civilians have been documented by the General Prosecutor’s Office in Ukraine. Since my latest return from Ukraine, criminal proceedings for war crimes have been launched against several Russian soldiers.

As the war continues to rage, the sinister list keeps growing by the day. As our report is about to go on air, I think of the courage of Tetiana, Olga, Sasha, Nadiiya, Mykola and all the others, who in their quest for justice, want the world to know their stories.

Finland and Sweden’s green light to join NATO is set to bring about the U.S.-led Western military alliance’s largest expansion in decades. Meanwhile, the G7, consisting of NATO states and fellow U.S. ally Japan, has adopted a tougher line against Russia and China.

In the East, however, security and economy-focused blocs led by Beijing and Moscow are looking to take on new members of their own, including Iran and Saudi Arabia, two influential Middle Eastern rivals whose interest in shoring up cooperation on this new front could have a significant impact on global geopolitical balance.

The two bodies in question are the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and BRICS. The former was established in 2001 as a six-member political, economic and military coalition including China, Russia and the Central Asian states of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan before recruiting South Asian nemeses India and Pakistan in 2017, while the latter is a grouping of emerging economic powers originally consisting of Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) upon its inception 2006, and including South Africa in 2010.

“The BRICS and the SCO share one important ideological quality: they are both focused on multipolarity, and their summits have even been held back to back with one another at times,” Matthew Neapole, an international affairs expert and contributor to the Macdonald-Laurier Institute in Canada, told Newsweek .

“Both are angling to act as force multipliers for this drive for multipolarity, to help along with alternatives [i.e, in currency or banking],” he added. “It could, in theory, facilitate economic linkages and step into gaps that U.S. institutions are not filling due to sanctions, such as those laid on Russia.”

Iran, already an SCO observer, began its formal membership ascension process amid the latest leaders’ summit in September. On Monday, the Iranian Foreign Ministry announced the Islamic Republic would also seek to join BRICS.

Across the Persian Gulf, Saudi Arabia has also reportedly considered applying for BRICS membership, as revealed by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov during his visit to the kingdom in late May. The announcement followed Saudi Arabia joining Argentina, Egypt, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Nigeria, Senegal, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates at China’s invitation for a “BRICS+” discussion, after which Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin announced members had “reached consensus on the BRICS expansion process.”

Of these candidates, Argentina has already applied for membership, potentially advancing the group’s status toward being a major player in international economic relations. And with the SCO seeking to grow as well, Beijing and Moscow might be poised to advance their effort to sway the international influence equilibrium toward a broader group of countries that do not necessarily sign on to an explicitly U.S.-led international order.

And while Neapole argued that there would be “big hurdles to get over” in trying to transform this vision from ambitious talk to substantive action, he said a cohesive SCO-BRICS bloc could have a huge impact on reshaping the world order.

“If it can be successful in positioning itself as the standard-bearer of the Global South or G20, develop strong organizational mechanisms and integrate more thoroughly,” he said, “it could be quite influential.”

BRICS’ multipolar approach to international affairs has proven attractive to both Iran and Saudi Arabia alike. The two nations, however, have their own unique reasons for seeking membership.

For Riyadh, the move would likely be less about choosing sides against the close ties it has fostered for decades with Washington and more about the kingdom’s own growing status as an independent player.

“China’s invitation to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to join the ‘BRICS’ confirms that the Kingdom has a major role in building the new world and became an important and essential player in global trade and economics,” Mohammed al-Hamed, president of the Saudi Elite group in Riyadh, told Newsweek . “Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 is moving forward at a confident and global pace in all fields and sectors.”

This vision, unveiled by Prince Mohammed bin Salman a year before being appointed as heir to the throne and de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia in 2017, outlined a plan to diversify his country’s oil-dependent economy and present a new image of the kingdom to the international community.

And while Crown Prince Mohammed has sought to enhance cooperation with the U.S., especially as President Joe Biden prepared this month for his first visit to the monarchy he once branded a “pariah” over alleged human rights abuses, the Saudi royal has also expanded ties with Russia and China in recent years. Joining BRICS would demonstrate a commitment to Riyadh’s resolve in dealing with other major powers and mark a significant win for the effort to boost economic frameworks established outside of the auspices of the U.S. and its immediate allies.

“This accession, if Saudi joins it, will balance the world economic system, especially since the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is the largest exporter of oil in the world, and it’s in the G20,” Hamed said. “If it happens, this will support any economic movement and development in the world trade and economy, and record remarkable progress in social and economic aspects as Saudi Arabia should have partnerships with every country in the world.”

This approach came in stark contrast to that of Washington, which has regularly shut out countries it disagreed with through a growing list of sanctions. The U.S.’ dominant position in the global financial system has traditionally left few options for these nations, but that situation has gradually changed as frameworks like BRICS offer potential ways to dodge these restrictions.

Among those countries looking to counter U.S. economic pressure is Iran. International sanctions against the Islamic Republic in response to its nuclear activities were lifted in 2015 after a multilateral nuclear deal was reached with the U.S. and other major powers, including China, France, Germany, Russia and the United Kingdom, but then-President Donald Trump abandoned the deal in 2018, severely impacting Tehran’s ability to trade with the international community.

Biden has set out to negotiate a potential return to the accord that was reached during his vice presidency under former President Barack Obama . However, a series of negotiations held since April of last year has left the U.S. and Iran at an impasse and another set of talks held in Qatar this week appeared to end early with no sign of a breakthrough.

Frustration over shifting politics in Washington has led Tehran to increasingly look to its own region for strategic partnerships, which it has increasingly forged with Beijing and Moscow.

“Iranian officials have come to the conclusion that the U.S. and its Western allies will never allow the Islamic Republic of Iran to play its well-deserved regional role as a middle power,” Zakiyeh Yazdanshenas, a research fellow at the Center for Middle East Strategic Studies in Tehran, told Newsweek .

“Therefore, they have decided to neutralize U.S. attempts to isolate Iran by further closing to non-western bodies like SCO and BRICS,” she added. “In addition, Iranians consider the future world order to be Eastern and they are trying to get closer to organizations in which Eastern powers such as Russia and China play a significant role.”

This doesn’t mean that the two blocs are necessary anti-Western in nature. Though a concerted effort has emerged to empower countries outside of the traditional G7 grouping from which Russia was suspended in 2014 as conflict first erupted over Ukraine and other major economies such as China and India have not been invited, the SCO and BRICS, which are not formal military alliances like NATO, saw themselves as inherently inclusive.

“The SCO and the BRICS have not been established as an alternative to Western organizations,” Yazdanshenas said, “and their specific function has not been defined on the basis of confrontation with the West or the existing world order.”

Still, she argued that growing international competition has only intensified “the balancing function of non-Western organizations” such as the SCO and BRICS. And here, she said Iran could serve as an important asset for both coalitions.

“Joining a moderate power with an anti-Western approach such as Iran to these bodies can strengthen this aspect of SCO and BRICS,” Yazdanshenas said. “Iran has been under the most severe sanctions in the last decade, yet it has been able to significantly expand its power in the region.”

And, like Saudi Arabia, Iran’s oil and gas reserves make it an important strategic partner, especially given the worsening frictions over global energy that have been exacerbated by Western sanctions on Russia, and heated rivalry between Beijing and Washington.

“Iran is the only producer of energy resources in the Persian Gulf that is not an ally of the United States and will not refuse to supply energy to China in the event of an escalation of the trade war between Beijing and Washington,” Yazdanshenas said. “In addition, Iran’s geopolitical position has been strengthened in the wake of Russia-Ukraine war and that is of great importance for great powers in these bodies i.e. Russia and China.”

The energy problem plays into two key reasons having both Iran and Saudi Arabia on board for BRICS would be a “major gain” for the organization, according to Akhil Ramesh, a fellow at the Hawaii-based Pacific Forum.

“For countries like China and to an extent India, import dependency for oil has been a major headache, both from an economic standpoint of trade deficits and from a geopolitical standpoint of having to make security and strategic sacrifices for the sake of oil imports,” Ramesh said. “Having three large oil producers in the grouping [Russia, Iran and Saudi Arabia] could possibly give these countries the option of securing oil at discounted rates or through alternative arrangements [barter].”

Tehran and Riyadh’s oil reserves would also lend BRICS a stronger hand in taking on the U.S. dollar’s hegemony over the world financial system as Ramesh argued that, “in order to replace the USD as the global reserve currency you would need to have more commodity-exporting countries, especially oil exporting ones buying into the idea.”

“Moreover,” he added, “China and Russia are expanding the grouping to create a coalition of countries that have pending disputes with the West or have been humiliated by the West in the past [thinking Argentina and Falklands].”

And in this respect, Ramesh expressed that the U.S. and its allies had committed “a grave error” in overlooking the importance of BRICS, as well as the SCO, emerging financial institutions such as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the National Development Bank and China’s broader Belt and Road Initiative , which counts some 148 countries and 32 international organizations as partners.

“The U.S. and its allies are grossly underestimating China, in particular,” Ramesh said. “BRICS, SCO, development banks such as AIIB, NDB, and infrastructure initiatives such as China’s BRI are all different platforms for engaging mostly poor countries that do not get a say in world affairs or have a seat at the high table.”

As internal divisions have threatened to derail NATO’s agenda, feuds among members also serve as a complicating factor for organizations led by China and Russia. And even if Iran and Saudi Arabia were to both join BRICS, it would not necessarily prove a breakthrough in their bitter rivalry.

The two nations have pursued quiet diplomacy over the past year, but their regional bout for influence has continued to rage across the Middle East, most violently so in Yemen, which has been devastated by a years-long war between a Saudi-led coalition in support of an exiled government on one side and the Iran-aligned Ansar Allah, or Houthi, rebels on the other. The conflict has only quieted in recent months as a result of a fragile three-month truce and not necessarily because of any lasting solution.

But China and Russia have demonstrated a capacity to bring enemies together under a common banner as seen with the SCO’s simultaneous admission of India and Pakistan five years ago.

Yaroslav Lissovolik, a Moscow-based Russian International Affairs Council expert and Valdai Discussion Club program director, said BRICS too has the capacity to host countries with clashing worldviews, mentioning the specific case of China and India, whose rivalry has turned occasionally turned violent, and even deadly, along their disputed Himalayan border.

And while he said that the “expansion of the BRICS core membership may indeed result in greater challenges in attaining consensus on key decisions going forward,” he felt there was ample room to work together on broader questions.

“In this respect, the addition of Iran and Saudi Arabia would not change matters fundamentally within BRICS as there is scope for a divergence in views,” Lissovolik told Newsweek , “and while there may be disagreement on particular local/regional problems, there may be greater unity on global issues.”

He argued that disputes among members have not stopped BRICS from managing “to advance with an increasingly ambitious development agenda, including with respect to launching the BRICS+ initiative and the pragmatic cooperation within the BRICS development institutions.”

“What this means is that the BRICS offer the possibility of development on the basis of divergence in economic models and approaches to economic modernization rather than convergence towards one particular universal model,” Lissovolik said.

“While allowing for the differences in views and approaches among their members,” he added, “BRICS economies can move decisively forward in tackling those global challenges where they manage to forge a consensus.”

Chilling footage from inside and around a Ukrainian shopping centre shows people diving for their lives as Russian missiles hit.

At least 19 people were killed and more than 60 injured when Vladmir Putin’s forces attacked the Amstor shopping centre in Kremenchuk, central Ukraine on Monday afternoon.

Russia ’s defence ministry has denied hitting the mall instead claiming it had targetted a weapons depot nearby with the subsequent explosion triggering a fire in an empty shopping centre next door.

However, Ukraine has said the shopping centre was hit directly by Russian missiles and around 1,000 people were inside at the time of the strike.

Now, newly released CCTV footage from inside the shopping complex and surrounding buildings shows how a Monday afternoon browsing for goods turned into a terryfing situation.

Two cameras inside the same shop captured the moment the missile struck, sending goods flying off the shelves and the shopkeeper running for cover.

Another two cameras on the exterior of the building showed rubble landing on the ground outside the mall.

While a third exterior camera showed smoke billowing from the building as it was hit, and two passers-by narrowly avoiding flying debris.

Another camera, overlooking a parking bay, captured the rocket a split second before it flew into the building – causing a huge blast.

The new footage, released by Ukraine’s security services, debunks the claim from Igor Konashenkov, a spokesperson for Russia’s defence ministry, that the mall was who said the mall was ‘non-functioning’.

The attack in Kremenchuk overshadowed the final day of the G7 summit in Germany on Tuesday.

In a joint statement, Boris Johnson and the leaders of the US, Canada, Japan, France, Germany and Italy condemned the ‘abominable attack’.

‘We stand united with Ukraine in mourning the innocent victims of this brutal attack,’ they said.

‘Indiscriminate attacks on innocent civilians constitute a war crime.

‘Russian President Putin and those responsible will be held to account.’

Footage from cameras overlooking the shopping centre released earlier this week, showed the moment a missile struck the Kredmash factory, which sits behind the mall, destroying four warehouses and raining debris down on passersby.

While cameras trained on a nearby park showed how quickly ‘normal life’ turned into hell as debris rained down from the sky and people ran for their lives.

Funerals were set to be held on Thursday for some of the 19 people confirmed killed by Monday’s Russian missile strike.

Russian president Vladimir Putin on Thursday denied his forces targeted the shopping mall, saying Russia doesn’t hit civilian facilities.

He claimed the target in Kremenchuk was a nearby weapons depot, echoing the remarks of his military officials.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at [email protected] .

For more stories like this, check our news page .

LONDON (AP) – Inflation in countries using the euro set another eye-watering record, pushed higher by a huge increase in energy costs fueled partly by Russia´s war in Ukraine.

Annual inflation in the eurozone’s 19 countries hit 8.6% in June, surging past the 8.1% recorded in May, according to the latest numbers published Friday by the European Union statistics agency, Eurostat. Inflation is at its highest level since recordkeeping for the euro began in 1997.

Energy prices rocketed 41.9%, and prices for food, alcohol and tobacco were up 8.9%, both faster than the increases recorded the previous month.

Demand for energy has risen as the global economy bounced back from the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine made things worse.

Public Must ‘Immediately’ Cut Energy Usage to Curb Threat to ‘Political Cohesion’ – Energy Companies https://t.co/z2LWS6kH3U

— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) June 27, 2022

European Union leaders agreed to ban most Russian oil imports by the year’s end, driving a price spike. The 27-nation bloc wants to punish Moscow and reduce its reliance on Russian energy, but it’s also adding to financial pain for people and businesses as utility bills and prices at the pump soar.

Russia also reduced deliveries of natural gas used to power industry and generate electricity last month to several EU countries like Germany, Italy and Austria, on top of cutting off gas to France, Poland, Bulgaria and others.

“Importantly, the oil embargo and gas supply squeeze that unfolded over the month of June have caused energy prices to soar,” ING Bank´s senior eurozone economist, Bert Colijn, wrote in a commentary.

Rising consumer prices are a problem worldwide, with the U.S. and Britain seeing inflation hit 40-year highs of 8.6% and 9.1%, respectively. That has led the U.S. Federal Reserve, Bank of England and other central banks worldwide to approve a series of interest rate hikes to combat inflation.

Energy Crisis: EU Passes Carbon Emissions Bill that will Result in ‘Poverty for Generations’ https://t.co/TtTRxuGejo

— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) June 24, 2022

Colijn said the eurozone’s latest “ugly inflation reading” adds pressure on the European Central Bank to act quickly.

The ECB is planning its first interest rate hike in 11 years this month, followed by another increase in September. Bank President Christine Lagarde said this week that she wants to move gradually to tackle soaring consumer prices, to avoid stifling the economic recovery, but is leaving the door open for bigger rate hikes in case inflation surges more than expected.

“I don´t think that we´re going to go back to that environment of low inflation,” Lagarde said at an ECB forum Wednesday in Sintra, Portugal. “I think that there are forces that have been unleashed as a result of the pandemic, as a result of this massive geopolitical shock that we are facing now that are going to change the picture and the landscape within which we operate.”

‘We are in a Gas Crisis’ Russian Energy Addiction Sees Green Germany Move One Step Closer to Rationing https://t.co/qFPO8fSYjz

— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) June 23, 2022

But central banks run the risk of causing a recession as they make borrowing more expensive.

Inflation in the euro area has been setting monthly records since last year, underscoring how the war’s impact on global energy supplies is making life more expensive for 343 million people.

So-called core inflation was more stable after excluding the volatile energy and food categories. Price increases for goods like clothing, appliances, cars, computers and books held fairly steady at 4.3%, as did prices for services at 3.4%.

The EU data also showed countries neighboring Russia that have been trying to wean themselves off cheap Russian gas are bearing the brunt of rising prices. Annual inflation came in at 22% for Estonia, 20.5% for Lithuania and 19% for Latvia.

Poland, which does not use the euro but is an EU member, reported Friday that inflation rose to 15.6% in June compared with a year earlier, the highest rate in a quarter-century. That was an increase from the annual rate of 13.9% in May.

Analysts noted that the biggest rise in Poland was in gasoline and diesel prices, which went up 46.7% from a year ago. Food prices were up 14.1%.

Germany Phasing Out Nuclear Power During Energy Crisis Labelled ‘Complete Nonsense’ https://t.co/BJFqXhGyJ5

— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) June 21, 2022