Georgia Seizes Russia-Bound Cargo of Explosives Sent from Ukraine

Georgia’s State Security Service said on Monday that it had seized a clandestine shipment of explosives bound for the Russian city of Voronezh from the Ukrainian port of Odesa.

The South Caucasus country’s domestic security agency said that the explosives were hidden in a cargo of car batteries that entered Georgia in January overland from Ukraine via Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey, and were seized at its border with Russia.

In a statement, it said that the explosive cargo arrived in Georgia in a Ukrainian-owned minivan and was to be transported to Voronezh, a Russian city about 180 km (110 miles) from the Ukrainian frontier. It did not say what for.

The supporters of anti-war presidential election hopeful Boris Nadezhdin said a working group from the Russian Central Electoral Commission (CEC) has recommended that Nadezhdin’s candidacy for the Russian election be rejected because of signature defects on his nomination papers.

Nadezhdin, a former Russian lawmaker and outspoken critic of Russia’s war in Ukraine, submitted 105,000 signatures to the CEC last week that were in support of his candidacy.

Speculation over why American journalist Tucker Carlson is now in Moscow (or at least believed to be in Moscow) have been fueled further after news outlet published a video on Telegram which appeared to show a Russian man chatting to the journalist in a hotel in Moscow.

Asked about the purpose of his trip to Russia, Carlson told the man: “I wanted to look at it. I read so much about it, I wanted to talk to people, see how everything works. And everything is very good here.” Carlson said he thought Moscow was a “beautiful” city. The video comments were translated by TASS news agency.

The Kremlin on Monday declined to say whether or not Russian President Vladimir Putin would grant an interview to U.S. journalist Tucker Carlson — or whether he was in Moscow.

“We can hardly be expected to provide information on the movement of foreign journalists,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said when asked about speculation that Carlson was in Russia to interview Putin.

Israel’s new Ambassador to Russia Simona Halperin was summoned by Russia’s Foreign Ministry following what Moscow described as “unacceptable statements,” news agency Tass reported Monday.

“In connection with unacceptable public statements by the Israeli ambassador, distorting Russian foreign policy approaches and historical realities, Halperin will be summoned to the Foreign Ministry,” the ministry reportedly told Tass.

It is unlikely that Russia’s planned revenue target for 2024 will be met, according to Britain’s Ministry of Defense, which said Moscow will likely have to raise taxes and reduce contributions to its sovereign wealth fund to fund its planned expenditure.

Noting that the Russian government has “ambitious” plans to increase expenditure by 26% in 2024, the defense ministry said this was “reliant on optimistic expectations of revenues rising by 22%, with oil and gas revenues expected to increase by almost 25%.”

“It is likely the government will need to consider other policy measures to fund its planned expenditure,” the ministry said on X.

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine brought fresh political momentum to the European Union and its plans for enlargement in the Western Balkans. But whether the neighboring region is ready — and willing — to finally make the steps needed to join the union remains unclear.

“I see the European Union more ready for the Balkans than the Balkans for the European Union,” Miroslav Lajčák, EU Special Representative for the Belgrade-Pristina Dialogue and Western Balkans, told CNBC last month.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited troops at the front-line village of Robotyne in southern Ukraine over the weekend.

Ukrainian forces recaptured the village in the Zaporizhzhia region last August, describing the liberation as a significant breakthrough during their summer counteroffensive. Overall progress was slow, however, and only a handful of villages were recaptured from Russian forces.

A challenger to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s long reign in office has emerged from an unlikely place — within Russia’s political establishment — in the form of Boris Nadezhdin.

Standing on a platform for peace with Ukraine, friendly and cooperative global relations and fair elections, as well as a fairer civil society and smaller state, Nadezhdin submitted his bid to run for the presidency last week. Russia’s presidential election will be held March 15-17.

Senators on Sunday released the details of a $118.2 billion bipartisan aid proposal for Ukraine, Israel and the southern U.S. border, after months of painstaking, closed-door negotiations.

The long-awaited bill requests $60.1 billion for Ukraine aid, $14.1 billion for Israel and $20.2 billion to improve security at the U.S. border. It also includes smaller pockets of funding for humanitarian assistance in war-torn regions, and defense operations in the Red Sea and Taiwan.

Andrea Orcel, CEO of UniCredit, discusses the Italian lender’s business strategy in Russia.