As Russians go to the polls, the outcome of the presidential election and the turnout have already been decided. The dissident Vladimir Kara-Murza, who is virtually interred in a Siberian concentration camp, described the support for Putin's regime as nothing more than the product of “terror and apathy". The eternal tsar is but the face of a system that excludes the human soul.
Today's headlines: Senior doctors in South Korea join trainee doctors’ protest. India's foreign exchange reserves reach their highest level in two years. Iran is beset by a severe nursing shortage with more than 3,000 emigrating abroad a year. Thailand is considering legalising casinos. The Chinese are quietly occupying Siberia, raising concerns among local Russians.
In Moscow a meeting sponsored by the Foreign Ministry with representatives of member countries of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and members of the Orthodox Patriarchate. Cooperation in the defense of traditional values but also other common goals on the geopolitical level under discussion.
A stronghold of the Wagner Company, the Afewerki regime at the UN consistently votes on Moscow's side in resolutions on the conflict in Ukraine. Economic cooperation between the two countries grows steadily from year to year, while a monument to the Russian poet Pushkin has even been erected in Asmara.
Naval'nyy has once again succeeded in overcoming repression and with his death has brought a new 'flower revolution' to the streets. They bring a flower to the small grave in one of the capital's most peripheral and neglected cemeteries where the heart of Russia now stands, the counterbalance to Lenin's mausoleum on Red Square, in front of which the guns and cannons parade.
Today's news: consumer prices in China rise for the first time in six months, driven by the New Year; Punjab, blasphemy: 22-year-old student sentenced to death for Whatsapp messages, a 17-year-old to life imprisonment; UN enquiry: Iran responsible for 'physical violence' that killed Mahsa Amini; Settlement and settler attacks in the West Bank reacheshttps://www.channelnewsasia.com/business/china-economy-consumer-prices-february-chinese-new-year-4183161 record levels.