Sveta is doing what she does best when walking, taking pictures…

TRV is wonderful…

WtR

China UnionPay overtakes Visa in debit card market for the first time

May 29, People’s Daily online — In 2022, China’s UnionPay debit card transaction rate surpassed US Visa’s for the first time. According to the data, UnionPay’s market share was 40.03%, while Visa’s was 38.78%. This was reported by the American analytical company Nielsen.

From 2011 to 2021, Visa’s market share has fallen from almost 80% to 39.53%, while China UnionPay’s share has increased from near zero to 38.68% over the years.

In 2022, the volume of transactions through the American payment system Visa reached 14.109 billion US dollars, and through the Chinese UnionPay – 16.227 billion US dollars.

Oops and see you later…

We use UnionPay and MIR only…

WtR

❓ Question: You have already spoken about the situation in Ukraine. We see that the West has taken a consistent course to increase the supply of weapons to the Kyiv regime. At the same time, calls for the extermination of Russians, the extermination of the civilian population in Russia, are becoming more and more active among the Western elites. How do you inform about this and do you inform your African partners, especially since the whole situation is already close to the scale of genocide?

💬 Sergey Lavrov: We talked about this in detail today. There is no doubt that the Kiev regime has long since switched to openly terrorist methods . For this, weapons are used, with which the West pumps this regime. Western statements that the supplied weapons should not be used against the Russian Federation are another lie. As for the threats against the Russians, we also told our friends today about how we assess this situation.

Threats to kill Russians were made by many representatives of the Kyiv regime, including Secretary of the Security Council A.M. Danilov, adviser to the head of administration V.A. Zelensky M.M. Podolyak, several Ukrainian ambassadors abroad. Now one of the American senators has opened up on this subject.

Since the West insists that there is no other basis for resolving the Ukrainian situation, except for the notorious “peace formula” of V.A.Zelensky, and at the same time his team threatens to start killing all Russians and destroy everything Russian there after liberating Crimea and the eastern regions of Ukraine.

❗️ The conclusion is simple: the West directly supports the genocide.

To a certain extent, this is a qualitatively new development of the situation, when the West first became a direct participant in the war unleashed against the Russian Federation, and now it is also calling for genocide.

It is always better to know the truth about who is up to what with you. We found out this truth a long time ago . Let’s proceed from the fact that the West takes just such a position.

We understand that against this background, the ideas expressed by the countries of the Global Majority, including African countries, that they would like to contribute to the search for some ways to overcome this situation, are voiced sincerely, out of a desire to somehow help. We appreciate this attitude. But it is necessary to consider all these ideas and initiatives in the context of the geopolitical confrontation started by the West against Russia, and at the same time against China, as it was recently proclaimed in the G-7 documents.

WtR

💬 Vladimir Putin: We have already talked about the possibility of striking at decision-making headquarters, at decision-making centers. Of course, the military intelligence headquarters of Ukraine, which was hit two or three days ago, also belongs to this category.

In response, as you know, the Kiev regime chose a different path – the path of attempts to intimidate Russia, intimidate Russian citizens and strike residential buildings. This is, of course, a clear sign of terrorist activity .

They provoke us to mirror actions. Let’s see what to do with it.

But the citizens of Ukraine, who, of course, do not have a word now, since total terror has been unleashed against the civilian population in Ukraine , should still know what the current leadership of this country is pushing for, and simply understand that there are still other threats related, for example , with attempts to disorganize the work at the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant or use some kind of “dirty” devices of this kind related to the nuclear industry. We have already talked about this many times: we know what they have in mind .

☝️ It is clear that no matter what we say, they will always look for the guilty precisely in Russia, but this is not so: we did not unleash this war , I repeat, in 2014 – the Kiev regime unleashed a war in the Donbass – and we are not using those means who use Ukrainian bigwigs.

WtR

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🔹 @mod_russia_en

First, about the progress of the special military operation.

The Russian troops continue to inflict effective fire damage on the enemy.

This month alone, the enemy has lost over 16,000 troops, 16 aircraft, five helicopters, 466 drones, over 400 tanks, and other armored fighting vehicles, and 238 pieces of field artillery and mortars.

In addition, 196 HIMARS rockets, 16 HARM missiles, and 29 Storm Shadow long-range cruise missiles have been intercepted and destroyed.

Despite the AFU’s significant losses, Western supervisors continue to encourage the Kiev regime to launch a large-scale offensive.

Ukraine is receiving more hardware and weapons. We monitor supply volumes and routes and strike when identified.

Large Western arms depots in Khmelnitsky, Ternopol, and Nikolayev have been destroyed in recent days, as well as U.S. Patriot anti-aircraft missile system in Kiev.

Military support provided to Ukraine only prolongs hostilities, but cannot influence the outcome of the special military operation.

Kiev authorities continue to destroy social facilities and carry out terrorist acts against Russian civilians using NATO weapons.

The Russian Armed Forces are responding as forcefully as possible to the activities of Ukrainian militants.

On 22 May 2023, more than 70 Ukrainian saboteurs, motor and armoured vehicles were neutralised during a counter-terrorist operation in Belgorod region. The nationalist remnants were pushed back into Ukrainian territory, where they were shot at.

The Kiev regime has carried out a terrorist attack in Moscow region this morning. I note, on civilian facilities.

It involved eight aircraft-type drones.

All of them have been downed.

In Moscow, three drones were suppressed by electronic warfare, lost control, and deviated from their intended targets.

Another five UAVs were shot down in the suburbs of Moscow by the Pantsir surface-to-air missile system.

***

I’d want to point out that Russian servicemen are acting selflessly and firmly during the special military operation, displaying mass heroism, perseverance, and courage.

The 155th Marine Brigade was awarded the Order of Zhukov by the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces.

The 291st Artillery Brigade, the 55th Separate Sevastopol Helicopter Regiment decorated with the Order of Kutuzov and the 50th Self-Propelled Artillery Regiment were given the honorary titles ‘Guards’.

I’d like to specifically recognise military medics, who frequently sacrifice their lives to save our military personnel and help civilians.

More than 75% of the medical personnel have combat experience in the special military operation.

By Presidential Decree, the Vishnevsky Central Military Clinical Hospital was awarded the Order of Aleksandr Nevsky.

Congratulations to our colleagues.

Previously, the Kirov Military Medical Academy was awarded the Order of Aleksandr Nevsky.

***

Let us go further through the agenda. The first of June marks the beginning of the summer training period in the Russian Armed Forces.

It was preceded by thorough preparatory work. There were over 2,500 events.

During the training period, the primary focus will be on people and command and control bodies, as well as combat cohesion of newly established formations and units.

A variety of exercises are planned to be organised.

A joint exercise with CSTO peacekeeping forces, as well as a joint counter-terrorism exercise within the framework of ADMM Plus, will receive special emphasis.

The planned actions will assure the Armed Forces’ required degree of readiness, the completion of responsibilities to preserve national interests, and an effective response to changes in the military and political situation.

***

Next, we shall discuss the thematic part of our session.

Let us first review how the United Shipbuilding Corporation is repairing and modernising the heavy nuclear-powered missile cruiser Admiral Nakhimov within the framework of the state defence order.

The Corporation is building and repairing 62 ships for the Navy.

The corvette Mercury entered the service with the Navy on 13 May 2023.

Work on five submarines and six surface ships is in its final stages.

The modernisation of the missile cruiser Admiral Nakhimov involves equipping it with the latest state-of-the-art equipment, high-precision long-range weapons, including hypersonic Tsirkon missiles.

Sea trials for the ship are scheduled at the end of 2023.

Once commissioned, the cruiser will continue to perform missions as part of the Northern Fleet.

Today, we will outline the measures that will enable the modernisation of the cruiser to be completed by the end of 2024.

***

The meeting will also address the topic of military flight safety.

The special military operation improves the way aircraft are used. New equipment and means of destruction are being mastered.

A frequently changing environment and the enemy’s use of various Western-made weapons require Russia to respond swiftly to emerging threats.

In this regard, we are introducing new approaches to training of aviation personnel, incorporating combat experience into the training process, and improving the criteria for evaluating combat training and flight safety activities.

In the first half of this year, these steps enabled us to practically eliminate accidents caused by the so-called human factor.

Work on commissioning an innovative system for collecting, processing, and sharing information about aviation occurrences is still underway.

We plan to include federal executive authorities with state-owned aircraft in operation in it in the near future.

Today, we will summarise the safety performance in the first half of the year and outline actions to reduce aircraft accidents.

WtR