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Putin takes swipe at Macron as he says 'yellow vest' protests would NEVER be allowed in Russia 

Vladimir Putin vowed to prevent the emergence of mass protests yesterday speaking to French President Emmanuel Macron in southern France .




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Russian Soyuz rocket with six-foot tall humanoid robo-naut Fedor fails to dock at ISS

Russia's Soyuz rocket with Vladimir Putin's six-foot tall humanoid robot on board has failed to dock at the International Space Stations. The setback has been blamed on issues with docking systems.




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MSNBC host Lawrence O'Donnell retracts claim that Russian oligarchs co-signed Trump's bank loans

O'Donnell claimed on the air that a source had told him 'the co-signers of Donald Trump's Deutsche Bank loans are Russian billionaires close to Vladimir Putin.' Trump's lawyers threatened to sue.




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Kremlin-backed TV network airs note-by-note mashup of Trump praising Putin with 'Señorita' song

'I love it when you call me señorita,' Trump appears to sing, one auto-tuned note at a time, with each word drawn from a different speech. 'I wish I could pretend I didn't need ya.'




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Trump's absence from WWII commemoration stokes fears in Poland of a rising relationship with Putin

Donald Trump's absence from an event commemorating the 80th anniversary of the invasion of Poland in WWII is stoking fears that the security alliance between Washington and Warsaw is weaker than the two governments have let on.




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Ukraine FREES key MH17 suspect ahead of likely prisoner swap with Russia

Volodymyr Tsemakh, an alleged separatist in the area where the Malaysian Airlines jet was shot down in 2014, was freed by a Kiev appeals court today pending further investigation.




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Putin says he offered to SELL hypersonic missiles to America

Vladmir Putin (pictured) said he offered to 'balance everything out' by offering the Kremlin's weapons to Trump at the G20 summit in Japan in June.




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Vladimir Putin casts his ballot in Russian local elections

Putin (pictured today) voted in Moscow elections which have taken on a rare significance after a series of candidates were detained and barred from the ballot, sparking mass protests.




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Russian media claim CIA spy in the Kremlin is 'fired' diplomat's aide

Russian media has reported that the mole extracted in 2017 may be Oleg Smolenkov, an aide of senior diplomat and former ambassador to the U.S. Yury Ushakov (pictured).




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Donald Trump did NOT blow the cover of CIA's top Russian spy

The CIA pulled a spy with deep access inside the Kremlin out of Russia in 2017 because of leaks, and not because President Donald Trump had compromised the secret agent.




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CIA asset was key source for the golden showers anti-Donald Trump dossier claims Russian

Oleg Smolenkov, the Kremlin aide named in Russia as the CIA's asset at the heart of Putin's regime tracks closely to a source described in the Steele dossier, claims Ilya Shumanov.




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Russian president Putin meets Nurmagomedov to celebrate victory over American Poirier at UFC 242 

Russian president Vladimir Putin hailed Khabib Nurmagomedov as a 'strong, tough fighter' after the unbeaten MMA fighter retained his UFC lightweight title.




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Shaman on 5,000 mile trek to rid Putin of 'demons' arrested by heavily armed police in Siberia

Alexander 'Sasha' Gabyshev, 60, nicknamed the 'new Rasputin,' in reference to the crazed monk who took a malevolent hold over the last tsar of Russia, was halted in Siberia.




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Giuliani suddenly pulls out of paid appearance at Russia-backed conference in Armenia

Rudy Giuliani (left) has pulled out of a scheduled appearance at a Russia-backed trade conference which Vladimir Putin (right) and his top advisor, Sergev Glazyev (center), would also appear at.




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A President's farewell: World leaders gather in Paris to pay final respects to Jacques Chirac

Claude Chirac bowed her head towards the tombstone at the Paris cemetery where France 's former head of state was laid to rest today.




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Alcohol consumption in Russia has plunged 43 per cent since 2003

The WHO released the report on Tuesday that put a decrease in the country's alcohol consumption down to a raft of measures brought in under sport-loving President Vladimir Putin.




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Why Vladimir Putin could allow development of 'designer babies'

Vladimir Putin is the only one who can green-light the use of the controversial gene-editing technology, and will have the ear of his daughter Maria Vorontsova, an endocrinologist.




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Russia 'has deployed secret GRU unit known as 29155 to spread turmoil in Europe'

The unit is comprised of veterans from Russia's bloodiest wars, including hardened service personnel who fought in Afghanistan, Chechnya and Ukraine.




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Holes in Iranian oil tanker hit by two missiles revealed for first time as Putin visits Saudi Arabia

Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit Saudi Arabia today, where he is set to seal oil agreements as well as use his influence to defuse rising tensions in the Gulf following a tanker attack.




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Kurdish fighters in Syria claim Turkey has launched new offensive

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said Turkey and its rebel allies had launched a large ground offensive against three villages today and forces thousands of civilians to flee.




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Kurdish fighters in Syria thank Russia for shielding them from the 'scourge of war'

Mazlum Abdi, the head of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), phoned Moscow to 'thank Vladimir Putin (pictured yesterday) and Russia for their keenness in defusing the war'.




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Putin's Soviet spy file declassified: Russian president's KGB profile is released to the public

A KGB profile belonging to Russian President Vladimir Putin has been released to the public at an exhibition of declassified documents at the central state archive in St. Petersburg.




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Vladimir Putin says Wikipedia should be banned and replaced with a Russian version

'It's better to replace it with the Great Russian Encyclopedia in electronic form…here it will be in any case, reliable information in a good modern form.' Putin said in Moscow on Tuesday.




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Putin boasts Russia is creating hypersonic and laser weapons 'which other countries do not possess'

Russian President Vladimir Putin has asserted that Russia will continue to expand its weapons development during a meeting with top officials and prosecutors on Wednesday.




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Vladimir Putin sets up Russian rival to Wikipedia after branding the online encyclopaedia unreliable

The new site costing £20.7million will be a web version of the Great Russian Encyclopaedia and show 'reliable information in a good, modern way'.




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Rob Reiner says GOP 'made pact with Putin' while siding with 'white supremacists' to support Trump

Acclaimed director Rob Reiner (left), 72, tweeted on Saturday that President Trump's (top right) supporters have 'made a pact' with Russian President Vladimir Putin (bottom right).




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Russian TV shows rare glimpse of one of three nuclear briefcases

The briefcase, which has a personalised key code, a flash card and is under constant supervision, is said to remotely control Russia's nuclear arsenal.




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Russia's conspiracy cries over World Cup and Olympics ban are ridiculous

IAN HERBERT: The cries are laughable if anyone could find it within them to raise a smile about this mendacious, risible, pariah sporting nation.




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Russian shaman who wants to rid the country of 'demon' Putin is arrested

Alexander Gabyshev was arrested two days into his planned 5,000-mile trek to Moscow, three months after his first journey was cut short when he was detained in September and flown back to Siberia.




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Donald Trump plans to meet Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is set to meet President Trump amid the focus the congressional impeachment inquiry, CNN reported.




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Former Trump aides say Vladimir Putin convinced president Ukraine tried to sabotage his 2016 victory

Russian President Vladimir Putin reportedly persuaded President Trump that Ukraine meddled in 2016 election during a July 2017 meeting in Hamburg, Germany.




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Vladimir Putin's TV channel boasts about nuclear-powered cruise missile which killed five

Russia 24, a state-owned Russian news channel, has boasted of the capabilities of the nuclear-powered cruise missile Burevestnik, known as Skyfall to NATO, which has 'unmatched' power.




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Russia boasts that intercontinental hypersonic missile is OPERATIONAL

Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu informed Mr Putin that the first missile unit equipped with the Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle entered Russian combat duty, the Defence Ministry said.




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Scot Young 'laundered dirty money for Russian gangsters - including Putin critic Boris Berezovsky'

Mr Young (pictured with girlfriend Noelle Reno) died after plunging onto railings below his £3m London penthouse in 2014 after repeatedly warning police and friends that hitmen wanted him dead.




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Intelligence officials are probing whether Russia is targeting Joe Biden

U.S. intelligence agencies are investigating whether Russia is targeting Joe Biden in the 2020 election by promoting the controversy in the Ukraine over his and Hunter Biden's roles there. 




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Putin's power grab: Russian President sets himself up to rule for LIFE by announcing reforms

In an address to the nation, Putin - who should step down in 2024 under the current arrangement - described how power was being shifted from the presidency to parliament.




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Russia's President says people will support his changes to constitution after announcing new rules

Putin appears to have set himself up to rule for life after announcing reforms that could see him grab the helm of a strengthened state council. His moves have been likened to that of China's leader.




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Critics demand to know how Russia's new Prime Minister and his wife earned their fortune

The first image of Vladlena Mishustina, wife of Russia's new prime minister Mikhail Mishustin, emerged on Friday as questions were raised about how they obtained their wealth.




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Vladimir Putin submits his 'rule for life' constitutional changes to Russia's parliament

Russia's President Vladimir Putin has submitted to parliament a package of constitutional amendments widely seen as an attempt to secure his grip on power after his term ends in 2024.




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Russia's parliament approves Vladimir Putin's constitutional changes

Russia's parliament on Thursday approved a package of constitutional amendments in a move widely seen as an attempt by President Vladimir Putin to stay in power past the end of his term.




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Anti-Putin blogger is murdered amid fears Russian hit squad is running amok in Europe 

Imran Aliev's body was found in a hotel in Lille, France, last week. The 44-year-old had vocally opposed to both Vladimir Putin and Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov.




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Russians are pranked into saying what they really think of Vladimir Putin

Bashir Dokhov fixed a large portrait of Putin to the lift in a Moscow residential block and recorded people's shocked reactions as they entered the lift.




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Countess reveals how her dream 10-year marriage to Russian Oligarch turned into a nightmare

Cameras followed Alexandra Tolstoy and Sergei Pugachev over five years for a documentary about their privileged lifestyle but as they were filming things began to fall apart.




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Russian paratroopers wearing oxygen masks and white camouflage jump from 33,000ft over the Arctic

The paratroopers reportedly jumped from a height of 10,000 metres (32,808 feet) from an Ilyushin Il-76 strategic airlifter.




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Russian billionaire who played ice hockey with Putin is found shot dead

Dmitry Bosov, 52, one of the richest men in Russia, was found dead from a gunshot wound to the head inside the private gym of his mansion in Moscow on Wednesday night.




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Monsoon Blockchain Partners With Industry Giants in the US and Asia to Engineer the Next Generation of Fintech

Business Wire India

Monsoon Blockchain Corporation, Asia’s premier blockchain company pioneering the adoption of highly secure decentralized asset management, has partnered with Asia’s largest digital asset platform OSL of BC Group, DraperDragon Fund, CarbonBlue of BSN, and Academy Award Winning Studio Cross Creek Media. This deal signifies a major move for the blockchain, digital assets, and the expansion of global media and Hollywood. These partners create a global powerhouse in the Asia-Pacific region, which plan to harness industry-leading blockchain solutions for their business needs.

 

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200505006164/en/

 

(Graphic: Business Wire)

The Monsoon-OSL deal will explore opportunities to accelerate the drive towards the digitalization of assets, money, currencies, and decentralized blockchain ledgers (where all transactions, storage of payments and data will be inviolably recorded). Combining intellectual property, deal flow, large scale investors, and blockchain capabilities, Monsoon Blockchain is looking to create a digital asset powerhouse in the US and Asia.

 

OSL is the Hong Kong region’s most comprehensive digital asset platform, providing Software-as-a-Service, brokerage, exchange, and custody services for institutions and professional investors. OSL manages over $1.5B in transactions per month in digital asset trading. After reaching $171 billion this year, the value of business-to-business and cross-border payments carried out on blockchain systems is estimated to exceed an astounding $4.4 trillion by 2024.

 

Recently, Fidelity International, a spin-off from the U.S. financial services brand Fidelity Investments, invested in BC Group (stock code: 863 HK), the Hong Kong-based operator of crypto exchange OSL. Including custodial accounts, the firm reported $8.3 trillion in assets under administration - a spike from the reported $6.7 trillion in 2018.

 

Both Monsoon and OSL will participate in launching multiple digital assets and tokens including media and telecommunications tokens, Monsoon Token, and other branded assets within the Monsoon ecosystem. Monsoon has been making worldwide news in blockchain after partnering with China’s largest phone retailer, Dixintong (D.Phone), which generated a reported $2.5 billion in revenue in 2019.

 

Monsoon will be joining the Blockchain-based Service Network (BSN), which was recently launched on the Chinese Mainland on April 25th, 2020 and will officially be available for global commercial use by June 25th. China Mobile, China UnionPay, and Red Date Technology are the founding consortia partners that created the BSN protocol and infrastructure, which has been deployed in over 100 cities in China. The BSN is a global interoperability protocol that allows companies to connect to different blockchain ecosystems, as well as create and run new blockchain-as-a-service applications. The BSN will accelerate the development of digital economies and smart cities deployment by providing global interconnectivity and integrated blockchain cloud computing services for participants on the network.

 

Additionally, Monsoon has formed a new partnership with CarbonBlue Innovations to integrate cloud computing capabilities on top of the BSN protocol, allowing the creation of new low-cost blockchain cloud computing offerings suitable for developing regions of the world. CarbonBlue Innovations is a leading venture building and investment company that is focused on rapidly commercializing and scaling blockchain, fintech, and digital finance innovation around the world. Not only does CarbonBlue Innovations focus on both fintech infrastructure solutions, but also digital assets and investment banking services to allow the institutional adoption of regulated digital assets.

 

Michael Sung, Chairman of CarbonBlue Innovations asserted: “Monsoon’s unique cloud computing optimization technologies complement the existing multi-cloud offerings of the BSN and can further enhance our ability to customize blockchain cloud services for the developing world. With this partnership, we will be able to offer compelling low-cost solutions to enable SMEs (small and medium enterprises) globally to join the digital economy, which will massively drive self-sufficiency and financial inclusion in these developing regions.”

 

Monsoon will also be able to leverage the partnership with CarbonBlue Innovations to create innovative digital asset securitization and digital finance solutions for the market. Leveraging CarbonBlue Innovation’s strong academic and institutional finance affiliations, the new partnership will allow the creation of a vertically-integrated digital asset investment banking platform to address the massive opportunity in the future digitization of the world’s economy. CarbonBlue Innovations is able to provide full-stack solutions, vertically-integrating fintech technology infrastructure, legal/regulatory best practices, and institutional financial engineering expertise for digital finance.

 

Michael Sung added, “CarbonBlue Innovations has created a strong strategic partnership network consisting of the top digital asset companies leading the industry. Combined with Monsoon’s access to various industry ecosystems and pipeline of tokenization projects, our partnership will enable us to immediately scale to take a leadership position in the market and allow our clients to leapfrog into the future of finance.”

 

Partnering with Monsoon Blockchain, Cross Creek Media ($1.5B in the worldwide Box office) will expand its digital assets in film, television, and IP into the blockchain universe. The aim of the partnership is to achieve streamlined digital content management systems, and to gain broader access to worldwide audiences. Cross Creek has been a co-financier/producer of such films as Oscar winner Black Swan and has been behind hits American Made,Everest, Black Mass, Bloodshot, Hacksaw Ridge and the upcoming The Trial of the Chicago 7. Cross Creek is well positioned to be the next generation of production houses. Additionally, Cross Creek will announce a token style offering alongside Monsoon Blockchain Corporation. Timmy Thompson, CEO of Cross Creek Media stated: “We are very excited to work with Monsoon and continue developing award-winning properties. Furthermore, we believe Cross Creek's portfolio of new media technology investments perfectly positions us to take advantage of the new distribution paradigms.”

 

“We are very honored to work with such insightful leaders and innovators, the breadth of participants in this deal demonstrates the significant impact blockchain will have across a wide variety of industries,” Dr. Donald Basile added, “tokenization of asset classes has a tremendous upside on both the investment level and security level. Gartner’s prediction of over $3 trillion of business value added by blockchain seems increasingly likely.”

 

Monsoon Blockchain Corporation is focused on innovative cloud solutions in the blockchain ecosystem. Dr. Donald Basile, its CEO and founder, is the former CEO of Fusion IO, a company known for playing a major role in implementing the cloud systems at Apple and Facebook as well as partnerships with HP, IBM, and Dell. Recently, Monsoon Blockchain added advisory board members Ken Goldman, President of Hillspire (Eric Schmidt’s family office), and former CFO of Yahoo and Fortinet and Xiaoma Lu, former Dalian Wanda Investments CEO and former board member of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange to their team.

 

 




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Justin Bieber helps raise $12.5K for Kobe Bryant's Mamba foundation after purchasing $1200 art

Justin Bieber's $1200 art purchase has helped raise $12.5K for Kobe Bryant's Mama fund. The artists created 260 mini versions of Justin's and donated 24% of profits to the Mamba On Three fund.




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Justin Bieber and wife Hailey cut casual looks as they head to church alongside Demi Lovato

Justin Bieber cut a casual figure while heading to church on Wednesday night with his wife Hailey.




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Justin Bieber preps for tour with stop by the dance studio before releasing his new album Changes

The Canadian crooner looked like he was in full preparation mode as he made his way to the dance studio on Thursday. The Yummy singer, 25, seemed like he was in high spirits.




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Hailey Bieber keeps her physique under wraps in a longline coat while enjoying a late night outing

Hailey Bieber was spotted bundled up while enduring a solo outing in Los Angeles on Sunday evening. On Friday, Hailey and her husband Justin enjoyed an activity-filled Valentines Day.