Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian held an important joint press-conference following talks in Moscow.

The links are here:  The Ruptly link was on their live stream and now simply shows that the event has concluded.  I have not been able to get to the other link, as shortly after the following sanctions news, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs site went down again.

https://www.ruptly.tv/en/events/202203151000-LIVE10285-Lavrov-Amir-Abdollahian-hold-press-conference-in-Moscow
https://www.mid.ru/ru/press_service/video

2.  Russia just did tit for tat sanctions.  This is from various press releases as the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs site is down, and so far this cannot be confirmed at source :

Appearing at the top of the 13-name list is President Biden, followed by Blinken and Austin. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, CIA Director William Burns, and White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki are also named. Further down the list, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Biden’s son Hunter – whose dealings with a Ukrainian energy firm have previously been questioned and criticized – are also included.

Inclusion on the list denies any of these people entry into the Russian Federation. However, the Kremlin’s statement said that Moscow would not rule out contact with American officials “if they meet our national interests.”

More names will be added to the list “in the near future,” the statement continued, warning that “top US officials, military officials, lawmakers, businessmen, experts and media personalities who are Russophobic or contribute to inciting hatred towards Russia” will also be blacklisted.

Update on Sanctions:  Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau

and

Russia has officially withdrawn from the Council of Europe.

2nd Update on Sanctions from the Russian Foreign Ministry

17:37

Foreign Ministry statement concerning personal sanctions on US senior officials and affiliated persons

513-15-03-2022

In response to a series of unprecedented sanctions that prohibit, among other things, entry to the United States for top officials of the Russian Federation, starting March 15, the Russian stop list includes, on the basis of reciprocity, President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley, as well as several agency heads and other prominent US figures.

This step, taken as a response measure, is the inevitable result of the extreme Russophobic policy of the current US Administration, which, in a desperate attempt to maintain American hegemony, has abandoned any sense of decorum and placed its bets on the head-on containment of Russia.

However, we do not oppose maintaining official ties when it is in our national interests, and, if necessary, we will address the issues arising from the status of the black-listed individuals in order to organise high-level contacts.

The list of US citizens included in the stop list is as follows:

1. Joseph Robinette Biden;

2. Antony John Blinken;

3. Lloyd James Austin III;

4. Mark Alexander Milley;

5. Jacob Jeremiah Sullivan, National Security Advisor;

6. William Joseph Burns, Director of the CIA;

7. Jennifer Rene Psaki, White House Press Secretary;

8. Daleep Singh, Deputy National Security Advisor;

9. Samantha Jane Power, Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development;

10. Robert Hunter Biden, son of the US President;

11. Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton, former US presidential candidate;

12. Adewale Adeyemo, US Deputy Secretary of the Treasury;

13. Reta Jo Lewis, President and Chair of the Board of Directors of the Export-Import Bank of the United States.

More announcements will be made soon concerning the expansion of the sanctions list to include other top US officials, military leaders, lawmakers, business executives, experts and media personalities who promote Russophobia or contribute to inciting hatred of Russia or imposing restrictive measures.

These actions will be taken in harmony with the major decisions of the Government of the Russian Federation in finance, banking and other areas to protect the Russian economy and ensure its stable development.

3.  Economic News:  Translation from http://smoothiex12.blogspot.com/2022/03/this-is-important.html#disqus_thread

Translation: YEREVAN, March 14 – Sputnik. The member states of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and China will develop a project for an independent international monetary and financial system. This was agreed upon by the participants in the economic dialogue “A New Stage of Monetary, Financial and Economic Cooperation between the EAEU and the PRC. Global Transformations: Challenges and Solutions”, which was held on March 11 via videoconference. It is envisaged that the system will be based on a new international currency, which will be calculated as an index of the national currencies of the participating countries and commodity prices. The first draft will be submitted for discussion by the end of March. As Sergei Glazyev, Minister for Integration and Macroeconomics of the EEC, emphasized, China was the first in the world to move to the stage of national economic recovery.

The background here is bigger.  This was noted by Godfree Roberts:

In two weeks, China, Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan will reveal a new, independent, international monetary and financial system.

It will be based on a new international currency, calculated from an index of national currencies of the participating countries and international commodity prices. [Mar. 14, 2022, Sputnik News].

Russia and China will also reveal their Unfriendly Nation Lists.

Reliable links are still hard to come by in general.


Amarynth