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2/21/22 – US onAir

Feb. 21 - US onAir 1

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BIDEN… agrees to Meet Putin In Principle If Russia Does Not Invade Ukraine
NBC NewsFebruary 21, 2022 (05:29)
EU foreign policy chief speaks on Ukraine crisis following Foreign Affairs Council meeting
PBS NewsHourFebruary 21, 2022 (24:15)
JUDICIARY… Judge rejects Trump effort to toss lawsuits accusing him of Jan. 6 conspiracy
Politico, Kyle Cheney et al.February 18, 2022

A federal judge has rejected former President Donald Trump’s effort to dismiss multiple lawsuits accusing him of bearing legal responsibility for the violent Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

In a 112-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta said the evidence suggests Trump assembled the crowd and then instructed the rally goers to march on the Capitol, despite knowing that the crowd likely included violent and destructive elements.

And Trump’s Twitter attack amid the violence on then-Vice President Mike Pence, who was presiding over the counting of electoral votes that would finalize President Joe Biden’s victory, suggests a “tacit agreement” with those who stormed the Capitol and sent Pence and lawmakers fleeing for safety, Mehta wrote.

RUSSIA…Putin Signs Decree Recognizing Independence Of Separatist Regions in Eastern Ukraine
NBC News February 21, 2022 (02:45)
RUSSIA…Stoking tensions, Putin recognizes two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine
NBC News , Yuliya Talmazan et al.February 21, 2022

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday formally recognized the independence of two Moscow-backed breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine where Russia has been supporting armed separatists in an eight-year conflict.

The move by Putin was seen by the United States and its European allies as a dramatic provocation and possibly part of a pretext to invade Ukraine. The U.S. and European Union both swiftly announced sanctions.

Many experts believe that Moscow’s formal recognition will effectively scuttle a previous ceasefire agreement that some Western allies hoped could provide a route out of the crisis.

In a wide-ranging televised speech Monday evening, Putin described Ukraine as a historical part of Russia that was illegitimately taken from Moscow and is now run by a “puppet regime” controlled by the U.S. and the West.

PUTIN… mulls independence of separatist Ukraine regions
Associated Press, Vladimir Isachencov et al.February 21, 2022

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin convened top officials Monday to consider recognizing the independence of separatist regions in eastern Ukraine, a move that would ratchet up tensions with the West amid fears that the Kremlin could launch an invasion of Ukraine imminently.

The meeting of the presidential Security Council comes amid a spike in skirmishes in eastern Ukraine that Western powers believe Russia could use as a pretext for an attack. Sustained shelling continued Monday in the long-running conflict between Ukrainian government forces and pro-Moscow separatists.

Leaders of the separatist regions released televised statements earlier Monday pleading with Putin to recognize them as independent states and sign friendship treaties envisaging military aid to protect them from what they described as an ongoing Ukrainian military offensive. Russia’s lower house of parliament made the same plea last week.

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