Russia ‘ready to talk’ after militarily paralyzing Ukraine in hours

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 Black smoke rises from a military airport in Chuguyev near Kharkiv on February 24, 2022, after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a military operation in Ukraine. Photo: VCG 

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 The root cause of the sharp confrontation at the global strategic level is the US

 

`As some local residents began fleeing Kiev early Thursday morning and rushing west while air raid sirens sounded in the Ukrainian capital, fears of war have grown palpably, catching global media attention and sending the world’s markets tumbling, shortly after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a military operation in the Donbas region.
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As world leaders reacted to the quickly escalating Ukraine-Russia crisis, China once again called on the relevant parties to remain restrained and prevent the situation from sliding out of control.
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The situation of the Ukraine-Russia crisis has been changing rapidly over the past 24 hours. Putin on Thursday authorized “a special military operation” in the Donbas region, and Ukraine confirmed that military targets across the country have come under attack, according to the Xinhua News Agency.
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The operation has been described by the Western media such as Reuters and CNN as a “full-scale invasion,” and Reuters called it the biggest attack “by one state against another in Europe since World War II.” Explosions have been heard in Ukrainian cities including Kiev and Kharkiv, some media reports said, and Russia also closed all flights to and from 12 airports in the south of Russia.

In less than 24 hours, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky declared martial law in the country and urged Ukrainians to stay home, and he also announced Ukraine had cut diplomatic ties with Russia. An aide of Zelensky also told reporters on Thursday that more than 40 Ukrainian soldiers and around 10 civilians died in the first hours of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the AFP reported.
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In numerous videos and photos shared by Chinese nationals living in Kiev with the Global Times on Thursday, a heavy traffic jam was seen in the early morning as many local residents fled the city. Some residents started to line up to buy necessities and withdraw money from banks. Chinese Embassy in Ukraine also issued a security alert to Chinese nationals in the morning, asking them to monitor how the situation is evolving, laying out specific issues they should pay attention to in preventing from getting into a dangerous situation.
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In response to the quickly evolving situation, the Chinese Embassy in Ukraine issued two security alerts to Chinese citizens and companies in the country within one day. The embassy said although their work and study had been affected, there were no “waves of panic.”
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“Dark day for Europe” was how some Western media and politicians described the situation, and countries including the US, Germany, UK and Australia criticized the Russian government move. The US and its allies are poised to unveil further sweeping sanctions against Russia, with US President Joe Biden calling the military operation an “unprovoked and unjustified attack.”
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However, in the eyes of Putin and most Russians, the latest move serves as a counterstrike against the Western squeezing of Russia’s security room with extreme measures and a relatively large-scale showdown in wrestling with the US, a view that is also shared by the majority of Chinese.
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“Circumstances require us to take decisive and immediate action,” Putin’s order read. In an address to the public, the Russian president said he wanted to “demilitarize” and “de-Nazify” Ukraine, Russia Today said. Putin further said, “We have no plans to occupy Ukrainian territory.”
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“Demilitarize” could be understood to be putting down arms and surrendering, which can also be understood as incapacitating the opponent and rendering them unable to form a threat in a broader sense, Song Zhongping, a Chinese military expert and TV commentator, told the Global Times on Thursday.
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“As a result, Russia will completely destroy the heavy weapons of Ukrainian troops, including warplanes, tanks and armored troops as well as defense forces, such as air defense missile forces and the navy,” Song said.
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Russia announced it has destroyed Ukraine’s airfields, air defenses and control systems just a few hours after it launched the military operations.
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“And as we take the measures announced by the president to ensure the security of the country and the Russian people, we will certainly always be ready for a dialogue that will return us to justice and the principles of the UN Charter,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said late on Thursday.
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Yury Tavrovsky, head of the “Russian Dream-Chinese Dream” analytics center of the Izborsk Club, told the Global Times that Russia’s military operations in Ukraine are “completely legal.”
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Both chambers of Russia’s Duma (parliament) had earlier approved recognition of Donetsk and Lugansk as “independent states.” The Upper Chamber (the Senate) later approved use of armed forces outside the national borders, Tavrovsky explained.
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The military operation was launched just one day after the US and Europe unveiled what is believed to be just the first round of sanctions against Russian individuals and institutions in response to Putin’s signing of two decrees recognizing Lugansk and Donetskas independent and sovereign states.
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As global markets tumbled steeply over the Ukraine-Russia crisis, some raised questions as to why Russia took this step, how the situation will evolve and whether the US will engage in a direct war with Russia.
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Moscow’s motivation
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In a phone call with Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Thursday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov explained the development of the Ukraine situation and Russia’s position, saying that the US and NATO violated their commitments by expanding east, refused to implement the new Minsk Agreements, and violated UN Security Council Resolution 2202, forcing Russia to take necessary measures to safeguard its own rights and interests.
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Noting that China has always respected the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries, Wang said that China recognizes the complex and special historical context of the Ukraine issue and understands Russia’s legitimate security concerns.
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China maintains that the Cold War mentality should be completely abandoned and a balanced, effective and sustainable European security mechanism should be finally established through dialogue and negotiation, Wang said.
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“China believes there should be mutual cooperation and sustainable security, and the reasonable security concerns of all parties concerned should be respected and solved,” Hua Chunying, spokesperson of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said during a press conference on Thursday.
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China hopes all parties will not shut the door on peace, but continue negotiations and try to ease the situation as soon as possible, she said.
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Some Chinese observers said the US has continued its intensive containment of Russia, for example, by implementing more sanctions, finally forcing Russia to try to realize its security demands in this drastic way.
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Russian elites such as Putin and Deputy Chairman of Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev believe that the Ukraine issue has reached the point where it must be resolved.
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“I believe Russia’s military operation is a reaction by Moscow to Western countries’ exertion of pressure on Russia for a long time, showing that Moscow can’t tolerate it anymore,” Yang Jin, an associate research fellow at the Institute of Russian, Eastern European, and Central Asian Studies under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Thursday.
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“As to how the situation will evolve, I think we need to spend more time to observe it. First thing first, we need to focus on the attitude of the US, on whether Washington will launch a direct war against Russia,” he said, noting that everything depends on how NATO and the US will react.
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If the entire military operation goes smoothly, Russia could reach its target of fully controlling Ukraine, and what worries NATO most is whether Russia will then carry out further operations again the three Baltic countries, namely Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, Li Haidong, a professor from the Institute of International Relations of China Foreign Affairs University, told the Global Times on Thursday.
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The US and NATO are now observing how the situation evolves. The US and NATO have been training Ukraine troops since 2014, and it’s time to see if they will confront Russian troops and for how long they will fight them. “As long as Russia does not engage in military conflicts with NATO members, there won’t be direct confrontation between NATO and US [on one side] and Russia [on the other],” Li said.

 

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 Kiev plunges into chaos as Russia launches “special military operation”

 

Kiev has plunged into chaos after Russian forces launched a military offensive against Ukraine.

1China says to promote peace in its own way as Russia launches ‘special operation’ in Donbass

2Russia ‘ready to talk’ after militarily paralyzing Ukraine in hours 3Western sanctions won’t help solve Ukraine crisis: FM

 

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How US media, liberal or conservative, turn Beijing Winter Olympics into another feather in their anti-China campaign cap

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#Beijing2022 Opening Ceremony! | Full Replay

The Media Center of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games Photo: VCG

 

The Beijing Winter Olympics successfully closed on Sunday. The sports event, “truly exceptional” as International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach described at Sunday’s closing ceremony, showed the world not only the excellent performances of Olympians, but also how China overcame challenges to offer the participants high-quality facilities and services amid the global COVID-19 pandemic.
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Nonetheless, observers said it’s sad that many foreign audiences, who usually receive information from some biased Western media outlets, the US media in particular, hardly knew about the Beijing Winter Games in an authentic and objective way.
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How did some influential American media outlets cover the Beijing Winter Olympics, when the US sees China as a strategic rival? The Global Times selected six US media outlets that represent different interest groups in the country, and collected and analyzed their recent coverage related to the Beijing Winter Games, trying to learn about the US media’s strategy concerning the Games and the possible prejudice behind it.
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The selected six media outlets were CNN, The New York Times (NYT), Wall Street Journal (WSJ), Fox News, National Public Radio (NPR), and USA Today.
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Media’s ‘China agenda’ of Beijing Olympics
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By using online media monitoring tools, the Global Times reporters collected media coverage related to the Beijing Winter Games in February, particularly the week of February 14-21, focusing on coverage from CNN, NYT, WSJ, Fox News, NPR, and USA Today.
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These six major media outlets presented a very mixed tone in their discourse of the closing ceremony of the Winter Games on Monday night.
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In the titles of articles published by these US media outlets, most of the pieces included negative adjectives such as “rocky”, “strange”, “unwelcomed”, “controversial”, and “overshadowed by a doping scandal” in describing the Games, the Global Times reporters found. There were a lot references to alleged “human rights violations” and “excessively strict quarantine policies” in their review, though some articles provided a relatively objective picture of the well-designed and touching details of the closing ceremony.
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The sour grapes mentality exhibited by US media is on full display in these articles. NPR, for instance, even preposterously tagged the Games as “the most controversial, most unwelcoming Olympics of our lifetime” in an opinion piece by its staff.
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https://money.yahoo.com/most-controversial-most-unwelcoming-olympics-150319010.html
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US politics and media observers tend to classify CNN and NYT as the liberal media (or “left-wing”), WSJ and Fox as conservative media (or “right-wing”), while NPR and USA Today as relatively moderate media (or “center”). American media outlets with different editorial objectives speak for different groups in the US, while they usually stand together against other countries for US national interests.
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Looking back the past week, CNN, a typical “left-wing” media outlet known for its mostly liberal views, published some 73 articles covering the Beijing Winter Games from February 14 to 21. Fourteen of the articles were related to China or Chinese athletes, found he Global Times.
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Among the 14 articles, four were positive overall, covering the performances of Chinese gold medalists such as figure skaters Sui Wenjing and Han Cong.
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Three of the 14 articles were written in negative tones, which made far-fetched links between the sporting event and China’s relationship with other countries. In a February 19 article reporting on a “doping scandal” about Russian skater Kamila Valieva, CNN frequently mentioned Ukraine’s “border tension” and the “close ties” between China and Russia.
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The NYT is another mainstream media publication popular among US liberalists. The Global Times found that between February 14 and 21, it produced about 211 pieces covering the Beijing Winter Games, 30 pieces of which are related to China and Chinese athletes.
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The NYT reported on the Games with much broader views than CNN did. Among the 30 pieces, 12 were positive overall and covered not only Chinese gold medalists, but also the various cuisines provided at the Olympic Village, and China’s speed trains near the Village.
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However, in its six pieces written in a negative tone, the NYT seemed to make bigger efforts in smearing China with strange, baseless accusations. In a February 19 article reporting on a “doping scandal” about Russian skater Kamila Valieva, CNN frequently mentioned Ukraine’s “border tension” and the “close ties” between China and Russia, trying to hint at China being behind the Ukrainian crisis. That was neither true nor related to the Beijing Winter Olympics in the slightest, noted Chinese international relations and media experts.
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The WSJ, a center-right US-based media publication, published 28 reports on the Beijing Winter Olympics between February 14 and February 21, 13 pieces of which are related to China and Chinese athletes.
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Only two of the reports were relatively positive, focusing on Gu and China’s record-breaking gold medal haul.
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Five had negative tones, involving claims of China’s “data surveillance of athletes” and “dismal ratings for the Winter Olympics” that were patently untrue or have been repeatedly refuted.
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FOX, a typical right-wing media outlet in the US, ran about 143 stories between February 14 and February 21, 31 of which were closely related to Chinese athletes or China.
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FOX reported on international athletes’ positive comments about the Winter Olympics, including praise for the quality of the ice rink in Beijing’s Olympic Village, the efficient closed-loop quarantine measures, the popular Chinese food in the Village, high-tech elements, and stories of Chinese athletes’ valiant efforts.
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Gu Ailing of Team China competes in the women’s freestyle skiing halfpipe event on February 18. Gu became one of the favorite topics of American media outlets about the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games. Photo: Cui Meng/GT
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However, some of the articles forcefully conflated the Games with unrelated political issues such as the situation in the island of Taiwan and alleged “human rights concerns” in Xinjiang, despite repeated calls from mainstream international voices to avoid politicizing the Games.
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In a piece titled “Beijing Olympics get political with Taiwan, Uyghur questions”, FOX repeatedly peppered the piece with political issues, and hyped the question “if IOC uniforms and other IOC garments were produced by Uygur labor – or from Xinjiang cotton.”
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Being regarded as a centrist media outlet by many, NPR published some 72 articles on the Beijing Olympics between February 14 and 21, and 10 of the articles were related to the host country China, and Chinese athletes.
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Of the 10 articles, only one was relatively positive, narrating the positive impact that Gu has had on more young girls participating in winter sports.
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The rest of the articles, while trying to maintain a relatively objective stance, included two direct attacks on China for “politicizing the Olympics” and “deplorable” restrictions imposed by the country’s quarantine policies.
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USA TODAY, another US media among centrists, ran 105 stories about the Beijing Olympics from February 14 to 21, of which 10 were directly related to Chinese athletes or the organizers.
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Three of the articles were the relatively neutral coverage of the performance of Chinese athletes on the field. One article on February 18, however, was written in a biased and negative tone, intentionally quoting an individual athlete as saying the Beijing Olympics “terrible,”, the Global Times found.
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Correspondents and their predetermined perspectives
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Many influential US media outlets sent correspondents to cover the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics. At least 10 corresponds appear to be Chinese Americans or come from an Asian background.
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Looking into their stories, however, most of the correspondents acted not as bridges linking Chinese and American audience, but as barriers that deepened misunderstandings between the two.
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Amy Qin of the NYT, for instance, is a name familiar to many Chinese readers. This Asia-based correspondent regularly covers Chinese politics and society, and many of her stories have, in the past, sparked controversy laced with bias and misinformation, such a COVID-19 origins tracing piece that was published in June 2021.
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Qin wrote at least 12 stories during the Beijing Olympics, reporting from the opening ceremony and Chinese athletes, to China’s dynamic zero-COVID policy and winter sports popularity, as shown by the NYT website. In a February 19 article covering the skiing development in Northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, she blatantly mentioned the “genocide” rumor at the end, eclipsing any bright spots regarding skiing development in the region that may have been mentioned in her article.
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With a cross-cultural background herself, Qin seems particularly interested in American-born athletes of Chinese descents, and what the current China-US “rivalry” has done to the group. On February 16, she wrote that Nathan Chen, a Chinese American figure skater who won gold at the Olympics, was “ignored” by the Chinese public in a seeming attempt to criticize the so-called “resurgent nationalism” among “[Chinese] citizens.”
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US correspondents in China have been a window for Americans to know more about the country. Unfortunately, “most [US correspondents in China] are actually tools to play up the negative image of China that caters to the American elites,” Li Haidong, a professor from the Institute of International Relations of the China Foreign Affairs University, told the Global Times.
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Nonetheless, in the era of the great boom of social media, these correspondents and the US mainstream media, can no longer dominate China-related discourse, as social media have increasingly become a popular way for people to follow Olympic-related topics, which indeed poses a challenge to the monopoly of traditional mainstream media in depicting China, Li said.
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Despite the widespread “political boycott” against the Games played up by the US mainstream media, Americans are not fooled and many still genuinely enjoyed watching the Games across numerous social media platforms and shared what they are fond of or the Games’ most captivating moments. That’s a reality, but also a story that never gets told, Vipinder Jaswal, founder of the US-based PR company Vippi Media, told the Global Times in a previous interview.
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Jaswal said that the mainstream media and politicians coming against the Games have the greatest function to negatively influence people and disseminate some type of propaganda, but people were largely not fooled.
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Narration full of bias and lies
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The collected data showed that in general, positive coverage of US media mostly focused on relatively light topics in specific sports or social areas, including Chinese athletes winning medals, and international athletes enjoying delicious meals at the Olympic Village.
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Many of its negative coverage, ridiculously, had little to do with the Games. These articles were usually related to politics and economy, and clichés that alluded to “problems” in China that actually don’t exist, such the “Xinjiang forced labor” accusation. Regardless of the fact that much of the fake news has been clarified by Chinese government, US media rehashed them, lashing them to the Winter Olympics for eye-grabbing sensationalism.
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Discourse on the Games in the mainstream US media, whether liberal or conservative, has yet to get rid of the “gloom filter” that was projected in their typical coverage full of prejudice against China’s development, observers said Although American media outlets with different editorial objectives speak for different groups in the US, they usually stand together against China for US national interests, they noted
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They are still trying to use the US political elitist narrative of human rights standards as a weapon to attack the Games, Li told the Global Times.This ideology-oriented reporting approach inevitably leads to bias in the US media’s reporting on China, and it ends up further away from the “independence” and “transparency” advocated by Western news ethics, said Li.

 

 

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Don’t lie about seeking help in getting the corruption charges dropped. Muhyiddin warns UMNO’S Zahid

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Muhyiddin: Zahid wanted me to drop his cases, Umno pulled support when I didn’t

#KiniNews: Muhyiddin refuses Zahid’s dare, Najib says pressured by Mahathir

 

PUTRAJAYA: Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin has told Umno president Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi not to lie to the rakyat about seeking his help in getting the corruption charges against him dropped.
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The Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia president said he had proof that the Bagan Datuk MP had sought his help over the matter when he was the prime minister.
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“That night (during a ceramah), I have shown the witnesses.
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“Don’t lie to the rakyat but if he wants to do the ‘sumpah laknat’, he can do so even multiple times, it’s up to him,” said Muhyiddin when met after chairing the National Recovery Council meeting here yesterday.
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During a ceramah in Tangkak on Feb 16, Muhyiddin claimed that Ahmad Zahid had visited his home with piles of files a few days after he was sworn in as prime minister in 2020.
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He claimed that the former deputy prime minister had asked for help and said that he had not done the things of which he was accused of.
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Muhyiddin said he refused to help, which he claimed prompted Ahmad Zahid to back efforts to oust him as prime minister.
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Ahmad Zahid in a response on Monday said he was willing to take the “sumpah laknat” to refute claims that he had sought Muhyiddin’s help to get the corruption charges against him dropped.
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“Sumpah laknat” is usually an act of last resort, and is an oath made according to syariah principles and in the name of Allah, where the confessor calls upon God to punish him if he has told a lie.

 

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