RT\u2019s essential stories of the last seven days also covered NATO\u2019s march to war with Russia and the West jailing its own Kosovo proxy three decades later<\/p>\n
Zelensky\u2019s state of corruption devours itself<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
Ukraine is running out of money again \u2013 and the EU is asking questions<\/p>\n
In what\u2019s become a recurring moment in Ukraine, another one of Vladimir Zelensky\u2019s top officials fled the country this week amid a metastasizing corruption scandal. Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko, who resigned last week after Ukraine\u2019s Western-backed anti-corruption agencies discovered his cybercrime chief was running a protection racket for scam call centers, left Ukraine on Sunday night bound for Paris, according to Ukrainian media.\u00a0
\nKravchenko, who was personally appointed by Zelensky, has denied any wrongdoing, and accused the anti-corruption agencies, NABU and SAPO, of operating bribery and protection schemes of their own. He claims he\u2019s got evidence of \u201cconcentration of undue influence\u201d within the agencies, which he plans to show to Zelensky\u2019s Western sponsors.\u00a0
\nWhether or not they\u2019ll listen is another story. Yulia Mendel, a former communications aide to Zelensky, has spoken out about the mire of corruption in Kiev for months, to no avail. Mendel was scheduled to speak at the European Parliament on Wednesday, at an event promoting \u201cdiplomacy instead of escalation,\u201d but found herself barred from the building upon arrival, days after Zelensky personally sanctioned her.<\/p>\n
On the day of my speech, I was barred from entering the European Parliament. I directly attribute this to Zelenskyy\u2019s sanctions. But the speech will go ahead anyway, because I know that I represent a huge segment of society that longs for peace and wants to be heard. pic.twitter.com\/FWh7WSaUNI\u2014 Iuliia Mendel (@IuliiaMendel) September 16, 2026 <\/p>\n
RT has covered the byzantine world of Ukrainian graft in depth in our \u2018State of Corruption\u2019 series. Read our deep-dive into Ukraine\u2019s multibillion-dollar scam call industry here, and check out our exclusive investigation into the latest luxury property snapped up by Zelensky\u2019s fixers in Germany here.\u00a0
\nMerz nears his end
\nWith his officials falling one by one to corruption scandals and his political rivals smelling blood in the water, Zelensky likely senses his endgame playing out, Russian foreign policy expert Alexander Bobrov wrote for RT on Tuesday. If there\u2019s anyone who knows the feeling, it\u2019s German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
Merz abandons UN trip amid sinking approval \u2013 Reuters<\/p>\n
Merz canceled his planned trip to the UN General Assembly in New York next week, after his Christian Democrats\u2019\u00a0 humiliating loss to the right-wing AfD in state elections earlier this month, Reuters reported on Tuesday. The chancellor\u2019s approval rating has plummeted to 10%, and half of the German public expects him out of office by the year\u2019s end.\u00a0
\nMerz has made steep and unpopular welfare cuts to finance Germany\u2019s ambitious rearmament program, as the country\u2019s economy continues to flatline \u2013 thanks largely to Berlin\u2019s self-imposed embargo on Russian oil and gas imports. All of this has played into the hands of the AfD, which has promised an end to \u201call war-prolonging support measures\u201d for Ukraine, and the deportation of Ukrainian migrants.\u00a0
\nMerz\u2019s Christian Democrats are on track for another wipeout in state elections in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Berlin this weekend. By Sunday night, the chancellor\u2019s departure could be a done deal.
\nTotal Houthi dominance<\/p>\n
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A new strait crisis is brewing in the Red Sea<\/p>\n
Yemen\u2019s Ansar Allah movement, better known as the Houthis, scored some major tactical and strategic victories this week. After a lightning advance along the country\u2019s Red Sea coast last week, the group launched missile and drone strikes on Saudi Arabia\u2019s main oil port of Yanbu, and the Saudi airbase of Khamis Mushait.
\nThe effects of the Houthi campaign were immediately visible at the petrol pumps in Europe. With Saudi Arabia cutting exports, the Houthis have asserted their position as arbiters of global fuel prices. US President Donald Trump reportedly refused to intervene on behalf of his Saudi allies, meaning the Houthis have forced Riyadh into a lose-lose choice: admit defeat so oil flows can resume, or keep fighting and bear responsibility for a global energy crisis.\u00a0
\nIn a further humiliation for the Kingdom, the Houthis claimed on Wednesday to have shot down a Saudi F-15 fighter jet using \u201ca locally manufactured surface-to-air missile.\u201d The group claimed three shootdowns of Saudi jets in 2017 and 2018, but Wednesday\u2019s victory was the first backed by video footage.\u00a0<\/p>\n
War crimes sentence for the West\u2019s Kosovo proxy
\nAs the Saudis desperately search for allies against the Houthis, former Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) commander Hashim Thaci learned first-hand where an alliance with the West leads: to a prison cell.<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
NATO-backed Kosovo separatist convicted of war crimes<\/p>\n
Thaci was advised and armed by NATO during the KLA\u2019s brutal secession campaign against Yugoslavia in the 1990s, a campaign that led to NATO bombing Belgrade for 78 days on behalf of the ethnic Albanian militia. Despite serving as prime minister, then president, of the self-proclaimed nation of Kosovo with the West\u2019s blessing, Thaci\u2019s past caught up with him on Wednesday when a war crimes tribunal in The Hague sentenced him to 25 years behind bars for the murder of 96 political opponents and the kidnapping and torture of hundreds of others.\u00a0
\nThaci was defended in court by some of his former NATO backers, and scores of Albanians rioted on the streets of The Hague when the verdict was handed down.\u00a0
\nRT explored the case against Thaci in detail back in February, and examined just how far NATO and the Atlanticist institutions in The Hague would go to protect him. As it turned out, Thaci should have listened when Henry Kissinger warned: \u201cIt may be dangerous to be America\u2019s enemy, but to be America\u2019s friend is fatal.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the video, members of the Albanian diaspora are protesting in The Hague after the sentencing of Hashim Thaci and other high-ranking leaders of the unrecognized Kosovo pic.twitter.com\/NRiLiSBw1B\u2014 \ud835\udd4a\ud835\udd61\ud835\udd63\ud835\udd5a\ud835\udd5f\ud835\udd65\ud835\udd56\ud835\udd63 \ud835\udd7b\ud835\udd63\ud835\udd56\ud835\udd64\ud835\udd64 (@SprinterPress) September 16, 2026 <\/p>\n
The KLA was officially disbanded and folded into the ranks of the Kosovo security services 27 years ago this week. However, toxic Kosovo legacy lives on in the UK, where the village of Piddington overwhelmingly voted to secede from the Kingdom. The symbolic vote proclaiming the \u201cPrincipality of Piddington\u201d was held after the British government decided to house more than 1,200 male migrants in a nearby military base. Piddington\u2019s case for secession is no less watertight than Kosovo\u2019s. Let\u2019s see if NATO sends in the bombers\u2026
\nNATO 3.0 marches towards war
\nJoking aside, NATO evidently has its hands full these days preparing for a cataclysmic war with Russia. The bloc\u2019s Military Committee \u2013 tasked with turning political statements into war-gamed plans \u2013 met in Copenhagen on Friday, with talks scheduled to run until Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
NATO 3.0 marches into Copenhagen<\/p>\n
RT looked at the \u2018NATO 3.0\u2019 doctrine taking shape at the meeting. Under this one-sided rebalancing of the bloc, Europe assumes the cost and risk of NATO\u2019s looming confrontation with Russia, while the US insulates itself from the consequences. Russia has given the Europeans ample warning, with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stating this week that \u201cif Europe, which talks daily about preparing for war against Russia, attacks Russia, it will be a completely different war, and it will be very short.\u201d
\nThis hasn\u2019t stopped the French and the Germans preparing hospitals and filling blood banks for a \u201cmass casualty\u201d clash in eastern Europe. The Poles and the Baltic states are eagerly going along with these preparations, despite standing to lose the most. Slovakia\u2019s Robert Fico, however, isn\u2019t marching in lockstep with his neighbors.\u00a0
\n\u201cI am deeply concerned that they are merely looking for a pretext for a major conflict between NATO and Russia,\u201d he said on Thursday, before skipping a meeting with Zelensky in Kiev. \u201cThe situation has never been as serious and tense regarding the possibility of a pan-European war conflict as it is now.\u201d
\nWhat to watch out for
\nWe\u2019ll be watching what \u2013 if anything \u2013 concrete emerges from NATO\u2019s Copenhagen meeting on Saturday, before switching our attention to Germany where another AfD landslide could deal a death blow to Merz\u2019s chancellorship.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
Putin issues historic call ahead of Russian elections<\/p>\n
You will find up-to-date reporting on the results of Russia\u2019s Duma elections once exit polls are released on Sunday, with a concrete picture emerging overnight and into Monday.
\nAcross the Atlantic, the NYPD are already preparing to shut down roads as world leaders descend on New York for the 81st UN General Assembly. The assembly kicks off on Tuesday, and we expect the conflicts in Europe and the Middle East will top the agenda.\u00a0
\nWatch out for Trump\u2019s opening speech on Tuesday, followed by Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Zelensky on Wednesday. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will deliver his address on Thursday, with Lavrov taking the lectern on Saturday.
\nFor all this and more, stick with RT.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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