INTERNATIONAL: The Kremlin has said on Thursday,March 17, that Russia was putting colossal energy into talks on a possible peace deal with Ukraine that could swiftly stop the Russian military operation there.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said U.S. President Joe Biden's claim that President Vladimir Putin was a war criminal was unacceptable and that the United States had no right to lecture Russia after its involvement in so many conflicts.

Peskov has told that Russia had the funds necessary to service its foreign bonds so any default would be entirely artificial.

"The fact is that from the very beginning we have said that Russia has all the necessary funds and potential to prevent a default ,there can be no defaults," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said.

The Kremlin have also said that many people in Russia were showing themselves to be traitors and pointed to those who were resigning from their jobs and leaving the country.

Peskov made the comments a day after President Vladimir Putin has delivered a stark warning to Russian "traitors" who he has said the West wanted to use as a "fifth column" to destroy the country.