US President-elect Donald Trump nominates former General Keith Kellogg as special envoy for Ukraine and Russia: The 80-year-old has presented Trump with a plan to end the war, Reuters reports. It proposes freezing the front lines and forcing Kiev and Moscow to the negotiating table. The US would only supply Ukraine with more weapons if it entered peace talks and would warn Russia that any refusal to negotiate would result in increased support for Ukraine. For the time being, Ukraine’s NATO membership would be off the table. faz.net, spiegel.de, zdf.de

• US intelligence agencies consider the use of Russian nuclear weapons unlikely despite the threat of President Vladimir Putin. However, it is likely that Russia will expand acts of sabotage against European targets.
• North-eastern Europeans are increasing aid to Ukraine. Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Norway, Poland and Sweden say the aim is to support the Ukrainian defense industry and boost ammunition production.
• Russia expels ARD correspondent Frank Aischmann and technical staff. Moscow had justified the expulsion with an alleged closure of the Berlin office of the Russian television channel „First Channel“. The German Foreign Office described the expulsions as unacceptable and the justification as false; the government had not closed the office. Berlin’s State Office for Immigration confirmed that it had refused to grant residence permits to five people from various Russian media outlets. rnd.de, spiegel.de
• Russians mistake civilian aircraft for hostile aggressor. Air raid sirens were triggered. Videos are said to show the object being taken under fire. It turned out to be a Russian civilian aircraft.
• According to the Ministry of Defense, Russia is taking over the settlement of Nova Illinka near the embattled city of Kurachowe in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk.
• Russian leader Vladimir Putin has traveled to Kazakhstan. Putin and Kazakhstan’s President Qassym-Jomart Tokayev are expected to discuss trade relations as well as the construction of the first nuclear power plant. A meeting of the Russia-led military alliance CSTO is planned for Thursday to discuss the war in Ukraine.
• Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico plans to travel to Moscow in May to commemorate the end of World War II. He said he had accepted Vladimir Putin’s invitation „with joy“. Earlier, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic had also confirmed his attendance. merkur.de
• Russian upper house votes to increase defense spending by almost 30 percent. Next year, a record sum of around 113 billion euros will be spent on „national defense“; that is more than a third of the budget and over six percent of the gross domestic product.

BND head Bruno Kahl warns of a concrete danger of a military confrontation between Russia and NATO: the Russian armed forces would probably be in a position in terms of personnel and material to carry out an attack by the end of the decade. No large-scale attack would be expected; Moscow would rather try to undermine the mutual assistance obligation laid down in Article 5. If Russia were to launch a military attack on a NATO member and the other member states did not view this as an attack on the entire alliance, Russia would have achieved its goal of undermining NATO. Possible scenarios include a brief attack on the Norwegian Arctic island of Spitsbergen for the sake of „territorial reorganization“ or a limited intervention in the Baltic states under the pretext of protecting Russian minorities. sueddeutsche.de

Lithuania finds no evidence of sabotage in the crash of a DHL plane: Defense Minister Laurynas Kasciunas said technical problems were the more likely cause. However, the final verdict cannot be made until the data from the flight recorder has been analyzed. The DHL plane did not use the GPS system for landing; therefore, a possible disruption of these signals could not have caused the crash. According to its president Bruno Kahl, the BND also has no reliable evidence that Russian sabotage could have caused the crash. However, suspicions regarding Russia are obvious after security authorities warned as early as the summer about packages in DHL cargo planes that spontaneously combusted. n-tv.de, sueddeutsche.de, tagesschau.de

Cabinet approves laws: Since the red-green government no longer has a majority in the Bundestag after the coalition’s demise, it is unclear whether the plans can still be implemented before the new election on February 23. tagesspiegel.de, n-tv.de

• Support for women affected by violence. The federal states are obliged to expand women’s shelters, protected housing and advice centers. Victims of gender-based and domestic violence should have an individual legal right to protection and support. tagesschau.de
• The purpose of the collective bargaining law is to ensure that federal contracts are only awarded to companies where collective bargaining standards apply.
• The awarding of public contracts, for example for infrastructure projects, should become easier and faster.
• Memorial in Berlin for the victims of the right-wing terrorist cell NSU. In addition, a documentation center is to be established. Between 2000 and 2007, the NSU murdered nine people with an immigrant background and a policewoman.
• Integration courses are to be more strongly aligned with individual learning requirements and thus become more effective. The financial requirements will also be covered during a provisional budget, as agreed by Interior Minister Nancy Faeser and Finance Minister Jörg Kukies.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz wants a law allowing pensioners to continue working voluntarily before the election: Scholz called on the Bundestag to pass a corresponding flexibilization before the election, Scholz said at the DIHK. He said that women and men should be able to continue working even after they reach retirement age if they want to. According to Scholz, attractive conditions for employees and employers are needed for this. He also said that such a regulation must be strictly voluntary.

Margot Friedländer Prizes awarded for commitment to tolerance and against anti-Semitism: Five initiatives and one individual were honored, including the „Apropolis“ association from Burgwedel in Lower Saxony, which trains young people in workshops to recognize prejudices and fake news. The „Zweitzeugen“ association from North Rhine-Westphalia tries to keep the memory of the Holocaust alive among young people. The prizes, endowed with a total of 25,000 euros, were awarded this year for the first time by the Margot Friedländer Foundation, which was established by the 103-year-old Holocaust survivor last year. For many years before that, the prize was awarded by the Schwarzkopf Foundation. rbb24.de

More Politics:

• Green Party politician Konstantin von Notz wants better protection against acts of sabotage. rp-online.de
• Greens want guarantee for Germany ticket until 2030. web.de
• Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser urges vigilance at Christmas markets due to „abstractly high threat level“. rnd.de
• Unions faction deputy Jens Spahn offers SPD and Greens suspension of supply chain law. zeit.de
• China continues to operate secret police stations in Germany. n-tv.de