• Russian Foreign Ministry: Assumptions that aircraft carrier will be involved in attacks on Aleppo are 'absurd'

    The Russian Foreign Ministry said that NATO’s assumptions that the Russian aircraft carrier group will take part in military operations in Aleppo are “absurd.” Andrei Kelin, Deputy Director of European Cooperation Department, told RIA Novosti that Russian aircraft have not approached a Syrian town for “the ninth day.”

    Secretary General of NATO Jens Stoltenberg earlier expressed concern that the deployment of the Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier in the eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea …

  • Europe is concerned about Russia’s declared right to deploy nuclear weapons to Crimea

    On the 27th of October, the European Parliament overwhelmingly adopted the Nuclear Safety and Non-Proliferation resolution during the plenary session in Strasbourg. In the text of the resolution, the European parliamentarians expressed concerns about threats to use nuclear weapons posed by Russia and called on nuclear-weapon states to reduce the number of nuclear weapons and the role of non-peaceful atomics in the military doctrine.

    The European Parliament pointed out troubling examples such …

  • First pipes for Nord Stream 2 have arrived on the island of Rugen

    A permit for the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline has not yet been obtained, but the implementation of the project is continuing. On Thursday, October 27, the first pipes for the proposed 1,200-km-long gas pipeline arrived from Russia on the island of Rügen in Germany, DPA agency reported. There they will be stored at a special plant and covered with concrete for future pipe-laying.

    At the end of 2019, Nord Stream 2 will begin operation of the gas pipeline, the cost of which is …

  • Kremlin declines to comment on report that U.S. and Russian aircraft had a close encounter over Syria

    Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on statements made by Pentagon officials that Russian and U.S. planes had a close encounter over Syria on October 17th, RIA Novosti reported.

    When asked to comment on the incident, Peskov said, “It is for my colleagues at the Ministry of Defense."

    Earlier on Friday, Lieutenant General Jeff Harrigian, the commander of U.S. Air Force Central Command, described an incident in which a U.S. reconnaissance aircraft and a Russian fighter flew …

  • Ukraine and Turkey agree to step up negotiations on a free trade zone

    The President of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, and Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, agreed to step up negotiations on a free trade area and discussed procedures for further negotiations at the highest level, during a recent telephone conversation, as reported by the press service of the Ukrainian State.

    According to the report, Poroshenko informed the Turkish leader about an increase in the period for a visa-free stay from 60 to 90 days for Turkish citizens visiting Ukraine.

    The Turkish …

  • Putin: The U.S. is responsible for the breakdown of the ceasefire in Syria

    At a meeting of the Valdai International Discussion Club, Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed that the United States had disrupted the ceasefire in Syria.

    According to him, US President Barack Obama had promised to separate the terrorists from the opposition in Syria in seven days. “The United States have admitted that part of Aleppo is still occupied by terrorist organizations, Jabhat an-Nusra [also known as the Al-Nusra Front] and ISIL, and it can be seen on video, when we observe the …

  • U.S. and Swedish reconnaissance aircraft fly over Russian Kaliningrad and Crimea

    On Friday, a U.S. Navy P-8A Poseidon reconnaissance aircraft flew over the Black Sea near the coast of the Crimea and a Swedish Gulfsteam 4 signals intelligence aircraft flew over Russia’s Baltic Sea exclave of Kaliningrad, Interfax reported.

    According to websites that track the movement of military aircraft, the U.S. P-8A with tail number 168 761 took off from the Naval Air Station Sigonella in Sicily and flew over the southern coast of the Crimea.

    The Swedish Air Force’s Gulfstream 4 with …

  • Lavrov: Photos showing Russian involvement in airstrike on school in Syria were 'fabricated'

    Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov denied that Russia was behind the airstrikes that killed 22 school children in Syria’s Idlib province on Thursday, Izvestia reported.

    At a press conference following a meeting with his Syrian and Iranian counterparts, Walid Muallem and Mohammad Javad Zarif, Lavrov said that photographs that had been circulating on social media allegedly showing that Russian aircraft were responsible for the airstrikes were “fabricated”.

    “Now, the episode has been spun…. …

  • Lavrov: Russia will do everything necessary to support Syrian people

    Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told his Syrian counterpart Walid Muallem that Moscow will do everything necessary to support the Syrian people, especially in regards to countering the effects of economic sanctions imposed against Damascus by the West, TASS reported.

    "We are doing and will do whatever is necessary to support the Syrian people in this difficult moment, especially when… there are even tougher economic sanctions in Syria, which directly hit the civilian population,” Lavrov …

  • German journalist: The crash of Kaczynski's Tu-154 was a terrorist attack

    German journalist, Jürgen Roth, believes that the cause of the 2010 plane crash near Smolensk was a terrorist attack committed by Russian security services. The journalist is convinced that it was ordered by a high-ranking Polish politician.

    According to Gazeta Polska, Roth's book titled ‘Smolensk 2010: The plot that changed the world’ will be published in November. The author makes reference to secret material of the Federal Intelligence Service of Germany (BND). These documents allegedly …