Contents tagged with USA

  • Russian arrested on Pacific island at US request

    The Russian citizen Dmitry Makarenko was arrested on the Pacific island of Saipan at the FBI’s request. He arrived there on December 29 with his children and parents, and was arrested in the airport immediately after landing, the Russian Foreign Ministry reported on Saturday, January 5.

    Saipan is the largest island and capital of the Northern Mariana Islands, a US commonwealth in the Pacific Ocean. From there, Makarenko has been transferred to Florida.

    The Russian Embassy to the US is …

  • US makes Turkey an offer for Patriot air-defense systems

    The US has offered to sell Patriot anti-air and anti-missile defense systems to Turkey. An American delegation that arrived earlier in Ankara is still meeting with Turkey’s Defense Ministry, Interior Ministry and Defense Industry Ministry to discuss the deal, Anadolu reported on Thursday.

    On December 19, the US State Department approved the decision to sell Turkey the Patriot systems for $3.5 billion. “The State Department has approved the decision to supply Turkey with 80 MIM-104E interceptor …

  • US to give back to Ukraine painting of Ivan the Terrible stolen during World War II

    A 107 year-old painting titled “Secret Departure of Ivan the Terrible Before the Oprichnina” by Mikhail Panin will soon be sent back to Ukraine by the US authorities. The painting depicts a 16th century scene of the Russian Tsar Ivan IV, commonly known as Ivan the Terrible, leaving the Kremlin gates with his entourage. 

    The painting was taken from the Dnipropetrovsk Art Museum during the Nazi occupation of the city in 1941, and was recently discovered in a private home in the US state of …

  • Russian media: detained US citizen was caught in possession of classified information in Moscow

    US citizen Paul Whelan was arrested by police shortly after receiving a storage device with information about a Russian state secret – a classified list of persons that American intelligence has been interested in for some time. 

    A source in Russia’s intelligence agency told Rosbalt that the operation to arrest Whelan was carried out in his room at the Metropol hotel. The American reportedly received an electronic medium with a list of all the staff of one of the classified Russian departments. …

  • USA demands that World Anti-Doping Agency ban Russia from taking part in competitions

    The US Anti-Doping Agency called for the exclusion of Russian athletes from competitions because of the delays in providing access to the Moscow anti-doping laboratory data, Radio Svoboda reports. 

    As reported by ESPN, the CEO of the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), Travis Tygart believes that they should stop being led on by Russia. In late December, a group of experts from WADA received access to the Moscow anti-doping laboratory but Russian officials prevented WADA from extracting …

  • Former US ambassador: Washington will soon provide Ukraine with more weapons

    Washington could send Kyiv weapons and impose new sanctions on Russia within the next two or three months, former US ambassador to Ukraine John Herbst told Radio Liberty in an interview. 

    “Within 2-3 months we will see the US giving Kyiv weapons and announcing new sanctions against Russia in connection with this aggression [in the Kerch Strait]. I think that, in the course of the next 8-10, or at most 12 weeks, this more forceful US response will appear. And, in addition to the sanctions, this …

  • Russia arrests US citizen on charges of espionage

    Russia announced on Monday that its intelligence agency had arrested a US citizen in Moscow on suspicion of espionage. 

    According to the FSB, the American was arrested on Friday “while carrying out spying activity”. 

    Charges have been brought against him according to article 276 of Russia’s Criminal Code (Espionage), which envisages a prison sentence of up to 20 years. 

    The suspect was identified as Paul Whelan, but no other details were provided. 

    The US later asked to be granted consular …

  • Russia threatens to retaliate if US deploys missiles in Europe

    Russia will respond if the US deploys nuclear missiles which are prohibited by the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty in Europe, warned Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, as reported by Interfax. 

    Lavrov said he “regrets European countries’ refusal to support the preservation of the treaty”. 

    “Our European colleagues… are not yet ready and follow the US even in cases where it clearly goes against their own interests,” he remarked. 

    “All of the EU voted against our proposal [ …

  • Gazprom CEO: Nord Stream 2 will be operational by January 2020

    Gazprom CEO Alexey Miller is convinced that the Nord Stream 2 pipeline will start supplying Europe with gas by January 1, 2020, Interfax reports. 

    “We are working according to the plans that were approved from the very beginning. The planned start for gas shipments is January 1, 2020,” Miller said. 

    Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin also said that he is prepared to work no matter how the situation develops with the US. 

    “We are working constantly under these circumstances. Our job is risk management,” …

  • Putin is ready for dialogue with Trump

    On Sunday, December 30th, the Kremlin press service reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin in a New Year’s message to his American counterpart Donald Trump confirmed Moscow’s openness to have a dialogue with Washington. 

    “In a congratulatory message to the President of the United States of America, Donald Trump, with Christmas, and New Year holidays in tow, Vladimir Putin stressed that Russian-American relations are critical to ensuring strategic stability and international security …