• Russia conducts aviation exercises over the Mediterranean Sea

    The Russian Ministry of Defense announced that it had held naval aviation exercises in the Mediterranean Sea for pilots of its Black Sea Fleet. The Ministry’s press service reported that Ka-27PL helicopter crews and the patrol boat Yaroslav Mudry participated in the exercises.

    “Pilots of the naval aircraft of the Black Sea Fleet in cooperation with the crew of the ship practiced take-offs and landings on the deck of the ship and also trained to search and track enemy submarines,” the statement …

  • Lavrov demands the US release Russian spy Maria Butina

    According to a statement from the Russian Foreign Ministry’s official website, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov held a phone conversation with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to discuss the improvement of bilateral relations. During the conversation, Lavrov stressed “the unacceptability of the actions of U.S. authorities, who have arrested Russian citizen Maria Butina in the United States on the basis of fabricated charges, and the need for her early release.”

    Maria Butina is accused …

  • Prystaiko: Hungary tried hard to keep Ukrainian President away from NATO summit

    Hungarian diplomats have advised their political leaders to use NATO as a platform for settling scores with Kyiv, and also attempted to prevent Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko from attending the alliance’s summit, Ukraine’s ambassador to NATO Vadym Prystaiko told Glavcom news outlet in an interview.

    “A critical juncture has been reached. They really tried to keep the Ukrainian president away from the NATO summit. We will not forget this,” Prystaiko said, adding that Poroshenko had the …

  • Putin says Russian pension system may collapse

    On Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin commented for the first time on the bill to increase the retirement age , which had its first reading in the State Duma the day before.

    According to him, to leave the pension system in its current form would be tantamount to “trickery”, because either the system itself will “give out”, or the budget, which is paying for roughly half of its expenses (3.3 trillion rubles out of 7), will.

    “For five pensioners there are six working persons today, and …

  • Israel evacuates White Helmets from Syria

    The Israeli army evacuated representatives of the White Helmets humanitarian organization with their families from Syria, reported the spokesman of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) Emmanuel Nahshon.

    "Upon request of the US, Canada and European states Israel has completed a humanitarian effort to rescue members of a Syrian civil organization (“White Helmets”) and families. They were evacuated from the war zone in Southern Syria to a neighboring country, " Nahshon tweeted.

    German newspaper Bild …