• EU to increase purchases of Azerbaijani gas amid rising tensions with Russia

    The European Union will hold talks with Azerbaijan to discuss the possibility of increasing gas supplies to Europe through the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP).

    The Financial Times reports, citing sources, that next week the European Commissioner for Energy, Kadri Simson, will pay a visit to Baku, where she will meet with the Minister of Energy of Azerbaijan Parviz Shahbazov and the Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources Mukhtar Babaev.

    "We expect the talks to focus on Azerbaijan's role in …

  • UK preparing new sanctions against Russia

    On Monday, January 31, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office of Great Britain will announce new sanctions against Russia due to the situation around Ukraine, reported TASS and RIA Novosti, citing informed sources in the UK government circles.

    "It is expected that the Foreign Office will announce the tightening of the sanctions on Monday in Parliament so that the UK can strike at the strategic and financial interests of Russia," the source told RIA Novosti.

    The TASS source did not …

  • Russia deploys Pantsir-S anti-aircraft systems to Belarus

    Russia has sent Pantsir-S anti-aircraft missile and artillery systems to Belarus, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

    "Another train delivered to the unloading station a Pantsir-S anti-aircraft missile and artillery battalion of the Eastern Military District," the Ministry said.

    The Pantsir-S battalion includes 12 combat systems. Each Pantsir-S can have up to 12 anti-aircraft missiles in its transport launch containers.

    The Russian Defense Ministry said that after unloading, the personnel …

  • Germany blocks ex-diplomat from becoming top manager at Nord Stream 2

    The process of "schröderization" of European officials, who find a comfortable management positions in the leadership of Russian state corporations, has been met with resistance from the German authorities.

    The German Foreign Ministry blocked the former ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Dieter Walter Haller, from joining the Gas for Europe, the German legal entity established by Gazprom's 100 percent Swiss subsidiary Nord Stream 2 AG.

    Haller received an offer to head the supervisory board of the …

  • Germany expels Russian diplomat suspected of espionage

    An employee of the Russian consulate in Munich was declared persona non grata after he was accused of espionage, reports Deutsche Welle.

    According to Deutsche Welle, the diplomat was an officer of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service and acted as a liaison agent with a Russian academician, whose arrest on charges of espionage was announced the day before.

    Deutsche Welle reports that the expulsion occurred shortly after the detention in the summer of 2021 of Ilnur N., a researcher from the …

  • U.S. preparing to expel Russian ambassador

    The United States is ready to expel Russian Ambassador Anatoly Antonov from the country if the Russian side does not fulfill several Washington's demands by April.

    The relevant information has already been conveyed by the United States Department of State to Russian diplomats, TASS quotes Antonov as saying.

    According to Antonov, the U.S. demands that Russia provide visas to the security guards of the U.S. ambassador.

    The personnel of the Russian Embassy in the United States have been reduced …

  • Russia deploys Su-35 fighter jets to Belarus

    Russia is deploying Su-35 fighter jets from the Eastern Military District to Belarus, reported the press service of the Russian Ministry of Defense.

    According to the ministry, the crews of Su-35 fighters, "taking part in the readiness check of the Union State's response forces," are being deployed to Belarus.

    "During the flight to Belarus, the crews make intermediate landings at the airfields of the Central and Western Military Districts to rest and prepare for further flight," the Defense …

  • U.S. and NATO reject Putin's demands for security guarantees

    The United States and NATO rejected Russia’s key demands for security guarantees which include stopping the enlargement of NATO and not accepting Ukraine and Georgia into the Alliance.

    "We will preserve the principle of open doors of the alliance,”  said the United States Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, commenting on the written response, which was delivered to the Russian Foreign Ministry on Wednesday evening by Ambassador John Sullivan.

    He added that Russia cannot dictate which …

  • Putin’s party: Russia should start supplying weapons to Donbas republics

    Russia should begin arms supplies to the unrecognized republics of the Donbas, said the First Deputy chairman of the Russian Federation Council, Secretary of the General Council of "United Russia" Party, Andrei Turchak.

    “Leading NATO countries pump Ukraine with lethal weapons in very large volumes, including missile systems, grenade launchers, small arms, mines, and ammunition,” Turchak said.

    According to him, career NATO military arrived in Ukraine to prepare Ukrainian servicemen "to conduct …

  • Russia deploying airborne forces to Ukrainian borders

    The Conflict Intelligence Team (CIT) reported that on January 24, a video was published on TikTok showing Russian military equipment transported by rail in the Bryansk region (Russia), which borders Belarus and Ukraine.

    The armored vehicles in the video are covered with a tarpaulin, but researcher Robert E. Lee managed to identify the BMD-4M amphibious infantry vehicles and the BTR-MDM fully-amphibious armoured personnel carrier. In total, the train carries 31 BMD-4M and 8 BTR-MDM, which …