Contents tagged with USA

  • 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 …

  • 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 …

  • US Intelligence: Russia could attack American aircraft in Syria

    The director of national intelligence of the United States, James Clapper, suggested on Tuesday that Vladimir Putin could give the order to shoot down US aircraft to ensure the no-fly zone over Syria if the United States and its allies decide to establish such zones for the protection of civilians.

    “I don’t think that they rule out the option of destruction of US aircraft if they think that it poses a threat to their ground forces,” James Clapper said during his speech at the meeting of the …

  • Campaign representative: Trump supports Ukraine, not Russia

    The U.S. presidential candidate from the Republican Party, Donald Trump, supports Ukraine and does not approve of Russian aggression in Eastern Europe, according to his representative and former Governor of Maryland, Robert Elrich, Ukrinform news agency reported.

    "With respect to Ukraine, he [Trump] has officially declared that he is in support of Ukraine," the representative of the candidate said. He cited Trump, stating that the alliance between Ukraine and the U.S.A. is "very strong." "As …

  • US Ambassador to NATO: The EU should support sanctions against Russia until the Minsk agreements are implemented

    The European Union, following the United States, must maintain sanctions against Russia until the full implementation of the Minsk agreements. This was stated by U.S. Ambassador to NATO Douglas Lute before the start of the meeting of NATO member countries' defense ministers in Brussels.

    "We expect that the EU will join us in extending sanctions against Russia, until we see the full implementation of the Minsk agreements," Lute said. He stressed that the OSCE SMM provides convincing evidence of …

  • Putin and Obama discussed separation between terrorists and opposition in Syria

    Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Barack Obama discussed the issue of the separation of terrorists and opposition groups in Syria. This was reported by TASS with reference to the Special Representative of the President of the Russian Federation for the Middle East and Africa, Michael Bogdanov. He is also the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs in Russia.

    Bogdanov made this comment at the meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club after political scientist, Peter Dutkevich, questioned …

  • U.S. surveillance aircraft fly near the Crimea and Russia's flotilla in the Mediterranean

    U.S. Navy surveillance aircraft flew along the coast of the Crimea on Wednesday, Interfax reported. A separate surveillance aircraft flew near Russia’s warships in the Mediterranean Sea, according to websites that track the movement of military aircraft.

    The first U.S. plane reportedly took off from the Sigonella Naval Air Station in Sicily, where it proceeded to fly over the Black Sea south of the Crimean coast.

    The second aircraft also took off from Signolla, and flew over the eastern …

  • The U.S. extended the ban on flights to Dnipro and Simferopol

    The U.S. government has decided to extend the ban on U.S. flights to the international airports of Simferopol and Dnipro (former Dnipropetrovsk) for another two years, as was reported in an official notification by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) of the United States.

    The present decision will be effective as of the 27th of October 2016 and will be “valid until the 27th of November 2018."

    It was also noted that "if necessary, the FAA can change, renew, or cancel" the decision. The …

  • Steinmeier: Russia wants to participate in world politics on equal terms with the U.S.

    Russia’s politics in the world arena can be explained by their desire to compete with the United States and defend its spheres of influence. This was the view expressed by German Minister for Foreign Affairs Frank-Walter Steinmeier in an interview with Märkische Allgemeine Zeitung.

    “In Russia’s actions I see a willingness to participate in world politics on equal terms with the United States and an attempt to defend and expand its spheres of influence,” he said. Also according to Steinmeier, “ …