Contents tagged with USA

  • USA weighs two options for the next round of sanctions against Russia

    The US Senate should consider two escalatory sanctions options that are planned for this fall. The proposal was made by Daniel Fried,the former coordinator for sanctions policy of the United States Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.

    "Escalatory options can include two types: intensified sectoral sanctions targeting specific sectors such as finance, energy, defense/dual use technology, and cyber; and additional sanctions against individuals, particularly those close to …

  • US fighter jets intercept Russian bombers near Alaska

    American fighter jets intercepted Russian bombers that flew near Alaska, heading for large-scale military exercises, reports the Voice of America.

    “Two F-22 Raptor jets based in Alaska intercepted and visually identified two Tu-95 bombers that flew over the Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ), south of the Aleutian Islands,” said the representative of the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), Michael Kucharek, as quoted by Business Insider.

    It is noted that two Russian TU-95 …

  • Russian Foreign Minister points to risk of Russia-US war

    The US is “engaging in Russophobic rhetoric and Russophobic actions’ which may eventually lead to a military encounter between the two countries, said Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in a broadcast of Channel One Russia.

    According to the minister, the “intensity of emotions” goes beyond what is considered “diplomatic decency”, and “confrontation and tension are on the rise”.

    “The US initiated NATO’s movement to our borders, not merely by adopting Russia’s neighbors as new alliance …

  • Media: Russia signs contract to supply rocket engines to the USA

    Russian company NPO Energomash signed a new contract to supply four RD-181 rocket engines to the American aerospace company Orbital ATK for its Antares rockets until 2021, reported the newspaper Kommersant on Tuesday, September 4.

    The new contract was signed despite efforts of some Russian lawmakers to stop sales of rocket engines to the USA as a response to a new series of American sanctions. The USA is the Russian enterprise’s only market for such rocket engines, the newspaper notes. …

  • US nuclear submarine moves from Gibraltar towards Syria

    The USS Newport News, a Los Angeles-class nuclear-powered attack submarine which entered Gibraltar last week, left the port four days later and adopted a course towards the Eastern Mediterranean Sea, Interfax reports, citing Gibraltar monitoring resources.

    In the published vessel tracking data, one can see that the cruise missile-bearing nuclear submarine rounded Europa Point and headed towards the Eastern Mediterranean.

    The US already has two of its nuclear submarines in the Mediterranean, …

  • Russian state-owned bank changes name and ownership structure of its US subsidiary to have foothold in the US market

    Russian state-owned VTB financial group sold its US subsidiary, VTB Capital Inc, reports Interfax news agency, citing the bank’s press release. “The company was renamed to Xtellus Capital Partners and became an independent player in the stock market and fixed income operations,” the information agency stated.

    The subsidiary was sold to the former management of VTB Capital Inc.

    An American company will act as a broker-dealer for the Russian VTB group in the US market that would enable clients …

  • Iran intends to expand the capabilities of its ballistic and cruise missiles

    Iran intends to expand the capabilities of its ballistic and cruise missiles, stated on Saturday, Iran’s deputy defense minister for international affairs, Mohammad Ahadi, reports television channel Press TV.

    “Expanding the capabilities of various ballistic and cruise missiles, obtaining a next-generation fighter planes, as well as ships and submarines equipped with various types of weapons, is included in the ministry’s [of defense] new plans,” the television channel quotes him.

    Ahadi added …

  • Poroshenko calls McCain ‘hero of Ukraine’

    Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko attended the memorial service of the late US senator John McCain in Washington on September 1. After the ceremony, Poroshenko said that senator McCain was close to Ukraine and its people at a critical moment in its history, the Ukrainian president’s press service reports.

    “We remembered him at the Maidan during the Revolution of Dignity, when at a temperature of minus 26 degrees he came out, hardly dressed, and approached the hundreds of thousands of people …

  • USA accuses Russia of continuing to block expansion of the OSCE mission’s mandate

    Deputy Chief of Mission at the US Mission to the OSCE Gregory Macris stated that “Russia continues to block the expansion of the geographic scope of the Observer Mission along the border.”

    "We once again must accept an inadequate, limited-scope mission covering just two border checkpoints, which together account for only a few hundred meters of the 2,300-kilometer Ukrainian-Russian border, much of which Ukraine does not control,” reads the statement published on the US State Department’s …

  • DPR accuses the USA of involvement in Zakharchenko's murder

    The USA is involved in the murder of the Head of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), Alexander Zakharchenko, stated the Deputy Commander of Operational Command of the DPR, Eduard Basurin on the TV Channel Russia 1. According to Basurin, the murder happened "with the involvement of the supervisor from the United States of America.”

    On Friday, August 31, an explosion in a restaurant in Donetsk, killed Zakharchenko and at least three other people. Soon after, separatists announced the arrest of …