• China refuses to finance $14 billion Gazprom megaproject

    Russian officials’ attempts to get through to Chinese investors in order to enlist their support in developing the economy in the East and overcoming western sanctions are continuing to fail for the fifth consecutive year. 

    The new negotiations to secure a Chinese loan for the construction of Russia’s largest gas processing plant in the Amur province have ended with yet another disappointment for the Russians. 

    Gazprom had hoped to pay for the Amur gas processing plant, which is scheduled to …

  • Russia: US sanctions on Venezuelan state oil company illegal

    Moscow has said that the sanctions imposed by Washington on PDVSA, the Venezuelan state-owned oil company, in an attempt to undermine Nicolas Maduro’s power, are illegal. 

    “The legitimate leadership of Venezuela has already described these sanctions as illegal. One can fully get behind this perspective,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters. 

    The US Treasury Department said that the measures against the Venezuelan state-owned oil company were adopted in order to “change the …

  • Media: Russian Military Command behind the creation of Wagner private military company

    According to an investigation by the Bell newspaper, Evgeny Prigozhin, a Russian businessman known as “Putin's chef”, created the private military company (PMC), the  Wagner Group following the orders of Russia's high-ranking military leaders. 

    The very idea of creating a PMC was born at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum in 2010. Eeben Barlow, the founder of Executive Outcomes, the world's first legal private military company, was also present at the forum. Barlow told the military about the …

  • Venezuelan Ambassador to Russia promises safety of Russian investments

    All investments of Russian companies in projects in Venezuela are totally safe, the Ambassador of Venezuela to Russia, Carlos Rafael Faria Tortosa stated in an interview with the newspaper Izvestia. 

    “I can say with full confidence that investments are totally safe,” the diplomat said. According to him, authorities “are in control of all processes” and the situation in the streets is calm. “They [ the projects] will also be protected by the Venezuelan Armed Forces, if necessary,” Tortosa added. …

  • Russian delegation arrives in Israel to discuss Syrian-Iranian issue

    A delegation from Moscow headed by Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin and Russian President's Special Envoy Alexander Lavrentiev arrived in Israel.

    They were received at the Israeli Foreign Ministry by the General Director of the diplomatic department Yuval Rotem. The Kremlin envoys are expected to meet with the Israeli Prime Minister, Foreign Minister and Defense Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. According to Israeli sources, the parties will discuss "Syrian issues”.

    As reported on the …