• Turkey attacks Assad’s army and gives Russians a strong warning

    A serious conflict is brewing between two Middle Eastern dictators. Turkish forces have been deployed in the Syrian province of Idlib, which is still controlled by Islamist militants, including ISIS. It was into this province that Assad’s forces drove the defeated opposition forces and caliphate supporters.

    Now, at a time when the dictator Assad has regained control of most of Syria with the support of Russian troops, his army has approached Idlib. However, Turkey has effectively created a …

  • Why Russia’s S-300 air defense systems are not protecting Syria against Israeli airstrikes: Thoughts and theories

    As early as 2018, Russia transferred S-300 anti-air missile systems to Syria to strengthen the country’s aerial defense. However, to this day, Syria is being subjected to attacks by Israeli aircraft, but there have been no reports of the Israeli Air Force losing any planes during its raids against Damascus.

    There was another incident with the Syrian anti-air defense on February 6. Four Israeli F-16 fighters attacked the outskirts of Damascus without entering Syrian airspace. Syria’s aerial …

  • For the first time Europe buying as much LNG as Russian gas

    European countries have been buying more and more liquefied natural gas (LNG). At the end of January, LNG imports had reached 10 billion cubic meters (bcm), and for the first time in history were equal to the amount received from Russia’s Gazprom, according to the monthly monitoring by the Skolkovo School in Moscow.

    One year ago, Russian natural gas accounted for twice as much as its liquefied counterpart. In January 2019, Gazprom sold 15 bcm, whereas only 7.7 bcm of gas reached the market as …

  • Russia demands US visas for its officials

    Russia has called on the US to immediately restore the normal issuance of visas to its officials, including diplomats and UN personnel, the Russian Foreign Ministry reported on its website.

    “For a long time we have been urging the Americans completely and without any preconditions to normalize the issuance of visas for officials,” the report states. The department noted that Russia is ready for this to happen at any time.

    According to the report, despite repeated attempts by Moscow to restore …

  • Ukraine: Council of Europe’s new sanction policy too mild for Russia

    The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said that it is disappointed in the new sanctions which the Council of Europe (CoE) Committee of Ministers introduced on February 5. The Ukrainian department believes that the new procedure for responding to member-states’ violations of statutory obligations eradicates the possibility of punishing countries for the most severe violations.

    The ministry drew attention to the fact that for more than five years Ukraine has been subjected to Russian armed aggression, …