Moscow responded to fresh sanctions placed by Washington on Monday over an alleged chemical weapons attack in the United Kingdom last March. Russian officials have slammed the United States and United Kingdom for their hypocrisy and reminded them of their own troubled past concerning chemical weapons usage. [...]

Qatar and Turkey have inked a currency swap agreement to boost liquidity and provide financial stability, Qatar’s central bank said, days after Doha pledged $15 billion of direct investment into Turkish markets. The deal, which aims to boost cooperation between the countries, was clinched on Friday. The agreement will set up a two-way currency exchange line and facilitate exchange of trade betwe [...]

The United States has been ramping up pressure on countries around the world in an effort to bring Iran’s oil revenue “down to zero.” Turkey will have no part in possible US sanctions on Iran, the newspaper Dunya reported, citing the country’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu. “We had a US delegation here and we […] explained to them that we believe that [such moves] are a mistak [...]

Industrial representatives say the tariffs would harm the US itself. Germany's Federation of Industries (BDI) has warned that tariffs imposed by Washington on the EU risk harming the US itself. On June 1, the US imposed tariffs on steel and aluminum imported from the EU, and now the White House is currently threatening to extend the tariffs to cars and car parts as well. Jean-Claude Ju [...]

Instead of hitting Russia's energy sector, Washington's sanctions imposed on Moscow since 2014 have finally backfired on major US oil and gas companies, depriving them of lucrative opportunities and forcing them out of Russia. While Russia is boosting oil output following a decision by OPEC and non-OPEC producers to ease extraction cuts, US petroleum companies are reaping the bitter fruits of� [...]

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - A bill will be introduced in the US Congress to strengthen pressure on Russia by imposing sanctions on the country’s foreign debt in addition to increasing existing sanctions on the energy and financial sectors, US Senators Lindsey Graham and Bob Menendez said in a statement. [...]

China’s state-owned energy giant CNPC is ready to replace French energy company Total’s stake in the Iranian South Pars gas project. In 2017, Total and CNPC signed a 20-year contract worth 4.8 billion dollars to develop Phase 11 of Iran’s South Pars field. Sputnik spoke with political analyst Tom McGregor about CNPC’s acquisition plan. [...]

According to Reuters' sources, the meeting will solely focus on the implementation issues and details of the Iran nuclear deal. Diplomats from Germany, France, Britain, led by senior EU diplomat Helga Schmid, and also from Russia and China, will be meeting in Vienna next week to discuss a new agreement with Iran similar to the 2015 deal, but one that would put curbs on Tehran's ballistic [...]

France’s economy minister has suggested that the EU may compensate European companies affected by US sanctions on Iran, stressing that the bloc should not accept Washington as “the economic gendarme of the planet.” [...]

The “ice age” against Moscow must be ended, the chairperson of Germany's Die Linke (Left Party) has stated, adding that sanctions against Russia hurt European companies. Speaking to Germany's Osnabrucker Zeitung newspaper on Saturday, Sahra Wagenknecht said the ice age in relation to Russia has to be ended. [...]

The European Union has moved to protect the interests of its companies that do business in Iran, following the United States decision to withdraw from the 2015 nuclear deal. President Donald Trump’s announcement that the US was withdrawing from the landmark pact unleashed a wave of criticism from the international community. Now the EU has threatened to take the US to the World Trade Organizatio [...]

Russia's Federation Council is looking to adopt counter-sanctions against the US, under which the country may ban exports of titanium components to aircraft giant Boeing, according to Russian Senator Sergey Ryabukhin. "Among the rare earth metals that Russia supplies to the United States is titanium, which is necessary for the technological cycle of production of Boeing," Ryabukhin told RIA Novost [...]

Russian lawmakers have drafted a bill suspending cooperation with US companies in the nuclear, missile and aircraft-building spheres, as well as introducing restrictions on imports of alcohol and tobacco produced in the US. “The bill is about alcohol and tobacco products and about ceasing or suspending international cooperation in the nuclear sphere, rocket engine building and aircraft building [...]

The gradual lifting of sanctions against Russia may start if the Moscow-backed plan to deploy UN peacekeepers in the conflict area of eastern Ukraine is implemented, interim German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said. [...]

A majority of French and Germans, along with a considerable number of Britons and Poles, oppose the new US bill which may result in European companies being punished for cooperating with Russia. The French Institute of Public Opinion (Ifop) has conducted an opinion poll for Sputnik in order to try and determine how Europeans will react toward a new bill implemented by the US that threatens to impo [...]

Anti-Russian sanctions have achieved nothing other than placing a significant burden on the German economy, prime ministers of two German federal states have argued, calling on fellow regional leaders to demand their lifting. [...]

Washington has once again misread Moscow, not expecting that a series of anti-Russia measures adopted under the Obama and Trump administration would result in the large-scale expulsion of US diplomats from Russia, Pavel Salin, the director of the Center for Political Studies at Moscow's Financial University, told Radio Sputnik. [...]

Russia will only stand to gain from US sanctions, which also threaten to sour Washington’s relations with its European partners, political analyst Dmitry Solonnikov told Sputnik. "The sanctions will not only have negative consequences for Russia, but will also hurt Europe and the US itself.   [...]

New penalties against Moscow proposed by US lawmakers violate international law and officials in Brussels should consider countermeasures, the German economy minister said on Monday. "We consider this as being against international law, plain and simple,"Brigitte Zypries told the Funke Mediengruppe newspaper chain. [...]