MasterCard and Visa have suspended service for Russian banks in Crimea, saying the decision complies with US sanctions. "According to the US sanctions imposed against Crimea on December 19, 2014, Visa currently cannot provide services and offer their products in the Crimea. This means that we can no longer issue or accept bank cards in Crimea, and service them in ATMs," the company has confirme [...]

Over 100 descendants of the Russian nobility residing outside the country have addressed European nations with a call to stop irrationally alienating Russia and give an unbiased appraisal to the current Ukrainian crisis. The open letter written by Prince Dmitry [...]

There is a long list of U.S. state-sponsored and CIA-led terrorist acts against Cuba. This is a big time for celebration in Cuba. Three of the five men known in Cuba as heroes fighting United States terrorism were released from prison and returned to their families. To understand the true significance of their release means exploring the history of U.S.-backed terrorism against Cuba, a history wid [...]

Pope Francis has congratulated both the US and Cuba on restoring relations, as the Vatican together with Canada were confirmed to have played a significant role in the talks which broke 50 years of cold. The Vatican said that it was a key player in negotiations between the two countries, “resulting in solutions acceptable to both parties.” [...]

The Western and Kiev governments' commitment to resolve the Ukrainian conflict exists only in words, while their policies are aimed at the escalation of the crisis as the Minsk agreements are not respected, geopolitical analyst Eric Draitser told RT. RT: President Putin said at the G20 summit that the interests of all the people in Ukraine should be taken into account when solving the crisis. I [...]

Russia will make financial claims to France if the first of two Mistral helicopter carriers is not delivered by the end of November, an anonymous high-ranking source told RIA Novosti, adding that the sum of the forfeit will be revealed. "We are preparing for different scenarios. We are waiting until the end of the month [the fulfillment of Mistral deal], then we will make serious claims," the s [...]

The sanctions imposed on Russia by the US and the West, among other financial blunders, are mistakes that have triggered the world to de-dollarize. Russian President Putin describes this as like "cutting down the branches, upon which they are sitting." Putin said that sanctions have an overall negative effect on the entire global community, and actually motivate countries to seek financial sove [...]

Trying to isolate Russia with sanctions and restrictive measures is "an absurd and illusory goal," Russia's president has said. Moscow intends to "further deepen" cooperation with EU partners, Vladimir Putin told the Serbian newspaper, Politika. “If the main goal is to isolate our country, it’s an absurd and illusory goal. It is obviously impossible to achieve it and the economic health of [...]

German industry is feeling the most pressure since the peak of the global financial crisis in 2009, putting Berlin in a difficult position as it preaches tough austerity to its neighbors. Russian sanctions are only exacerbating the economic misery. Industry orders tumbled 5.7 percent in August from July, the fastest since January 2009 when they dropped 7.7 percent, the Germany Economy Ministry [...]

America's leadership had to embarrass Europe to impose economic hits on Russia over the crisis in Ukraine - even though the EU was opposed to such a motion, US Vice President Joe Biden revealed during a speech at Harvard. “We’ve given Putin a simple choice: Respect Ukraine’s sovereignty or face increasing consequences,” Biden told a gathering at the John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum at Harvard [...]

China will never support any sanctions against Russia and will never join them, Valentina Matviyenko, speaker of the Russian parliament's upper house said, citing Chinese President Xi Jinping, with whom she met on Tuesday. Both Russia and China believe the sanctions are illegal, ineffective and counterproductive, according to Matviyenko. They are nothing but an attempt “to exert pressure on s [...]

Russia considers the latest round of Western sanctions illegal and is ready to appeal against them to the World Trade Organization (WTO), Russian Economy Minister Aleksey Ulyukaev told reporters on Friday. “The latest round of sanctions provides grounds to appeal to the WTO. And we will appeal,” Ulyukaev said. [...]

Sanctions imposed on Russia by the US and the EU are a part of a larger military agenda agreed by NATO in a summit 2014, Michel Chossudovsky, of the Centre for Research and Globalisation, told RT, calling such a strategy economic and financial warfare. Despite the truce in Ukraine, the EU and the US went ahead with fresh rounds of sanctions – why was the de-escalation of the conflict in the e [...]

Russia has been put into an impossible situation, meaning they are responsible not only for what has been done in Lugansk and Donetsk, but also for what has been done on the side of Kiev, political analyst Alexander Pavic told RT. Apparently, the truce in Ukraine is not enough for the EU to hold back on yet more sanctions. [...]

Imports of Western cars and clothes into Russia could be restricted as part of a second round of "retaliatory" measures prepared in response to the sanctions against Moscow, says presidential aide Andrey Belousov. There are many sellers of non-agricultural goods in the West who are heavily dependent on the Russian market, the official said. [...]

The US has introduced new sanctions against Russia’s biggest lenders – Sberbank, Gazprombank and Rosselkhozbank – and added some of the country’s state-owned technology firms and five energy companies, the Treasury said on Friday. Another Russian lender, Bank of Moscow is also on the blacklist. [...]

The latest list of sanctions looks “quite odd” in view of the peace drive including a ceasefire in eastern Ukraine, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin said as the EU’s restricting measures came into force Friday. Speaking after a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), Putin said that Russia has not ruled out responding with tit-for-tat sanctions. At the same time, he sai [...]

Arms producer Kalashnikov and oil giant Rosneft are among Russian companies hit by a new round of EU sanctions, which have come into effect Friday morning upon being published in the EU Official Journal. The sanctions target the finance, energy and defense sectors. The union has restricted three Russian energy companies from raising long-term debt on European capital markets – Rosneft, Transn [...]

The EU “does not see or is unwilling to see” Russia’s efforts to establish peace in Ukraine, Moscow said in response to the bloc's new sanctions. Despite Brussels’ “non-constructive” policy, Moscow is committed to help implement the peace plan. “We are sorry that the European Union has adopted a new round of sanctions. We have repeatedly expressed our discontent with the previousl [...]