Importers are puzzled by the switch, while the ruble surges against the dollar and euro. Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday gave the country’s central bank and government one week to come up with a way to switch payments for Russian gas exports to the national currency, the ruble. The prospect raised many eyebrows among […]

Russia will now accept payment for gas exports to “unfriendly countries” in rubles only, President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting with the government on Wednesday. The president explained that Russia plans to abandon all “compromised” currencies in payment settlements. He added that illegitimate decisions by a number of Western countries to freeze Russia’s assets […]

The certification of the controversial Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline connecting Russia and Germany will be paused until the company behind it reorganizes in accordance with German law, the country’s regulator announced on Tuesday. The news immediately led to a sharp rise in the price of gas in Europe, with futures in Europe increased by […]

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has rejected suggestions that the increased price of gas is due to Russian policy. Instead she has pointed the finger at the EU’s own approach asking whether the bloc could have acted differently. Speaking on Wednesday, Merkel noted that Russia has never refused to deliver gas and has fulfilled its contractual […]

There’s panic setting in across Europe of unaffordable fuel bills, gas shortages, blackouts and freezing households as winter approaches. And guess who’s to blame? Well, of course, Russia! Amos Hochstein, an energy official at the US State Department, said there was deep concern about Europe not being to keep warm this winter because of “inexplicably […]

The US-Germany deal on the Nord Stream 2 project aimed at increasing the capacity of the initial Nord Stream gas pipeline running from Russia to Germany to 110 billion cubic metres (3.9 trillion cubic feet) is expected to be announced as early as on Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal reported on 20 July. According to […]

The Americans have made a lot of noise about the Uighurs, but given the region’s strategic importance to China and its richness in natural resources, that may be more about geopolitical machinations than human rights. Last week, China made a significant announcement that went somewhat under the radar. In the Xinjiang autonomous region in the […]

The US has been using the Russian Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project for its politicized carrot-and-stick maneuvers in relations with the EU. But this type of foreign policy only erodes trust within alliances. Meeting in Brussels on Wednesday, the European Parliament weighed two separate sets of remarks relating to Russian energy policies. These remarks […]

MOSCOW – Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz has rejected calls to abandon the Nord Stream 2 pipeline construction after a Russian court jailed opposition activist Alexey Navalny for 3.5 years. “I welcome the German federal government’s decision to stand by Nord Stream 2”, Kurz said in an interview with the Welt am Sonntag newspaper, published Saturday. […]

In 2019, the US redeployed troops from the Syrian-Turkish border into the war-torn country’s interior, with President Donald Trump admitting freely that the forces were assigned to “take the oil.” Russia estimates that the Pentagon, the CIA, contractors and Kurdish militias make over $30 million a month smuggling the stolen oil out of the country. […]

VIENNA – The experience of administration of Russian vaccines against COVID-19 is raising a great interest in Austria even though the countries are not currently engaged in specific negotiations, Russian ambassador Dmitry Lyubinsky said, praising the efficacy of the Russian vaccines. “There are currently no negotiations on exact plans related to the potential use of […]

Multi-billion-euro gas pipeline project Nord Stream 2 was put on pause last year after the United States imposed sanctions against firms involved in its construction. The project’s operator said on Saturday that it was planning to resume “the pipe-laying work” this year. American sanctions will not stop the Nord Stream 2 project from being completed, […]

Washington’s desperate attempts to stop the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline linking Russia and Germany resemble mafia methods, senior German parliament member, Klaus Ernst, told RT, calling on the EU to fight back. “Their actions resemble those of a mafia,” Ernst told RT Deutsch on Wednesday, speaking about the renewed threats of […]

Washington already imposed sanctions on the Russian-German energy project late last year, tacking them on to the US National Defence Authorization Act. Now, a bipartisan group of lawmakers from both the House and Senate is reportedly looking to introduce additional restrictions against it before the end of the year. An influential group of German businesses […]

After pandemic-related delays, Russia’s first electric car, called the Zetta, is set to enter serial production in late 2020, the country’s Industry and Trade Minister Denis Manturov has revealed. The Zetta will roll off the production line in the city of Tolyatti, one of the major centers of Russia’s automotive industry. The cars will first […]