Not everyone was happy about the three-hour long talks between Vladimir Putin and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe which took place in Russia’s Black Sea resort of Sochi on Friday. While for Abe the meeting was diplomatically significant — a chance to discuss the disputed Kuril islands face-to-face with Putin — for the White House, it was an unwelcome fissure in the united front Washing [...]

The German newspaper Bild has raised questions as to how Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s children amassed their vast wealth, including one fortune worth tens of millions, when their father only earns some €50 thousand a year as head of state. [...]

The French government ignored its own intelligence in dealing with crises in Ukraine and Syria, and recklessly followed Washington’s lead by joining anti-Russian sanctions, dealing a huge blow to its agriculture, said a former French intelligence boss. [...]

In September 19, 2000, going on 16 years ago, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard of the London Telegraph reported: “Declassified American government documents show that the US intelligence community ran a campaign in the Fifties and Sixties to build momentum for a united Europe. It funded and [...]

There is a kind of drip-drip strategy of the Western media to make a correlation in people’s minds between atrocities and the Syrian government, Dan Glazebrook, political writer and journalist, told RT. An air strike on a refugee camp in the Syrian town of Sarmada, which is close to the Turkish border, has left at least 30 people dead and dozens more injured. [...]

Paleo-conservative commentator Pat Buchanan slams NATO hawks for working to expand the alliance's presence all along Russia's borders, while calling Russia out as the aggressive power. Instead of touting Putin's belligerence, Buchanan suggests, observers should think about what it would be like to walk a mile in the Russian president's shoes. On Friday, Buchanan recalls, "a Russian Su-27 did a [...]

Europe has to make concessions to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan because Brussels has no other option in the light of the ongoing migrant crisis, a French journalist said in an interview with Atlantico. After German comedian Jan Boehmermann in his show mocked Turkish President Recep [...]

It’s late in the afternoon and we are stuck behind a school bus in Northern Croatia as we drive through the what the GPS says is the miserable little town of Apatija, which my Croatian friend Juraj says literally translates to “apathy” in Croatian.   [...]

Two new divisions will be set up in the Western Military District while one division will be set up in the Southern Military District. Russia will set up two new divisions in its Western Military District and one division in its Southern Military District to counteract NATO buildup near its borders, Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said on Wednesday. [...]

EU member states could soon be charged hundreds of millions of euros for denying asylum to refugees if the European Commission has its way. The scheme is considered one of the most contentious parts of the revision to the so-called Dublin asylum regulation, which allows northern EU countries to deport refugees to their port of first entry. [...]

The European Commission has given its support to a visa-free travel deal with Turkey after Ankara threatened to back out of a landmark migration deal. It is proposed to lift visa requirements by the end of June. The decision was confirmed by European Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager on Twitter. [...]

The US has long relied on financial sanctions as a preferred weapon against its adversaries. However, in Russia's case, it turned out to be an “outright failure” and the West should admit this. Let’s have a look why. Washington’s favorite economic power tool has been so overused, it’s becoming ineffective and, in some cases, even counterproductive [...]

There are at least four reasons why Washington should not ban Russian RD-180 engines, Loren B. Thompson and Constance Baroudos of the Lexington Institute pointed out. Whether US Senator John McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, likes it or not, Washington is unlikely to ban Russian RD-180 rocket engines anytime soon, and with good reason. [...]

The U.S. government doesn’t want to admit that its heady “unipolar” days are over with Russia no longer the doormat of the 1990s, but Washington’s arrogance risks war, even nuclear annihilation, explains Gilbert Doctorow. In Moscow, the preparations for the May 9th Victory Day parade began in the middle of the final week of April. [...]

If supporters of the UK's exit from the European Union didn't have enough reasons to vote yes on exit, they may have just got another one: according to journalist Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, the European project was a CIA-inspired scheme from the start. In a recent piece for The Telegraph, commenting on President Obama's trip to the UK earlier this month to attempt to convince the island nation to [...]

Dozens of pro-Kurdish activists alongside members of Germany’s Pirate Party have held a rally outside the Chancellery in Berlin rejecting Angela Merkel’s cooperation with the Turkish President, which they claim made her an accomplice in human rights violations. Gathered outside the seat of the Chancellor, demonstrators wielding Kurdish flags and banners were addressed by Bruno Kramm, the he [...]

The father of a young American killed aboard Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in 2014 says Secretary of State Kerry balks at turning over U.S. data that Kerry cited three days after the tragedy in eastern Ukraine, writes Robert Parry. Secretary of State John Kerry has rebuffed a request from the father of the only American citizen killed aboard Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 [...]

A few decades ago, Russia's Aeroflot was notoriously considered to be among the world's worst airlines. Now it ranks among the world's best. The Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten took a closer glance at the miraculous transformation. Today, Aeroflot's fleet consists mainly of new and modern Boeing and Airbus aircrafts, the average age being just 4.5 years. [...]

More and more the Western media is acknowledging that Russia is emerging as a great power and its economy is far from being “in tatters”, as was earlier suggested by President Obama. “The unthinkable has become a reality. Russia, seemingly finished after its defeat in the Cold War, is now emerging as a prospective great power challenging the West   [...]

Shouldn’t the days of European leaders enlisting the help of American presidents to sell unpopular ideas to their citizens be long over? They should. But evidently, they are not. Barack Obama arrived in Europe last week, bursting with words of wisdom and friendly advice. He was welcomed enthusiastically by the leaders of the United Kingdom and Germany. Less enthusiastic, however, was the rece [...]

Damascus and Moscow have signed nearly a billion dollars worth of agreements to rebuild war-torn Syria, according to the Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi. The two countries intend to develop energy, trade, finance and other sectors of the economy. [...]

Barack Obama wants to leave a legacy that shows some sign of a successful presidency. However he continues to experiment in Syria, which may hamper the Geneva peace talks, says Hans-Christof Von Sponeck, former UN Assistant Secretary-General. [...]