German companies are stepping up their efforts to bypass Western anti-Russian sanctions since Russian remains one of the most lucrative markets in Europe. In order to operate under sanctions, German companies open their own production in and invest in factories in Russia. [...]

India's defense minister expressed that India is not interested in acquiring US F-16 fighter aircraft despite aggressive lobbying by Lockheed Martin. In what can be seen as a sharp denial to the US, India has dismissed a proposal made by Lockheed Martin Corp to build F-16 fighter jets in India. [...]

Work on the fourth and final power line to deliver electricity from mainland Russia to the Crimean peninsula has been completed. President Putin oversaw the launch of the energy bridge by video link from the Black Sea resort of Sochi. [...]

Germany, the fourth-largest economy in the world and a leader in renewable energy, produced so much energy this weekend from its solar, wind, hydro, and biomass plants that power prices went into negative territory for several hours. Consumers were being paid to use energy. [...]

Russia’s human rights ombudsman, Tatyana Moskalkova, has invited international observers to Crimea so that they can personally see the republic’s peaceful integration into the Russian Federation and the local population’s massive support for this. Moskalkova made the statement ahead of a conference on human rights observation during the process of Crimea and Sevastopol’s accession into [...]

Governments, NGOs and journalists across the globe have condemned a leak of personal data of more than 4,000 media staff, accused by pro-Kiev activists of “collaborating with terrorists” for their reporting from war-torn eastern Ukraine. The names on the list include people working for respectable outlets, such as news agencies AFP, AP and Reuters, broadcasters BBC, CNN, CCTV, Deutsche Well [...]

In an extraordinary act of culture and courage, a Russian orchestra performed in the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra recently liberated from the Islamic State, but Western media mocked the event, notes Gilbert Doctorow. Even those with a limited knowledge of Russia may be credited with having heard of St. Petersburg being called the Venice of the North. [...]

While the U.S. expands spending on wars and “regime changes” – and slashes its budget for science and infrastructure – China is making different choices, now rapidly closing the gap on scientific innovation, writes John V. Walsh. The headline reads, “The Rapid Rise of a Research Nation: China’s economic boom is mirrored by its similarly meteoric rise in high quality science.” [...]

The West’s propaganda war against Russia filters events there through a prism of cynicism and contempt, but that misses the human component of a country still remembering the deep personal scars of World War II, as Gilbert Doctorow reflects. I will open with full disclosure: I am generally not enthusiastic about crowds or going with the flow. [...]

Independent French political analyst Thierry Meyssan lays out what he believes is the real reason behind the destabilization of Syria and Ukraine, and how the horrific bleeding wounds can finally be stopped. In his analysis, published in the foreign affairs analysis website Voltaire Network, Meyssan laments that in spite of the assistance which Russia, Iran, and Hezbollah have provided to Syria [...]

Ankara will send migrants back to the EU if the European Parliament won’t grant visa-free travel to Turkish citizens, warned Burhan Kuzu, a high-ranking deputy for Turkey’s ruling AKP party and former adviser to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.   [...]

French Energy Minister Segolene Royal said she is examining legal means to ban the import of shale gas from the United States. According to media reports, she told lawmakers in the National Assembly that France should prohibit fracked gas imports within its borders due to a ban on hydraulic fracking introduced for environmental reasons. [...]

As the project for a united Europe continues to experience arguably the most serious political crisis since its inception, policy elites in Brussels are urging Europeans not to despair, to stay together, and to prepare for confrontation with Russia instead. European Council President Donald Tusk is unsatisfied with the defeatist attitudes among Europeans. Speaking in Rome on Thursday on the 69t [...]

Europe wants a restrictive policy on refugees because small countries like Austria cannot handle unlimited number of arrivals, Laszlo Maracz, assistant professor of European studies at the University of Amsterdam, told RT. Tensions are rising at the Brenner Pass between Austria and Italy. [...]

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.   [...]