U.S. politicians love the “silver bullet” of economic sanctions to punish foreign adversaries, but the weapon’s overuse is driving China and Russia to develop countermeasures, as British diplomat Alastair Crooke explains. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei told a large group of people in the holy city of Mashhad on Sunday that “The Americans did not act on what they promised in the [I [...]

By funneling TOW missiles and other weapons to Syrian jihadists for their “regime change” war, President Obama facilitated the Islamic State’s rise with the terrorist blowback now hitting Europe, says Daniel Lazare. Why are Islamic militants wreaking havoc from Brussels to Lahore? The best way to answer this question is by taking a close look at how The New York Times covered this weekend [...]

Austria intends to send military to the Italian border to boost protection amid the refugee crisis, the country's defense minister said. Austria is planning to send soldiers to the border with Italy to enhance border protection amid a migrant inflow, Austrian Defense Minister Hans Peter Doskozil said Saturday. [...]

Russia’s decision to deploy advanced coastal missile systems on the Kuril Islands and explore the possibility of setting up a permanent naval base for its Pacific Fleet on the island chain is a signal to the US that its 'Pivot to Asia' will have severe limitations, according to a former Indian diplomat. [...]

As Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan delivered a speech before the Brookings Institute on Thursday, a largely peaceful protest assembled outside. To quell the legal assembly, the embattled leader’s security detail clashed with journalists, in a scene reminiscent of the media crackdown in Ankara.   [...]

“One day they sell energy, the next they blow up power lines,” said Crimea's First Deputy Prime Minister Mikhail Sheremet, adding that the peninsula is done with energy supplied from Ukraine. "We have definitely decided to abandon supplies of Ukrainian electric energy. We do not need it. [...]

Islamic State has urged its radical followers in Germany to carry out Brussels-like attacks on the Chancellor’s office and an airport in one of Germany’s main cities. Despite the threats, German authorities have no plans to step up security measures. [...]

An investigation into a massive global oil bribery scandal has been launched by authorities in the US, Britain, and Australia, after leaked confidential files indicated that some of the world’s most powerful corporations were part of the racket. [...]

Ukraine should never become a member of the European Union, Mark Rutte, the Prime Minister of Netherlands said in an interview a week before the Dutch referendum on the association agreement between the EU and Kiev. The Netherlands, which is holding the EU rotating presidency till July, is [...]

I don’t know Aleksandr Prochorenko. I know nothing of his background or what his dreams and hopes were for the future. But I do know that he’s a hero who will never be forgotten, and that the cause for which he sacrificed his life is a righteous one. [...]

In a single tweet, the head of Russia’s Foreign Affairs Committee Alexei Pushkov summed up John Kerry's Moscow visit: "There's nothing more powerful in politics than need. Under its influence, forgetting about isolating Russia, the US has begun to move." [...]

One of the most ambitious initiatives that Tehran plans to launch will see an artificial channel link the Caspian Sea and the Persian Gulf. The project, which is expected to be completed in the 2020s, is particularly interesting for Russia due to the cold spell with Turkey, but European and post-Soviet states will also benefit from it. [...]

A new draft law proposed by German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere makes taking German lessons and otherwise integrating into society a mandatory requirement for refugees seeking to stay in Germany for the long term. Germans are clearly not happy with their government's hospitable policy toward the refugees that continue to flee to Europe predominantly from war-torn Middle East and poor Af [...]

Thanks to modern technologies one can easily reconstruct the story of Washington's conspiracy aimed at destabilizing Syria by exploiting the country's ethnic and religious divisions. In his recent Op-Ed for Russia Today Neil Clark, a journalist, writer, broadcaster and blogger, writes that former US Secretary of State Clinton's emails as well as secret labels and reports provided by Wikile [...]

The recapture of the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra was the single biggest defeat for ISIS since it declared its caliphate, but the West does not seem interested. Why? Because then they’d have to give some credit to Russia. Indeed, it must have been a tough weekend for Western media’s favorite Syria pundits. [...]

Moscow’s responsive measures toward Ankara have dealt a heavy blow to the Turkish economy. What is more, Russia’s military success in Syria risks ruining the entire Turkish energy industry. On November 24, 2015 a Turkish jet downed a Russian Su-24 bomber over Syria. Relations between Turkey and Russia deeply deteriorated [...]

The war on terrorism in Syria is not over yet. However, after the bulk of Russian forces were withdrawn from Syria one can take a closer look at some aspects of how the operation unfolded and the weapons involved. Key Ingredient to Combat Success. In order to be successful, any military operation needs full-fledged combat support. [...]

The $500 million Russia spent on the military operation in Syria may soon pay off for the Kremlin, reports business daily Kommersant, as Moscow expects $6-7 billion worth of new arms contracts. According to the newspaper’s source, close to military exports and technical cooperation [...]

A field commander of Syria’s Desert Falcons militia forces thanked Russian President Vladimir Putin on behalf of the Syrian people for supporting the country in the fight against terrorism. Earlier on Sunday, the Syrian Army alongside the Desert Falcons forces fully liberated the ancient city of Palmyra from Daesh militants. [...]

The cooperation with Russia serves the strategic interests of the United States, Secretary of State John Kerry said Sunday. Earlier this week, US Secretary of State John Kerry visited Moscow to meet with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov and President Vladimir Putin. [...]

Politically and symbolically any attack on Belgium – the state where the political and administrative center of NATO is located – is by implication an attack on the US and its global dominance, French journalist and founder of Agora Erasmus political organization Karel Vereycken told Sputnik. [...]

Daesh-allied militants attacked a European city this week, setting off three bombs in Brussels that killed 31 and injured 260. In the United States, the response was immediate, first with the outpouring of support from the public, then, unsurprisingly, with a flurry of bellicose pronouncements from most of the remaining major-party presidential candidates. [...]