The latest OPCW report containing data on its response to the ‘poisoning’ of Russian opposition figure Alexey Navalny has glaring inconsistencies, Moscow says, adding that the chemical weapons watchdog has failed to explain them. Russia will seek clarification from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) on its latest report, the nation’s envoy to the chemical we [...]

The country’s economy is cratering, there are shortages of fuel and medicines, and people are going hungry on the streets. Yet what does the West worry most about? Hezbollah helping the starving get food. Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab has warned the international community that the country could collapse in days, as even Israel offers aid fearing the expansion of Lebanese H [...]

Twenty years after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, US and allied troops are finally leaving Afghanistan as the Taliban seem set to return to power. This failure has created a generation of conservatives opposed to US interventionism. This week, when asked whether the US mission in Afghanistan was a failure as American and NATO troops handed over Bagram airfield to the Afghan army, President Joe B [...]

Austria is reeling from a tragedy that saw a 13-year-old girl die after being drugged and gang-raped. Yet a local feminist group seemed more enraged by media reporting the suspects’ nationality and casting a shadow on refugees. A group of activists from the group ‘Alerta Feminista’ broke into the offices of oe24 – the web portal of the Vienna-based daily newspaper Osterreich – lat [...]

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has found a link connecting mRNA vaccines, such as Pfizer and Moderna, to rare heart conditions following inoculation, and has recommended that these side effects are listed. The EMA published its findings that there is a risk of heart inflammation conditions - myocarditis and pericarditis – following the administration of mRNA Covid vaccines on Friday [...]

Diplomatic sources told the Financial Times this week that French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel were willing to invite Russian President Vladimir Putin to a summit of European leaders. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Thursday that the European Union had to create a "format for dialogue" with Russia and its President Vladimir Putin to settle differen [...]

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 far west, its oil companies have discovered an [...]

The number of tourists visiting Russia’s Crimea in 2021 is projected to reach at least eight million people, according to the region’s State Council’s Chairman of the Committee for Tourism, Resorts and Sports Alexey Chernyak. “Last year a lot of people of different ages visited Crimea for the first time, and were not disappointed at all,” Chernyak said on Tuesday, adding that "thi [...]

Foreign investors and entrepreneurs show growing interest in the development of the Northern Sea Route (NSR), Russian Ambassador at Large for the Arctic Cooperation at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Nikolay Korchunov told TASS. According to him, international businesses “have high practical demand for Arctic projects, whose long-term strategy stipulates the year-round use of NSR as a main tran [...]

Atomic warfare was top of the agenda as Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart, Joe Biden, met for crunch talks last week in Geneva, amid escalating hostilities and talk of a return to a ‘Cold War’ mentality. The first summit between the pair gives some room for cautious optimism. The atmosphere was respectful and calm, compared to how it might have been, and there seemed [...]

The Biden administration's attempt to compete with a re-emerging part of the world appears doomed, as the so-called "unipolar moment" can no longer be restored, say European observers commenting on the US president's commitment to NATO and Build Back Better World pledges. On Monday, President Joe Biden met with NATO leaders at the 2021 Brussels summit, where he described the US commitment [...]

US President Joe Biden prepared for his summit with Vladimir Putin by first meeting EU heads to sound out their views on how to engage the Russian leader. Biden reportedly had private talks with European counterparts during the G7 gathering in England last weekend, then with NATO members in Brussels, followed by the heads of the European Union the day before he flew to Geneva for a landma [...]

While Joe Biden has vowed to "press" Moscow on human rights issues in Geneva, he may be given a dose of his own medicine one day given Washington's record of human rights abuses both at home and abroad, according to economist and author Dr. Paul Craig Roberts. President Joe Biden has vowed to bring up human rights issues during an upcoming meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Put [...]

Despite all the pressure and sanctions imposed by Washington, the construction of the project is coming to its conclusion, as the first leg of the pipeline had been completed, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced earlier this month. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that Kiev will continue its fight against Nord Stream 2 regardless of the stance of European countries on [...]

MOSCOW - Ernesto Guevara, the youngest son of Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara who recently visited Moscow and made a trip across Crimea, has pointed out the peninsula’s extremely promising prospects and dismissed Ukraine’s sanctions against those traveling to Crimea, expressing hope for the rebuilding of relations between the two nations. Guevara, 53, received a law degree in the Sov [...]

The majority of Russians believe they haven’t yet had Covid-19, new research reveals, but more than half of people say they aren’t actually worried about catching the virus and far fewer say they’ve signed up for a vaccine so far. That’s according to a new survey conducted by Moscow’s Levada Center, a pollster registered as a foreign agent by Russia’s Justice Ministry over links to [...]

About 60% of Germans would like to get vaccinated with the Russian-made Sputnik V vaccine if they were presented with such an opportunity, a fresh poll has shown. The survey, conducted by the pollster Forsa, was commissioned by the German Eastern Business Association, a group focusing on economic cooperation between Germany and countries located in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe, as [...]

NATO non-enlargement promises to Soviet leaders following the fall of the Berlin Wall have again prompted a debate in the media. What's behind the timing of the Western media's renewed attempt to downplay the famous "not one inch eastward" assurance as a myth? Earlier this month two reports emerged concerning the "myth" of NATO's post-Cold War non-enlargement guarantees given to Soviet le [...]

After US President Joe Biden revealed he plans to raise the issue of human rights when he meets his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin next month, Moscow has said it is happy to have the discussion, as long as it goes both ways. Speaking as part of a press conference on Monday, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov announced that “we are ready to talk, we have no taboo topics. We will discuss [...]

A coalition of Israel’s opposition parties have announced they have reached an unlikely agreement and now have the votes to oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the country’s longest-serving leader. Naftali Bennett, former defense minister for Netanyahu, and opposition leader Yair Lapid will lead the opposition parties under this new agreement that would split power in a “unity gover [...]

While Danish Defence Minister Trine Bramsen reiterated that wiretapping allies is “unacceptable”, researchers and analysts have warned of an “intelligence scandal” in Denmark and compared Copenhagen's “very precarious” position to that of a “louse pressed between two nails”. The governments of Norway and Sweden have demanded explanations from Copenhagen following revelatio [...]

San Marino, a tiny landlocked state, surprised many of its European neighbours when it began easing anti-COVID restrictions in mid-April, several months after it stocked up on Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine. It may be one of Europe’s smallest states, but it’s winning the COVID battle thanks to Russia’s vaccine. The country, which has a population of 34,000, has seen coronavirus cas [...]