Earlier, speaking at the Munich Security Conference over the weekend, US Vice President Mike Pence boasted about "renewed American leadership on the world stage," while talking up sanctions against Russia, tough tariffs against China, 'confrontation' with Iran, and US intentions to withdraw from the INF Treaty. [...]

Russian-led gas pipeline project Nord Stream 2 may save the European Union about eight billion dollars annually thanks to a 13 percent drop in costs, according to the enterprise’s operator. [...]

The volume of mutual trade between Russia and China finally reached $100 billion for the first time ever, according to Gao Feng, the Chinese commerce ministry's spokesman. [...]

Investments by German businesses in the Russian economy exceeded €3 billion in 2018, marking the highest level since before the financial crisis more than a decade ago, according to the Russian-German Chamber of Commerce. [...]

On September 27, 2018, Yale's Program in Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies, and the Poynter Fellowship for Journalism hosted Vladimir Pozner, the acclaimed Russian-American journalist and broadcaster. Pozner spoke on the impact of US foreign policy towards Russia after the Soviet Union has been disbanded, and shared his opinions on a range of issues raised by the audience, from the al [...]

President Vladimir Putin said the suggestion by Ukraine’s president-elect to give Ukrainian citizenship to Russians “suffering from an authoritarian regime” is “a good thing,” which would only bring the kindred nations closer. [...]

US cyber officials are attempting to put the squeeze on their European allies, saying they will have to reassess their ability to share information with them if they use Huawei in their 5G networks. [...]

Ecuador traded Julian Assange for a loan from the International Monetary Fund, which can only be handed out with the approval of Washington, John Shipton, the WikiLeaks co-founder’s father, has said. [...]

A British parliamentary survey has specifically claimed that the breakdown of diplomatic collaboration between countries and development of new technologies significantly add to the risk of a nuclear strike. [...]

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - US President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo face an uphill struggle to force other nations to abandon their oil trade with Iran, former European Union consultant Paolo von Schirach told Sputnik. [...]

Earlier, US Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman characterised the deployment of two carrier groups in the Mediterranean Sea as a signal to Russia, saying the warships represented "100,000 tonnes of international diplomacy" amid alleged Russian "destabilizing activities around the world." [...]

A record number of Russians say they are happy, a new survey reveals, with family, good health, and a good job making them feel that way. “The level of happiness among the Russians, based on subjective impression, stands at 86 percent,” state-run pollster VTSIOM said on Thursday. [...]

The German Ambassador to the United States has asked the US Congress to hold back new sanctions against two of Russia’s biggest gas corporations, as further penalties may put energy security of the European Union in jeopardy. [...]

Despite a defense budget bigger than the next 7 countries combined, the US says Russia is pulling ahead in a new arms race, and the Pentagon has no choice but to rely on its nuclear deterrent. But how sincere are they being? [...]

KHASAN (Sputnik) - An armoured train carrying North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has departed Khasan railway station in Russia's Primorsky Territory and is heading to Ussuriysk, a Sputnik correspondent reported. [...]

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The US government is ending sanctions waivers for Iranian oil importers to provoke a violent insurrection or establish a casus belli for an external invasion, former UK Ambassador Peter Ford told Sputnik. [...]

The arrival of Russian military planes in Venezuela in March 2019 spurred harsh criticism from the US, who has accused Moscow of destabilising the situation in the Latin American state, currently engulfed in a political crisis. Russia, for its part, has recalled that its planes arrived under a bilateral agreement with Caracas. [...]

A young Russian woman visited an ice skating rink wearing nothing but a swimsuit, stunning everyone with this brave and uncommon act, as well as her lean physique. [...]

It took several teams of doctors, three organs, and a 16-hour surgery at a Moscow hospital to give a second chance at life to a nine-year-old boy who suffers from a genetic disease. [...]

This is going to get very ugly. Germany is openly defying US President Trump's demands to spend more on its NATO budget. Already the American ambassador to the country is crying foul, prompting German calls for his expulsion. Of all the countries in the European Union, it is Germany that's been mostly on the receiving end of Trump's wrath since he entered the White House. In two years, the bilater [...]

Israel has the full arsenal needed to take on Hezbollah in Lebanon and eliminate the Iranian threat in Syria, the outgoing IDF Northern Command chief boasted, warning Damascus against using S-300s to protect its sovereignty. [...]

The Israeli elections on 9 April resulted in the victory of Benjamin Netanyahu, who was officially appointed as the country's prime minister on 17 April. Speaking to Sputnik, Israeli publicist Avigdor Eskin shared his opinion on what to expect from the Netanyahu cabinet in the near future. [...]