Russia and Ukraine failed to resolve a gas pricing dispute during Sunday talks in Kiev. Gazprom says its demands have not changed and Kiev is expected to pay its debt of $1.95 billion by 06:00 GMT on Monday, otherwise the gas supply will be stopped. Gazprom’s position remained unchanged after EU-brokered negotiations finally ended around 2:30 a.m. Moscow time (10:30 p.m. GMT) on Monday [...]

At least one Ukrainian armored vehicle crossed the Russian border with Ukraine Friday overnight and stopped in the Rostov Region, according to Russia'€™s Security Service. The military abandoned the vehicle and returned to Ukraine. [...]

A spokesperson for the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) confirmed this week that a fleet of Russian bombers set off alarms in the United States after coming within 50 miles of California'€™s Pacific coast. Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, a spokesman for NORAD, told Washington Free Beacon reporter Bill Gertz that a pair of Tu-95 Bear H aircraft maintained by Russia came close to US airspac [...]

Gazprom will not postpone Ukraine’s gas payment deadline set for Monday, CEO Aleksey Miller said. If Kiev fails to pay and therefore causes gas transit problems to Europe, Russia will pump more through the Nord Stream and Yamal-Europe pipelines. [...]

Russian President Vladimir Putin accused Ukraine on Wednesday of forcing gas talks into a "dead end" by rejecting a price cut offer made amid a row threatening supplies to the rest of Europe. As Kiev demanded contract changes to lower the highest prices in Europe for Russian gas supplies, Moscow also dug in its heels, suggesting its proposed price cut of about one-fifth to around $385 per 1,000 cu [...]

The Baltic Sea and skies are getting crowded as Russia launches military training of its assault forces in the exclave of Kaliningrad in answer to the double war-games being conducted by joint NATO forces on the territory of the three Baltic States. NATO’s decision to conduct dual war games next to Russian borders in the Baltic has not been left unaddressed by Russia’s Defense Ministry, [...]

President Putin wished "€œBon appétit"€ to G7 leaders who patronized Russia – excluded from the club over Ukraine -€“ and set conditions it has to meet to restore ties with the West. Otherwise, Obama and his allies threatened, more sanctions would follow. [...]

Vladimir Putin faced a barrage of tricky questions from French media ahead of his meeting with world leaders at the 70th anniversary of the Normandy landings. Here are his best replies on key issues: Ukraine, Crimea and relations with the US. [...]

The "€œPower of Siberia"€ is much more than a 30 year Sino-Russian gas/pipeline deal. Paying for the process accelerates the vogue to reduce dollar pricing. That, not the energy supply, will become the most acute threat to US economic hegemony. [...]

Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan signed the historic Eurasian Economic Union which will come into effect in January 2015. Cutting down trade barriers and comprising over 170 million people it will be the largest common market in the ex-Soviet sphere. [...]

While this year'€™s Int Economic Forum in St Petersburg saw fewer foreign guests due to sanctions tension, those who chose to leave politics aside told RT imposing economic restrictions on Moscow would mean "€œcutting the trees"€ they are "€œsitting on." [...]

China could replace Germany as Russia's biggest gas consumer, if Moscow and Beijing agree to add a route from Russia'€™s Western Siberia to the one already agreed under a $400 billion contract, President Putin said at a meeting with media in St. Petersburg. [...]

After 10 years of negotiations, Russia's Gazprom and China's CNPC have finally signed a historic gas deal which will provide the world's fastest growing economy with the natural gas it needs to keep pace for the next 30 years. The total value of the contract is $400 billion, Gazprom CEO Aleksey Miller said. However, the price of gas stipulated in the document remains a "commercial secret." [...]

A specter is haunting Washington, an unnerving vision of a Sino-Russian alliance wedded to an expansive symbiosis of trade and commerce across much of the Eurasian land mass - at the expense of the United States. And no wonder Washington is anxious. That alliance is already a done deal in a variety of ways: [...]

Moscow and Beijing have rejected the imposition of sanctions as political tools and condemned attempts at "encouraging and financing"€ regime changes in other countries in a joint statement released during President Putin'€™s official visit to China. [...]

VTB, Russia'€™s second biggest lender, has signed a deal with Bank of China, which includes an agreement to pay each other in domestic currencies. “Under the agreement, the banks plan to develop their partnership in a number of areas, including cooperation on ruble and renminbi settlements, investment banking, inter-bank lending, trade finance and capital-markets transactions,” says the offi [...]

They were big words, spoken almost as if they had been written in stone. "Our commitment to collective defence is rock solid, now and for the future," NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said more than a week ago, first in the Polish capital Warsaw and then, on the same day, in the Estonian capital Tallinn. [...]

Russia-China cooperation has reached its highest level ever, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said in an interview with Chinese media on the eve of his visit to Shanghai, where a record package of documents is expected to be signed by the two nations. [...]

Dan, a member of Red Youth and the CPGB-ML, presents the facts of Stalin's life and contribution to the Bolshevik cause, before, during and after the October Revolution. In his own words: "Why bother discussing Stalin and the Soviet Union today? The case is closed, every news article adds a mandatory ‘dictator’ or ‘totalitarian’ as a prefix." Life in the Soviet Union is depicted - en [...]