The 12th annual Valdai Discussion Club meeting in Russia's Sochi has focused on international armed conflicts. Russian President Vladimir Putin is taking part in its final plenary session devoted to the crisis in the Middle East. Russian President Vladimir Putin says a number of "mistakes" committed by the US, Russia and NATO following the break-up of the Soviet Union has led to the current det [...]

The 28-member western military bloc has once again “categorically” denied that it poses any threat to Russia, arguing that its ongoing enlargement is “not directed against anyone”. The comments are just the latest in the war of words between NATO and Russia, but it’s another example of how nonsensical the alliance’s conflicting talking points are. [...]

Amid the mounting refugee crisis caused by “NATO’s non-stop campaign of overseas military misadventures”, Europeans are becoming “increasingly wary of multiculturalism, neo-liberal reforms, austerity measures - and now, it seems, even NATO itself,” according to American writer and journalist Robert Bridge. [...]

There are many disturbing signs that the West is creating conditions in the Middle East and Asia that could produce a wider war, most likely a new Cold War, containing, as well, menacing risks of World War III. The reckless confrontation with Russia along its borders, reinforced by provocative weapons deployments in several NATO countries and the promotion of governing regimes hostile to Russia in [...]

Amid NATO’s non-stop campaign of overseas military misadventures, which are displacing millions of people and forcing them to EU shores, Europeans may be finally losing their patience with the military organization’s reckless ways. [...]

Kosovo is often cited by liberal interventionists as NATO’s success story and now a reason for attacking Syria. However, the ongoing lawlessness in the country shows nothing could be further from the truth. In 1999, NATO bombed Yugoslavia for 78 days, culminating in the withdrawal of Yugoslav troops from the Serbian province of Kosovo. [...]

In 1990, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, U.S. president George H. W. Bush through his secretary of state James Baker promised Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev that in exchange for Soviet cooperation on German reunification, the Cold War era NATO alliance would not expand “one inch” eastwards towards Russia. Baker told Gorbachev: “Look, if you remove your [300,000] troops [from east German [...]

US defense companies are currently enjoying a massive surge in profits in the wake of severe global crises that US foreign policy – with the full backing and blessing of the US punditry class - has itself precipitated. It’s pretty much guaranteed that your breakfast will be ruined when the very first line you read in the morning newspaper is a bold-type, bald-faced lie that goes: [...]

Turkey’s two neighbors and historical adversaries Greece and Bulgaria have witnessed sporadic protests denouncing Ankara’s remorseless in the shooting down of the Russian Su-24 plane, as well as NATO warmongering in general. Several dozen [...]

The FSB, SVR and GRU in Russia, while drawing all the right connections, cannot help but conclude that Washington is letting Cold War 2.0 escalate to the boiling point. Imagine Russian intel surveying the geopolitical chessboard. A Russian passenger jet is bombed by an affiliate of ISIS/ISIL/Daesh. [...]

It was certainly not because the SU-24 posed any threat. The plane is old and slow, and the Russians were careful not to arm it with anti-aircraft missiles. And it wasn’t because the Turks are quick on the trigger, either. Three years ago, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan emphatically declared that a “short-term violation of airspace can never be a pretext for an attack.” There are [...]

A recent edition of The Current on CBC Radio One in Canada featured a panel discussion of respected, liberal journalists discussing how mainstream media should report on Donald Trump and his campaign for the U.S. presidency. Among those on the panel was Doug Saunders of the Globe and Mail daily in Canada. The panelists agreed that journalists have a duty to explain how Trump’s views are racis [...]

Just days ago, the mainstream Western press was so concerned about the “possible breach of Turkish airspace” for a few seconds by a Russian airplane, that it was ready to justify not only the downing of the jet, but even the murder of one of the pilots. London’s The Daily Telegraph wrote: “Should Turkey produce evidence to show that the Su-24 was in its airspace then NATO must send th [...]

In two weeks we have seen two apparent acts of war by the US-led NATO military alliance in Syria. First, the Turkish shoot-down of a Russian warplane inside Syrian airspace; now this week the Syrian army is hit in a deadly airstrike. Despite absurd denials, the grim conclusion is that NATO is at war in Syria. [...]

Unlike state armies that exist to protect the integrity of the nation, NATO has no defined purpose other than to continuously engage in conflict. This explains the organization’s desire for conflict , when diplomacy is the best answer. Imagine a kitchen fully equipped with the latest cooking gadgets, stocked up with the freshest and best quality produce and staffed with the most highly traine [...]

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been shooting from the lip over the past week since the fatal shooting down of a Russian fighter jet. He truculently denied accusations of supporting terrorism, challenging Russia to prove it. Well, holy smoke Batman! Yes, Batman. Not the caped screen hero. [...]

You know the country has really gone to the dogs when Washington’s main allies in its war on Syria are the two biggest terrorist incubators on the planet. I’m talking about Saudi Arabia and Turkey, both of which are run by fanatical Islamic zealots devoted to spreading violent jihad to the four corners of the earth. Not that the US doesn’t have blood on its hands too. It does, but that’s b [...]

The Turkey-Russia feud raises a few questions about the future of NATO. In other words, are NATO allies ready to defend Turkey? Or are they expecting U.S. jets to do it? Based on what we saw in Iraq in the late 1990s (enforcing the no-fly zone) and Kosovo in 1995, NATO will come down to U.S. and U.K. jets doing all the flying. [...]

Inviting Montenegro to join the NATO alliance, the west has provoked Russia, because it needs Russia to resolve the conflict in Syria, Jan Oberg of the Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future Research told RT. On Wednesday NATO officially invited Montenegro to become an Alliance member. [...]

NATO foreign ministers have agreed to invite Montenegro to join the military alliance. The move is likely to lead to further deterioration in NATO’s relations with Russia, which sees the alliance’s expansion eastward as a threat to its national security. "We congratulate Montenegro," NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told the meeting at the alliance headquarters in Brussels. [...]

As EU leaders met with the Turkish PM to finalize a €3 billion ($3.18bn) deal on easing the Syrian refugee crisis, his Greek counterpart criticized Turkey’s “mercurial” pilots for airspace violations that cost billions but in no way help to tackle people-smuggling through borders on the ground. Alexis Tsipras took to Twitter to point out that it was ironic that while having billions of [...]

The downing of the Russian Su-24 by Turkish fighter jets and NATO's reaction to the incident have demonstrated clearly the misuse and misquotation of international law by apologists for the US and its allies, Australian-based Barrister at Law James O'Neill stresses. [...]