Despite years of Western sanctions, Russia will become the world’s fifth-largest economy as early as next year, surpassing Germany and the UK, multinational bank Standard Chartered said in its long-term growth forecasts. [...]

Washington’s attempts to derail the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project to supply Russian natural gas to the European Union will definitely backfire, according to a geopolitical expert Dr. Pierre-Emmanuel Thomann. [...]

Integrity Initiative’s crusade to create a lockstep anti-Russia narrative in Europe and the US has hit a roadblock: According to the shadowy organization, Norwegians are too skeptical of US politics and not adequately anti-Russia. [...]

Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has lashed out at the US for its position on the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. Former Chancellor of Germany Gerhard Schroeder said Saturday that the US has its own energy interests in Europe, which explains the pressure Washington is exerting on the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project. [...]

The five-meter-high avalanche descended near Peak Sentis on the Schwagalp Pass as a result of heavy snowfall; the search for the missing is underway, according to Swiss German daily Tagblatt. An avalanche hit the restaurant of the Hotel Santis in Schwagalp in the canton of Appenzell Ausserrhoden in eastern Switzerland on Thursday, according to media reports. [...]

Washington’s criticism of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project to deliver Russian gas to Europe bypassing transit countries has been strongly rejected by German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas. [...]

Authorities in southern Germany, Austria, and Switzerland have closed highways and some railroads due to heavy snowfall in the region, according to Fox News reports. Thousands of tourists ended the Christmas holiday in the Alps on 6 January being evacuated due to heavy snowfall, including visitors to the popular Matterhorn in Switzerland, Fox News reported, saying that airports and trains have exp [...]

Germany’s major rightwing party, the AfD, threatens to push for a so-called ‘Dexit’ if the EU doesn’t restore its members’ national sovereignty and takes no action against “Islamization of Europe” within the next five years. [...]

The common European currency, which was created on 1 January 1999 and became a physical currency three years later, will soon mark its 20-year anniversary, having survived major crises over the last decade. Sputnik has recalled how the euro started its path, what challenges it has faced and what prospects it has. [...]

Austria believes that the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project will be successfully implemented, Russian Ambassador in Vienna Dmitry Lyubinsky told Sputnik. "Nord Stream 2 is, of course, the most promising initiative of our energy partnership with Austria… They believe here that this project will be successfully implemented," Lyubinsky said. [...]

A veteran Austrian journalist has urged for action against media crackdown in Ukraine, saying he fears for his life after being labeled “a Kremlin agent” by a vigilante website, according to Kronen Zeitung. Christian Wehrschuetz, a correspondent with Austria’s leading ORF broadcaster, said it is increasingly hard for him and his employees to feel safe in modern-day Ukraine, Kronen Zeitung re [...]

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas says American nuclear missiles must not be stationed in Germany, or anywhere in Europe, in Washington's arms control debate with Moscow. "The deployment of new medium-range missiles would meet with widespread resistance in Germany," Maas said in an interview with German news agency dpa. [...]

Veteran Norwegian politician Carl Hagen argued that Russia giving up Crimea is not a possibility and urged his colleagues to embrace this political reality. Norwegian right-wing politician Carl Hagen, who founded the Progress Party and served as its leader for many years, created a stir earlier this month by recognising Crimea as Russian, and has now penned an opinion piece in the Aftenposte [...]

Anyone who’s ever tasted teargas will attest how unpleasant it is. I tasted it in Paris on Saturday 8 December as the city turned into a war zone. I am writing these words in a hotel room in central Paris in the aftermath of a day of rage, unleashed by the self-styled gilets jaunes (yellow vests) mass movement of latter-day ‘enrages’ (angry ones) of French revolutionary repute. [...]

The volume of trade between Russia and Austria has been steadily growing, reaching $4.2 billion since January year-on-year, said Russia’s trade representative in Austria Aleksandr Potemkin. [...]

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) has voted for Paul Ziemiak, the head of the party's youth organization Junge Union, to take over the position of the CDU secretary general, the Zeit newspaper reported Saturday. [...]

The Austrian chancellor, who, along with his Austrian People's Party and coalition partner the Freedom Party, came to power in January 2018, has recapped the results of his first year in office and outlined priorities for the next year. [...]

When violent protests shook Kiev in 2013, Western analysts and leaders quickly threw their support behind the anti-government ‘revolution’ — but after weeks of Yellow Vest protests in France, the reaction has been very different. [...]

Earlier, Germany voiced support for the construction of the second Nord Stream pipeline amid criticism from US President Donald Trump, who has urged EU countries to abandon the project and buy American liquefied natural gas (LNG) instead. [...]

The Russian-led gas pipeline project Nord Stream 2, which is aimed at delivering Russian gas to Europe via Germany, must be completed, according to the German Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy Peter Altmaier. The minister says the conflict between Russia and Ukraine has nothing to do with the project. [...]

For decades, the Bundesbank, Germany’s central bank and custodian of the country’s gold, has been storing over 1,200 tons of the precious metal worth nearly €50 billion in the New York vaults of the US Federal Reserve. [...]

China’s state-owned energy major CNPC has replaced France’s Total in Iran’s South Pars gas project, according to Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh. The French company withdrew from Iran under pressure of US sanctions. [...]