A recent worldwide opinion poll conducted by Pew Research Center shows that Vladimir Putin enjoys more trust than Donald Trump, and analysts blame this fact on America’s selfish and reckless foreign policy. Trade wars with key economic partners, continuing military operations abroad, and the ongoing split among US political elites have been thought to do little for the president’s image. This [...]

The Russian Ministry of Finance said on Monday it may shift to the use of local currencies with European trade partners. The move will be part of the so-called de-dollarization of the Russian economy. As we can see the main opportunity which can be realized in the short and medium term is the transition to settlements in national currencies with our European counterparts, including settlements inv [...]

Sanctions against Russia’s key energy companies would inevitably lead to a collapse of the European energy sector, BP CEO Bob Dudley has warned, according to Sputnik news agency. “I do not think that would happen. If sanctions were put on Rosneft or Gazprom or LUKoil like what happened with Rusal, you would virtually shut down the energy systems of Europe, it is a bit of extreme thing to happe [...]

Washington’s sanctions against Tehran would fundamentally change other countries’ economic cooperation with the Islamic Republic, the Financial Times has written. EU finance ministers will try to persuade the US administration not to disconnect Iran from the international payment system SWIFT, the newspaper reported on Tuesday. [...]

In keeping with an agreement reached by Russia and Turkey to resolve the situation in Syria’s Idlib, jihadist groups have until October 10 to withdraw their heavy weapons from the demilitarized zone in the province. In an interview with Sputnik, a Syrian Army representative said that groups such as Hayati al-Sham, largely made up of al-Nusra, Huras ad-Din and the National Liberation Front milita [...]

Several politicians and experts told RT that the Ukrainian president’s fears of Russian meddling in future elections were completely unfounded and simply imitated the demagogic tactics used previously by Western nations. [...]

Pakistan has successfully test-launched its nuclear-capable missile system just after its archenemy India refused peace talks with Islamabad and bought billions-worth of weapons from Russia. The missile system, which can fire both nuclear and conventional projectiles to a distance of 1,300km, was tested on Monday by the Army Strategic Forces Command (ASFC). [...]

Although many people in Serbia hold “poor” memories of NATO’s 1999 bombing of their country, it was, in fact, done precisely to protect them from their own government, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has said in Belgrade. He was answering questions about the bombing and about the NATO campaign against the government of the former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, during a meeting [...]

Meeting the goal of one million "green" cars will be a tough nut to crack, as there are only 9,000 electric cars traversing Danish roads at present. As part of its forthcoming climate initiative, the Danish government intends to phase out diesel and petrol cars by 2030, Danish Radio reported. [...]

The months-long tit-for-tat between Beijing and Washington hasn’t yet shown any signs of stopping, but has, conversely, grown more intense in light of both trade issues with regard to tariffed imports, and an array of military-related moves, such as arms sales to Taiwan and China’s military deals with Russia. [...]

Russia's Defense Ministry has released a new batch of videos of cutting-edge weapons, first unveiled by President Vladimir Putin back in March. The footage shows new tests, as well as gives a grasp of the development process. The impressive set of new weapons was unveiled by Putin during his annual speech before the Federation Council back in March. [...]

New footage of the delivery of the Russian S-300 air defense system to the Syrian military has been published by the Russian Defense Ministry’s television channel. The video from Zvezda TV shows the arrival of the Russian An-124 Ruslan transport plane to an airfield in Syria and the unloading of the system’s components by Russian troops. [...]

Rome has still not reached an agreement with Berlin on the repatriation of asylum seekers who had first registered in Italy, Interior Minister Matteo Salvini said, vowing to close airports to German flights transferring refugees. “If someone in Berlin or Brussels thinks of dumping dozens of migrants in Italy via unauthorized charter flights, they should know that there is not and there will be n [...]

This week, Russian President Vladimir Putin called Washington's sanctions policy a "colossal strategic mistake" which has only served to undermine the dollar's credibility as a global reserve currency. India's Central Bank and Ministry of Finance have been tasked with exploring the feasibility of rupee and barter-based trade agreements with crude oil producing nations such as Russia, Iran and [...]

The internationally acknowledged banking center has joined the voices from across Europe about creating an independent analog for the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) amid US anti-Iran sanctions. Russia, which has already created its own system, voiced readiness to cooperate within a “euro-SWIFT” system. [...]

ANKARA (Sputnik) - Turkey does not intend to borrow loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) anymore, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced on Sunday. "We have closed the chapter of the IMF credits in order not to open it anymore," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday addressing the activists of Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party in the town of Kizilc [...]

Attempts to use the US Navy to block Russia’s trade would amount to a declaration of war, a high-ranking senator commented on the US internal secretary’s idea of impeding Russia’s energy trade through a blockade. “A US blockade of Russia would be equal to a declaration of war under international law,” said the head of the Russian Senate’s Information Policy Committee, Aleksey Pushkov, [...]

As the scandals and legal trials dogging Israel’s first family continue unabated, the prime minister’s wife, Sara Netanyahu, began her own trial on Sunday for fraud and breach of trust. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's wife, Sara Netanyahu, on Sunday showed up in court to begin her trial for fraud and breach of trust, in a continuing saga of the multiple scandals involving her husba [...]

The Saturday evacuation is the latest in a series of airlifts coming amid the Syrian Army's ongoing offensive on jihadists who still control small pockets of Deir ez-Zor, much of them empty desert. A number of wounded Daesh* terrorists militants have been evacuated by US helicopters from Syria's eastern Deir ez-Zor province, local sources said, as quoted by the Syrian news website Arabi Today [...]

Trade relations between the two countries have gone into a downward spiral of quid pro quo, with Washington slapping Beijing with new tariffs on $200 billion of imported Chinese goods in late September, while China hit back with levies on $60 billion of US products. [...]

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The second pipelay vessel has started working on the German section of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, the pipeline's operator, Nord Stream AG, said. "The offshore pipelay vessel "Audacia" began its work on the Nord Stream 2 project today. "Audacia", operated by Allseas, is the second vessel together with the "Castoro Dieci" (C10) to lay the Nord Stream 2 pipeline in the German [...]

Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Jose Valencia Amores on Friday reaffirmed the country’s decision to grant asylum to the WikiLeaks whistleblowing website’s founder, Julian Assange. [...]