An Austrian court has sided with Russia’s state-backed vodka maker in the battle over the Stolichnaya and Moskovskaya brands, ordering the Dutch-based Spirits International B.V to pay compensation for using them illegally. Stolichnaya vodka has long been one of the world’s most recognizable brands associated with Russia. [...]

Russia’s leading airline Aeroflot has entered the list of the world’s most popular carriers, according to a survey conducted by airline booking platform, eDreams, based on 60,000 passenger reviews. Aeroflot was ranked eighth, surpassing Air France and TAP Portugal. [...]

Some 300,000 troops and tens of thousands vehicles, aircraft and warships are participating in the largest military exercise Russia has staged in 37 years. Units from China are to take part in the maneuvers as well. The Vostok 2018 exercise is meant to test the capability of the Russian military to rapidly move and deploy large forces over long distances as well as coordinating between several bra [...]

While the US is openly wooing India, there are no signs that New Delhi is going to give up its longstanding defense collaboration with Russia. Speaking to Sputnik, Indian analysts emphasized the country's "strategic autonomy" as New Delhi's major priority and presumed that the US's apparent plan to bring India into NATO’s fold would fail. [...]

US Wheat Associates (USW) has announced the closing of its Moscow office on October 1 due to lack of demand for American wheat in Russia. Since 2016, Russia has been the global leader in grain exports. “With much more public information available about Russia’s wheat supply, we believe it is time to end our mission there and continue allocating more resources in markets where our export volume [...]

Providing a unique photo shoot opportunity to a group of guests at a safari adventure park in Crimea, the cuddly predator not only welcomed the guests but even tried to get behind the wheel for the tour. A full-grown lion named Filya appeared to be bored basking in the warm sunshine of the adventure park just outside of Simferopol. [...]

The famous philosopher contended that the US media was focusing on marginal stories and argued that there are much more serious issues being swept under the rug. This comes amid an ongoing FBI investigation into alleged Russian interference in the US presidential election and the Trump campaign's purported collusion with Moscow. [...]

India has made it clear that it is going ahead with its plan to purchase the S-400 Triumph air defense missile systems from Russia and that it will not be deterred by the US' unilateral sanctions. India has also expressed itself similarly over the US sanctions on Iran by continuing to buy oil from the country. [...]

Plans for a nuclear war devised by the US Army in the 1960s considered decimating the Soviet Union and China by destroying their industrial potential and wiping out the bulk of their populations, newly declassified documents show. [...]

On November 6, 2018, the US will hold mid-term congressional elections. The Americans will vote on the fate of all 435 seats in the House of Representatives; there are also 33 US Senate races. [...]

Russian-owned assets in the United States worth hundreds of millions of dollars have been frozen as part of Washington’s sanctions campaign against Moscow since 2013, said US Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Sigal Mandelker. “The actions of the US Treasury have had significant consequences for the financial interests of individuals and businesses that were affected, including the blocking of h [...]

Moscow responded to fresh sanctions placed by Washington on Monday over an alleged chemical weapons attack in the United Kingdom last March. Russian officials have slammed the United States and United Kingdom for their hypocrisy and reminded them of their own troubled past concerning chemical weapons usage. [...]

During their August 18 summit, Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel noted that the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project is profitable for both sides and should not be politicized. Speaking to Radio Sputnik, Gerhard Mangott, a political analyst from Austria's Innsbrook University, shared his views on the EU's energy issue. [...]

The Iran nuclear deal, which was recently ditched by the US, humanitarian efforts in war-ravaged Syria, and the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project… Putin and Merkel hold three-hour talks and are mostly on the same page. The surprise visit announced earlier this week between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian President Vladimir Putin took place in Meseberg Palace, 65km north of Berlin, on Sa [...]

Russia hopes to finalize two major defense deals with India by year’s end, with first deliveries of the S-400 air defense system potentially taking place in 2020, a Russian defense official has said. India defied US demands to drop the S-400 deal in favor of US weaponry, selecting the defense system to protect its skies in June following an agreement on technical and economic specifications earl [...]

The new bridge link connecting mainland Russia and the Crimean Peninsula is proving to be a huge hit with Russian drivers. The Crimean Bridge has broken another single-day record for car traffic, with 32,000 vehicles crossing the span on Sunday. About 1.6 million cars have crossed the bridge since it opened in May. [...]

US payment systems Visa and MasterCard are no longer present on Russia's Crimean Peninsula. The republic’s largest bank has finished the procedure of switching all plastic cards to Russia’s Mir payment system. “On August 14, the process of replacing Visa and MasterCard plastic cards in favour of the Mir payment system has ended. [...]

Russian President Vladimir Putin is planning to attend the wedding of Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl during his visit to the country on August 18, the Kremlin has confirmed. “Yes, he’s going to make a stop there on his way to Berlin,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists when asked if Putin would attend the wedding. [...]

Russia will continue supplying RD-180 rocket engines, which are used by NASA and the Pentagon, to the United States until at least 2020. “We signed the contract until 2020, and we will supply our partners with six more RD-180 engines,” said Igor Arbuzov, CEO of Russia’s Energomash. The RD-180 engines operate at the first stage of the US Atlas V rockets. [...]

A scientist at Russia’s space organization Roscosmos, 74-year-old Viktor Kudryavtsev, has been imprisoned in a Moscow jail run by the Federal Security Service (FSB), which has been been investigating a “treasonous” leak of hypersonic missile secrets to Western intelligence agencies. [...]

Germany's Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) does not have specific data on possible attempts by Russia to affect the 2017 Bundestag elections, according to a report. "After Russia took measures to intervene in the presidential elections in the US and France, as well as launching numerous cyber attacks against the German Bundestag, politicians, parties and political [...]

The US has only one possibility to stay in Syria, to start interacting with Moscow and Damascus on the return of refugees, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement. The only opportunity for the US to retain its presence in Syria is to start cooperating with Moscow and Damascus in their efforts to assist the return of refugees and temporarily displaced people to their homes, the R [...]