A US military high-altitude Global Hawk drone has reportedly been spotted flying an hours-long spy mission over eastern Ukraine and off the shore of Crimea along with another American surveillance plane. [...]

In an unprecedented traverse of Russia’s Northern Sea Route, a heavy 3,600-container ship is taking advantage of rising summer temperatures and melting ice in the polar regions of the Arctic Ocean to cut two weeks off its delivery time from South Korea to St. Petersburg, Russia. [...]

Russia, Turkey and Iran need to team up in the face of the pressure exerted on them by Washington, Iranian analysts told Sputnik, commenting on the September trilateral meeting in Tehran. According to them, Moscow, Tehran and Ankara could work out a joint strategy to resist the US sanctions policy. [...]

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Iranian Central Bank Governor Abdolnaser Hemmati has discussed a possible replacement of the US dollar by national currencies in trade transactions with Turkish and Russian representatives at the recent trilateral summit of the Syrian ceasefire guarantor states, local media reported. [...]

The Northern Sea Route, which lies in Arctic waters and within Russia’s Exclusive Economic Zone, should be a transport corridor open to the entire world community, Admiral Paul Zukunft, Commandant of the US Coast Guard, said. Zukunft told journalists that the US Armed Forces still do not intend to conduct operations in the Arctic to uphold the principle of freedom of navigation, as is done in th [...]

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. [...]