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 [...]

Instead of hitting Russia's energy sector, Washington's sanctions imposed on Moscow since 2014 have finally backfired on major US oil and gas companies, depriving them of lucrative opportunities and forcing them out of Russia. While Russia is boosting oil output following a decision by OPEC and non-OPEC producers to ease extraction cuts, US petroleum companies are reaping the bitter fruits of� [...]

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - A bill will be introduced in the US Congress to strengthen pressure on Russia by imposing sanctions on the country’s foreign debt in addition to increasing existing sanctions on the energy and financial sectors, US Senators Lindsey Graham and Bob Menendez said in a statement. [...]

RT’s Keiser Report remembers the media hysteria of 2014, when many Western news outlets claimed Russia wouldn't survive the introduction of international sanctions and the ruble crisis that followed. Max and Stacy also discuss a claim by the IMF’s former representative in Russia that there “will never be a debt crisis”with the country’s current economic team in charge, which is the wor [...]

Over a half of Russian women under 35 claim they would have romantic relations with a foreigner but almost 70 percent of them name “the ability to leave Russia” as the most attractive part of such affairs, a new poll has found. 57 percent of respondents said they are currently ready for an affair with a foreigner. The proportion is even higher for the age group between 18 and 23 years – 78 [...]

The first 50 families of Boers, descendants of Dutch settlers in South Africa, could soon be moving to Russia to escape rising violence against farmers. Some 15,000 Boers want to leave South Africa and become farmers in Russia. The Schlebusch family from South Africa’s Bloemfontein is going to be among first 50 Boer families to settle in Russia’s southwest. Like many other Boers, they are seek [...]

American aircraft giant Boeing will spend billions of dollars in the next 30 years on direct purchases in Russia. According to Kravchenko, Russian titanium will be mainly used for the production of the B777 and B787 Dreamliner. The Boeing 777 is a long-range wide-body twin-engine jet airliner. It is the world’s largest twinjet and has a typical seating capacity of 314 to 396 passengers. [...]

Russia has commenced work on the Soyuz-5 rocket, expected to become an ultra-heavy vehicle for future space exploration missions, Roscosmos head has announced. A number of Russia’s flagship research and development centers began working on Soyuz-5 project, Roscosmos’ Director-General Dmitry Rogozin said on Twitter. [...]

In a historic bilateral summit, Russian President Vladimir Putin met his US counterpart Donald Trump in the Finnish capital. In an interview with Sputnik, Dr. Denis Rancourt, a civil rights advocate and social theorist, provided his insight into the importance of the meeting. [...]

Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic cemented her status as a World Cup superstar by receiving 25 percent more attention than any Croatia player despite record online interest in the country at the final. The tiny Balkan nation’s unlikely march to the final saw general online interest in Croatia soar, beginning after their dramatic quarter-final penalty shootout win over hosts Russia in S [...]

Investor confidence in Europe has surged in 2017 after three years of decline. Europe has attracted a record level of foreign direct investment (FDI), with Russia making the top five list, according to data from EY. The firm’s report showed that, despite a slowing growth in Europe, investor sentiment is more buoyant with 50 percent of more than 500 investors highlighting confidence. [...]

FIFA president Gianni Infantino has long believed the Russian-hosted 2018 World Cup would be the best ever and his stance has not changed as the tournament unfolds. “Since [a] couple of years I was saying that this would be the best World Cup ever; today I can say it with even more conviction because I lived it and you lived it. It is the best World Cup ever,” Infantino said in the opening rem [...]

The West’s Russia policy is built upon the infamous “highly likely thing,” Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told Larry King’s ‘Politicking’ show, saying this was epitomised by the alleged Russian ‘meddling’ and the Skripal affair. [...]

While the probe into the poisoning of ex-spy Sergei Skripal is still ongoing and no tangible results have been presented, the West seems desperate to put all the blame on Russia. And the arguments have become increasingly notable. [...]

Widely considered one the of the world’s most beautiful underground networks, the Moscow Metro has become one of the major tourist attractions, and even inspired a group of French architects, the city authorities revealed. [...]

The White House's tough trade practices and sanctions policies may finally backfire on the US, prompting holders of US debt to dump American Treasuries. The move could have a serious impact on the decades-long leadership of the US dollar. Russia and China are dumping their US Treasury debt holdings amid Washington's sanctions and tariff spree. [...]

The Central Bank of Russia (CBR) commonly factors in all kinds of risks when allocating the country's reserves, said the CBR chief, commenting on a major sell-off of US Treasury bonds. “We pursue the policy of safe and diversified holdings,” CBR Governor Elvira Nabiullina said while answering questions before Russia's lower house of parliament. [...]