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. [...]

The US government is slated to receive one of two batches of Russian-made rocket engines in the second quarter of 2018, according to a leading Russian rocket designer, at nearly the same point when the newly created US Space Force is being established as a new branch of the US armed forces. [...]

These measures will only affect products that have analogues in Russia, Minister of Economic Development of the Russian Federation, Maxim Oreshkin said. "Because the US continues to apply protective measures in the form of additional import duties on steel and aluminum and refuses to provide compensation for Russia's losses, Russia is using its WTO rights and introducing balancing measures with re [...]

Despite facing years of sanctions from the US and EU, the Russian economy is growing again thanks to a winning formula of low debt and high reserves. The sovereign debt of Russia is a fraction of that in developed countries like the UK or US. Russia’s foreign debt now stands at $525 billion, compared to $7.5 trillion in Britain, $5 trillion in France, $4.8 trillion in Germany, and an eye-waterin [...]

Moscow and Delhi are seeking to bypass US sanctions by using the rupee and the ruble in facilitating military deals, according to Indian daily, the Economic Times. The paper reports that US sanctions are hampering $2 billion in defense deals between Russia and India, as payments are getting stuck. [...]

It was the dogs what done it. The picture of the "pile of canine corpses on the streets of Russia killed in the name of the world cup," I mean. Or at least the thousands of people who had retweeted the image thought so, before it turned out the dead dogs were Pakistani, killed for public health reasons in Karachi five years before. [...]

Russia is crucial in bringing peace to Syria and Ukraine, Austrian leader Sebastian Kurz told his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, adding he hopes Moscow helps secure peace in Donbass, paving the way to lifting EU sanctions. “Russia, as a superpower, has an important role in Syria and eastern Ukraine, and Russia has great responsibility,” Chancellor Kurz said after talks with Russian Presid [...]

The US is force-feeding Europe its liquefied natural gas, which is three times more expensive that buying it from Russia, Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen said after signing a gas-supply contract with Moscow until 2040. While US politicians are accusing Europe of being dependent on Russian gas, they forget that “American liquefied gas is two or three times more expensive than Russian [...]

Washington has warned New Delhi that procurement of Russian advanced military systems may jeopardize defense cooperation and technology sharing between the US and India, as well as “interoperability” between their armed forces. “There is a lot of concern in the US administration and Congress with the S-400,” House Armed Services Committee chairman Mac Thornberry told India’s Economic Tim [...]

The United States is isolating itself from countries around the world, and making countries unite in a time of economic repression from Washington, prominent investor Jim Rogers says. “America is pushing China and Russia together, America’s pushing China and Iran together, pushing China, Iran, Russia all together, and that’s pushing America out of some very major countries in the world,” R [...]

US will have hard time convincing key EU members to offset overreliance on Russian piped gas with US LNG. Russia's largest gas producer Gazprom and the European Commission have recently resolved a seven-year anti-trust dispute. Much of this comes amid President Donald Trump’s so-called American energy independence push as well as both US and several EU members thrust to wean Europe off of geopol [...]

A Russian military contractor, specializing in electronic warfare, will use information gained from dissecting a US Tomahawk cruise missile, used during an attack on Syria, to boost the capabilities of its own equipment. The missile, delivered to Russia after the tri-party night attack on Syrian government targets by the US, the UK and France in April, is of particular interest to KRET, a leading [...]

By trying to bring an end to the Russo-European Nord Stream 2 project, the US is pursuing its own economic interests rather than taking care of Europe's energy security. Washington is seeking to boost sales of its own expensive liquefied natural gas to Europe, thus undermining the Old Continent's competitiveness. [...]

The global economy is facing a threat of a spiraling protectionist measures that can lead to a devastating crisis, Vladimir Putin warned. Nations must find a way to prevent this and establish rules on how the economy should work. The Russian president spoke out against the growing trend of using unilateral restrictions to achieve economic advantage, as he addressed guests of the St. Petersburg Int [...]

Germany has had enough of American foreign policy. Angela Merkel’s visits to Russia and China are a testament to that. On May 10, 2018, German Chancellor Angela Merkel openly said that Europe can no longer count on the United States to protect it, hinting that the European continent would begin to “take destiny into its own hands.” [...]