German intelligence has accused Russia of systematically undermining relations between Europe and the US, German Spiegel Online magazine wrote, citing a new report prepared jointly by the Federal Intelligence Service and the German Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution. [...]

In the last week of his presidency, Barack Obama extended sanctions against Russia. Next US President Donald Trump has repeatedly criticized the policy of sanctions. However, experts warn that Trump is unlikely to lift the sanctions in the first months of his term. [...]

Russian singer Victoria Tsyganova has sent a parcel to the wife of newly elected US president Donald Trump containing a jacket made of fur and cashmere. It will be delivered to the US by the Russian Post. According to the Russian Post, the parcel was sent to the US on Friday from Sheremetyevo airport on a regular flight to New York. [...]

Russian President Vladimir Putin has once again "outmaneuvered" US President Barack Obama by refraining from slapping reciprocal sanctions on American government agencies and expelling US diplomats, Earl Rasmussen, Executive Vice President of the Eurasia Center, told RIA Novosti. [...]

True to national emblem, Russian President Vladimir Putin has shown bear-like stoicism. As for the presumed American eagle, US President Barack Obama appears more like a trussed-up turkey. Not for the first time, the contrast in character between Putin and Obama was illustrated in the latest diplomatic spat over alleged Russian hacking. [...]

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has posted a scathing Facebook comment on US President Barack Obama’s approval of new anti-Russian measures, arguing Obama’s “bitter” and “helpless” team did a disfavor to the White House’s reputation. Zakharova wrote that the outgoing president did not manage to leave “any” major foreign policy achievements as part of his [...]

The new chairman of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has said he seeks to improve relations with Russia, as there can be no "positive developments" on the continent with the current punitive approach. Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz said his country, Austria, will work to "gradually" ease sanctions imposed by the West against Russia in connection with Ukra [...]

Washington does not possess any evidence of Russia allegedly influencing the US presidential election despite claims by mainstream media, incoming White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Monday. In an interview to another US broadcaster, Spicer said that Trump and his team would wait for the final report from intelligence services before making any decisions regarding alleged Russia's hackin [...]

In late-December, the German newspaper Bild reported that former United States Secretary of State Henry Kissinger would be involved in normalizing ties between Moscow and Washington. The analysis of information, obtained by European intelligence from President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team and cited by Bild, revealed that the White House would go for a "constructive cooperation" with the [...]

Russian President Vladimir Putin has responded to the outgoing US administration’s efforts to provoke conflict through new sanctions in what some are calling the “most embarrassing” way possible for US President Barack Obama. [...]

Russia’s UN envoy Vitaly Churkin hit back at his US counterpart, Samantha Power, at a UN Security Council meeting, saying that she was not Mother Teresa and represents a country with a long record of violations. Power and Churkin both spoke at a UN Security Council meeting on Aleppo in New York City on Monday. [...]

US President Barack Obama said Russia "in fact" had "hacked into the DNC," but that the actual voting process was not compromised. The White House was just trying to "let people know" what was going on, and the media interpreted the reasons, he said. [...]

Vladimir Putin and Japanese PM Shinzo Abe have worked out a statement on the prospects of joint Russian-Japanese economic activities in the South Kuril Islands as the Russian leader arrived in Japan for what’s seen as a breakthrough visit. [...]

Angela Merkel's CDU party is working on a policy paper that advocates a tougher stance towards Russia. Commenting on the issue, former State Secretary of the German Ministry of Defense Willy Wimmer told Sputnik that Merkel's politics have completely moved away from the foundations that it had in the past. [...]

The Hungarian billionaire appeared to have a fascination with not just fostering but creating anti-Putin opposition forces inside of Russia in a bid to destabilize the country. The recent DC Leaks document dump of over 2,500 documents from George Soros’ Open Society Foundations illustrates a disturbing trend by the billionaire of using his wealth and influence to sow chaos across the world in a [...]

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has squandered the inheritance of the old Federal Republic, German political scientist Jurgen Dittberner writes, referring to Merkel's inconsistent domestic policies and the deterioration of Russo-German relations. In the period from 1945 to 1990 it seemed that Germany could become a country that had learned a lesson from its previous arrogance and militarism, ab [...]

As pressure again builds on President Obama to attack Syria and press a new Cold War with Russia, the extraordinary events of three years ago after a sarin attack near Damascus are worth revisiting, says ex-CIA analyst Ray McGovern. Three years ago, when a reluctant President Barack Obama was about to launch an attack on Syria, supposedly in retaliation for President Bashar al-Assad crossing a [...]

Behind the U.S. media-political clamor for a new Cold War with Russia is a massive investment by the Military-Industrial Complex in “think tanks” and other propaganda outlets, writes Jonathan Marshall. The U.S. military has won only a single major war since the end of World War II (the Gulf War of 1990-91). But U.S. military contractors continue to win major budget wars in Congress nearly e [...]

Jan Tombinski, the European Union's outgoing ambassador to Ukraine, has revealed that the EU's sanctions against Russia are not really connected to the Minsk agreements on peace in eastern Ukraine, but on 'Russian aggression' against Kiev. Accordingly, the diplomat implied that anti-Russian sanctions may be extended indefinitely.   [...]

Interview with Vadim Trukhachev, Senior Lecturer, Department of International Relations and Foreign Area Studies, Russian State University for the Humanities. Rethinking Russia: What are some of the reasons you would give for the political tensions between Russia and Western Europe and the USA? [...]

Viktor Medvedchuk, Representative of Ukraine in the Minsk contact group, claimed that the Crimea is part of Russia and it will not return under control of the Kiev authorities. Medvedchuk explained during his interview with the Radio Liberty, that de facto ‘it [Crimea] belongs to Russia. Do not expect that the peninsula will be returned to Ukraine’. He also pointed out that the Kiev authoritie [...]

China’s recent announcement of an increase of its humanitarian support for the Syrian people and that it would provide additional training to the Syrian forces comes as a “headache for the US,” according to the American media. “As if the multi-party war in Syria weren’t complicated enough, it now appears that the People’s Republic of China has decided to take a more active role in t [...]