Why did Vladimir Putin's decision to withdraw the Russian military forces from Syria take US hawks by surprise? Maybe, it's because Washington's party of war believes its own propaganda more than reality on the ground, Stephen F. Cohen notes, commenting on Russia's pullout. The leitmotif of Russian President Putin's foreign policy is the demilitarization of the ongoing new Cold War in the Middl [...]

Nadezhda Savchenko, a Ukrainian Air Force officer detained in Russia in 2014, is guilty of murdering two Russian journalists near Lugansk, eastern Ukraine, and of illegally crossing the Russian border, a court in the southern Russian town of Donetsk ruled.   [...]

Sputnik looks at the key results and highlights of Russia's 5.5-month counterterrorist mission in Syria. Russia's Defense Ministry said on Tuesday that the air campaign prevented terrorist plans to expand into Russia and other countries, as well as undermined their administrative system and economic potential. Earlier on March 15, two air groups involved in the Syrian mission left Hmeimim o [...]

Syrians feel immense gratitude towards Russian military and Aerospace Forces with the popularity of Vladimir Putin soaring. The partial withdrawal of Russian troops from the country is a matter of concern for the Syrian community, but the faith in Moscow's help is unwavering, according to the US media. [...]

Russia’s military campaign in Syria seems to have changed President Barack Obama’s opinion of its armed forces. He now says it’s "the second-most powerful military in the world." Two years ago he labeled Moscow as nothing more than a "regional power." Speaking at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) conference in California, [...]

Unlike the Bush administration's mission in Iraq, Russia has truly accomplished its mission in Syria, Bangkok-based analyst Tony Cartalucci writes. Does it mean the Saudi-Turkish elites now have a chance to balkanize Syria? Not by any means. Regardless of Western media's attempts to downplay the success of Russia's operation in Syria, there is no doubt that Moscow has accomplished the objective [...]

It’s spy thriller stuff; no one is talking. But there are indications Russia would not announce a partial withdrawal from Syria right before the Geneva negotiations ramp up unless a grand bargain with Washington had been struck. Some sort of bargain is in play, of which we still don’t know the details; that's what the CIA itself is basically saying through their multiple US Think Tankland m [...]

Natalia Poklonskaya may very well be one of the symbols of modern Crimea. Her struggle for Crimea’s reunification with Russia in the aftermath of the Euromaidan crisis in Ukraine was a heroic, selfless act. And it so happened that Russia and Crimea reunited on March 18, the same day Poklonskaya [...]

On Friday, March 18, Russia celebrates the second anniversary of Crimea’s reunification with the country. On this day exactly two years ago Crimea held a historic referendum on its status. Some 96 percent voted for the reunification with Russia. The following day Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree to recognize the Crimean Republic. [...]

As Russian troops and planes return home following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s surprise announcement, one organization, the Pentagon, remains unsurprisingly unconvinced. "I think that the task that was assigned to the Ministry of Defense and the armed forces as a whole has achieved its goal, [...]

American presstitutes, such as the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, expressed surprise at Russia’s support for the Syrian ceasefire, which Russia has been seeking, by Putin’s halt to attacks on the Islamic State and a partial withdrawal of Russian forces. The American presstitutes are captives of their own propaganda and are now surprised at the failure of their propagandistic pr [...]

According to a survey organized by Sputnik.Polls, about one third of American, Dutch, British, French, German and Italian people believe Crimea is part of Russia. The Sputnik Information Agency and Radio ordered the survey, which was conducted by the Populus research firm in the United States [...]

Russian President Vladimir Putin turned his attention to domestic issues on Tuesday, amid several high-profile arrests, in what could be seen as a shift away from foreign policy, which dominated his agenda for the past two years. Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB), which answers directly to [...]

As Russia’s Vladimir Putin announced the start of the withdrawal of Russian forces from Syria, Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu has reported the anti-terror operation’s achievements to the Commander-in-Chief. "Backed by our aviation, Syrian forces have freed 400 populated areas and over 10,000 square kilometers [3,860 square miles] of territories," Shoigu said during a Kremlin meeting with R [...]

Global political figures have welcomed the Russian military pullout from Syria, and while many have called the Kremlin’s decision “unexpected,” it is seen as clearing the way for dialogue while a truce in the five-year-old war is negotiated in Geneva. Acknowledging that five months of military campaigns have mostly succeeded in their primary objective of eliminating the immediate wider th [...]

The United States doesn't want to see Chinese and Russian companies operating in Bolivia, and has instructed Washington-supported opposition forces to try and stop them, says Bolivian President Evo Morales, citing the recent scandal around China's CAMC Engineering Co, which managed to unfairly [...]

The launch of the first joint ESA-Roscosmos mission to the Red Planet serves partly as a response to the "stupid political" anti-Russian sanctions, according to Alexey Novikov, spokesman for the Russian Federal Space Agency Roscosmos. In an interview with Sputnik, Alexey Novikov, spokesman for the Russian Federal Space Agency Roscosmos, described the launch of the first joint ESA-Roscosmos miss [...]

A group of Communist Party lawmakers is seeking to impose sanctions on US officials involved in the kidnapping and jailing of Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko, proposing Hillary Clinton as the first candidate for the blacklist. In their letter, quoted by popular daily Izvestia on Monday, the MPs reminded that at the moment of Yaroshenko’s kidnapping, Hillary Clinton occupied the post of US [...]

NATO Supreme Allied Commander Philip Breedlove recently took US hawks' campaign of Russia-baiting up a notch, suggesting Russia and Syria have 'deliberately weaponized' refugees to 'break European resolve'. The remarks, and the mainstream media's ability to convey them with a straight face, are an indication of a broken system, experts suggest. [...]

The economic survival of Ukraine depends not on Western bailouts but on the resumption of Russian investments. Until that happens, no one can predict a bright future for Ukraine, an American political analyst wrote. "In January Ukraine’s president, Petro Poroshenko, congratulated the country on surviving its first winter without buying Russian gas. [...]

A nuclear power propulsion system could propel a spacecraft to Mars in just over a month, a huge step forward from the current 18 months required. Russia might test a nuclear engine as early as 2018, the head of the Rosatom nuclear corporation revealed. Another advantage of a nuclear engine is that it enables a spacecraft to maneuver throughout the flight, whereas existing technology only makes [...]

Hundreds of tractors disrupted traffic in the Finnish capital on Friday, when thousands of farmers arrived in Helsinki to protest the catastrophic situation in the agricultural sector and ongoing sanctions against Russia. [...]