In an attempt to sum up the major accomplishments in the Middle East throughout 2015, Middle East expert Hussein Ibish has come to the conclusion that it is Russia, who gained the most, while the US has abandoned its role as the guarantor of the Middle Eastern political order, perhaps irrevocably. [...]

In an interview with newspaper Die Welt, a German economist argues that the ruble has the potential to become a currency of global significance and strengthen by about 20% by the end of 2016. Experts making forecasts for 2016 should take into account such currencies as the Russian ruble because the currency markets may soon face surprising developments, the newspaper wrote. [...]

Wishing others a peaceful New Year would seem to be a straightforward greeting for people of goodwill. Not if you’re a top US government official. Peace? Yeah, well, it’s complicated. This week US Secretary of State John Kerry reportedly phoned Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to firm up the forthcoming peace negotiations supposedly aimed at bringing an end to the Syrian conflict. [...]

A survey ordered by Vladimir Putin shows Crimea residents would rather break an electricity contract with Kiev, than sign one calling the peninsula part of Ukraine – even if it means further blackouts that began when a pylon bearing power lines was blown up. [...]

Alex Jones talks with former Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura about Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. Help us spread the word about the liberty movement, we're reaching millions help us reach millions more. we all want liberty. Find the free live feed at http://www.infowars.com /* */ [...]

America’s consciousness of being an “exceptional” nation interferes with its ability to fight terrorism in every direction and by all means, Russia’s foreign minister has said, noting that Turkey is copying the behavior of its NATO mentor in Iraq. "The factor that does no good to our cause is American exceptionalism. [...]

In 1990, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, U.S. president George H. W. Bush through his secretary of state James Baker promised Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev that in exchange for Soviet cooperation on German reunification, the Cold War era NATO alliance would not expand “one inch” eastwards towards Russia. Baker told Gorbachev: “Look, if you remove your [300,000] troops [from east German [...]

Iran is moving forward to get rid of the US dollar as a means of payment, independent researcher Timothy Alexander Guzman points out, adding that Washington has obviously shot itself in the foot by imposing sanctions on Moscow and Tehran. [...]

François Hollande and Recep Tayyip Erdogan have recently recognized that betting on Obama's administration is like betting on Don Quixote's giants. Hollande, who recently visited the White House seeking Obama's support in fighting ISIL after Paris attacks, has returned empty-handed. [...]

Sputnik is a major new media brand with modern multimedia centers in dozens of countries. Sputnik is uniquely positioned as a provider of alternative news content and as a radio broadcaster. Offering a fuller picture of the world with a truly diverse range of views, Sputnik tells the untold. [...]

Official Washington says it welcomes freedom of thought, but there is a startling absence of diverse opinions especially on key foreign-policy topics, such as Russia’s President Putin. In those cases, shallow “group think” prevails and belligerent “information warfare” rules, as Gilbert Doctorow observes. [...]

The Western narrative has sought to portray Russia as an aggressive regional actor. But Moscow's showcasing of its new military capabilities in Syria suggests that it can project its power at great distances cost-effectively to play a major role in international security. Has this marked a turning point in Russia's relations with the West? Oksana is joined by Mark Galeotti, Professor of Global [...]

Washington will not share intelligence data on Islamic State positions in Syria and will not accept Moscow’s offer to cooperate on rooting out terrorism until Moscow changes its position on Syrian President Bashar Assad’s future, the Pentagon said. [...]

Germany’s Initiative Group wants to provide up to ‎€2 billion to finance the Moscow-Kazan high-speed railway, according to the Vice President of Russian Railways (RZD) Aleksandr Misharin. "We have a proposal from our German colleagues on signing a similar [Russia-China – Ed.] memorandum on cooperation, where they make commitments on financing of up to €2 billion in the project on vari [...]

Since 2003, Moscow has watched with infinite patience as US-led forces have steadily steamrolled a path of chaos and carnage across a large swath of Central Asia, the Middle East and North Africa. This year Vladimir Putin drew a line at Syria. In an age when diplomats regularly correspond with each other behind the cold cover of firewalls and Twitter accounts, Moscow’s method of informing its [...]

Russian intelligence has spotted up to 12,000 tankers and trucks on the Turkish-Iraqi border, the General Staff of Russia’s armed forces has reported. “The [aerial] imagery was made in the vicinity of Zakho (a city in Iraqi Kurdistan), there were 11,775 tankers and trucks on both sides of the Turkish-Iraqi border,” Lieutenant-General Sergey Rudskoy told journalists on Friday. [...]

In his seminal 'Fall of Rome: And the End of Civilization,' Bryan Ward-Perkins writes, "Romans before the fall were as certain as we are today that their world would continue forever... They were wrong. We would be wise not to repeat their complacency.” [...]

The US has ordered 20 additional RD-180 rocket engines from Russia, days after US Congress lifted the ban on the use of Russian engines to get American ships into space. However, the move has been lambasted by some politicians in Washington. [...]

Kiev's attempts to avoid paying back its $3 billion debt to Moscow could end in the country defaulting on its foreign debt. Why didn't Kiev's Western benefactors side with Kiev in the IMF decision on the debt? Sputnik takes a look. On Tuesday, the International Monetary Fund board recognized Kiev's outstanding $3 billion debt to Moscow as sovereign, a status Kiev had fiercely contested. [...]

Nobody needs to read Zbigniew “Grand Chessboard” Brzezinski’s 1997 opus to know US foreign policy revolves around one single overarching theme: prevent – by all means necessary – the emergence of a power, or powers, capable of constraining Washington’s unilateral swagger, not only in Eurasia but across the world. The Pentagon carries the same message embedded in newspeak: the Full S [...]

The Most Hypocritical Statement of 2015 awards have lots of strong contenders - but Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has made a dramatic late grasp for glory. He has condemned an attack on Idlib in north-west Syria believed to have been carried out by Russian planes, saying Syrian lands will not be part of "Russian imperialist goals." [...]

Beijing has said political dialogue is the only solution to the conflict in Ukraine, and not sanctions. On Monday, the European Union announced it was prolonging economic sanctions against Russia for another six months, for what it called Moscow’s noncompliance with the terms of a ceasefire agreed in Minsk, Belarus. [...]