Inviting Montenegro to join the NATO alliance, the west has provoked Russia, because it needs Russia to resolve the conflict in Syria, Jan Oberg of the Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future Research told RT. On Wednesday NATO officially invited Montenegro to become an Alliance member. [...]

Russia could freeze the Turkish Stream gas pipeline project for several years in response to Turkey shooting down a Russian jet in Syria, Reuters reported on Wednesday citing sources from Gazprom. According to the sources no decision has been taken by Gazprom about changes to the project’s schedule, but the company was awaiting instructions from President Putin. [...]

A group of Eastern European countries has sent a letter to the European Commission calling to block the Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline from Russia to Germany bypassing Ukraine. They say it goes against the EU’s energy diversification and security policies. The countries against Gazprom’s deal with Berlin are headed by Slovakia and Poland who are believed to have initiated the campaign. They are [...]

Turkey’s leadership, including President Erdogan and his family, is involved in illegal oil trade with Islamic State militants, says the Russian Defense Ministry, stressing that Turkey is the final destination for oil smuggled from Syria and Iraq. The Russian Defense Ministry held a major briefing on new findings concerning IS funding in Moscow on Wednesday. [...]

A Russian warplane recently entered Israeli-controlled airspace from Syria, Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon told local media. The brief intrusion was resolved quietly, with Yaalon noting “we must not automatically react and shoot them down when an error occurs." "There was a slight intrusion a mile (1.6 kilometers) deep by a Russian plane from Syria into our airspace, but it was immedia [...]

The first time a NATO member has downed a Russian plane in a half-century. Turkey has shot down a Russia jet, and the two pilots were reportedly killed. What will be the fallout of this, coming at this sensitive time on the war on Syria? In this edition of the debate, we’ll discuss what possible motives Turkey would have by this act, and how this would impact the Vienna talks held over Syria [...]

In what is a prime example of twisted logic, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned Russia against using its ultra-modern S-400 air defense system to shoot down Turkish fighter jets if they violate Syrian airspace just days after Ankara brought down a Russian Su-24 bomber. Downing a Turkish warplane over Syrian territory would qualify as aggression, Erdogan told CNN in response to a question on [...]

While Britain's Prince Charles has recently blamed the Syrian crisis on global climate change, the ongoing strife prompts many questions; what lies at the root of the Syrian war and what information was contained in secret dossiers which Putin handed Western leaders at the G20, political analyst Phil Butler asks. [...]

Turkey playing dirty in Syria is no secret. The true goal Ankara is pursuing in Syria is becoming a regional power and the country that rules the Sunni Muslim world, journalist Riccardo Peliliccetti wrote for his article in Il Giornale. Over the course of his 20 years of ruling Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan has Islamized the country and launched a policy of expansionism. [...]

President Barack Obama – always sensitive to neocon criticism that he’s “weak” – continues to edge the world closer to a nuclear confrontation with Russia as he talks tough and tolerates more provocations against Moscow, now including Turkey’s intentional shoot-down of a Russian warplane along the Turkish-Syrian border. [...]

Paris spoke harshly about the downing of a Russian Su-24 warplane by Turkey during the discussions at a NATO Council meeting on November 24, a diplomatic source said Friday. ATHENS — Following the incident, NATO expressed solidarity with Turkey and offered support for Ankara saying that the Alliance's assessments of the incident were consistent with information provided by the country, which [...]

The NATO aggression against Russia, which was expressed in the form of an attack on the Russian Su-24 bomber, could not occur without the approval of the alliance’s senior management, noted Christopher Black, an international criminal lawyer based in Toronto. “The murder of one of the pilots, shot by ISIS [ISIL] terrorists while parachuting to the ground, is a war crime for which Turkey and [...]

Turkey has shown its hand by destroying the Russian warplane over Syria and followed through on its previous threats to Russia. We must now regard Turkey as a hostile state that supports terrorism. As has been widely reported, on November 24, Turkey – an EU aspirant NATO member – shot down a Russian warplane on legitimate Syrian duties. [...]

It all started with French President Francois Hollande, after the Paris attacks, having the temerity to advance the idea of France working together with Russia in the same coalition against ISIS/ISIL/Daesh in Syria. Turkish President Recep Tayyip “no excuse” Erdogan thought NATO and Russia by this time would be at each other’s – Cold War 2.0 – nuclear throats, while Washington had bru [...]

NATO member state Turkey seems strangely committed to keeping Islamic State going strong in Syria, thus willing to take dangerous risks in confronting Russia in the region. Hopefully cooler heads will prevail, a group of experts told RT. “I don’t think the Turkish government would have undertaken such an action against a military superpower like Russia without the consent of the US. It’s [...]

Turkey's downing of a Russian Su-24 over Syria has prompted geopolitics experts to explore Russia's options for how to respond, and to make predictions on how the incident will affect the political career of President Recep Erdogan. According to Expert.ru analyst Gevorg Mirzayan, things don't look so good [...]

A Russian Su-24M tactical bomber was brought down over Syria by a Turkish Air Force fighter jet on Tuesday. Moscow and Ankara have put forward conflicting versions of what happened, and the circumstances of the crash remain under investigation. This is what is known so far. “Today at 9:30 the Russian aircraft, which performed combat counterterrorist missions was shot down by an aircraft of th [...]

Germany's foreign ministry said that it considers the blackout of Crimea by extremist groups a criminal act. The blackout in Russia's Crimea peninsula is a criminal act that must be investigated, a German Foreign Ministry spokesman said Monday. The Crimean blackout began on Sunday, after Ukrainian extremist groups blew up power line pylons on the Ukrainian side of the border. [...]

Ankara says the Russian Su-24 frontline bomber was downed after it violated Turkish airspace for 17 seconds. Russian military says the jet never entered Turkish territory and the F-16 fighter itself breached Syrian airspace. The Russian Su-24M tactical bomber performing a combat sortie over the territory of Syria in the vicinity of the Turkish border was brought down by a Turkish Air Force figh [...]

Turkey’s shooting down of a Russian jet shows the utter desperation currently sweeping through the regime change camp as Russia closes in on the death squads in Syria. At 9:30am, a Russian SU-24 jet was shot down by a Turkish fighter plane. The pilots were then allegedly killed by Syrian Turkmen anti-government militias, with the body of one being paraded on camera in a video that was immedia [...]

With today's shooting down of a Russian SU24 by Turkey, the war in Syria just took a new twist - and one that sends a powerful message to the UK as it contemplates joining in bombing raids on Islamic State militants. And for those who are hard of hearing, that message is: 'keep well out!' Up until now, the war in Syria has looked complicated. On the one side the Syrian state led by President Basha [...]

Offering a dramatic window into the fractious and complex geopolitics that are now swirling around the war against the Islamic State inside Syria and Iraq, the downing of a Russian warplane by Turkey on Tuesday was also followed by the release of footage showing a Russian military helicopter being destroyed by Syrian rebel forces armed with U.S.-supplied anti-tank missiles. [...]