Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has launched a blistering attack on Benjamin Netanyahu, calling his Israeli counterpart the “leader of a terrorist state” following the deadly shooting of protesters in Gaza. Erdogan made the comments at his party’s congress in southern Turkey. Addressing the event, the president slammed Netanyahu’s criticism of Turkey’s military operation in Syria. [...]

Fashion icon Vivienne Westwood sent a message of support on RT to her friend Julian Assange, whose Internet access was cut off by the Ecuadorian Embassy in the UK, calling him a “hero” and a “brilliant” man. Westwood hailed Julian Assange on RT after being asked why she decided to come to the Ecuadorian Embassy. Holding what appears to be a UK passport, Westwood said she wanted to make a s [...]

Vienna refused to expel Russian diplomats not because it feared reprisal, but because it stands for open dialogue, Austria’s foreign minister said, decrying the UK’s attempts to lure the country into taking “certain measures.” Austria refrained from expelling Russian diplomats earlier this week, in contrast to its EU neighbors, who chose to rely on the UK’s assertion that Russia was behi [...]

On Monday, a number of European countries, as well as the United States and Canada, announced they were expelling Russian diplomats over the Skripal case. Radio Sputnik discussed the significance of the diplomatic response by the Western powers with Srdja Trifkovic, a US journalist and writer on international affairs. [...]

Germany has issued a permit for the construction and operation of an offshore section of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of Germany in the Baltic Sea. “The BSH [Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency of Germany] issued the permit for this approximately 30-kilometres-long route section in accordance with the Federal Mining Act,” the company in charge of the pr [...]

Conservative columnist and author Ann Coulter late Tuesday accused President Trump of being an "ignoramus" who is "not giving us what he promised" during a stinging attack at Columbia University. The former pro-Trump writer lambasted the president over a perceived failure to deliver on key immigration promises in comments reported by The Daily Beast. [...]

Leaders of the two US military branches have warned that China is “weaponizing capital” - buying strategically valuable land from other countries to give themselves a military edge to “win without fighting.” During a House of Representatives Appropriations Defense Subcommittee hearing on Thursday, US Secretary of the Navy Richard V. Spencer told lawmakers that the issue of Chinese land [...]

Syrian forces continue to discover new evidence about the types of weapons, facilities, and tactics used by Islamist militants during their occupation of East Ghouta. The Syrian military found the Israeli-made weapons in the town of Harasta, about 10 kilometers from central Damascus, according to a Press TV report citing Syrian state television. [...]

Russia's Kalashnikov Concern, which is known throughout the world for its production of reliable AK assault rifles, has reportedly decided to foray into fresh fields. The Russian defense manufacturing concern Kalashnikov has agreed with State Corporation Rostec to acquire 60 percent of the shares of the Molniya research and production association, which developed the first-ever Soviet space [...]

This week, in an article published on the UK government's official website addressed to European media, Johnson wrote about the upcoming fourth anniversary of what he referred to as "the events which led to the illegal annexation of Crimea." Responding to British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson's recent article about Moscow's "seizure" of Crimea from Ukraine, the Russian Embassy in London h [...]

A former head of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons has dismissed claims that Russia was behind the Salisbury chemical attack. The expert added that Iran was most recently known to have Novichok – not Russia. While the US, Europe and other nations have taken part in a mass expulsion of Russian diplomats following the UK’s claims that the Kremlin is ‘culpable’ for the [...]

The Western response to the Salisbury poison attack on ex-Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal is clear, but not unanimous. Austria, alongside some other European countries, has refused to expel Russian diplomats, though Vienna expressed "unqualified solidarity with the UK." The British ambassador to Austria repeatedly expressed a demarche to Vienna because of the Austrian side's refusal to [...]

Nearly two dozen countries have joined the UK in expelling Russian diplomats over the poisoning of ex--spy Sergei Skripal in southern England. Speaking to Sputnik, Daniel McAdams, executive director of the Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity, shared his thoughts on the broader implications of the case, and what Russia's approach should be. [...]

The US military has admitted that the United States is lagging behind Russia and China when it comes to hypersonic weapons development, according to The Hill. "Right now we are helpless," Republican US Senator James Inhofe, who sits on the Armed Services Committee, was quoted by The Hill as saying. [...]

The UK Foreign Office has confirmed the content of the reported document with London's "proof" of alleged Russian involvement in the poisoning of Skripal, saying that it fully reflects May's position. According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, the analysis of the Skripals' case "shows that the UK authorities are not interested in finding out the motives and those responsible for the crime in Salis [...]

Rushed to completion by war hawks, the newly-released US national security strategy “drastically reverses” President Donald Trump’s campaign promises on Russia, Syria and NATO, Virginia state Senator Richard Black believes. The strategy, published on Monday, is the first ever to be issued during an administration’s initial year in office. [...]

It didn’t take much effort for the US and UK to make the EU fall in line in the Skripal case, Virginia State Senator Richard Black told RT. The bloc is a “soft dictatorship” in which only key players need to be swayed, he said. The White House’s claims that it played a key role in making European countries act in unison when punishing Russia with expulsions over the Skripal saga might not [...]

The opposition Alternative for Germany (AfD) party criticized Chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision to expel Russian diplomats without obtaining firm proof of Russian involvement in the Skripal poisoning first. The opposition party rebuked Merkel's government for its decision to expel Russian diplomats over Russia's alleged involvement in the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in S [...]

Scores of non-Western countries refuse to take the UK’s assertion that Russia was behind the incident in Salisbury at face value, demanding it present the evidence, Moscow’s embassy in London said. Some 160 states share that view. [...]

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - Russia must take responsibility for the alleged poisoning of Sergei Skripal in the UK if it wants to improve relations with the United States, US State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert said during a press briefing on Tuesday. "If Russia wants to improve relations it needs to first acknowledge its responsibility for this attack and cease its recklessly aggressive be [...]

The UN declined to comment on the legality of Washington’s move to expel 12 Russian staff working there, saying only that it had been “notified.” The US envoy to Russia hinted they hadn’t even sent notification in advance.  Speaking to reporters, the UN spokesman declined to comment on the US move to expel 12 Russian diplomats from the permanent mission to the UN, citing the “sensitivi [...]

China is the world's biggest crude consumer and buys most of its oil from Russia. However, most settlements are still in US dollars. The launch of the petro-yuan now allows Moscow and Beijing to use national currencies instead. China and Russia are actively reducing dependence on the dollar in bilateral trade. In October 2017, Beijing launched a payment system for transactions in yuan and Russian [...]