Former Italian Prime Minister and European Commission ex-president Romano Prodi called on Europe to scrap immediately the anti-Russian sanctions, before US president Donald Trump does it first. [...]

Israel will not impose sanctions against Russia, even under US pressure, Israeli Ambassador to Moscow, Harry Koren said Tuesday. "There are no such plans… Israel is very sensitive to the issue of sanctions, because we are threatened every time with sanctions.   [...]

Lawyers for Edward Snowden have once again pushed for the whistleblower to be granted legal protection in the EU, saying that member states should "pay back" the American for uncovering the widespread surveillance practices of the US government. [...]

Post-Brexit government won't confirm or deny failed 2016 test of nuclear missile, which MPs did not know about when they voted to renew system. The confirmation comes after the British newspaper Sunday Times reported that the British government had covered up the failed launch, briefing Prime Minister Theresa May on the incident but keeping Parliament in the dark before ministers voted to renew [...]

Donald Trump ran for President on the slogan “Make America Great Again,” implying that America had been great once, but no longer is. True to form, Hillary Clinton’s rejoinder was clueless.  America is great now, she would insist every chance she got — indispensably great, “exceptional” even. [...]

Women in several cities have reported sex attacks committed during New Year's Eve celebrations, the Austrian press reports. The number female victims of sex attacks in the Austrian city of Innsbruck has risen to 19 after the parents of several teeenage girls reported the crimes to police, Austrian media reported on Tuesday. [...]

It seems so strange, twenty-seven years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, to be living through a new Cold War with (as it happens, capitalist) Russia. The Russian president is attacked by the U.S. political class and media as they never attacked Soviet leaders; he is personally vilified as a corrupt, venal dictator, who arrests or assassinates political opponents and dissident journalists, and [...]

Listen and you can hear the sneering “elite” liberal left narrative about how the big dumb white working class is about to get screwed over by the incoming multi-millionaire- and billionaire-laden Trump administration it voted into office.  Once those poor saps in the white working class wake up to their moronic mistake, the narrative suggests, they’ll come running back to their supposed fr [...]

Powerful elites are using the credibility of the US Intelligence agencies to demonize Russia and prepare the country for war. This is the real meaning of the “Russia hacking” story which, as yet, has not produced any hard evidence of Russian complicity. [...]

About 1,000 protesters participated on Saturday in a demonstration against NATO bases in the city of Vicenza, located in northeastern Italy. "The problem of the presence of NATO in Italy is a problem felt all around Italy. If you want to have an image of what NATO means in Europe, you have to think about Spartan troops in Athens in ancient times," the journalist told Sputnik. [...]

The Russian Aerospace Forces have conducted airstrikes in Syria based on intelligence provided by the US-led coalition, the Russian Defense Ministry reported. The Pentagon later denied that cooperation took place.   [...]

Six Russian long-range Tu-22M3 bombers launched airstrikes on Daesh arms and ammunition depots in Syria's Deir ez-Zor, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Tuesday.   [...]

“Trump or no Trump, Europe needs to build a defense system of its own,” the center-right presidential candidate, said in an interview with Le Monde. François Fillon wants to make Europe less dependent on the United States and favors the idea of a European-Russian conference to discuss new security provisions in Europe. [...]

Wealthy Americans are preparing for a possible US collapse or revolt by the poor and buying properties in New Zealand, The New Yorker magazine reported. According to writer Evan Osnos, preppers from Silicon Valley and New York are getting ready for the "crackup of civilization." [...]

Russia, Iran and Turkey have announced they will establish a trilateral mechanism to support the ceasefire in Syria. In a joint statement issued at the end of talks in Astana, they said the Syrian opposition should take part in Geneva peace talks on the issue. [...]

As Russian producers reap the rewards of import substitution, Austrian exporters are ruing the EU's decision to impose sanctions. Imposing sanctions against Russia was a mistake which has cost Europe as much as Russia, Vienna's former trade ambassador to Moscow Dietmar Fellner told Austria's Kurier newspaper. [...]

Assessing Barack Obama's legacy some US Twitter users labeled the outgoing politician "the worst president ever" and denounced his attempts to deepen the rift between the United States and Russia. The outgoing US President Barack Obama has taken a last-ditch effort to damage America's relations with Moscow by introducing anti-Russian sanctions over what the US mainstream media called "vote [...]

In a 16-minute speech, new American president Donald Trump claimed that the American people had been taken advantage of by both its leaders and foreign powers. He pledged to put an end to that and usher in a new era where the interests of the American people come first. [...]

Donald Trump has been sworn in as the 45th president of the United States. In his inaugural address, he has promised to give the government back to the people and put "only America first." "Today we are not merely transferring power from one administration to another, or from one party to another ‒ but we are transferring power from Washington, DC, to you the American people," Trump said in [...]

How will US-EU relations develop, and what changes could we expect as Donald Trump takes office? RT discussed with some European politicians. The EU’s relationship with Donald Trump will see “a huge shift,” says Beatrix von Storch MEP, deputy leader of the Alternative for Germany party. [...]

US President-elect Donald Trump has repeatedly stated that NATO is an obsolete organization since it is not much engaged in fighting terrorism and its members are not contributing enough. In an interview with Sputnik Germany, German politician Tobias Pflueger commented on Trump's statements and his position toward the military alliance. [...]

During US Vice President Joe Biden's recent visit to Kiev, Ukrainian leader Petro Poroshenko said his country is ready to cooperate with the new US administration. However, in general, there is a pessimistic sentiment among Ukrainian politicians regarding the new US President and his future politics, political expert Alexander Dudchak told Sputnik. [...]