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. [...]

We knew it was going to happen. James O’Keefe of Project Veritas recently caught the violent group on video during an undercover sting operation planning violence and chaos at the “Deploraball,” an event [...]

The prime minister promised "to move step by step towards signing of a peace treaty" with Russia. Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will pay a visit to Russia without delay for further progress in the issue of a peace treaty, he said at the opening of the national parliament's plenary session on Friday. [...]

Delanda est Cathargo ("Carthage must be destroyed") are words that come down to us from ancient history. It is said they were spoken by the famed Roman statesman and orator Cato the Elder at the end of his speeches. They remain relevant today in the case of Trump, Russia and a Washington establishment that is intent on destroying both. [...]

The US-based YouTube online video hosting service stated its request on sanctioned RT employees was not politically motivated, RT Head of Online Projects Kirill Karnovich-Valua said Thursday. Earlier in the day, the broadcaster said it had received a request from YouTube urging it to prove that its employees were not mentioned in the US anti-Russian individual sanctions lists. [...]

Speculation published by CNN that US President-elect Donald Trump and his running mate Mike Pence might be assassinated on Inauguration Day is highly irresponsible, former US government officials told Sputnik. [...]

The breakdown of relations with Russia is a key foreign policy blunder committed by the Obama administration and it will go down in history as such, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has said. In fact “US-Russia relations completely fell apart by the end of the second term of the Obama administration,” Medvedev said in a Facebook post. [...]

Former CIA chief James Woolsey, former CIA analyst Larry Johnson, and former MI5 officer Annie Machon spoke to RT about what the ODNI report on alleged Russian hacking reveals about the nature of their claims and the current state of the US intelligence. [...]

WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, has said he’ll stand by his promise to be extradited to the US following Chelsea Manning’s commutation, while promising a “big publishing year ahead.” In a press conference broadcast on Periscope on Thursday, Assange said he “stands by everything I said including the offer to go to the United States if Chelsea Manning's sentence was commuted.” [...]