The 12th annual Valdai Discussion Club meeting in Russia's Sochi has focused on international armed conflicts. Russian President Vladimir Putin is taking part in its final plenary session devoted to the crisis in the Middle East. Russian President Vladimir Putin says a number of "mistakes" committed by the US, Russia and NATO following the break-up of the Soviet Union has led to the current det [...]

Russia has started supplying the southern Ukrainian city of Henichesk with natural gas at the request of local authorities amid severe frosts in the region, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak said Monday. According to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, Henichesk Mayor Alexander Tulupov, in view of cold weather conditions in the region, has addressed the Russian side with a request to supp [...]

Last week, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban met for six hours with Polish political patriarch Jaroslaw Kaczynski at Niedzica Castle in southern Poland. With virtually no details available on the meeting, journalists were quick to speculate, some suggesting that the two political outsiders were hatching a conspiracy. In his analysis, recently published on the website of independent Russian [...]

The European Union follows the United States when it comes to foreign policy, and isn't using any pressure to make Ukraine implement the terms of the Minsk Agreements despite its claims, a political analyst told RIA Novosti. The European Union isn't using its influence on Kiev when it comes implementing the Minsk Agreement to resolve the conflict in the south-east of the country, the deputy dir [...]

Polish Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro lashed out against European Digital Economy & Society Commissioner Gunther Oettinger’s criticism of the recent changes to Poland’s legislation. Earlier, Oettinger had criticized a new law signed by Polish President Andrzej Duda that tightens government control over the media. [...]

The Ukrainian authorities' drive to further spoil relations with Russia is fraught with disastrous consequences for Kiev, according to Radio France International. Kiev's determination to continue to spoil ties with Moscow may have a "disastrous impact" on Ukraine in the end, Radio France International (RFI) reported. [...]

Russian combat aircraft carried out over 300 missions in Syria since the beginning of 2016, hitting about 1,100 terrorist targets in ten provinces, the Russian General Staff said Monday. "With the help of the Russian aviation the Syrian Democratic Forces under the command of Ayman Flyat al-Ganim continue the advance on the Daesh capital — Raqqa. They have taken control over al-Salhiya, Rdzhem [...]

In which John discusses the occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Southwestern Oregon by armed civilians, and what the history of this land can tell us about private and public property in the United States, and how land came to be owned in America. CORRECTION: Oregon's capital is Salem. I am a grapefruit. /* */ To learn more about the history of [...]

President Barack Obama took to the stage last week to announce the latest initiative in his crusade to make it more difficult for Americans to purchase firearms. He even shed some tears for American children killed in mass shootings. But there is a blatant hypocrisy in Obama’s position on domestic gun control given that he has bombed more countries during his time in office than any president [...]

Since the 1990s, politicians have cited the threat of North Korea to demand funding for missile defense programs that became examples of government waste. Republican politicians responded almost reflexively to the North Korean nuclear test on Tuesday by demanding more spending on missile defense programs that have historically proved ineffective at preventing an enemy strike — but are built by [...]

The U.S. military flew a B-52 bomber over South Korea on Sunday, in a Cold War-style show of force that was met with concern by human rights campaigners. American forces made the gesture amid climbing tensions following North Korea's widely-disputed claim that it detonated a hydrogen bomb test on Wednesday. [...]

Just weeks ahead of the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary, U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are neck-and-neck, polls released Sunday reveal. In New Hampshire, Sanders is backed by 50 percent—a four point lead over Clinton, who has 46 percent, according to surveys from NBC/The Wall Street Journal/Marist. [...]

The brittle insecurity of the Saudi rulers will have been shattered even more this past week, with Washington’s political establishment openly calling into question the historic alliance between the two countries. Saudi Arabia was denounced in the main editorial pages of both the New York Times and the Washington Post – the US’ two leading newspapers – for its “dangerous sectarian pol [...]

Step-by-step Russia, China and other emerging economies are taking measures to reduce their dependence on the US dollar, F. William Engdahl notes, referring to Russia's crude oil benchmark initiative; the move could deal a dramatic blow to the "petrodollar's" dominance. [...]

Terrorism has come to look very different from what confronted the West over a decade ago. Most ad hoc commissions come and go without a trace. Not so, the 9/11 Commission. Its final report became a national bestseller. Its findings served as the touchstone for explaining what happened on that dreadful day the terrorists went after New York City and Washington, D.C. Even more important, the rep [...]

Fed up with the ongoing conflict and seeing no light at the end of the tunnel, the people of Mali have started a petition asking Russian President Vladimir Putin to save their country from the ongoing crisis, the newspaper Actusen.com reported. "France isn't for peace in Mali," the committee that started the petition campaign believes, according to Actusen.com. [...]

America presents itself to the world as “the land of the free” but – for the vast majority – it is a place of enslaving indebtedness, a reality for much of “the 99%” that has deep historical roots hidden or “lost” from our history, as Jada Thacker explains. Since its center-stage debut during the Occupy Wall Street movement, “the 99%” – a term emblematic of extreme economi [...]

There was once a time – perhaps just a brief moment in time – when American journalists were cynical and responsible enough to resist being jerked around by U.S. government propaganda, but that time has long since passed if it ever existed, a reality that William Blum describes. Vulgar, crude, racist and ultra-sexist though he is, Donald Trump can still see how awful the American mainstream [...]

While the liberal media is working on damage limitation as the fairy dust on its childlike delusions is blown away by the harsh winds of reality in places like Cologne, it is time for European nations to ask themselves whether they believe in their own right to exist. Just because post-WWII European liberals have been culturally neutered doesn’t mean that the armies of young men pouring in fr [...]

With corruption rampant and living standards falling, Ukraine may become the next failed state that “benefited” from a neoconservative-driven “regime change,” though the blame will always be placed elsewhere – in this case, on the demonized Russian President Putin, writes Robert Parry. Nearly two years since U.S. officials helped foment a coup in Ukraine – partly justified by corrup [...]

The U.S. mainstream media excludes almost all reporting and analysis that challenges the neocon/liberal-interventionist “group think” about the supposed Russian threat, but once in awhile a backhand acknowledgement of reality slips through, as Gilbert Doctorow was surprised to find. [...]

A lot of Ukrainian citizens understand that the worst for their country is yet to come. The current government which is on the brink of collapse will not be able to reform the country's "rotten system", Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung wrote. It is unlikely that Ukraine will be able to come out from the current crisis. The government is stuck in internal squabbles, while the country is being run [...]