A number of pro-Western NGOs in Armenia perform various functions, including the support of political processes and even overseeing foreign elections. Now, as protests against an electricity rate hike drag on, these groups are getting a second look. Protesters, demanding the cancellation of a 17 percent electricity price hike that is set to take effect on August 1, have spent another night on t [...]

The political standoff between the West and Russia has put many through difficult times. Russia is living through a severe crisis, exacerbated by EU sanctions – but that’s as business in Europe also is in trouble, as the loss of a major partner has dealt a blow to prosperity. Can the European Union afford the confrontation, given the state some of its economies are in, and the dissent that [...]

We all remember how, in early June, President Putin announced that Russia would deploy more than 40 new ICBMs "able to overcome even the most technically advanced anti-missile defense systems." Oh dear; the Pentagon and their European minions have been freaking out on overdrive ever since. [...]

The most successful female presidential candidate in US history is making another White House bid. Dr. Jill Stein announced she would seek the Green Party nomination, joining sixteen other contenders in the 2016 presidential race so far. The third woman to join the campaign, Stein made the official announcement on Tuesday, at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. [...]

Left-wing German politician and former finance minister Oskar Lafontaine has some harsh language message for US on its politics concerning Russia and Ukraine. He has also called on the EU to oppose Washington. In a Facebook post which cannot be quoted fully quote due to strong language, Lafontaine, whose latest political post was co-chairman of the democratic socialist party The Left, called US [...]

Washington plans to station hardware, including tanks and armored vehicles, in a number of European countries, Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced on Tuesday. Nukes withdrawn in the 1980s will not return to Europe. Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Romania will be hosting the new hardware, and it will be possible to move it around for exercises, Carter said as he stood with h [...]

From Patriot Act to the USA Freedom Act, America's debate on government surveillance of citizens - thanks to Edward Snowden - has created some heat but hardly any light in American politics. NSA backers claim the new law is reform, but isn't it only a distinction without a difference? CrossTalking with Fred Fleitz, Ken O'Keefe, and Ivan Eland. [...]

The dialogue between Russia and the United States can only be equal and must not amount to lectures on democracy-building, says the Foreign Ministry's envoy for human rights. “If they want to lecture us on how we should build our democracy, I suggest they rather deliver such lectures in some US university,” Konstantin Dolgov told reporters on Tuesday. [...]

Winning the battlefield called public opinion has never been so important nor so divisive. The western media’s assault on Russia approaches sensory overload, but is it effective? There is a vast ongoing propaganda war being played out – whose propaganda should we be worried about? [...]

By slavishly following Washington's line on Russia, Europe's leaders are essentially sticking pins into voodoo dolls of themselves. It's as pointless as it is ridiculous. If America were hand-picking European leaders, it’s doubtful that they could select as subservient a crew as now dominate the EU. [...]

Russia has no binding obligations limiting its armed forces in its western region, which means if the US deploys heavy weapons in Eastern Europe and the Baltic States, there will be an equivalent response from Moscow, Russia's top general said. “If America’s heavy arms, be it tanks, artillery systems or other heavy military hardware are deployed to Eastern Europe and the Baltic States, it w [...]

The US-assembled coalition of the willing that – supposedly – is fighting ISIS/ISIL/Daesh across “Syraq” met in Paris this week. In theory, they’d examine what to do next after the loss of Ramadi in Iraq and Palmyra in Syria. The script, though, came straight from the Surrealist Manifesto. [...]

US President Barack Obama will urge EU leaders to keep sanctions in place against Russia at the G7 summit in Germany, US officials said. The US says it needs to "maintain the pressure" on Moscow. The G7 nations will meet in Bavaria, Germany for a two-day summit beginning Sunday. White House spokesman Josh Earnest said that the sanctions imposed on Russia will be on the agenda. [...]

It's unlikely that Snowden will ever be removed from the US wanted list, as he told the truth about the "bastion of freedom" that lectures other states while spying on its own citizens, said Matteo Bergamini, director of Shout Out UK. It’s been two years since the publications of the NSA documents by Edward Snowden. What is the biggest achievement that came out of the revelations? [...]

The US has created a loophole in the sanctions that it implemented against Russia to allow communications software to be sent to Crimea. Washington wants to increase its influence in the area, but critics say the move is a waste of money. A Commerce Department spokesperson, who asked not to be named, told Reuters, "The general license allows personal Internet-based communications – such as so [...]

The timing of the new tensions in Donbass, provoked by the Kiev forces, is connected with the upcoming EU summit, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. He added that Kiev has breached the Minsk deal and Moscow is waiting for the OSCE's reaction. "The violations are obvious and [Foreign] Minister [Sergey] Lavrov has already said that the representatives of the OSCE are to draw corresponding conc [...]

The US and its Western allies are well aware of all the ceasefire violations in eastern Ukraine but, deliberately turn a blind eye to Kiev's actions, hackers said after obtaining the emails of top Ukrainian official overseeing the truce. The anti-Kiev hacktivist group, CyberBerkut, claims to have hacked the emails of Major-General Andrey Taran, Chief of the Joint Centre for Ceasefire Control an [...]

The United States Senate on Tuesday will decide which direction to go next with regard to the USA Freedom Act, the supposed surveillance reform bill that already has passed the House and been endorsed by the president. According to its backers, passage of the Freedom Act would ensure that critical counterterrorism tools remain at the disposal of federal investigators but also rein in the Nation [...]

Victoria Nuland arrived in Moscow last weekend and declared that Ukraine's government doesn't intend to resume the civil war. Either Nuland was being mendacious or President Poroshenko is on a dangerous solo-run. It’s all gone Lethal Weapon. Not in the sense of munitions, although some of those are definitely in play, but rather the movie series. [...]

RT’s Anissa Naouai has launched a crowdfunding campaign urging viewers to send a symbolic message to the US State Department and Washington’s media empire, donating money to fight autism. The GoFundMe project was launched by the host of RT’s 'In the Now' program, Anissa Naouai, after the US Secretary of State asked for more money from the government for propaganda and “democracy promoti [...]

After it was revealed that Bill and Hillary Clinton have earned $30 million in the last 16 months, the House Oversight panel backed a measure that would limit taxpayer dollars on expenses incurred by ex-presidents earning more than $400,000 a year. The measure, passed by a voice vote, would set presidential pensions at $200,000 a year, with another $200,000 set aside for office space and other [...]

Two Senate Democrats have sponsored a bill demanding the White House reveal the terms of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) to the public at least two months before Congress could give President Obama fast-track authority. Joe Manchin of West Virginia joined Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts in proposing the two-page Trade Transparency Act, reports The Hill. If adopted, the bill would require [...]