The $5 billion+ deal between Moscow and New Delhi for five regiments of Russia's cutting-edge air defense system got an added bonus this week after it was revealed that the contract will be paid for in rubles. Taking a look at the deal's details, Sputnik discovered that it's really a double blow to the US military-industrial complex. [...]

In pushing the SWIFT financial messaging system to exclude Iran, the US has “gone rogue,” economist Steve Keen told RT. SWIFT cut a raft of Iranian banks - including the country’s central bank - off from its system on Monday, having come under pressure from the US to do so. [...]

Last week's US midterm elections received saturated media coverage. Why? The reality is that elections in the US don't change much, if anything, because America has a regime and is not a genuine democracy. The US midterms – and you'd have to have been locked in a wardrobe all week to have avoided hearing about them – reminded me of a great song by the 1980s indie-rock band The Smiths. [...]

As if Donald Trump needed to give his haters more ammunition, the US President has now been accused of trampling on the memory of the US Marines killed in WWI after he canceled a memorial cemetery trip due to rain. [...]

French President Emmanuel Macron referred to nationalism as a “betrayal of patriotism” in pointed Armistice Day remarks that many consider to have been specifically directed at US President Donald Trump’s ‘America First’ policies, according to several reports. [...]

September 11 attacks, series of airline hijackings and suicide attacks committed in 2001 by 19 militants associated with Islamic extremist group al-Qaeda against targets in the United States, the deadliest terrorist attacks on U.S. soil in U.S. history. Over 3,000 people died in the attacks and rescue efforts. Q anon -Trump secret message about payback for 911 Part 1 Q anon -Trump se [...]

The unusually frank quarterly report to Congress on the US's military operations against Daesh* in Syria and Iraq also hints that Washington has no exit strategy once the terrorists are defeated. [...]

“We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art, and very often in our art, the art of words.” When the outright fascist Jair Bolsonaro won the Brazilian presidency in October, it wasn’t just the poor, people of colour, LGBTQ, or indigenous peoples that [...]

It is estimated that over $5.2 billion will be spent on the US midterm elections and it’s no secret that hundreds of millions of those dollars are supplied by billionaire donors. This system is incompatible with real democracy. [...]

Allegations that Russia is still “attacking” US elections, now again in November, could delegitimize our democratic institutions. Summarizing one of the themes in his new book, ‘War with Russia? From Putin and Ukraine To Trump and Russiagate,’ Stephen F. Cohen argues that Russiagate allegations of Kremlin attempts to “undermine American democracy” may themselves erode confidence in tho [...]

European countries have vowed to maintain “effective financial channels” and to keep trading with Tehran after the US announced that the EU is not among those spared from its sweeping sanctions against Iran. [...]

The Open Skies Treaty covers most NATO member states as well as Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sweden and Finland. As a rule, flights of Russia and NATO member states are conducted on a reciprocal basis. The 2019 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) has revealed in August that the US would not obligate any funds to implement the Open Skies Treaty until penalties ar [...]

Political correctness takes down top interviewer Megyn Kelly, and she didn't even see it coming... because she did nothing wrong. The Kremlin went on record reporting its interest in offering NBC host Megyn Kelly a job working for the Russian media. Vladimir Putin’s press secretary, Dmitry Peskov mused about this situation, praising Mrs. Kelly for her interviewing skills but suggesting she might [...]

Utah state employees will get some relief from insane prescription drug prices, with their insurer’s offer to fund their travel costs to Mexico and to throw in $500 cash, because it's still cheaper than buying the drugs in the US. The unusual offer is being presented by PEHP, which insures 160,000 state employees and their family members. [...]

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed this week to reveal the “naked truth” about the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi; however, in fact, he didn't uncover anything extraordinary, but why? It is significant that the day before Erdogan’s much-hyped speech to Turkish parliamentarians, President Donald Trump dispatched his CIA chief to Turkey to “investigate” the evidence [...]

From the outside looking in, the situation in the US looks volatile. The actual violence and the potential for more has led some to suggest that if it was anywhere else, the State Department would be issuing travel warnings. The Pittsburgh synagogue shooting and bombs being mailed to opponents of President Donald Trump, they’re both terrible events, but they’re just the headlines of the last f [...]

US Republicans, their staffers and offices have seen at least eight attacks this year, the Daily Caller reported. Sputnik has discussed the reports of growing violence against politicians in the US with Daniel Kovalik, Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Pittsburgh. [...]

Just hours after a deadly synagogue shooting in Pennsylvania on Friday in which 11 were killed, US President Donald Trump offered a whopping lie to fans as a means of avoiding the cancellation of his evening political rally in Murphysboro, Illinois. In justifying a Saturday political rally only hours after the deadliest anti-Semitic tragedy in US history, Trump avowed to his audience that, followi [...]

Interviews with half a dozen current and former Trump officials and Republicans with ties to the White House revealed that at least six of US President Donald Trump’s cabinet officials may depart after next month’s midterm elections, Politico reported Sunday. Earlier this month, Trump announced that US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley would leave her post at the end of 2018. [...]

President Trump earlier expressed readiness to withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, accusing Russia of allegedly breaching it. Moscow has denied the accusations, with Russian President Vladimir Putin warning Washington against deploying US missiles in Europe and promising a "swift and effective response." [...]

Social media platform Gab, where the Pittsburgh synagogue shooter had a page, is about to lose its hosting provider. Gab is being widely accused of enabling the shooting. Joyent, Gab's hosting provider, sent it a warning message that because of an unspecified "breach of the Joyent Terms of Service," it will be pulling the plug on Gab on Monday morning. [...]

A backlash prompted Facebook to stop removing posts featuring a photo of an emaciated seven-year-old Yemeni girl, which accompanied a harrowing New York Times report from the war-torn country. The atrocities in Yemen don’t make poignant headlines in Western mainstream media as often as stories about chemical weapons in Syria or ‘Russian meddling,’ as the conflict usually gets sidelined in th [...]