MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Iran is seeking to extend or renew a $1 billion oil deal with the Swiss giant Vitol Group ahead of the promised return in November of crippling US sanctions, media reported. The US administration in May withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, which eased sanctions on the Islamic Republic. [...]

GENEVA (Sputnik) - Refusal to provide accreditation to certain diplomats to fill a vacant position in diplomatic missions is common practice, fueling a diplomatic scandal is senseless, Russian Ambassador to Switzerland Sergei Garmonin told Sputnik. [...]

Head of the German domestic intelligence agency Hans-Georg Maassen previously faced harsh criticism after he expressed doubts over the authenticity of the footage showing alleged attacks by right-wing activists on migrants in Chemnitz. [...]

Volkswagen-owned premium brand Audi has unveiled the E-Tron, a battery-powered crossover, which is just about to hit dealerships, making the market of electric vehicles rather more choiceful for eco-friendly enthusiasts. E-tron, Audi’s first electric sport-utility vehicle (SUV), debuted in San Francisco on Monday night. [...]

The Russian military says an Israeli raid on Syria triggered a chain of events that led to its Il-20 plane being shot down by a Syrian S-200 surface-to-air missile. Moscow reserves the right to respond accordingly. On Monday evening, four Israeli F-16 fighter jets attacked targets in Syria’s Latakia after approaching from the Mediterranean, a statement by the Russian Defense Ministry said on Tue [...]

Change is coming, Charles Ortel, a Wall Street analyst, told Sputnik, commenting on the growing discontent with Brussels policies among Europeans and the increasing popularity of nationalist conservative parties. According to the analyst, the EU's swollen bureaucratic apparatus remains a stumbling block in the way of Europe's development. [...]

Countries around the globe are trying to find ways of substituting the US dollar in trade, according to Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov. “All of a sudden, the country which issues the US dollar starts making steps which are shattering trust in this reserve currency. [...]

South Korean President Moon Jae-in has landed in Pyongyang for the historic summit with Kim Jong-un as part of the ongoing reconciliation process and talks on denuclearization of the peninsula.  President Moon and his wife Kim Jung-sook were welcomed by the North Korean leader, and Kim's sister, Yo-jong, as well as hundreds of locals for a three-day trip to Pyongyang that began on Tuesday morning [...]

India has cleared the way for its biggest deal yet with Russia, with Delhi reportedly set to sign a deal to purchase $2.2 billion worth of Russian ships. It comes despite US sanctions aimed at deterring business with Moscow.  After revitalizing defense ties with the US earlier this month, India has now turned to Russia to acquire four new warships for its Navy, sources quoted by the Economic Time [...]

The serial numbers found on debris of the Buk missile which downed Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine show it was produced in 1986, the Russian military said. The projectile was owned by Ukraine, they added. There are two serial numbers found on fragments of the missile, which shot down the passenger airliner in June 2014 according to an international team of investigators led by [...]

A Russian military Il-20 aircraft with 14 service members on board went off the radars during an attack by four Israeli jets on Syria’s Latakia province, the Russian Defense Ministry said. [...]

With Al-Qaeda’s last major foothold in Syria now under threat, the US has suddenly become deeply concerned about civilians that could be caught in the crossfire – even as the US military loosens its own rules of engagement. [...]

A French anti-globalist group has covered the walls of the country's most prominent banks with black soap, lightning orange smoke bombs, and green slime to decry the "toxic" finance industry.Hundreds of activists from Attac France staged a series of protests across the country on Saturday to mark the anniversary of the global financial crisis, which was triggered by the bankruptcy of Wall Street t [...]

A US military high-altitude Global Hawk drone has reportedly been spotted flying an hours-long spy mission over eastern Ukraine and off the shore of Crimea along with another American surveillance plane. [...]

The proposed US sanctions targeting Russian bonds, OFZs, will likely hurt not only Moscow, but also numerous holders of such bonds in the West, an analyst has said. The measure was proposed by a group of US senators lead by Republican Lindsey Graham. [...]

In an unprecedented traverse of Russia’s Northern Sea Route, a heavy 3,600-container ship is taking advantage of rising summer temperatures and melting ice in the polar regions of the Arctic Ocean to cut two weeks off its delivery time from South Korea to St. Petersburg, Russia. [...]

Russia, Turkey and Iran need to team up in the face of the pressure exerted on them by Washington, Iranian analysts told Sputnik, commenting on the September trilateral meeting in Tehran. According to them, Moscow, Tehran and Ankara could work out a joint strategy to resist the US sanctions policy. [...]

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Iranian Central Bank Governor Abdolnaser Hemmati has discussed a possible replacement of the US dollar by national currencies in trade transactions with Turkish and Russian representatives at the recent trilateral summit of the Syrian ceasefire guarantor states, local media reported. [...]

The book says the Trump administration was seriously concerned about the possibility of Hezbollah dragging the US into a “catastrophic” Middle East war. The recently-published book entitled "Fear: Trump in the White House" says that in February 2017, early in the Trump administration, top US officials were seriously worried that Israel could not defend itself against a possible attack from Hez [...]

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - More than 90 percent of economists believe tariffs will have a negative effect on the US economy, a poll conducted by the National Association for Business Economics (NABE) showed on Monday. [...]

The Northern Sea Route, which lies in Arctic waters and within Russia’s Exclusive Economic Zone, should be a transport corridor open to the entire world community, Admiral Paul Zukunft, Commandant of the US Coast Guard, said. Zukunft told journalists that the US Armed Forces still do not intend to conduct operations in the Arctic to uphold the principle of freedom of navigation, as is done in th [...]

The latest technical glitch has delivered additional setbacks to the Pentagon's most prized fifth-generation fighter jet. Military experts have been left scratching their helmets trying to figure out a viable solution to the problem, but options remain limited. [...]