The US Treasury Department designated a Russian maritime company, three Sovfracht directors and five vessels for an alleged scheme to evade sanctions to facilitate the delivery of jet fuel to Russian forces in Syria. [...]

PATRIOT PARK, Russia (Sputnik) - Russia is ready to deliver S-400 air defence systems to Iran, but it has not received a relevant request from Iran yet, the press service of the Russian Federal Service of Military-Technical Cooperation told Sputnik on Friday. [...]

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russia does not rule out discussing with Iran deliveries of air defence assets and radio-electronic equipment to the country, as well as the creation of an integrated system of Persian Gulf security, Federal Service of Military-Technical Cooperation Director Dmitry Shugayev said. [...]

The Saudi oil facility was reportedly protected by two Patriot systems, but despite that, it was crippled in a combined missile-drone attack on 14 September. A source in the Russian Defence Ministry linked their failure to the system's "low efficiency". [...]

Previously, a source in the Russian Defence Ministry expressed an opinion that American Patriot systems, which were protecting the oil refineries, failed to do their job due to their low efficiency against drone swarm attacks. [...]

Testing started earlier this year, the 20+ tonne flying wing design, thought to be capable of carrying up to 2.8 tonnes of precision armament, has been dubbed the Hunter (‘Okhotnik’). The Russian Ministry of Defence has released footage of the first flight of the Sukhoi S-70 Okhotnik drone, showing the unmanned aerial vehicle taking off from a test airfield and conducting a 20 minute flight at [...]

The United States kicked Turkey off its F-35 program after Ankara opted to buy the Russian S-400 air defense system. Experts believe that Turkey may now look to buy its military aircraft from Russia. The Speaker of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, Mustafa Şentop, said earlier this week that Turkey may buy Su-35 and Su-57 fighter jets on favorable terms after the US kicked it off its F-35 st [...]

Mikhail Galperin, Russia's deputy justice minister and representative in the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), and UK lawyer Michael Swainston have been added to the database of the notorious website that lists Ukraine’s public enemies, but the court has nothing to say about it. [...]

The president went on the offensive against Beijing at the General Assembly on Tuesday, saying he wouldn’t accept a “bad deal” on trade, and accusing China of using “massive market barriers, heavy state subsidies, currency manipulation,” and other malign tactics, while urging the country to “honour” its commitment to “protect Hong Kong’s freedom.” [...]

Last week, the Trump administration imposed new economic sanctions against Iran, targeting its central bank and its sovereign wealth fund. The head of Iran’s Central Bank Abdolnaser Hemmati said Wednesday that Iran and Russia have turned to bilateral trade in national currencies as both countries fall under US sanctions. [...]

The UK government has ruled out a peaceful intervention to save historic travel agent Thomas Cook, and 9,000 jobs, but has declined to rule out (a far more expensive) military intervention in the Gulf. [...]

Now that US military aid to Kiev has been weaponized in the rapidly heating civil war in Washington itself, it would be the perfect time to confront the fact that US meddling was primarily responsible for the chaos in Ukraine. [...]

The Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Nitze, armed with surface-to-air and Tomahawk cruise missiles, was redeployed off the northeast coast of Saudi Arabia, as part of the US effort to “plug the holes” in its ally’s air defenses. [...]

Chinese trade negotiators suddenly changed their plans on Friday, cancelling a visit to meet US farmers after they wrapped up trade talks in Washington this week. The Chinese delegation has changed its travel schedule heading back to China earlier than planned, according to Nicole Rolf, the Montana Farm Bureau Federation’s director of national affairs. [...]

Facebook has invoked its free speech right as a publisher, insisting its ability to smear users as extremists is protected, but its legal immunity thus far has rested on a law which protects platforms, not publishers. Which is it? Facebook has declared it has the right, as a publisher, to exercise its own free speech and bar conservative political performance artist Laura Loomer from its platform. [...]

An explosive essay calling out the lack of legitimate expertise about Iran ought to be a wake-up call for the US foreign policy field. Yet the same problem also affects Washington’s analysis of Russia, China and many other places. Imagine a field of study in which less than a third of the experts had related doctorates, half of them could not read, speak or write the language required, and just [...]

A Venezuelan official has published photos that he says are further proof of ties between the country’s self-proclaimed ‘interim president’ Juan Guaido and a drug cartel member, who allegedly helped him sneak into Colombia. In January, Guaido declared himself the rightful head of state in Venezuela and has since made several failed attempts to actually seize power in the Latin American natio [...]

American opponents of readmitting Moscow to the former G8 fail to understand the consequences. Two years ago, I asked, “Will Russia Leave the West?” The world’s largest territorial country—sprawling from its major European city St. Petersburg to its vast Far Eastern territories and long border with China—Russia cannot, of course, depart the West geographically. [...]

Democratic presidential hopeful Tulsi Gabbard has doubled down on her attacks on President Donald Trump’s ‘disgraceful’ allegiance to Saudi Arabia, eviscerating his ‘betrayal’ of her fellow soldiers and the US Constitution. [...]

Benny Gantz, whose centrist bloc narrowly defeated Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party in a snap election, says he is forming a government that will exclude the current prime minister – signaling the end of Bibi’s era may be near. [...]

The US and Saudis are so intent on pointing the finger at Iran for the oil facility strikes because admitting the Houthis could hurt the kingdom so badly after five years of war in Yemen means facing the war’s complete failure, an expert told Sputnik. However, if they do attack Iran, Foreign Minister Javad Zarif has promised it’ll be “all-out war.” [...]

The US and Israel are discussing a mutual defense treaty that would further cement the already “tremendous” alliance between the two countries, President Donald Trump has revealed. [...]