Arms producer Kalashnikov and oil giant Rosneft are among Russian companies hit by a new round of EU sanctions, which have come into effect Friday morning upon being published in the EU Official Journal. The sanctions target the finance, energy and defense sectors. The union has restricted three Russian energy companies from raising long-term debt on European capital markets – Rosneft, Transn [...]

A highly-placed Defense Ministry official says that Russia may be forced to match the US Conventional Prompt Global Strike (CPGS) doctrine, which prescribes that a non-nuclear US missile must be able to hit any target on Earth within one hour. “Russia is capable of and will have to develop a similar system,” Deputy Defense Minister Yuri Borisov said during a public discussion of the Russian [...]

Moscow will take “appropriate measures” in response to possible new sanctions from the European Union, the Russian Foreign Ministry's spokesperson said. “On many levels, the Russian leadership has made it clear that we’ll take adequate measures and our response will be absolutely comparable with the actions by the EU,” the Foreign Ministry spokesman said at briefing in Moscow. [...]

Exclusive: More than seven weeks after Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crashed in eastern Ukraine killing 298 people, a preliminary report failed to address the mystery of who shot the plane down. The Dutch investigators didn’t even try to sort through conflicting allegations and evidence, writes Robert Parry. Beyond confirming that Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 apparently was shot down on July 17, [...]

From 1618 to 1648 Europe was torn apart by a devastating and ruthless war. It was waged with fanaticism nourished by religious extremism absolving soldiers from atrocities because it was God’s will and done in God’s name. Out of this debacle came the Westphalian system giving rise to the nation-state. Fundamentally the conflict was about who should have the right to define ethics, norms, va [...]

The European Commission has suspended its aid to European farmers hit by the Russian import ban. The amount of submitted claims for some products is several times higher than EU’s annual trade with Russia, with some sources blaming Poland for the exaggerations. [...]

A"truly" international investigation of the Malaysia Airlines MH17 crash in eastern Ukraine is required, Russia's UN envoy, Vitaly Churkin, said, adding that there are too many blank spots in the newly released Dutch report on the tragedy. The document, released by the Dutch Safety Board (DSB) on Tuesday, said that the Malaysian Boeing-777 crash was the result of structural damage caused by a l [...]

The American fast-food giant witnessed a sharp decline in global profits in August, hit by the closure of its restaurants across Russia and a "rotten meat" scandal in China. McDonald’s earnings slid with stores open at least 13 months taking a worse-than-expected hit in August, falling 3.7 percent, the Oak Brook, Illinois-based hamburger chain said in astatementon Wednesday. This is the bigge [...]

The Russian president is starting his visit to Tajikistan to take part in a major SCO summit, discussing ways to boost cooperation and also the political bloc's policies regarding the ongoing crisis in Ukraine. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization unites Russia, China and ex-Soviet republics of Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, all of which are Russia’s allies in trade, poli [...]

Ukraine's state-controlled gas transit company says Poland cut off reverse flows to Ukraine, alleging that a quarter of Russian gas imports to Poland went missing. Gazprom said it continues to supply the same amount of gas as previously. Uktransgaz CEO Igor Prokopiv accused Russia of reducing supplies to "disrupt reverse deliveries" from Poland. [...]

Russia is not going to get involved in a new arms race, President Vladimir Putin said as he ordered his government to work out “balanced and realistic” defense strategy for 2016 through 2025. “Someone really wants to unleash a new arms race,” Russia’s president said at a meeting with senior defense industry officials. “We, of course, are not going to be involved in this race.” [...]

The fragile cease-fire in Ukraine appears to be holding, but President Vladimir Putin still has the upper hand. Increasingly, it looks like he intends to establish a Russian protectorate in eastern Ukraine. In the morning, when he drives from his apartment across from the German Embassy to his office in the Kiev city hall, everything seems normal. Outdoor cafés are humming with activity and [...]

Both Moscow and Kiev have similar thoughts on the resolution of the Ukraine crisis, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko revealed in an interview with Russian media following the talks between Russian and Ukraine authorities in Minsk. On August 26, Presidents Putin and Poroshenko shook hands in Minsk, paving way for the contact group on the crisis in Ukraine to start work. On Friday, the B [...]

As the ceasefire in Ukraine gets off to a shaky start, the only way to rebuild the billions of dollars of damage in the nation's east is for the EU and Russia to work together, Lode Vanoust, former MP and deputy speaker of the Belgium parliament, told RT. First off, Kiev has now agreed to what appears to be a major concession, decentralization of power, which wasn’t even on the negotiating ta [...]

Marine Le Pen, the leader of France's far-right National Front party, says the EU is to blame for the crisis in Ukraine as it forced the situation where Kiev had to choose between East and West. Now that France is joining sanctions against Russia over the alleged direct interference in the political crisis in Ukraine and Paris is considering suspending the €1.2 billion deal of two Mistral hel [...]

Switzerland has reportedly decided it will not extradite National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden to the US if he comes to testify against the NSA's spying activities, Swiss media said. In the document, titled “What rules are to be followed if Edward Snowden is brought to Switzerland and then the United States makes an extradition request,” Switzerland’s Attorney General stat [...]

Dozens of people gathered in the harbor of Saint-Nazaire in western France on Sunday to protest against the French government's decision to suspend the delivery of a Mistral warship to Russia. Some two hundred protesters gathered by the docked Vladivostok – the first of two Mistral-class helicopter carrier ships – holding banners that read, "Hollande wants to kill Saint-Nazaire. [...]

Just two days after the President of Ukraine and Russia both expressed a desire to resolve the conflict in Ukraine peacefully, representatives from the two self-proclaimed republics in East Ukraine and Kiev’s government agreed to a ceasefire after meeting behind closed doors in Belarus. Interesting timing considering that on Wednesday, after his phone call with Poroshenko, President Putin p [...]

Six vessels fom the Russian North fleet have left their base in Severomorsk in the Barents Sea and set off for the New Siberian Islands, where a military base under reconstruction will start functioning later this year. “The major goal of the latest expedition of the North fleet ships to the Arctic is to deliver personnel, equipment and property of the North fleet’s tactical group, which st [...]