Russian reports forced the American navy to release a video of Russian planes flying close to the USS Ross in the Black Sea in order to prove it was only a “routine encounter.” Russia previously claimed America acts “aggressively” in the Black Sea and told world officials they can plant nukes anywhere in their territory, including Crimea.
The world and those in Odesa Oblast in Ukraine are still in shock that President Petro Poroshenko appointed ex-Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, a vocal critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, as governor of the region.
According to the Yemeni government-in-exile, United States diplomats are in discussions with Yemen’s Houthis, a Shiite rebel group which seized control of the Gulf country earlier this year.
How will history judge Obama? Who cares? It’s how the present is judging him that should scare us out of wits. It’s also hard to avoid noticing that his prospective Democrat successors aren’t exactly treating him as a model President whose policies they intend to emulate.
With one month left for talks, news has emerged that the P5+1–six powers negotiating with Iran (Russia, China, France, Britain, Germany and the U.S.)–have reached a deal on “snap-back” Iran sanctions–i.e. sanctions that would be removed as part of a nuclear deal but which would automatically be restored if Iran broke the agreement, due June 30. Reuters suggested that all that remained was for Iran to agree, and a major obstacle would be gone. Yet the snap-back “deal” has three fatal flaws.
Contents: Report: Russia may end support for Syria’s Bashar al-Assad; Russia searches for a plan for a post-Assad Syria; Greece faces new financial crisis with no solution in sight
Colonel Gulmurod Khalimov, trained by both Russian and American special forces to head up the elite OMON police force of Tajikistan, has defected to the Islamic State.
Contents: Russia using mobile crematoriums to continue pretense about Ukraine; Russia’s economic crisis may force withdrawal from Ukraine; US-China military tensions get rapidly inflamed over South China Sea
The FBI finally busted FIFA officials on corruption charges related to the World Cups scheduled for Russia and Qatar. Vladimir Putin, naturally, does not like this at all.
An article by Bloomberg’s Josh Rogin has triggered wide disparagement from Moscow, where officials implied all involved in the publication of a piece reporting that Russia was using mobile crematoriums to erase the presence of soldiers in east Ukraine needed mental help. A day later, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree that makes all Russian soldiers’s deaths a state secret, even in a time of peace.
(Reuters) Russia’s army is massing troops and hundreds of pieces of weaponry including mobile rocket launchers, tanks and artillery at a makeshift base near the border with Ukraine, a Reuters reporter saw this week.
The IRS had been warned of vulnerabilities in their computer system long before the taxing agency admitted this week that it had been hacked and may have lost the data of up to 100,000 American taxpayers.
IRS investigators believe the identity thieves who stole the personal tax information of more than 100,000 taxpayers from an IRS website are part of a sophisticated criminal operation based in Russia, two officials told the Associated Press.
According to reports from Russia’s public spending watchdog agency, Roscosmos, NASA’s Russian counterpart, is experiencing a wave of corruption, resulting in about $1.8 billion worth of financial violations.
NATO and European countries started a two week Arctic training exercise program as tensions with Russians continue to grow. Russian President Vladimir Putin retaliated with an order for a mass surprise drill.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s dream of uniting the self-declared separatist republics in eastern Ukraine under the banner of Novorossiya, or New Russia, was put on hold indefinitely last week as Moscow moved to abide by the terms of February’s cease-fire deal.
Contents: ISIS claims responsibility for major terrorist attack in Saudi Arabia; As ISIS grows, Saudis face conflict between stability and reforms
After an “embarrassing” episode in which a European crowd protested Vladimir Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine by booing Russia’s 2014 entry to the Eurovision Song Contest, event organizers have installed “sound reducers” designed to remove booing from the broadcast when Russian contestant Polina Gagarina takes the stage on Saturday.
MOSCOW (AP) — The groom is approaching 50, a silver-haired boss in the Chechen strongman’s feared police force. The bride is 17, a shy beauty reportedly devastated at the idea of wedding a man nearly three times her age.
The Kremlin will stop at nothing to fully control all forms of media in Russia. The latest step included threats to Google, Facebook, and Twitter from Russia’s media watchdog Roskomnadzor.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko spoke with the BBC about his country’s crisis with Russia. He claimed the country is in a “real war” with Russia and must prepare for a Russian offensive.
United Nations (United States) (AFP) – The United Nations and the United States condemned a mortar attack on the Russian embassy in Damascus that did not, however, cause any known injuries. Lithuanian Ambassador Raimonda Murmokaite, whose country holds the rotating
Contents: Iranian, American, Saudi military head for confrontation off Yemen; In repeat of Mosul disaster, Iraqi army abandoned US weapons in Ramadi; Report: Saudi Arabia seeking nuclear weapons from Pakistan
REUTERS– A visit to Moscow by U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland is a sign that relations between Russia and the United States may be improving, the Kremlin said on Monday. Nuland’s trip comes days after U.S. Secretary of State John
Russian President Vladimir Putin once lectured America about exceptionalism, but he cannot stop himself from showing off his exceptional athletic abilities. This time, Putin managed to score eight goals in a hockey game.
