Maria Zakharova

Moscow has slammed suggestions that the West should send fighter jets to Ukraine, labelling the idea that such a transfer of weapons might not escalate tensions “absurd”.

Ukrainians are posing in front of a giant mocked-up commemorative stamp showing Russia’s bridge to Crimea on fire after it was damaged on Saturday morning.  

The former head of the German Federal Intelligence Service claims Russia stood “to gain the most” from sabotaging Russian gas pipelines to Germany bypassing Ukraine and Poland.

The Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI) has warned about the vulnerability of the Nord Stream pipeline to attack for well over a decade.

The Kremlin is hailing the downfall of Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who said he wanted to “lead the West” against Russia in February.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has toured the town of Bucha, near Kyiv (Kiev), where retreating Russian forces are alleged to have left murdered civilians in their wake.

On the one-month anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, the Kremlin has claimed that everything is going “according to plan”.

Russia has mocked Britain’s Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary for appearing to suggest the Baltic States are located on the Black Sea, suggesting the world needs to be saved from “the stupidity and ignorance of Anglo-Saxon politicians” 

The spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry said Sunday that Pope Francis mention of the Mediterranean Sea as a migrant “graveyard” cannot be construed to refer to Russia.

Social media platform Twitter announced on Tuesday it has banned 373 accounts linked to the governments of Russia, Iran, and Armenia for violating various policies and “undermining faith in the NATO alliance and its stability.”

This is a breathtakingly dumb take, the kind of thing you expect to hear on CNN, a dumbing down — not only of history, but of logic — that takes your breath away.

Early word has been mixed on the meeting between Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Sochi, Russia, on Tuesday, but the Russians took a moment to thank Pompeo for trying to restore relations between the two countries and mocked his predecessor Hillary Clinton.

The Russian Foreign Ministry on Tuesday attacked the United States for “meddling” in Venezuela and claimed it could “cause a collapse of the situation.” The Russians disputed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s claim that dictator Nicolas Maduro was prepared to flee Venezuela yesterday until the Russians talked him into staying.

Facebook announced on Tuesday that it has deleted some 270 accounts linked to the Internet Research Agency, an operation located in St. Petersburg, Russia that special counsel Robert Mueller’s office identified as part of Russia’s operation to disrupt the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Contents: Britain threatens Russia with retaliation over nerve gas poisoning of Skripal; Russia reacts with massive disinformation campaign; Skripal was attacked with Novichok, a military-grade nerve agent developed by Russia

The Moscow Times headlines its post “Russian Foreign Ministry Slams U.S. Over Iran Protests,” but the statement from spokeswoman Maria Zakharova is more of a sneer than a slam. Zakharova invoked Occupy Wall Street and the Ferguson riots to insinuate that America has no standing to criticize how the Iranian regime handles protests.

Contents: Israel’s warplanes strike weapons depot inside Syria near Damascus; Israeli analyst: A new war with Hezbollah might involve all of Lebanon

Contents: United States ends diplomatic talks with Russia over Syria; Russia accuses US of sabotaging ceasefire and ‘allying with terror’

Contents: Leaked John Kerry audio reveals bitter Obama administration disagreements; Concerns growing of a military showdown between US and Russia in Syria

Russia says that it acquiesced to a request from President Obama to help secure the release of Americans held in Syria, culminating in the freedom on Friday of an American freelance photographer abducted after he traveled to Syria in 2012.

Contents: Turkey will keep Syria border closed as Aleppo refugees mass; Europe sends mixed messages to Turkey about new flood of Syrian refugees; Syria, Iran and Russia ridicule Saudi Arabia’s army; Turkey confiscates parrots and parakeets on Syria border; North Korea launches long-range missile, violating Security Council resolution

Iran has accused its Russian ally of being divergent on its goals of keeping Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in power.