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Russia finalises pullout from Cold War-era deal, blames US for its collapse

Russia on Tuesday finalised its pullout from a key Cold War-era security deal, more than eight years after announcing the intention to do so, the Foreign Ministry said. The development came after both houses of the Russian parliament approved a bill proposed by President Vladimir Putin denouncing the Treaty of Conventional Armed Forces in Europe. Putin signed it into force in May this year. The treaty aimed at preventing Cold War rivals from massing forces at or near mutual borders was signed in November 1990, but not fully ratified until two years later. It was one of several major Cold War-era treaties involving Russia and the United States that ceased to be in force in recent years. Russia suspended its participation in 2007, and in 2015 announced its intention to completely withdraw from the agreement. In February 2022, Moscow sent hundreds of thousands of Russian troops into the neighbouring Ukraine, which also shares a border with NATO members Poland, Slovakia, Romania and

US govt sanctions Russian national for helping elites launder money

Zhdanova also used virtual currency exchanges to help oligarchs who had relocated internationally, it said

At China's military forum, Russian minister accuses US of fueling tensions

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said Monday the United States is fuelling geopolitical tensions to uphold its hegemony and warned of the risk of confrontation between major countries. Speaking at a defence forum in Beijing, Shoigu also said the US and its Asia-Pacific allies are undermining stability in the region. To maintain its geopolitical and strategic dominance, the United States is deliberately undermining the basis of international security and strategic stability, Shoigu said, according to a simultaneous translation provided at the Xiangshan Forum, which China's biggest annual event centered on military diplomacy. He added that the US and its Western allies are threatening Russia through NATO's eastward expansion. Western countries aim to escalate the conflict with Russia and increase the risk of major country confrontation, he said. This will lead to serious consequences. Turning to Russia's war in Ukraine, Shoigu said Moscow was open to negotiations if conditions

UNSC rejects Russia's resolution on Gaza that fails to mention Hamas

The UN Security Council rejected a Russian resolution Monday night that condemned violence and terrorism against civilians but made no mention of Hamas, whose surprise attack that killed 1,300 Israelis was the worst Jewish massacre since the World War II Nazi Holocaust. Only four countries joined Russia in voting for the resolution China, United Arab Emirates, Mozambique and Gabon. Four countries voted against it the United States, Britain, France and Japan. The other six countries abstained. For a resolution to be adopted it needs a minimum of nine yes votes in the 15-member council. The UN's most powerful body, which is charged with maintaining international peace and security, has failed to respond to Hamas' October 7 attack on Israel that killed some 1,300 people and to Israel's retaliatory airstrikes that have killed 2,750 and its order to Gazans in the north to head south to avoid an expected ground war. Britain's UN ambassador, Barbara Woodward, said it would be ...

Putin blames US for Middle East crisis, advocates two-State solution

Putin also expressed concern about Washington's pressure on both sides, suggesting it was an attempt to impose "unilateral solutions" without considering the core interests of the Palestinian people

US expels two Russian diplomats, after two diplomats asked to leave Moscow

The Biden administration on Friday ordered two Russian diplomats expelled from the United States in retaliation for the expulsion of two US diplomats from Moscow last month. The State Department said it had taken the action in response to Russia declaring the two American diplomats persona non grata because of contacts with a Russian national who had once worked for the now-closed US consulate in Russia's far-eastern city of Vladivostok and was arrested this year. The department will not tolerate the Russian government's pattern of harassment of our diplomats, spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement. Unacceptable actions against our embassy personnel in Moscow will have consequences. The expulsions come at a time of animosity between Washington and Moscow over the war in Ukraine and as diplomatic relations have plummeted to their worst level since the Cold War. On September 14, Russia's Foreign Ministry accused the first secretary at the US Embassy in Russia, Jeffrey Sillin, a

Urgently declare Gershkovich was arbitrarily detained: His lawyers ask UN

Lawyers for Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich asked a United Nations body on Tuesday to urgently issue an opinion that he has been arbitrarily detained by Russia on espionage charges which are patently false. The request to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention says Russia has failed to produce a shred of evidence in support of its accusations since the 31-year-old journalist was arrested on March 29 on a reporting trip to the city of Yekaterinburg, almost 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) east of Moscow. Russia is not imprisoning Gershkovich because it legitimately believes its absurd claim that he is an American spy, the Journal's request said. Instead, Russian President Vladimir Putin is using Gershkovich as a pawn, holding him hostage in order to gain leverage over and extract a ransom from the United States, just as he has done with other American citizens whom he has wrongfully detained. Jason Conti, executive vice president and general counsel of Dow Jones,

US Secy Blinken meets Ukraine Prez Zelenskyy in Kyiv; announces $1 bn aid

Just a few hours before Blinken arrived in Kyiv on a train from Poland, Russia carried out airstrikes on the capital and the southern region of Odesa

Don't expect Russia to flip its position on Ukraine war this year: US

"India signed on to the statement, most members it was as I recalled. Russia was the main objector to the proposition that so many of the other members of the G20 signed on to," Sullivan said

US-India relation critical in dealing with China, Russia: US Congressman

The US' relationship with India is "critical" in dealing with its strategic adversaries - China and Russia, Indian-American Congressman Ro Khanna has said. Khanna spoke to radio talk show host Hugh Hewitt on Tuesday after his return from India, where he led a bipartisan Congressional delegation. "China and Russia are clearly two strategic challenges, adversaries. That's why the relationship with India is going to be so critical in dealing with it. I think China and Russia aren't always going to march lockstep and there are opportunities there, but by and large, we should be clear-eyed about what they're doing, he said. Khanna said it was unreasonable for the US to expect that India will block the Strait of Malacca during a conflict with China, but New Delhi can be aggressive on its borders in Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh to open a two-front war if Beijing invades Taiwan. The Strait of Malacca is a waterway connecting the Andaman Sea (Indian Ocean) and the South China Sea (Pacific .

WSJ reporter Gershkovich appeals extension of pretrial detention in Russia

Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich has appealed a Moscow court's decision to extend his pretrial detention in Russia until the end of November, according to documents on the court's website. The American journalist was arrested in March during a work trip to the city of Yekaterinburg, almost 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) east of Moscow. He is the first US journalist since the Soviet era to be held on espionage charges in Russia. An order that authorized keeping Gershkovich in jail before trial was set to expire on August 30. The Moscow City Court extended the custody order on Thursday by three months, drawing objections from US government officials and the Journal. The court's website on Saturday showed that Gershkovich's defense team had filed an appeal. The court in June rejected his appeal of the earlier ruling to keep him behind bars until the end of August. Journalists gathered outside the court Thursday were not allowed to witness the proceedings. Russian state ..

Vladimir Putin probably approved Yevgeny Prigozhin's killing, say US, UK

In Putin's first comments on the crash, the Russian president said on state TV Thursday that "preliminary information says that some Wagner employees were there"

Prigozhin's death removes one problem, may create new ones for Putin

The United States is looking at a number of theories over what brought down the plane, including a surface-to-air missile hitting it, U.S. officials told Reuters

Blood and billions: Here's a look at the cost of Russia's war in Ukraine

Russia's expenditure on the war is a state secret, but it coincides with a major shock to the Russian economy from the toughest ever Western sanctions imposed after the invasion

Russia, China look to gain upper hand at BRICS summit in South Africa

Russia and China will look to gain more political and economic ground in the developing world at a summit in South Africa this week, when an expected joint dose of anti-West grumbling from them may take on a sharper edge with a formal move to bring Saudi Arabia closer. Leaders from the BRICS economic bloc of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa will hold three days of meetings in Johannesburg's financial district of Sandton, with Chinese premier Xi Jinping's attendance underlining the diplomatic capital his country has invested in the bloc over the last decade-and-a-bit as an avenue for its ambitions. Russian President Vladimir Putin will appear on a video link after his travel to South Africa was complicated by an International Criminal Court arrest warrant against him over the war in Ukraine. Brazilian President Luiz Incio Lula da Silva, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa will be at the summit alongside Xi. The main summit on

Russian fighter jet strikes another American drone over Syria: White House

A Russian fighter jet fired flares and struck another U.S. drone over Syrian airspace on Wednesday, the White House said, in a continued string of harassing maneuvers that have ratcheted up tensions between the global powers. It's the sixth reported incident this month, and the second in the past 24 hours, in which the United States has said Russian warplanes have flown dangerously close to American manned and unmanned aircraft, putting crews and the planes at risk and raising questions as to what the U.S. may need to do in response. Two U.S. officials confirmed that the strike damaged the MQ-9 Reaper drone. The officials were not authorized to publicly discuss the matter and spoke on condition of anonymity. "We've seen the reports, the early reports, of a second Russian fighter aircraft this week flying dangerously close to our drone" on a mission to counter Islamic State militants in Syria, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said. She did not provide other details, but

Russian fighter jet flies dangerously close to US warplane over Syria

A Russian fighter jet flew very close to a US surveillance aircraft over Syria, forcing it to go through the turbulent wake and putting the lives of the four American crew members in danger, US officials said Monday. The officials said the incident, which happened just before noon EDT on Sunday, was a significant escalation in what has been a string of encounters between US and Russian aircraft in Syria in recent weeks. The intercept by the Russian Su-35 impeded the US crew's ability to safely operate their MC-12 aircraft, the officials said, calling it a new level of unsafe behaviour that could result in an accident or loss of life. In recent weeks, Russian fighter jets have repeatedly harassed US unmanned MQ-9 drones, but the latest incident raised alarms because it endangered American lives. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details of a military operation, would not say how close the Russian jet got to the US warplane. The MC-12, which is a twin-engin

Price caps on Russia's oil cutting revenue nearly in half, says US official

A top Treasury Department official said Thursday that the cap on the price of Russia's oil is severely curtailing its greatest source of revenue as it wages war in Ukraine. When the United States and other economic powers in the Group of Seven, along with the European Union and Australia, last year announced an ambitious plan to cap the price of Russian oil, U.S. officials said it would deliver a crippling blow to Russia's economy. In just six months, the price cap has contributed to a significant decline in Russian revenue at a key juncture in the war, Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo said in remarks Thursday at the Center for a New American Security, pointing to a nearly 50% drop in Russian oil revenues compared with a year prior. The price cap was rolled out to equal parts skepticism and hopefulness that the policy would stave off Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine. In addition to the price cap, the allied nations have hit Russia with thousands of ...

Open to 'extremely important' dialogue with US on arms control: Russia

"We hope that it will be supported by actual steps through diplomatic channels. And then it will be possible to consider the proposed formats of dialogue," said Kremlin

Russia attacks Kyiv as air defences work to stop relentless bombardment

Russia launched a pre-dawn attack on Ukraine's capital Tuesday as its air defences worked to stop drones in what has been a relentless wave of daylight and nighttime bombardments targeting Kyiv. The buzzing of drones and loud explosions were heard as Ukrainian air defence responded to the third Russia aerial attack on the capital in the last 24 hours. According to preliminary data, more than 20 Shahed drones were destroyed by air defence forces in Kyiv's airspace, the Kyiv Military Administration says. One person died, three were injured when a high-rise building in the Holosiiv district caught fire. The two upper floors are destroyed, and there may be people under the rubble, the Kiyv military administration said. More than 20 people were evacuated. Elsewhere in the capital, falling debris caused a fire in a private house in the Darnytskyi district and three cars were set alight in the Pechersky district, according to the military administration. The series of attacks that began .