Eastern Europe

Washington (AFP) – Twelve Russian military intelligence officers were indicted by a US grand jury on Friday — just three days before President Donald Trump’s meeting with Russia’s Vladimir Putin — for interfering in the 2016 presidential election. The charges were drawn up by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, the former FBI director who is looking […]

Iran

Iran Foreign Minister in Moscow as Russia moves to save nuclear deal

AFP

Moscow (AFP) – Iran’s foreign minister was in Moscow on Monday as Russia tries to keep the Iran nuclear deal alive in the wake of Washington’s pull-out, pushing it into rare cooperation with Europe. Iranian state television Irib broadcasted images of Mohammad Javad Zarif in Moscow, saying he had arrived in Russia at 4am (01:00 […]

China

Russia and China slam Trump-Macron Push to Renegotiate Iran Deal

Juan Cole

Russia and China are both putting their feet down about the talk in the US and France about renegotiating the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the 2015 agreement on freezing and curtailing Iran’s nuclear enrichment program by the UN Security Council and Germany in return for lifting international sanctions. US President Trump is threatening […]

Middle East

Will an Emerging Russia-Turkey-Iran Alliance Reshape the Middle East?

contributors

By Conn Hallinan | (Foreign Policy in Focus) | – – The unusual triple alliance coming out of Syria could change the regional balance of power and unhinge NATO — if it holds together at all. The unusual triple alliance coming out of Syria could change the regional balance of power and unhinge NATO — […]

China

Oceania and Eastasia? New Cold War, this Time against both Russia and China?

Michael T. Klare

( Tomdispatch.com ) | – – Think of it as the most momentous military planning on Earth right now. Who’s even paying attention, given the eternal changing of the guard at the White House, as well as the latest in tweets, sexual revelations, and investigations of every sort? And yet it increasingly looks as if, […]

Chemical Weapons

From Dead Spies to Dead Syrian Villagers, Russian Denialism on Chemical Attacks

contributors

By Brian Whitaker | ( Al-Bab.com) | – – Russia’s RT links the Skripal poisoning to British jealousy over hosting of the World Cup There’s something uncannily familiar about Russia’s propaganda antics over the poisoning of double agent Sergei Skripal in Britain. We’ve seen them before in Syria where Russia has steadfastly defended the Assad […]

Donald Trump

Tower of Jello: The Struggle of Russia and UAE over Tillerson’s helming of State Department

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The New Yorker reports that there was a further Steele memo, prepared by the same ex-MI6 intelligence officer who authored the notorious “golden shower” dossier, which reported Russian foreign ministry boasts that they had blocked Trump from appointing Mitt Romney as secretary of state. Romney had […]

Islamic State of Iraq and Syria

Church Shooting ‘Nothing To Do With Islam,’ Say Russian Muslim Leaders

contributors

RFE/RL | – – The mainstream Muslim leadership in Russia’s Daghestan region has condemned an attack that killed five people outside a Russian Orthodox church, saying that the suspect had “nothing to do with the true Islam.” In a February 19 statement, the office of the region’s chief mufti also extended condolences to the relatives […]

Bashar al-Assad

Is the Syria War over and has Putin won it?

contributors

By Danny Makki | ( OpenDemocracy.net) | – – The end game is clear: Assad, Russia and Iran will emerge victorious. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad (2nd L, Front) and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin (2nd R) view a military parade in the Russian-run Hmeimim Air Base in the coastal city of Latakia, Syria, on Dec. […]