Russia

The inside-the-beltway crowd was absolutely outraged and appalled by Trump’s performance at Helsinki. There, Trump violated all the principles of American hawkishness. He sat next to Vladimir Putin, leader of a rival power, signaling that Russia is a peer. He sided with Putin over the assessments of the CIA, the NSA and other US intelligence […]

Russia

Backed by Putin Air Force, Syrian Army rapidly takes 90% of Daraa

Rouba El Husseini

Beirut (AFP) – Syrian regime forces backed by Russia made sweeping advances on Monday against rebels holding out in the country’s vital southern zone. For nearly one month, Syria’s government has worked to capture the provinces of Daraa and Quneitra with a mix of heavy bombardment, ground attacks and surrender deals brokered by Moscow. Despite […]

Russia

Mueller: 12 Russian Agents indicted for Hacking Dems on Day Trump asked them to

Chris Lefkow

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 […]