Eastern Europe

US Making ‘Colossal’ and ‘Typical’ Empire’s Mistake

Russia’s Relationship with Israel hits Rock Bottom as it gives Syria S-300 Air Defence System

By Antoinette Chalaby-Moualla | – Paris (AFP) – From a honeymoon in the years after Israel’s founding, to strained ties after the mistaken downing of a Russian plane in Syria, relations between Israel and Russia have gone through several periods of tensions. These have mainly revolved around disagreements on Middle Eastern issues. – One of […]

Russia

Russia Slams Israeli ‘Adventurism’ for downing of its Military Plane over Syria

AFP

Moscow (AFP) – Russia’s military Sunday blamed “misleading” information from the Israeli airforce for the downing of one of its planes in Syria last week, and denounced the “adventurism” of Israeli pilots. Israel strongly disputed the assertion and vowed it will continue to act against Iranian targets in neighbouring Syria. A Syrian air defence missile […]

Featured

Did Trump almost start WW III with Russia with Proposed Massive Bombing of Syrian AF?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – According to Bob Woodward’s just-released book, “Fear,” Donald Trump had been pressed to use 200 cruise missiles to destroy the Syrian Air Force in 2017. Knowing that the Russian Aerospace Forces personnel were all over Syrian air bases, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis became alarmed, and shaped a limited response […]

Donald Trump

Trump Gingerly, Politely begs Russia not to Do Syria Idlib Campaign, Pretty Please

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – AFP reports that President Trump is cautioning the Syrian regime against launching an all-out assault on the last remaining rebel stronghold of Idlib Province. He also said that Russia and Iran would be making “a grave humanitarian mistake” to take part. It is hard to take the humanitarian part too […]

Russia

Russian Trolls Tried to Kill Us: Hackers Stirred up anti-Vaxxers to Roil US

AFP

Washington (AFP) – Russian trolls and bots on Twitter attempted to influence the debate over vaccine safety with the aim of sowing discord among the US public on hot-button issues in the run-up to the 2016 election, US researchers reported this week. “Did you know there was a secret government database of #vaccine-damaged children? #VaccinateUS,” […]

Corruption

Guilty: Trump Campaign Head Manafort Hid Russian Millions in Foreign Bank Accounts

AFP

by W.G. Dunlop | – Alexandria (United States) (AFP) – Donald Trump’s former campaign chief Paul Manafort was found guilty of tax and bank fraud Tuesday, in the first trial resulting from the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. The guilty verdicts on eight counts are a victory for special counsel Robert […]

Russia

Let’s Keep Russia’s Hack in Perspective: It isn’t an Excuse for Nuclear Sabre-Rattling

John Buell

(Informed Comment) – Rhetorical overkill is the order of the day. Russian agents or freelancers were one of many who hacked this and past elections In an election as close as this was, any number of interveners legal or illegal could nave made the difference. Nor have most corporate media asked if Russian hacking is […]

Donald Trump

Trump & Dirty, Rotten Russian Money: Will it be his Downfall?

John Feffer

Washington, DC (Foreign Policy in Focus) – Russian money saved Trump when his projects were on the verge of collapse. Will it now be the cause of his political demise? Marty Byrde has a problem. His partner at the financial services firm has been skimming off the top of the money-laundering service they’re providing a […]