Russia

Montenegro has charged 14 people — including two Russians and two Montenegrin opposition leaders — over their alleged involvement in an attempted coup in October 2016, the Associated Press reported Thursday. The high court in the capital, Podgorica, said the 14 people were charged with “creating a criminal organization.” The two Russians were also charged with […]

KABUL — Iran and Russia have stepped up challenges to U.S. power in Afghanistan, American and Afghan officials say, seizing on the uncertainty of future U.S. policy to expand ties with the Taliban and weaken the country’s Western-backed government. The moves come as tensions have flared between the United States, Iran and Russia over the […]

From the northern tip of the Baltics to the southern edge of the Balkans, Russia is stepping up spying on its neighbors, according to numerous reports from the region. The most recent notice of such activity comes from Estonia, whose intelligence service’s annual report says the “Baltic Sea area is especially vulnerable to threats from […]

Conflicting reports from unnamed U.S. officials regarding Russia’s involvement in the Syrian chemical weapon attack highlight the increasingly tenuous political situation the United States and Russia find themselves in. After an anonymous U.S. official told news organizations that Russia knew in advance that Syria intended to gas civilians, and then participated in a cover up […]

Gay men are being held in “camps” in the Chechen Republic where they are subjected to torture and beatings, human rights campaigners have claimed. The claims follow reports last week that 100 gay men had been rounded up and imprisoned in Chechnya, with at least three people allegedly murdered. The allegations were made by a […]

The U.N. Security Council could vote as early as Wednesday on a push by the United States, Britain and France to bolster support for international inquiries into a deadly toxic gas attack in Syria, diplomats said, a move Russia had deemed unacceptable and unwarranted. The three countries have proposed a revised draft resolution, diplomats said, […]

While American Secretary of State Rex Tillerson visits Moscow this week, the Kremlin and the White House continue to exchange jabs in the media over the chemical weapon attack in Syria last Tuesday, and the resulting American military action taken against Assad’s regime on Thursday. White House spokesman Sean Spicer once again voiced the concerns […]

Last week, even the slight ties maintained between the United States and Russia were once again stretched to their breaking point as American forces targeted the Syrian base believed to be responsible for a chemical weapons attack carried out earlier in the week.  Russian and American government officials have taken turns lobbing sharply worded statements […]

Aircraft from either the Syrian or Russian air force dropped incendiary bombs on civilian targets in two Syrian provinces Monday, the Observatory for Human Rights reports. The attack comes fresh off considerable international attention on the Syrian Civil War following the American cruise missile attack on a Syrian military airfield on Friday. That attack was in […]

Foreign ministers from the Group of Seven (G7) major industrialized nations met in Italy on Monday, looking to put pressure on Russia to break its ties with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. In a shift in Washington’s strategy, U.S. missiles hit a Syrian air base last week in retaliation for what the United States and its […]

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson arrived in Moscow on Tuesday for what promises to be a difficult series of scheduled talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.  While tensions between the two nations have been high in recent years, a chemical weapons attack carried out against civilians last Tuesday led to dramatic military action […]

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis says the Syrian regime would be “ill-advised” to use chemical weapons in the future, foreshadowing a potentially greater US response than the cruise missile strike that was carried out last week. Mattis said in a statement that the strike, which consisted of 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles targeting the Shayrat air field on […]