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The conflict in Ukraine may lead to World War III because of the “idiots” occupying leading roles in the West, former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev has warned. “The number of high-ranking morons is rising in NATO member states,” he wrote on Telegram on Sunday. Medvedev, who currently serves as the deputy head of Russia’s Security Council, was responding to statements from London and Berlin the previous day. The former president labeled the UK’s newly appointed Defense Secretary Grant Shapps a “freshly minted cretin” over his idea of sending British military instructors to Ukraine to train local troops for the conflict...

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Sunday suggested that Russia would not have invaded Ukraine if the U.S. provided weapons to Kyiv sooner. “This is going to get stronger and rougher and what really needs to happen is, Ukraine is not asking for American men and women to fight, all they’re asking for is the weapons to defend themselves,” McCarthy told Fox News chief Washington correspondent Mike Emanuel on “Fox News Sunday.”

MOSCOW, April 14. /TASS/. Russia will beef up security along its Western borders if Sweden and Finland join NATO and there would be no more talk of a nuclear-free Baltic, Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of Russia Dmitry Medvedev wrote on his Telegram channel on Thursday. "Very soon, that is precisely, by this summer, the world will become even ‘safer’," he noted. "If Sweden and Finland join NATO, the length of the alliance's land border with Russia will more than double. Naturally, it will be necessary to strengthen these borders," he maintained. Medvedev explained that it would be necessary...

Russia has warned NATO that if Sweden and Finland joined the military alliance then the Kremlin would have to bolster its nuclear defences in the Baltic. 'There can be no more talk of any nuclear-free status for the Baltic - the balance must be restored,' said Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council. 'Naturally, we will have to reinforce these borders. Until today, Russia has not taken such measures and was not going to. If our hand is forced well... take note it wasn't us who proposed this.' The former president added Russia would 'seriously reinforce its group of...

President Joe Biden is blaming Russian President Vladimir Putin for everything going wrong with his presidency, from the Ukraine war to high gas prices, but he sang a different tune in 2012, when he mocked Mitt Romney’s “Cold War mentality.” Romney criticized then-President Obama and Vice President Biden for a soft approach to Russia, such as pushing a “reset” button, giving up on missile defense agreements with allies, and offering nuclear concessions in the New START treaty.

Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) on Sunday questioned why the U.S. rejected Poland’s proposal to transfer MiG-29 fighter jets to a U.S. air base in Germany, saying “I don’t understand why we’re not doing it.” Asked by co-anchor Dana Bash on CNN’s “State of the Union” if he is worried that Poland giving planes to Ukraine could trigger World War III, Portman said “I don't know why that would be true.”

The White House said President Biden would soon issue an executive order that would ban new investment, trade and financing by US people and entities in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions. “This EO [executive order] will also provide authority to impose sanctions on any person determined to operate in those areas of Ukraine,” said Jen Psaki, White House press secretary. “We will also soon announce additional measures related to today’s blatant violation of Russia’s international commitments.” Psaki said the measures were separate from the economic sanctions the US has threatened to impose if Putin invades Ukraine. “We are continuing to...

Ukraine’s ambassador to Britain has told @bbc5live Nolan show that his country might contemplate withdrawing its objective of joining NATO

The United States and Britain warned Russia on Tuesday over any new military aggression against Ukraine as the Western military alliance NATO met to discuss Moscow’s intentions for massing troops on the border with the former Soviet republic. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was to brief his 29 NATO counterparts on Washington’s intelligence on the group’s eastern flank and in Ukraine, which is not a member.

President-elect Joe Biden has made clear in his staffing plans and public remarks that he intends to return America to many of the foreign policy positions championed by his former boss, President Barack Obama. While American mainstream media has largely cheered this – and glowered at President Donald Trump for defending his achievements by making regression more difficult under Biden – many of America’s allies, and some of its foes, around the world are making moves suggesting they expect a full return to the state of global affairs in 2016. The Obama administration’s foreign policy was defined by the tension...

n a major story that came and went, President Obama shut down a major drug operation run by Hezb'allah because he didn't want to upset Iran's mullahs and endanger his Iran deal. Seems the Iran deal was considerably more important to his "legacy" than any concern about drug-dealing, the opioid epidemic, or just the idea of putting terrorists who finance themselves through the global drug trade out of business. Politico did the story about how Obama shut down Project Cassandra, so it should have gotten attention, yet it didn't. The whole thing recalls something security expert Rachel Ehrenfeld memorably told...

<p>Saudi Arabia's foreign minister says he favors equipping Syrian rebels with surface-to-air missiles, arguing it would shift the balance of power.</p> <p>Saudi Arabia is a key backer of rebels against President Bashar Assad. Foreign Minister Adel el-Jubeir was quoted as telling German weekly Der Spiegel in an interview published Saturday: "We believe that introducing surface-to-air missiles in Syria is going to change the balance of power on the ground."</p>

On a recent TV show, Lebanese politician Vera Yammine said that the Holocaust was "shrouded in unclarity," and that the Jews "always fear exposure about the Holocaust, and are always eager to use it as a pretext." Yammine, a member of the political bureau of the Marada Movement, said: "Zionism has taken hold of the West and is taking hold of the East, and especially of the Arab world." She further said: "There is no such thing as ISIS or the Al-Nusra Front. All these terms have emerged from a single womb, the womb of Zionism. The show aired on...

On February 26, the ayatollahs have scheduled two "elections" in Iran: one for the parliament and one for the Assembly of Experts, a body that is supposed to monitor the supreme leader and choose a replacement when the time comes. Some in the West tout this as the potential start of a new era of moderation. After all it is the first election since the conclusion of nuclear negotiations between Iran and six world powers. But the nuclear deal cannot be the only criteria by which the West determines the prospects for moderation in Iran. Equally or more important is...

In a speech delivered on February 16, Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah threatened to attack the Haifa ammonia storage facility in the next war, causing destruction similar to that of a nuclear bomb. Nasrallah mentioned the so-called "Dahiya Doctrine," associated with Israeli Chief of General Staff Eizenkot. Nasrallah quoted an "Israeli expert," who said that such an attack would leave tens of thousands dead. "Several missiles launched from here together with the ammonia containers in Haifa," he said, “would lead to the same impact as a nuclear bomb." Nasrallah added that Hizbullah "does not want war," but must be ready for...

Gwynne Dyer: Turks and Saudis know any Russia fight will be lonely one 9:32 AM Wednesday Feb 17, 2016 Between last Thursday and Monday, the Turkish government, in league with Saudi Arabia, made a tentative decision to enter the war on the ground in Syria - and then got cold feet about it. Or more likely, the Turkish army simply told the government that it would not invade Syria and risk the possibility of a shooting war with the Russians. The Turkish government bears a large share of the responsibility for the devastating Syrian civil war. From the start, Turkey's...

The ongoing back and forth surrounding Russia's sale of advanced S-300 missile systems to Iran continued on Wednesday, as the Defense Ministry in Moscow denied reports that the system would be delivered later this week. Earlier this week Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hossein Jaberi Ansari claimed that a shipment of the S-300 missile defense systems is currently on its way to Iran. In addition, the Russian TASS news agency cited reports from other media outlets claiming that the first batch of the S-300 systems would be dispatched to Iran on Thursday. ...

Iran's defence minister General Hossein Dehghan confirmed he would sign a contract with Russia to buy the Sukhoi Su-30SM fighter jets as sanctions set up in the wake of the nation’s nuclear deal with the West start to loosen. But US officials have said they will raise the matter with Russia, sparking yet another potential dead-lock between the two international superpowers. The Obama administration issued an official statement to remind Russia that, after the Iran nuclear deal, Moscow are forbidden from selling the fighter jets to the Shiite Muslim nation as it fights proxy wars in the powder keg of...

The United States is coming under increasingly bitter criticism for its perceived lack of leadership over Syria as the country's brutal civil conflict heads toward new levels of intensity. Washington appears unable or unwilling to prevent its ally Turkey from bombing Kurdish fighters inside Syria, its critics say. And it has done little to rein in Russia's mounting military involvement on behalf of Bashar al-Assad. President Barack Obama, at a summit in California, said "this is not a contest between me and Putin." "The real question we should be asking is what is it that Russia thinks it gains if...

The House Armed Services Committee noted Tuesday that the Obama administration missed their February 15 deadline to deliver a strategy to counter violent extremist groups in the Middle East, such as ISIS and al Qaeda, as required by the National Defense Authorization Act. Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, harshly criticized President Obama's failure to meet the deadline. [...] Section 1222 of the National Defense Authorization Act for FY16, signed by President Obama in November, "requires the Secretaries of State and Defense to deliver a strategy for the Middle East and countering violent extremism no...