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The snowplough driver blamed for the air crash which killed the chief executive of oil giant Total has denied being drunk at the wheel of his vehicle. Vladimir Martynenkov's lawyer insisted his client was not guilty of causing the air crash which killed Christophe de Margerie and three others and totally denied the 'groundless' accusation that Mr Martynenkov was drunk.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - The driver of a snow plough involved in a deadly plane crash that killed the chief executive of French oil major Total, Christophe de Margerie, in a Moscow airport late on Monday, was drunk, Russia's Investigative Committee said.

Israeli Training Ukrainian Forces Israel’s largest and most authoritative newspaper Yediot Ahronot published in its political supplement of 24 September 2014 extensive material about a military instructor from Israel in the Ukrainian army in the anti-terrorist operation zone. In a detailed interview with the journalist Edward Dox, the trainer Alex said he served in combat units of the Israeli Defense Forces and returned to Ukraine to protect it from the Russian invasion. Alex, 34, was invited by Boris Filatov, the vice governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region, and has trained more than three thousand Ukrainian soldiers in Israel Defense Force techniques....

The chief executive of French oil major Total, Christophe de Margerie, was killed when a business jet collided with a snow plow during takeoff at Moscow's Vnukovo International Airport, the company and airport officials said. The collision occurred late on Monday, just minutes before midnight Moscow time, the airport said in a statement. The Dassault Falcon business jet carrying de Margerie had been due to travel to Paris. ... De Margerie, 63, was on a list of attendees at a Russian government meeting on foreign investment in Gorki, near Moscow, on Monday. With his distinctive bushy moustache and outspoken manner,...

Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin is moving with a steady pace to establish his total control over Russia. He’s now pushing a law to help him deal with the last pesky parts of the post-Soviet period of Russian history—that annoying free press. In this Washington Post story, we see that President Putin is doing in Russia what Sen. Harry Reid and fifty-three of his Senate colleagues attempted to do recently with a constitutional amendment to limit free speech. Putin knows he is fairly free to act on the world scene and at home. President Obama is distracted. His administration is perplexed. Having...

he war in Ukraine is no longer only about Ukraine. The conflict has transformed Russia. This increasingly is what European leaders and diplomats believe: that Vladimir Putin and his security establishment have used the fog of war in Ukraine to shroud the final establishment of his brittle imperialist dictatorship in Moscow. Among those who believe that this is happening, and that Europe will be facing down a more menacing Russia for a long time to come, is Radek Sikorski, who was Poland’s foreign minister from 2007 until September. “I think psychologically the regime has been transformed by the annexation of...

‘Liaoning’ shut down during recent sea trials There’s no more of a conspicuous and potent symbol of China’s growing naval power than the aircraft carrier Liaoning. But the 53,000-ton, 999-foot-long carrier could be dangerous to her crew and prone to engine failures. If so, that makes the vessel as much of a liability as an asset to Beijing. The ex-Soviet carrier once went by the name Varyag until a cash-strapped Ukraine sold the ship to Beijing in 1998. The Chinese navy has since invested considerable resources into modernizing the warship and testing her at sea. But on at least one...

India is also looking to upgrade the first set of three Project 11356 frigates that were purchased in the early 2000s. Russia offered India three additional Project 11356 or Talwar class frigates, after New Delhi made a formal request, Vladimir Spiridopulo, the general director working on this project at the Northern Design Bureau, said. Negotiations have been taking place since this spring, TASS said. India to spend $3 billion for 3 more Talwar-class frigates Russia supplied India with two sets of three Project 11356 frigates, with the last one being the INS Trikand. “Negotiations on the third set of three...

Fifty years ago, the world woke up to news the nation - then at odds with Moscow and Washington - had detonated its own atomic bomb China's first atomic test on October 16, 1964, in Xinjiang. Mao wanted to prove the nation was a global power. Photo: SCMP Pictures Fifty years ago yesterday, China detonated its first atomic bomb, joining the United States, Soviet Union, Britain and France as the only nuclear powers at the time. The explosion in Lop Nur in eastern Xinjiang paved the way for the nation's further development of nuclear weapons and its emergence as a...

STOCKHOLM – The Swedish military has presented photographic evidence of a mysterious “foreign vessel” off the coast of Stockholm but rejected reports it was on the “hunt” for a damaged submarine. Ever since the armed forces received a tip-off about a “man-made object” off the coast of Stockholm on Friday, 200 men, several stealth ships, minesweepers and helicopters have been searching the sea around islands about 50 kilometers (30 miles) east of the Swedish capital. “This is not ours, it’s a foreign vessel,” Rear Admiral Anders Grenstad told reporters, pointing to a grainy photo taken on Sunday morning by a...

The collapse in oil prices is already a major cause of concern for countries heavily reliant on exports of the commodity. For some, it could be a matter of avoiding a severe recession. Here's why: For governments in oil-exporting countries to meet their spending commitments they need oil to remain above a certain price. With oil prices under $87 a barrel, countries that rely on high oil prices, including Venezuela, Russia, and Saudi Arabia, may have a reason to be concerned. This chart shows the price per barrel that the six most exposed countries need to meet their national budgets....

A Nazi-inspired beauty pageant dubbed "Miss Hitler 2014" is calling for attractive women to participate in the contest held on the Russian equivalent to Facebook . Participants are requested to submit Nazi-themed "selfies" to the competition organized by a neo-Nazi group on VKontakte - Russia's largest social networking service - along with a caption describing why they "love and revere the Third Reich of Adolf Hitler," the UK-based Daily Mail reported. At least 14 females from Russian and Eastern Europe have entered the contest that celebrates the glorification of Nazi Germany and the fascist totalitarian government ruled by Adolf Hitler...

Editor's Note: This column was coauthored by Bob Morrison. Several years ago, the Israeli satirical series, Latma, produced this funny sketch on the Iranian mullahs’ push for a nuclear bomb. “The bomb, the bomb, I’ll get the bomb. Listen to me, Honey, it ain’t gonna be too long” sings the frolicking mullah in the online version of this humorous look at a most serious subject. The Israelis can joke about an Iranian nuclear bomb because they are on the front line. They know what it would mean. They don’t go on and on about “stability” in the Middle East the...

(CNSNews.com) – Turkey’s president on Sunday rejected U.S. proposals to arm Syrian Kurds fighting against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS/ISIL) near the Turkish border, shortly after the White House said he and President Obama had pledged to “strengthen cooperation” against the jihadists. “It would be wrong for the United States, with whom we are friends and allies in NATO, to talk openly and to expect us to say ‘yes’ to such a support to a terrorist organization,” said President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. His comments were the latest sign that Turkey and the U.S. are far from being...

HELSINKI – A Swedish military search for evidence of suspected undersea activity in its waters has entered its third day amid reports of a suspected Russian intrusion. The military has declined to comment on the operation except to say it is searching for evidence of "foreign underwater activity." Daily Svenska Dagbladet reported the Swedes had picked up an emergency message suggesting a Russian mini-submarine had run into trouble in Swedish waters.

A review by Germany's foreign intelligence agency has found that MH17 was brought down by a missile fired by separatists. Russia and Ukraine have blamed each other for the plane's downing. A detailed analysis conducted by Germany's federal intelligence service (BND) concluded that separatists near Donetsk were responsible for bringing down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, the news magazine Spiegel reported on Sunday. The Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 crashed in eastern Ukraine on July 17 while on route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur. All 298 passengers on board were killed, most of them Dutch nationals. BND President Gerhard Schindler presented the...

Breaking news in Sweden after two days of hunt. Swedish government report that a russian submarine is sending an SOS message on a de-crypted frequency.

New Delhi, Oct.18 (ANI): Indirectly expressing his country's surprise over the Indian Government and its defence establishment's decision to go ahead with its reported plan to buy 126 Rafale combat aircraft from France, Russia's Ambassador to India, Alexander M. Kadakin, said the Dassault Aviation-manufactured fighter aircraft could be shot down like a mosquito by a Chinese-manufactured or produced Sukhoi jet should there ever be a conflict in the neighbourhood. Ambassador Kadakin, who was attending an interaction between Russian and Indian journalists in the national capital yesterday, said, "We (Russia) are still very surprised that Rafale is being bought, because if...

To avert a recession, Russia is turning to China for investment, granting it once restricted access to raw materials and advanced weapons. Russia is likely to sign contracts for the delivery of S-400 missile systems and Su-35 fighter jets to China as early as the first quarter of next year, says Vasily Kashin, a China expert at the Centre for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies in Moscow. Russia may also supply China with its newest submarine, the Amur 1650, he says. The Amur class submarine is one of the latest Russian submarine designs. It is advertised as an export version...

The latest round of negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program took place this week, pitting the United States and its European partners against the Iranian regime’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. It seems safe to say that if Iran and the United States can’t come to a workable compromise this week, and it certainly appears that way based on what has already transpired, there will be no basis for a final deal on Nov. 24. But there are serious outstanding questions about what a viable compromise would look like. This was made clear last week, when Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s...