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Russia's Victory Day Parade dedicated to the 76th anniversary of The Great Victory took place over Red Square in Moscow. Watch Russia's Victory Day Parade 2021 in Moscow

“The latest round of U.S. sanctions was a mostly symbolic exercise,” Agathe Demarais, global forecasting director at The Economist Intelligence Unit, told CNBC on Friday. “Sanctions on Russian individuals and companies are irrelevant, as these people and firms have no ties to the US and probably no intention to ever use the U.S. dollar or to have bank accounts in the U.S.” Demarais added that the sanctions on sovereign debt are less stringent than the initial market reaction would suggest, since they only target the primary debt market and can therefore “easily be circumvented via the secondary market.”

Russia is thought to have massed 80,000 troops along Ukraine's eastern border Clashes broke out in recent weeks, undermining a ceasefire brokered last year Ukraine's country's President Volodymyr Zelensky is visiting area near Mariupol Zelensky said a Russian invasion is a real possibility that Ukraine is bracing............

Demonstrations are being held across the U.S. calling for the immediate release of Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny. ... “Well, they should free him,” a demonstrator stated. “Yeah and maybe listen to him at least a little bit and to their people because Navalny, no matter what you think about him, he doesn’t deserve to be murdered, poisoned or being imprisoned.”Demonstrators could be seen chanting and holding signs, demanding the Kremlin critic’s release.

Russia is planning to flight test its new intercontinental ballistic missile which it claims is capable of destroying an area the size of France. The RS-18 Sarmat will be capable of unleashing ten large thermonuclear warheads or 16 smaller ones, or a combination of both, to overwhelm enemy missile defences, according to the Russian Ministry of Defence. The 100-ton strategic missile is said to be able to travel around 6,200 miles and has the capacity to wipe out areas the size of Texas or France. Each of the warheads are allegedly capable of being aimed at a different target. The...

We already learned that Russia was sending bombers to Venezuela for military exercises and supporting the country’s imploding economy. What could Vladimir Putin have wanted in exchange? We’re probably seeing the answer come into focus as Russia moves in to “help” Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro as we head into the new year. Putin is going to bail out Maduro’s failing government with some cash in exchange for establishing some measure of control over that nation’s vast crude oil reserves that are currently lying mostly dormant. (WaPo) As allies go, Venezuela is a relatively cheap one for Russia. But the potential...

I am a member of the New/Paleo Right, as are many here on Free Republic. And I know many of us wonder: Where are the neocons? Where are those who will force us to engage logically as we, jointly, refine our perspectives of the day? What is YOUR opinion of the events of the last week and what do you think the rest of us are missing? With all sincerity, Mariner

US President Donald Trump and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin have agreed to defeat the so-called Islamic State (IS) in Syria, the Kremlin says. It said a statement was prepared by experts after they met briefly on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific summit in Vietnam on Saturday. In total the two leaders had three encounters within 24 hours at the summit in port city of Da Nang. There has been no official confirmation from the US about the statement so far. A meeting between President Trump and Vladimir Putin was widely expected at the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) summit, but few...

-excerpt- There is no consideration of what is or is not good for Russia, or for Russians, only what is best for him and his close circle of oligarch elites. The 2012 U.S. adoption of the Magnitsky Act, targeting Russian officials tied to criminal repression, was answered by banning the adoption of Russian orphans by Americans. Western sanctions over Putin’s illegal annexation of Crimea were met by boycotting many foreign goods, harming Russian businesses and consumers — to the perverse point of physically destroying thousands of tons of smuggled food in a country where many millions are battling hunger and...

According to a leaked Pentagon memo, Russia is not on the list of Donald Trump's defense priorities. The priorities, as they have been outlined by the incoming Trump administration, include defeating ISIS, eliminating budget caps, developing a new cyber strategy, and finding greater efficiencies. The memo, obtained by Foreign Policy, does not include any mention of Russia, which has been identified by senior military officials in the Obama administration as the No. 1 threat to the United States.

It didn't take long for western media to lose focus. After Russia began its military campaign to prop up Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the world largely stopped paying attention to Ukraine. It shouldn't have. Over the last few months, Russian President Vladimir Putin has been busy trying to deepen the quagmire he created in Eastern Europe. A United Nations' report released in November detailed the degree to which his proxy war in Ukraine has turned the country into Russia's killing field. More than 9,000 people have died since the spring of 2014 after Russia-backed rebels began fighting Kiev for independence,...

American lawmakers push bill to counter Putin message Russia has reorganized and intensified its international propaganda machine so effectively over the past decade that some Western lawmakers and diplomats say Washington now is badly losing a global messaging war to the increasingly modernized blitz of anti-U.S. content from Moscow-backed news operations. Leaders in the House and Senate have not put their full weight behind the Royce-Engel legislation, although it moved swiftly through the committee in May.

The main point is, however, that Russia's 'conservative turn' since Putin's return to the Kremlin in March 2012 — widely deplored in the West as a creeping authoritarianism with roots only in the wiles of Putin's mind — may be closer to the world view of Russia's conservative and patriotic majority than most Western governments would care to admit. In foreign and economic policy, Russia's post-Soviet government may never have cleaved as close to the views of the majority as it does now. That's the view of Igor Okunev, a vice-dean at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, whom...

Russian President Vladimir Putin oversaw on Tuesday the launch of the second line of Russia's power link to Crimea which will allow to double Russian power supplies to the peninsula to 400 megawatts. Crimea, annexed by Russia in 2014, was plunged into darkness around three weeks ago after electricity pylons in southern Ukraine that carry the four lines that supply Crimea with the bulk of its power were blown up by unidentified people.

Catholic World News Patriarch: Catholics and Russian Orthodox uphold ‘the same Gospel values’ December 04, 2015 The head of the Russian Orthodox Church met with two Catholic priests on December 2 and expressed appreciation for the work of the Catholic Church in Italy. Patriarch Kirill told the prior and administrator of Basilica of St. Nicholas in Bari that “Bari is a sacred place for Orthodox Christians like Mount Athos or holy sites in Palestine” and that “theologians discussing theological issues sitting at the table is one thing, but people contacting our brothers in the West, moreover at the holy site,...

Syrian President Bashar Assad considers Russia's Vladimir Putin as the "only defender of Christian civilization one can trust.""When I look at the present state of things in the world I realize that Vladimir Putin is the sole defender of Christian civilization one can rely on," Assad said in an interview with French magazine Valeurs Actuelles. The Syrian leader also said that he would step down only if asked to by the Syrian people and the Syrian parliament, adding that the issue of his possible resignation had not yet been raised on an international level. Syria will only share intelligence information...

Putin 'forced Obama's hand' on ISIS: Russia hailed for making Jihadi John death 'possible' BRITISH butcher Jihadi John could not have been targeted WITHOUT Russia strongman Vladimir Putin stepping in and ramping up the pressure against Islamic State (ISIS), according to political commentators around the world. By Rebecca Perring PUBLISHED: 13:03, Fri, Nov 13, 2015 | UPDATED: 14:57, Fri, Nov 13, 2015 Putin has been hailed a "hero" after the British ISIS militant Mohammed Emwzi, AKA Jihadi John, was reportedly killed in a US drone strike alongside three other most wanted fighters. Although American military are responsible for the savage...

President Vladimir Putin says he's shared Russian intelligence data on Islamic State financing with his G20 colleagues: the terrorists appear to be financed from 40 countries, including some G20 member states. During the summit, "I provided examples based on our data on the financing of different Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) units by private individuals. This money, as we have established, comes from 40 countries and, there are some of the G20 members among them," Putin told the journalists. Putin also spoke of the urgent need to curb the illegal oil trade by IS. "I've shown our colleagues photos taken...

Russian President Vladimir Putin appealed to Western leaders to bury their differences with Russia and jointly strike at the "barbarian" Islamic State (ISIS) militants in Syria, saying Friday's Paris terrorist attack underscored the need for such concerted action. In a condolences telegram sent to French President Francois Hollande, Putin said, "This tragedy is another proof of the barbarian nature of terrorism, which challenges the human civilisation. Clearly, for effective fighting this evil, the entire international community should unite efforts," Tass news agency reported. "I would like to confirm the Russian side is ready for most close cooperation with the French...

Full title: EXCLUSIVE: Vladimir Putin's media Svengali who was found dead in DC hotel was 'murdered for being an FBI informant' - or could even still be alive, claim Russians The death from a 'heart attack' of a longtime close ally of Vladimir Putin in a Washington hotel has led to a swirl of speculation that he was murdered on Moscow's orders after offering to help the FBI. The shock death has created an eave of speculation in Moscow that it is related to previous reports that he was helping the FBI - and could be murder. There are even...